All's Fair
The Healing
"Brown! Your boyfriend's here," Shelly called across the common hall.
"Shay!" Lavender cried as she ran to him. "You're a day early." She hugged him tightly and sighed as he kissed her.
"Harry told me I should come down today," said Seamus after a moment, as he pulled back from her welcome. "Told me I should reinforce the wards Charlie and I did, he also said after three weeks apart we should have a night to ourselves."
"Great boss you got there." Lavender laughed.
Seamus smiled. "He tries. Part o' the reason it took Kingsley so long to get Ron and Harry to join was Harrys insisting on personal time for us. Now he's department head, he's making sure we all get time off."
Lavender nodded and smiled. "Always liked Harry," she said, and then she looked at Seamus seriously. "You caught him?"
Seamus tipped his head. "Caught's a relative term," he said. "Harcourt Ellison's not hurting anyone ever again."
Lavender nodded. "I know it's hard, Shay, but you did the right thing. He was a murderer."
"Aye, I know." He smiled at her. "Cho says it best for us, she does. 'I don't mind being the instrument of someone's well deserved karma'"
"She's right." Lavender said and took his hand. "It's good you're here. I'm just headed out to check on Horatius, and I've been wanting to introduce you to him."
Seamus chuckled. "How's you other boyfriend going to feel about me?"
"He'll be fine, Shay," Lavender said and laughed. "Horatius isn't the jealous type."
"And your other friends?" he asked "They still infatuated with you?"
Lavender smiled contentedly. "They love me, Shay, the Kind and the Friends." She looked around the hall at her workmates. "None of them care, none of them fear me. I love it here."
"That's what Parvati said. Spoke with her Friday when she came back from her weeks visit, I did." Seamus smiled broadly. "What's this about a show?"
Lavender blushed. "It was Charlie and David's idea actually." At Seamus' confunded look she said, "David's our accountant, among other things, and he and Charlie thought some public exposure might help us protect the Kind."
"What kind of 'public exposure'" Seamus asked.
"Parv and Pansy think that it'd be a great draw for their next charity game. We'd have to make some arrangements for safety, but once we have that in place we could present one of the Kind to the public in a way that would help them fear the Kind less and maybe love them more."
"Sounds like a cracking idea. Where do you come in?" he asked.
She blushed again and looked down. "I'd be the one doing the presenting."
Seamus snickered. "Aye, and you'll be great at it too. Who would you present, Horatius, Asgre?"
"No, no, no, he's had quite enough exposure, and she's just not the right one. No, we were thinking of the other end of the scale." She snickered. "As it were. Dante is our youngest, the most playful, he's gorgeous, and he loves me as much as Asgre does."
Seamus smiled at her. "Aye, well that'll be good then. You'll have to introduce me to him as well sometime."
Lavender took his hand. "Horatius first, I think." She tilted her head toward the door. "Care to go meet the oldest living thing on earth?"
"Anywhere, anytime, my love," He said, and followed her out onto the trail that led to the common field.
As he walked by her side, Seamus took Lavenders hand and smiled. The last two months had seen her blossom into the woman he knew she could be. After her spectacular introduction to the Dragon Friends they had immediately commandeered her. Charlie had been right behind Seamus, and when Lavender had finished snogging the young Irishman to near unconsciousness he had asked her, "So, Brown, ever considered dragon keeping?"
She had started the next day.
The first thing she learned was that the Dragon Friends were very scholarly. They expected her to learn everything known about the Kind, and Lavender had taken that challenge head on. During her tenure at Hogwarts she had been a less than diligent student, but leaning the Kind was a completely different thing to Lavender. She excelled, and her studies had led to a new and surprisingly deep level of friendship with Hermione.
