One year, two months, twenty-seven days, and six hours.
That's how long it had been since Parvati Patil had seen her best friend.
In the aftermath of the war, in all of the chaos, it had taken a long time to count the dead. To make lists of who was gone, and who was merely missing, and who had survived. Parvati had searched the halls of Hogwarts for Lavender in vain.
She was nowhere to be found.
Lavender Brown's name had gone on a very short list of the missing-and-presumed-dead; it wasn't like the Death Eaters had been taking prisoners, and Parvati had already asked everyone who might know anything.
"I'm sorry, Parvati," Draco had told her. "I don't know anything. I can ask my mother, but I doubt she was taken captive."
Parvati had nodded sadly. "I knew it was a long shot."
"What's up?" Harry had asked, leaving Ron and Hermione over by the crumbled remains of the staircase in the entrance hall and coming over to join them.
"Lavender…" Parvati began. Draco finished for her.
"Apparently, no one's seen her since the battle."
"I saw her," Harry had said. "It was- Merlin, I can't remember. During the battle, definitely. Ron, Hermione, and I were fighting our way out to the courtyard, and we passed her… She was alive, but injured. Fenrir Greyback was about to attack her."
"Oh god," Parvati had wept. "Was she ok?"
"Trelawney saved her," Harry had said. "Dropped a crystal ball on Greyback's head. I can't say for certain, but I think it killed him. We recovered the body later- Greyback's, I mean."
Parvati had thanked them, and Harry and his boyfriend had left.
Over a year later, Parvati hadn't stopped looking.
Almost everyone else had turned up- some had been injured and passed out in hidden corners, some had been found dead, a few more had fled and taken their time returning. But not Lavender.
Which was why Parvati was here. The Forest of Dean. She'd spent the last year scouring every hiding place in the country, anywhere Lavender could have gone or been taken.
She hadn't gone alone, at first. Harry and the others had helped when they could. But gradually, it became clear that Lavender was probably dead, and the others had advised Parvati to move on.
She couldn't. Lavender was her best friend.
Parvati waved her wand, and her tent flew from her bag and landed, fully assembled in midair, on the ground. It wasn't a Wizarding tent- just an ordinary Muggle one. Lavender would have laughed to see it.
"Honestly, Parvati," Padma said. "I don't understand you at all. Get a normal tent."
Padma was the only one who still came, whenever Parvati found another dark corner or abandoned building to check.
"This is a normal tent," Parvati said. "For Muggles, at least."
"We're not Muggles," Padma reminded her. "Come on, let's get some sleep. We'll search in the morning, when there's more light."
Parvati nodded numbly and climbed into the tent, leaving her sister to construct her three-bedroom, four-bathroom monstrosity. With a hot tub.
o-o-o-o-o
Lavender was watching through the trees.
Parvati. It was really her.
Lavender had assumed that everyone had stopped looking for her months ago. Even her best friend.
Not that it mattered. Lavender could never go home.
But it did matter, if Parvati kept wasting her life like this. Looking for Lavender. It was pointless.
Lavender glanced up at the sky, at the three-quarter moon high above. Tomorrow, maybe the next night. She didn't have long. And if Parvati and Padma were anywhere near her, she'd need to get as far away as possible.
She wished she could Apparate. But Lavender had never passed her test, and she didn't have a wand, anyway. She assumed she'd lost it in the battle, but she honestly didn't know. Anything could have happened to it.
Lavender didn't remember much about that night. She remembered staying to fight. She remembered casting hexes and jinxes at Death Eaters in the Entrance Hall. She remembered seeing the werewolf.
She remembered that werewolf lunging for her, and the pain of his teeth ripping into her arm. She'd been able to cast a jinx at him, sending him flying backwards, before she collapsed.
When she'd woken up, everything had been quiet. The faint murmur of voices from the entrance hall, and the sound of footsteps, had driven her out the oak front doors and across the Great Lawn, taking refuge in the Forbidden Forest.
She'd known what she was. The full moon was shining above Hogwarts, and the bite on her arm was still oozing blood.
She'd run.
