When Friday night came, Brenda was surprised to see Lavender excited to leave early. Lavender mentioned that she had a date and Brenda practically fell over herself in both surprise and elation. Lavender blushed as the older witch flustered over her. "But what are you going to wear?" Breanda finally asked, stumping Lavender.
She always used to take days to plan her outfits for dates. Parvati would help her and they would tear both their wardrobes apart, searching for just the right thing to drive whichever boy had asked her out absolutely wild. Lavender hadn't even thought about dressing up for a date since the end of the war, mostly because she just chose whatever covered her up the most, and partly because Seamus didn't seem to care what she wore. "I... have no idea," Lavender confessed, spurring a tsking noise from Brenda.
"Then it's a good thing you have me," Brenda declared, locking the door, flipping over the 'Closed' sign, and dragging Lavender into the back. "We just got some new things in, come on."
Lavender giggled helplessly as Brenda dressed her, choosing a a boat-neck purple sweater over a red camisole and a pair of dark blue jeans that rode low on her hips to go over her black leather boots boots. She had forgotten what fun could be had getting ready for a date, and Brenda seemed determined to remind her. She did her own makeup while Brenda arranged her hair, pinning up the curls loosely and then letting them tumble down Lavender's back. The ensemble and the hairstyle bared more of her scars than she was used to and so Lavender swept powder over them, helping them blend slightly.
She was learning not to be ashamed, but it was one thing to stare down people who were curious in an intimate setting with her friends as opposed to going out in public and baring everything. Her clothes made her just a little bit nervous but Alexei had seemed to like her, scars and all, and so she tried to summon that feeling she got when she was in the Half Moon Tavern, the feeling of having enough confidence to stare down werewolves.
Soon enough Brenda pronounced her ready and ushered her out the door, wishing her well and nearly shoving her in the direction of the Dragon's Head. It was a short walk, over on Kelpie Street. She passed the old Keening Kelpie, which had closed its doors after the first war because the owners had all been killed. The blue and gold kelpie still pranced on the door as Lavender passed it and it seemed sad to her, but she passed on.
Alexei was waiting outside the Dragon's Head and he smiled as she walked closer, eyes roving appreciatively over her body. "Hello there," he greeted, holding out a hand and pulling her into a light hug.
She stiffened, unused to human contact, before relaxing slightly and giving him a quick hug back. "Hello yourself."
He led her inside and took her to a booth that the waitress had been holding for them, then helped her with her jacket. She appreciated the gesture – it had been a long time since anyone had treated her like a lady. Seamus had been treating her more and more like a teammate than a lady in the months before he had left, and it was nice to be reminded that she was, in fact, more than that.
"So I have to ask," he said, leaning forward over the table after they had ordered drinks. "Neville and some of the others have work have mentioned it, but not all that much. Were you all really planning fo die at the end of the year?"
Lavender raised her eyebrows. "Starting off with heavy conversation? No, it's fine," she said, waving aside his apologies. "I don't have a problem talking about it. The answer is yes. We decided at the start of the year that there were only a few ways that our final year of school could go down. We could bow our heads, take our beatings, and say nothing. We could rebel a little bit, maybe cause some damage. Or we could train and fight at the end of the year, make a huge battle out of it, so big the rest of the wizarding world would have to pay attention. We'd had a club before called Dumbledore's Army during my fifth year that was taught by Harry Potter. We learned defense because our professor wouldn't teach it to us. But in seventh year the DA was led by Neville, and we learned how to fight and how to plan a battle."
"That's incredible," Alexei commented. "Neville is an amazing leader, everyone thinks he might be Head of the Auror Department someday."
"He wasn't always like that," Lavender shook her head. "For years he was the class joke. Something changed in him after fifth year, and then he grew into his own during seventh year when he led us. We ended up being willing to follow him to hell and back, to die for him if he asked. I think we all still would." Neville had filled them all with a confidence that Harry had never been able to. Harry had been a decent teacher, but Neville believed in them in a way that made them want to believe in themselves. She smiled in memory. "He told us once that he always had our back, just as he knew we had his. I think it remains true to this day. He and Hannah have helped piece more of us back together after the hell of last year than I can remember."
She sipped at her wine, then looked up as the waitress came over to take their orders. Time to see how much she scared her date. "Steak, please. Rare as you can make it. Just take it over to the grill and scare it a little bit." The waitress gave her a strange look but nodded, then took Alexei's order.
Alexei was looking at Lavender like he wanted to ask another question. "I'm not a werewolf," she forestalled him. He looked visibly relieved and she couldn't help but be a little annoyed. "Would it matter if I was? No, never mind," she interrupted herself before he could talk. "I don't think I actually want to know the answer to that."
