Lavender Forever

The Snow

She thanked the people with a smile, though as soon as she was out, Lavender started grumbling. She rubbed her arm where the needle poked at her the hardest as she walked down the hallway towards the dining area. As soon as she stepped crossed the threshold, she heard her name.

"Oi! Lavender!" Vincent repeated cheerfully from his table, waving a hand.

Draco looked up from his food, a bored expression on his face.

Gregory was damn outright glaring at her.

She didn't want to sit with them; otherwise Gregory might take it that the action was motivated by her guilt. Then again, she hadn't been with them for a while. On her way over, she smiled at a few of the patrons, then plopped herself down.

"I ordered you spaghetti. Eat up," Vincent said as he took some from her plate and placed it on his own. His voice dropped to a whisper as he murmured, "We're playing war after lunch."

Gregory stopped cutting into his steak and began flatly, "She can't play. She'll-"

Lavender had begun to ravel some of the noodles around her fork when he spoke. She immediately stopped, eyes moving to look at him.

"Stop it," Draco ordered, glaring at Gregory. "I'm trying to eat in peace."

"Sorry," Gregory muttered, not sounding like he meant it.

She let it slide. "S'okay," Lavender mumbled, focusing on her spaghetti. "My fault too. Sorry."

--

"Avada Kedavra!"

Lavender raised a hand to her forehead, bringing the other to her mouth as she cough, delicately at first, before she started hacking, grasping at her chest. She decided to go for a dramatic approach after seeing Blaise simply fall back.

"You didn't get her!" Parvati shouted, still hidden.

They had been playing for at least several hours and it was getting infuriating. Finally, Gregory, getting the chance of his lifetime, pointed a branch from an ash tree at her and yelled out the words. Naturally, she didn't want to piss him off any further. Of course, there was also the fact that it was the most stupid game ever invented by oblivious children and she no longer wanted to play. At this point, lying down in the open was certainly better than crouching behind a tree at this point.

Lavender stumbled around in the snow, eyes wide, but she still blindly grasped at objects.

"Did too!" Pansy yelled from her position on the ground.

And she was cold. Very cold. So cold that the halls at Hogwarts couldn't compare to how cold she was feeling at the moment. Being Lavender Brown, she stupidly left her cloak back in the main house. She sniffed.

"No, I was watching," Blaise insisted. "He didn't get her."

Lavender coughed a little more, then started breathing laboured breaths, leaning dramatically against a tree with the back of her hand against her forehead. No one seemed to take notice.

"Shut up, Blaise, you're supposed to be dead."

Blaise scowled and sprawled back on the snow-covered ground. "Pansy's supposed to be dead, too."

Pansy snapped, "Shut up, Blaise. Just because you got put on the other team-"

"Just die, already," Draco, turning rather pink, yelled at Lavender, who fluttered delicately onto the ground. "When an Avada Kedavra gets put on you, you just die. You don't flounce around like a silly little bint."

Lavender frowned. Tough crowd. Twiddling her thumbs as she stared up at the sky, she recounted the morning's events.

Parvati scowled, popping out from behind her hiding place—the hedges. "Get back up, Lavender," she snapped. "He didn't get you."

"I don't get it!" Blaise yelled out. "I got sorted in to Slytherin! Why am I on a team with a bunch of Gryffindors?"

"We're not all in Gryffindor, here," Padma called from her spot behind the tree Lavender was leaning against.

"You're winning, aren't you?"

"Well, not really, since I'm, you know, DEAD. I don't count being DEAD as winning."

"Get back up!" Parvati said in exasperated tones. "There's no way that Gregory could have gotten you. He's over by the fountain with the rest of them."

"His wand can carry over a long range. It's got some sort of sight thing on it."

"Why would Mr. Ollivander trust him with something like that?"

"It's not Mr. Ollivander's fault. 'The wand chooses the wizard…'"

"Oh, yuck, he gave you that speech, too?"

"Well, my parents gave me that speech, then I had to hear it-"

"Shut up, Blaise, you're supposed to be on our side."

"I am on your side."

"Stay there, Lavender," Pansy snapped, sitting cross-legged. "You're dead."

"Is that wand thing even true? I mean, can it happen?"

"Pansy, you're dead, too, so you don't have a say."

"Lavender, you're going to catch a cold!" Padma yelled.

Pansy scowled, arms crossed. "I wouldn't be dead if someone by the name of Draco Malfoy saved me."

"I'm fine!" Lavender said with a sniff.

