#clone death!

Parvati was not paying attention in class -- how was she supposed to concentrate on translating dead languages when there were a million more pressing issues on her mind?

Like the in-depth conversation she and Sassy!Parvati had last week or Psych!Michael harassing her in the hallway the other day, for example. Not to mention the news that Lavender's parental units were planning on pulling their daughters, clones in tow, out of Hogwarts and off to Beauxbatons! Suddenly the victory of Michael (the non-crazy, normal one) to agree on a double date with Lav and Ron seemed insignificant. Which also led to thoughts about Michael -- they had been on more than one date, and they clearly liked one another. We're they dating? We're they not dating? Would he think her clingy or pathetic if she brought it up? Did she even want to continue to emotionally invest herself in a guy who didn't consider going to a kangaroo farm worthy of a place on his bucket list?

In comparison to clones and her best friend moving to France, agonising over romantic pursuits probably seems naive or just frivolous. But it was better than contemplating what Sassy!Parvati shared about her time in the dungeons, or the possibility of having to say goodbye to Lavender.

All of them, of course, were more important than inscriptions in Marcomannic alphabets. Unfortunately, the Professor wouldn't have agreed.

"Miss Patil...Miss Patil! Please pay attention."

The voice doesn't pull Parvati out of her thoughts and the doodles she's absently drawn on the margins of her translation of the weekend's homework. Instead, Sally Smith elbows her rather hard.

"Umm..."

"Continue the translation please, Ms. Patil. We've all been waiting on you."

Except she has no idea /where/ in the translation they are. Thankfully, Sally leans towards her and coughs something that sounds suspiciously like "line 7!"

"Erm, beer I bring to you, the tree of battle, made of might and honor..."

"No, not quite. Mingled with mighty strength and the fame of victory. Blah blah you must remember the blah blah.."

Parvati tuned out once again, and before she knew it class was over. While and Sally Smith were hardly friends, they did end up next to each other quite often and the help she'd given earlier warranted some appreciation.

"Thanks for the tip," Parvati said, smiling as she fell into step with Sally on the way out the door.

"Oh, no bother -- we've all been there," replied the other girl, before turning her head away to cough into the crook of her elbow.

"That sounds nasty, you feeling alright?"

"No, I think I've got the flu or something. I should probably go see Madam Pomfrey..."

"I'll keep you company, walk there with you, if you want?"

Sally nodded, coughing again, and Parvati noticed she looked kind of pale. Her biggest worry was that Sally would vom on her, honestly, and kept a small but safe distance as they walked together. The two girls chattered idly, but about halfway to the Hospital Wing Sally started getting worse. At one point, she had to lean against the stair railing.

"Are you sure it's just the flu?" Parvati asked warily, concerned for her own health as much as Sally's. In response, she got a shake of the head. Despite her misgivings and fear of catching whatever the other girl had, she choked down her fear of vomit and tried too move closer to Sally, only to have the other girl hold up a hand, shooing her away, as her coughs turned violent.

And that was when Parvati started to feel a sense of dread and fear creep up on her, along with a very unpleasant flashback to the night a clone of Anthony Goldstein went all angry snake on her. No, she told herself, Sally's just got the flu...just the flu, right? The time she spent standing there in indecision felt like at least five minutes; in reality it was probably only one or two at the most. While she debated what to do, the staircase the pair was on began to move -- oh, fuck!

"Sally..." she started, but realized she had no clue what to say. There was nothing she could do, nothing she could say, that would change what was happening or make it better. Maybe it was a stupid thing to think, but Parvati couldn't help but to feel overwhelmed by how unfair it all was. To her, to Sally, to everybody.

"S'not your fault, Parvati," Sally choked out, trying to give a half-smile.

"But-let's just get you to Madam Pomfrey, c'mon."

"There's nothing you can do...I'm a clone and there's nothing anybody can do. It's okay, Parvati."

