A/N: This is a sweet fic about Lavender Brown after the Battle of Hogwarts, assuming she lived and was not turned into a werewolf by Greyback's attack. Let me know if you liked it!
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling.
Lavender Brown, after the Second Wizarding War, was completely fine. She had long, jagged scars crisscrossing over her face and body after Greyback's attack, but that could be fixed with a few simple concealment charms or heavy makeup. She was fine; after all, she was healthy and hadn't lost any of her family members to gruesome deaths at the hands of Death Eaters.
Like she said, she was fine. After You-Know-Who was gone, she cut the magic from her life, snipping it away piece by piece until she was a twenty-five year old schoolteacher for Muggle children in rural northern England outside of Carlisle, miles and miles away from Hogwarts. She hadn't spoken to any of her friends from Hogwarts, or any magical person for that matter, in years. It was just the way she liked it. It was peaceful, simple, and, most importantly, magic-free.
Monday morning, Lavender showered, blow-dried her hair, and then layered on her makeup like usual. It was much less work to wear a concealment charm or two, but she'd locked her wand away in her basement and hadn't touched it in two years.
Her hair was shorn close to her head now, in a loose pixie cut, and she had dyed it a deep brown to hide her blonde hair; she didn't want anyone from her past life to recognise her. She had long since put her magical life to the side, and she would prefer to keep it that way. She carried a scarlet leather satchel to the school every day, filled with papers and other items for her children, and today, as he climbed atop her bike to ride to the schoolhouse, she slung the satchel across her purple sundress and started to pedal. It was normal in the tiny town of Daisy Hedge not to own a car, for everything was within biking distance. It was a quaint, little town, and the ride to the school was barely seven minutes long.
This time, as she was locking her bike, she heard a low growl behind her, and a nauseating shiver washed over her. She turned around slowly, but it only heightened her terror, for the growl grew louder.
She could see the sound was coming from a dog now, a large brown one with pointy ears, but all she could see was Greyback and his bloodstained mouth. The dog was at the end of a thick blue leash, but that didn't matter to Lavender. The growl vibrated through her chest and—
—she whirled around, clutching her wand. "Stupefy!" she screamed, light bursting from her wand, but the Death Eater only dodged her spell.
"Expelliarmus!" he snarled, and her wand flew from her fingers. "Petrificus Totalus!"
To her horror, her limbs snapped to her sides, and she dropped to the ground like a stone.
Her Death Eater attacker was half-man, half-wolf, but the grin he gave her was more monstrous than that of any werewolf. His white face was smeared with scarlet, and he ran his tongue across his canine-like teeth, chuckling softly. "You're a pretty bird," he growled, his voice low and threatening. He tilted his head. "Tell me, how do you taste?"
He tucked his wand away, dropped to all fours like a wolf, and lunged—
—and she jerked awake, terrified. She had to get away from him, she had to escape, where was her wand—
"Hey, ma'am, everything's okay!" There was a man standing before her, approaching slowly, and she scooted back, panic racing through her bones, grabbing for the nearest object to use as a weapon. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you, I swear. Are you okay?" His accent was blatantly American, not any sort of British, which made Lavender relax a little. He couldn't be a Death Eater. And as she took in her surroundings, she realized that she was in a Muggle hospital, and her fingers began to unclench. "I'm so, so sorry, ma'am, Kaya doesn't act aggressively towards anyone! I don't know what got into her, but I promise you…"
His voice trailed off in her mind, and she blinked, clutching the pillow as though it would stabilize her. "Who?"
She had interrupted him, and now she regretted it. She fiddled with her hair, trying to distract herself. "My dog," he explained. "Kaya's my dog. The one who barked at you? I'm so sorry about that. She's really very sweet."
Lavender shivered. She didn't want to think about dogs anymore. "What happened?"
The man slid his chair closer to her, blushing a little. "Um… When Kaya saw you, she went a little nuts, and when you heard her, you kinda…" He made some odd gestures to try to explain the situation. "...passed out. You hit your head pretty hard on the way down, so…"
She rubbed her aching head, but she was still on high alert. "How long was I out?"
The man's hair was dark like ink, and his skin was a light russet color. She'd never seen someone who looked quite like him. His eyes were dark, almost black, but his face portrayed so much emotion that he was an open book. "Just a few hours. It's almost two o'clock now."
Lavender Brown sat up straight. "My students!" She had missed nearly the entire school day. She threw the blanket from over her and tossed her legs over the bed, wincing.