"Shut up, Pansy," Draco snarled, crossing his arms.

"I'm getting wet and the ground's cold and I don't like this game."

Lavender frowned, propping herself up on her elbows. "Draco, it's not fair! You have to stop using Vincent as a shield."

"You could have used Blaise as a shield!" Gregory shouted.

"Can I get off the ground now?"

"No, Pansy."

"Haven't we lost already?"

"We haven't lost!"

"I can't find my glasses…"

Draco stared at her, raking a hand through his hair in annoyance. "You don't need glasses! Why were you wearing glasses?"

"Because they help me concentrate!"

"Yes. Obviously since you're 'dead', we can all tell that the glasses certainly worked."

"When I was dead, I didn't have my glasses, so therefore, if I had my glasses-"

"I think I found them…no, it's just a sickle."

Lavender sat up and felt her pockets. "That's my sickle."

"Prove it," Gregory said, peering at the coin in his hand.

Draco stood up and stomped his foot in the snow, hands together as he glared at the group scattered across the gardens outside the clubhouse.

A snowball whizzed by Parvati's head. She turned and glared at Draco, who frowned.

"Are we playing or not?"

"Yes, we are," Parvati said, reaching to the ground for some snow. "Lavender, get back up." She packed it in and threw it in Draco's direction.

"Wait!" Vincent yelled, taking the snowball for Draco, then stopping Gregory as he was about to throw one back. "We can't have a fight with Lavender. She's fragile!"

Blaise's snowball dropped to the ground. "What?"

Pansy stood up, brushing the snow off her robes and out of her hair. "She's not fragile. You just landed on her wrong and broke her ankle."

"Do we have to relive that?" Lavender asked impatiently.

Gregory scowled. "If you and Pansy didn't throw Draco into the-"

"Shut up!" Draco snapped. His face was already flushed from the cold and the running and now it turned even more pink.

Lavender's eyes widened. "He facewashed me! For five minutes! Did you expect me to give him a big hug and a thanks that my face felt like burning-"

"LAVENDER!"

She turned around, cringing. She had to tilt her head back as far as she could to see her mother staring down at her, looking rather annoyed.

"Oh, hullo, mum," Lavender said weakly, fluttering her fingers. "I-"

The next thing she next, she was being hauled towards the main house, getting snow brushed off her robes. "You're going to catch a cold," her mother muttered in between drying spells. "Why didn't you wear a cloak?"

Yes. That. "I-"

"Lavender," her mother continued, trying to fix Lavender's hair, "next time I ask you to meet me at the front at two, you meet me at the front at two. Don't make me wait half an hour and come and get you."

It was only two-thirty? That meant they were playing for nearly an hour. Within that time, Lavender managed to catch a cold. A new personal record. Still, her immune system put up a darn good fight during the cold corridors of the school. "They're already here?"

Her mother stopped lecturing her momentarily to smile at several people as they passed by the dining area. "I knew you were going to be late. And if you're sick, you're not getting any potion for it."

"If I'm sick, I'm going to sneeze on everyone at the dinner!"

"Just Draco and Pansy."

Lavender groaned. "You know I had, ah, kind of a falling out with some of them right?"

"An opportune time to make it all better," her mother replied curtly.

"Mum…"

They went down the long hallway towards the front entrance. "Sometimes you're going to have to act like an adult, Lavender. You're a growing girl and you need to take responsibility. What's more is that you're a Brown. Your father and I have been soft on you for far too long. Look at your brother. He's-"

"Never around," Lavender muttered.

Her mother went on, pointedly ignoring Lavender's comment. "I need to you to get into the ballroom at some point to make sure that your dress robes won't clash with the decorations. Really, just because Narcissa and I didn't tell Helena and Treva what colour the background was for the autumn ball…" She ended it off with a huff. "We're relying on you, Lavender.

"And remember," her mother continued, "his parents are in, but this is his first time-"

"He's, what, fourteen? Shouldn't someone around his age be leading him around?" Lavender asked as she was stopped in front of a mirror. "Like Adrian, or Irisa, or Lindsey, or-"

"Keaira," the mirror supplied.

Her mother fixed the mirror a stern gaze as if to tell it not to interrupt as she played with her own hair. "This club prefers that the new people are shown around by one of the Old Families and that cuts it down to about seven of you children. You have to pay more attention to these things. You're going to be spending time with the Tome this summer." With that, her mother opened the door and scooted Lavender out. "When I was your age, I could name all-" She glanced up, a warm smile gracing her features. "Good afternoon, Brooke."