"No, it's really not," she began to reply but was cut off by the light that started from Sally's chest, bursting and blinding just like she remembered with Anthony...and the other girl was gone, replaced by an agitated snake and Parvati didn't know what to do about it. So much had changed since the last time she was in this situation. Last time...last time was so different; she hadn't understood what was happening, there'd been no time to think. Now she knew, one way or another, this was Sally Smith, who she'd sat next to in class, done homework with, even occasionally giggled together over their professor's very, very nice arse -- not some abstract fear or enemy.

Some of the clones were off with the fairies, budding sociopaths, or just stark raving mad, sure, but they still weren't just snakes parading as people, not in her mind anymore. How could she think of them that way after everything? Even her own clone, though a usual source of annoyance...They were...well they were people too, who had thoughts and feelings and lives. So she couldn't do what she's done before, she just couldn't. Knowing shed killed one -- killed somebody! -- was difficult enough to deal with (meaning that she did not deal with it at all) and Parvati also knew she couldn't handle having another one on her conscience.

Focusing, she attempted to calm herself down, clear up her thoughts, and she pointed her wand at the hissing adder. Unlike when she'd pointed her wand at the one that used to be Anthony Goldstein, she was not in a panic and she was not afraid. Okay, so she was a little afraid, but not like she had felt then -- it was a very different kind of terrified, one that had nothing to do with the snake a few steps down from her.

"Stupefy," she said, firmly as she could, and watched the red light shoot out from her wand and hit the adder. It froze, just like that, all coiled up and ready to strike. Parvati hadn't realized she'd been holding her breath, but it all whooshed out of her in one go at the sight. The tension in her shoulders and neck slowly disappeared, but she stood there, leaning back against the banister while she stared at it. She supposed she should do something with her...it? Whatever, pronouns in this case were confusing. Their plans to get to the hospital wing were clearly thwarted by the staircase's movement, but then again she was definitely going to be late to her next class no matter what.

"Miss Patil, what are you doing?" Professor McGonagall's voice echoed against the walls, and Parvati looked up to see her head of house at the bottom of the stairs, looking stern. "If I'm not mistaken, you should be in Potions...ah. Well, who was this, then?"

"Sally Smith," Parvati answered, watching McGonagall who, having caught sight of the stunned snake, crouched down to get a closer look.

"Very well," she said, pulling out her wand to levitate Snake-Sally. "Come with me."

For what was probably the first time in her life, Parvati felt incredibly grateful for Professor McGonagall's matter-of-fact manner. It made the walk to Healer Smethwyck's office that much easier. There was no small talk, just silence, and when they arrived the older woman sat her down and proceeded to ask her a few questions -- questions Parvati had answered before. Whereas the first time she'd been asked them, she'd had some weird, hazy out-of-body experience, this time everything was almost too clear. 

Healer Smethwyck and the woman with her -- introduced herself as "Unspeakable Radford, but you can call me Nicole if you like" -- wanted to speak with her some more, even offered to excuse her from classes for the day. But Parvati didn't really want to talk, mostly because she didn't know what there was to say. She'd told them what happened, so what else could they possibly need to know? Luckily, after six years of having her as a student, McGonagall knew Parvati well enough and escorted her back to class where everyone watched her curiously.

Honestly, she didn't care. They could cast sideways glances at her and whisper all they wanted -- there were other things she cared more about. Not the same, silly things she'd been wondering the class before. No, these thoughts were much more serious and uncomfortable; as much as she didn't want them in her head, they refused to leave. It'd been so easy to forget people were turning into snakes (she supposed she thought they weren't doing that anymore, she didn't know and had stopped thinking about it). It could happen to anyone around her at any moment, couldn't it? What would she do if that happened? Merlin forbid, what if it happened to her?

But worst of all, she kept coming back to the memory of Anthony Goldstein's clone --his snake or whatever. Parvati had done, she felt (hoped?), the right thing with Sally...but she could not keep replaying the sight of Anthony's snake, its head being lopped right off with a flick of her wand. She'd done an excellent job of pushing it to the back of her mind for so long, but all of that had come undone in ten short minutes on the stairs. How was she supposed to live with that?

As much as she just wanted things to go back to normal, for her to go back to normal, something inside her said they were past the point of no return and there's no going back.