Pretend To Love Me
By BlueHot Chronicles
Disclaimer: All publicly recognisable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of BlueHot Chronicles. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any previously copyrighted material. No copyright infringement is intended.
Author's Note:
I wrote this story years ago (around 2010-2013) on a previous account. I've decided to clean it up a bit, edit here and there, and correct a few Potterverse mistakes I'd definitely made.
This was actually the first fiction (of any kind) that I ever completed, and I was so proud of it. I'll try to leave all the mushy stuff… I don't want to completely destroy the first story I ever completed, and that was actually about 'love'.
Summary:
After the Battle Of Hogwarts, an unlikely pair form an everlasting bond. AU, Definitely OOC Percy. Ron, Hermione-Bashing.
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Chapter One
Lavender Brown looked up as her boss swept into the office. Percy Weasley had quit the Ministry before the fall of Voldemort, but after the war was over, he'd returned to work under his father in the Muggle Relations Department.
She knew of the slight strain that remained between him and his family; after all, Lavender had been working for Ron's brother - as his Personal Assistant - for the past nine months, and other than the slight discomfort she detected in him whenever one of his family members were nearby, he was a completely different man from the stuck-up boy he used to be.
The one thing Lavender knew for sure, was that she was head-over-heels in love with Percy Weasley, the arrogant git that no one could stand at Hogwarts. Except for Penelope Clearwater, whose affections he was currently trying to win back. Grrrr!
"Good Morning, Mr Weasley," she said rising from her desk, "Your father was here earlier looking for you. He left a note on your desk. Oh, Perkins handed in that report you requested, and here is your tea and scones," she concluded by flourishing her wand and conjuring his breakfast.
"Thank you, Miss Brown. Duplicate the report on that talking Pontiac Trans Am, and take the original to my father as soon as you are finished. That should be all for the moment."
"Yes, Mr Weasley," Lavender replied, and strolled out the room.
~ ~ O ~ ~
Lavender sat on the rustic log bench having her lunch, under one of the oak trees in the park belonging to the Ministry of Magic. It had been added after the war - the park that is - to help the workers unwind.
She sat alone on the bench, as the few other workers about, chose to stay away from her. She sighed and took a sip of her pumpkin juice; Lavender had become used to this treatment, but she just never could get used to the utter loneliness she had experienced after the war.
She never liked to think about the war, but it was inescapable due to the fact that she constantly had recurring nightmares of Greyback attacking her, sinking his teeth into the soft flesh between her neck and shoulder, the tearing… the pain…
Lavender tore her mind from that memory with a shudder, and reached up to touch the scar there. It was slightly raised, but smooth and almost blended into her natural skin tone, but it would always be a reminder.
Thank the Gods, Greyback had been in his human form, so she would never turn, but she would always crave meat in her food. She was stronger than normal and could see in the dark, however, everyone whom she had ever called a friend or family had abandoned her.
Parvati, her best friend at Hogwarts - the one she had counted on to always be there for her - went on to University and never looked back. When Lavender's mother had come to visit her at St. Mungo's, she'd thought it was to collect her, instead, Mrs Brown had disowned her, forbidding her to ever return home.
Devastated and in need of support, she had turned to those she'd thought were her friends; Parvati, Padma, Seamus and Dean - she just couldn't face Ron, or his friends Harry and Hermione, who had never liked her.
None of them had wanted to tarnish their name by associating with a part Werewolf, Lavender guessed. She wasn't dangerous as far as she knew, and besides, everyone still liked Bill Weasley. So why was she continuously being persecuted?
For a year and a half, she did odd jobs - when she could get them - so that she could pay her rent. Older students, men who remembered her before they left Hogwarts, propositioned her constantly, but she denied everyone of them, holding out on the hope that she would be able to piece together her life one day.
The odd jobs became fewer and far between, and when the time came for her to choose between eating or paying rent, she decided to owl a letter to her last hope. Neville Longbottom - though they'd never been friends - would have helped her, but she had been kicked out of her small, dingy apartment in Knockturn Alley during winter and never got his reply.
Terrified and freezing, she wandered for two weeks, sleeping in the gutters and dead-ends on Knockturn Alley, using her wand to keep warm and drink water.
At first she'd begged for work, then for knuts and sickles until finally, begging for food. She couldn't resort to stealing, once, she had tried to Accio an apple from a street vendor, but she'd felt so guilty she put it back and ran.
Lavender fought to hold out, hoping to see Neville coming to help, but she knew, deep down, he would never come to Knockturn Alley on his own. Tears blurred her eyes as her last hope disappeared, then with one last spark of Gryffindor defiance, she knocked and called at every door until one finally opened. Unfortunately – or maybe not – it was the door of Madam Mia's; Knockturn Alley's only brothel.