Hey guys! So sorry that it took so long for me to update. School started back, and we started this new college system, and then I couldn't think of where exactly I wanted to go with this. But I figured it out. Hope you enjoy! R&R please.

Lavender returned to the girls' dormitory that night, and thankfully, Parvati was asleep. The other two girls in the dorm were staring at her like she had just murdered someone, and she knew that Parvati had already told them. Her friends were the worst gossips in the world, and she knew that the secret would be all over the school before the end of breakfast tomorrow. She wished that it wouldn't be, but what could she do? She had trusted Parvati, and Parvati had betrayed her. She crawled into bed with tears in her eyes, but she didn't sleep at all that night.

The next morning she got out of bed and realized that all of the girls had left her there by herself. An uncomfortable feeling started in her stomach, and she rushed to the bathroom and threw up. The morning sickness was starting to kick in. She brushed her teeth to get the taste out of her mouth and dressed quickly, not looking as cute as she usually did. She didn't care if her hair was curled perfectly or if it was dressed with a cute bow today. She just wanted to get through the day alive and well, without being tortured by her used-to-be friends.

As soon as she walked into the Great Hall, she knew that word had already spread. The whole Gryffindor table stopped eating and chatting with each other, and instead they fixated their eyes on her. A few of the girls whispered to each other, and then they started giggling. Lavender tried her best to ignore them, but she had never been very strong when it came to gossip. She hated knowing that people were saying bad things about her behind her back. She continued walking with her head held high, though, and she stopped when she reached the part of the table where Parvati was sitting with their other two roommates, Grace and Haley. They were laughing about something, and as soon as they saw Lavender, they stopped and glared at her.

"Sorry, Lav, but we don't want you sitting with us anymore," Parvati said, setting her backpack in the empty seat next to her. "I'm sure you have plenty of other friends to sit with. Oh, why don't you go sit with your baby daddy? I'm sure he'd love to have you." Her voice was icy cold, and the look in her eyes told Lavender that yes, the friendship was most definitely over. She gulped and turned away from the three girls, and she continued on down the table, searching for a place to sit.

Seamus was sitting at the end of the table with Dean and Neville. They seemed completely oblivious to the rumors flying around the room, because when Lavender approached them, they were simply talking about Quidditch, unlike the other Gryffindors. Lavender smiled. "Hi, guys," she said, sitting down next to Seamus.

Seamus jumped at her presence and scooted away from her, and Dean and Neville looked away uncomfortably. "Oh, um…hey, Lavender," he murmured, not looking her in the eyes. "Listen, I've been hearing some really crazy rumors going around, and I think that I should talk to you about it. Are you-"

"Pregnant?" Lavender finished for him, at which point Dean and Neville gathered their things and moved to sit with Harry, Ron, and Hermione. "Yes, I am." Seamus opened his mouth to speak again, but Lavender held up a hand to silence him. "This is all so completely messed up. We barely even know each other. We've only talked a couple of times-"

"I'm not the father," Seamus said so abruptly that it made Lavender go silent. He sounded angry and confused, like he hated her more than anything at the moment. "I don't care what everyone else is saying, I don't care what you say. I'm not."

"Seamus, it was an accident, okay? We can always give it up for adoption and forget it ever happened. I don't even want to think about abortion-" Lavender was interrupted once again.

"Why are you talking to me about this? I don't have anything to do with it." With that, he threw his fork down rather forcefully, grabbed his backpack, and darted out of the Great Hall.

Lavender heaved a sigh and looked down the table at Parvati, who had evidently been watching the whole conversation. She wore a smug smirk on her face as she looked away from Lavender and directed her attention to Grace and Haley again. Lavender could feel tears welling up in her eyes again as she reached for a piece of toast to eat, but she stopped when someone touched her shoulder. She looked behind her and saw that Professor McGonagall was there, looking down at her with kind, though rather strict, eyes.

"Miss Brown, could you come with me, please?" she asked, and Lavender got up without a word and followed her out of the Great Hall.

