Prompt: Victory
For the New Year
Victory, Lavender reads in Neville's palm.
Victory.
She reads for Neville on their last night in Gryffindor Tower; the Hogwarts Express leaves tomorrow morning, transporting all out of the grim castle to a grim, grey holiday.
She catches him in the common room late in the evening; a Christmas present, a prediction for the New Year, she offers. He would refuse (it seems silly) but this year has worn on Lavender more than most and this seems like a piece of the old, of what was before. He never thought he'd miss the insipid schoolgirl giggling.
He wears his usual, a black eye and a slash across his cheek. Lavender's stayed out of trouble lately; her hands aren't bandaged and he can see the round pitted scars (Amycus has been lecturing a lot lately, she hasn't had to refuse to curse anyone, she hasn't had her hands nailed down to her desk in weeks).
Her fingertips are soft on his palm tracing the lines, her carefully-arranged brown curls falling down around her face as she scrutinises his hand.
Neville doesn't really believe her; Divination seems like bollocks, a bunch of lines in his hand don't know that everything's going to turn out all right. But then she looks up at him, trust in her eyes.
She kisses his palm and says again, victory,a small, smile curling at the edges of her pink-frosted lips.
Merry Christmas, she smiles sadly as she wanders back up to the girls dorm, 'to pack.'
And then Neville realises it really isn't about Divination at all.
