Lavender couldn't help but stare at Dean with wide eyes. He didn't look angry which she decided was a plus. She wanted to explain that nothing had actually happened between her and Seamus, that neither of them had wanted to hurt him, that this wasn't how either of them wanted him to find out, but instead she just stood there.
"Can we have a minute?" Dean asked Neville, his voice trembling slightly but Neville nodded and after giving Lavender a gentle squeeze he moved off to go and help patch up some of the injured.
Lavender still didn't move, she didn't feel like she could. She opened her mouth to speak but all that came out was a strangled sob.
Dean had his arms wrapped around her in the next instant and pulled her against his chest. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head and she let herself lean against him, let herself take comfort from him and from the knowledge that he was hurting just as much as she was in that moment.
"Thank you." She heard him say quietly. "Thank you for loving him. Thank you for looking out for him. Thank you."
Lavender shook her head rapidly but couldn't form the words to let him know that she didn't need to be and wouldn't be thanked for doing any of that but Dean just kissed her forehead again.
She let him hold her for a while longer, her arms wrapped around him tightly in return until she heard the voice she had grown to despise fill the air around them. She froze as she heard the news. Harry was dead. All this had been for nothing.
"Come on." Dean said shakily as he pulled back and led her outside, practically sprinting as they tried to find the others.
Everyone had gathered in the entrance hall and though Lavender couldn't see anything over the heads of her fellow survivors, she knew that Voldemort wasn't lying from their reactions. Everything seemed to happen in a blur after that though. One moment Harry was dead, the next Neville was chopping a snake in half and Harry was alive.
Lavender felt like she was in some sort of daze, and she reckoned she probably was in some sort of state of shock. She'd been wounded and lost her best friend and soulmate after all.
And then just like that they were back in battle mode and she lost Dean in the crowds.
Dean pushed passed the throngs of friends and family as they were reuniting as he looked at every single injured and deceased person who lay in the Great Hall. He hadn't seen Lavender since the armistice had ended and he was terrified that he'd lost her too. He needed her, as much as he really didn't want to admit that just now, it was the truth. She was a part of Seamus and that made her, in turn, a part of him. That thought alone scared him. He wasn't ready to lose two parts of him, especially not when he hadn't even known about the second part until a few hours ago.
Finally he caught sight of her, sitting and alive, but slumped against a wall as Parvati worked to heal a wound on the back of her neck. Dean ran over, kneeling on in front of her and taking one of her hands into his.
"Lav?" He asked slowly, wanting to know that she was okay, even though he knew that she couldn't be. He just needed to hear her voice.
"Dean." She whispered his name, her voice gave away just how exhausted she was. Dean knew they were all exhausted but there was something in Lavender's tone that worried him.
He gave her hand a squeeze and exchanged glances with Parvati, letting the other girl work away. He needed and wanted her to be okay, and not just because Seamus had asked him to look after her. There was something else, other than duty, that he felt for her, though he couldn't seem to put a name on it. He was grateful to her anyway. She'd been the one that had been there with his - their - Seamus when he couldn't.
"Stay awake now, Lav." He said softly as he reached out to touch her cheek, to get her to look at him through her heavy eyes. "Tell me what I missed this year." He asked as he reckoned he needed to get her talking.
Lavender's words were slow as she told him everything, as she talked about Seamus and Neville, about their work with Dumbledore's Army, about the detentions they'd all had to endure at the hands of the Carrows. He listened as she told him how Seamus had gotten her through the year, how they'd become practically inseparable and he watched as she took a calculated pause.
"I don't blame either of you for falling in love." Dean told her when she didn't seem to be able to continue. "I'm glad he had you."
Lavender swallowed thickly, her eyes glancing down as she obviously blinked back tears. "We didn't do anything, I promise." She whispered. Her voice was stronger now though. "We kissed once, and that was just today, or yesterday even."
"It's okay." Dean said quietly, and he meant it. He didn't fully understand how Seamus could feel this way about Lavender, but he couldn't deny that what Seamus had felt for her was real.
He glanced over at Parvati again. He knew she would be enjoying being able to eavesdrop at any rate, but he really just wanted to know how Lavender was doing.
Parvati seemed to catch the look anyway and she gave him a gentle nod, silently letting him know that she was going to be alright. He gave a small sigh of relief and moved to sit next to Lavender, wrapping his arms around her tightly. She wasn't Seamus, far from it, but she was there. She was alive. And she needed him as much as he needed her.