Professor McGonagall led her down the hallway until they reached her classroom, where Professor Dumbledore was already standing and waiting. Lavender started to feel really nervous as she sat down in a chair in front of the desk, and she watched as Dumbledore walked toward her with a kind of twinkle in his eyes that she didn't recognize.

"So there has been some pretty nasty gossip about you this morning, Miss Brown," he said, turning away from her and staring out the window. "I've never been one to believe rumors, so I'll ask you personally. Are you pregnant?"

Lavender let out a little gasp at the word, not because she hadn't heard it before, but simply because she didn't want to admit to her teachers that she had broken school rules and gotten herself into this mess. When she didn't answer, Dumbledore turned to her, and she nodded, not meeting his eyes.

"Hmm…" he said, turning to look out the window again, "And is it true that Mr. Finnigan is the father?"

Again, Lavender didn't answer, and again, Dumbledore turned to her. She nodded. "Although he's having some denial problems," she added.

"You do realize that I'll have to tell your parents, correct?" Dumbledore said. Once again, Lavender nodded. She was about to cry, but then Dumbledore spoke again. "Or I can let you tell them when you choose to do it. I won't make you say anything, but I do encourage you to do it soon."

Lavender's mouth had gone dry. It seemed that all she could do was nod, so that's what she did, once again. Dumbledore dismissed her to go to class, and she decided that she would tell her mom and dad about the pregnancy in a letter that she would write tonight.

The rest of the day was a blur. Lavender went to classes as she was supposed to, although it was awkward having to sit next to Seamus at a station in Potions class. He wouldn't look at her, and neither would anyone else in the room. It was as if she was invisible. Several times she felt like crying, but she held back the tears that threatened to spill over. She was much stronger than that. She wasn't going to let the student body of Hogwarts get her down. She could survive without having any friends…right?

At lunch, she tried to sit with a couple of seventh year girls, but they both seemed unwilling to let her anywhere near them. It wasn't as if she had some contagious, deadly disease. She was only pregnant. Why did people hate her so much? It was an accident. It happened to several teenagers. It wasn't like she was the only teenage girl who had accidentally gotten pregnant by some guy she didn't even know while she was drunk. But no matter how many times that she tried to explain to people that she was not a monster, no one wanted to listen to her. She had become an outcast within a day's time.

She was relieved when it was finally time for bed that night, because she was growing tired of all of the stares and whispers that she received as she walked in the hallway or sat in class. She couldn't even do her homework because the group of fifth year girls sitting across from her kept looking at her and chatting amongst themselves about how "embarrassing" getting pregnant while still in school was. So as she ascended the stairs to her dormitory that she shared with Parvati, Grace, and Haley, she heard their voices drifting down towards her. They didn't sound mad at all. In fact, they sounded rather sad.

"Well, what do we do? We can't just kick her out. We'd get in trouble, wouldn't we?" That was obviously Haley speaking.

And then Parvati's voice responded. "Well, I don't know. I just know that I can't stand looking at her right now. I mean, what kind of a best friend does that? You know I would never do that to her. She likes Ron Weasley, and I would never go get drunk and sleep with him."

"We know," Grace and Haley said simultaneously.

It was Lavender's turn to be upset now. She had expected to walk up the staircase, climb into bed, and ignore her three friends, just as she had done last night. What kind of right did they have to throw her out of her own dorm room? It was hers just as much as it was theirs. Without even glancing at any of them, she stalked into the room, grabbed the pillow and blanket off of her bed, and said, "If you hate me so much, Parvati, why don't you just say it to my face?" She turned on her heel and marched out of the room triumphantly, although she really didn't know where she would be sleeping tonight.

"Fine, I will!" Parvati yelled from behind her, her voice quivering a little. "I hate you!"

Lavender ignored her and walked down the stairs until she reached the common room. It was almost midnight, as far as she could tell. The room was almost completely deserted, except for one person who was sitting on the couch in front of the fireplace. Lavender bit her lip a little and walked slowly over to the couch, trying not to disturb him. He looked as if he were in deep thought. She sat down on the opposite end and pulled her legs up next to her, trying to be as quiet as possible. It didn't work. Seamus looked over at her with an expression of pure disgust clearly written on his face. Lavender looked away from him and instead fluffed her pillow and laid her head down on it, closing her eyes and trying to go to sleep.

