Chapter 12: Interlude I

AN: Rights are to JK Rowling and Warner brothers. Please write a review, feedback would go a long way to improve my work. People are reading but I don't know if they are staying or enjoying it. I don't care if you want to tell me I am the worst writer ever (if you do please tell me why and what I can improve) just tell me what you think! I still very much need a beta to help me improve on my work. Today's chapter is the Interlude, next will be with Harry at Hogwarts.

I hope this is as enjoyable to read as it was to write, adding in a new POV is a fantastic chance to explore the world more than one ever could. I hope you enjoy the characterization I have given to an underutilized student. This chapter does not mean that she will be a stalwart character.

As always, I really need a beta. I make little mistakes in grammar and spelling and could use help in phrasing.

Sorry, this chapter is short, I could have continued but instead wanted to focus on next chapter, the character interaction there will be crazy and hard to keep track of, I am asking for two weeks on that one, sorry!

Stuff is kind of crazy where I am, no matter what you believe stay safe, please!

Life had changed since Halloween; everything changed now.

When Hermione had died, something in the school had changed, a chunk of the school disappeared and Hogwarts mourned her passing more than any student, save Ron. The defeated teachers who arrived at breakfast the following morning was a sight none wanted to see. The hurt and longing that the Headmaster spoke with when announcing that she passed at the hands of the troll was palpable.

Lavender didn't even realize she was missing.

When McGonagall announced to the hall asking for any help on finding her, Lavender had no answer, not a hint at her potential placement in the school. She spent nearly every waking moment with her and yet knew nothing about her. She ostracized her and ostracized her ideas, made fun of her clothes, ignored her questions, and talked about her behind her back. Only upon her death did Lavender see her true self, a bully.

As she reflected more she recognized how Hermione was not her only victim, she teased Ron just as much for his horrendous appearance and his disgusting appetite. Why did she? Maybe because it made her more confident about her discount clothes and do-it-yourself makeup. Lisa Turban from Ravenclaw, a snob; Hannah Abbot from Hufflepuff, fat; Pansy Parkinson from Slytherin, a bully. Ironic that she felt that when the insults applied to herself.

Near the beginning, she loved it. She held power over the class, to whisper and have the school know the thought she spits forth. A tiny ignition to spread the truth like a fire over Hogwarts. She listened and learned and used that to cause chaos in the school. Lavender never meant the rumors to be harmful, but they ended with Hermione dying in a girl's lavatory, marking the end of her cruel ways. She still watched and listened, but instead of sending the facts out she now held them, marking them for future use. Who knows when Dean's bad-mouthing of Seamus would benefit her? Or, when the heritage of second year Miles Wilkinson would help her? She could still look and listen all she liked, now she would do it with a purpose. The bully she used to be disappeared, much like Ron.

He had changed more than her since the death of Hermione; Ron used to be rude and abrasive to any who didn't coincide with his thinking. He started by teasing Hermione but developed into Seamus for his accent, and Parvati for her dress. After the first week, he evolved, focusing on Slytherins but targeting people in the other classes who did not fit the perfect mold for righteousness. Ernie acted too stuck up, Li, too fake, and the hatred he held to Slytherin class grew evermore. Two names lead the pact, Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter.

Draco was a pompous stuck up brat who mocked all people who did not fit his perfect view of the world, this starting with muggleborns and moving down to blood traitors who don't hate the muggleborns. Draco did not wait a week to tease people, he did it on the train. He barged into Lavenders compartment, and upon her proudly stating she descended from Browns, he made fun of her for her twice great grandfather being a muggle, then he harassed Parvati and Padma for being immigrants, despite their birth in the country. He was vile and rude, and the week he left was the best week of school. What's worst is how despite being a bully she had nothing to lord anything over him, his father was active in politics and sat on the Board. As an exemplary student, he participated well in class; Draco said the correct words at the opportune times to say them. Choicely charismatic when he wanted to, Draco appeared a bully without pegs to knock him down, the worst sort.

Harry Potter existed as an enigma. The hero of the wizarding war foreshadowed in books as a shining beacon of Gryffindor, the pinnacle of them. Like his mother and father before him, he should have been a charming figurehead of the maroon and gold, a symbol to host the next grand movement upon. Tall and handsome; charismatic and charming. He was not any of these things. Lavender had waited and waited during the sorting to have a peek at the man, maybe even merge herself with his friend group, eventually marry. The stain of her muggle background would dissipate if she attached herself to the most powerful wizard ever. When they called his name, she couldn't see him walk up. Too many others positioned to see him, their whispers unheard on Lavender's ears. When he arrived at the stool, she thought it a joke. The boy who sat down appeared too young to attend Hogwarts, a skinny little short thing with thin cheeks and messy black hair. His sorting took forever, as the hall watched in silent anticipation for the hat's call. Minutes passed. How did this take so long? He was a Gryffindor, so what if he looked skinny and short, he was Harry Potter, a hero?