The dark-haired man stood, hands up. "Don't worry about them. We got a sub for you." He smiled. "Now stay in bed, Miss Brown; otherwise, the nurse will come in and strangle me for letting you get up."
Miss Brown. She frowned. "How do you know my name?"
He gave her a quirky half-smile. "My kids go to Daisy Elementary. Kele's in kindergarten, and Muna's in second grade. I've heard about you through the grapevine."
Through the grapevine. What an odd American saying. "Okay." She leaned back against the pillows. "Well, you don't have to call me Miss Brown. I'm not your teacher. I'm Lavender."
"I'm Ahote Quochytewa," he stated, shaking her hand.
That name was a mouthful. "Ku…che…ta..."
"Quochytewa," he repeated. "Don't worry about the pronunciation. You'll get it eventually." He winked; Lavender blushed. "Everyone does. It's nice to meet you, Lavender."
As it turned out, she did have to worry about the pronunciation of his last name, because Ahote came to her house a couple of weeks later, gripping a bouquet of gorgeous lavender flowers and blushing furiously. "Hi," he said. They'd been talking for a while, watching his kids play on the playground after school let out, but he'd never come to her home before.
Lavender felt something inside of her shift. "Hi," she said, leaning against the doorframe. She glanced around for Ahote's dog, Kaya, but she was nowhere to be found.
Ahote rubbed the back of his neck, sheepish. "Uh… I just wanted to apologize. Again. Just for everything that happened. With my dog."
Lavender propped open the door with her foot, tilting her head to listen to him.
"And I just…" He changed his grip on the flowers, trying to gesture and hold them at the same time. "Look, I haven't done this in a while. My wife" —Lavender glanced down at his bare ring finger— "passed away just after Kele was born, and since then, it's been hard for me to look at other women, let alone ask one out." He suppressed a smile. "Anyway… That's why I'm here. To ask you. Out, I mean. You're so funny and sweet, Lavender, and you always make me feel… Jesus, I feel like a teenager." He held out the flowers to her. "So, do you?" He cleared his throat. "Want to? Go on a date with me?"
Lavender had been smiling for so long that her cheeks ached. "Yes, of course!"
After a few preliminary dates, Lavender learned a lot about Ahote Quochytewa. He was an American, from the Hopi tribe. He was only three years older than her, and he'd moved here after his wife died and his daughter was born. He didn't like talking about his wife a whole lot, but it was clear that his love for her would never pass. He'd lived in Daisy Hedge for five years. His children, Muna and Kele, were complete opposites. Muna, the oldest, was a second grader with a fiery spirit and a desire to compete with everything that moved. Kele, the kindergartner, was a sweet, quiet boy who spent most of his time reading and drawing. Ahote, Muna, and Kele also lived with Ahote's sister, Yoki, a carpenter who was fiercely protective of her family.
As Lavender spent more and more time with Ahote and his children, she expected Yoki to grow cold with her, but instead the Hopi woman seemed to relax. She taught Lavender how to cook some of their native foods and even encouraged her to stay. "My brother," she said, pulling Lavender aside, "has not been this happy since he came to England. It's so nice to finally see a smile on his face." She grew stern. "You make him happy, Lavender. If you mess this up, I'll kill you myself."
By the time they had dated for six months, she spent more time at the Quochytewa's home than she did her own. Usually, when she came, they put Kaya in the basement, or Yoki took her out for a long walk. But one afternoon, when Lavender returned from school with the children, Ahote was standing outside, Yoki holding Kaya at his side.
Lavender froze, even as Muna and Kele sprinted towards the dog and hugged her with all of their might. "A-Ahote?" she stammered. She could feel every hair on her body rise. Her voice came out strangled.
"Don't worry, Lavender," said her boyfriend. "It'll be okay. Kaya's never hurt anyone, I swear."
Lavender's blue eyes met Kaya's black ones. The dog dipped into a low growl, and her head exploded with—
—his growl, and his claws tore into the skin of her chest with a mighty fervor. His face slid up and down her neck, sniffing like a dog. He pinned her beneath him, and his teeth, unusually sharp, glinted before her unblinking eyes.
Terror shook every part of her, but the spell rendered her motionless. His right hand rose to touch her face, and his claw sliced down the side of her cheek. He chuckled, his voice sickening and deep. Blood trickled into her ear. "Pretty bird, pretty bird…" He pressed her soft, blonde curls against his face and inhaled deeply, tracing his nose down the curve of her throat. "Give me that lovely scream."
