EAD 2016- Love? (2/2)
EAD 2016 Masterpost
Continued from (1/2)
Title: Love?
Author: Elspeth
Fandom/Genre: Harry Potter
Relationship(s): Canon Pairings and Dissolutions
Content Rating: Teen/Mature
Warnings: Love Potions, Consent Issues, Dealing with aftermath of a Werewolf Attack, Massive Consent Issues, Seriously- Love Potions
Summary: Lavender Brown wakes up from the potion regimen to remove the systemic dark magic from her body after Fenrir Greyback’s attack. It does remove some dark magic from her body, but not the dark magic everyone expected. She goes to see Hermione immediately.
Word Count: 14848/10000
Part Four:
They all ended up on the sofa this time cuddling again, with Hermione in between Lavender and Ron. It had been an awful tiring day. 'Misery loves company' Lavender thought to herself. She could not believe that she was not at some healer's practice nor home. It felt amazing to be anyway- healer practices all had the same 'get well soon' vibe which Lavender had come to sneer in contempt and home, well home had become a prison. One she hadn't been allowed to leave. "Darling, why would you ever want to leave? Come now, you're not thinking clearly. You are perfectly happy staying inside." But she hadn't been. She hated staying inside every day all day with every mirror in the house removed, only able to sit by windows and watch life happening outside. Well no more. She may always have the scars but she could do the things that she wanted. Soon she'd be able to eat again and talk. Oh how she missed talking.
Most of all, she wanted to kiss someone. Her lips could move together, they could purse and do all the things that she used to be able to do for years, the things she took for granted until her face was frozen for three years. It was amazing to be able to make funny faces in mirrors again. So while she continued to hold Hermione and Ron, she daydreamed, something she hadn't done in years. It had been a stressful day and she just wanted to relax and think of something good. And so she was off- resting her head on Hermione's she smiled and thought of a new first kiss with someone she wasn't under the influence to love. A pair of blue eyes immediately came to mind.
Her daydreams came to an abrupt halt when Hermione sat up and shouted, "Harry!" Ron and Lavender who had fallen in towards each other sat up in confusion. "Oh my god! Harry! His chestmonster! Harry!"
"Hermione, what? Slow down. You're skipping explanations. What's going on with Harry?" asked Ron.
"Don't you understand? Oh this just keeps getting worse! Harry has been potioned too!" exclaimed Hermione.
"What?" Lavender wrote. "I don't...How do you know?"
"When Harry started to like Ginny, I had him describe his feelings for her. I was potioned at the time so when he talked about how he felt about Ginny, I assured him it was normal because that was what I was feeling for Ron. But those were normal feelings to me potioned!" Hermione explained.
"So," Ron started, "if you both were potioned to love me and Harry was potioned to love Ginny, Does." Ron paused, not wanting continue that thought but going on anyways. "Does that implicate my family? Or, is it just me?"
Hermione looked at Ron with horror and disbelief- that people she considered family could do this to her was unthinkable, but so was being love potioned... Lavender didn't write anything to add to the conversation. She didn't know if she could, not when she was stuck at the thought that there were more people love potioned. Lavender vowed they would get to the bottom of this. Answers of why, who, and how would be found. Lavender would keep her wand on her and remember all of those non-verbal pain spells Hermione taught her forthwith.
"Fuck," muttered Ron. "My fucking family." He sigh. "It's the only possible explanation, right?"
Hermione wanting to give the Weasleys the benefit of the doubt, she offered, "Not the only possible explanation."
"That's not right. This isn't right. Someone in my family potioned both of you. They performed dark magic to subvert your wills. This is not right. They even did this to Harry. Harry! Someone who lived without love most of his childhood, was then forced to love someone. He would have never noticed something was wrong. This is so fucked." Ron got up and started to pace, getting angrier and angrier as he walked. "We can't let this continue. What if it's not just Harry? What if other people have been potioned? Like Angelina? Or Penny? Or the guy Charlie keeps going on about? Or Fleur?"
"Fleur wouldn't be able to be potioned." Hermione interrupted and reasoned, "Her Veela blood would have prevented it. It would have been inactive towards her, or she may have magically rejected the dark magic entirely." Looking a Ron and then at Lavender she queried, "What do you propose we do? If other Weasley partners have been potioned, they need to know and they need to get help like I will."
"There's only one way to get everybody together. A family meeting." And with that, Ron cast Patronus Spells to inform his family he had some important news to talk about, and to meet up at The Burrow within the hour.
OoO
"You're pregnant! Oh how delightful Hermione. Just think Arthur! A new grandbaby!" Molly cheered, hugging Hermione as she walked through The Burrows' front door and swinging her around in delight.
"Mum! Mum! Set her down. Hermione's not pregnant! Please set her down." Ron exclaimed at his mother walking through the door after Hermione.
Lavender following Ron, walked in and closed the door. Looking around she was amazed at how many people there were. There was Harry and Ginny next to a staircase: she recognized Percy and George along with their wives, Penny (from Ravenclaw? she guessed) and Angelina (a girl she had always thought was the coolest person ever!). But there were more people including some young children whom she looked at with alarm. Kids at St Mungos had always pointed at her, wanting to know why she had the scars, with their parents who had always started to go on about manners.
Bill (Bill!) was there though, along with Fleur who she waved at. Bill had visited her at St. Mungos several times, "We scarred ones have to stick together." She had loved when Bill visited. They could talk to one another and complain about how there scars would flare up sometimes, during full moons in particular, or how they craved rare meat during certain times of the month. Fleur would come too along with their lovely daughter, Victorie. Fleur had taken to styling Lavender's hair whenever she came along, teaching Victorie how to brush and braid and twist hair. They were so kind to her. Lavender hadn't seen Bill and his family in almost a year but she had missed them dearly.
Lavender focused on Molly Weasley, a woman whose voice she would be able to recognize anywhere after hearing it so many times via Howler. Molly who had been hugging Hermione tightly let her go, and looked at Ron with confusion, and then at Lavender when she came inside. "Ron? If Hermione isn't pregnant, what's going on? Why is.?" Lavender supplied her names in ribbon. Molly blinked with surprise. "Why is Lavender Brown here as well?"
Ron looked around at his family before taking Hermione's hand. Lavender was slightly surprised when he took hers as well. "Mum. Everyone. I'm sorry. I should have said this should be an adult family meeting. I...I don't think my nieces and nephews should be here for this."
It seemed as on a whole, the Weasley's all blinked and stared at Ron's and Lavender's held hands. Lavender had smirk (smirk!). Bill's and Fleur's facial expressions were particularly delightful. "Mum," Ron prodded, "The children."
"Oh. Yes. All right. Here dearests, let's put them all in Bill's old room. It has a play pen with excellent monitor spells." The kids were gathered up and sent off, but not before Victorie had run up to Lavender and given her a hug. Lavender hugged her back blinking back tears. There would be more than enough time to visit properly, she hoped at least.
With adults only in the room, Ron tried to begin again. "Mum, Dad, Harry, everyone else, I, we have something to tell you that may be a bit shocking but we need to tell you." He paused and looked at Hermione waiting until she nodded, a sad frown formed on her face. It had been painful to listen to Ron and Hermione talk about canceling their wedding the hour before the meeting. Neither of them had wanted to but it was something they had decided better to cancel then not. It had gotten even more uncomfortable listening to them talking about separating and moving out. Lavender had gone into their kitchen to give them privacy but she couldn't help overhearing everything. Hermione had all of her belongings in the purse she was carrying while Ron had his in his front pocket. They had left their flat mostly empty of personal belonging save those pictures on the living room wall; neither Hermione nor Ron wanted had wanted them.