He went to Slytherin.

Not even his own table clapped for him. Why would they? Slytherins all supported He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named during the wizarding war, why would they be happy with their bitter rival going to them. Only Headmaster Dumbledore clapped for him, most likely out of pity as he was no doubt disappointed by the outcome, causing others to follow. Sprout and Flitwick made sense but seeing his own head of house not cheer for him made her laugh.

Despite his sorting the Gryffindor first years decided to still give him a chance, he defeated You-Know-Who, so he couldn't be bad. He was worse. Harry didn't try in classes, he never did the spells, most likely believing himself too good for it. He skipped many classes, most likely for similar reasons. The boy did not attempt reaching out and joining any groups; he was superior why should he? He spent his time in the library, hoarding knowledge.

Ron had given up on him the day after the feast, watching him all chummy with the evil people of Slytherin was enough for him, he even sat with two Slytherin upperclassmen on the train. Lavender didn't remember when she had given up on him, but she agreed with Ron. The green and silver had enveloped Harry in their evil.

Then the troll incident occurred.

She would never forget the fear that overtook her that day. The announcement of a troll wandering the school frightened her in unfamiliar ways. Lavender, as she grew, heard stories of trolls, her grandfather worked as a monster hunter when trips to Atlantia were still profitable, thus she grew with wondrous tales of epic fights, trolls were monsters that should not be messed with, even by a fit team of skilled hunters. Their tough hides turned away the sharpest of metals and the deep fats prevented the toughest of spells, only teamwork and blasting would hope to combat them.

One was released in her school.

Sure, the castle housed Dumbledore, a man with a repertoire of spells that most combined would never hope to achieve and had the magical backing to cast them all, but the labyrinth they inhabited still would take time to search. She clutched Parvati tight as they waited for the all-clear note, instead, Professor McGonagall made an announcement at the behest of Ron Weasley.

They announced her roommate was missing.

Her best friend was Parvati, and she had a comfortable relationship with the likes of Sophie Roper, Anne Ross, Aubrey Gray, and Elise Cole. Her relationship with Hermione Granger existed in a tenuous space. It annoyed her, the way she acted, her attitude, and her deliberate disregard for the wizarding customs, despite that Lavender would never wish harm upon her.

A troll's purpose was harm; unthinking and uncaring.

They evacuated the hall under the prefect's protection, she knew stories of trolls, Percy Weasley would be no help, nor would the rest of the stuck up cravens that amassed the prefect position in Gryffindor, no, Cody Hughes, a sixth year who placed sixth in the U17 tourney would be their savior. Cody appeared dashing with golden locks and crisp blue eyes, tall and strong and beautiful. Someone every girl wished to be with.

"Hey, Lav," Parvati barged in their shared compartment, her water break finished.

"Hey, did you get lost?" The Indian girl gave a good-natured smile and sat across from Lavender, breaking her concentration on the rolling hills. Her friend was a vision, with brown eyes atop dark skin sitting on her slender form was a sight that boys would drool over in the years to come.

"I ran into an Irishman and hastily retreated, though his attack was immense." Both girls giggled. Poor Seamus was completely in love with Parvati already. Her rejection became more of a joke with every passing day. His attacks continued causing the girls to grow fonder of him, an ever-growing charm.

"Are you sure you cannot visit?" A disagreement started before the express left un-continued. Lavender wished and hoped for her friend to come to her small manner for a period over the holidays, meet her parents and celebrate, but Parvati's family had other ideas. A trip to India, to see their grandparents, the plane leaving on the morrow.

Lavender had never traveled by airplane before, and when Parvati explained the concept, it seemed unbelievable. A large hunk of metal traveled so fast it lifted from the ground and flew to its destination without magic. Like a cleaning broom being used to fly, an impossibility. It also transported many more people than even the largest stationary portkey's and moved faster than a broom or boat.

The difficulties of travel in the magic world were immense. Children cannot use portkeys due to the strain it would put on their magic. The problem magnified itself on apparition with associated crimes of doing either form of travel with someone under the age of fourteen tallied three years in Azkaban Prison as the act is attempted murder. An added year for every year early. The boon of the Floo network, originating in Germany, let travel expand to younger people. Problems of the Floo showed on international traveling. The governments of each major power created the Floo Network as the dominant form of domestic travel. They never connected across state lines.

These limitations led to the Patil family to involve themselves heavier in the muggle world than many pureblooded wizarding families. They possessed dual citizenship and had the correct muggle papers to travel to any country they deemed fit.