He released her from the body-binding curse, and then tore his claws down the delicate skin of her face, growling and slashing and—
"Lavender!"
It was Ahote. His voice was soothing, like a steaming mug of tea. "Lavender, honey, don't be afraid." When his hands touched her, all she could feel was his claws scraping up her arm and tearing across her collarbone, blood spilling from the fresh wound, and she flinched violently away from him, squeezing her eyes shut. Ahote shushed her, taking her into his arms as gently as he could, as though he was holding an infant. "It's just me, it's just me… I'm here, Lavender. You're safe here, I promise. You're safe." The rhythmic repetition of his calming words alleviated some of Lavender's panic, and she felt her heartbeat ease a little. He tucked a short strand of her dark hair behind her ear and held her close. For the first time in a long time, Lavender Brown felt safe.
That afternoon, she went back to her home for the rest of the day. Ahote made her feel loved and safe, but what in Merlin's name was she thinking? What if they went further in their relationship? She couldn't layer on pounds of makeup every single day to cover up all of her scars if they were married. She laid in her bed, pondering her relationship with Ahote as the ceiling fan whirred above her. Merlin's beard, she couldn't do this. She couldn't force him to get rid of the dog, she couldn't put him through the horrors of her past, and she couldn't stay with him. She sighed and went into her small bathroom to wash the makeup from her face.
Lavender Brown wet a washcloth and wiped at her face. Clumps of foundation and concealer came off with each stroke of the cloth until finally her marred skin was free. There were scars from Fenrir Greyback's horrid claws running down most of the left side of her face, each one slashing through another. She'd counted; there were twelve individual raised lines scarring her face, not to mention infinite others on her arms, and torso. She didn't like to look at those. Honestly, one of the reasons she'd move so far north was so she'd almost never have to wear summer clothing that bared her arms or back.
She'd never grow used to the way her skin looked. How her skin felt. Even when Ahote kissed her, she kept his hands over her clothing, unable to feel the horrors that marked her. They'd gone further, of course, but she kept most of her clothes on nonetheless. Even when he'd encouraged her, telling her everything was fine, she'd insisted.
She knew that he knew about her scars. He was still unaware of the specifics, thank Merlin, but he knew that something lurked beneath her sweater that she was terrified to show him. Every time they slept together, she slipped away before he woke up to reapply her makeup.
So when he knocked on her door around nine o'clock that evening, she felt her deepest fear swallow her whole. She got up from her position on the bathroom tile, knowing she didn't have time to reapply all of her makeup, and went to the door. He could see her muted form shift from behind the frosted glass windows straddling the doorframe. She touched her face, tracing her finger down a lone scar, unnervingly self-conscious. "Lavender?" she heard. It was Ahote, of course. She could see his bike from the window, tossed aside on her porch. He knocked again. "Lavender, I can see you. Can I come in? Please?"
The odd thing was that Ahote had a key, but he knew how uncomfortable it would make her if he barged into her house without asking first. "I think—" Lavender's voice broke. She cleared her throat to hide her overwhelming sense of vulnerability. "I think it'd be better if you stayed outside."
His disappointed sigh, even through the door, broke her heart. "Lavender," he said. When he said her name, it always sounded the way ice cream would taste. "Talk to me."
Her throat ached with guilt; she bit her lip to keep tears from springing from her eyes. "I can't."
"Tell me what's wrong, honey." She could hear the distress in his voice. "Please, please, just talk to me."
Lavender just wanted to feel Ahote's arms around her one last time, but all she could do was sob somewhat quietly from the other side of the door, muffling her hiccups with her hand.
"Honey, if this is about the dog, I swear I didn't mean to hurt you or scare you or anything. I just thought maybe if you could see how the dog was around the kids, then maybe you'd see she wasn't so bad." A grunt of frustration. "Jesus, I'm so stupid. I'm sorry. That was a bad idea, and I'm sorry. Look, between you and the dog, I pick you every day of the week. Kaya's just a dog. You're the woman I love."
Love. Merlin's beard. Lavender cried harder.
"God, I didn't mean to make you upset. I just—" He muttered to himself trying to figure out what to say. "Lavender, honey, I love you. All I want is for you to be happy and safe, and I understand that you can't do that with the dog in the house. She'll be gone, okay? And I know…" She could see him pacing before the door, appearing in one window panel and then the other. "I know that you have things you don't want to talk about. I know that you're scared. But you gotta know that I love you, honey, no matter how you look." Merlin, he knew. He knew. "Just let me in, please."
