Before the Battle (Parvati always would capitalize it), she had done her nails sparkly red and Lav had done hers sparkly pink. It was their favorite colors, red and pink. They had been fierce in the Battle, the girls that nobody thought much of, the gossipy girls that didn't deserve more than passing disdain. They had maimed and killed, and not even one hour before that they were doing their nails sparkly red and pink.
Now You-Know-Who was dead (again) and Lavender was in a room at St Mungo's that Parvati wasn't allowed in, and she could only look at her chipped nails.
She had been relieved to see Padma safe, amidst the destruction but safe, and she had searched for Lavender to embrace her. And then she had seen her lover's maimed face and arm.
She had thought her dead and her heart had skipped a beat.
But it was alright, it was alright, she was alive, she would be fine, and why wasn't she allowed in that room?
She looked at her chipped nails. Sparkly red. Gryffindor red, not blood red.
She wasn't allowed in all day.
"I'm ugly. And a monster."
Parvati thought that Lavender only looked small and afraid, in her too-big hospital bed. They had finally allowed her in one day too late, after much crying and pleading. Parvati had never begged before then.
"You're not." she said, but Lavender wasn't listening.
"Why are you even here?"
"Because I love you, Lav. I'll always be here." But Lavender wasn't listening.
"You will never be ugly and a monster to me." She didn't let Lavender not listen this time. "You're alive, Lav. I thought you were dead. Do you know what that did to me, when I thought you were dead?" She was pleading again, for her lover to listen.
"But I'm a burden now." Lavender was crying, with her eye that still looked like an eye. "I'm cursed."
Parvati took Lavender's hand in hers. "You are cursed. But a burden? Never. I love you, Lav."
Lavender was listening, but not understanding. Still, Parvati persevered. Her nails were red against Lavender's red scars.
"I love you, Lav."
"I'm so afraid of turning." Lavender was gripping her hospital sheets. The full moon was in three days, and in four days, after a check-up, she would be out of St Mungo.
"You will have Wolfsbane... " tried to soothe Parvati.
"I'm so afraid. You don't understand. You can't. I don't want to be a werewolf!" She broke down crying, and Parvati could only hold her in her arms and murmur soothing noises.
"If the Wolfsbane doesn't work... If I lose my mind... " she sniffed among sobs. "I don't want to be a wolf, Parvati. It's not fair."
"It really isn't. But you're strong. And I will not leave you. I can find a way to stay during the full moon. I'm sure I can."
"You can't. And I don't want you to see me that way." Lavender sniffed a last time and looked seriously at Parvati. "You can't see me that way. And it's too dangerous. I am dangerous."
"No." said Parvati fiercely. "Not right now. And with Wolfsbane, not even at the full moon. Listen to me, Lav. We survived. We both survived. I was just luckier than you, but we're both alive. We will get through this. Together."
And Lavender nodded.
The full moons came and went, and Parvati never saw Lavender as a wolf. But she asked about it, and she heard about it, and the Wolfsbane worked all right. It was hard, but it was livable.
They didn't return to Hogwarts for an eight year.
A werewolf was theoretically welcome at Hogwarts. But only theoretically. The parents would not hear of it. And Parvati stayed with Lavender, even as Padma went back.
She visited Lavender at her parents' almost every day, like this autumn afternoon were the leaves were beginning to turn red.
"I am going to write for fashion magazines" said Lavender suddenly.
"Really? But you wanted... "
"I wanted to open a shop with you. But who is going to buy something a werewolf has touched? Even a hero of the battle of Hogwarts." Her tone was full of derision.
Parvati knew she was right. The future they had planned would never come to pass.
She didn't have the words to make Lavender believe it would. Lavender wasn't that naïve.
"Let's paint our nails."
Parvati chose red, always, but Lavender chose yellow. She never wore pink anymore, not since the Battle. Parvati didn't need to ask; she would never paint her nails sparkly red again. But red, just red, was fine.
Early snow coated the grounds outside, and Lavender was starting to live again. She had always loved Christmas, and it was coming – it wasn't quite time to put up decorations yet, but you could taste it in the air already.
"I am getting an article published this November." Lavender smiled as she painted her pinky finger. "It's a start."
"I'm glad."
"Yes. I am, too." She started to paint a little flower on her thumb nail. "You should still open the shop. Even without me. It was your dream, too."
Parvati had to fight to let out the next words. Her throat was constricted. "It was my dream to do it with you. I don't know if I can do it alone... "
"Parvati. You can do anything." Lavender kissed her, soft and sweet. "You said it to me, again and again. We survived, and it's time to live. I live. You have to live too."
Parvati kissed Lavender, again and again and let herself be taken into Lavender's arms. She was so warm, warmer than a non-werewolf, and Parvati loved it. "I can't. I feel lost, after everything. And I'm only eighteen, after all. But I promise you, I will try, one day."
