I still don't own Harry Potter, or any of the Fate series. I've decided though, if I can't find that fic about Lavender Brown being an otaku, I'd write a few of my own.

Please check out the Fate abridged series on Youtube. Oh, and support the original works!

Lavender could remember rumors of the Half-Blood Prince's book being stored away in the potions classroom.

Later that night, she cast a disillusionment charm on herself and made her way down to the potions classroom.

She opened up the cupboard and started looking through the extra textbooks. She smirked when she found what she was looking for.

Time to retreat.

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It took Lavender nearly a week to copy all the notes in the book.

During that time they had their very first flying lesson.

Lavender had been thinking about whether or not she should allow the events of last time to unfold as they had, or if she ought to change things up a little.

She decided to change things.

She couldn't stop Neville from falling off his broom, but she could secretly cast a cushioning charm on the ground below him without anyone noticing.

She couldn't stop him from passing out, but she could prevent his broken wrist that way.

She couldn't prevent the Remembrall he'd received from his gran to roll away, but she could accio the orb out of Malfoy's hands and kick him in the side for trying to goad her rival into a competition that didn't involve her.

One of the reasons that Harry had not been as popular had been due to people believing the other professors favoured him. Having him flying about in his first year was not doing him a favour.

Harry could wait until next year's tryouts. That would be fine.

Besides, what if things had gone slightly different? What if something was just a bit off and Harry managed to crack his head open during that dive?

She couldn't risk it.

At the end of that week, Lavender finished copying down the Half Blood Prince's notes along with each recipe and section they pertained to.

She returned the book that weekend while Snape was out.

She then started working on how the notes might help with some of the first-year potions and tried them out in her classes.

It paid off.

A lot.

She wrote down notes in her book, mentally noting how Snape was watching her.

But, this meant Harry was falling a little behind her in potions. Enough that it was starting to frustrate him.

Alright, time to do the old switcheroo.

"Hey." Lavender said during the last Thursday of the month. It was slowly moving on to October, which meant Lavender had to prepare for an all new crisis.

"Hey." Harry said, surprised she had decided to sit down with her.

"I have something for you." She told him, "Let's switch textbooks."
"Huh?" Harry wondered.

"I've been using my mum's old notes to help with potions class and it occurs to me, you don't have that sort of luxury."

Lavender beamed at him,

"You know, 'cause your parents died."
"You really suck." Harry fumed.

"I know." Lavender agreed, passing him her textbook, "Now you have a cheat too. This should be a fair competition, after all. I copied down everything she had into that textbook, so, I'll give you mine, you give me yours."
Harry paused, opening the textbook and noting the neat handwriting along the recipes. His eyebrows rose.

"I…really don't understand you at all. Why me? You already said you know it wasn't me who defeated you-know-who…"
"Just call him Voldemort." Lavender waved him away, "It's weird hearing you call him you-know-who."
It almost made her think something was very wrong with the universe.

"Er…okay. But really." Harry met her eyes, "Why?"

Lavender paused, she smiled thinly, then popped up out of her seat. She paced in front of their table in thought.

"I know how I'm going to die."
"Huh?" Harry's eyes widened.

"It's true." Lavender spun to look at him again, a small smile on her face. But it was a sad smile. One she'd never worn before. Not even in her previous life.

"In six years time, at the end of my seventh year, a man is going to murder me. His name is Fenrir Greyback. I don't know who he is, or why he wants to kill me. All I know is that it will happen and I'll die without having accomplished anything. Without having gone on any adventures, without having tried my very best at anything really." She put her hands on the table, leaning towards him, "In that vision of mine, someone tries to murder you too. I don't know if they succeed or not. But when that day comes, I'm not going to let him kill me. When that day comes, I decided that I'd make sure you were completely ready too. That's why you're my rival. Got it?"

Harry's eyes widened.

He was…stunned.