"Hermione and I have cancelled our wedding." Ron blurted out. "We didn't want to but we had to."
"Cancelled your wedding? Had to? Why would you have to cancel your wedding?" Molly's voice got louder as she spoke, "Is this because of her?" Molly pointed at Lavender with disdain and loathing.
Ron's dad, Lavender assumed, spoke up, "Now Molly, I'm sure their is a reasonable explanation. Don't go jumping to conclusions now. I'm sure this is all a misunderstanding. Ron, you were saying?"
"I was given a love potion!" Hermione jumped in. The room stilled until George started to speak up. Hermione interrupted what George had to say by speaking over him, "It was four years ago, the start of our Sixth Year. Lavender was as well. It was just any love potion. It was dark. Lavender is no longer feeling the effects but I am. I literally am so in love with Ron right now, I don't care I was potioned. I mean I care when I think about it logically, but not rationally, not quite." There was a shocked silence before an uproar started, everyone starting to talk as incredulity and shock set in.
"Hermione?" Harry questioned. "Are you sure?" He came up to stand next to Hermione, taking her other hand into his. Ginny stepped up as well, holding Harry's other hand with both of her hands.
Hermione looked at Ron and Lavender again before nodding sadly. She looked at Harry and Ginny, a couple she had been rooting for from the time Harry had finally talked about his feelings for Ginny in his awkward boyish way. She felt sick to her stomach just remember that conversation. "Harry? I,..We,..I think you have been potioned too!" She couldn't help but end with a wail.
Then it really got loud. Lavender could not believe the amount of noise. Harry and Ginny stiffened. "Why? Why would you say that?" asked Harry. He looked at Ginny, just shoke his head while Ginny looked back at Harry, both unable to believe Hermione.
"The chestmonster! Do you remember? When you first started liking Ginny, it wasn't just liking her. You loved her. And you described how you felt like there was a monster in your chest every time you saw Ginny with somebody else. I didn't think anything of it because that was exactly how I felt towards Ron. Only I had been potioned since the started of the school year. You never said anything but you hated Dean, didn't you? You kind of fantasized about hurting him, just a little, just enough to get him out of the picture. You never did it, but jinx and curses were at the tip of your tongue whenever you saw him, especially with Ginny. Right?"
Harry paled. "How could you know that? Hermione? How could you know that? I never said a single word."
And there was another one, Lavender thought. How many more she wondered.
Hermione gave a sob. Holding Harry's hand in hers tightly as he tried to let go. "Harry. Oh Harry! I know because that was how I felt about Lavender and she I. This potion, is not just a love potion."
"Hermione, that can't be. Harry isn't potioned. We love each other. I feel the exact same way about him as he does me. I mean I used to get that 'chestmonster' about you! How ridiculous was that? But it didn't start in your Sixth Year. It was after the war for me," Ginny refutted Hermione's claim but Hermione and Ron just looked sick.
And another. Lavender counted. She looked around the room but while everyone was getting more and more alarmed only Percy paled looking at his wife who was looking at him with shock and concern. He started to mouth, "But I love you!" to her over and over again. And another.
"Don't be ridiculous, Hermione. You're not potioned. Love potions as your said Hermione, don't work in that manner. Harry and Ginny, you keep on loving each other just like that. That's how love should be. None of that love that Bill and Fleur feels. I've been loving Arthur the same way you just described Hermione, since I was myself sixteen. It's not a potion. It's just a different kind of love, the right kind. The kind of love that never changes. It's just beautiful how our magic has helped us loved each other, how it will help us till death. Right Arthur?" And another.
One by one, the entire family, plus Lavender looked at Arthur who stared back and said nothing at all. Gotcha.
OoO
"I've heard enough of this," wrote Lavender, in ribbons with a shimmery edge to catch all of the Weasley's attention. They were so loud. After years of mostly being her own company or being around few people in sterile but intentional warm and soothing atmospheres, the Weasleys were making her start to feel...anxious and uncomfortable. There were so many of them and there were so loud, so angry, so hurt.
Mr. Weasley, had been strapped down in a chair for rest of the evening after Molly's admission. He had tried to apparate but failed when his wand and been switched for one of the Twin's fake wands. No one had laughed when Mr. Weasley started holding a stuffed kangaroo but Lavender would remember the look on his face for a long time.
Bill had immediately spelled his father into a chair and removed all magical devices. Fleur had gone to Molly who Lavender didn't know if she would completely understand what was wrong, even with Mind Healer appointments. Over 40 years of being enslaved to her husband. Hermione and Ron had been correct. This wasn't just a love potion and perhaps had really nothing to do with love but rather to alter, subdue and change the person potioned to the wants and desires of the person it was keyed to. Lavender would whole-heartedly recommend the services of Healer Fitzworth, a complete purge would be better than unravelling 40 years of ingrained behavior and conditioning session by session. That bastard.
Lavender had always wondered about the dichotomy of Molly's actions versus her husbands. Overhearing Ron and Ginny talk about their parents, their mother had always been portrayed as fierce and overbearing while their father was quiet and doting. It seemed Molly had always been in the role of making her husband's life comfortable, of taking on his duties has Head of the Family, to never bother Mr. Weasley with difficult decisions. 'What a coward!' thought Lavender. She wondered if Molly ever really had back-up from her husband, toting his wants, his thoughts, but making her feel the brunt of everyone's displeasure when she was... "out of line."
Fleur had Molly sit down and handed her a Calming Draught Hermione put in her hand. Hermione had then handed out Calming Draughts to everyone else in the room. Harry and Ginny had been huddling together, their arms wrapped around each other just trying to make sense of their lives. If both of them truly had been potioned to love one another, as Lavender believed, Lavender worried that they would be reluctant to seek assistance removing the potion from there bodies. Percy was huddling to, but with George and Angelina. His wife stood to the side in shock; Ron would be able to commiserate with her. Charlie it seemed, hadn't been able to make the meeting, he would just have to hear the news later.
Calming Draughts did only do so much. Even with quieter, steadier voices, the emotions calmly expressed kept tensions high. After Bill had subdued his father, he returned to Fleur and his mother, both of them giving her the longest hug before the questioning of Mr. Weasley began in earnest.
Mr. Weasley refused at first to talk, and had to finally be potioned with Veritaserum, courtesy of Hermione's purse. "Always prepared," Hermione stated, with Harry and Ron nodding in agreement. And so Mr. Weasley's tale unfolded. It was a bloody mess. The love potion was indeed not a love potion but a variant of the Mente Mutata restricted class of potions. Mr. Weasley's father, Septimus, was Potions Master without peer who had first created this potion to use on the woman he wanted for a wife, Cedrella Black, a connection he had hoped would bring him much resources. Unfortunately (Or deservedly, thought Lavender), Cedrella had been disowned by her family for marrying Septimus and in doing so broke a marriage contract with Abraxas Malfoy who declared blood-feud on both them and their progeny. 'That poor woman,' Lavender couldn't help thinking. 'Enslaved by a man, forced to marry him, and then cast out by the people who probably were the only ones who would have been able to tell she was not herself.'
Septimus apparently had continued to make use of his creation, used on his all three of his sons' spouses. Cedrella had been the perfect wife, why shouldn't his sons have the same? Arthur had been the only one in his father's confidences and he was the one to take up the mantle of sorts, to choose the people that would best suit his children before potioning them into the perfect spouses, using his wife's baked goods. He had been apparently, going to pass the knowledge onto Ron, whom he had suspected the most appropriate successor, since Bill was too "honorable" and Fred had died. Ron had looked particularly sick at that. So had George.
