Written for the hp_pg challenge on live journal. The only OCs are the Chadwicks, Megan does exist, I checked;)I wanted to try keep Lavender realistic but, still a little different side of her.

The idea was to write 6th year from another characters pov.

I picked Lavender because I have never written her before and she can be something interesting if you try I think.

People think I don't pay attention, that none of us do, but we do pay attention, even if we don't like what we see. Doesn't mean it isn't there. It's scary of course. No one knows who will die next.

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The train was cold. That was my first thought as I boarded to return to Hogwarts for my sixth year. It was cold and it didn't feel safe the way it had before. Everyone is chattering away just like they always had, but it was different. Parent's faces were strained, like they were searching for an invisible enemy, it was just that the enemy was real. It was real, but they just couldn't find it. No one could. They came in the dark and destroyed everything you held dear before you could awaken enough to do anything about it. People had only just begun admitting they were back.

Death Eaters.

"Lav? Why are you just standing there in the middle of the compartment? Get in the compartment! Duh!"

Whatever.

Both twins are there, Par bouncing forward to steal the seat nearest the doors where she can watch people coming and going up the corridor, Padme bundled into the corner and engrossed in some dusty old tomb like a typical Claw, Demelza flicking through a fashion mag, retard, I had that done and dusted like, two weeks ago. She needs to keep up. Megan is here too. Seen and not heard as usual. My eyes find Romilda, sitting in the middle and looking like she shouldn't be there and I groan. What are we babysitting children now?

"So, I wanted to try the new style of robes but my mother was all oh god you can see your cleavage Par, no way! Seriously, I'm sixteen years old not six, we are in Britain, not India. How does she expect me to fit in with everything here when she won't let me do the things that will! I can't walk about wrapped up like a damn mummy all the time. Cormack won't notice me that way!"

Padme glowers over the edge of her book, her opinion of Par, clearly the same as it was before the summer. She makes herself appear easy. And brain-dead. She thinks her sister is an air head and doesn't mind telling her as much. I know she thinks the same of me. In a way it's nice to see, that with everything going on, some things are still the same. On the other hand, it makes me feel ill. The girls fawn around Par, showering her with sympathy she doesn't need because really, there are bigger issues, and I don't like it. People are dying and they are talking about robe styles. We don't know what will happen at school, how many members of our families will be dead by the time we go home.

Did Par look at the Alley while she was there? Couldn't she see there is nothing left? That you simply cannot be outside without a fully trained wizard and hovering in one place is asking for trouble? It's only been a number of weeks. What will it be like by Christmas?

I mean, yeah, I won't go charging off to battle in jeans and a t-shirt if I can't colour co-ordinate myself but god, there could be a battle. That is why we went and learned how to fight wasn't it? Does your robe style really matter when someone is trying to curse your skin off?

Ron Weasley is on the train. I saw him get on with Harry and, her. Ginny is around too. Ginny is cool but she spends far too much time talking about sport. I mean, really, she needs a serious make-over from her curtain like clothes. Screw the sport. I know she has to wear what her family can afford but you can still do retro without looking...ancient. I totally believe there is a red haired vixen under those clothes and behind the temper.

Ron though, Ron is different, older, more, manly. I like it. He fought, fought real Death Eaters, in an actual battle. The rumours spread fast, maybe some of it is dragon dung but, it doesn't change the most important fact.

He fought! A man who could defend me in battle! That is like, fairy tale stuff!

It's brilliant. He looks so different too, I should, maybe say hello?

Yeah, that is a good idea.

He is a man of the real world, a man who deals with reality and he is at the shoulder of the boy who lived, Harry, the man who, well, they say he is the chosen one. I guess it would make sense. Everything that has happened to him, or rather, everything people think might have happened to him. I know Neville was there, Neville of all people. I'll never doubt his ability to fight again, even if he is weird. Seamus recons he really is a Gryffindor now. Like he wasn't before! House prejudice can be so silly sometimes, I mean, I'm not the bravest but no one has accused me of being a Puff. Yet it was Ron I saw on the platform and getting onto the train. Surely it is too much to be a coincidence.

"Oh!", pipes up Megan, I had never really bothered to learn much about her, she was just there, really, too plain, " Did you guys hear about Chadwick's?"

The who?

"Urghhh....no?"

No mention of shoes, Pav is gone already. Good thing we have her more intelligent sister for when random tagalongs make random comments.

"There were two kids right Megan? One a Claw, the other a Puff right?"

"Right!""

"Well?", I snapped, "What happened to them? Get their curlers stuck in their hair or something?"

The reference goes over most heads. Silly, muggle curlers work better than your wand if you can't actually use the damn thing. Stupid rules, I just want to fix my hair, not stun a muggle.

Padme looks interested, Parvati, Demelza and Romilda and probably myself just look bored,

"No Lavender, they were attacked during the summer."

Crap.

"Oh. Oh god. That's.....awful!"

Megan nods and I can't help wanting her to get on with it. Tell me.

"Rosie has just finished her first year, Mark is in fifth year. You might know him Padme, he is the Claw. My dad heard at work that their home was attacked by the Death Eaters. Their dad works in the department of mysteries apparently, though, of course with them, no one really knows for sure. Whatever he is though, it is important at the Ministry. They must have been looking for something. Something only an Unspeakable would have, either an item or...."