Better that everyone think her dead. Better that they assume she was a coward, then die at her hand in a month.
She'd been right. She'd taken refuge in the Forest of Dean, set up a camp, taught herself to survive alone, in the wilderness, and without a wand.
She'd never get far enough to keep them safe. Parvati and Padma. She'd be faster, stronger. Much faster and stronger than her human self. She couldn't cover enough distance.
Not without a wand.
Lavender crouched in the bushes, waiting. She felt bad for what she was about to do, but she didn't have mush choice. Wands could be replaced. They'd be able to leave by Side-Along Apparition, and there wasn't much out here that they could need protection from.
Well. Except her.
Lavender waited until the moon was directly overhead before she crept into the camp.
To her surprise, when she pushed the tent flap aside, it was an ordinary Muggle contraption. The same size on the inside as it appeared on the outside. Lavender almost snorted with laughter.
Parvati was fast asleep, laying on an ordinary Muggle bedroll. Her wand was clutched tightly in her fist.
Lavender reached for her best friend's hand, prying the wand from her fingers.
Parvati's eyes opened.
"Lav?" she whispered.
Lavender grabbed the wand and ran. She heard Parvati crashing out of the tent and following her.
Lavender would have Apparated, but she didn't trust herself to get it right in a stressful situation. She was in good shape from her… year? Had it been a year? in the wilderness, so she ran.
And then Padma Apparated right in front of her.
o-o-o-o-o
Parvati skidded to a halt behind Lavender.
"Lav?" she asked again. "Is it really you?"
Lavender looked back and forth between Parvati and her twin, shaking. "Hey," Parvati said. "It's ok, Lavender." She reached for her friend, and Lavender flinched back.
She was wearing a torn set of Hogwarts robes- quite possible the same ones she'd been wearing on the day of the battle. Her hair had been chopped short and ragged, and she was clutching Parvati's wand.
"Can I have that back?" Parvati asked. And finally, Lavender spoke.
"No," she rasped, her voice rusty from disuse.
"Lavender. What happened to you?" Parvati stepped toward her friend, and this time, Lavender allowed it.
"Why are you here, Parvati?"
Parvati blinked in shock. "To find you. To bring you home," she said.
Lavender laughed, but the sound was short and bitter. "Don't bother. I can't go with you."
"Why-" Parvati started to ask, but Padma stopped her.
"Parvati," she said. "Isn't it obvious?"
"No, not really," Parvati snapped. "Why don't you want to come home?" she demanded, turning to face her best friend. "We've been looking for you for over a year now, you know."
"I know," Lavender said softly. "But Padma's right. I can't- I'm not- I have to stay here."
"What happened to you?" Parvati insisted. "Why did you leave during the battle?" She tried to step closer again, but this time, Padma pulled her back. Lavender glared at her, brown eyes flashing.
"I'm not dangerous now."
"Better safe than sorry," Padma said, sounding almost apologetic.
"Padma, what are you doing?" Parvati demanded. "Lavender, why-"
Lavender pushed up her left sleeve.
Parvati gasped in horror.
Twin crescent moon scars arced across her bicep, the skin raised and jagged. Bite marks.
And Parvati understood.
"You're a werewolf," she whispered, heartbroken.
Lavender winced, and Parvati knew she was right.
"Greyback?" Parvati demanded, but she didn't have to ask. It made sense. It fit right in with Harry's story, and it definitely explained why Lavender had stayed away for the past year. Lavender nodded anyway.
"Look, Lavender," Padma said. "I understand; I really do. But there are other options, you know."
"There aren't," Lavender whispered. "I'm too dangerous. I can't be near people, can't know where to find them. It's happened before. I've killed before. The only thing that could help is Wolfsbane, and that's not even… I mean, look at what happened to Professor Lupin!"
"Professor Lupin," Padma said, "Would not have advised this, I don't think. Living alone. Hiding for the rest of your life"
"Please come home, Lav," Parvati begged. "We can find a way for you to be safe. Please. Everyone misses you."
Lavender shook her head. "You both need to leave. The full moon's tomorrow. Get as far from this place as you can. Just tell me this one thing." Lavender clenched her hands into fists. "The battle. How many? And who?"