There were more questions to be asked but Lavender had heard enough. After her writing had caught everyone's attention, she walked up to Mr. Wealsey. She stopped in front of him and had her look at the man who had potioned her, who had radically change who she was, who had treated her like a pawn, a nothing. Wand in hand she started to write, "Arthur Weasley. I hold you responsible for the pain and suffering I have had and will continue to have. These scars will not go away. They cannot be removed, glamoured or dispelled. They have effected and will continue to effect me and most importantly my magic for the rest of my life. I may or may not gain the ability to speak, to chant in unison with in a witches circle. You darkened my magic. My MAGIC. I hold you and you alone responsible for the damage done to me. Others will seek recompense or punishment for your actions. I would be wary for the bite of Hermione's curses or the levels of agony Ginny, yes-your daughter, can produce given enough motivation. I, Lavender Amelia Brown, hereby announce Arthur Weasley, him and him alone, to be an enemy of the Brown family. My attorneys will contact the Ministry and Gringotts."
Lavender backed away from Mr. Weasley before considering him once more. "Here is a gift, one of many you will receive if you ever cross my path." With that she silenced and cursed him. A curse Harry had taught the D.A. but whom Hermione had converted to be non-verbal - the casted felts the effects of a mild Crucio but without the muscular and nervous damage, a Stinging Hex on steroids Lavender remembered Harry calling it. She turned around to look at the everyone else in the room. Hermione and Ron looked ready to walk to her and give her a long lasting hug but Lavender had enough. She wanted to leave and go home and talk to her mother. She gave them a reassuring smile before taking a few steps towards the door when Bill took hold of her arm.
"I'm so sorry Lavender," Bill began. Lavender shook her arm free only to give Bill a quick hug before stepping away. She loved Bill. They had become good friends while Bill and his family had visited her. She knew they had missed her very much, while she had been home in recovery, depressed. Lavender promised she wouldn't allow much time to pass before seeing them again. Seeing all of her friends. She was tired of hiding.
"I don't blame you. Any of you. Just him," ribbons wrote. "I want to go home now. Please. We can meet up later. I promised. Right now, you all need more truth from your father. I, I need my mother. So please..." Lavender's thoughts seemed to elapse. She was done. She had one more thing to do before this day was over but she was done here.
Bill nodded before retreating. Lavender walked to the door, gave everyone a sad smile and left.
OoO
Walking to her front door through her garden was a pleasure she hadn't had in years. It was night out, and a half moon had risen. Fairy lights that she and her father had placed when she was a child were lit along the many paths she and her father had made. Lavender loved fairies, she had wanted to be one growing u. Every so often she would pause as she walked along, looking at one of the many fairy families living in her garden before smiling and moving on. She had missed this so much. Tomorrow, she promised herself. Tomorrow.
She ended up in front of her front door. She rested her hand on the handle before thinking about everything that had come to pass. Healer Fitzworth...her mother...Hermione...Ron...the Weasleys...her father. Her father. He had died when she was 9. Lavender had been crushed with grief. Being the last of the Browns, there hadn't been anyone else to mourn her lost -her mother had quickly moved on, but she, she had continued in mourning, all the way up until she left for Hogwarts. Only years later had Lavender learned that her mother had been having an affair. Her father had found out, her parents argued and he had killed himself. Lavender had never been able to really trust her mother since then but Aurelia Brown had been her mother. What else was she supposed to do?
Listening to Mr. Weasley talk about how his father, Septimus, who had potioned Cedrella Black for wealth and connections; thinking about Molly being potioned, enslaved to Arthur, about Hermione with Ron, herself with Ron...she couldn't help but think of her father and her mother. The most horrible thing of all was that she knew her mother. Lavender knew her.
Talking a big breath, she thought of her father, her loving father and opened the door.
OoO
Lavender found her mother in the formal sitting room. Her mother sat in her favorite chair in front of the fireplace, a drink of Lavender assumed to be her mother's favorite wine in one hand, while her other hand clenched the side of her dress. "Darling, always keep your clothes neat and clean, you want to grow up to be a lady don't you?" Lavender had felt the wards to her ancestor's home when she had apparated to the beginnings of her family plot, taking her time in her garden to wander to her house, she was now anxious to get this conversation started. Yet, Lavender paused briefly before entering the room with her mother.
Her mother glanced up at her but said nothing. She watched as Lavender moved forward with sure feet and steady hands till Lavender was in front of her. Her mother set her wineglass down on the floor and brought both hand into her laps but said nothing to Lavender.
Lavender said nothing back. She looked her fill of another person who had caused her great harm and misery. The last time she had seen her mother was this morning when she had apologized but said nothing further, attempts to encourage her mother to speak to Lavender had failed. She had mutely protested when Lavender got out of bed and dressed, but her mother had persisted to not talk before Lavender gave up and had gone to Hermione's. Yet, even now her mother said nothing...but then, she didn't need to. Lavender knew her after all. Lavender slipped her wand from her wand hostler and wrote to her mother.
"Mother," Lavender began. "I have a few questions for you to clear up any misunderstandings I have about your actions with Arthur Weasley and actions towards my father and I." Lavender waited for a verbal response but her mother only gripped her hands together tightly. Lavender moved on, expecting this but disappointed. "I will tell you want I have concluded based on the knowledge I have gained today. If I'm wrong...let me know. Please." Lavender again waited but her mother said nothing.
"Somehow, someway, you figured out Arthur Weasley's secret, that he had potioned his wife, Molly, brainwashing her into marrying him and boring him 7 children. I know you went to Hogwarts with both of them attending. Perhaps you were friends with Molly and recognized her radical change or maybe you caught Arthur Weasley in the act. Regardless, you found out his secret and then blackmailed him." The silence in the room had never felt so unbroken.
Lavender went on, "You married my father, or rather, my father married you, after strings of failed relationships you had with other men. I remember how you told me about the men you were so unlucky with before my father "fell in love" with you and married you immediately. He didn't fall in love with you, after all; you potioned him with Arthur Weasley's collusion. I believe at that time you two made a contract of sorts, to prevent any further blackmail on either side- a contract to align the Brown and Weasley houses in matrimony, potioned matrimony of course. It is most likely why Arthur had 7 children, 6 boys and a girl. Arthur and Molly had to keep trying for a girl in case I was a boy. I am only two months older than Ginny, their youngest daughter."
Ribbons faded as Lavender gathered her thoughts, this next part would hurt the most to confirm. Her mother's only reactions so far to Lavender's writings was a slight grimace. Lavender took a deep breath and ribbons appeared once more. "My father," Lavender stopped. She could feel tears forming but spelled them away; she would cry later, not now. "You potioned my father, Edwin Brown, and he married you, helpless to fight your wishes and desires. It wasn't what you wanted though- your relationship with him. I recall how how told me you had been used to relationships with your men leaving you and you moving on to next poor soul entrapped in your games. The potion ensure utter loyalty and a willingness to meet your needs in the name of "love." But you couldn't stand it. I'm guessing you wanted to move on in under a year with Father but you couldn't. You needed him to stay married to you and you also needed to have me to keep your contract with Arthur Weasley, so you stayed fidelitous to Father until I was born." Again Lavender stopped. Her mother continued to retain her silence clenching her hands together tighter and tighter. Lavender had to go on.
"I'm guessing you started having affairs promptly after I was born. I don't know if you hid your affairs or willed Father ignore them and avoid the topic of more children. Your behavior continued till I was 9. You probably had wanted a fight, a break up with Father, to get rid of him for so long that if it was he or you implied in the fight that he wanted to die, you let him do so, making it your will. Am I wrong?" Still, still her mother said nothing. Lavender didn't know if she hated anyone more in her life at that moment.
