AN: you know what? Imma just stop talking about my projected timeline in the author's notes, I'm clearly jinxing it.Ps. guess which horrendously underappreciated blonde makes an appearance in this chapter.
Ruins
By now homelessness was more or less a familiar experience for Lavender Brown.
She had initially wanted to find herself a nice quiet clearing, to throw down her tarpaulin in. But by now she was a known face in the much too close-knit werewolf community, so it would only be a matter of time before someone found her den. Her life had gotten to a point where she couldn't be bothered to pay attention to her kinsmen's harassment, even if some of it was supposedly in support of her action. The ex-Halftooth had come to realize she was more "civilized" than most of her compatriots, and after what could have been anything from a few days, to several months of train-hopping, she made a home for herself in an abandoned building at the edge of a quaint little south-England town.
Her new home had once been the office of a local radio station, it had a surprisingly well equipped tea kitchen, and the muggle kids all thought it was haunted. The town was named "Little Whinging", and was about as welcoming to homeless people, as the Black family was to muggleborns. Most days she would sleep through the morning, spent a few hours idly shuffling about town (maybe read a book on a swing-set), before sneaking unto a train to London to beg, borrow, and steal what she happened to need at the time.
Over time she had picked up the bad habit of hanging out at the playground, staring off into space, while nannies and stay-at-home moms glared daggers at her. From the crowd of children and annoyed caretakers one stood out, a girl probably 9 or 10 years old, and with very little control of her magic. The werewolf didn't want to interfere, she figured Hogwarts was just waiting for the right moment to break the news to the family, but she considered it her civic duty to clean up after the girl's mishaps.
The girl's name was Melinda O'Harrah, which made Lavender think her parents didn't like her very much. Though Lavender wouldn't know for sure, talking to kids would probably result in her being run out of town, pitchforks and all. It seemed like almost every second day, Melinda would manage some sort of magical oddity near the playground. If she had to guess, the kid didn't much enjoy lounging around on her own, and the playground only reminded her of her loneliness. One of the O'Harrah's would generally pick her up somewhere between 17 and half past, but from school let out, until they came, she was left to her own devices. Lavender was content just checking up on the girl from a distance, casting the occasional "finite incantatem" when she managed to turn all the sand in the sandbox into spiders or something of the sort.
However, temper tantrums and wild magic was a dangerous combination. The Hogwarts alumna never did learn what had started it, she only saw the flaming tendril snaking around the horizon and stormed into action. It was a mess, but Lavender managed to keep the family safe, until the aurors showed up to begin throwing memory charms around. It seemed that the ministry now owed her 2 favours and were willing to add a 3rd to the list.
The ministry deemed the O'Harrah family "not quite ready for the wizarding world just yet", and as was standard procedure, the family was assigned a warden without their knowledge. Since ms. Brown already had experience working with the family, she was given the job under the condition that she in turn was assigned a supervisor to oversee her work. Lavender didn't mind (much), her day to day life didn't change in any noteworthy fashion, and the extra sickles a month meant a worlds difference to her standard of living. Her supervisor did take some getting used to. Being a pureblood herself, she knew the Malfoy family by reputation, though they didn't have any sort of clear relationship to the Browns. Apparently Narcissa had a great big change of heart after the battle for Hogwarts, and was now teaching potions at the aforementioned school, to purebloods and muggleborns alike... Oh and she had also been asked to supervise the werewolf in her newest odd job.
Lavender was almost sad when the day came where she had to take Melinda to Diagon Alley. By that point she knew better than to get attached to some random kid she would probably never meet again. Didn't mean she didn't take professor Malfoy up on her offer to get a drink afterwards, no reason to turn down expensive firewhisky.
The Malfoy mansion was huge but empty. With Lucius dead, large parts of the estate sold off, and Draco living in the inner city with his wife and son, it was no wonder Narcissa felt lonely. The whole house technically belonged to her son, but he would not hear of even the implication, that he take it over and move his mom into a smaller house, in fact, he even insisted she keep the master bedroom.
Narcissa was a gracious host, and surprisingly supportive of Lavender's lot in life. At first she felt awkward in the spacious sitting room, but after a house elf casually joined their chat, and she got started on her 3rd glass of firewhisky, she began to feel more at ease. Still, she had to pick her jaw off the floor when professor Malfoy suggested she spent the night in one of the many guestrooms. The werewolf tried her best not to shed all over the pristine room, but it had been weeks since she had, had anything resembling a shower, and when she woke up the next morning, she found the white linens desecrated by her lacklustre hygiene.
Lav wasn't sure if Mrs. Malfoy made a habit of taking in strays, or if she was special, No matter what, there was certainly worse things to be than Narcissa Malfoy's project. 3 square meals a day, as many baths as she could want, and an elderly pureblood matron helping her write applications. What more could a girl possibly want?