Hello everyone!
I hope you're having a great week so far! I'm so happy to be getting such positive feedback for this story, please keep it up! I've seen a couple of reviews about it, so I thought I would say that yes, you are right, All Too Well and In the Name of Being Honest are from the same Taylor Swift song! I like my sequel titles to be a derivative from the original story. I'm impressed so many of you caught on!
Anyways, read, review, and enjoy!
Lavender entered the Great Hall on the first official day back to school, her schedule clenched tightly in her fist. Her heart had sunk when she peered over the classes she had been assigned- Transfiguration, Divination, Charms, Dark Arts, and Muggle Studies. It was clear that Snape was in no joking mood when he announced that the latter two classes would be mandatory.
She hitched her bag higher onto her shoulder, pushing her way through the crowd of excited first years as she made her way to the seat that Seamus had saved for her at the Gryffindor table.
"Did you hear the news?" Seamus asked, excitedly shoving the latest copy of the Daily Prophet under her nose. She pulled away, gingerly taking the newspaper from him. "Harry Potter, infiltrated the Ministry!" He let out a whoop. "Right under You-Know-Who's nose!"
She perused over the headline "Undesirable Number One spotted in the Ministry of Magic" before skimming the article, her eyebrows shooting dangerously high toward her hairline. "What in the world was he doing?" she asked, handing the newspaper over to Neville, who had been reading it hungrily over her shoulder. "He could have been killed!"
"He's the Chosen One!" Seamus responded with an ear-to-ear grin. "He must have been looking for something, that's the only reason we can think of."
Lavender shook her head, still quite abashed by the news that had begun to spread like wildfire through the throngs of students. Even Luna, who rarely had anything in her hands besides the latest issue of the Quibbler, was seated at the Ravenclaw table with the Daily Prophet propped up on a pitcher of pumpkin juice.
"You just have to make up for the fact that you did nothing, but ridicule him during the first half of fifth year," Lavender teased Seamus, as she spooned a glob of thick oatmeal into the bowl in front of her.
Seamus sneered playfully, leaning forward to kiss her on the cheek before slinging his own book bag over his shoulder. "I was merely questioning the source at hand, even the Minister was saying how much of a crackpot he was for some time. I'm headed to plant some explosives around the grounds. I'll meet you in Transfiguration."
"Make good decisions," she retorted, having only half-listened to what he was saying as she had just begun to dig into her oatmeal.
Parvati, who always watched their exchanges closely, rolled her eyes at the two. "When are you two EVER going to address this silent thing between you?"
Lavender opened her mouth to respond, but shut it quickly when Ginny sat at the table across her, glowering over the plate of bacon that had just refilled. She knew, but didn't need the redhead to know, that the short time she had "dated" Ron in an attempt to extrapolate information from him had nearly ended the friendship between her and Seamus.
Her Irish crush had been hurt deeply by the entire ordeal, sending Lavender into a spiral of inward deep thoughts about what she was willing to lose to find out this information that she didn't even know existed. It took until Dumbledore dying for Seamus to come around, despite Lavender's attempts at making it up to him.
Parvati sighed, knowing full well she wasn't going to get a truthful answer from her best friend during one of the busiest times in Great Hall. The warning bell signaling the beginning of the day tolled once and there was a simultaneous clatter of utensils on dishes as the students began to make their way toward their first class of the semester.
"Come on!" Parvati grinned, clambering out of her own seat at the table, "Professor Trelawney is up first and we both just KNOW how much she HATES later comers." She ended her sarcastic statement with a giggle. Both ladies adored Professor Trelawney, but the poor professor wouldn't have even connected the fact that they missed a lesson, let alone be late for one.
Lavender grinned back, snatching her bag off the flagstone floor. "We shouldn't keep her waiting then. Wouldn't want to fail our NEWT Divination lessons." She snaked her arm around Parvati's elbow and the two best friends broke down into a fit of giggles as they exited the Great Hall, stomping up the grand staircase toward the tower.
While neither girl was particularly interested in continuing Divination as a career of any sort, the class had been more of an Independent Study for the past year, allowing the two to sit on comfortable poufs and gossip, occasionally looking at each other's palms or staring into the crystal ball.
They finally reached the landing of the tower, huffing and puffing from climbing the dozen sets of stairs. "You would THINK," Lavender started, creeping onto her tip toes in order to reach the cord that opened the trap door, "that after ALL of these YEARS we wouldn't get nearly as wiped out getting to class."
"Speak for yourself," Parvati shot back, though she was clutching her side and leaning against the wall, breathing quite heavily.
Lavender scrambled up the ladder, collapsing onto the nearest pouf that she could find. Parvati wasn't far behind, dumping her bag next to the circular wooden table. Professor Trelawney, who clearly had forgotten she was teaching a class that morning, looked up in surprise from her perch at the front of the classroom.
"Welcome back to Hogwarts," she said, the mistiness in her voice ringing out over the surprise of the two students clambering unsuspectedly into her tower, "while I am currently drawn into the realm of the unknown, I shall have you two practice whichever skill you feel ineptest for your NEWT exams at the end of this year." With that, she turned back toward her crystal ball, her eyes squinted behind her large framed glasses.
