Chapter 80: Made of Earth

Lavender felt her heart almost stop as Neville fell from the sky, crashing to the ground. For a moment he didn't move, and it felt as though someone had cast a petrify spell upon her. She couldn't move, could barely breathe. All she could do was stare at Neville, her dear poor friend who had never liked flying on brooms. Sweet Neville, who had been so nervous about their first flying class.

"We're not made for flying," Neville had confided in her the previous night in the Gryffindor Common Room.

His words had felt right to her. Oh, as a witch and wizard, of course, they were able to fly, but she and Neville held an affinity for the earth. Their magic was more grounded, so it would reason that the two of them would have more troubles than most other witches and wizards with flight.

She was the first to move toward Neville and that seemed to get others moving as well. Madame Hooch reached Neville just before she did and began to examine him. Lavender gently placed a hand on his back to let him know she was there, hoping it would give him some comfort.

"Yep, it's broken," Madame Hooch proclaimed. "Up you get, Longbottom. It's off to the infirmary with you."

Lavender and Madame Hooch helped him to rise. She had just opened her mouth to volunteer to take Neville to the infirmary when Madame Hooch told the class to stay as they were and firmly on the ground until she returned.

Lavender fought back tears as she watched the woman lead Neville away. She wiped her eyes on her sleeve and then turned to speak to Parvati Patil, her new friend. The two girls had met on the Hogwart's Express and had gotten along very well. Parvati was very pretty and fashionable. She enjoyed reading Witch Weekly just like Lavender did. She enjoyed the other girl's company a great deal. "Poor Neville," Lavender managed to say to Parvati before Flora Carrow began to laugh. It was a harsh and cutting sound that had Lavender looking toward the Slytherin girl.

"What an idiot!" Flora said as she snatched a ball up from the ground. Lavender swiftly recognized the ball as Neville's remembral, a gift from his Great-Grandmother that he had received in the mail just that morning. "If he had just used this correctly he would have figured out what he had forgotten. But then what can you expect from a worthless Squib?"

This caused a few of the Slytherin students to snicker.

Lavender was annoyed to hear a small giggle escape Parvati as well. She shot the girl a little glare before she focused again on Flora Carrow. "Shows what you know, Carrow," she said in her most snooty tone of voice. "If Neville were a Squib he wouldn't have received an invitation to Hogwarts."

Flora rolled her eyes. "Money and name, my dear Brown, can get one far, no matter their deficiencies."

"Neville is not deficient!" Lavender defended.

"You are an idiot, Flora Carrow," Hermione Granger said as she came up beside Lavender. "I thought everyone knew that the Sorting Hat could not sort a child with no magical ability."

Flora was no longer rolling her eyes. She was glaring at Hermione. "Well, if it isn't the walking dictionary," she sneered. "Tell us, Granger, have you ever had an original thought?"

"Well, she just said you were an idiot, and so far that's what most of us are thinking, so perhaps not," came the voice of Vincent Crabbe.

Flora turned furious eyes upon the Slytherin boy. "Shut it, you, you blood-traitor!" she hissed at him.

Lavender was surprised that Vincent had spoken up against Flora considering he was betrothed to her twin sister. She noted the spark of hurt in his blue eyes at being called a blood-traitor by Flora and she noted that Hermione had clenched a fist at her side.

"That is enough, Flora! Vince isn't a blood-traitor," Hestia Carrow hissed at her sister.

Flora turned on her. "Oh, and of course you are going to stick up for the fat lump. He's your precious darling, isn't he? You cannot wait to marry him and have ugly babies. Sickening!"

"Enough Flora," snapped Cordelia Yaxley. "I grow tired of your raving."

To Lavender's surprise this silenced Flora. The despicable girl kept casting contrite glances toward the strawberry-blonde-haired Heir of House Yaxley. It was then that Lavender realized that she hadn't paid attention yet to the gossip of the other houses. She had been so preoccupied with her classes and making new friendships that she hadn't bothered yet to get the lay of the land, as her mother had taught her to do. She would need to remedy this error, soon.