Parvati knew what her friend was asking.
"Fifty," she murmured. "And… no one you knew well, I don't think. Except for Professor Lupin. And Fred Weasley."
Lavender buried her face in her hands, shoulders shaking. "Everyone else is ok?" Her voice was muffled.
"Yeah… I mean…" Parvati trailed off. "Please come home, Lavender."
"I can't," she whispered. "Goodbye, Parvati." Then she turned, and was gone.
o-o-o-o-o
Parvati would have gone after Lavender that day, but Padma held her back.
Padma Apparated back to the camp site, packed up with magic, and took Parvati from there to Ollivanders to get a new wand.
From there, Padma took her twin to number twelve, Grimmauld Place.
After the War, there had been a lot of students who didn't have anywhere to go, or who didn't want to return to their parents (either because those parents were Death Eaters, or because they were Muggles, and the student in question didn't want to leave the Wizarding World at such a crucial moment). So Harry had opened the house up to any Hogwarts student or Order member who needed a place to stay.
Padma knocked at the front door, and Luna Lovegood opened it.
"Padma!" she said, stepping out of the doorway. "Hello! Any luck, then?"
"Sort of," Padma said. "Look, can you help Parvati? She's in a bit of shock." Sure enough, Parvati was sweating and trembling, holding on to the doorframe.
"Of course," Luna said, pulling Parvati's arm over her shoulders and helping the other girl up the stairs. Padma strode down the hall to the kitchen.
Harry and the others had put hours into turning the old house into a proper home. No longer was the place cluttered with Dark artifacts and infested with doxies and boggarts; now, bright tapestries covered the walls, and the kitchen had been outfitted with modern appliances (and plumbing. The whole house had working plumbing. It was amazing).
The kitchen was lit with cheerful electric bulbs, casting a soft glow over the polished wooden table and gleaming racks of pots and pans. An ancient House-elf was laboring over a casserole dish at the counter, and seven people were sitting around the table- about half of the house's permanent residents.
Harry, Draco, Ron, Hermione, Pansy, Theo, and Blaise were looking over a stack of parchment, discussing something in low voices, but they all looked up when Padma entered the room.
"Any luck?" It was a standard question.
"Yes, actually. Harry, Draco, I need to speak with you. Urgently." Looking baffled, the two boys followed Padma upstairs to the drawing room.
"Lavender's a werewolf," Padma said, skipping the preamble. "We found her in the Forest of Dean, right before she ran off."
"Merlin," Harry said. "I guess if you find her again-"
"Yes," Padma said. "I know you have some put away- for Teddy, just in case. I need it."
Harry and Draco exchanged a long look. Draco nodded and ducked out of the room.
Harry and Padma waited in silence for a few minutes, until Draco came back into the room, holding a leather satchel. He handed it to Padma.
"Thank you," she said.
"Don't mention it. We want Lavender to be safe," Draco said.
"I can't believe she's alive," Harry muttered. "I thought for sure… She shouldn't have survived that, but I'm glad she did."
"We all are," Padma said. "The hard part is finding her again. And convincing her to come home. I won't lie, werewolves make me nervous. But if she takes Wolfsbane, there's no reason…"
No one knew what to say after that, so the three teenagers just stood there for a moment, in a silence that was neither awkward nor comforting.
"Where will you look?" Draco asked finally.
"I don't know," Padma admitted. "Searching every inch of the country isn't going to work, but I don't see that we've got much choice."
o-o-o-o-o
They didn't have much choice, so that's exactly what they did.
Padma and Parvati were back to camping out in woods, fields, beaches, towns… Everywhere and anywhere a teenage werewolf might be. Parvati was hardly surprised by their lack of luck.
She wasn't a fan of her new wand, either. It had been made for her, but it just wasn't the same.
"There's got to be an easier way to do this," she complained to Padma one night, crawling into the tent after her twin. "We're never going to find her."
"We will," Padma said, wiggling into her sleeping bag. "We just have to… keep looking."
