Shades of Lavender

Chapter Four: There's something about Severus

It was odd how quickly something that had seemed absurd and somewhat obscene to Lavender had faded into the background of the tapestry that was Hogwarts. It was common knowledge that Zacharias and Lavender were going out and despite everything that she detested in the arrangement, Lavender found herself enjoying how ... safe it was.

He spent lunch with her. She spent breakfast with him. They were together every Saturday - Sundays traditionally being a day of rest, which Lavender had never appreciated more until that point. No one even questioned the reasons why they were together. The Hufflepuffs even seemed to think that they were a "cute couple," as Susan had most inappropriately pointed out.

It was on the day of Zacharias' lunchtime Charms tutorial that Lavender and Parvati noticed something strange going on with Snape.

They were in the library, catching up on their Potions notes. That is to say, they were gossiping and eating Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, while Parvati plaited gold into her hair in order to impress Harry in their next class. Then, they noticed Snape slip through the library doors.

"There's something different about him," Parvati said, the more observant of the pair in matters of attire and complexion.

Lavender looked over to where Snape was skulking around the Alchemy section. He seemed as repellent as ever. His dark robes engulfed his skinny frame and made him look like an over-large bat. His black hair looked like it had been deep fried in oil and his thin lips framed ... sparkling white teeth?

"It's his teeth!" Parvati and Lavender said, making the third year Ravenclaw at their table jump.

Snape looked around as they said that and covered his mouth in what seemed to be a self-conscious gesture. Then, he strode over to their table. The third year scurried away, dropping parchment as he ran. Lavender giggled.

"What were you staring at?" he hissed.

"Just your teeth," Parvati said honestly. "Their brightening was most unexpected."

Snape sneered while trying to hide the aforementioned teeth. Lavender grinned and Snape's attention focused on her. "What are you smiling at, Brown?" he spat.

"Nothing, Sir," Lavender said, looking down. Unlike Parvati could be sometimes, she wasn't openly catty about people's appearances (unless they were really attractive and she was jealous). After all, hers was hardly the epitome of perfection. Furthermore, she was too embarrassed to visit Dumbledore again.

Snape's black eyes glittered. "It won't be long before I can get rid of you two from my class. I know it was you who defaced the covers of 'Moste Potente Potions'."

Lavender and Parvati stared at him, confused. "We'd never deface school property," Lavender said, affronted.

Parvati nodded. "What did they charm the covers to say?" she asked curiously after a moment silence.

Snape muttered something about "Gryffindors" and "Curiousity killing Kneazles," but said nothing directly to them

"What was that, Sir?" Parvati asked. She grinned at Lavender.

Snape reached into a pocket of his voluminous robes and pulled out a battered text book. He slammed it down in front of them and strode out of the library.

turned it over gingerly. "Moste -"

"- Impotente Potions?" Parvati finished, staring blankly at the book.

Lavender looked at Parvati. "We'd never do that."

Parvati looked more confused than ever. "It's not even all that funny." She turned the book upside down, as if to check whether it made more sense that way. "Besides," she added. "If I did anything to 'deface' these text books, it'd be to correct the spelling throughout the book. We're in the twentieth century. The extra 'e' isn't necessary at the end of every word."

Lavender smiled. One of the things she loved about Parvati was her inability to let anything go if it was related to spelling and grammar. She wasn't a brilliant student but, as she had told Lavender, since primary school she had always been praised for her grasp of the English language.

Much unlike herself, Lavender reflected. She often had difficulty stringing a written sentence together and tended to think it would be simpler if Hogwarts gave courses on sentence structure and basic grammar.

"Anyway," Parvati said, changing the subject abruptly. "How's it going with you and Smith?"

Lavender hated talking about Zacharias with Parvati. "Alright."

"Has he kissed you yet?" Parvati was not going to be satisfied with one word answers. Unlike many best friends, who were jealous and bitchy on such occasions, Parvati was extremely interested in her best friend's love life and took great pains in getting the two together as much as possible.

"No," Lavender said sighing. "It's never really come up in conversation." It was true. It hadn't.

"You don't talk about it, Crayola. It just happens. You know, spontaneously."

"I don't do spontaneous," Lavender said. "You know that I'd much rather know exactly when something is going to happen than be surprised."

Parvati was not to be put off. "Try spontaneous sometime. You may find that you enjoy it." She poked her tongue through a small gap in her front teeth, one of her few physical imperfections. Lavender resisted the urge to giggle and fireworks seemed to explode in her chest. She was not an immature little girl with a crush. Really.

"I've tried spontaneous with Seamus. Never again," Lavender said. "With Zachie, I think we'll take it slow." Very, very slow, she thought.

