You guyssssss! Thank you so much for all the reviews and the PMs for the first chapter of this sequel. I am SO excited to get back in the writing game and see where this one goes.
Just as a reminder…this is a collection of snippets of a few years of Lavender's life before we get into the meat of the story, which will be her seventh year at Hogwarts. I wanted to give you an idea of how I saw Lavender in regards to the sequel, so you had a basis of where this is going.

As always, you rock! Read, review, and enjoy!

Lavender Brown blinked her eyes open, squinting against the rays of the sun that streamed through the window next to her bed. The light was still faint, indicating that it was still quite early in the morning. She hopped out of bed, scrambling her bare feet against the cool floor of the dormitory.

Both Hermione and Parvati were snoring softly, nestled deep within the comforters of their beds. Lavender, however, was on a mission.

Pinning her necklace around her neck, the gold chain with the locket that had NB etched into it, she pulled a bag of loose tea leaves and an ornate tea cup from her trunk, clambering back to her bed, and sat cross legged on the thick mattress.

"Augamenti," she muttered, watching the hot water stream into the tea cup from the tip of her wand. Sticking her tongue between her teeth, she carefully poured some of the loose tea leaves into the cup. "Let it sit for two minutes, swirl around 3 times with my left hand, drink until all that is left is the dregs, turn the cup upside down on the saucer," she whispered to herself as she watched the tea leaves fall to the bottom of the small mug.

Although Lavender was half way into her third year, she very much enjoyed the first few lessons that Divination had to offer those many weeks ago. She knew the majority of her classmates would sneer at the odd professor, but the bangles, long flowy shawls, and wide-rimmed glasses of Professor Trelawney drew Lavender in.

It didn't hurt that Trelawney had successfully predicted the death of her pet bunny. After the initial shock and grief wore off, she was intrigued by the practice.

Which is why, on a Friday morning, she sat cross-legged on her bed with a small mug of brewing tea in her hand.

"Swirl around 3 times with my left hand," she whispered as she carefully swirled the tea, being careful not to spill the hot beverage into her lap. She had been less careful only once before. Once the tea settled back into the mug, she tipped it to her lips, closing her eyes and letting the hot drink slid down her throat.

"All that is left is the dregs," she whispered one more time, pushing her blonde, curly hair over her shoulder. She flipped the cup onto the saucer, waiting less than a minute for the liquid to drain away. She peered into the cup, her Divination book splayed out in front of her. "Damn," she whispered, shaking her head in disappointment. "I must STILL be doing it wrong." The dregs were the same as they had been when she started practicing her tea leave readings.

Family secret and betrayal.

The leaves must be wrong, she conferred with herself, or she's still doing the reading wrong. Professor Trelawney hadn't said anything negative about her technique. As a matter of fact, she frequently used Lavender as an example to her peers.

But a family secret? Betrayal?

Her family didn't have any secrets. The only odd thing that came from her family was the locket that Lavender had pinned around her neck at all times of the day. While her mother never told her exactly how she came into its fortune, she felt rather connected to it and decided when she was young that she would continue to wear it "for good luck."

…..

The locket still adorned her neck 3 years later when Lavender was just starting her sixth year at Hogwarts. She gazed at it in the mirror of her bedroom, cocking her head to the side as she surveyed herself. She flicked her eyes over to the picture she had taped to the corner of the vanity, a picture of her and her parents on their recent vacation to the south of France shortly after You-Know-Who was confirmed to be back in power.

Her parents, both straight-haired brunettes with light eyes, were grinning widely at the camera. She was stuck in the middle of them, with her curly blonde locks and dark, brown eyes, also smiling. She always thought it rather odd that she didn't look like either of her parents, but they just chalked it up to strong genetics from years past.

Her nose, her smile, her eyes. Nothing seemed to be familiar between the three of them.

She pounded down the stairs, pausing in the living room to give her father a kiss on the cheek. She continued her venture into the kitchen, pausing one more time to give her mother a kiss on the cheek before pulling down a mug from the cupboards above her.

"What are you doing- oh, Lavender, not again."

"Mum," she stated matter-of-factly, stealing the hot water her mother had just brewed for herself and pouring it into the cup, "Now that I've passed my OWLS in all the classes YOU wanted-" She poured some tea leaves into the mug following the steaming water, "-I can start to focus on the classes that I want. Divination, Transfiguration, Charms-" She picked up the mug and swirled it around 3 times with her left hand.

"Darling, you know that we want you to just be happy," her mum replied exasperatedly, "but you've been doing the same trick with the mug for YEARS now."

Lavender rolled her eyes, shaking her head. "It isn't a trick, mum, it's Divination. And besides-" She paused to drink the tea in one foul swoop, allowing the dregs to settle back to the bottom of the cup before flipped it quickly onto the saucer. "-This is the only one I just can't seem to get…damn it."

Family secret and betrayal. The same exact tea readings for the last 3 years.

She sighed. "I give up for today. I'm meeting Seamus and Parvati at Diagon Alley in a bit for some school shopping anyways." She saw her mother's eyes flick nervously toward her father, who had just walked into the room. "Mum. Relax. It's going to be fine. You-Know-Who isn't going to be waltzing into The Leaky Cauldron."

…..

School had been in action for a few months now when Lavender finally sighed in frustration, breaking down at the end of her NEWT level Divination class.