"It's been two months. And we're coming up on another full moon," Parvati pointed out.
Padma fixed Parvati with a stony glare. "I'm doing my best, you know."
Parvati sighed in defeat. "I know."
o-o-o-o-o
After Padma had fallen asleep, Parvati pushed herself out of the tent, into the cool air outside.
Parvati wasn't sure they'd be able to find her best friend again, even if they combed every inch of the country. Lavender had a wand now, and she could easily blend in with the crowds in London, or hide out in some remote woods, or even leave Britain altogether.
The only way they were ever going to find Lavender was if she wanted to be found.
Parvati raised her wand, concentrated on her best friend, and cast a spell.
The silver shape that erupted from her wand had changed. Parvati hadn't needed to cast a Patronus since the battle, and in the time since, it had become a sleek, silver wolf.
Of course it had.
Parvati whispered a few words and sent it on its way.
o-o-o-o-o
Hundreds of miles away, in the depths of the Forbidden Forest, Lavender watched the Patronus approach.
She listened to the message, and crawled back into the rudimentary shelter she'd made for herself.
Five minutes later, she climbed back out of the structure and made her way to the edge of the grounds- to where she could Apparate.
o-o-o-o-o
Harry was sitting on the sofa in the drawing room, staring morosely at the glass-fronted cabinets and thinking about his godfather, when the door swung open.
Draco sat down next to Harry, careful not to spill either of the two cups of tea he was carrying.
"Thanks," Harry said, reaching for a mug.
Draco turned the full force of his piercing grey eyes on Harry, who sighed, sipping his tea and leaning against his boyfriend's shoulder. "I'm fine."
"Were you thinking about Sirius?"
"Yeah." Harry briefly reflected on the fact that it should no longer surprise him, how well Draco knew him. They'd been together since before the war had ended, they'd been through so much, and yet every time Draco knew what Harry was thinking, or what he needed, without being told, Harry fell a little more in love with the other boy.
"I wish I'd known him."
"Me, too. I actually think you two would have fought more than anything, but…" Both Draco and Harry laughed. Harry drained his mug of tea and placed it on the table next to Draco's, turning to face him.
They had just started kissing when the door flew open again. Blaise was standing there, one hand over his eyes.
"Everyone decent?"
Draco moved just slightly away from Harry. "We're busy, Blaise."
"Snog later. Lavender Brown's standing in the courtyard. She can't see us, 'cause of the Fidelius Charm, but…"
Harry gave a resigned sigh, but separated himself from Draco. "I guess we'd better let her in."
o-o-o-o-o
Harry went out to talk to Lavender, while Draco send Parvati and Padma another Patronus message.
In short order, Lavender was brought into the house, given a cup of hot tea, and sat down at the kitchen table. Ron, who was lingering in the doorway with Hermione, frowned at his ex-girlfriend.
"Are we sure it's her? I mean, could be a Death Eater using Polyjuice, couldn't it? Wouldn't be the first time."
"She knew that the "thing she was dreading" on October sixteenth our third year was supposedly the death of her rabbit," Harry said. Hermione scoffed. Draco couldn't help but notice that she seemed to be at war with herself- relieved that Lavender was ok, or jealous over the presence of her boyfriend's ex?
"That was completely unnecessary, Harry. She's a werewolf. The Polyjuice potion is for human transformations only."
"Yeah… Well, I…" Harry sputtered. "Doesn't matter now, does it?" It was all Draco could do not to laugh.
"Are you alright, Lavender?" Luna asked. She was hovering in the doorway, looking mildly concerned with her wand tucked behind her ear. "Your aura is strange."
"I've always said she'd make a great Divination professor," Blaise muttered. Draco gave him a light shove.
"Not the time, Blaise."
Lavender looked up from her mug of tea. "I'm ok."
"How did you find us?" Harry asked, fingers absentmindedly curling around the handle of his wand. "The Fidelius Charm-"
"Parvati told me," Lavender sighed. "She sent a Patronus."
Just then, the kitchen door flew open, knocking Luna into Blaise, who collapsed to the ground with a muttered curse. Kreacher skulked into the room.
