Lavender\\\'s Love

Lavender's Love

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Lavender sat outside Florean Fortescue's Ice-Cream Parlour. She'd eaten three-quarters of her sundae, and the last quarter was melting. She didn't want to buy another one, but she needed an excuse to stay sitting here. Where was Seamus? He was supposed to be meeting her here.

She looked round again. There was still no sign of Seamus. She sighed again, put the spoon back into the sundae glass, and lifted her bag of shopping up onto the table. She checked the contents against her booklist -- yes, they were all there. It wasn't surprising, as they'd all been there the previous five times she'd checked. The ingredients to refill her Potions kit were all there, too. The new ink bottle, and a new quill ...

'Hi,' said a soft voice behind her. She turned, smiling. Seamus looked as good to her as ever. He sat down opposite her, with two sundaes. She put her bag back beside her chair, and he pushed one of the glasses across to her. 'How was your holiday, then?'

'Mostly good. I did have one big argument, though.' She drank the melted remains of her sundae and shivered. 'Should have waited a few more minutes!'

Seamus looked round quickly. 'Want a hug to warm up?'

'I'd better not,' she said, hugging herself to see if it would help warm her. 'I've been here a while, and Mum's going to come looking for me soon.'

'Mam's not going to be trusting me out of her sight for too long, either. I had to tell her that I was coming here to get a sundae. She thinks I just want to get away from her to meet a girl.'

'Really?' she asked, wide-eyed.

He grinned at her. 'Yeah, I ...' He looked around again, then told her, in a quieter voice, 'I gave her that form to sign.'

'Good boy,' she said, with a grin and a blush. 'So she signed it?' As usual, Hogwarts had given each of the pupils who would be sixteen this year a permission slip, to allow them to ask the school for contraceptive potions.

'She did not,' Seamus said sadly. He told her how his mother had been furious that he'd even asked her about it. She'd told him a story with the usual moral, this time including his great-great-aunt, and finally offered him a hundred Galleons for his eventual wedding day, if he didn't sleep with any girl until after the wedding.

Lavender raised her eyebrows. 'That's a lot! And how many girls were you thinking of sleeping with after this imaginary wedding?' She dug her spoon into the sundae, now that she'd warmed up after drinking the last of the first one.

Seamus pulled a face at her. 'Anyway, I'll either forge her signature on it when we get back to school, or get Dean to. He's good at signatures.'

'Do we have to tell Dean?' she asked, eating some more of her sundae.

'He wouldn't have to know who I wanted the potion for. Actually, I wish Dean or Parvati or someone was here. Mam'd be less suspicious that way.'

'I'd rather they didn't hear any of this,' she said. 'Especially Parvati, she'd tell everyone.' Seamus grinned at her. 'All right!' she admitted, 'so she's not the only one like that.'

'It's why you two are such good friends.'

She nodded.

Seamus looked around again. 'If Mam sees us together, she's bound to think you're the one I was talking about. I can't deny it convincingly, either.'

Lavender sighed. 'Same here, if Mum sees us.' After a couple of minutes of slowly eating the second sundae, she looked around again.

'We must look a very guilty pair,' said Seamus, pausing in his sundae-eating.

'Yes. My mum wasn't any happier than yours about the slip. She yelled that it would just be an excuse for boys to use me and then dump me. She said I'd be better waiting for Mr Perfect and then still not doing anything until we're married and together permanently.'

'I think Perfect Percy's got a girlfriend already,' said Seamus with a grin. 'I hope our mothers never get together.'

'I hope they don't both come and find us here at the same time!'

'Yeah, I definitely don't want that! Imagine that -- I'd sooner be facing that dragon, like Harry did.'

'Mum's stupid anyway. About half the married couples we know have separated or divorced. I don't know why she thinks marriages are permanent.'

'Sssh,' said Seamus, nodding towards Slytherin's Blaise Zabini and a man who they supposed must be Mr Zabini who'd arrived at Florean's. The two Zabinis came over to their table, and the three teenagers stopped to chat, exchanging comments on their shopping, speculating on the new DADA teacher and touching on other neutral topics that didn't raise the question of house rivalry. The Zabinis then got sundaes and sat down a few tables away, which meant that Lavender and Seamus could return to their conversation.

'That could have been embarrassing,' said Seamus quietly, 'but it might not hurt to have a few more pupils around -- we'll look less suspicious.'

'That's true. Where were we? Oh yes, Mum was as furious as yours, and wouldn't even look at the form, so I took it away again. Just as well she didn't destroy it. I've copied her signature on it, though.'

'Naughty us.'

Lavender nodded. 'Yes, well, we need to have something to take our minds off the O.W.Ls, and this ought to be pretty good.'

'Huh, I'm no more than a distraction for you.'

'I'm hoping you're going to keep me sane.'

'Ah, training to become a mediwizard. That's better. I've no idea how we're supposed to find anywhere quiet, though.'

'I found out about a room which won't let anyone in if there's already a couple in there. The furniture in there looks really comfortable, too.'

'This sounds interesting.'

'So we'll be able to go there, and you can have your wicked way with me,' she said, grinning at him.

'I can think of a nice way,' Seamus said. 'I'm not sure that I've got a wicked way.'

'I really don't have one!' said Blaise loudly. Lavender blinked and looked over at the other table, but the Zabinis seemed to be talking about something else.

'That was a good coincidence,' said Seamus, grinning. 'But somehow, I don't think they're having the same sort of conversation we are. If anyone's got a wicked way, it'd have to be the Slytherins.'

'They're probably talking about something sinister, and being happy about that poor boy who was killed in the Tournament.'

Seamus frowned. 'I hope not. Blaise hasn't been as bad as Malfoy and his lot. Well, I suppose we'd better finish these sundaes and go and meet our mothers again, so we can be all innocent. I'll see you on the train, anyway.'

'And when we get to school, we can stop being innocent.'

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