Pairing: Padma/Parvati.

Rating: PG.

Disclaimer: No copyright infringement intended. Characters owned by J.K. Rowling.

Summary: Dreams of the future.

The summer night is warm, even with her window open. The sky is filled with stars but no moon, and she absently tries to name all the constellations she can see.

"Padma?"

The voice is soft and so much like her own that she could be dreaming of her mirror image...almost.

"I'm awake." Padma slides neatly over on her bed and Parvati slips in next to her.

"I had a nightmare," Parvati says in the subtle space between them, and Padma turns from the patterns in the sky to the dark wet places of her sister's eyes.

"I had a nightmare," Parvati says again. "It was my wedding day. I don't remember who I was marrying, but you were there, holding my hand."

Padma's hand rests reassuringly along Parvati's hip. She smooths the material of Parvati's nightgown and smiles. It is perhaps two in the morning, and everything is still.

"It didn't end there, though. That wouldn't have been a nightmare. You-know-who blew up the alter before the ceremony ended, and I couldn't find you in the smoke."

Their knees are pressed against each other, and they are like dolls made of milk-chocolate against the white sheets.

Parvati continues: "All I can remember is thinking that I had lost you forever," and smooths Padma's hair with soft fingertips.

"That won't happen," Padma says, filled with the quiet confidence of numbers and probabilities, but also This is my sister; nothing bad will ever happen to her.

And then:

Parvati shifts forward, and presses her lips against Padma's, and tangles her fingers in her sister's black hair. Padma does not close her eyes but thinks instead that Parvati's lips are sweet and she will never know anyone so well as she knows her twin.

In the morning, they each realize separately that it had been their first kiss.