Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Parvati Patil
| Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter - Character | |
| Parvati Patil | |
|---|---|
| Gender | Female |
| Hair color | Black |
| Eye color | Dark Brown |
| Related Family | Padma Patil (twin sister) |
| Loyalty | Unknown |
Overview
[edit | edit source]Parvati Patil is a Gryffindor in Harry's year, twin sister to Padma Patil, and close friend of Lavender Brown. She favours Professor Trelawney's Divination lessons above all others.
Role in the Books
[edit | edit source]Parvati's name is called at the Sorting shortly before Harry's.
After Neville's accident in his first Flying lesson, Draco jeers at Neville's expression; Parvati tells him to shut up, and Pansy Parkinson accuses her of being sweet on Neville. When Harry is caught by Professor McGonagall, Parvati tries to defend him, but McGonagall cuts her and Ron off before they can explain.
As they go down to the Hallowe'en Feast, Harry and Ron overhear Parvati telling her friend Lavender Brown that Hermione was crying in the girls' toilet and wanted to be left alone. Ron, who had made harsh comments about her following Charms class, seems to feel a bit awkward about this revelation.
In Professor Lupin's first Defence Against the Dark Arts class, Harry's class is learning the Riddikulus charm against Boggarts. Confronted by Parvati, the Boggart takes the form of a mummy. As they leave the class, Parvati wonders why Professor Lupin is afraid of crystal balls.
When Professor Trelawney's nebulous prediction, about something that Lavender Brown is fearing, is slightly matched by actual events, Lavender and Parvati become convinced that Trelawney can predict the future. They will spend much of their time in the Divination classroom after this. Their belief is fueled also by Hermione's decision to drop Divination, which they see as fulfillment of Trelawney's prediction in September that "around Easter, one of our number will leave us forever."
Colin Creevey excitedly tells Harry that his brother Dennis will be entering Hogwarts this year, and hopes that Dennis will be Sorted into Gryffindor. Harry asks Hermione if brothers and sisters generally end up in the same House. Hermione points out that Padma and Parvati Patil are twins, yet while Parvati ended up in Gryffindor, Padma is a Ravenclaw.
Harry must find a dance partner to attend the Yule Ball with, as he has been told that he will be leading off the dancing. When Cho Chang regretfully turns him down, Harry, in some desperation, sees Parvati and Lavender entering the common room, and asks Parvati if she will go to the Ball with him. She accepts. Harry, knowing Ron is also dateless, asks Lavender on Ron's behalf, but she has been invited by someone else. Parvati mentions that her sister Padma does not yet have a date, and Harry asks if she'd be willing to go with Ron. Parvati says she will ask.
Parvati meets Harry in the Gryffindor common room, and they head down to the Entrance Hall with Ron. (Fred and George in passing ask Harry how he and Ron had managed to hook up with the most beautiful girls in the school.) Harry, as one of the Champions, must wait until all the others have entered the Great Hall, and then the four Champions with their dates parade in and up to head table. After dinner, the four Champions open the dance; Parvati leads Harry out onto the floor. Harry is glad to see, as others join them, that he is not the worst dancer there; Neville, for instance, is repeatedly stepping on Ginny's feet. Professor Moody, dancing past, comments on Harry's mis-matched socks (hand-knitted for him by Dobby), and Parvati comments that she feels that eye of his is creepy. When Harry chooses to sit out the next dance, Parvati leaves, finding a Beauxbatons boy to dance with instead.
After Christmas, Rita Skeeter publishes an article in which she exposes Hagrid's half-Giant ancestry. Hagrid, too embarrassed to leave his hut, stops teaching Care of Magical Creatures and sends his resignation in. For the next week, Care of Magical Creatures is taught by Professor Grubbly-Plank. After the first lesson, concerning the unicorn, Parvati is heard to comment that this was a much better lesson than they usually got from Hagrid, and that she hopes that Professor Grubbly-Plank will be there for a long time. Harry privately agrees with her, but knows it would be disloyal to say anything.
When Professor Dumbledore refuses to accept Hagrid's resignation, he returns to teaching, and apparently decides to show that he can teach the material at least as well as Professor Grubbly-Plank. He continues the lessons on the Unicorn; this time, he has captured a pair of foals, and Parvati and Lavender are entranced by them.
Parvati Patil is talking with Lavender Brown when Harry arrives in the Great Hall at the start of the school year. They greet Harry with a light, airy unconcern that tells Harry that they had been discussing him before he arrived.
In the first Defence Against the Dark Arts class of the year, Hermione wonders when they will be actually practicing defensive magic. Professor Umbridge says that she can't see any time when people will be attacked in her classroom. Parvati, following Dean Thomas' repeated question about the possibility of attacks outside the classroom, asks if there is a practical part of the OWL exams. Umbridge over-sweetly explains that the Ministry feels that understanding the principles of defensive magic will be sufficient preparation for the practical exam.