Somehow, he hadn't thought she'd tell him something like that. He'd believed that her reasons had been childish and silly. That it had all been some…silly competition.

"So…I guess you're probably not ready to know all that." Lavender admitted, "But I want you to know, I'm being genuine. I'm not doing this out of a sense of pity, or…because I'm just afraid for your life. I'm doing this because I want to make us both stronger so…I'm going to become the youngest person to master the Patronus charm."

"Not if I master it first." The words escaped Harry's lips before he even realized it.

Lavender felt her lips twitch upwards a little,

"Is that so? Well, I'm going to go ask Professor McGonagall if she'll help teach me the spell. I'll tell her that Harry Potter went to Professor Flitwick. We'll see who manages it first."

"I managed to get a mist." Harry said.
"Seriously?" Lavender was impressed.

She could get a mist, but it wasn't that impressive, and she was a seventh year! On the inside.

Damn…Harry really was scary talented.

Lavender though…she was just normal. But she could only work hard to try to make up for it.

"Me too." Lavender told him, "Here I thought I had managed to get ahead again."
"I'll go to Professor Flitwick." Harry decided, "And…I'll tell him I need help winning against my rival who went to McGonagall for help. Thanks for the book, Lavender."
"No problem." Lavender agreed.

They put their things away, then went their separate ways.

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"I'm sorry, the patronus charm?" McGonagall looked at Lavender skeptically, "You and Mister Potter have a competition to see who the youngest person to learn the charm will be?"
"Yes, ma'am." Lavender nodded her head seriously, "I really want to learn. I heard you could cast the charm. Would you please teach me how to get a corporeal patronus before Harry does?"

McGonagall let out a sigh.

Lavender Brown and Harry Potter were perhaps the two most talented students in her class, but the patronus…

"The patronus charm shouldn't be taken lightly, Miss Brown." She told her, "And I'm far too busy as it is with my own duties. Even most aurors can't cast the spell. Full grown wizards who deal with such magical beings."

"Then…could you at least tell me what I'm doing wrong?" She asked her.

McGonagall frowned,

"I suppose…"

Lavender took out her wand. She did the wand movement and spoke the incantation.

"Expecto Patronum." A glowing mist came out of her wand.

McGonagall's eyebrows rose to meet her hairline.

"A patronus…You managed it already?" She breathed.

"I can only do the mist though. And Harry managed the same. Neither of us can advance." Lavender tried to fight down a mischievous grin, "Harry said it was more logical to go to Professor Flitwick for help because he's the charms professor and the patronus is a charm, plus he's familiar with defensive magics because he was a dueler. I said it would be best to go to you, since you are familiar with defensive magics, having fought in the war, and you know a wider range of magic than just transfiguration." Lavender looked away, "But…if you don't think you can beat Professor Flitwick…"
McGonagall raised an eyebrow at the girl's not so subtle manipulations.

But then again, a friendly competition might not be so terrible. Both Harry Potter and Lavender Brown were very talented students. Their…rivalry was the talk of many of the professors.

"Very well, Miss Brown." She decided, "I suppose a friendly competition wouldn't hurt. Now, the thing about the patronus charm is that it is far more similar to transfiguration than it is to charms."
"How so?" Lavender asked her curiously.

"Because, like charms it does involve control of the flow of magic, however, like transfiguration, one must focus not just on the happy memory one uses, but one must picture it vividly."

Lavender's eyes widened,

"Like how you picture the feel of the needle instead of just the image!" Lavender realized.

"Take five points to Gryffindor." McGonagall smiled a bit at the girl's revelation, "Now, try just thinking about your happiest memory for now, but not just the image of that memory. The smells involved, the sensations outside of vision."
Lavender closed her eyes. She was thinking about the day she'd gotten her Hogwarts letter.

"Expecto Patronum."

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Lavender was hoping to achieve more than just the patronus charm from this little competition she'd started with Harry.