"Whatever," Parvati said, waving her hand dismissively. "But you don't know what you're missing."

"Oh I do," Lavender said. "And trust me, I don't miss it." She looked at the old clock in the corner of the library. "We have Defense Against the Dark Arts soon, Vati. We should get out of here."

Lavender felt herself sinking into gloom as she followed Parvati from the library. It wasn't just because she was going to Defense Against the Dark Arts, her new pet peeve. She was sick of concealing things from her closest friend. Parvati told her everything and, aside from the obvious secret that could quite easily break their friendship, Lavender did the same. And Lavender was discovering that pretence was draining.

They were early for Defense Against the Dark Arts. "Bonjour Professor Delacour," Parvati cried cheerfully, her buoyancy making up for Lavender's bleak mood.

"Bonjour, Misses Brown and Patil," Professor Delacour said, gliding out of her adjoining study. Professor 'pliss call me Fleur' Delacour was pretty, Lavender observed, if in a somewhat obvious way. Lavender tended to dislike beautiful people - Parvati being one of the few obvious exceptions. She was certain that it wasn't possible for hair to be that blond, nor for one's smile to be quite so sparkling without considerable charms.

Besides, she was a bit on the daft side. Who wears thigh split sequined robes when they're teaching a class of hormonal boys? Even Parvati had never made that bad of an inappropriate fashion choice.

The first few students trickled in. It was mainly the Hufflepuffs who were more hardworking, although Lavender noticed Neville in the bunch. Neville had really found himself that year. In past years, he had been the annoying kid in the background who always made the stupidest cock-ups. Now that he had joined Gobstones Club, he'd found a bunch of friends from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff who thought he was honourable and charming.

He was really. But a bit on the clingy side for Lavender and Parvati's liking.

As the last few class members trailed in, Professor Delacour waved her wand and screeds of notes appeared on the blackboard. "Copy these, pliss," she said, "And zen we will do sometink practicale."

Lavender was a slow writer so she didn't notice the note on her desk for quite some time. She picked it up and looked curiously at the desk next to her, but Parvati had her head down and was writing hard. There was an odd picture on the front. It looked like some sort of mammal, but Lavender couldn't understand why it was hanging upside down out of a tree. She opened it.

Pixie,

Where are we meeting for Halloween?

Z. M. S.

A man of many words, my fake boyfriend, Lavender thought sarcastically. She ripped a piece of parchment in half and formulated a response.

Zachie,

I don't know. You're supposed to be the domineering male and tell me so that I can argue with you for hours about it.

Lav

P.S. What was that completely ridiculous drawing of?

She didn't hear back from him because shortly after she passed the message, Professor Delacour made the notes vanish and instigated a debate about the Unforgivable Curses.

They left the classroom, Parvati telling everyone in earshot the absolutely scandalous news of Pansy Parkinson and Draco Malfoy breaking up - again.

"Sloth."

Lavender whirled around. "What?"

Zacharias shrugged. "What I drew. It's a sloth."

"Oh," Lavender said. "I thought you were insulting me." She draped an arm around his shoulder.

"But of course," Zacharias said, raising an eyebrow. "I have Quidditch practice now but I need to know where to meet you tomorrow."

"The usual place, I presume," Lavender said, referring to their normal meeting place down by the lake. "Have fun at Quidditch, sweetie."

"Using childish endearments is not cute, Pixie."

"Considering that my nickname is a childish endearment, I hardly see how I can avoid that," Lavender said. "Smug bastard."

"Sarcastic hellhound," Zacharias replied. "Now, that's more like it."

"So, I'm a sarcastic hellhound and you're a smug bastard. We make a great couple. I suppose it's more appropriate than Angel Cakes and Dear Heart."

"Angel Cakes?" Zacharias shuddered. "But, I really must go. I'll see you tomorrow. Don't get too dressed up."

"You are talking to the girl who wore sandals and a frilly dress to football practice when she was eight," Lavender replied, grinning and pulling on one of his springy blond curls. He smirked and turned to go, lifting her arm carefully from his shoulder. "What are you planning anyway, Zachie?" Lavender called after him.

"You'll see," he yelled back as he was carried off into the swarming crowd of Hogwarts students.

"It'd better be good," she shouted in reply. She didn't think he heard her.

*

Lavender didn't want to get dressed up for the Hogsmeade weekend. But Parvati got onto it. Or, to be more exact; her.

"Crayola, you can't go on your first date with Smith and not look special."

"He said not to get too dressed up." Lavender knew that this excuse would hold little water with Parvati in her 'steam roller' mood.

