February 2013

Lavender hurried down the school corridor to the principal's office. She had gotten a call at work that she needed to come pick Seamus up. The receptionist wouldn't or couldn't give her more information than that. Since Tommy was nowhere to be found she had taken the rest of the day off and gotten a cab to get here as quickly as possible. Before she reached the door, she stopped for a moment to compose herself. If he was hurt it wouldn't do him any good to see his mum frantic.

She knocked on the door and opened it when she heard the principal call out, "Enter."

"Ah, Mrs. Murray. Good of you to come so fast." The principal, Mr. Figg, was a thin man, with the look of an ascetic but the personality of the Fat Friar. His wide smile looked almost wrong on his face as he stood up and walked around his desk to greet her.

Lavender looked around the office, expecting to see her son, but didn't, "Mr. Figg, where's Seamus? Is he alright?"

Mr. Figg's smile dimmed a bit. "Seamus is alright, Mrs. Murray, but we need to discuss his recklessness."

"Recklessness? Seamus? Are you joking?" Lavender was stunned. "Seamus is a good buy."

Mr. Figg led Lavender to one of the vistor's chairs and, rather than become formal, sat in the other one himself, turning it to face her. "Mrs. Murray, Seamus' teacher had to get myself and another member of the staff today to get Seamus out of a tree at recess."

Lavender let out the breath she didn't realize she was holding. "He climbed a tree? That's what this is about? Children climb trees, Mr. Figg. I daresay you did when you were a child." Lavender was starting to lose the nervous fear that her son was hurt and was now getting angry at being called away from work for something so trivial as tree-climbing.

Mr. Figg nodded. "Yes, Mrs. Murray, I climbed trees when I was a child. I think we all did. However," Mr. Figg's smile had all but disappeared, "I never managed to climb thirty feet in the air and then proceed to say I hadn't done so."

"What?" Lavender's anger died as quickly as it had started. Climb thirty feet at his age? No. That wasn't possible, unless… Lavender had to face the fact that she had actually hoped her son would be a squib. And it was entirely possible that her hopes had just been dashed.

"Mrs. Murray?" Mr. Figg had said something while she had zoned out and she had missed it.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Figg. I don't know what to say." Lavender took a deep breath. "I'll talk to him when we get home and make sure he doesn't do anything like that again."

Mr. Figg sat there for a moment while Lavender held her breath. She realized who he had reminded her of: Professor McGonagall, with an outside appearing like hardened steel hiding the heart of a marshmallow. "Very well, Mrs. Murray. I expect there will be no more incidents of this nature. Seamus must be made to realize that he must tell the truth even if he thinks he'll get in trouble for it."

Lavender bit her tongue and only replied, "Seamus doesn't lie, Mr. Figg. It's entirely possible he was so scared by what had happened he just didn't remember doing it. However, I will make sure he realizes the consequences of being foolish." She stood up, "Now, Mr. Figg, I'd like to take him home."

"Of course, Mrs. Murray." Mr. Figg stood and walked her to the door. "He is in the nurse's office. I can accompany you if you'd like."

Lavender shook her head. "Just give me the direction and I'll be fine." She wanted to get away from him before her temper grew again at the casual accusation of her son lying, especially when she knew there was no way to explain how she knew Seamus wasn't lying. She knew Mr. Figg and the others were just interpreting things in the way they understood them.

"Down the hall, second left, third door on the right."

Lavender repeated the directions and thanked Mr. Figg before taking her leave. The walk was short and took her only a few minutes as she was moving along at a pretty good clip, worry and anger mixing to make her temper more than a little bit frayed. She got to the door and didn't bother knocking, just opened it and walked in. She saw Seamus right away, in one of the chairs, reading a book. He and the nurse both looked up at the same time.

Seamus jumped out of his seat and ran over to Lavender, leaping two steps away, trusting his mum to catch him mid-air. She held him close as her "I'm such a big boy" son started to cry, the stress of the day just getting to him when he saw the one person he knew could make it all go away.