On the second day of classes, when Professor Grubbly-Plank asks if anyone can identify the creatures she has in front of her, Hermione puts her hand up, and Draco imitates her. Pansy shrieks with laughter, then screams as the little bundles of twigs on the table jump up. Lavender and Parvati let out little sighs of amazement, which annoy Harry: it is not like Hagrid had not been showing them fantastic creatures all along.
As Harry enters the greenhouse for Herbology on the second day of classes, Luna Lovegood says that she believes Harry. Parvati and Lavender laugh at Luna and her earrings that appear to be orange radishes, but become much more sober when Ernie Macmillan loudly states that he believes Harry's report of the return of Voldemort.
Parvati is one of the students who attends the first meeting of what becomes Dumbledore's Army, in the Hog's Head.
After receiving her evaluation from Umbridge, Professor Trelawney seems distraught. Parvati and Lavender ask her what is wrong, and catch a lot of the resulting diatribe against "the establishment".
One of the memories that Harry uses to sustain himself in Umbridges's class, once Dumbledore's Army starts meeting regularly, is of Parvati producing a Reductor curse that reduced the table under the Sneakoscopes to dust.
With Hagrid's absence on his mission for Dumbledore, Professor Grubbly-Plank has been teaching Care of Magical Creatures for most of the first term. When Hagrid does return, reactions are mixed, with Fred and George being overjoyed, but Parvati and Lavender seem slightly dismayed.
When Hagrid, on his first day back, teaches about Thestrals, Parvati is scared, saying that they are really unlucky, bringing misfortune to those who see them, according to Professor Trelawney. Hagrid counters by saying that they are dead useful, not unlucky at all.
Parvati and Lavender are seen hugging each other and crying quietly as Professor Trelawney is sacked by a cheerfully sarcastic Umbridge.
The following day, Lavender and Parvati suggest that Hermione should now be sorry that she had given up Divination, as the new teacher is Firenze. Hermione says that she was not terribly fond of horses, and Lavender, indignant, says that he isn't a horse, he's a Centaur. Hermione dismisses this, saying he still has four legs. Lavender says also that she and Parvati had gone to see Professor Trelawney and had found that she was distraught, still, and was saying that she would prefer to leave the school.
Lavender tells Ron that Firenze will be teaching in Classroom Eleven, on the ground floor, as he cannot manage the ladders that lead up to the tower. Reaching the classroom, everyone is surprised to see that it has been turned into a replica of a clearing in the Forbidden Forest. When Firenze says that he would prefer that this course be taught in the Forest, Parvati says that they have been there with Hagrid, and are not afraid. Firenze says that it is on his account that they are not in the Forest, as he has been banished by his herd. Firenze then begins teaching about the stars, and Parvati repeats things that Professor Trelawney has told them; Firenze dismisses this, saying that Trelawney, as a human, suffers from the limitations of humankind. Parvati is not the only one disgruntled by this dismissal.
With the departure of Professor Umbridge and the reinstatement of Professor Dumbledore as Headmaster, Professor Trelawney is also reinstated. Professor McGonagall tells Parvati and Lavender that Professor Trelawney and Firenze have split up Divination, and that Trelawney will be taking the sixth-year classes. Parvati heads off to Divination class looking slightly disappointed.
Shortly before Christmas, Parvati and Hermione have a conversation about the Christmas party that Professor Slughorn will be hosting. Hermione, who has been annoyed with Ron ever since his relationship with Lavender Brown became apparent, seems to be provoking Ron with her announcement that she has invited Cormac McLaggen as her guest.
After Dumbledore's death at the end of the school year, Parvati and her sister Padma are both pulled out of school by their parents, making them unable to attend the funeral.
When Harry, Ron and Hermione reach Hogwarts, they find Parvati Patil, among others, in hiding in the Room of Requirement. As Neville had been using this room as a way to stay at Hogwarts as the leader of the revived Dumbledore's Army, it is likely that Parvati had similarly found living openly in Hogwarts too dangerous and had retreated to the Room of Requirement so that she could continue the work of Dumbledore's Army in safety. Parvati joins in the Battle of Hogwarts, but we don't directly see what she is doing, aside from duelling Travers and then helping Dean duel Antonin Dolohov.
Strengths
[edit | edit source]Weaknesses
[edit | edit source]Mummies (as seen when the Boggart in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban takes that form).
Relationships with Other Characters
[edit | edit source]She attended the Yule Ball with Harry Potter but it's not known if she has had a romantic relationship with anyone.
Analysis
[edit | edit source]Questions
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