Things got more awkward before they got better, but the food helped quite a lot. Lavender did have impeccable table manners despite her wolfish tendencies, and even though her steak was practically bleeding onto her plate she still cut it into small bites with her knife and fork to eat it delicately. As usual, she ignored most of the potatoes and peas that had come with it. They made more small talk as they ate dinner, though Lavender was mostly focused on her meal.
"It's nice to see a girl actually eat," Alexei commented as Lavender polished off the rest of her steak and sopped up the remaining juices on her plate with a piece of bread. "I always feel bad when a girl just orders a salad."
"I like to eat," Lavender said shortly. Actually, being bitten had been incredible for her waistline. Her temperature ran hot all the time now and she burned calories like an athlete, especially as the moon was waxing. Tonight was the first quarter of the moon's cycle and in preparation for the full moon in a week her appetite was voracious.
Sighing, she looked up at Alexei ruefully. "I'm sorry I was short with you. It's just been a really long time since I've gone on a date, and it's the first time I've gone on a first date since the war."
"It's alright," he smiled. "Just relax. I can tell you've been hurt recently, and I can't imagine having those scars makes people look at you nicely."
"Well spotted," Lavender groused.
"I am an Auror," Alexei pointed out.
"In training," she sassed back, and like that the awkwardness was dispersed and they spent the rest of the evening chatting about everything and nothing. He ended up walking her back to her flat and kissing her goodnight, and the feeling of his lips lingered on hers for a long time after that.
She woke up the next morning with a smile on her face and lightness in her step. Brenda had once again banned her from going to work (she secretly thought her boss was hoping she would keep her date over that night) so instead she made a grocery list and tidied up the flat. She left the flat with less of her usual coat of makeup than usual, though she still kept her hair down and her collar pulled up.
Despite the looks of the cashier and some of the other patrons of the store, her smile stayed on as she shopped. It was nice to feel wanted and beautiful by someone new, and the ego boost she was getting off of it was wonderful. She handed over her money cheerfully and exited the store with her bag, almost feeling like skipping. Lavender giggled a little at that idea – skipping in these boots with these heels would lead to a broken ankle in moments.
She was so caught up in her happy memories of the night before she almost didn't notice the familiar scent that the wind carried to her. When she did notice it she stilled, looking across the street in the direction of the wind. The scent poured into her nose as she turned in the direction of it, and she laid eyes on Seamus, limping just barely, walking hunched against the wind with his face tucked down into his collar.
Lavender stared at him, her happiness from before forgotten. He looked tired, overworked, and sad all at the same time. He was walking quickly right into the wind and she caught the scent of whiskey and blood and the smell that was so uniquely him that she had to restrain herself from running to him. She leaned against the side of the building behind her to stop herself. If he was hurt, she wanted to make him better. She had always been the best at patching up his wounds.
After the Battle of Hogwarts when everyone was just trying to figure out who was alive and what had happened, she had pieced him back together with salve and bandages. No one else had tried because of the dark look on his face, and because she understood him well enough to ignore it. They might have won the war and the battle, but he still had his demons to fight from it. She had brought him back from the horrors he still saw in his mind the only way she knew how – gentle touches, silence, and a comforting presence. It was the only thing that had ever worked on him.
In return he had done the same for her, cleaning the blood off the bites and finding wounds she hadn't remembered getting. They had sat together in the Great Hall and become the focus of each other's attention, and she learned his body better in that moment than she had in the many times they had frantically pawed at each other in a broom closet and the number of times they had slept together in his bed, skin pressing against skin. She could still recall every line of his arms and back and shoulders, every cut she had cleaned and bandaged, and the look as his eyes slowly softened and the muscles of his body relaxed into her touch.
It had been a magical moment, sitting there as dawn poured through the shattered windows and broken ceiling and cries of happiness and sadness sounded around them. He had taken her away then, to a grassy meadow somewhere in Scotland and they had reveled in the light of day, the fact that they were alive, the fact that the wizarding world was safe and they had won. It was another one of those incredibly happy memories that she had tucked away for safekeeping, and it made her bitterly sad to see him the opposite of what he had been.
She watched as he walked away, and then turned and walked the opposite direction. Even the sight of him sent her mind into overdrive, and she turned over the image of him walking away into the cold wind, limping a little and looking miserable. What was happening to him at work? Was it really that awful and soul-consuming that he looked like that?
Lavender put away her groceries when she got home and fixed a cup of tea, wishing she could rekindle the earlier joy she had. But seeing Seamus, after weeks of not seeing him, was like a punch in the gut that she hadn't expected. All the excitement Alexei had given her was gone, and instead, she just hoped Seamus was alright.