Lavender nodded. "One day, I will try, too, to let you see me as a wolf."
Snow started to fall again as they kissed for a promise sealed.
Two years later...
The wolf was magnificent, as she stood before Parvati. Her grey fur was spotless, her paws were huge and soft, except for the maimed right front one, and her amber eye held Lavender's soul. She always transformed in their basement since they got this house two months ago, away from prying eyes, but this time... This time Parvati got to stand there.
She kneeled before the wolf – before Lavender – and just opened her arms. "I love you."
Lavender advanced towards her, barely limping, and put her huge head to her chest. Embracing her, Parvati laughed softly. "I knew you'd be beautiful." She smelled like a wild beast, strong and spicy and wild, and it wasn't exactly a nice smell, but Parvati still loved it.
Lavender was a fierce girl, becoming a fierce woman, and here in front of Parvati, was Lavender the fierce wolf.
She was honored, and she told Lavender as much. She wasn't sure Lavender could understand – Wolfsbane meant she was herself, but she had told Parvati, she still wasn't human. She was a tame wolfgirl, not a girl.
She slept there, in the basement, nestled against Lavender. It was the warmest she had ever felt.
The next morning, it felt like the first time she awoke with Lavender naked in her arms.
Living with a werewolf was easy (if you had the means to get Wolfsbane, but thankfully their parents were a huge help, for that and for their home). People knowing you lived with a werewolf weren't, for the most part, Parvati thought as she watched one of her first customers' retreating back. She had left as soon as she remembered, amongst all the gossip she knew, that Parvati was Lavender's lover.
Thankfully, they weren't all like this.
They had both kept their promise, and Parvati tried her best to sell her clothes (it was their clothes, actually, imagined by both of them).
It was a good life, she thought as she looked at her yet empty small shop, in a small alley. Their parents had money, and they helped. Lavender's articles brought a little money. They had magic, and that helped for what they couldn't buy. They had made their house livable in a matter of days...
It was a good life. They had each other. Her and the wolf.
She found the cat hidden in a bush near their home. She had heard pitiful meows and searched, and there he (she had checked) was, all small and dirty and skinny. It was an orange tabby under all the dirt that had gotten on him, and after some cajoling he let himself be taken in her hands.
Cats usually avoided Lavender, but this one seemed social, and she couldn't let him alone, not when rain was starting to fall. It was evidently alone and either lost or abandoned.
They had tried to have cats before, but they seemed to smell the wolf and cowered, and they had finally given up. But this seemed like a sign to try again.
When the cat saw Lavender, he went to her and stayed there. They didn't dare to move, and for a while it was just all three standing in place like in a Muggle picture, Lavender on the couch with the cat sat next to her and looking at each other, and Parvati dripping wet looking at Lavender and the cat.
It was a good, good life. They had each other. Her and the wolf, and the cat.
Life had started to be good when they bought their home. Well, when their parents bought them their home, and they had been ever so lucky.
It had been a little derelict house in the woods near Godric's Hollow, and Lavender had immediately seen what it could become. Parvati only saw what it was, at first.
It had no windows anymore. One wall was missing. It had no furniture, and the roof leaked.
"We have magic, Parvati. We can repair it. Just look at it, and see what I see."
She tried.
It was vast. It had three stories – the top one was an attic. It had what had been a garden, with a brick wall around it – now collapsed in part, but spells could fix that. It had good foundations, and a basement ("a secure basement", said Lavender, and Parvati knew that she meant a place for her to transform). One room, the one which could become their bedroom, had a huge space for a large window.
Vines were growing on the stone walls, and stone was the best for anchoring wards.
And it was in the woods, and Lavender had come to love the woods like a wolf does.
"It will be a lot of work" Parvati said. "There is much to do..." But Lavender looked at the derelict house like she had found a perfect home. "We'll make it our home."
And they did.
They reconstructed the fallen wall, levitating stone after stone. They reinforced it with magic and also their own hands. Lavender was stronger than she used to be, and it really helped – or maybe it was because she was the one that fell in love at first sight with that house.
Love was slower in coming for Parvati. It was long, hard work, even with magic. It required funds, even with magic, and she felt guilty about always depending on their parents – they had the money, and Lavender's parents were a little too happy about having their werewolf daughter out of the house.
But it was constructing their home and stone after stone, Lavender pouring her love out beside her, it slowly took root in her heart.
It bloomed one day, when they put the finishing touches on the first floor.
It had a kitchen that they could also eat in, and a vast living room. It was a little rustic like wizardly houses tended to be, stone and wood and some ceramic.