"Information", Padme finishes with a shudder.

All of a sudden I feel sick. I can see Rosie now, at least I think I can, skinny as a rake, no beauty to speak of, pretty if you like the innocent look but with stunning thick hair. I remember wishing my hair would sit like hers. She is only a child. Her robes were too long for her, she was that short. They would have been tortured, their whole family if they wanted information, tortured to make their Mr Chadwick talk. That is completely deplorable. It might even have been worse, they might have just been killed while the Death Eaters tried to get what they wanted, files, keys, artefacts, hell, I don't even know. Whatever Unspeakables deal with.

"Were they hurt?! Are they...."

I'm anxious. I can't stand the thought. It's one thing for Death Eaters to attack randomly, but I sort of know them! Children. Younger than me. Not old enough to defend themselves, not really.

Megan shakes her head quickly, eyes wide and gleaming as she looks around the compartment. Demelza's magazine is on the floor now, abandoned and Romilda is drinking in her every word. Suddenly everything seems so serious.

"No, their father must have suspected an attack because my dad said they were ready for them and escaped through the floo just before the Death Eaters blocked it but there was a fight, their father had to hold them off while the mother got the kids out and then left herself. But I mean...their kids, they would have seen.....they would have heard.... I can't imagine what it would be like."

"And they are at school already? On the train right now?!", Parvati asked in disbelief.

Megan nods, biting her bottom lip,

"I think so. I think my dad saw them all on the platform. He said they all looked terrified. I'm not surprised."

"Why don't they run? If they stay, if they are out in public then....", Demelza whispers.

"Well, they say the safest place to be in this war is where Dumbledore is.", Romilda chirped, "I know my parents want me here."

Parvati looks at her twin, confused and they seem to have a silent conversation. It is only then that I wonder why the hell Padme is here at all, she has her own friends, but maybe, maybe she just wants to stay close to her sister for as long as she can before they are forced apart. Maybe Par will sit with her friends on the train home at Christmas, that's ok. I'll sit with the other girls.

"If that had been us....", Parvati began and really, I knew what she was going to say, they had threatened it might happen before,

"We would already be back in India, cooped up and hidden away in some village deemed to be safe", Padme finished, clearly horrified at the thought.

Everyone falls silent. I was right before. This is war, it's real and you have to be alert, careful and more like Ron Weasley and Harry Potter and even Hermione and her bushy hair cause they have done it. They have fought Death Eaters and lived so maybe this year, if things get crazy, it's better to listen to them than to ignore them. Things might end up better that way.

What if those kids had died? Like Cedric had died? What would happen then?

Nothing makes sense.

But he had a plan to escape, if they were ready then,

"He knew didn't he? Their father, Mr Chadwick, the unspeakable, he knew they were coming. He had to have known, if he was prepared for an attack but then..."

"Why would they stay at home? I mean, at school, ok, Dumbledore, but, why would you put your family at risk?", Demelza mused.

Again it was Romilda that had all the answers,

"Well, where would they run? You seem so eager for them to go! Well, go where?! Not all of us have magical families, not all of us know more about the war than what is taught at school or in textbooks but everyone knows, you don't outrun the Death Eaters when they decide they want to see you. If they had moved before an attack....well....."

"It would hav just made the Death Eaters and...He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named want the family more. Not to mention that if the Chadwick's ran they could have targeted some other family and then they would have blamed themselves.", Padme surmised.

Damn her and her damn logic. Lion or not, I'm not sure I would be brave enough to stay. Not if I had information that was clearly dangerous and would be hazardous in the hands of Death Eaters. I would have run, but what does that make me? The air head everyone thinks I am? A coward? Not Gryffindor, not a woman if this is how the war will be.

I can't be that way anymore. I have to grow up, grow up before the chance is taken from me.

"Lav? Why are you so quiet hunni? Are you ok? I know these new ties are not all that great and the robes, not so flattering but we will all look the same so it will be ok yeah?"

Typical girls. Serious for ten seconds, then back to fashion. Or maybe we just want something that isn't so morbid and scary to talk about. Cause we are all scared. We look terrified from a conversation. God knows how we would face it in reality.

"Yeah, I know.....sucks."

Padme is still looking at me, her head back in her book as the chatter starts up again but I know she is thinking about me. Whatever. I am allowed to have opinions. It's not banned or anything! God.

"Well, we can't worry about it all now. Not too much. We are the lucky ones, we will be in the safest place we can be. With Dumbledore, I want to see what he has to say before I freak out totally.", Megan smiles, as if she is trying to make up for the near hysteria she unleashed.

I don't know how a school where dragons nearly tore it apart, Dementors came inched from sucking out our classmates souls, a monster was petrifying muggle borns and not to mention a teacher who made you write lines in your own blood, can be considered safe. Sadly it is though. The safest place in our world. Though I'm not certain that says much and by the look on Padme's face, neither is she.

Well, nothing we can do now. Best to concern ourselves with whether natural or bright lip stick is the way to go.

The world doesn't revolve around foundation and eye shadow, it just happens to be a prettier place if it's a part of it.