Her ex-dorm mate, friend, enemy, friend, and savior turned out to be one of the kindest and most passionate people Lavender had ever known. Hermione had achieved something no one thought possible with the act freeing the elves and installing work rights laws for them. Now her brilliant mind was focused on Lavender and others with her affliction. Seamus knew Hermione well. He knew that, even with their previous experience dealing with her, the Wizengamot was in for another in their face, unstoppable juggernaut in the form of the petite Mrs. Weasley. He laughed.
"What," Lavender asked.
Seamus kissed her hand. "I just realized Hermione's going to be Minister for Magic one day."
Lavender snorted. "Really? Parv, Pady, Marietta, and I figured that out 8 years ago."
At Seamus' bemused look she continued. "We were sitting around the courtyard I think, and the discussion ran to who would be Minister when our generation got the chance. It was a short list that got to one fairly quickly. She's it, like it or not." Lavender smiled. "I like it."
"Aye, she will be great at it when the time comes." He looked up at the small shed they had come to. "What's this?'
"It's our port box." Lavender told him. "They set up the system shortly after they founded the reserve. You and Charlie Apparated to the boundary points, but those aren't near any roosts. Apparating startles the Kind, and flying a broom is not the smartest thing to do around here, so they put this together. There's a box at every roost. We step in, close the door, say the dragon's name, and step out at the roost. Brilliant." She opened the door to a room perhaps ten feet on a side. Seamus stepped in after her and she closed the door. "Horatius!" she said loudly, and then stroked her hand down the side of Seamus' face. "Okay, Shay. Open the door."
It was the side of a mountain. That was what Seamus saw as he opened the door. He stepped out, looked around, and asked, "Where is he?"
Lavender closed her eyes and for a few moments. "Over there," she said pointing into a craggy tree filled dale. She smiled, "I've learned a few trick since last time you were here." She closed her eyes again. Horatius, my friend, Seamus is here. She thought at the dragon and felt him understand. "He's coming, Shay. Don't be nervous, he's looking forward to meeting you too."
"How do you know?" Seamus asked, genuinely interested.
"It's very hard to explain," Lavender said. "I've tried with The Friends. This is the best I can do." She looked into his eyes. "Like I told you before, feel them. It's a bit of like they're a part of me held at a distance. I think they feel me the same way. The closer we are, the better it works, and when we're touching it's at its most powerful. They understand a few words, but mostly we communicate in images. They show me things, things they want or want me to do, things they think are funny." She laughed. "They are hilarious. Oh my god shay, Portia! She is so funny!" and she laughed again. "Just now I sent to Horatius words and feelings; Sort of a message wrapped in love."
"That so?"
She kissed him. "Yes." And she kissed him again. They fell into a snogging session. It happened frequently now, and Seamus was overjoyed at that. He had waited a long time, and would have patiently waited another hundred years for her, but he was ecstatic and relieved that he didn't have to. They were so caught up in the moment that they never heard the stealthy approach of a ten and a half ton dragon.
Horatius nudged Lavender and Seamus with his snout.
"JESUS!" Shay shouted, and jumped back.
A sound like the Hogwarts Express leaving the station issued from the dragons throat, and Lavender laughed along with Horatius. "Yes, that was very amusing, Horatius," she said sarcastically, and then addressed Seamus who was still shaking a little. "Told you they were witty."
Seamus was still getting used to the idea that the enormous animal wasn't intent on eating him. But his fear was rapidly turning to awe as he took his first close look at the Ironbelly before him. Horatius had faded from silver to an almost milk white color during his long imprisonment, But that had brought out a quality in his scales that no one knew about. Prismatic crystalline structures inside his scales caused small spectral rainbows to appear and disappear all over his body as he moved. He was astounding to behold.
"Yes, he's beautiful, isn't he," Lavender said from his side. She looked at Horatius. "My dear friend, this is my love." She took Seamus' hand and in her left and laid her right on the dragon's snout.
Seamus was unprepared. It was similar to the Legilimency charm, less verbose to be sure, but deeper, more emotional, more visual, and a little more powerful. He felt Lavender and her love, He felt Horatius and his love for Lavender, and he felt them feel him. "Is that what it's like for you?" he asked, awed.