"Shh, it's okay, sweetie." Lavender sat in the empty chair he had just been sitting in, moving the book he'd dropped to the next one. She rubbed his back as he cried his little heart out. The nurse smiled gently, nodded at Lavender and went into the room she used to treat the minor scrapes and bruises she usually dealt with during the day, giving the two some privacy.

After a few minutes letting him cry, she tilted his head back and smiled into his brown eyes, red-rimmed with tears. "You're going to make yourself sick if you cry too much, you know."

Seamus nodded miserably as he tried to stop crying. "That's better, my love. You were scared today, weren't you?"

He nodded again. "I didn't do it, Mum. Really, I didn't." He looked her right in the eyes as he said it, "But I was so high and I couldn't get down!"

"I know, sweetie. We're going to talk about it, but not here, okay?" Lavender stood Seamus on the floor. "Do you have your coat and hat?" He nodded and pointed to the coat tree in the corner of the office. "Gloves and lunch box, too?" Seamus nodded again. "Alright, put them on while I tell your nurse we're going. What's her name again?"

"Miss Ashley," he responded as he wiped his nose on his sleeve. Lavender sighed but didn't say anything to him about it. She walked over to the door and knocked on it before she opened it.

"Miss Ashley?"

"Yes, Mrs. Murray?" The nurse was young, with straight black hair and clear blue eyes. She seemed to project an aura of care.

"I'm taking Seamus home now. Was he injured in any way during his climb?"

Miss Ashley stopped the organizing she had been doing and shook her head. "Not that I could tell. He was more scared than anything else, I think. His hands weren't even scraped up. It was like he'd just jumped that high and couldn't get back down." She laughed to herself and shook her head again. "The biggest deal was more that he kept insisting he hadn't climbed it in the first place."

Lavender sighed, thinking to herself, This is going to take some work to make sure he's not labeled a liar. "Is it possible," she asked the nurse, "that after he did climb it and got so high and scared, that he just forgot everything but the fear, even the ascent?"

"Well, I guess it is possible. Fear can do funny things to one's memory." Miss Ashley's eyebrows met in the middle. "You know, you're probably right. It's hard for a five year old to lie that convincingly. He must just not remember it."

Lavender kept her temper in check and kept the bland smile on her face so she wouldn't strangle the young woman in front of her for so callously accusing her son of lying. "Yes, that must be it."

The nurse's face cleared up as she latched onto the possibility that made her feel better about the whole situation. "Well, he should be fine with some rest just to get over his scare completely. "I'd like to see him Monday morning before classes start, though, just to talk to him."

Lavender nodded. "Of course. Oh, I didn't ask Mr. Figg, will Seamus need to see him as well?"

"Not that I know of," Miss Ashley replied.

"Alright. Then we'll just be going now." Lavender turned and went over to Seamus to help him zip up his jacket.

Miss Ashley left the busywork she had been doing and went out to see them off. She rummaged through the top drawer of her desk pulled out a sheet of stickers. "Here you go, Seamus. Pick one." Seamus took the sheet of stickers and looked at it carefully as Miss Ashley told Lavender, "I try to give all the kids who come through here a sticker for being so brave when they're hurt." She chuckled. "I used to give out lollipops, but there are so many regulations now that I can't do that."

Lavender smiled at the woman, a real smile, "Well, all those peanut allergies and such take their toll on the fun stuff we could do, I suppose."

Seamus picked a bright, smiling sun and let Miss Ashley put it carefully on his coat, right over his heart. "Perfect," she said. "Good choice." She ruffled his hair as she stood back up from her kneeling position. "Be careful and get some good rest over the weekend, young man. And no more tree-climbing until you're a little older, alright?"

"But-" Seamus started to deny he had climbed the tree again but stopped when he saw is mother's quick head-shake. "Yes, ma'am. Thank you for the sticker."

"You're welcome, Seamus."

