Disclaimers: I Do not own Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings.

A/N: So I been doing the math and I figure to cover another Lavender' Flashback along with a desperately needed Ron flashback along with the battle with the manticore and chimera and Hermione discovering Ron's identify, I'm looking at a 10000-15000 word chapter. So I decided that I'm going to do stand-alone chapters featuring both Ron's and Lavender's flashbacks about their lives leading up to them joining the Shadow Aurors.

Basically, Ron's Flashback will obviously show his Middle-Earth journey while Lavender's will show what was going on back in the Harry Potter world, though only from her perspective.

Anyway, this is a preview of Lavender's flashback with a Ron's flashback coming later along with the full chapter of the Hogsmeade battle.

Preview

The Great Hall of Hogwarts was one of the first place to be repair in the aftermath of the battle and the tables were moved back in so food could be serve once again for the students, Aurors, and other wizards and witches who fought against the late Dark Lord's forces. It became a place where people would meet up and discuss issues and plans in a effort to try to bring back a sense of normalcy in their lives.

For a certain Gryffindor girl it felt like a circus cage where she was the main attraction on display for everyone to see.

Lavender could feel the stares she was receiving as she sat down for morning breakfast and ever so often when she glance up to look around she spotted dozens, if not more, eyes staring at her before they quickly shifted their attention elsewhere in order to avoid her gaze. She knew why they were looking though and despite the angry that swell up in her about how rude they were being she could not fully blame them. Despite Madam Pomfrey's best efforts and even the additional aid of other healers present at the school, Lavender's scars refuse to fully heal or even fade. It had been two weeks since the battle and three days since she was release from the infirmary but even with multiple daily schedule appointments to the Hospital Wing to receive treatment, nothing seem to work; the poor girl was just left with the vivid reminders of the battle every time she just so happen to pass by a mirror, which she actively avoid doing so even going as far as charming a blanket to fly and covering up the mirror in her dorm room whenever she walk by it.

But for Lavender the problem was not so much as sensing and seeing people's eyes on her; it was the fact that she could hear them talking about her as well. She kept constantly hearing her name pop up in conversations whenever she walk through the halls or out into the open areas. Even in the Gryffindor Common Room it was impossible to focus on the task at hand because everyone just kept talking about her...though she did find it a bit strange that sometimes she could hear people talking about her even when they were on the other side of the room. She knew that even if it was some of her fellow Gryffindors talking about her scars, they at least had the common decency to keep their voices low when doing so but sometimes, especially at night when the moon was out she noticed, she could hear them as though they were standing right next to her. She did not know what to make of this and quite frankly she was afraid, especially since she has been having that same dream about her being stuck in the middle of a dark forest with a pair of red eyes watching her every time she went to sleep.

Before she could go any further on this train of thought, a mass commotion from the hallway draws her attention as Lavender turns to see the "Golden Duo" being surrounded by a gaggle of students and reporters as the two of them enter the Great Hall.

While a number of the students decided to return home after the battle. Still though while classes were not schedule to resume for another week, almost ninety percent of the student body and staff, remain behind to finish out the school year, Harry and Hermione especially even though they would have to play a extreme amount of catch-up for the rest of the year and the entire summer but it seem that the Ministry was going to allow them a large amount of leeway to achieve this.

Anyway, every time Lavender spotted Harry he was either in the middle of a interview, signing autographs, or trying to escape from the former two. Just yesterday she spotted him dive into a broom closest in order to evade a mob of his devoted fans, only coming out once he was sure they were gone. In her opinion, he was probably the better one at dealing with this amount of attention since he had been putting up with it for years.

Hermione on the other hand though...

The poor girl just really wanted to be left alone with her books.

Ever since the end of the Battle of Hogwarts, the only time the bright witch ever found peace was within the confines of her dorm room. The moment she step foot outside of it she was swarm by the masses and her ability to sneak away from them was not on the same level as Harry's. It was so bad that Ginny and Luna had to step in to pull her away multiple times before she was overwhelm by all the attention. A few times even Professor McGonagall along with the other professors had to intervene to give Hermione a moment to herself, allowing her to have the whole Library Wing to herself, or at least what remain of it.

"I shouldn't feel sorry for her, but I can't help it", Lavender thought as she watches Hermione and Harry struggle to break through the crowd. In Lavender's opinion, her and Hermione have never been nothing more than dormmates. They had their little arguments here and there which all came to ahead last year, but seeing how that without her the war would have been lost, maybe that's why she couldn't fully hate the girl who stole her boyfriend from her.