"No that is about one quarter of the depth I have with them." Lavender drew a deep calming breath. "I did that with Parv last week, and I wanted to try it with you before I show it to the Friends, but this, this is what I really want to try. This is what I feel."
The world vanished and he was bombarded with memories and images. Let me focus for you, he felt from Lavender, and a memory solidified in his mind. It was from Horatius, far in the past. A woman stood before them, dressed in simple robes, her hair held by braids, and her feet in sandals. That was Miriam, one of the first Arouks. She was Arouk for a long time, seventy years at least.
What's Arouk? Seamus thought.
What he felt from Horatius in answer nearly took him off his feet. Emotions and images poured through him. Miriam rode Horatius, both of them enveloped in a swirling bubble of love and joy, Horatius awakening to find Mariam happily humming to herself as she made her breakfast at the hearth in their liar. The two of them were facing an angry mob of people, and an aged Miriam used her staff as a wand casting the Bombarda, and lastly Horatius showed him Miriam in the throes of the change to her werewolf form.
The Arouk must be a female, a werewolf, and a sensitive. We are rare, and then they have to encounter us. Horatius has had only six of us, and Asgre four, including me, Lavender sent to him.
Horatius' thoughts enveloped him again, and more images formed in his mind, a dark haired woman in furs, a long unbroken snowscape at the mouth of their cave, an Asian woman dressed in a simple wrap emerging from her hut in the jungle, A tall blond woman standing at the crest of a hill, her hair flying free in the wind, Miriam again, smiling at him, A heavy woman with a pronounced brow dropped a deer at his feet, a woman with fiery red hair casting spells at an oncoming hoard of goblins, and then falling with several pikes in her chest and stomach, and finally Lavender.
I am Asgre's, but she shares me with all of them. Let's pull back now.
Lavender lifted her hand from Horatius and dropped Seamus' as he staggered and sat on a nearby rock. "Merlin's hairy balls!" he exclaimed in a huff." That was amazing, Lav." His expression changed from one of awe to anger "When did the goblins take him?"
"Around nine forty AD as best as I can tell," Lavender replied flatly.
Seamus was horrified. "They kept him down that fucking shit hole for a thousand years?" he asked, incensed.
Lavender nodded.
"That's going to make trips to Gringotts a bit troubling for me," he told Lavender through gritted teeth. He shook his head and smiled. "So, Arouk is it? Title come with any benefits?" he looked at Lavender leaning on Horatius' leg. "Besides the obvious."
"I think being able to completely trust each other, to know each other is reward enough," Lavender said as she walked to Seamus.
He kissed her. "Amazing, thanks, Lav, I've never…" he shook his head and grinned. "Can I try something?"
"Sure," she said puzzled.
Seamus walked to Horatius' head, and he laid his hand against the dragon's cheek. He stuck his other hand in his pocket, grasped his wand, and silently did the Legilimency charm. Lavender watched as they both closed their eyes in concentration. Then the dragon jerked and opened his eyes, at the same time Seamus smiled and turned to Lavender. The dragon nudged him in the back making him walk forward a few feet.
"Not anything like what you can do, but it appears I can at least ask a question," Seamus said smiling.
"What question?" Lavender asked.
Seamus was smiling harder than he thought possible. "Have a seat, got to tell you a little story."
Lavender smiled back at him. "Okay, Shay," she said as she sat on a log.
"You remember what I said in that unused classroom a few days before the battle?" he asked her quietly, in a voice filled with love.
She smiled at the memory. They had made love there. It was the last time before her mauling. Her voice was soft. "You said a lot of things, Shay, how beautiful I was, how much you loved me, how much you hated Voldemort, What a fat cow you thought Alecto Carrow was, how you wanted to get… mar…" her eyes grew very wide. "Shay?"
