Moon

3: Aphelion

Lavender finished her story, loudly blew her nose, slumped despondently back in the comfortable armchair and sipped her chai.

'Sorry for turning up unannounced, Parvati,' she said, 'I didn't know where else to go.'

Parvati Rathod stood, stretched, and placed her hands on her swollen belly. 'That's okay, Lavender, Parindra is working the late shift at St Mungo's and I wasn't doing anything important. I suppose that it's best that this happened now, because in three months I don't expect that I will have much time for anything or anyone but this little kicker.' She looked down, smiled, and gently massaged her bump.

Lavender watched the action, an oddly wistful look on her face.

'It's not too late to apologise to him, you know.' Parvati told her friend.

'Apologise!' Lavender shouted, 'Why should I apologise? He's an idiot. Haven't you been listening?'

'Yes, Lavender,' Parvati sighed resignedly. 'I've listened to you. I've heard the sad story of how yet another man has let you down. Now, if you know what's good for you, you're going to shut up and listen to me.'

'But...'

'Please just shut up and listen to me, Lavender,' Parvati interrupted firmly. 'For someone who prides herself in finding out everything about other people's relationships; and for someone who is always first to give advice on people's love lives, you're terrible at organising your own.'

'Mark Moon...' Lavender began.

'...Is a nice bloke, and you know that he is.' Parvati interrupted. 'First, take it from someone who has been married for almost three years, you are not as wise in the ways of men as you think you are.'

Lavender opened her mouth to protest, but Parvati pressed on.

'Be quiet and listen, Lavender,' she ordered. 'I've only met Mark twice, at the Ministry Christmas Ball and at the Potters' at New Year's Eve. He doesn't say much, he's definitely very ... "reserved" is a good word, I think. But a lot of people are overwhelmed when they're at big functions like the Ministry Ball. My lovely husband doesn't like them much and, like Mark, Parindra just stays in the background and keeps quiet. An invitation to the Potters is even more exclusive; we're used to it, but someone like Romilda or Cormac would kill to get an invitation, you know they would. Harry and Ginny both like him. Perhaps he's always shy, but I had a long talk with him on New Year's Eve. He's polite, quite witty, and he fancies you something rotten despite the fact that you treat him like muck.'

'I don't!' protested Lavender.

'You do,' Parvati said. 'You made him promise not to talk about anything personal and you made it clear that you didn't want him to try anything on with you. Amazingly, he hasn't. How many blokes have you known who could you say that about? Especially after six months of teasing and flirting from you.'

'He did try it on tonight.'

'Try it on? He asked you out on a proper date, because you acted like a jealous girlfriend and gave him hope,' Parvati reminded her.

'He broke the conditions.'

'Not until after you'd broken them.'

'I made them, and he agreed to them,' said Lavender desperately, realising how weak her defence was.

'He did, the fool. Like I said, you've never had a bloke who would agree to those rules, either. I suspect that he agreed because he hoped that he could win you over, and he has.'

'He has not!' He can't have, she thought stubbornly.

'Lavender, everything that he said to you is true, and everything that Muggle woman said to you is true, too. Three quarters of an hour ago, you turned up on my door in tears because you'd argued with Mark, and he'd stormed off and left you. Why did you argue? Because he was talking to another woman when you arrived! And remember that you were late, as usual. You acted like a jealous girlfriend, but you've spent months telling him, and me, and everyone else, that you're not his girlfriend, that you're just mates. So, do you fancy him or not?'

'No!' Lavender shouted her denial.

'You are impossible,' Parvati sighed. 'Okay, so when that guy, Jake, from the U.S. Department of Magical Justice asked you out, the weekend before Christmas, you went, but not until the Sunday night, his last night in the country.'

Parvati folded her arms across her swollen belly before continuing.

'Jake was in the UK for four days, three nights. Friday night was the formal meet and greet. That's when he asked you out--on the following night. But you told him that you had a previous engagement which you couldn't cancel. What did you do that Saturday, rather than go on a date with gorgeous Jake?' Parvati asked.

Lanender bit her lower lip and stared at the floor.

'What did you do, Lavender?' Parvati pressed.

'I went to Winchelsea Beach with Mark. We ate fish and chips from a paper and listened to the waves crashing on the beach in the dark. We talked about the conference, and I teased him about Jake.'