Lavender took her son's hand and nodded good-bye to Miss Ashley as they walked out the door and out of the school. She weighed her options as they left. If they caught the bus home, it would take about an hour with the transfer, but there was the chance Tommy would be home by then from work or wherever he had been. If they called a taxi she had no idea how long it would take to pick them up in the first place. Walking, it would only take about forty minutes and they could talk along the way. I'll just carry him when he gets too tired to walk himself, she decided.

She kept Seamus's hand as they turned onto the street from the school. "We're going to talk about this somewhere we can have some peace and quiet, alright, sweetie?"

"Yes, mum, but I really didn't do it!" Seamus' face was a study in misery as he practically howled out his denial of wrongdoing.

"I know, sweetie. I know why it happened but I can't tell you until we're alone."

Seamus looked confused, "But why?"

"Because it's a secret, dear." Lavender hated the idea of her son having to keep secrets, but no matter how far away from the wizarding world she got, she still refused to jeopardize them. Her friends, even if she hadn't seen them in years, deserved more from her. She sighed. Besides, it looked like Seamus might get a letter from Hogwarts some day.

They had walked for about ten minutes before they got to a deserted playground. It was cold out, but clear and the sun was shining, so there was some warmth. She led Seamus over to one of the park benches and they both sat down.

"This is going to sound strange, Seamus, but everything I'm about to tell you is true. I want you to hold your questions until I'm done, though, alright?"

He nodded, clearly scared of whatever his mother was about to tell him.

"Alright, you know those movies and books about Merlin the sorcerer?" Seamus nodded. "Well, he really did live a long time ago. And he really was a wizard. He wasn't the only one. There are lots of witches and wizards in the world. Most of them are very good people, not like the stories say they are now."

"But, mum-"

Lavender shook her head, "Questions after, remember?" Seamus nodded and held her hand tighter.

"Some people are born able to do magic. Most people aren't. When they're younger, the witch or wizard's magic shows itself in strange ways, like wanting to climb a tree so high and then suddenly being there." Seamus' eyes grew wide as Lavender took a deep breath. "When I was little, my magic tended to make things jump and dance."

"Mummy?"

Lavender nodded at the question in Seamus' voice. "Yes, I am a witch. You, my dear boy, are going to be a wizard. It's not a bad thing," she continued hurriedly as Seamus' eyes filled with fright. "You will be able to do some wonderful things when you're older. There's a special school that I went to, well, we'll figure out how to afford it, I promise."

Lavender put her arm around Seamus' shoulders. "Oh, I'm just messing this all up. I didn't think I'd have to talk to you about it, sweetie."

"Mummy, is that why I hurt at the Full Moon?" Seamus asked the question she had truly been dreading.

She sighed. "In a way, but not really. You feel that way because of something that happened to me when I was just seventeen. I told you most witches and wizards are good people, not evil." Seamus nodded. "Well, there are some bad witches and wizards, too. There used to be one who was as evil as anyone I can ever think of. He had a bunch of people who believed like he did and were willing to do anything to hurt the good witches and wizards and the people who have no magic at all.

"One of my friends from school beat him when we were seventeen. There was a great big battle, though and I was injured by one of the bad man's followers. This man who hurt me was a werewolf."

"A werewolf? But they're not real, mummy!"

Lavender tucked his head on her shoulder. "Yes, they are, sweetie. They're just not like the movies make them seem." She shook her head, "In fact, most of them are good people, too. They're just people that had the really bad luck to run into a werewolf and get bitten in the first place. There's a potion, you see, a medicine, that can make their time at the Full Moon much easier.

"I don't change into a wolf at the Full Moon because Greyback, that was his name, Fenrir Greyback, bit me at the wrong time of the month. But I do get terrible pains and very grumpy."

"So do I." Seamus frowned.

"I know. You get that from me. But that medicine I give you every month helps, right?"

"Yes, mummy." Seamus looked up at her. "Will I turn into a wolf, mummy?"