"Professor," she whined, sinking back into her pouf after successfully gazing into the crystal ball for the last hour, "I'm having such a hard time with my tea leaves. I've been practicing and practicing-" Parvati settled down next to her, placing her elbows on the round table that sat in front of them.

The professor looked mildly surprised, though she always seemed to look mildly surprised. "My dear, your third eye is quite open, I very highly doubt you're truly having-"

"She really is, professor," Parvati cut in, taking a deep breath, "she's been getting the same message in the tea leaves for YEARS. Family secret and betrayal." Lavender clutched at the locket around her neck, a nervous habit she had picked up through the years.

Trelawney rose from her own pouf, grabbing her wand and a tea mug from the shelf behind her. She gently set the mug on the table before pointing her wand and muttering "augamenti." The hot water streamed into the cup as Lavender picked up the tea leaves and sprinkled them in.

"Swirl it around three times, that's a girl," the professor began as Lavender picked up the mug, doing as she had been practicing for years. "Now drink the tea until only the dregs remain." Lavender swallowed back the liquid before setting the cup upside down onto the round table in front of her. The professor flipped it back over once the tea had drained. "What do you see?"

Parvati and Lavender nearly conked heads as they rushed to lean over the small china that sat before them. Parvati gasped in horror, reeling back quickly to stare at Lavender with wide eyes. "The GRIM?! Lav, that's the first time I've ever seen your tea leaves change!" Lavender returned her stare, her heart pattering frantically against her chest. She couldn't have the grim, it was impossible.

Professor Trelawney peered into the cup after the two girls, tilting her head from side to side as to get different perspectives of the shapes in the tea leaves. The two sixth years went quiet, watching her closely as she came to her conclusions. "These symbols here and here represent betrayal and a family secret being kept, just as you had seen before. But this symbol here-" She pointed toward the grim-shaped symbol- "I'm wary to say it is actually the grim."

Lavender could tell Parvati was having a hard time from rolling her eyes. "Professor," she stated matter-of-factly, "there is no way that isn't the grim. Look at the shape of its head, the chest area."

"Ah," Trelawney interjected, waving her hands in front of her, "but see the shape here and here. Not quite characteristic of the grim itself." She turned to Lavender. "What is the question you're asking the tea leaves as your swirl the cup with your left hand?"

Lavender caught eyes with Parvati, embarrassed that she would have to utter the words out loud. Parvati, who knew the turmoil going on inside her best friend's heart, merely leaned over and placed a comforting hand on her arm. "Erm- about my family…essentially." She hadn't wanted to admit her parental doubts.

"Maybe that's the information you should be seeking," she retorted, peeling away from the table and walking toward her personal rooms, indicating that the lesson was done for the day.

…..

It was weeks later when, after spending hours in the library scouring through tea leaf articles and books, that Parvati had a thoughtful break-through.

"What if," she said, grabbing ahold of Lavender's forearm with enthusiastic force, "what if what Professor Trelawney saw in Harry Potter's tea leaves third year wasn't the grim at all. What if it was the same thing she's seeing in your tea leaves now?"

Lavender pondered over it for a moment, wondering what the connection could possibly be. "I'll entertain that," she replied after the pause, nodding her head, "How do we somehow find out if there is a connection between Harry and I?"

Parvati leaned back into her chair and shrugged. "Erm- could just ask him?" She shook her head, answering her own question before Lavender had the opportunity. "No, you don't want it getting back to your parents that you're poking around like that." She grinned mischievously as a thought popped into her head. "Sidle up to Ron Weasley."

Lavender scrunched her nose and shook her head. "What? Ron Weasley? I mean…Parvati, you know how I feel about Seamus. It wouldn't be right to just-"

Her best friend leaned forward once again, placing her elbows on the table. "Seamus will still be there, feeling the same way he does about you now. How much do you want to know about the tea leaves?"

It wasn't even a week later that Lavender worked up the guts to kiss Ron Weasley after his first quidditch match, sending the packed common room into a frenzy. She didn't even notice, in her attempts to gain the trust of The Chosen One's best friend, that Hermione burst out of the common room in tears.

…..

Parvati,

We both know this isn't working. Ron clearly doesn't know anything. I'm doubting very much that Harry knows anything either. It hurts me to see Seamus in such a bad way, you know how I care about him. I think this is a dead end.

How do I get this boy to break up with me?

I've sent him that hideous necklace for Christmas. I've snogged him every chance of gotten (in public even!) to make him embarrassed. I've called him pet names. I've attempted to talk to Harry about our relationship, which I thought would work immediately. It's an impossible task!

Lav

…..

It had taken Lavender another month, at least, since returning to school from the holidays to find a way to get Ron to end the relationship with her. More than anything, she just didn't want to seem like the bad guy.

However, once Ron had made up with Hermione and they were spending more and more time together, it was apparent that the relationship was coming to an end, much to the gratefulness of Lavender herself.

It wasn't until she saw him leaving the common room with Hermione that she finally bucked up the courage to end their mirage of a relationship. At least that's how she saw it.

Much to her dismay, after breaking up with Ron, she cried. Cried for Seamus, whom she had feelings for since 4th year when they started to really get to know each other. Cried for her family, whom she had a gut instinct that they were hiding something from her. More than anything, she cried for herself, for feeling guilty and afraid that her small family wasn't enough for her, and for getting her hopes up that she could finally make out what was being left in the tea leaves.