"Lavender's missing," Ron says, sitting down next to his friends in the Gryffindor Common Room.
Hermione rolls her eyes, "I doubt she's missing, Ron. Probably just off snogging the next guy."
Ron stands back up, frustrated all of a sudden, "You know, I don't think I want to be around you if you keep complaining about my girlfriend-"
"Girlfriend? Yeah right! You haven't bee-"
"Guys! Shut it, both of you," Harry interrupts, "we have more important things to talk about."
Ron sighs, "Fine, you keep going on about whatever, I'm going to go look for my girlfriend."
Harry calls out to Ron as he leaves, Hermione rolling her eyes a final time, but Ron doesn't catch it, moving towards his dorm as quick as he can.
Before he starts to move up the stairs, he spots Parvati across the room, and makes his way over to her.
"Parvati," Ron says, interrupting her conversation with her friend, "where's Lavender?"
"She's in bed, a bit worried about exams. Why? Want to see her?"
Ron nods, but then changes his mind, and decides to leave her some space.
"It's okay, I expect I'll see her tomorrow."
The next day, Lavender was still nowhere to be seen.
Ron looked over the entirety of the Gryffindor table, but couldn't see her.
"Do you see Lavender?" he mutters to Harry as they eat their breakfast.
"Lavender?" Harry asks, raising his voice, not catching on to Ron's secrecy.
"Shhh! Yes."
Harry leans in, "No. Do you?"
Ron shakes his head.
"I'm sure she's fine," Harry says unenthusiastically.
"I'm.. I'm worried. Where could she be?"
He gets up and walks down the table to Parvati.
"Is Lavender here?" he asks, again.
Parvati looks at her friends and raises her eyebrows. They shake their heads at her.
"No, she's in the loo," she replies, and turns away from Ron.
"Where did you go?' Hermione says, once Ron returns, pretending that she hadn't heard his conversation with Ron.
"To... uhhh, speak to Seamus."
"Seamus is sat that way," she sneers, pointing in the opposite direction.
"I... got lost."
"Look, if you were wondering," Hermione begins.
"I don't care what you're going to say about Lavender! You're just jealous. Get over it!"
"I am not jealous!" she cries, standing up from her seat.
"Then why do you hate her so much!?" Ron says back, raising his voice to match hers and standing up.
"I don't know? What's there to like?!"
The whole school turns to face them, all eyes glued to the scene.
Ron pushes his plate away dramatically and stalks around the table to the doorway.
"For your information,' Hermione calls, turning her back on him, "I was going to tell you where she is."
Ron stalks out of the room, making is way down the endless corridors, and to his lesson, pushing Hermione to the back of his mind.
Lavender should be in this lesson, so he waits patiently in his seat whilst the students file into the classroom.
As the last few students file in, he grabs Parvati's arm.
"Where is she?" he says urgently.
Parvati rolls her eyes and yanks her arm away from him, "I said, I didn't know."
Ron turns away and lets her push her way past him.
"Can I use the bathroom?" he asks and after being granted permission, he slips out of the classrooms and into the corridor.
He tries the Divination classroom first, he knows it's her favourite class, so it was likely that she'd be found there, however, when he enters it, she's nowhere to be found.
He doesn't know where to go.
Where would a girl go to hide, where no one could find them?
He thought of the dungeons, and as silly as it sounded, he made his way down there, noting the drop in temperature and fading light as he stepped through the archway.
"Lavender?"
No reply.
"Lavender? Are you here?"
"Ron?"
A voice comes from through the door; Ron tries opening it, but has no luck, the door is locked from the inside.
"Lavender? Where are you?"
"In here," she calls through the door, her voice muffled.
"The door, it won't open," he replies.
"No?"
"No."
Ron fiddles with the doorknob for a second, but gives up.
"Do you have a key?"
"No, I just slammed the door, I didn't know it would lock."
Ron looks around, and finds a hairpin on the floor, amidst the dust.
Ron sticks it in the lock and moves it around, catching it on something inside.
"What are you doing?"
"Picking the lock," he replies, focused on the movement of the hairpin.
"Picking the lock," Lavender sighs, "how romantic."
Ron chuckles and with one more twist, the door clicks and opens.
Lavender leaps into his arms and kisses him quickly.
"Why are you even in there?" Ron asks, looking at her face for signs of worry.
"Nothing really, I was just worried about exams."
"So you locked yourself in a dungeon?" Ron laughs, but Lavender shushes him with a kiss.