They were playing with the colors of the couch and curtains for the living room, and Parvati didn't care, but seeing Lavender so invested, and what they built – it used to be a derelict house, and now it was a home! - the flower of love for their house, their home, suddenly bloomed.
"Let's do red" she said, assured all of a sudden. "Red makes me happy."
Lavender turned to her and smiled. "A vibrant red?" Parvati nodded, and blushed at the obvious joy that her lover felt at seeing her care. "And what about yellow flowers on the curtains? Yellow makes me happy."
"It's a good idea. What about some kind of tulips?"
"Yes." A few spells later, it was done, and it was done with intent and love, so it would hold.
Lavender half-danced with happiness. "I think the first floor's done!"
The couch was red with yellow pillow, both their favorite colors, and it made her irresistibly think of Gryffindor (it used to be pink, Lavender's favorite color, she remembered, but then... ). The fireplace was big enough to step into, a small pile of logs and floo powder next to it, ready to be used as transportation once they registered it with the Floo network. The tulips grew on the curtains, next to a bookcase that waited to be filled (probably with more fashion magazine than heavy tomes, given their lines of work, and she was proud of the articles Lavender wrote). It was still a little bare apart for that, but it would become lived in and cluttered, and she would love every bit of it.
The first floor with the bedroom and their office (still bare also, but soon to be cluttered with ideas about articles and about fashion and about new clothes) was also almost done.
They still needed to grow the garden, but this day... It was the day Parvati loved the house, and it was the day they started to live in it.
And now they had a cat to add to the family.
"What do you want to name him?" Lavender asked, stroking his fur. "What if he's just lost?"
Parvati shrugged. "We'll ask around? But let's keep it, in the meantime." She was reluctant to let go of the cat, the one cat they found by luck who wasn't afraid of Lavender. "And you name it."
Lavender kept her gaze trained on the cat. It had been cleaned, and you could see his orange fur. "Well, it isn't afraid of me. Let's name it Tiger. For his courage." She blushed, still avoiding Parvati's eyes. "It's a little silly name, but... "
"I like it. Tiger it is."
The newly-named cat yawned and proceeded to nap on a cushion.
Lavender looked at him, and then at Parvati. She had fire in her eyes. "If he has no owner, I want this house to become his cat paradise."
The cat belonged to no one, and when Parvati brought it to Magical Menagerie (Lavender still avoided busy areas), he was confirmed to be a little malnourished, but in good health otherwise. He was small, so they had thought he was barely an adult cat, but he was around five already. ("Oh, you're a big boy then", Parvati gushed).
She bought all she could from the shop, to the joy of the shopkeeper, and returned home poorer in money but richer in happiness.
And then they turned their home into a cat paradise.
They unhearted unedible plants for cats in their garden, and planted some catnip. They placed cat toys all around the house, which were soon all scattered in other places. A huge cat tree was erected, and Tiger could peer at them from above and judge them all he wanted.
But most of all, the paradise was them. They played with the cat every day. They had given him a home. They had given him love. They had given him a family.
"I always wanted a family." said Lavender a few weeks later, while Tiger was napping on his cat tree. Parvati knew this, Lavender used to talk about all the children she'd bear, and then about all the children they'd adopt, even during the war, but after the Battle she had abruptly ceased. She knew why, even if Lavender never said before then. "You know this. And thank you for not bringing it up." She smiled sadly. "Nobody will ever let a werewolf adopt a child. And even if they did, because we have so much time, maybe it will change, they would treat the child badly. I would not inflict that on a child."
Parvati hugged her, her heart clenched. She hadn't wanted a family as bad as Lavender had; she wasn't against having children, but not having them wasn't a tragedy for her.
For Lavender, it was. She was crying a little, softly, in Parvati's arm.
"Still, I... I think for now, I have found my family. I have you, and I have my cat-child." She laughed through tears, and Parvati's heart slowly unclenched, even as she was gripping Lavender tightly. "It is more than I thought I would ever have, since that day. Thank you."
"You never have to thank me. You're my love. You're more than enough for me."
Six months later...
Parvati picked up the discarded robe and smoothed it out. Another customer had ran out when he remembered that she was affiliated with a werewolf. It happened less and less often these days, because people already knew and not because they got over it she supposed. At least it happened less. And she made more sales than not. She was starting to turn up a profit, with her and Lavender's designs.
One day, she was sure, Lavender would come sell at the shop with her. Everyone already knew. And she disliked the idea of serving customers who wouldn't tolerate being served by Lavender.
But for now, life was good. She had her shop, she had her family.
She realized, she knew it would turn out all right the moment she saw Lavender wasn't dead after all. As long as they were together, they could overcome.
"Hey Parvati... Let's paint your nails?" She got out a nail polish bottle. It was pink. "I was thinking, I'd like sparkly pink."
Parvati smiled and took the bottle from her lover's hand.