"We didn't even have to come," Parvati hissed as Lavender flew out of her pouf, grabbing a tea pot, the bag of tea leaves, and two small mugs from the shelf on the other side of the classroom. Parvati eyed the set up and groaned, placing her forehead in the palm of her hand. "Lav- we've been over this. I thought we had decided to give up on the entire endeavor with the tea leaves."
"We had…I just-" Lavender trailed off as she dumped some tea leaves into the hot water she had just shot into her mug from the tip of her wand, "I don't know, you've been my best friend for so long and I just-" She paused again, swirling the contents three times with her left hand before draining the mug into her mouth (burning her tongue in the process) and placing the mug facedown onto the saucer it came with.
Parvati leaned forward, patting her best friend's forearm lightly. She knew, unlike most everyone else, that Lavender had been struggling with these feelings since they had met. "Well, let's keep our fingers crossed that this year it has changed."
Lavender took a deep breath, blowing out her cheeks, before turning the mug back over and peering into it. She groaned in frustration, thinking for a moment about chucking the mug across the room. Parvati looked at her with sympathy. "The exact same?"
"The. Exact. Same." Lavender sighed, leaning back in her pouf. "Listen, I have Transfiguration next and Professor Trelawney isn't going to be bothered if I just leave early." She paused to glance at the professor, who was very much still being entertained by whatever she was seeing in the crystal ball. "I think I'm just going to head to the library before going to see McGonagall. I can't stand to be in this classroom much longer."
Parvati shrugged her right shoulder. "I'll just follow you then. No point in me being in this sweltering tower all by my lonesome."
The two girls quickly packed up their things and made their way out of the tower.
Lavender was consumed by her thoughts the entire way to the library, wondering why she was feeling so lost and confused at the beginning of this term more than others. Maybe it was that Dumbledore was no longer alive, therefore a major source of protection was missing. Maybe it was the fact that she was already worried about Seamus, who seemed to take it upon himself to shoulder the burden of being the troublemaker after Fred and George Weasley departed on their broomsticks during fifth year.
Or maybe it was just the fact that Lavender no longer felt the need to be wild and outgoing to impress her classmates. She was just as satisfied at keeping her head down, getting through her lessons, and graduating at the end of the school year. There was no reason to raise attention to herself any longer.
Maybe she was depressed, her mother had been worried about that over the summer. Maybe, after all this time, she was just tired of trying to be someone she wasn't.
…..
"Can you actually believe that Amycus Carrow is teaching us Unforgivable Curses?" Neville asked darkly, snuggling deeper into the armchair that sat across from the fireplace. The three seventh years were silent after Neville's rhetorical statement, listening to the crackling logs. "It was one thing when Professor Moody did it, but-"
"Didn't that Moody turn out to be another deranged death eater using polyjuice potion?" Lavender piped up, wrapping her arms tightly around her knees as she sat on the plush rug in front of Parvati's arm chair.
"Seems to me as if this school has a bit of a security problem," Neville nodded, continuing to stare into the fire.
While the three seventh years didn't have any homework to be done after the first day back of classes, they had all decided to wait up together when their fourth partner, Seamus, had to serve his first detention with the Carrows. Lavender peered at the clock over her shoulder. 11:35 at night. He should be stumbling in the door any time-
The portrait swung open, Seamus stumbling in, immediately falling to his knees just as he crossed the threshold into the common room. Lavender popped up, crossing the room in record time to reach him.
"Seamus, what are you- oh, my Merlin." Lavender let out a gasp of surprise as she saw Seamus's face. The right eye was bruised and swollen, his lip busted open in the middle. Blood was running down his left temple from a gash near his hairline. He winced in pain when he tried to move, indicating to Lavender that he had some sort of injury on or near his rib cage on the right side. "Parvati- get some essence of murtlap!"
Parvati scrambled up the stairs, taking them two at a time to reach the girls dormitory, where she knew Lavender kept the essence of murtlap in her trunk.
"Seamus, what the hell happened, man?" Neville asked, crouching down next to Seamus in order to get a hold underneath his armpit. Seamus hissed in pain as Neville and Lavender pulled him to his feet, half-dragging him to a couch near the fireplace.
"The Carrows happened," Seamus spat out, relaxing back into the cushions and closing his eyes. Parvati pounded back down the stairs, a miniscule amount of the essence of murtlap poured into a small bowl that she had clutched in her hand. Lavender gently took the bowl from her and conjured up a washcloth, dipping it into the liquid and pressing it into the wounds on Seamus's face. He sighed in relief, relaxing even more as the potion started to do its work. "They took my wand," Seamus went on after the majority of his facial injuries had begun to heal, "and played with me like a cat plays with a mouse. Trip jinxes, augamenti charm to the face until I couldn't breathe-"
Lavender's eyes started to swell up with tears as she listened to Seamus list off the things the Carrows did to torture him.
"-Kept saying that they were the deputies of the headmaster now. Just that they would be taking over all punishments and if I knew what was best for me, that would be the last time I put a toe out of line."
"We have to be even more careful," Parvati whispered, her eyes flicking in horror across Seamus's face, which was still quite bruised, but now pain free. "This isn't Hogwarts. This is nothing like Hogwarts."
"This is Hogwarts now," Seamus muttered, shaking his head slowly, "this is Hogwarts as long as You-Know-Who is around."
Lavender stayed silent, pressing the cloth against Seamus's ribs. It only confirmed her feelings of laying low and getting through until the end of the year. She only hoped that Seamus would learn quickly to do the same.