Keeping abreast of the gossip was important. Not because it necessarily held any kernels of truth, but because it allowed you to know what everyone else was talking about. Gossip was a way to gauge your opponents and guide them to a different way of thinking. It was a clever way to spread misinformation. Her mother was a Slytherin at heart and of school House and she had taught Lavender the power of gossip.

They were joined again by Madam Hooch and they resumed their class. Lavender hated every moment of it. She hated being on the broom. She hated that she feared falling and hurting herself just as Neville had. She especially hated that she was stuck in this stupid class instead of by Neville's side. The last was especially ridiculous. It wasn't like she could help Neville. He was with Madam Pomfrey where he could get real help for his injury, but well maybe her presence would help soothe him somehow. He always helped soothe her.

It was a relief when the class finally ended. Lavender was grateful to give her broom back to the Madam and rush inside to find Neville. She found him coming down the hall from the infirmary.

"You were released?" was the first thing that came out of her mouth and she wanted to smack herself for the absurdity of it.

Neville gave her a small grin. "It wasn't a bad break. Hurt badly though."

She frowned, remembering how he had whimpered softly but hadn't cried or screamed. He had just cradled the broken limb to keep something worse from happening to it. It was probably natural human instinct at play. "What did she give you?" she asked.

"Bone mending potion and then a pepper up since that takes a bit out of a person," he revealed. "So how was class?"

"Awful," she said as she fell into step beside him, allowing him to escort her toward Gryffindor Tower. "She kept having us go up into the air then down and then up again. I hated it."

"It felt strange being away from the earth, right?" he murmured as they began to climb the stairs to the seventh floor.

She cringed. "It was horrible," she agreed. "There was this disconnect that felt wrong. Not painful but just," she trailed off unable to find the right words.

Neville seemed to understand anyway. "I don't think I'll ever join the Quidditch teams like Harry and Draco intend to do," he revealed. "I wasn't keen on flying before, but now, I know that I'll never want to do it as they do."

"You know you'll have to learn," she pointed out.

He smiled at her and it made his eyes look particularly blue for a moment. "I know. I'm not talking about never flying," he reassured her. "I figure it is the sort of thing that every witch and wizard needs to learn. But that doesn't mean I'll ever feel truly comfortable up there."

She hummed at that. "Maybe it's a thing with the brooms," she voiced the half-thought aloud because she was with Neville and she never had to mind herself with Neville.

They paused when they reached the seventh floor, and he gave her a look. "What do you mean?"

She gave herself a moment to organize her thoughts as they made their way to the portrait of the Fat Lady. She honestly hated that name for it. Calling a woman fat was the height of rudeness, even if the woman was on the corpulent side. "Caput Draconis," she gave the password since she knew that Neville had been having trouble remembering it.

They entered the common room and Lavender meant to continue their discussion, but they were distracted by their year mates as they gathered around them to make sure that Neville was alright. She stood aside and watched as they questioned Neville about his experience in the infirmary, an experience that none of the rest of them had endured yet, though they were due to go to the infirmary that Saturday for checkups. Her cousin, Pansy, had told her that the Slytherin First Years were scheduled for Friday after their final class, but that Professor Snape was insisting on every child in Slytherin House under the age of seventeen to be checked out by Madam Pomfrey.

Lavender did wonder why it was that the Head of Slytherin House wanted his house checked out. The only thing she could think of was that he suspected that some of the children lived in dangerous situations, but he couldn't single out just those kids.