Lavender only knew British soil, and now Scottish.

"As much as I wish too, I can't." Her eyes held only truth.

"I know."

The hours passed with games of gobstones and gossip from various bathroom trips, the approaching station a bitter reminder of a lonely month ahead. As the express pulled in the packed platform bustled with people, families watching for children long missed. The parents had received instructions the previous week on when to stand at the doors, they would release the students year by year, seemingly forgotten as the mob flowed to the windows as children waved out. Hitwizards moved along the walls of the train attempting to keep order, but the attempts fell on deft ears.

Another hour passed before they could leave. Lavender and Parvati moved to the platform to the waiting group of parents.

Her father spoke to two other men, both foreign. The first had similar eyes as her best friend and her smile. His laugh was deep from his expanded belly. The other had lighter skin and had formed a round bald, at his hip sat a blade hilt rather than a wand. When her father noticed her, he disengaged immediately without a word and rushed to her side, scooping her up in a large warm hug, an action she replicated. Her father was a kind man, plump from years of easy work with warm hazel eyes and a full set of brown hair kept tidy. As he placed her down her friend walked to her, assumed, father, and gave a polite bow and pleasant greeting.

She blabbered to her father about the fun she had her first semester and complained about the homework load and Professor Snape. While she talked two more approached their party, Parvati's twin and another Ravenclaw, Li. Padma gave a similar bow to her father and joined her sister's side as Li presented herself proud and tall as the man gave her a bow, a strange display. Was he not her father? Before she could begin an investigation into the subject a red-cloaked hitwizard ushered the party away from the platform, the second years needed to exit he remarked.

"C'mon sweetie, we should leave before the floo gets too crowded." Her father gripped her hand as she bid quick farewells to the dwindling group, the unhappy smile evident on Parvati's face as she waved to Lavender. Lavender and her father moved to the more open part of the platform, away from the busybodies which mulled around with little direction, a speckling of red within keeping order, as they moved deeper into the platform. A few other families had a similar idea, a couple of Ravenclaws and Slytherins rushed to the exit with them. After reaching a fireplace her father handed her a handful of knuts as he deposited his own into a deposit box on the side. A small container flipped out of the fireplace as he grasped the green powder and stepped in calling out, "The Cottage by the Pond," and disappearing in a green heatless flame.

The fire entrapped her after repeating the process and the words.

Floo travel is an uncomfortable experience, and one best to tackle with closed eyes. The people who discovered it took the idea from phoenixes and their strange apparition. The invention was made by one Gellert Grindelwald, a man who would end up performing many evils in his life, a figure of insanity and cruelty. The theory, despite being explained in their transportation class, flew over her head. Her travels had the wind rushing past her hair as the flames carried her to her residence, the timeless travel shot her into the room, and in the waiting arms of her father.

"You should have improved by now," his tone floated with humor.

"Then you shouldn't catch me, I would have landed on my feet."

He placed her down, gently, on the deep-colored wooden floors. Lavender took in the room, the months of school being the longest separation ever, the warm-colored walls and the large window letting the pale moonlight wash into the room, mixing with the oil lamps. The crimson shades stood still, framing the pretty windows. Her familiar couch that housed many days of lounging sat with two chairs flanking it, her mother and father's.

"Your mum made dinner before she went to sleep, would you like some?" Her stomach answered for her as the call for food awoke a restrained hunger. Fighting a blush, she followed her father into the main hall and into the kitchen. The kitchen was a humble place, a stove with burners above it, and a few meters of counter space. Her mother would often cook, though her father cooked an occasional meal. She wished her family could afford a house elf, Parvati had told Lavender of hers, named Teemy, who cooked and cleaned and helped with many household affairs. Atop the stove was a pot full of stew with a smell unique to her mother, which her father started heating with a flick of his wand and a whisper of a spell to the burner.

They stood in awkward silence for a reason unknown to Lavender, when she began her speech her father cut her off and began his own.

"Why didn't you tell us about your roommate?" Lavender had no answer, "Hermione Granger, the one who died?"

The pang of regret attacked her again. If she had done differently would Hermione live again? If she had taken to the girl's aid instead of being a part of her torment would Hermione have been in the bathroom that day? "I didn't know what to say." She lied, poorly.

"Sweetie, that event is tragic. Something no one should ever go through."

"And yet we did, I had Parvati, she was enough."

"What about the troll, you also ignored that in your letters." His tone became more angered and accusatory.

"Because the troll would have led to Hermione and I didn't want to talk about her."

"Sweetie, I am, we are here for you in whatever you need." He sounded more defeated as his eyes dropped. She twisted and headed out of the kitchen.