"I ran into Anthony day before yesterday, well not really ran into. I was in the shop getting it cleaned you see. Well, we started talking weddings, and he was telling me about Parvati wanting to take you dress shopping for your maid of honor costume next week. I thought you should be just as happy as she is, I thought you might want some leverage over the style of the dress," –He winked at her- "and I've waited as long as I intend to, so I brought it here with me. I was thinking you might want to wear it from now on, seeing as how I've had it since before we had that classroom conversation."
He pulled a ring with a brilliant diamond set into it from his pocket. "Lavender, I'd thought to ask in a nice comfortable restaurant I know, with you in a beautiful dress, but I can't think of a better place and time than right here, and right now." He knelt and placed the ring on her finger. "Lavender Brown, will you marry me?"
She couldn't speak, but the nod of her head, the rush of her tears, and the kiss told him everything.
(######)
It was nothing like he imagined. Seamus had ridden horses, his Muggle uncle raised them, and he knew the power of a large animal, but the stunning, immense muscular power that Horatius had made everything else insignificant. Horatius had insisted they go for a celebratory ride, and Lavender had happily drug Seamus up the dragon's leg. They sat with Lavender in front and Seamus wrapped around her. She was melding them again, in the shallower way, so that Seamus could feel the elation of the dragon. He felt the dragon instruct them to hang on tighter, and Seamus grasped the dorsal plates of his neck, hugging Lavender to him. The world spun around them as Horatius spiraled into the sky. They passed through a cloud layer and then another, bursting into the bright unfiltered sun above the scattered clouds over western Wales. Then the sense of weightlessness and they were diving towards the field again.
(######)
It took less than five seconds for Adriana to notice the ring as Seamus and Lavender reentered the great hall. Being one with a flair for the dramatic she couldn't help herself. "Dragon Friends! "she called out as she stood on a table. "The Arouk has chosen a mate!"
The party lasted hours. Seamus, planning ahead, only accepted four of the proffered firewhiskys, and he made sure Lavender didn't over indulge. He had activities on his agenda, and he was sure she did too. They were toasted, they were fed, and the Dragon Friends were quite pleased that their newest had accepted the proposal of her one true love. They would not be the only married couple at the reserve. David Lane, their accountant and face to the ministry, was married to Laura, a potion maker. They lived at the reserve and she apparated to Diagon Alley in London three days a week and Molead Avenue in Edinburgh for two days. Shelly, Charlie's partner, lived off the reserve with her husband and children in the little town of Cwmllynfell nearby. By the time Darryl, one of the keepers specializing in the Horntails, had discreetly led them out of the hall to the cottage path, the rest of the Dragon Friends were in fine form. They would throw a party at the drop of a hat, or engagement, it seemed.
The sound of the singing and dancing revelers faded as Seamus followed Lavender up the path behind the common hall. The stockade blocked off the small valley in the side of one of the mountains bordering the reserve. Its steep sides and short length made it uncomfortable for the dragons as they had difficulty taking flight in its small confines. They could enter the compound if they wished, and some had, but they tended to forego the Friends valley for their own. Small cottages were scattered along the quarter mile long trail. Some of the Friends shared a cottage, some did not. The decision was up to them. Lavender had one to herself.
She pulled Seamus through the door and sealed it behind them. "I hate when you're gone so long, Shay," she said between kisses as she took his cloak and hung it on a peg by the door. "It makes it hard to catch up on all the lovemaking we missed." They stumbled to the couch in her sitting room as clothes fell willy-nilly around the room. Seamus' shirt was a victim as Lavender tore it from him. "Sorry," she said breathlessly, and then attacked his chest with her lips. "Full moon tomorrow, and I…"
"'S okay," he said. "I've been paying atten…on god." Lavender had slid her hand down his now undone trousers. Seamus cupped her left breast through her shirt and groaned, "Got to get this off you." He carefully, as if he was opening a gift, undid each button. He kissed her lips, then her neck, between her breasts as he unsnapped the front clasp of her bra, and then he pushed back her shirt and bra at the same time so that they slid from her arms to pool on the floor behind her.