'Your "previous engagement" was fish and chips in the open, in December, with "the lanky scruff"! For that, you put off a bloke who you told me was "fit, gorgeous and a snappy dresser." When you did go out with Jake on the Sunday evening, he brought flowers. He wined and dined you and spent a fortune and then invited you back to his hotel for "a nightcap." You turned him down, and you told me why. You said that even though he was eminently shaggable, you'd assured Mark that you'd given up on one night stands; you'd said that you wouldn't sleep with a bloke on the first date. You told me that you didn't want to disappoint Mark. That's all true, isn't it?'

Lavender gave the slightest of nods.

'That's true, Lavender, isn't it?' Parvati pressed.

'Yes,' said Lavender in a low sibilant sorrowful hiss.

'He can't hear you; there's no need to whisper,' Parvati said with a smile. 'I think that you turned Jake down on the Saturday because of that promise. If you'd gone out with the Yank on Saturday, you would not have had an excuse to say no to spending the night with him on the Sunday.'

'That's not true,' denied Lavender.

'Believe what you want, Lavender. Try to convince yourself that Mark is just "a scruffy bloke who never says much," that he's "just a friend," and that you can both see other people. But remember this, you turned down your first chance of a shag in months because it would upset Mark. And, when you caught him talking to another women, a woman who you tell me was fat and frumpy, you came over like a jealous girlfriend.'

'He's called Moon!' Lavender protested, 'I couldn't be called Moon.'

'He hasn't asked you to marry him, Lavender!' Parvati laughed. 'But I think he will, if you let him. Personally, I think that Lavender Moon has a ring about it.'

'But, Moon!' Lavender continued to complain, 'I thought that he was cracking a werewolf joke when he first told me.'

'Lupin was called Lupin; perhaps the curse works in very peculiar ways. I'll mention that to Padma; that's something that the Department of Mysteries might be interested in.' Parvati grinned mischievously at her friend.

'He's ordinary looking and a scruff.' Lavender tried a different line of reasoning.

'So was Ron, that didn't bother you.'

'Ron dresses smartly now; that was just a phase he was going through. I was smart enough to realise that he'd mature.'

Parvati snorted dismissively. 'That's complete rubbish, and you know it is. Why does Ron look smart these days?' she asked.

'Dunno,' Lavender lied.

'Yes you do, it's because Hermione keeps him right. So, if you want Mark to be smart, smarten him up.'

'I don't know anything about him.' Lavender shifted to another, desperate, argument.

'You're Lavender Brown, the werewolf Auror, Lavender Brown the gossip. How the hell don't you know anything about him? You've been together for five months, and for the past two you've seen him almost every day.'

'I've never asked,' admitted Lavender.

'Exactly, why have you never asked?'

'Dunno,' Lavender mumbled. 'But anyway, he's not my type,' she said, playing her final card.

'He certainly doesn't fit with your idea of an ideal man. You see yourself with a wealthy, smartly dressed and fabulous-looking bloke, and you imagine that the rest of us girls will be envious of you,' Parvati told her.

'But what you've actually had, in all the years since Ron and Seamus, have been a string of - admittedly really good looking - blokes, with great chat up lines. But half of them were thick and the rest were either narcissists or arrogant.'

'Not all of them,' Lavender protested.

'True, Cormac won all the prizes; he was a thick and arrogant narcissist. None of them were reliable. Every one of them was after only one thing, and when they got it, they started looking for their next conquest. Somehow, they managed to turn you into them.'

'Is that really what you think?'

'I'm your friend, Lavender, and I'm very sorry to be the one to tell you this, but yes, that's really what I think. Just go, get out of here and sort yourself out. You're the only one who can decide whether you want Mark or not. Find out about him first, if you must, but really, you've had long enough to do that. You've been with him long enough to know what he's like as a person. If you decide that you want him, accept that you've been in the wrong and go and apologise to him.'

'Apologise?'

'He's asked you out twice, and you've turned him down both times. He's crazy about you and you've been horrible to him. What, exactly, has he done to upset you?'

'He was going to leave me!'

'Merlin, Lavender, how insane is that as an excuse? He said it himself; how can he leave you if you're not together? You have never given him any encouragement to stay, but he stayed anyway, until tonight. All this drama is simply because he was talking to an old school friend when you arrived. You asked me for my advice; I've given it. Find him and apologise.'

'You've never suggested that I apologise to a bloke before,' said Lavender, playing her last card.

'Because all the others were complete prats and I was happy to see you split with them.'