"Time for dinner, Master Harry," Kreacher said. "If Master Harry would please tell his friends to move away from the oven, sir, Kreacher can make French onion soup."
"Oh. Right," Harry said, glancing at his watch. "Look, Lavender, how about we get you upstairs and-"
Just then, the door opened again. It ricocheted off the wall, flew into Blaise, who toppled to the floor again only seconds after climbing to his feet, and slammed shut, prompting a burst of screaming from the corridor.
The Patil twins had entered the room, and Draco edged out passed them, closing the kitchen door quietly behind them. They had as yet been unable to move the portrait of his great-aunt from the wall, and she was driving them all batty.
o-o-o-o-o
Parvati sat down next to Lavender at the kitchen table, watching everyone else help with dinner. Even Padma had moved away, giving them some space.
"Hey," Parvati said. Lavender turned to look at her, a deep furrow etched between her brows.
"You didn't have to keep looking for me, you know."
Parvati swallowed thickly, forcibly holding back tears. "'Course I did, you're my best friend."
"I didn't want you to."
Parvati couldn't look at Lavender. She watched her hands, folded on the table, as she said, "Why are you here, then?"
Lavender didn't say anything until Parvati looked up at her. "I wanted to come home. That's not why I didn't want you looking for me."
At that moment, Draco stormed back into the kitchen, having finished dealing with Mrs. Black's portrait. The door slammed into Blaise for the third time, knocking him off his feet before slamming closed, muffling the renewed screams from the hall.
"Merlin's fucking beard!" Blaise snapped. "I am so done! I'm taking that damn door of its hinges tomorrow, we can have an archway into the kitchen, I swear to God…"
Blaise's rant covered up some much more colorful swearing on Draco's part as he left to deal with the portrait again. Parvati glanced to her left, and saw Lavender smile.
o-o-o-o-o
Lavender took her first dose of Wolfsbane Potion that night, and Pansy found her a room in the house. Lavender was sitting on her bed with a fresh mug of tea when she heard a quiet tap at the door.
"Come in," she called. Parvati stepped into the room.
"Hey," she said uncertainly. "Can I…"
"Um. Ok," Lavender said, and Parvati sat down next to her.
"I'm kind of angry, you know," Parvati said, looking Lavender directly in the eyes now. "With you."
"I know," Lavender said. She'd known Parvati since they were eleven; she knew what the other girl looked like angry, or sad, or worried, or happy. "I would be, too."
"But at the same time," Parvati went on, as if Lavender hadn't spoken, "You're my best friend, and I just got you back, and I want things to go back to the way they were, and I know that they can't." A single tear made its way down Parvati's face.
"I'm sorry," Lavender said, reaching for her best friend. "I really am."
"Don't fucking apologize," Parvati said through her tears, crying into Lavender's shoulder now. "It makes it worse."
"Sor-" Lavender cut herself off. Parvati laughed a little through her tears.
"So…" Lavender tried in vain to think of anything else to say. "When the fuck did Harry and Draco get together?"
Parvati snapped her head up in shock. "How did you know that?"
"They were snogging in the kitchen. After dinner."
Parvati rolled her eyes. There were still tears leaking down her face, but she was smiling a little bit now, at least. "They do that a lot. And… They got together during the war, at some point. They won't tell anyone that story."
"You owe me ten galleons, you know."
"That bet was from five years ago!"
"Still."
Parvati hesitated for a moment. Then she reached over and grabbed Lavender's hand. Lavender flinched, but she didn't pull away.
"I'm glad you're back," Parvati said softly. "I missed you. Really."
Lavender smiled. "I missed you, too."
"Why did you come back?"
"What?"
"I mean… I didn't actually think it would work. The Patronus- I just knew I had to try."
"It wasn't what you said. It was the Patronus itself," Lavender admitted. "The wolf. I guess it meant you needed me."
Parvati nodded. "I just noticed it today."
"Well," Lavender said, raising her mug of tea, "Here's to being less of a walking disaster in the future."
Parvati laughed. "I'd drink to that- if I had anything to drink."
Fin.