Lavender persisted onward however. "And then there's me...I, who you traded when I was just an idea, a nothing, when making that deal with Arthur Weasley. Did you ever try to back out? Did you? Did you!?!" Lavender couldn't help but asking but knew in her heart the answer. Her mother had never really wanted her. It was her father who had been there every day, all day, raising her with so much love and tenderness. He was the one who would allow Lavender to stay up late at night and share stories about the different stars in the sky, the one to play fortune-telling games after they had seen a seer in a carnival, the one to comfort her after a nightmare. Lavender didn't know if her father had ever truly loved her, or if his feelings towards her were potion-induced, but she had loved her father and she would always treasure her memories of him. Always.
Lavender took a steadying breath and moved on, "I was born, finally for you and matched up with Ron Weasley and the two of you must have agreed to potion the both of us at the beginning of our Sixth Year. Only," Lavender paused to smirk at her mother. Her mother's eyes narrowed but held her silence. Lavender went on, "only Arthur Weasley double-crossed you. You didn't find out about it until after Ron broke up with me later that year- Ron wouldn't have been able to. But he did, for the potion Arthur gave to Ron, wasn't keyed to me, but to Ron himself." Lavender's smirk turned into a smile that bespoke pain was yet to come. "Except Arthur Weasley messed up and hadn't charmed Ron to be the only one to eat his mother's tainted baked goods. When he shared them with Hermione, she was the one to be potioned instead. If Arthur Weasley had keyed me into the potion, Hermione would have been potioned in love with me all this time."
Lavender couldn't help but wondered what would have happened if Hermione hadn't been potioned, and Ron would have been potioned as planned. She would have recognized Lavender had been potioned, and most likely Ron, but Lavender didn't know what would have happened after that. Harry would have probably not been potioned but Ginny might have still. This line of thinking, it could be done another day, with Hermione and Ron and anyone else who wanted to join in, with lots of alcohol available.
Lavender stood back, the conjectures she deduced been proven with her mother's reticence. Now, now she had a question to ask her mother, one she had wanted answered since this morning. "Mother... why did you apologize to me this morning?" That started her mother, finally. She started to speak but Lavender wrote to clarify her question, "Did you apologize to me because you potioned me, because you allowed dark magic into my body, corrupting it and enslaving me to Ron Weasley? Or did you apologize because if you had known I would have been attacked by Greyback, you would have waited to potion me?"
This agitated her mother so much she started to cry again. Holding out her hands to Lavender she cried, "Darling! Please."
Lavender took a step back and raised her wand to her mother. She had no sympathy for her mother's distress. What did she know about distress? "Do not call me darling ever again. Darling refers to a dearly loved person, and we can both agree on, with the two of us, it is not me." Her mother started to wilt where she sat, crying incoherent once more as she had this morning.
Ignoring her mother, she raised her wand, called to her magic, her cleaned, beautiful, mostly taintless magic, to do something she wished her father could have done. As ribbons wrote her thoughts, she imbued her magic to the intent of them. "I, Lavender Amelia Brown, Head of the Brown family, cast out Aurelia Brown née Altair, from the Brown family. I dissolve all familial relationships and contracts between Aurelia Altair and the members of the Brown family. Every item in her possession, either previously owned by Brown member or paid for by Brown money with be returned forthwith to the Brown Family Vaults in Gringotts to be gone over by representatives of the Brown family. May she never darken the Brown family magic every again. So mote it be." She immediately felt the family wards shift, excluding the woman, formerly her mother, Aurelia Altair.
Aurelia Altair sat up, feel the wards shift as well. "You can't!" she begun to say before reading Lavender's words that she left for her to read, blanching as she read on. Popping sounds, started occurring as things Aurelia Altair once own and bought disappeared from all over the Brown house. She gasped as her jewelry vanished, included the wedding ring Edwin Brown had put on her left hand almost thirty years ago. The wand, Edwin's mothers, seemed to slip through her fingers and her clothes disappeared as well. Standing naked in front of the person she once had been able to claim as her daughter she tried to speak to Lavender, when Lavender raised her wand to Aurelia to cast her out of her home. Ribbons wrote, "Get out of my home," and Aurelia was cast out. She landed with a plop outdoors in some woods. Aurelia shuddered, taking hold of her surroundings and of her naked wandless body, she said nothing.
OoO
Lavender took a deep breath, and another and another and several more after that. She hadn't come home intending to oust Altair as her mother but she would not regret doing it, not with what Altair had done to her Father, to her. Lavender continued to breathe in and out taking in the mostly emptied room. Most of the decorations had been magicked into the Brown Vaults. Only a few ancestral pieces of furniture remained. Lavender thought it only suitable; her soul felt bared, why not her home. She promised herself tomorrow she would survey her home and find out what remained and what didn't. Tomorrow she would go to her attorneys, and then the Ministry and Gringotts. Tomorrow.
Lavender left the sitting room and headed to her bedroom. She was relieved at least her bedroom was mostly untouched. She considered her bed, oh how she wanted to sleep, but she wanted to do one last thing. She went to where a standing mirror had stood since she had become a teenager, but had been removed she she got home to convalesce. She thought about all the spells she knew to cast non-verbally before she remembered a reflection charm. Casting it on the wall she looked at herself, really looked at herself.
She slowly undressed into her night clothes watching how her body moved, how her scars that would remain forevermore, moved. She set her wand into her wand holster and walked towards her reflection. Gently she gather her hair, her long hair that she had used daily to shield herself, to hide. She pulled her hair up into a bun contemplated. She would wear her hair up from now on. Tomorrow, she promised. Tomorrow.
With that she gave herself a small smile before she cancelled the spell, walked to her bed, laid down, pulled a pillow towards her to hug and burst into tears.
Epilogue:
Several months later, Lavender found herself at Healer Fitzworth's practice, not as a patient but a visitor. She had owled her former Healer asking if she would be able to stop by and talk for a bit. He replied with a yes and set up a time to meet with her after his last appointment of the day. She was in his waiting room with only a few others, who were obviously waiting for Healer Fitzworth's last patient. They kept looking at her, a trio of two children and a older woman. Lavender smiled at them and gave them a nod of acknowledgement and then glanced at the magazines and newspapers available.
It was still strange being on the other side when coming to hospitals. She had her last appointment with Healer Pye weeks ago but had been having months of practice waiting in the visitor lounges with Ron and Harry for Herimione, Harry and Hermione for Harry and with Bill, Fleur and Victorie and rest of the Weasley clan for Molly. Life had been fueled with many arguments and many, many heartbreaking realizations and unburied confessions of true thoughts and feelings. Regardless of awfulness that spewed out of people after their Mind Healing sessions, everyone stayed- they listened, mourned and accepted and repeated after the each session. Everyone cuddled a lot afterwards; most claimed Lavender gave the best hugs but she wasn't so sure- maybe they said so because they knew she needed some hugs herself. After a couple of months, they were quite sure Hermione, Harry, Ginny and Percy who had preferred to meet up with only his wife, were completely dispelled, the potion was slowly being purged from their bodies with daily potions, but the effects diminished and suppressed.
Molly unfortunately, hadn't been doing so well. With her body and magic darkened for so long, Molly only worsened in a short time. Fleur proposed, with help of Hermione's researching skills, that Molly be sequestered in a long-term treatment center to get the more extensive care she needed. Molly who had fallen into a deep depression quickly agreed. Lavender was pretty sure Molly would undergo a potions-induced purification procedure like she had had, but with Mind Healers on hand at all times.
Thinking of her friends she couldn't help smiling to herself. Lavender didn't know if Hermione and Ron would get back together or Harry and Ginny in that case, but they were being very careful with one another. Very careful with no pressure or presumptions for the future. Lavender recalled Hermione's and Ron's first fight, their first real fight post-potioned with a grin. It had been a ridiculous fight, but it had been loud, angry and kind of mean- very similar to the arguments they used to have pre-Sixth Year. Afterwards, Hermione and Ron just looked at each other before laughing; they held hands the rest of the night before going home alone.
