A/N: So this is me expanding on something I commented in the /r/Slytherin subreddit. Since it was never confirmed in the books that Lavender Brown died- just the movies showed that, in the books it said she was injured and never confirmed a death, so.- I am just gonna pretend she did not die, and I am gonna go ahead and make things a little gay here.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Pretty

When they were in school, they were inseparable. Sure, Padma was in their group. They were all best friends. But there was just something special between Parvati and Lavender. They were friends for life, and they knew it from the start. Lavender was selfish and wild, brave in an odd way that didn't get as much notice as most bravery did. Parvati was a different sort of brave, and she wasn't quite as mean, but they fit. Even when Lavender dated Ron, and Parvati got to know a wildly jealous side to the girl.

She only saw that jealousy one other time. When Parvati dated a boy from Beauxbatons, and Lavender constantly whined about him stealing her best friend.

When the war began, Parvati helped Lavender when she could. She's try to distract the Carrow's from any trouble Lavender made. Parvati underwent the Cruciatus curse many times in Lavender's place.

Lavender wasn't selfish enough to be okay with that.

Then came the final battle. Parvati found Lavender lied out on a cot, barely breathing. Someone had mistook her for dead. Parvati nearly killed them.

Lavender lived. She had scars- they all did- but she lived. Parvati made sure of that much.

After the war Parvati decided she was going to help Lavender recover. Greyback had scarred her face when he attacked her. Lavender had been a vain little girl. She did not do well for a very long time after her wounds healed and she realized she would not be pretty again.

Parvati 'Prettiest Girl in Our Year' Patil did not tolerate Lavender's hatred of her face. She was constantly reminding Lavender that she was still beautiful, even with the scars, and informing her quietly, in the dead of night when Lavender's crying was bearly audible, that nobody would judge her if she eats her steaks a little rare. (If they did, they would not do so again. Parvati knew spells that she shouldn't.)

'If all was well,' Lavender would say sometimes, 'My face would be fine. You wouldn't wake up reaching for your wand, and I wouldn't wake up with tears already running down my cheeks.'

Things weren't all well, and Parvati wasn't reaching for her wand. Not always.

When she saw Lavender on that cot, she thought her best friend was dead.

Whenever Lavender can't get out of bed, Parvati brought her tea and read her fashion magazines because some things don't change. After the tea, they would sit, trying to read the leaves. Searching for their future in a world that seemed determined to destroy it. But Parvati wasn't always the strong one.

Sometimes she'd be stuck in bed, trembling and remembering how certain she was that her closest friend had died at the hands of Fenrir Greyback. Those days were the ones where Lavender would sit there, rubbing circles on Parvati's back and reminding her that it's over, they both lived. That all is well.

They don't even realize they've fallen in love until a few years later. They'd bought a flat together as friends after graduating, just like they'd whispered about when they were eleven and the boys were still mostly gross things. Lavender became a nurse at St. Mungo's and Parvati became an Auror.

She wasn't going to let something like the last war happen again.

When Parvati accidentally kissed Lavender on the cheek on her way to work one morning, it finally hit them. This was no longer friendship.

It didn't really get easier after that.

People don't really change that much. They grow up, sure, and learn to be good, most of the time, but both girls still had moments where they would the wrong thing. Lavender was still selfish and Parvati still impatient. Sometimes they'd fight, like the time Lavender lost someone at the hospital and spent her paycheck on shopping to feel better. That one scared the neighbors so badly that they called up to see if everything was okay. After that, the girls cast a silencing spell on the flat.

Once, after Parvati called her a selfish child, Lavender broke half the dishes with a well aimed spell. They were cleaning up glass for days, and they switched to paper plates after that. They had to make little adjustments like that sometimes, because life was hard, and it's good to try and make it easier.

But even with the fights- which always ended with crying and making up- they were happy. Some days they wouldn't leave the flat. They'd just cuddle up together on the couch, watching muggle movies and drinking tea.

'If all was well,' Lavender doesn't say, 'you and I wouldn't have nights where we scream at each other because we're too scared to let things be okay. We wouldn't have to live in a war zone to feel alright.'

But things weren't all well, and sometimes Parvati needed to argue with Lavender just to prove that they were both there. They had both made it.

One day, a few years down the road, they've gone and gotten engaged. They were out shopping for some potions ingredients when they ran into Ron and Hemione. Lavender smiled at him, the scars on her face barely tugging now. Ron looked nervous for a second, probably remembering her attachment to him, but then Parvati swooped in, her hand slipping into Lavenders and her lips brushing across hers in greeting, and Ron looked completely confused.

Hermione smiled at them and then dragged Ron away to explain things to him before he could embarrass himself. He would've.

Lavender thinks she might invite him to her wedding. Hermione might not have the fashion sense to get a good gift, but she was much nicer to Lavender than she deserved after all those years of bullying.

Later, curled up in bed together, Parvati was whispering to Lavender about how pretty she was, and Lavender realized how rarely she said it back.

Lavender told her, spent ten minutes on how perfect and beautiful Parvati is and has always been- the prettiest in their year-, and Parvati smiled at her, playing with a curl that had fallen across Lavender's face.

"I love you."

And Lavender did not say 'If all was well' because she did not have to.

Even with a war on their shoulders, trying to crush them, they had each other. They could bear it.

Lavender doesn't have to say 'if' anymore.

All is well.