"I am not hungry anymore goodnight." She stomped up the stairs and down the hall to her room slamming the door. She regretted her temper tantrum for many reasons as she slid down her closed door, tears brimming, waking her mother when she worked early the next morning and hurting her father's feelings to name a few. In the hall, a door creaked and the sound of boots echoed on the stairwell. The hushed voices of her mother and father resonated before quickly quenching with the gentle shutting of their door.

After drying her tears, Lavender could see her unlit childhood room. Posters of quidditch players decorated her walls. No team appeared favored over any other. Her small desk housed her enchanted lamp which she pressed lighting up the room with the soft glow of a Lumos spell. Changing into pajamas, she shut off the light and got into bed, laying on the soft and familiar sheets. As she tried to sleep, she remembers again her thoughts from the train.

The troll incident clouded her view of Harry Potter further than his sorting.

The teachers failed to announce he had any bearing over the tragedy, and that day he did not partake in classes. A normal occurrence. What was odd was the following day and the next he also did not appear. From the grapevine, she caught wind of the purpose. He was involved. The DMLE wanted to question him; they believed that he killed the troll. How? A boy of eleven killing an unkillable monstrosity? Even in his novels, Harry Potter needed higher caliber wizards to help on his journey. If the DMLE wished to question him... Why was he in school? With the power to defeat a mountain troll, he did not need an education.

Time passed and nothing changed, the month ticked away, and he never returned. Did the DMLE arrest him? Where was he? Perhaps he was the one to kill her roommate. Did he have an agenda against muggleborns?

The week of midterms Harry returned to school, eating in the Great Hall as if nothing happened. He sat pompously by himself, superior to his fellow first years, hogging an entire section of food at the table. From that day till the end of the semester, she never heard him speak a word. He never apologized to Gryffindor for their loss, and he never explained how he did it. Harry walked alone, too important for others' attention.

It was the whispers of Susan Bones which shed light upon the situation. Her aunt sent a letter warning her of Harry. The DMLE suspected that he, a boy of eleven, used the killing curse to end the troll. The very curse that killed his parents and failed on him.

Lavender knew not how the curse worked, nor did she have an implication too. The spell was widely believed to be evil, in the evilest ways imaginable, and that fact was enough. Harry Potter is irredeemable and evil.

The sun cascading upon her face woke her the following morning, the seconds passed before she reclaimed herself with her newest and oldest environment. Parvati did not sit next to her, ready to chat. The room did not bustle with energy as they clawed over one another to reach the bathroom, instead, the serene sounds of birds and gentle morning mist accompanied Lavender for the new day.

She dressed and crept to the kitchen. Within the kitchen only a note accompanied her. A quick letter addressed to her by her father saying breakfast was in the stasis box and she had to make her own lunch. He went to work and loved her. She sighed and grabbed the meal with a cup of tea and stepped to her couch. Having a sit she spread The Daily Prophet.

The headline the newspaper had a picture of Hogwarts with the title of "Hogwarts is unsafe, and we all know who is to blame," with a derogatory piece on her headmaster following it. As she scanned the article, it showed no fresh news as the previous fifteen publications. Rita Skeeter, the author, wrote many hit pieces on Dumbledore in the recent months, targeting his political endeavors and past associations. People like Ponomaryova Borisovna, a transfiguration master, and Siegfried Joachim, an enchanter, both who did terrible acts with Grindelwald topped the list. In the recent month, she targeted his running of Hogwarts, the fresh death of a student allowing her to bring up wicked secrets that used to hide. Things like a declining rate in classes offered and a reduction in budget supplied from donors. More than that is the embezzlement of funds by their last groundskeeper, the hiring of accused Death Eaters, all unnamed, and other previous inhabitants of Azkaban.

The name Azkaban made Lavender shiver. Her father sat her down last year and explained the high-security prison to her, none of which was friendly. The makers crafted the tower from mithril blocks and fashioned bars of the same substance. As long as magicals documented the British Isles the tower had stood, the crafters lost to history. When the first excursion to the isle was attempted, the group met the only inhabitants, the dementors. Demons cloaked in black, they feasted through a person's happiness and finished with their soul, winking life out of them. The process left a brain-dead husk, an empty shell. One elf constructed a spell to defend against the horde of the island and a deal formed between the humans and the demons in the tower. Free food for housing criminals. Only the worst offenders got Azkaban as their sentence murderers, rapist, and those who dwell in magics unspoken gained residence there. For a Hogwarts staff to be a former resident left a horrible taste in her mouth, her guess was Filch.

After scanning the paper, she grabbed a book and flipped the wireless to a soft music station. Hours passed and dinnertime arrived, the house still only held her.

"Happy Yule." She said to herself as she prepared for the grueling and boring month ahead.

What did you think of Lavender Brown?