Shadow Magic • Harry Potter X Theodore Nott •

Extra (2)

"I don't understand what this is. A vassal social?"

"There are enough of us now that not everybody knows everybody. So Harry organized this kind of thing so that we can keep in touch."

Granger just gazes at Susan in what reads like stupefaction, although Susan has no idea if it actually is. She took up the responsibility of getting Granger here, and that's all she has to do. She has more important people to go and find.

"Here" is the large set of gardens behind the Nott House, where Harry and Theodore took up living right after they graduated from Hogwarts. They've done some remodeling, though. Susan remembers this garden as gloomy, with hemlock trees shading it, and high hedges, and no flowers at all.

Now there's a fountain splashing in the middle, into a stone basin that seems to be decorated with protective runes. The statue in the middle of the fountain is a woman with a face like Lily Potter's that Susan has seen in a few photographs. And there's a bonfire, and most of the hemlock trees are gone—Susan thinks they're what's feeding the bonfire, actually—and there are raised beds with force-grown white flowers shining softly.

Granger walks hesitantly towards a group that includes Millicent and Justin. Susan makes for the food tables, partially because she's hungry, and partially because the person she's seeking is more likely to be there.

But she's not, and Susan has to endure congratulations on getting out of the "ambush" that Montague tried to arrange for her with the Ministry. Susan smiles through it, and now and then exchanges a greeting with someone she's friendlier with, and picks up a plate of sliced cheese, fruit, and nuts to search the darker corners of the garden.

In the end, she finds Padma with a book on a bench near one of the banks of white flowers, which actually seem to shed their own light. It's not enough for reading, though, and Padma has a Lumos hovering on the end of her wand. Susan sits down next to her, and waits patiently for the blasted Ravenclaw to look up from her tome.

Padma doesn't take more than three minutes to look up, though, and when she does, her glance is long and slow, and her smile the same. She puts down the book and steals some of the nuts from Susan's plate. "Can you believe that Parvati actually asked to be marked? I'm not sure if I'm more surprised by that or by Harry's accepting her."

"I think she realized that there's more gossip in the group than outside it."

"Susan! That's rude."

"But accurate."

Padma struggles against a smile for a moment, and then does it. Susan watches the way the firelight gleams in her long black hair. "Yes, fine, all right. She had other reasons, too, including missing me, but I think that's one reason."

She reaches for a slice of pineapple. Susan reaches out and covers Padma's hand with hers.

The hand trembles a little under her touch. "I—Susan, you were just waking up from a very addictive potion when you told me—"

"That I love you? That I want to be with you? I don't care. It's the truth." And Susan was recovering from a less addictive potion at the time, thank you very much. It was after one of the last post-war skirmishes, when a group of former Death Eaters attacked some of Harry's vassals in Hogsmeade. Susan took a Cutting Curse to the stomach—something she's still annoyed with herself for—and had to stay in the hospital wing and on potions for a week. But Padma visited five days in.

"How can—we never even spent that much time together." Padma's head is bowed, her hair falling forwards around her face.

Susan gives in to her desire, and reaches out to stroke the hair. Padma hitches in a trembling breath, but doesn't object. "No, we haven't spent all our time together the way Harry and Theodore do." She rolls her eyes when Padma looks quickly up, so she can see it's a joke. "But, Padma, we've had great conversations. And you understand revenge. And we both want power. And you listened to me babble when I was on that other addictive potion for depression and never told anyone."