The rest of their friends and former classmates took the news with shock. Many reunions and gatherings started being held. Lavender went to everyone of them with confident steps, her hair always pulled up. The first time she had been photographed and put on the front page, her arm entwined with Harry's she ignored it. Just like she ignored the pictures of her with Ron, Neville, Dean and even Draco Malfoy for that one memorable dance. Reporters kept referring to her as scarred, marred or worse defaced. That all came to an end when Witches Weekly had put a picture of her in their "Best Dressed" section. An Editior's Note had been posted underneath her picture that had filled the rest of the page.
Miss Lavender Brown. This witch is always photographed in neat, form-fitting and beautifully appropriate clothing. Everything she wears in public is chosen with style and elegance. Despite this being the first time portrayed in our magazine, Miss Brown is acknowledged as becoming a fashion icon as of late, particularly with her ingenious hairdos.
Let's talk about her scars though, something that is always mentioned as of late when Miss Brown is of the topic.
It is known that Miss Brown received those scars from Fenrir Greyback, a renowned werewolf who savagely preyed on children for decades. It is known that during the Battle of Hogwarts, Greyback attacked fifteen children that night, of whom Miss Brown was the only one to live- the youngest had been a Slytherin First Year. This is all public knowledge.
However, in contrary to current media views, We at Witches Weekly, now and onwards, refuse to let Miss Brown be further attacked or even ashamed. We will follow her stead, neither showcasing nor showing off her extensive scaring as some people have accused her of doing, nor hiding it and pretending they aren't there. We have acknowledged them like Miss Brown obviously has and moved on.
Miss Brown might not always be in our Best Dressed section, but we will welcome the sight of her on the arm of any witch or wizard or even by herself. Miss Brown has such courage, confidence and perseverance that she inspires all of us at Witches Weekly, beauty isn't skin deep as culturally portrayed. Keep your head up Lavender. We will do the same.
Emma Vanity
Editor-in-Chief
Lavender had cried a little when she read the article and sent an extremely heartfelt thank you to Witches Weekly. She knew her friends did the same and bought subscriptions, even Harry who would probably always be uncomfortable with the fawning tone of some of the articles took about him in Witches Weekly. Ever since, her scars were no longer commented on in any publication. Wizards and witches of all ages started to look at her, not just looking at her clothes or the air around her face, but looking at her and giving her smiles. She made sure to smile back and acknowledge them acknowledging her.
Rita Skeeter even, when she approached Lavender had an apologetic look as she looked Lavender in the face before asking Lavender about Altair. Lavender made Skeeter a deal, if she found out why Lavender had cast out Altair, Lavender would share her memory of the event. Skeeter who had been investigating Altair to write a tell-all about Arthur Weasley (may he remain missing for the rest of her natural life), quieted and looked at Lavender with a hungry look and agreed promptly. Skeeter hadn't come back yet to talk to Lavender, but she felt any day now she would receive an owl asking for a meeting. Altair had gotten in contact with the media but Lavender's attorneys has quickly sent out cease-and-desist notices. Using Skeeter to investigate what had happened to the Brown and Weasley family would mitigate Lavender's reluctance to be interviewed, to talk. The Daily Prophet's reporters had not been kind and her voice was used seldom.
Healer Pye had worked for months getting her used to using her mouth and throat. She could finally open and close her mouth, chew, swallow, and burp to her pleased embarrassment. Lavender doubted she would ever be the verbose talker she once had been in her youth but she loved to hum nowadays. Her favorite thing to do was to sit in her garden and hum a tune for the fairies to dance to. Bill, Fleur and Victorie had come over to her home just last week where they had spent a delightful afternoon in her garden. When Lavender started humming, Fleur and Bill joined in while Victorie, fascinated by the fairies, danced with them joyously. It used to be Lavender dancing with the fairies while her father hummed tunes; it had been a good day to remember.
OoO
Lavender looked her fill of Healer Fitzworth. It was almost a year ago when Altair and her had come for a consultation. He looked even more gorgeous now. She waited till his patient and visitors left before standing to greet him. "Hi," she said, slightly breathlessly.
"Mademoiselle Brown! It is wonderful to see you and hear your voice. I'm glad I heard from you. Will you come into my office?" asked Healer Fitzworth with a smile. She nodded and walked closer before he led her into his office. She hadn't imagined it. She really did have a crush on him- it wasn't just thankfulness. His magic helped her nerves being just as soothing as before. He led her to a sofa before sitting down next to her. She had to look briefly away from him to try to control herself- he was so pretty. She looked back at him when he asked, "May I?" She nodded her agreement recognizing easily what he intended and relaxed he raised his wand to start a medical check on her, his magic mingling her hers lightly.
Lavender waited until he was done before giving him a smile. "Well Healer?" she asked.
"Heart rate is a little high, else everything it looking fine. There is no inflammation or tearing. You are doing very well Mlle Brown." He lowered his wand and returned it to his robe. "Mlle. Brown," he began.
"Thank you," interrupted Lavender. "Thank you so much. I can't begin to thank you enough..."
"Please," Healer Fitzworth interrupted, "please don't thank me, Mlle Brown. I'm so sorry. Part of the privacy agreements I signed about your healing didn't allow me to act in your best interest. I should have been the one to tell you of the results. Also, if I tested you more extensively before we started treatment, perhaps with deeper scanning methods, I could have detected..."
Here Lavender interrupted, "A Mente Mutata class potion that she who was my mother gave me, that enslaved me to another when I was fifteen years old?" Healer Fitzworth frowned heavily at that. Lavender continued her voice softly questioning, "Would you have been able to detect it if you didn't know to look for it? Or would the overall darkness in the Cicatricem Potion and Greyback's lingering magic obscured its diagnosis?" He shook his head, not knowing. Lavender pick up his hand and held it in hers. "I will thank you. I woke up and felt like myself after years of not being myself. I don't care about the scars. They are nothing to what I have gained. I thank you for that, with all of my heart."
He again shook his head regretfully but brought his other hand to hers and squeezed them. They sat in silence for a while. He had carefully followed any news about her in British papers. Mlle Brown had left his practice shortly after he left her former mother to inform her what he had been barred from saying. Never again would he agree to a privacy contract where his patient's wellbeing would be jeopardized by their guardian's own motives. The next day, The Daily Prophet had included notices of the exile of Aurelia Altair from the Brown family. He had not been too surprised, having had suspicions prior to Mlle Brown's waking that all was not as it should be. He squeezed her hands again before asking, "Was there anything else?"
Lavender couldn't help but blush then. When she pick up his hand, she just wanted to comfort him but she couldn't help cataloging feel of his hand in hers. When he brought his other hand to squeeze hers, she thought her heart had leaped into her throat. This was the first time being alone with someone she liked. She dismissed the girlish fantasies she had as a teen before Ron. Nothing ventured is nothing gained she once heard Hermione say. She would do this; she would venture. If he rejected her, that would hurt but it would she would risk it.
"May I ask you some personal questions?" Lavender couldn't help but wince on how abrupt that sounded. He gave her a crooked gorgeous smile and tilted his head, curious. "Are you dating anyone?" blurted on Lavender. Mortified, she looked away.
"No," he said after a pause, sounding amused.
Looking away, her heart pounding even more, she grimaced. Still not looking at him, she asked, "Are you betrothed or contracted or married, which I should have asked first?" She knew she should have had Hermione research him. She knew it. This was so embarrassing.
"No," he repeated, still sounding amused but also a little pleased.
