Despite her misgivings, Lavender did go back to the Half Moon Tavern again. The moon was a sliver in the sky the next time she stalked in and claimed her seat at the bar. She saw Brandon once, across the room, and leveled a glare at him. Despite his alpha routine from last time, he looked away first, and that made Lavender smile without humor. She might not be a werewolf, might just have some nasty scars and wolfish tendencies, but she was not going to be pushed around by some puppy who thought it was fine to follow a man who savaged little girls.

She met some other werewolves who seemed to have the same idea about being wandless as Brandon had. They all had similar stories about their bites – they had been young, their parents had thrown them out sometime in their teens when the hormones from puberty messed badly with the emotions brought on by the full moon. Some had followed Greyback but a few hadn't, and those ones she met up with again. The more she was around the werewolves, the less she thought about Seamus.

Brenda was glad that the forced day off had helped Lavender and so she insisted that her only employee take at least two days off per week. Now that they were back in the slow season after the holidays Brenda said she didn't need as much help and gave Lavender every Sunday and Monday off. Those nights, Lavender could be found at the Half Moon.

As the moon got bigger in the sky the tensions increased at the Half Moon, but Lavender noticed that it wasn't just from the werewolves. The barkeeper seemed used to it, so she asked him why all the humans in the room would be getting hyped up about the full moon's approach.

He shrugged when she asked. "Some of 'em, they want to be werewolves an' they get excited that this month might be their chance. Crazy if you ask me. Some of 'em, they're wandless like the werewolves and they're resentful about it. Everyone that comes here is lookin' for somethin', and I've been told that the full moon brings renewal. Least, that's what I've been told."

Lavender did remember from her Astrology and Divination classes that the full moon held a lot of symbology. She had been ignoring most of her memories about that since she had been attacked, but after the barkeeper had told her that she went home and found her old schoolbooks. Brushing the dust off of them and opening them was like greeting an old friend, especially her Divination book. She and Parvati had scribbled notes all over their books, convinced that Divination was the most amazing subject.

It was a bittersweet feeling to see her best friend's handwriting all over the books, in the margins and between the lines of print. Hastily sketched drawings of tea leaves and hand lines littered the pages, along with a few hearts around the names of various boys. Lavender spent nearly an hour just reliving the memories of their early years at Hogwarts, before everything turned dark and scary, when they were only concerned about which boys were the cutest and which ones were the sweetest.

A smile touched her face as she ran her fingertips over a heart around Michael Corner's name. Parvati had been in love with him half her time at Hogwarts, and they had finally gotten together in the final year. It was amazing to her how that year had brought the different Houses together. Inter-House dating had happened, of course, but never in the numbers that it had her seventh year. They had all become more than their Houses that year – they had been true friends and a family for each other.

Lavender missed them. She missed them all.

Resolved, she shut the Divination book gently and set it on the coffee table, brushing her fingers over it with a promise to herself to do her research later. She needed to see Neville and Hannah, to tell them that she missed them. Maybe others from the DA would be around too, and she could see them.

She donned her jacket and stepped out into the night, locking her door and setting off with a smile. Her hair blew back behind her in the night wind and she loved the feel of it on her face. Even the big scars were almost closed now, though they still got red and angry if exposed to too much cold.

When she got to Neville and Hannah's, she could hear a lot of laughter inside. She took a quick scent of the air to reassure herself Seamus wasn't there. He wasn't, but she did smell other familiar scents, other members of the DA come around for a quick drink, maybe. Her smile widened and she knocked on the door.

Neville answered a few moments later, then blinked at Lavender in surprise. "Lavender, hi," he greeted. "Uh, Seamus isn't here..."

She nodded. "I know. I just wanted to come say hello. Can... can I come in?"

"Of course!" Neville said, ushering her in. "Sorry. I was just surprised to see you. Hannah!" He bellowed. "Lavender's here!"

Hannah came through into the entryway and wrapped Lavender in a hug. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Lavender started, a little confused as to why everyone seemed to be shocked to see her. Had she really been that reclusive? Yes, she realized almost immediately. Yes she had. Hannah dragged her into the kitchen and she looked around, recognizing some of the people there. Terry Boot waved at her, as did Luna Lovegood and Ginny Weasley and Michael Corner, all of them with surprised looks on their faces. There were a two other people there, clearly Aurors in training by their robes.

Hannah shoved her a little further into the kitchen and did introductions. "That's Jessica Rodriguez, Auror in training with Neville and Terry. She's from the United States. Alexei Tsarskiy is training with Michael, he's from Russia originally. Jessica, Alexei, this is Lavender Brown. She fought with us in the Battle of Hogwarts last year."

Both of them nodded their greetings and Lavender wasn't surprised when their eyes raked over her scars. In response, rather than flinching away like she was accustomed to, she brought her new attitude to bear and pretended they were looking at her like that in the Half Moon Tavern. She met Alexei's eyes and raised her eyebrows until he gave her a half smile and looked away, then did the same with Jessica. Staring down guests of Hannah's was hardly polite but Lavender didn't want to be looked at like some broken thing any more.

"Okay," Hannah said, clearly a little unsettled from watching the exchange. "Lavender, what can I get you to drink? Water, wine? We've got some beer and whiskey as well."

"Wine would be lovely, thanks Hannah."

Soon she was chatting with Terry Boot in a corner while the kitchen buzzed with conversation around her. Terry still seemed a little confused as to why she had been hiding but she didn't really want to explain in detail, and he was too polite to ask. She learned about how his Auror training was going, how they expected his class to graduate in late April, perhaps earlier. The Aurors had never had a class so ready like the DA, Terry boasted. They'd all been accelerated, along with a select few like Jessica and Alexei.