It was dinner time before she and Neville were able to truly speak again, though they had an audience since they were surrounded by their peers. Still, so far their fellow Gryffindor's had been nice. Seamus Finnigan seemed like he enjoyed having fun a bit more than studying, but he seemed to understand that there was a time for laughs and a time for seriousness. Parvati thought Seamus was cute and she kept suggesting that Lavender should spend more time with the boy. It confused Lavender as to why Parvati wanted her to spend time with the boy when it was Parvati that found him so cute. With Seamus was Dean Thomas. He and Seamus had swiftly become best friends. Dean was a steady and stable presence. Kind, considerate, and pleasing to be around. He liked art, something that Lavender and he were able to talk about for hours if not interrupted.

Lavender's father had ensured that she knew a great deal about plants, but her mother had ensured that Lavender knew a great deal about fashion trends, gossip, and the arts.

"What did you mean earlier, about the brooms?" Neville asked Lavender.

Lavender was chewing on a piece of chicken at the time, so it took her a moment to answer. Unfortunately, that meant that others who heard them decided that they could answer for her.

"She probably meant something about those old brooms we were forced to use for class," Parvati exclaimed from her place across from Seamus. "I was worried about a splinter," she revealed. Seamus snickered at that which earned him a glare from Parvati.

"Are you trying to blame what happened to Neville on the school brooms?" Hermione piped up from across from Lavender.

Lavender wasn't sure how she felt about Hermione Granger of the House of Black. On the one hand, Hermione was really intelligent, and she could be nice. On the other hand, she seemed to disdain people who cared about gossip and fashion and Lavender was raised to care about those things. She wasn't sure where she stood with Hermione because of that.

"No, but maybe," Lavender voiced after she took a drink of water to buy herself a bit of time to gather her thoughts.

Before Hermione could speak again, Neville interjected. "It was a continuation of a theory that Lavender and I have long held."

"What theory is that?" Harry asked from his seat across from Neville.

Neville shot her a glance in apology, but she just gave him a smile and a nod, telling him without words that it was alright to share their theories with their friends.

"You know that I have a special affinity with Earth Magic," he said speaking mainly to Harry but including Hermione as well. Lavender watched as the two scions of the House of Black nodded at once. "Well, Lavender shares that affinity. It was Lavender who first taught me how to do anything with it. Anyway, we have this theory that because of our magical affinity to earth that we have problems with flying."

"It feels off-putting," Lavender voiced, joining Neville in the explanation. "To be up on the broom away from the earth. It doesn't hurt, but it just feels wrong. There's this sense of wrongness and a sense of urgency to get back to earth."

Harry nodded in understanding. "I feel as if I was born to fly, so maybe I have an affinity toward that."

Neville chuckled. "If there was a wizard born to fly then it's you, Harry," he declared.

Harry blushed to Lavender's delight. Harry was cute when he blushed. She had the urge to coo over him but that would just end with Harry upset and frustrated. No one wanted that.

She met Hermione's eyes and the two girls smiled at one another. In moments like this, she did believe that she and Hermione might be on their way to a real friendship and not just friendly acquaintances because of their best friends Harry and Neville. She hoped that was the case. She liked Hermione, admired her a great deal already.

"So, what about the broom?" Harry was the one to ask.

Lavender smiled. "Well, the brooms are old, and I don't mean in the worn-out fear of splinters in our future type of old," she said to a few giggles. "I mean that those brooms are so old that they are truly dead."

It was clear by the puzzled looks on the faces around her that they didn't understand. She saw contemplation in Hermione's eyes though and she knew that Granger was not far from figure out what she meant.

"The broom-making process. It requires a tree to be cut and the wood fashioned into brooms but there is more than just the cutting of a tree and the cutting of the wood. There are spells interwoven throughout the process," Hermione said.

Harry nodded. "Yeah, I read about that. Also, there are secret rituals done before a tree is even chopped down. They are trade secrets, so the rituals aren't common knowledge."

"So basically, you mean that those brooms are so old that there is no more life in them," Neville theorized.

"You and I know that there is no more life in them. Mine felt dead. I bet yours did as well," Lavender proclaimed. At his nod, she continued. "Which is why there are barely any charms holding on the brooms and we were at risk of splinters."