Lavender thought about tugging her hands from his and just leaving. She couldn't do it though. She promised herself she would ask him and she wasn't going to break a promise to herself. Gathering her courage she looked back at him, trying to smile but still grimacing slightly. She took a deep breath and another and another. "..." Lavender closed her mouth before trying again. "May I kiss you?"
His eyebrows rose up, not expecting that question. He couldn't help but ask, "Are you sure?"
This she could answer confidently. "Yes. Yes, I'm sure. The only other person I've kissed was the one I was potioned to love. I haven't, I haven't kissed someone of my own free will and I want that to be you. Some of my friends have offered, to help me get comfortable, to get used to the idea of wanting someone else but I haven't taken them up on their offers. I want you, if you don't mind. I know with my scars it might be..." But here he let go of her hands and gently took hold of her face.
"It would be my honor and my pleasure," he said before leaning over to kiss her softly. It was better than her fantasies. Better than kissing Ron, even when at that time her magic would create this pleasurable tingling sensation in her body. It was so much better than that. It felt real and alive and glorious. When he pulled away, she couldn't help but give a laugh. Answering his questioning look, she said, "I'm not sure what to call you."
He smiled at her and leaned in again. "Call me Jacque," he replied before kissing her again.
The End
Continued from (1/2)
Title: Love?
Author: Elspeth
Fandom/Genre: Harry Potter
Relationship(s): Canon Pairings and Dissolutions
Content Rating: Teen/Mature
Warnings: Love Potions, Consent Issues, Dealing with aftermath of a Werewolf Attack, Massive Consent Issues, Seriously- Love Potions
Summary: Lavender Brown wakes up from the potion regimen to remove the systemic dark magic from her body after Fenrir Greyback’s attack. It does remove some dark magic from her body, but not the dark magic everyone expected. She goes to see Hermione immediately.
Word Count: 14848/10000
Part Four:
They all ended up on the sofa this time cuddling again, with Hermione in between Lavender and Ron. It had been an awful tiring day. 'Misery loves company' Lavender thought to herself. She could not believe that she was not at some healer's practice nor home. It felt amazing to be anyway- healer practices all had the same 'get well soon' vibe which Lavender had come to sneer in contempt and home, well home had become a prison. One she hadn't been allowed to leave. "Darling, why would you ever want to leave? Come now, you're not thinking clearly. You are perfectly happy staying inside." But she hadn't been. She hated staying inside every day all day with every mirror in the house removed, only able to sit by windows and watch life happening outside. Well no more. She may always have the scars but she could do the things that she wanted. Soon she'd be able to eat again and talk. Oh how she missed talking.
Most of all, she wanted to kiss someone. Her lips could move together, they could purse and do all the things that she used to be able to do for years, the things she took for granted until her face was frozen for three years. It was amazing to be able to make funny faces in mirrors again. So while she continued to hold Hermione and Ron, she daydreamed, something she hadn't done in years. It had been a stressful day and she just wanted to relax and think of something good. And so she was off- resting her head on Hermione's she smiled and thought of a new first kiss with someone she wasn't under the influence to love. A pair of blue eyes immediately came to mind.
Her daydreams came to an abrupt halt when Hermione sat up and shouted, "Harry!" Ron and Lavender who had fallen in towards each other sat up in confusion. "Oh my god! Harry! His chestmonster! Harry!"
"Hermione, what? Slow down. You're skipping explanations. What's going on with Harry?" asked Ron.
"Don't you understand? Oh this just keeps getting worse! Harry has been potioned too!" exclaimed Hermione.
"What?" Lavender wrote. "I don't...How do you know?"
"When Harry started to like Ginny, I had him describe his feelings for her. I was potioned at the time so when he talked about how he felt about Ginny, I assured him it was normal because that was what I was feeling for Ron. But those were normal feelings to me potioned!" Hermione explained.
"So," Ron started, "if you both were potioned to love me and Harry was potioned to love Ginny, Does." Ron paused, not wanting continue that thought but going on anyways. "Does that implicate my family? Or, is it just me?"
Hermione looked at Ron with horror and disbelief- that people she considered family could do this to her was unthinkable, but so was being love potioned... Lavender didn't write anything to add to the conversation. She didn't know if she could, not when she was stuck at the thought that there were more people love potioned. Lavender vowed they would get to the bottom of this. Answers of why, who, and how would be found. Lavender would keep her wand on her and remember all of those non-verbal pain spells Hermione taught her forthwith.
"Fuck," muttered Ron. "My fucking family." He sigh. "It's the only possible explanation, right?"
Hermione wanting to give the Weasleys the benefit of the doubt, she offered, "Not the only possible explanation."
"That's not right. This isn't right. Someone in my family potioned both of you. They performed dark magic to subvert your wills. This is not right. They even did this to Harry. Harry! Someone who lived without love most of his childhood, was then forced to love someone. He would have never noticed something was wrong. This is so fucked." Ron got up and started to pace, getting angrier and angrier as he walked. "We can't let this continue. What if it's not just Harry? What if other people have been potioned? Like Angelina? Or Penny? Or the guy Charlie keeps going on about? Or Fleur?"
"Fleur wouldn't be able to be potioned." Hermione interrupted and reasoned, "Her Veela blood would have prevented it. It would have been inactive towards her, or she may have magically rejected the dark magic entirely." Looking a Ron and then at Lavender she queried, "What do you propose we do? If other Weasley partners have been potioned, they need to know and they need to get help like I will."
"There's only one way to get everybody together. A family meeting." And with that, Ron cast Patronus Spells to inform his family he had some important news to talk about, and to meet up at The Burrow within the hour.
OoO
"You're pregnant! Oh how delightful Hermione. Just think Arthur! A new grandbaby!" Molly cheered, hugging Hermione as she walked through The Burrows' front door and swinging her around in delight.
"Mum! Mum! Set her down. Hermione's not pregnant! Please set her down." Ron exclaimed at his mother walking through the door after Hermione.
Lavender following Ron, walked in and closed the door. Looking around she was amazed at how many people there were. There was Harry and Ginny next to a staircase: she recognized Percy and George along with their wives, Penny (from Ravenclaw? she guessed) and Angelina (a girl she had always thought was the coolest person ever!). But there were more people including some young children whom she looked at with alarm. Kids at St Mungos had always pointed at her, wanting to know why she had the scars, with their parents who had always started to go on about manners.
Bill (Bill!) was there though, along with Fleur who she waved at. Bill had visited her at St. Mungos several times, "We scarred ones have to stick together." She had loved when Bill visited. They could talk to one another and complain about how there scars would flare up sometimes, during full moons in particular, or how they craved rare meat during certain times of the month. Fleur would come too along with their lovely daughter, Victorie. Fleur had taken to styling Lavender's hair whenever she came along, teaching Victorie how to brush and braid and twist hair. They were so kind to her. Lavender hadn't seen Bill and his family in almost a year but she had missed them dearly.
Lavender focused on Molly Weasley, a woman whose voice she would be able to recognize anywhere after hearing it so many times via Howler. Molly who had been hugging Hermione tightly let her go, and looked at Ron with confusion, and then at Lavender when she came inside. "Ron? If Hermione isn't pregnant, what's going on? Why is.?" Lavender supplied her names in ribbon. Molly blinked with surprise. "Why is Lavender Brown here as well?"
Ron looked around at his family before taking Hermione's hand. Lavender was slightly surprised when he took hers as well. "Mum. Everyone. I'm sorry. I should have said this should be an adult family meeting. I...I don't think my nieces and nephews should be here for this."