"It's amazing what a little fear of torture and planning your own death will do for aptitude," Lavender joked, drawing a laugh out of Terry. Hannah gave her a surprised look from across the kitchen. "What, Hannah?"

Hannah shook her head. "It's great to see you out, Lavender." She came over to Lavender and Terry in order to not shout across all the people. "I'm actually surprised to see you. I thought you'd been avoiding us because Seamus has been staying here sometimes."

"I knew he wasn't here tonight," Lavender replied. She hadn't known that Seamus had been staying, but she took a deep breath and detected a few traces of his scent on the air, coming from the couch in their living room.

"Dare I ask how?" Terry questioned. Maybe it was a trainee Auror thing to interrogate people.

Perhaps it would be strange to tell them why, but Lavender was trying to come to terms with what she was now. And what she was now had a powerful sense of smell, especially with the moon waxing slowly towards full. So, she gave a deliberately careless shrug and said, "I could smell that he wasn't here."

The kitchen went quiet. "Sorry, you could smell him?" Alexei asked eventually, awkwardness and incredulity in his tone even though his accent.

Lavender raised her chin and met his eyes again. "Yes. I was attacked by a werewolf. You didn't think these scars were just to cover a pretty face, did you?" Even though she had done her usual regimen of makeup and foundation and powder to blend her scars into her face, they still showed through. They always showed through. What would Alexei think of her face without the makeup? That was an amusing thought, even though a month ago it would have made her cower in the corner from shame.

He looked like he was working over what exactly to say before he cracked a grin and shrugged. "I don't think there's anything that could cover your pretty face."

She smiled at him in return, toasting him with her half-full glass of wine. "Perfect response."

The night went on more relaxed after that, and Alexei and Lavender ended up talking soon after their exchange. He had gone to school at Durmstrang but had dropped out halfway through his fifth year after his family had been killed by Dark wizards. He'd thrown himself into learning how to defend himself and others and trying to track down the murderers.

"Did you catch them?" Lavender asked.

Alexei shook his head tightly. Clearly, it was still a fresh wound. "Never did. After You-Know-Who announced himself I wanted to come fight here, but no one wanted to take an underage kid across the Channel to what they thought would be his death. After the war was over I caught a ride on the first Portkey out of France and here I am. I want to be an Auror, and after seeing what I could do they put me in the class with your friends. I was really impressed with their work, by the way. I can't believe they learned all that in seventh year."

"We all had to learn," Lavender explained. "I'm sure Neville told you we were planning a big fight at the end of term, to get the attention of the wizarding world. All the papers and Memory Charms in the world couldn't cover it up if almost half the Hogwarts students were killed at the end of the year. That was our plan."

"Neville mentioned that... wait, you fought with them?"

Lavender looked at him. "How do you think I got these scars?" She couldn't decide whether or not to be offended by his surprised tone.

"Then why aren't you in Auror training? I know Hannah's not because she wants to help her granddad with the pub, but why not you? What do you do?"

"I work at a robes shop," Lavender replied. "And I didn't join the Aurors because I didn't want to. I've had enough of fighting, if you can believe that."

Alexei laughed. "I don't think I can."

Lavender nodded. "I can tell. You're still all hyped up, just like the rest of them. You still want to hunt down and stop Dark wizards. There's nothing wrong with that at all, but after seeing how many people had died, how many of my friends had died, I'd had enough death. I took time to heal my wounds, but the mental ones are still healing."

"I guess that makes sense," Alexei agreed. "There's a few of your old classmates in the training program who I can tell never really left the war behind." He paused for a moment before motioning towards her empty wine glass. "Can I get you another?"

Lavender smiled her acceptance before heading out onto Hannah and Neville's small balcony, looking out over the London night. Alexei soon joined her, handing the wine to her and leaning up against the railing next to her. "Neville's talked about you a bit," he said. "I still can't believe you're not in the Aurors, or training to be a Healer. He said you made the best Healing salves and you're a fantastic spellcaster, even under pressure."

She shook her head. "Because I trained to be. Because we drilled to be, night after night, for almost a whole year. I never wanted to be an amazing witch, I just didn't get a choice if I wanted to take down Death Eaters in our big end of the year fight. I never wanted to kill people, not ever. My best friend and I talked about opening a shop and coming up with our own fashion line for young witches. I mean, don't get me wrong, I don't regret fighting in the least. I'd do it against in a heartbeat, repercussions and all. But I never wanted to fight in a cause like that." She would do it again, even if that meant her scars. She hadn't really known that until she said it out loud. It was a good feeling.

"Well, it sounds like the Aurors lost out when you decided not to join them," Alexei declared.

"I guess you'll just have to pick up the slack then," Lavender teased, looking sidelong at him. She was flirting again, and she was rusty at it but that was fine. She could relearn.

He shot a grin at her. "I guess I will. For now though, I have to go home. My class starts at five tomorrow morning. I'd like to see you again though."

Lavender returned his grin. "I'd like that too. I'm off Friday."

"Fantastic. The Dragon's Head at seven?" He named a pub she hadn't been to but had heard of as being very nice, and a place were people around her age frequented often.

"Seven sounds good to me," Lavender agreed. She walked him out the front door, ignoring Hannah's pointed look as they passed.

"See you Friday," he said, then leaned forward and down and kissed her on the cheek, right where one of her scars was. That simple acceptance of her ripped skin, more than anything, made her smile, and she turned her head just slightly so their lips met gently.

"See you Friday," she whispered against his mouth, smiling up into his blue eyes. She was looking forward to Friday.