Lavender smiled and shook her head. "No, sweetie. To turn into a wolf, you'd have to be bitten at the Full Moon. I wasn't, so you won't. I'm just sorry you feel anything at all."

"It doesn't hurt as much as it used to, mummy. It's getting better."

Lavender hugged her son. "I'm so glad to hear that."

"So why is it a secret, mummy." she heard his muffled voice ask her.

Lavender nodded to herself and said, "It's a secret because the muggle world-"

"Muggle?"

"People who aren't witches or wizards, sweetie. Anyway, the muggle world just isn't ready to accept witches and wizards. They're afraid of us. Can you imagine what they'd say if they found out you could make water out of thin air, or disappear and reappear somewhere else? They might afraid of you. Well, not all. There are some muggles out there who wouldn't care at all, but there are others who would want to use your abilities to do bad things. We let the muggles sort things out on their own because it would be too easy for them to rely on us to fix things for them."

"Kind of like Marvelman or Superman?"

"Exactly like that." She let Seamus mull things over for a bit while she thought about what she had told him. She wasn't sure how to explain to Seamus that he couldn't tell his father.

Seamus was thinking hard about what his mum had just told him. Witches and wizards belonged in the fairy tale books his mum read to him. They shouldn't be real, just like comic book heroes weren't real. But they are real and he was one of them. And he couldn't tell anyone, even his best friend, Melissa?

"Mum, can I tell M'liss?"

"No, sweetie, you can't tell Melissa. You can't tell anyone at all." Lavender took a deep breath, "Even your father."

Seamus looked sad when Lavender told him he couldn't tell his best friend, but he was absolutely stricken by the idea that he couldn't tell his father. "Why not?"

"Because your father doesn't know about magic. He knows I was attacked by a werewolf. He knows that's why we both have a hard time at the Full Moon. He doesn't know I'm a witch. I don't think he'd react well to you being a wizard."

Seamus' eyes filled with tears. "He won't like me anymore?"

Lavender cringed inside, hating to make Seamus afraid of his father, but not knowing any other way to keep Tommy from doing something he'd later regret. "Not that. I think he'd be afraid of it, sweetie. He doesn't always stay calm when he's afraid."

Seamus realized what she was saying. His father liked to go down to the pub. A lot. When he came home from the pub, he liked to yell. He hadn't ever done more than that, but sometimes when he was so angry, Seamus would hide in his room while his mother calmed his father down.

Seamus nodded his head, the tears in his eyes so close to falling. "You think he'll be mad at me."

"Or me. Maybe both of us." Lavender wiped his tears away and smiled gently, "Better to avoid either possibility, right?"

Seamus nodded again. "Yes, mummy." He hugged her and Lavender hugged him back.

"Now, we'll just keep this a secret between the two of us. I'll show you little tricks to control your temper and try to stop your magic from doing silly things like it did today that will get you into trouble with people who don't understand, alright?"

Seamus nodded, his head still buried in her jacket. Lavender enjoyed the feel of her little boy tight against her and rested her head on the top of his. They stayed like that for a while before Lavender realized he was starting to shiver from sitting on the cold bench for so long. She gave him one more squeeze and asked him, "Why don't we stop at Gershom's for some tea and cocoa on the way home?"

Seamus looked at his mother and grinned, "Can I have marshmallows in my cocoa?"

"Well, of course. What's hot cocoa without marshmallows, silly boy? Maybe I'll even have some cocoa instead of tea. What do you say to that?"

"Great!" Seamus jumped off the bench, the conversation they'd had and everything he'd heard and done today was running around his brain, but the prospect of hot cocoa with his mum at Gershom's made heavy thoughts take a back seat.

AN: I'm not sure whether or not Principal Figg is related to Mrs. Figg. It may pop up in Dudley's Tale. Or not, if it has no relevance. I haven't decided yet. Nyah, nyah.

This is also as far as I've written about Lavender's back story. After this she sort of blends into Dudley's Tale. If anything happens in her life where she needs to have her own say, I'll be writing it up.