Written for Poke as part of the Ultimate Fic Exchange Challenge.
She remembers pain. Fearsome claws dig into her flesh, twisting destroying, sending white hot pain shuddering through her body.
She remembers screaming. At first it's loud, clear, strong, but after only a moment of agony, her voice falters, and her screams fade to pitiful whimpers laced with sobs.
She remembers him falling away. Her pain would end, she thought. But the damage had been done, and she had felt the blood slip from her body, the coldness setting in.
She remembers Parvati kneeling beside her, tears in her eyes. She remembers slender, delicate fingers desperately searching for a pulse, for some sign that Lavender hadn't left. She remembers the light of hope in her eyes, her cry of, "Somebody! She's alive! Please, help!"
She remembers feeling her heartbeat slowing with each passing second. She remembers the lightness of her body, as though she hadn't weighed a things.
I'm going to die, she had thought, and fear gripped her.
Not fear of dying. No, since the war had begun, she had made peace with that possibility. But fear of a life incomplete, of one thing, just one thing she needs to say.
She remembers grabbing Parvati by the wrist, her movements sluggish, delayed. She remembers opening her mouth, the words on the tip of her tongue. "Parvati, I love you."
Lavender wakes, and she almost thinks that it had been a dream. She'll be back in her cot in the Room of Requirement. She'll hear someone gossiping about the latest rumor that Harry Potter has been seen somewhere.
But as she tries to sit up, a wave of pain ripples through her body. With a groan, she gingerly presses her fingers against her neck. The skin leading to the corner of her lips is no longer ripped open, but it's still tender to the touch. It's healed, but not quite perfectly.
"Where-? What-?"
"You were attacked," Parvati says. "Greyback, I think. You- I thought I lost you, Lav."
Lavender blinks rapidly, the words not quite making sense. And then she understands. Those had been memories, not flickers of a dream.
Which means… "Oh. Oh God. I told you."
Lavender wishes she could melt into a puddle and be absorbed into the stone floor of the castle. She hadn't expected to live, not after the carnage her body has witnessed.
And yet, here she is. And the words are still out there, and she cannot take them back.
"That was supposed to be a deathbed confession," she groans, closing her eyes tightly as though she can will the world to just go away.
She braces herself. Parvati will tell her that she's stupid, that they're best friends, and nothing more. And what if she decides that they can't even be that anymore? What if Lavender's confession causes her to lose the one person she has left, the one person she has ever cared for so deeply?
"Look at me, Lav."
Reluctantly, Lavender does. She's grateful to find that there is no disgust or pity in Parvati's eyes. Parvati takes her hand gently, giving it a reassuring squeeze.
"I'm glad you're alive," she said. "I was scared. Not just because if you-" She stops herself, drawing a deep breath, her hand trembling. "If anything happened to you, I'd have nothing left. Well, there's Padma, but we so rarely see eye to eye. But, you passed before I could tell you. And I was so scared that you would die before I could tell you that I love you, too."
For a moment, Lavender forgets how to breathe. Her chest flutters like a hundred butterflies are hiding in her rib cage. "You know I mean as more than just friends, right?" she whispers, hardly daring to hope.
Parvati laughs. A gentle laugh, maybe amused. No cruelty behind it at all. "I know," she says, her fingers grazing the side of Lavender's face that hasn't been warped and mangled. "I do, too."
Lavender tries to smile, but the effort hurts too much. She hisses, sinking deeper into her pillow. "You still love me, even looking like this?"
She had meant it as a joke, but even she can hear the fear lacing her words.
"I still see a beautiful girl, a strong girl," Parvati insists. "My love for you is unconditional, Lavender. Your scars will never change that. They won't make me love you any less. In fact, they make me love you even more."
"Why?"
"Remember when school started? You said you were afraid to fight. But you overcame that. You could have left when they were getting students to safety, but you chose to stay. Your scars will always remind me that you chose to overcome fear, that you fought."
"I stayed with you," Lavender admits.
"And now I'm staying with you."