Harry smirked. "So, if the school wasn't so stingy with the budget and let us go up with newer brooms then we'd be safer?"

"Probably, since a newer broom would still have some vestiges of vita still within it," Lavender revealed. "It takes a long time for the vita to fade from cut tree wood if the rituals and spells were done correctly."

Hermione leaned forward in fascination. "And does this help hold the spells better?"

Lavender frowned in thought. "It helps to hold longer, but I'm not sure if more vita would mean stronger."

She was happy to note that Hermione looked thoughtful as she stared at her like she might be reassessing what she had originally thought about Lavender. She hoped that Hermione's new conclusion would be a good one. She wanted her friendship.

"You are thinking that with a newer broom, the sense of being in the air would be less jarring?" Neville asked her, bringing her back around to the point of their conversation.

She smiled at him. "Yes," she confirmed. "I think it will still feel strange but maybe, less wrong."

Neville smiled at her. "Okay, you've convinced me to try flying on a newer broom," he agreed.

"Well, unfortunately, we have to contend with a few more classes on those rickety school brooms," Seamus groaned, and everyone moaned in agreement.

"Why haven't they commissioned some new brooms?" Hermione asked. "I mean the school board started to revitalize the classes a few years ago, so why not new brooms for the flight class?"

"They probably put the money toward other classes," Neville said.

Lavender agreed with him. "Flight is something every witch and wizard has to learn, but it isn't like it is important unless one needs it for their future career. It is considered for leisure instead of as transportation nowadays."

Hermione sighed. "I suppose when almost every household has a floo or can apparate then it would be considered a leisure activity."

"Flying seems to only be important for sporting events these days," Harry agreed.

Harry's mention of quidditch set off Ron Weasley on the other side of Harry. The boy began to speak about the Chudley Canon's, the worst team in the Quidditch league, with the passionate regard that can only exist within a true fan. This set off all of the boys, except for Dean, as they began to advocate their favorite teams. Even Neville weighed in with his favorite choice being the same as Harry's favorite of Puddlemere United.

Lavender shared a look of fond exasperation with Hermione. "Boys and their Quidditch," she said.

"Not just boys," the voice of her cousin, Fay Dunbar, spoke up from her position across from Dean Thomas.

"Oh really?" Seamus declared as he looked at Fay. "Let me guess," he said with smug glee. "You support the Holyhead Harpies."

Lavender giggled at that. The Holyhead Harpies were renowned for being a girl's only team. It seemed that Seamus had decided that Fay would only support a girl's only or girl dominant team.

Fay scoffed at that. "I support that Ballycastle Bats," she informed him.

Seamus looked dumbfounded. "You're not messing with me?" he asked her.

Fay shook her head in the negative. "Never about Quidditch," she said solemnly.

Lavender laughed at that. "She means it, Seamus," she assured. "She's my cousin, we've known each other our whole lives and she takes nothing more seriously than Quidditch."

"It's sacred," Fay pronounced.

"That's my favorite team," Seamus told Fay.

The pair were still talking about the Ballycastle Bats later that night in the common room. Lavender smiled as she watched them from her place on one of the sofas. She was barely paying attention to the Witch Weekly article on proper hair care that she was supposed to be reading. Mostly she was people watching. Neville had gone up to bed a few minutes ago, the pepper-up potion having worn its way out of his system. A dip in the sofa made her glance beside her at Parvati who had chosen to sit down directly beside her.

"So, this isn't going to plan," Parvati began without preamble.

Lavender looked at her in confusion. "What isn't going to plan?"

Parvati huffed. "That," she said and motioned toward where Fay and Seamus were still talking about the Ballycastle Bats.

She stared at Fay. Her cousin looked happy, delighted to be talking with another fan of the same Quidditch team that she adored. Poor Fay! She had grown up with Pansy and Lavender since the three cousins were born the same year it had been natural that their parents had made them playmates. The trouble for poor Fay was that Pansy was a princess diva at heart. While Lavender might like being outdoors and playing with cute animals and playing with Earth magic, she in no way liked sports. Quidditch was a big no in her book, but she did find the game exciting to watch. Poor Fay had always fit in better with boys growing up than girls. Watching Fay make a friend out of Seamus was nice.