It seemed as on a whole, the Weasley's all blinked and stared at Ron's and Lavender's held hands. Lavender had smirk (smirk!). Bill's and Fleur's facial expressions were particularly delightful. "Mum," Ron prodded, "The children."
"Oh. Yes. All right. Here dearests, let's put them all in Bill's old room. It has a play pen with excellent monitor spells." The kids were gathered up and sent off, but not before Victorie had run up to Lavender and given her a hug. Lavender hugged her back blinking back tears. There would be more than enough time to visit properly, she hoped at least.
With adults only in the room, Ron tried to begin again. "Mum, Dad, Harry, everyone else, I, we have something to tell you that may be a bit shocking but we need to tell you." He paused and looked at Hermione waiting until she nodded, a sad frown formed on her face. It had been painful to listen to Ron and Hermione talk about canceling their wedding the hour before the meeting. Neither of them had wanted to but it was something they had decided better to cancel then not. It had gotten even more uncomfortable listening to them talking about separating and moving out. Lavender had gone into their kitchen to give them privacy but she couldn't help overhearing everything. Hermione had all of her belongings in the purse she was carrying while Ron had his in his front pocket. They had left their flat mostly empty of personal belonging save those pictures on the living room wall; neither Hermione nor Ron wanted had wanted them.
"Hermione and I have cancelled our wedding." Ron blurted out. "We didn't want to but we had to."
"Cancelled your wedding? Had to? Why would you have to cancel your wedding?" Molly's voice got louder as she spoke, "Is this because of her?" Molly pointed at Lavender with disdain and loathing.
Ron's dad, Lavender assumed, spoke up, "Now Molly, I'm sure their is a reasonable explanation. Don't go jumping to conclusions now. I'm sure this is all a misunderstanding. Ron, you were saying?"
"I was given a love potion!" Hermione jumped in. The room stilled until George started to speak up. Hermione interrupted what George had to say by speaking over him, "It was four years ago, the start of our Sixth Year. Lavender was as well. It was just any love potion. It was dark. Lavender is no longer feeling the effects but I am. I literally am so in love with Ron right now, I don't care I was potioned. I mean I care when I think about it logically, but not rationally, not quite." There was a shocked silence before an uproar started, everyone starting to talk as incredulity and shock set in.
"Hermione?" Harry questioned. "Are you sure?" He came up to stand next to Hermione, taking her other hand into his. Ginny stepped up as well, holding Harry's other hand with both of her hands.
Hermione looked at Ron and Lavender again before nodding sadly. She looked at Harry and Ginny, a couple she had been rooting for from the time Harry had finally talked about his feelings for Ginny in his awkward boyish way. She felt sick to her stomach just remember that conversation. "Harry? I,..We,..I think you have been potioned too!" She couldn't help but end with a wail.
Then it really got loud. Lavender could not believe the amount of noise. Harry and Ginny stiffened. "Why? Why would you say that?" asked Harry. He looked at Ginny, just shoke his head while Ginny looked back at Harry, both unable to believe Hermione.
"The chestmonster! Do you remember? When you first started liking Ginny, it wasn't just liking her. You loved her. And you described how you felt like there was a monster in your chest every time you saw Ginny with somebody else. I didn't think anything of it because that was exactly how I felt towards Ron. Only I had been potioned since the started of the school year. You never said anything but you hated Dean, didn't you? You kind of fantasized about hurting him, just a little, just enough to get him out of the picture. You never did it, but jinx and curses were at the tip of your tongue whenever you saw him, especially with Ginny. Right?"
Harry paled. "How could you know that? Hermione? How could you know that? I never said a single word."
And there was another one, Lavender thought. How many more she wondered.
Hermione gave a sob. Holding Harry's hand in hers tightly as he tried to let go. "Harry. Oh Harry! I know because that was how I felt about Lavender and she I. This potion, is not just a love potion."
"Hermione, that can't be. Harry isn't potioned. We love each other. I feel the exact same way about him as he does me. I mean I used to get that 'chestmonster' about you! How ridiculous was that? But it didn't start in your Sixth Year. It was after the war for me," Ginny refutted Hermione's claim but Hermione and Ron just looked sick.
And another. Lavender counted. She looked around the room but while everyone was getting more and more alarmed only Percy paled looking at his wife who was looking at him with shock and concern. He started to mouth, "But I love you!" to her over and over again. And another.
"Don't be ridiculous, Hermione. You're not potioned. Love potions as your said Hermione, don't work in that manner. Harry and Ginny, you keep on loving each other just like that. That's how love should be. None of that love that Bill and Fleur feels. I've been loving Arthur the same way you just described Hermione, since I was myself sixteen. It's not a potion. It's just a different kind of love, the right kind. The kind of love that never changes. It's just beautiful how our magic has helped us loved each other, how it will help us till death. Right Arthur?" And another.
One by one, the entire family, plus Lavender looked at Arthur who stared back and said nothing at all. Gotcha.
OoO
"I've heard enough of this," wrote Lavender, in ribbons with a shimmery edge to catch all of the Weasley's attention. They were so loud. After years of mostly being her own company or being around few people in sterile but intentional warm and soothing atmospheres, the Weasleys were making her start to feel...anxious and uncomfortable. There were so many of them and there were so loud, so angry, so hurt.
Mr. Weasley, had been strapped down in a chair for rest of the evening after Molly's admission. He had tried to apparate but failed when his wand and been switched for one of the Twin's fake wands. No one had laughed when Mr. Weasley started holding a stuffed kangaroo but Lavender would remember the look on his face for a long time.
Bill had immediately spelled his father into a chair and removed all magical devices. Fleur had gone to Molly who Lavender didn't know if she would completely understand what was wrong, even with Mind Healer appointments. Over 40 years of being enslaved to her husband. Hermione and Ron had been correct. This wasn't just a love potion and perhaps had really nothing to do with love but rather to alter, subdue and change the person potioned to the wants and desires of the person it was keyed to. Lavender would whole-heartedly recommend the services of Healer Fitzworth, a complete purge would be better than unravelling 40 years of ingrained behavior and conditioning session by session. That bastard.
Lavender had always wondered about the dichotomy of Molly's actions versus her husbands. Overhearing Ron and Ginny talk about their parents, their mother had always been portrayed as fierce and overbearing while their father was quiet and doting. It seemed Molly had always been in the role of making her husband's life comfortable, of taking on his duties has Head of the Family, to never bother Mr. Weasley with difficult decisions. 'What a coward!' thought Lavender. She wondered if Molly ever really had back-up from her husband, toting his wants, his thoughts, but making her feel the brunt of everyone's displeasure when she was... "out of line."
Fleur had Molly sit down and handed her a Calming Draught Hermione put in her hand. Hermione had then handed out Calming Draughts to everyone else in the room. Harry and Ginny had been huddling together, their arms wrapped around each other just trying to make sense of their lives. If both of them truly had been potioned to love one another, as Lavender believed, Lavender worried that they would be reluctant to seek assistance removing the potion from there bodies. Percy was huddling to, but with George and Angelina. His wife stood to the side in shock; Ron would be able to commiserate with her. Charlie it seemed, hadn't been able to make the meeting, he would just have to hear the news later.
Calming Draughts did only do so much. Even with quieter, steadier voices, the emotions calmly expressed kept tensions high. After Bill had subdued his father, he returned to Fleur and his mother, both of them giving her the longest hug before the questioning of Mr. Weasley began in earnest.