Lavender turned attention from her mother. Two people stood a couple of feet away: a woman with a friendly expression on her face and a boy who seemed slightly nervous.

Bored, she looked away momentarily, then her eyes snapped back to the boy. He flashed her a quick, (unbeknownst to him) devastating smile.

Her heart managed to do a flip-flop as her insides crumbled and she melted into a puddle of goo.

What about Adrian? the back of her brain, surprisingly still intact, nagged.

Eh? Was that some kind of drink?

Harry?

Qu'est-ce que c'est?

The world went silent just for him. With the sun behind his head, he had an ethereal glow. The wind took the opportune time to ruffle his dark hair as he looked at her through grey eyes. And his features were so exquisite there was no way in hell that he could look like a troll from any angle. For him, no one breathed a sound. For him, the world's creatures stilled. For him, the snow melted and the flowers bloomed, birds-

"Lavender," her mother asked, touching Lavender lightly on the shoulder, "are you paying any attention to what I'm saying?"

Alright, maybe the world did make sounds and Lavender just tuned them out.

"I'm listening!" Lavender insisted.

"Go take him around," her mother said, clearly miffed. With that, she turned around and swept off with the boy's mother.

She managed to tear her eyes from him, turning away to rub her nose and regain feeling in her fingers. Wriggling her toes, she decided that the reason for her numbness could be the cold. Then again, it could be him. Hesitantly, she looked back.

Flip.

It was definitely him.

"Hello," Lavender said in pleasant tones.

"Hi." He leaned forward slightly and offered his hand to her, smiling.

Flop.

She started reaching for it, then turned away and sneezed.

He looked at her, slightly worried. "Do you want my cloak?" he asked, beginning to undo the clasp.

Flip.

"I'm fine. Let's go inside," she managed in between sneezes. "Oh!" She twirled around and wrapped his warm, big, warm, lovely, warm hand with both her hands and shook it with a death-grip. His hand felt like she was in an eternal bliss, especially after being in the snow for an hour. "I'm Lavender Brown."

Flop. Never wash those hands again. They've been blessed, I tell you!

He flinched at the coldness, though he didn't try to pry her loose. "My name's Cedric Diggory."

"Great!" she said enthusiastically, pulling him inside. She finally let go of him and rubbed her hands together. Nervous. Nervous. Yes. She had the unfortunate habit of prattling when she was nervous. Just ask Aidan Lynch. Merlin, that was embarrassing."It's a good thing you choose this day to come. Not many people are here today, since they're all busy getting ready for their dinners tomorrow. Pampering, potions…"

He nodded, handing his cloak to a house-elf.

"…you'd think that after all these years, they'd figure out which potion to take and when. There was this one dinner where Mrs. Goyle used a little too much potion for-" Lavender interrupted her prattling and pushed open a door. "This is one of the sitting rooms. I don't know about anyone else, but I call it the Mirror Room. Oh, and feel free to interrupt."

He opened his mouth to say something, but Lavender steamrolled on. "Although some of the people here would be rather, well, annoyed if you interrupt them. One time, I interrupted Mr. Malfoy, by accident, of course, but anyway, oh! Apparently, if you tap on the right panel, you'll find yourself transported to the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles. This room's decorated in the era the palace was built. At least that's what my brother says, but you can't trust him. Anyway, this is linked to the dining area, but we'll go there later."

Allowing him to look around for a while, she then dragged him out and into the library, a large room two storeys high, filled with books and periodicals. Walking around a couch at the centre, she said, "There's a tome in here somewhere that's got a summary of all the families in the club. Of course, it's just the things they want you to see. Mostly lies, apparently. No one really touches that, but I hear it's kind of interesting reading some of the sayings and the mottos. Of course, it's always the non-biased and bland ones that get in, but it's fun anyway. Do you have one?"

He looked up curiously from examining some of the book spines. As if slightly surprised that she was allowing him to answer, he asked, "What?"

"A motto. A saying," she repeated brightly.

He shrugged. "My mother always says that people shouldn't cry or fight unless there's not other way."

"That's…interesting…" He could tell her his hobbies included hunting for worms and she wouldn't care at this point.

"What's yours?"

"Well, my brother says that everyone's going to die anyway and-"

Cedric cut in, "That's horrible."

"That's Theo," she countered cheerfully. "So, ah, do you like Quidditch?"