"Why are you down here?" Seamus asked after a few minutes.

Lavender's eyes fluttered open again as she flipped over on her back and sat up to look at him. "Parvati, Grace, and Haley don't want me anywhere near them. They hate me." She paused. "It seems like everyone does now. Maybe I should just leave school and go back home."

"Don't do that," Seamus said. He wasn't looking at her, and the expression on his face was hard to read. He looked like he was still thinking rather than listening to her. His eyes flitted in between the floor and the bright fire in front of them. "Not everyone hates you. I don't, anyway."

Lavender's temper flared up again. She kicked off her blanket and stood up from the couch so suddenly that Seamus had no choice but to look at her. "You don't hate me?" she said, attempting to keep her voice level. She didn't want to wake anyone. "Well, thanks for letting me know that this morning when you embarrassed me and stormed out of the Great Hall. By you telling me that you weren't the father, everyone assumed I was just some disgusting slut who slept around and didn't know who the father was."

"I don't think you are," Seamus muttered, so softly that Lavender almost had to lean forward to hear him. "I think you've got your priorities straight. I mean, I don't know you that well, but I kind of think that you're a pretty cool person. I kept telling myself that I needed to become friends with you, but I just never did. I don't know why…" He trailed off for a second, and they stayed in silence for that time, the only sounds being the wind outside the window and the loud, heavy breathing that was emitting from Lavender.

"You know," she said, breaking the silence. "I told everyone who asked today that I didn't know who the father was, just to protect you and your pride and your reputation. I didn't want poor Seamus's name to be run down into the ground." She almost spat the words at him. Her cheeks were still burning a bright red, and she wondered just how close she was to crying again, if she had anymore tears left to cry.

Seamus looked down at the ground, feeling rather guilty now that Lavender had told him that. "Are you sure that I am?" he asked, his voice calm. He hoped that she wouldn't get mad at him for asking.

Lavender let out a breath and crossed her arms. "Yes. Positive."

Seamus was quiet for another minute. All of the lights were off in the common room now, and the only thing that was helping his vision was the orange flames in front of him. "You know, a few people were making fun of you today in the hallway. I stopped and told them to shut up because they didn't know anything about you."

Lavender almost couldn't believe him. He had been so awful to her in the Great Hall, and then he had defended her? It seemed strange, but something about him told her that he was telling the truth. She sat down on the couch next to him, leaving just a small space between them. "Thanks," she murmured, looking away from him. Another silence, and then she spoke again. "I'm not ready to be a mother."

"I'm not ready to be a father," Seamus replied, leaning forward to rest his head in his hands.

Lavender looked over at him and frowned. He looked so distressed, so much more distressed than she had felt ever since she had found out. "You don't have to be involved, you know. It'll probably just be going up for adoption anyway. I can't take care of it."

"But I want to be involved," Seamus said. He rose up again so that he could look her directly in her eyes. "I mean, what kind of guy would I be to leave you alone with a baby? Only a jerk would do that. And I'm not a jerk, even though I've done some pretty jerky things in me life. I've grown up in the past year or so, and I'm not going to run away from me problems, Lavender. I want to help you."

Lavender smiled at him a little, though it was hard to. She now had just a little support through the whole ordeal, but she still felt almost alone. She still had to tell her parents about all of this. Seamus had to tell his parents. He would have to suffer just as much torture as she would. Or maybe no one would bother him. So many thoughts were swimming through Lavender's mind that she didn't know what to do with them. She wanted to go to sleep, to try to clear her mind of the day's events. And then she felt Seamus put his arm around her rather awkwardly, probably wondering if it was okay to touch her. She let him know that it was by putting her head on his shoulder, and that's how they stayed for what seemed like hours.

Eventually, Seamus got up from the couch and started toward the boys' dormitories. As he stepped onto the first stair, he turned back to Lavender. "Goodnight," he said, and then he disappeared up the stairs.

"Goodnight," Lavender called after him, and then she curled up on the couch and fell asleep almost immediately. This would probably be her bed for a long, long time.