Speaking of her ex-boyfriend, Ron had yet to show up despite all the efforts that were being employ to locate him. Kingsley Shacklebolt, as the acting Minister of Magic, personally issue orders to all remaining Aurors and Hit Wizards to use all means necessary to track him down. Lavender did not doubt for a moment that this came at the behest of Harry, Hermione, and the Weasleys, along with Neville and Luna, who were all worry sick about him. Quite frankly, she could not help but admire how Ginny was holding herself together so well despite knowing that the only brother that was suppose to be at Hogwarts with her was out there somewhere and yet no one could seem to find him; almost as though he disappear off the face of the planet.

Unfortunately, The Daily Prophet held no sympathy for Ron's friends and family as they tore into him in their printings, talking about how he abandoned Harry and Hermione at the time they needed him the most.

They have deem him the "Craven Weasley" a name coined by none other than Rita Skeeter herself and the name quickly caught on throughout the wizarding community. Of course, you had to be a complete idiot to say that within hearing distance of his friends or family. According to Ginny, her mother hex three people who had the nerve to speak about her youngest son like that while she was visiting her father at the Ministry and allegedly, Charlie Weasley not only straight-up knock a guy out who was bad-mouthing his little brother, but he then threaten to thrown him into a dragon's cave if he ever heard him doing it again.

Lavender on the other hand, found herself laughing out loud when she finally read the article. When question by Parvati about it she merely said...

"Ron is a lot of things. A glutton, a slob sometimes, and maybe even a little emotionally dense, but he sure as hell is not a craven. He actually had the courage to break-up with me to my face, something most guys in this school would not have done. Plus, he was almost always right alongside Harry and Hermione whenever there was trouble."

Ronald Weasley a craven? Biggest load of bollocks Lavender has ever heard.

Snapping out of her brief flashback, she notices that the "Golden Duo" had just sat down only a couple of seats down from her, both of them trying their best to ignore the people around them who obviously could not take the hint that they wanted to be left alone.

As the seconds tick by the chatter they were making kept getting louder and louder and it was starting to annoy Lavender to no end.

Finally, after trying to ignore it for a full minute, the girl slam her right fist on the table, the impact rattling the plates and cups around her, including the one in her left hand.

Instantly, everyone in the Great Hall ceases their talking and if they were not already looking over at her, they were now.

"I'm trying to bloody eat here and you lot are making way too much noise! So either shut up or take your chatter somewhere else before I get mad!", she shouts at a level of volume that she herself did not even know she was capable of.

...

For a moment everything was eerily quiet and no one seem to move. Harry and Hermione could only look on with expression of gratitude at their potential savior while everyone else just stare.

Although one of the groupies, a fifth-year Ravenclaw lad, seem to grow a pair as he said...

"Aren't you the girl that got torn apart by Greyback?"

A rolling tide of anger surge through Lavender at the mention of the werewolf, something that has been a daily occurrence for the girl whenever she heard that psycho continued to evade the Aurors and Hit Wizards forces sent after him. Whenever this happen she found herself unable to think about anything other than his gruesome demise at her own hands and it would take a extreme amount of effort to calm herself back down. Anyway, she was so caught up in her rage that she did not even notice that she had completely crush the cup in her hand and had thrown it directly at the person who spoke. It beam him straight in the forehead and left a large bloody gash across it in the process.

"Aaaaaaahhhhhhh!", echoes throughout the Great Hall as the boy falls to his knees with his hands pressing on his wound, but this did nothing to soothe Lavender's anger.

"Unless all of you want the same thing to happen to you, I suggest you get out of my sight!", she roars as she stood up.

All of the students surrounding Harry and Hermione and even some that were just seating around instantly book it out the Great Hall, including the one who Lavender hit as he ran out with the others, his cries of pain being heard by all.

It takes Lavender taking several deep breathes to return herself to a more pleasant state of mind, the entire while the whole Great Hall was still looking at her. Finally after taking a moment longer to regain herself she simply sat back down without saying a word to either Harry or Hermione. Her eyes were only glaring at the table and the contents of her plate.

"Hey Lavender?", she hears from in front of her.

"What?!", she snaps as looks up toward the person talking to her only to balk upon seeing who it was.

Sitting across from her with a concern expression on his face was the person that had constantly been at her side since the start of her seventh year at Hogwarts. She was told by Dean that it was him that got Greyback off of her through a running tackle no less before Hermione Stupefy the werewolf and he was the first person to visit Lavender in the Hospital Wing, even before Parvati, as well as the one who visited her the most.

"Are you okay there?", Seamus Finnigan asks from his seat across the table.

"Oh, bloody hell! Did he see what I just did?", she thought as a mixture of dread and embarrassment instantly replace whatever anger she had left, "Please tell me you weren't here just a few moments ago."

"Hate to break it to you Lav, but I saw the whole thing; almost got ran over by all those folks running to get away from you", Seamus admits.

THUMP

Lavender's forehead hits the hard wood of the table and she lets out a groan that echo throughout the Great Hall.