Their shoes and socks had been kicked off between the door and the couch, so Seamus lowered her gently to the cushions while he kissed her, and then he divested her of her leather keeper's trousers and her knickers with one motion. She did nearly the same thing to him a moment later. From her seat on the couch she smiled up at him, and then she took him, curling her tongue over and around him while lightly running her fingers through the fine red hair of his bollox. At his moan of wonder she laughed and pulled from him with a kiss. "The Kind aren't the only thing I've been revising on," she said and took him again.
He looked down and committed the image to memory. Her ring glittered on her finger as she held him, her lips rhythmically bumping her index finger and thumb. Her tongue did a little dance around him, and he moaned again, saying, "Oh, Lav, that's… mmm, so fine." He let her continue for another few minutes, and then pulled her up from the couch into an intense kiss. Cradling her in his arms the same way he had when he carried her to his hammock in the room of requirement almost six years earlier, he walked to the bedroom of the cottage.
"You're a randy one these days before the full moon," he said with a laugh as he laid her on the duvet.
"I can tell that's going to be a problem," she said grinning. "What ever shall we do about it?"
"Got a few ideas," he said while kissing his way down her belly. His fingers slid over her and she pushed herself against them. "So hot," he breathed. Her blonde curls tickled his nose, and then she gasped as he spelled her name with his tongue. He would do this for hours if she wanted; reaching up her body, stroking her, bringing nipples to hardened points with his gentle kneading and occasional soft pinch, and all the while using his tongue and lips on her most sensitive spot. She tensed and shuddered, and Seamus felt a warm flood on his cheeks. That was his cue to be more aggressive. Harder, faster, firmer, those were his mantras as her brought her quickly back to the edge. He felt her breath hitch, and he sucked hard while swirling his tongue. Her scream of pleasure vibrated his eardrums, and she almost tore out a chunk of his hair.
Seamus wiped his face on the duvet and kissed his way up her body. "Do you want me?" he asked.
"Yes, now, Shay," she pleaded.
He rubbed himself at her entrance. "Now?"
"Gods yes, Shay, please," she said and pushed herself against him. He entered just a little.
"Always?"
"Always."
He joined with her fully, and she cried out as she clutched at him inside and out. As her orgasm faded he began to move, slowly, relishing the moment. Seamus had fucked a lot, but this, this thing that he and Lavender did? She was right. This was making love. This was what it was supposed to be; loving, caring, wanting naught but pleasure for her. That he was being swept along with her was just an added bonus. He craved nothing more than to play her like a maestro at his instrument, and he had had enough practice to be fairly good at it. He was still learning her, her likes, what not to do, and most importantly what made her make the sounds that he loved to hear. Inarticulate moans and whimpers, the occasional "yes", the occasional "fuck", and the rhythmic squeak she was making now that meant it was approaching. He had barely touched her with his moistened thumb when she came apart beneath him, and he almost immediately followed her.
They lay in each other's arms for a long time before Seamus finally spoke. "That was one for the books, it was." He stroked the side of her face. "Lavender Finnigan, I really like the sound of that. Have for a long time."
A tear tracked down her cheek. "Been practicing my signature for six years," she said quietly.
"I'm sorry it took so long," he said.
"You, my brave hero, have nothing to be sorry for," she told him as she hugged him. "It was all me. I'm the one that's sorry.'
"No, Lav," he said softly. "I've been thinking, I have. You weren't the only one hurt by the war. If we'd have been together just after I'm not certain we'd still be together now. I was broken." He shook his head. "Really broken. If I hadn't joined the Aurors, If I didn't have you to care for and need me, If I hadn't had the time to find myself and remember who I am. I don't think we'd 've made it this far."
Lavender looked at him with boundless love and admiration in her eyes.