"I don't understand the problem," Lavender admitted much to Parvati's frustration.

"He's going to become interested in her now," Parvati despaired. "Probably not now, but in a few years when he begins to look at us with the appreciation we deserve, he's going to like Fay instead of you."

Lavender blinked in confusion at that. Was that why Parvati had been calling Seamus cute and encouraging her to spend time with him? Because she thought that Lavender should be his girlfriend someday.

"I.." she shook her head. "I don't know what to say to that," she admitted.

Parvati huffed in annoyance. "We'll just have to figure out a way to make him like you more than her," she said decisively. "You are prettier than Fay so that is something in your favor."

Lavender frowned at that. She didn't think she was prettier than Fay. Her cousin was very pretty in her opinion. Fay had very pretty brown hair that held auburn highlights. Her skin was flawless and just the right shade of pale without being unhealthy. She had pretty blue-green eyes. She was very pretty, and Lavender felt more than done with this conversation.

"Parvati," she began carefully because despite being annoyed with her friend, she didn't want to fight. She hated that sort of drama. She didn't know how Pansy could thrive on it.

"I thank you for looking out for me, really, but I don't need it," she insisted. "And honestly, I think you should at the least take into account whom I might like if you are going to attempt to play matchmaker."

Parvati frowned at that. "You don't like Seamus?" she asked.

"I like him just fine," she corrected. "He's a nice boy. But he's not who I would choose for myself if I had to make a choice now, which I thankfully do not. I have years to choose a life partner."

Parvati didn't look pleased. She pouted at Lavender. "I'm just trying to help you. People were talking you know, especially earlier when you ran off to go find Longbottom."

Lavender frowned at that. So, there was gossip about her? "What were they saying?" she asked.

Parvati huffed. "That you were crazy about Longbottom. As if! That would be ridiculous."

"No, it wouldn't," Lavender immediately defended. "Neville's great! A girl would be lucky to have him as their boyfriend or their betrothed."

She felt angry that Parvati would just dismiss Neville like that. Neville was the sweetest boy she had ever met. Lavender would only be so lucky if he one day wished to marry her. She hadn't thought about it that way before, about her marrying Neville, but now that she did, she found that she liked the idea. She liked the idea very much. She felt a blush come to her cheeks as she thought about him.

"See, this is why you need my help," Parvati pronounced. "You are not thinking clearly."

Lavender glared at her before she stood up. "Neville's a great guy and he'd be a fantastic catch and I will not hear any more about it!"

With that, she tossed her magazine at Parvati and flounced away. She made it to the room she shared with Fay, Hermione, Romilda, and Ginevra and made quick work of getting ready for bed. She lay in her bed for an hour, steaming over Parvati's clear dismissal of Neville as a potential bridegroom.

She turned over and punched her pillow in the dark. 'Ridiculous!' she told herself. 'I'm only eleven. Why am I even thinking about this?' Slowly humor began to bubble up in her and she began to giggle. It had been silly of her to have let herself get so worked up over nothing. It didn't matter that Parvati dismissed Neville. It just meant that Parvati wasn't as discerning as she had thought herself to be, because anyone who would pass over Neville as anything, but a real catch was an idiot.

"Lavender, go to sleep!" Fay grumbled from the bed to her left.

Lavender smiled as she apologized to her cousin and she settled into her bed. She fell into a deep slumber soon after.

It has been a while. I am happy to post this chapter. As always I hope to get back to a good posting schedule but I cannot make any promises. I hope everyone enjoyed some insight from Lavender in this chapter. And in case readers haven't been able to figure out by now, they really shouldn't expect the characters to be just like they were in the books and the movies. This is an Alternate Universe.