"What's wrong with you? You just got a little angry, that's all. That Ravenclaw guy will be fine after a visit to see Madam Pomfrey", Seamus tells her before a thought occur to him, "Though Professor McGonagall might have a word with you or two because of it."

"Now everyone's going to think I'm a brute", Lavender whines, "These scars sure don't help."

"What are you talking about?", Seamus asks, "You were a pretty girl when I took to the Yule Ball three years ago and you're still that same pretty girl now, scars or no scars."

Lavender's head instantly snap up, her cheeks now matching the one of the two Gryffindor House's colors. Without a word, she quickly stands up and all but marches out of the Great Hall, leaving a baffle Seamus in her wake. The Irish wizards turns his attention to Harry and Hermione who merely look at him with looks of shock on their faces.

"What?", he asks before hearing a annoyed sigh from behind him and turning to see Dean and Neville standing there, with the former shaking his head.

"You can be really dense sometimes", he says.

Meanwhile, Lavender found herself in the hallway next to the Great Hall, trying to catch her breath and regain her senses as he hands covered her face.

A thousand thoughts were swirling in her head and all of them included Seamus and how kind he has been to her even before the battle. Seamus was practically by her side the entire year while dealing with Snape and his cronies, Alecto and Amycus Carrow and even though she had Parvati, Dean, Neville, Ginny, and Luna as well, it was the Irish wizard who had a tendency to blow things up who kept her spirits up and made her laugh.

"No!", she told herself, "It's way too soon after Ron!...Or is it?"

This thought started to fester in Lavender's mind. Ron and her broke up around March during their sixth year and here she was in May the following year. So technically, it would not be considered what the Muggles call "rebounding".

"But does he actually like me or is he just being nice?", the girl asks herself.

"Lavender?", she hears from down the hall and turns to see Parvati staying there along side her sister, Padma.

"Are you alright?", they both asks simultaneously.

"I'm okay", Lavender lies as she stood up, "Just going through some things."

"Well I hope those things don't involve Seamus because he has been getting a lot of attention lately, though most of his has been focus on you.", Padma informs Lavender, with a knowing smile on her lips.

"Don't know what you're talking about", Lavender states while avoiding Parvati's eyes.

"You honestly think we haven't notice how close you two have been all year or even before that?", she asks.

"I was hoping you at least were too busy hanging around Dean to notice", Lavender replies and said words got the reaction out of Parvati that she was looking for as her friend's face goes bright red.

Padma laughs at the discomfort of her sister before turning her attention back to Lavender, "Anyway, you two might want to get back to the Great Hall."

"Why?", both Lavender and Parvati wonder.

"Because in case you weren't aware, Seamus and Dean along with Neville has gotten quite popular after the battle. Not as much as Harry and Hermione, but they too have quite a number of fans. I heard more than a couple of the Ravenclaw girls talk fondly about them."

A blur moves pass Parvati and Padma, catching them both off-guard as Lavender headed back toward the hall. She stops just short of the entrance and slowly peaks her head around the corner where she witnesses quite a sight.

Still sitting in the same spot where Lavender left him earlier was Seamus alongside Dean. It would seem that both Hermione and Harry had already left, but it seems that all that did was allow more room for them to be surrounded by what seem to be girls from Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and even a few girls sporting the Slytherin colors. All the girls were swarming around the duo, asking them a assortment of questions and giggling at every response. Oddly enough though, Luna was sitting at the Gryffindor table right next to Neville and this seem to be enough to ward away the girls from frocking to him.

Anyway, even in her state of anger she could hear the conversation that Seamus and the girls were having.

"Is it true that you tackle Greyback during the battle?"

"Yeah, well I lost my wand and he was hurting Lavender so I couldn't just stand there and let that happen", Seamus sheepishly admits, "Though if it wasn't for Hermione stunning him right before he got up I would have been screwed."

"Speaking of Lavender, how can you stand being around someone like that? I mean, you have to look at that face all the time", one of the girls Hufflepuff girls says, "You could be looking at me instead."

Lavender finds herself fill with a rage that nearly surpasses the ones she had been having lately in regards to Greyback as she vocalizes her displeasures.

She notices movement close to her out of the corner of her eyes and turns to see both the Patli sisters standing there while leaning back away from her, both of them trembling tremendously with looks of fear planted on their faces.

"D-Did you just snarl?", Parvati says.

A/N: So Lavender might have a little bit of a anger issue. Also, her "Apex" Werewolf abilities might be starting to show a little bit.

Also Seamus and Lavender did go to the Yule Ball together during the Fourth Year. I'm pretty sure that before Half-Blood Prince, people were shipping them because of this reason...so yes, this is a Lavender x Seamus along with a Ron x Hermione.