"We both had to heal. You from an obvious wound, me from the ones inside." He had never before spoken of that night to anyone, not even the ministry healer they assigned to make him talk about it. "When that evil fuck… when he took Colin from us…"
"It's okay, Shay," she said. "you don't…"
"No, I do," he said. "I need to say it; I think you need to hear it."
Lavender watched him prepare. He looked at her; he looked at the ceiling, and then took several stuttering breaths.
"I knew, I knew what I was doing every fucking second," he said through his teeth. "Neville and Harry? They like to pretend, but Ron and I know. We know we can be just a wicked as they can." He looked in her eyes, willing her to understand. "I see it all the time, when I lay down to sleep, if you're not there. I see it, I see them, I see Colin, I see it all, and I see you. After I found out Lestrange blew up the stairs, and Greyback, and the mad dash to see you the great hall, I hunted that evil bag o' shit down. Found him out behind the castle, I did." He looked in her eyes. "Lestrange suffered more than that other arsehole, I made sure of it, and I don't regret a goddamn moment of it!" He was trembling.
Lavender lovingly traced the old scar on his cheek, a reminder from Alecto Carrow. She didn't talk about that night either, it was hard, but with Seamus she knew she could say anything. Her voice was low, calm and flat. "I killed thirty seven."
"What?" he said amazed.
"I killed thirty seven people, Shay." She cupped his cheek. "And just like you, I'd do it again."
Seamus looked stunned and a little pleased. "We all thought Anthony was the champ with nineteen!" His lips moved toward a smile. "Well, we're a pair to draw to then, aren't we?"
She nodded and smiled grimly. "Be a big fucking mistake to take on the Finnigans."
He truly smiled at her calling them by his name. "Aye, that it would." He kissed her. "We both had to heal, Lav. It's strange," he said looking up at wood slats of the ceiling. "It's like time stopped that night, and everything after was a dream. Sometimes it were a nightmare, lately though…" he hugged her to his side.
"Yeah, I understand that," she said. "There are times I feel like I just woke up a few months ago. Before… before I was just going through the motions. When you weren't there, I was just a shell. The only time I felt alive was when you came. But then you would have to go, and I'd be alone again."
"You had Walter and Emilia."
"And they were a godsend, after my parents and…" she said and sniffed. "But it was you that kept me going."
His hand trembled as he stroked her face. "I should have spent more time with you, I…"
"Then I really would have driven you away, Shay." She looked at him with love and kindness shining in her eyes. "It was good that you didn't have the time at first like Parv had. I almost did drive her away, but she has that Gryffindor stubborn thing." Lavender smiled and chuckled. "Worse than Hermione." She became serious again. "The first two years were very hard, finding out Riddle had killed my parents and sisters, learning to deal with Lycanthropy, finding out just how awful people can be to people like me, I'm glad you missed most of that. I've learned how to manage it. Without the potion I get the full effect, good and bad, and I've made peace with that. I had to learn, I had to cry, I had to watch you living without me to know what I really wanted, and I needed Katie Bell to kick my arse."
"Aye, she's a good friend, one of the best really," he said.
"Sorry I took you away from her."
Seamus snorted a laugh. "No you're not, and besides you didn't 'take me away', she knows that," he said. "Saw her and Pansy a few weeks ago, I did. It was at the inquest into Katie and me handling of those fuckwits that kidnapped Pansy." He smiled and held up her hand, gazing at the ring. "They both were badgering me to do this." He looked in her eyes. "They didn't know I had already worked that out. 'Course I had planned on taking you into Holyhead and having a nice dinner at The South Stack. Kath's the owner and a good friend, you see; I already talked to her about how rare you like your meat these days."
"Sounds wonderful," She laughed lightly. "The next three nights I'm back in Ipswich, but we could go Friday?"
He kissed her hand. "It's a date," he said, and then his other hand found her. She gasped. "Ready to go again, I see," he said with a smile.