First of all, she wanted Harry to form an actual relationship with an adult. She knew Harry hadn't had the best sort of childhood. It didn't take a detective to notice the rags he wore, or how he avoided talking about his homelife.

Lavender had wondered if it went beyond just being neglected. But she hadn't done anything the first time. She couldn't explain why she hadn't done anything. Maybe part of her had thought the adults would handle it. Maybe she'd thought it was because Harry wasn't like the other kids…But that was a bad mentality.

Suddenly being sent back in time to when Harry was eleven…seeing him all small and skinny and miserable he'd been and realizing he very well could die…she just couldn't let that all happen.

She was going to fight with all her might this time. She'd pour her all into protecting Harry and making sure he was strong enough to survive so that, even if she did fail, and even if they did both die, she could at least say she'd done her best without any regrets.

Harry was going to need an ally who was actually of age.

She didn't know the full details of Harry's adventures, but she did know he had trust issues. Flitwick was a likeable person. She was hoping that maybe he'd get Harry to open up.

Even though Harry might not be able to perform the patronus in front of a real dementor yet, knowing the charm and being able to perform it wouldn't hurt.

Then, in third year they could deal with the danger a little more prepared.

Lavender knew in third year Sirius Black had escaped. Ron's rat had been an animagus…That's what he'd said anyways.

Could the two of them be connected?

If only Harry had been a little more open…

Lavender had prided herself in knowing exactly what was going on around her. She knew every piece of gossip in the school and she paid close attention, especially when it started becoming evident that Voldemort might be back.

Her ability to pick up on what rumors were very possibly true and which were likely false was something she prided herself on.

When she'd heard that Harry, Hermione and Ron had confronted a troll on Halloween, she'd believed it.

Which meant she'd have to be extra careful on Halloween.

As Halloween drew closer, Lavender could see the shape of…something in the mist of her patronus. She was so close to having a fully corporeal.

"Give it a few more tries." McGonagall encouraged.

Lavender closed her eyes.

She was going to become the youngest person to learn how to cast a patronus and…when she succeeded, she was going to rub it in Harry Potter's face.

"Expecto Patronum!"
Lavender lit up when the mist formed into an animal. An animal!

"A bat patronus." McGonagall nodded in admiration, "Take fifty points to Gryffindor for mastering the patronus charm."

"Thank you so much!" Lavender was jumping up and down as her patronus flew around her. Her eyes were alight with excitement.

"I can cast a patronus! The youngest person to cast a patronus! And more importantly…I beat Harry." She looked over at McGonagall, "I must tell him this now!"

She ran off before McGonagall could say anything more.

She had genuinely won a contest against Harry this time.

Huh. She actually felt kind of good about it.

Well, better than she had with the other competitions anyways. She moved down towards the charms classroom only to run into…Harry.

"Lavender?" Harry wondered, then quickly grinned, "I did it! I cast a patronus."
"No way. I just cast a patronus!" Lavender gapped.

Did that mean…

"It's a tie." Lavender let out a sigh.

Her feelings of excitement suddenly gone and replaced by mild disappointment.

She suddenly perked up.

"I bet my patronus is cooler." She decided.

"What? We're comparing now?" Harry wondered, "And mine is definitely cooler."
"Wanna put your magic where your mouth is?" Lavender narrowed her eyes at him.

"I don't think that's a saying, but yeah. Let's."

They both took out their wands, then incanted the spell together.

"Expecto Patronum!"

Lavender was startled when, instead of a stag leaping from Harry's wand all majestic like, came a bat instead.

McGonagall came walking down the hall. Her eyes widened slightly at what she saw.

Matching bat patronuses.

Flitwick came from the opposite side from his own classroom, just as startled as McGonagall.

Both Harry and Lavender looked up at their animals.

Harry looked back down at Lavender,

"What are the odds they'd be the same?"

Lavender nodded absently, wondering what that could mean.

Harry's patronus had been a stag originally.

It changed…Had she done that?