As Lavender led him from room to room, the conversation went from Quidditch to Houses to courses. Not a large jump across the topics, but he seemed more relaxed as they went. Maybe he'd let her hold his warm hand again. Her fingers didn't seem to be warming up.

"You take Divination?" she asked at one point with wide eyes after a sneeze.

"Don't take it," he advised as they left the room filled with plants and boardwalks.

She wrinkled her nose as they walked down the hallway. "My parents say it's rubbish."

"Not always, though it can be," said Cedric. "I think the professor's getting annoyed with me. I keep seeing some stupid glass."

She made a sympathetic noise. Lavender shoved another door and held it open for him, watching him go through. "The dining area. It's got nice food and you can loiter all you want most of the time. The thing about this club is that you'll notice many of the patrons donate to worthy causes. For example, several people donate to St. Mungo's-"

"It's actually the down-payment for Lavender's impending stay in the mental ward," Draco drawled, hands wrapped around a cup of hot cocoa.

Several seconds later, Gregory and Vincent burst into laughter.

"If we have anything to do with it, you'll be right next door recovering from several broken limbs," Padma hissed from another table with Parvati, who was nodding in agreement.

He practically flushed with pleasure. "Ah, so you're implying that she'll be going there-"

"Lavender," Pansy said casually, eyes glittering as she stared at Cedric, "aren't you going to introduce him to us all?"

Lavender flashed her most dimwitted-looking smile at Pansy while thinking of ways to kill her. "This is Cedric Diggory."

She could…use the Throw-Her-Off-a-Cliff method…

"Cedric, that's Draco Malfoy…" Lavender said, gesturing to the blond boy who sneered and sipped from his large mug of cocoa. If Cedric was responding, she wasn't listening. She was too busy examining the reactions.

Of course, there was the Siccing-Someone-On-Pansy method.

"Gregory Goyle…" He had his 'thinking face' on, gripping onto the handle of the mug until his knuckles turned white.

And always, the reliable Pretend-The-Problem-Didn't-Exist method was a possibility, though that would be quite a feat to pull off after over four months of exchanging a minimal of words.

"Vincent Crabbe…" He frowned, eyes darting from Draco to Gregory.

Also, she pondered the Silent-Treatment method.

"Blaise Zabini…" Cedric received a cold look.

And there was the Make-Pansy's-Life-a-Living-Hell method.

"Pansy Parkinson…" The girl, who had her full attention on Cedric since he walked in, flashed Cedric her most dazzling smile.

For a brief moment, Lavender allowed her thoughts to drift. He was in third year and undoubtedly watched the Sorting. She waited for the question, "Why are you friends with a crowd of Slytherins?"

Then she got back to the task at hand. There was the War-of-Wits method, but Lavender figured it wouldn't really get that far before it came to "Am not!" "Are too!" "Am not!" "Are too!"

"Padma Patil…" She nodded, idly adding more sugar to her tea.

Lavender supposed she could use the Spread-Rumours-About-The-Other-Blonde-Girl method.

"…and Parvati Patil." The other twin paused in pouring more tea into her cup to wave at Cedric.

"Lavender, I know you probably haven't gotten me anything, so I'll just let you know that I want him for Christmas," Pansy said quietly with a grin, receiving a scowl from Lavender.

"Cedric?" Someone called from the other side of the room.

Pansy and Lavender turned to look and simultaneously scowled.

With a smile, Irisa Crickhowell waved him over. At least Lavender thought it was a smile; it was difficult to tell amidst that brown hair that clung to the older girl's face. Also, once again, she was in the middle of sneezing.

"Damn Ravenclaw," Pansy muttered, earning a glare from Padma.

Cedric excused himself, adding a "Hope you feel better" with a smile to Lavender and went across the room to the brunette and her group.

Sometimes, it was worth catching every cold in sight, Lavender thought as she sneezed.

Parvati looked after him sadly, pouring milk into an empty cup before adding tea in. "He's older than us anyway."

With a sigh, Lavender sat down with Parvati and Padma. "I know," she grumbled, playing with a napkin.

Blaise looked from Pansy to Lavender, murmuring just loud enough for them all to hear, "He'll only offer you blood, toil, tears, and sweat."

"You're such an optimist," Parvati said in an irritated tone after a laboured silence.

With a derisive snort, Draco rolled his eyes and mimicked Pansy's voice: "'I want him for Christmas.' So, go on about your plot to snag Adrian Pucey for the last dance at the New Year's ball."