"But he doesn't mean it," Parvati said, her tone businesslike. "He's trying to downplay the actual date; pretend it's not that special."

"You took that straight from Witch Weekly," Lavender accused.

Parvati grinned. "But it's true."

Not with Zachie, Lavender thought. "I'm not dressing up."

"At least let me do make up."

"Fine, fine," Lavender muttered. "But I can tell you now, it's going to be a disaster." Nevertheless, she sat down on her bed and let Parvati do her work.

"Now, we want to go for a natural look," Parvati said, commentating. "So just the basics. Foundation, mascara, eye liner, lip-gloss and some concealer to fade away your freckles. Maybe I could try an enhancement charm on your eyes," she mused, as she brushed mascara onto Lavender's thick lashes.

"You are not getting anywhere near me with your wand," Lavender said, scrambling away and ending up with mascara down her nose. "Last time you tried one of those, I had glowing purple eyes for about a week. People get suspicious when you're wearing sunglasses in the middle of winter."

Parvati sighed. "Alright, just Muggle stuff then. Don't take risks." She continued in silence for a while. "You probably don't need foundation. Your skin's pretty good and if you're really going for the natural look ..."

"Haven't you already done mascara?" Lavender asked, feeling her eyelashes being brushed over for what seemed like the eighth time.

"Not completely. I'm on the final layer." There was a silence. "There!" Parvati cried, sounding pleased with herself.

Lavender opened her eyes and looked in the mirror. It appeared that Parvati had done her job well. The emphasis on her large eyes had taken away focus from her upturned nose and round cheeks and she had somehow managed to make Lavender look interestingly pale, as opposed to pasty and blotchy.

"Thanks, Vati," Lavender said, hugging her and inhaling her cool, flirty scent. "Sorry I've been such a bitch."

Parvati waved her hand, dismissing it. "You haven't been. Besides, if you've been a bitch, what does it make me?"

Perfect, Lavender thought. "Thanks, hun. Any chance of you helping me with clothes too?" She was enjoying their time together and didn't want to end it now.

"Mais bien sur!" Parvati cried. "Where do we start? Are you going for Muggle or Wizarding? Lacy or classic? Do you want to borrow my heels?"

"Muggle, classic, no," Lavender answered. "I can't be bothered with robes. And I'm not wearing a skirt, alright?"

"But there's such a pretty skirt just waiting to be worn," Parvati cried in desperation. "It's crying out from your closet saying, 'wear me, wear me now!'"

"You know, I think Harry has a point when he says you're silly and immature," Lavender said, batting Parvati's hands away from her shoulder as she rifled through her clothes.

"I resent that," Parvati said. "It's completely unreasonable."

"But I am the ears of reason," Lavender proclaimed. Parvati looked at her and collapsed on the bed in laughter. "Wait, scratch that," she said after some thought, and began to giggle herself.

"I don't think ears have to be particularly reasonable, Crayola," Parvati said after she recovered.

"That's what you think," Lavender muttered darkly. "Just you wait. The ears will show you and it will be doom. Doom I tell you."

"What are you raving about now?" Parvati asked.

"Doom, I think," Hermione said, entering the dormitory with a pile of books in her arms. "And possibly ears."

"Hermione is the ears of reason, I think, Crayola," Parvati said and collapsed into laughter again.

Hermione raised her eyebrows. "I'm not even going to ask," she said and left again, dumping the books in her trunk.

It was then that Lavender realised she was running late. "Vati," she wailed, suddenly stupidly nervous. "I don't know what to wear!"

Parvati thought for a moment. "Polka dot top, blue jeans, my heels."

"I'm not wearing heels. I'll wear the sequined shoes," Lavender said, dragging her jeans over her bum.

"They're just as impractical," Parvati argued.

"Nuh uh." Lavender shook her head. "If I wear heels I will fall over, break an ankle and die a virgin. If I wear sequined shoes, I will leave a trail of sparkly discs wherever I go, much like Hansel and Gretel."

"Except that they had bread, not sequins," Parvati added.

"Why quibble?" Lavender asked, pulling the polka dotted shirt over her head. "There, I'm all ready to go."

"You look lovely," Parvati said, smoothing down a clump of orange hair. "Now, have fun."

"Yes Mum," Lavender sighed and hugged Parvati again. "Love you."

"You too, sweetie."

If only it were true, Lavender thought as she wandered down to the lake. Instead of going to Hogsmeade with the love of her life, she was going with a sarcastic, self-important, smirking ... person who drove her completely mad half the time.

"Looking lovely, Pixie," Zacharias said, smirking in his self-important way. Much like she'd expected. "Let's go, shall we?"