Disclaimer : It's not mine. Never will be. So now I'm going to go cry. J/K.

Chapter 1: Last Week Of Summer

"Lavender!" Inwardly, Lavender groaned. It was her last week of summer. Her last week at home and today she was left to baby sit her younger brother Julian. He was six years younger than her but wanted her attention all the time. Well, almost all the time.

"What?" She called from her place on the couch in the family room where she was polishing her nails with some new charmed polish. It normally a light pink but changed colours each day, and wasn't suppose to fade for two weeks.

"Want to play a game of gob stones?" Julian asked. In all honesty she was sick of that game and wizarding chess. He'd challenged her nearly every day to play against him since she'd been home for the holidays. She was just about to say no but remembered that she wouldn't see him until the Christmas break. Sighing, she told him she'd be ready in ten minutes. So far this summer she'd been to Hermione's house for a week, then to Pavarti's house for a few days, and then her family had went to France to visit her aunt Lavender (who she was named after). Other than those three trips, she'd been at home which was fine with her. Now that the return to school drawing nearer, she was torn between wanting to go back and wanting to be home a little longer. Finally she finished with her manicure and played a game of gob stones with Julian. She could have won but decided to let him.

An hour later, her mum and dad returned from the friend's house that they'd been having tea at and she was freed from watching her brother. She retreated to her room for some relax time. After closing her door, she pulled a red and gold velvet covered book from under her bed and began updating her diary. She'd picked red and gold in honour of her school house colours. She turned her wireless radio on and put in a CD of the Weird Sister's - a popular group in the wizarding world. She sang along as she updated in her diary about the every day events. She was interrupted shortly later by a tapping on her window. She got up and opened the window to let in the owl It flew in and dropped a letter at her feet, then perched on the window sill to wait for a answer to take back to it's owner. Lavender quickly noticed the letter was written on pink paper and since that was Pavarti's favourite colour, she assumed it was from her. She started reading happily since she hadn't heard from her best friend in a week or two.

Dear Lavender,
I'm writing from the steps of our new house, I haven't had time to write since we spent the last week and a half moving. Mum got a promotion and we've moved to Italy, I'm so sorry I didn't write before we left but we had to be here in Italy by the twenty-fifth of August. I love Italy, but Oh, Lavender! I won't be coming back to Hogwarts. I'm transferring to a different school of wizarding thats closer to my new home. At least we can write to each other, and maybe you can come here next summer. I'll miss you. Take care.
XO Pavarti

Lavender folded the letter and laid it on her desk. She pulled a piece of parchment from a drawer and wrote back, then tied her reply to the owl's leg and watched it fly away.

"Hmm, I wonder if she wrote to Hermione to tell her about the move?" Lavender thought, and decided to write and tell Hermione. They both would miss there room mate. Especially Lavender. Hermione was a nice enough friend but she was not in to all the same thing's as Lavender and Pavarti such as boys, makeup and gossip. Lavender finished her letter to Hermione and, opened the door to her owl's cage.

"Come on Misty." Lavender coaxed the owl out of the cage. If it had been dark outside, no coaxing would have been necessary, but it was in the middle of the day and Misty had been sleeping. She tied the letter to the leg of the white owl and watched her fly out into the blue sky.
Her last week of summer went by pretty quickly. Three day's before term was to start, she got her letter from Hogwarts with the list of books she'd need. She wondered who would be teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts this year. In all of her five years at schooling there, she'd had had a different teacher for that subject each year.

"Mum, when can you take me to Diagon Alley to pick up my school stuff?" Lavender asked her mum, who she found in the kitchen making a pumpkin cake.

"Later today. Let me finish this cake. It's for a dinner party at the Thomas's." Her mum answered while stirring the batter. Her parents were close friends with most of the parents of the people in her year.

"Oh ok, then I'll go get ready." She replied and ran upstairs to change out of her pyjama. She loved them. They were black with multi-coloured stars all over them and each had a small rhinestone in the center. She changed, pulling on her robes and grabbing her list of needed books went down to wait for her mum.

A/N: If anyone was wondering about the title, the shade's part is to show that while reading her story, you see the parts of Lavender's personality and all. Hmm, maybe that isn't explained right but you probably get it. :) Please leave a review.