Lavender Brown unlocked the door and cracked it open, gazing upon her lover's face. He wiped his sleeve across his eyes, spinning around to face her, and she tugged her own sleeves over her hands. Once she opened the door, there was no turning back. He would see her, truly.
Lavender swallowed hard and pushed the door all the way open. "Hi," he said. His brown face was red from where he'd rubbed his tears away.
"Hi," she said, staring down at her welcome mat. Her heart pummeled her ribs. Her skin was naked, no makeup and no concealment charms, and he stared at her as though seeing her in a new light.
"Lavender," he said, and she turned around and rushed into the house, curling her arms around her. "Lavender!" She kept running, as though she could outrun the fact that he now knew her darkest secret. "Lavender, wait!" She stopped outside her bedroom door, where he'd been dozens of times, turning her body around to face him. Yet still she could not meet his eyes. "Honey, please just look at me."
Her rebellious eyes drifted to his, and his broad shoulders relaxed. He was wearing a pair of dark jeans and a navy hoodie, and his black hair was messy. His face was smooth, pristine, unmarred…
She couldn't seem to stop crying, so he sat her on the bed, taking her hand in his and interlacing their fingers. With his other hand, he touched her face, grazing his fingers over her cheek, then her jaw, then over her mouth. "You're beautiful," he told her, so she pushed his hand away. "No, Lavender, it's true. These scars don't make you any less beautiful, honey. They show me you've survived." He kissed her forehead, gingerly tracing her scars with his fingertips.
That untouchable, broken seventeen-year-old girl inside of her uncoiled from her tight ball of shame and cried.
He kissed her mouth now, his soft lips and hands caressing her, and all of a sudden, he pulled away, the spot between his eyebrows a concerned wrinkle. "Lavender, what did this to you?"
What was she supposed to do, tell a Muggle that she'd been attacked by the werewolf minion of a magical murderer? "Dog," she said, praying he would believe her.
To her surprise, Ahote shook his head. "I'm from the Hopi tribe," he explained, "and I lived in Arizona for twenty-two years of my life. I know what wolf attacks look like, honey, and this isn't it." He closed his eyes for a moment, and Lavender held her breath. "What did this to you?"
"A dog, I—"
"Please don't lie to me, Lavender." She expected him to be irritated, but he only seemed to get sadder. "Let me rephrase my question. Who did this to you?"
Her heart sunk like a stone in her chest. "Wh-what?"
"Lavender, you used to flinch when I got close to you." Lavender tried to pull her hands away, but Ahote held fast. "When I touched you, you acted like I was going to hurt you. It's not just the dog, honey. I know it's something else."
She shook her head, disobedient tears running down her cheeks. "You don't understand…"
"Then help me understand. Tell me what happened."
"I can't, I can't…" She sniffled hard, trying to compose herself. "It's impossible to explain, Ahote, I-I—" She hiccuped. "I love you so, so much, and I wish I could tell you, but I can't. I can't."
Suddenly, Ahote sat back, and Lavender watched as the gears in his mind whirred. His expression relaxed with understanding. "It's okay, honey." He took her into his arms and held her, pouring his love for her into his embrace. "It'll be okay. I understand." He stroked her hair and kissed her sweetly. "I understand. When you're ready, you can tell me." He shushed her sobs and kissed her tears away until her hiccups faded.
And this time, when Ahote's hand slid across the vulnerable skin of her waist, Lavender Brown did not stop him. She kissed him harder.
And a couple years later, when Ahote asked her to marry him, there was not a doubtful bone in her body. She said yes immediately. Muna and Kele squealed with delight upon hearing the news, and Kele ran around the house screaming, "Miss Brown's my mommy, Miss Brown's my mommy!"
Lavender Brown, after the War, was completely fine.
She was better than fine.
In fact, she was happier than she'd ever been.
A/N: Thanks for reading!
Challenges used:
Character Diversity Boot Camp - #42 (funny), Lavender Brown
Original Character Boot Camp - #1 (deep), Ahote Quochytewa
Favorite House Boot Camp - #31 (cry), Gryffindor
Are You Crazy Enough To Do It Challenge - #544 (first love)
If You Dare Challenge - #793 (werewolf's bite)
Build A Zoo Challenge - Dolphins (Lavender Brown)
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry - Psychology (Task 5) - Write about an adult fearing something because of a childhood experience.
Gris-Gris Bag Station - Lavender Brown, ashamed, scarlet, broken, bicycle
Fanfiction Writing Month: October [3499]
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