Mr. Weasley refused at first to talk, and had to finally be potioned with Veritaserum, courtesy of Hermione's purse. "Always prepared," Hermione stated, with Harry and Ron nodding in agreement. And so Mr. Weasley's tale unfolded. It was a bloody mess. The love potion was indeed not a love potion but a variant of the Mente Mutata restricted class of potions. Mr. Weasley's father, Septimus, was Potions Master without peer who had first created this potion to use on the woman he wanted for a wife, Cedrella Black, a connection he had hoped would bring him much resources. Unfortunately (Or deservedly, thought Lavender), Cedrella had been disowned by her family for marrying Septimus and in doing so broke a marriage contract with Abraxas Malfoy who declared blood-feud on both them and their progeny. 'That poor woman,' Lavender couldn't help thinking. 'Enslaved by a man, forced to marry him, and then cast out by the people who probably were the only ones who would have been able to tell she was not herself.'
Septimus apparently had continued to make use of his creation, used on his all three of his sons' spouses. Cedrella had been the perfect wife, why shouldn't his sons have the same? Arthur had been the only one in his father's confidences and he was the one to take up the mantle of sorts, to choose the people that would best suit his children before potioning them into the perfect spouses, using his wife's baked goods. He had been apparently, going to pass the knowledge onto Ron, whom he had suspected the most appropriate successor, since Bill was too "honorable" and Fred had died. Ron had looked particularly sick at that. So had George.
There were more questions to be asked but Lavender had heard enough. After her writing had caught everyone's attention, she walked up to Mr. Wealsey. She stopped in front of him and had her look at the man who had potioned her, who had radically change who she was, who had treated her like a pawn, a nothing. Wand in hand she started to write, "Arthur Weasley. I hold you responsible for the pain and suffering I have had and will continue to have. These scars will not go away. They cannot be removed, glamoured or dispelled. They have effected and will continue to effect me and most importantly my magic for the rest of my life. I may or may not gain the ability to speak, to chant in unison with in a witches circle. You darkened my magic. My MAGIC. I hold you and you alone responsible for the damage done to me. Others will seek recompense or punishment for your actions. I would be wary for the bite of Hermione's curses or the levels of agony Ginny, yes-your daughter, can produce given enough motivation. I, Lavender Amelia Brown, hereby announce Arthur Weasley, him and him alone, to be an enemy of the Brown family. My attorneys will contact the Ministry and Gringotts."
Lavender backed away from Mr. Weasley before considering him once more. "Here is a gift, one of many you will receive if you ever cross my path." With that she silenced and cursed him. A curse Harry had taught the D.A. but whom Hermione had converted to be non-verbal - the casted felts the effects of a mild Crucio but without the muscular and nervous damage, a Stinging Hex on steroids Lavender remembered Harry calling it. She turned around to look at the everyone else in the room. Hermione and Ron looked ready to walk to her and give her a long lasting hug but Lavender had enough. She wanted to leave and go home and talk to her mother. She gave them a reassuring smile before taking a few steps towards the door when Bill took hold of her arm.
"I'm so sorry Lavender," Bill began. Lavender shook her arm free only to give Bill a quick hug before stepping away. She loved Bill. They had become good friends while Bill and his family had visited her. She knew they had missed her very much, while she had been home in recovery, depressed. Lavender promised she wouldn't allow much time to pass before seeing them again. Seeing all of her friends. She was tired of hiding.
"I don't blame you. Any of you. Just him," ribbons wrote. "I want to go home now. Please. We can meet up later. I promised. Right now, you all need more truth from your father. I, I need my mother. So please..." Lavender's thoughts seemed to elapse. She was done. She had one more thing to do before this day was over but she was done here.
Bill nodded before retreating. Lavender walked to the door, gave everyone a sad smile and left.
OoO
Walking to her front door through her garden was a pleasure she hadn't had in years. It was night out, and a half moon had risen. Fairy lights that she and her father had placed when she was a child were lit along the many paths she and her father had made. Lavender loved fairies, she had wanted to be one growing u. Every so often she would pause as she walked along, looking at one of the many fairy families living in her garden before smiling and moving on. She had missed this so much. Tomorrow, she promised herself. Tomorrow.
She ended up in front of her front door. She rested her hand on the handle before thinking about everything that had come to pass. Healer Fitzworth...her mother...Hermione...Ron...the Weasleys...her father. Her father. He had died when she was 9. Lavender had been crushed with grief. Being the last of the Browns, there hadn't been anyone else to mourn her lost -her mother had quickly moved on, but she, she had continued in mourning, all the way up until she left for Hogwarts. Only years later had Lavender learned that her mother had been having an affair. Her father had found out, her parents argued and he had killed himself. Lavender had never been able to really trust her mother since then but Aurelia Brown had been her mother. What else was she supposed to do?
Listening to Mr. Weasley talk about how his father, Septimus, who had potioned Cedrella Black for wealth and connections; thinking about Molly being potioned, enslaved to Arthur, about Hermione with Ron, herself with Ron...she couldn't help but think of her father and her mother. The most horrible thing of all was that she knew her mother. Lavender knew her.
Talking a big breath, she thought of her father, her loving father and opened the door.
OoO
Lavender found her mother in the formal sitting room. Her mother sat in her favorite chair in front of the fireplace, a drink of Lavender assumed to be her mother's favorite wine in one hand, while her other hand clenched the side of her dress. "Darling, always keep your clothes neat and clean, you want to grow up to be a lady don't you?" Lavender had felt the wards to her ancestor's home when she had apparated to the beginnings of her family plot, taking her time in her garden to wander to her house, she was now anxious to get this conversation started. Yet, Lavender paused briefly before entering the room with her mother.
Her mother glanced up at her but said nothing. She watched as Lavender moved forward with sure feet and steady hands till Lavender was in front of her. Her mother set her wineglass down on the floor and brought both hand into her laps but said nothing to Lavender.
Lavender said nothing back. She looked her fill of another person who had caused her great harm and misery. The last time she had seen her mother was this morning when she had apologized but said nothing further, attempts to encourage her mother to speak to Lavender had failed. She had mutely protested when Lavender got out of bed and dressed, but her mother had persisted to not talk before Lavender gave up and had gone to Hermione's. Yet, even now her mother said nothing...but then, she didn't need to. Lavender knew her after all. Lavender slipped her wand from her wand hostler and wrote to her mother.
"Mother," Lavender began. "I have a few questions for you to clear up any misunderstandings I have about your actions with Arthur Weasley and actions towards my father and I." Lavender waited for a verbal response but her mother only gripped her hands together tightly. Lavender moved on, expecting this but disappointed. "I will tell you want I have concluded based on the knowledge I have gained today. If I'm wrong...let me know. Please." Lavender again waited but her mother said nothing.
"Somehow, someway, you figured out Arthur Weasley's secret, that he had potioned his wife, Molly, brainwashing her into marrying him and boring him 7 children. I know you went to Hogwarts with both of them attending. Perhaps you were friends with Molly and recognized her radical change or maybe you caught Arthur Weasley in the act. Regardless, you found out his secret and then blackmailed him." The silence in the room had never felt so unbroken.
Lavender went on, "You married my father, or rather, my father married you, after strings of failed relationships you had with other men. I remember how you told me about the men you were so unlucky with before my father "fell in love" with you and married you immediately. He didn't fall in love with you, after all; you potioned him with Arthur Weasley's collusion. I believe at that time you two made a contract of sorts, to prevent any further blackmail on either side- a contract to align the Brown and Weasley houses in matrimony, potioned matrimony of course. It is most likely why Arthur had 7 children, 6 boys and a girl. Arthur and Molly had to keep trying for a girl in case I was a boy. I am only two months older than Ginny, their youngest daughter."
Ribbons faded as Lavender gathered her thoughts, this next part would hurt the most to confirm. Her mother's only reactions so far to Lavender's writings was a slight grimace. Lavender took a deep breath and ribbons appeared once more. "My father," Lavender stopped. She could feel tears forming but spelled them away; she would cry later, not now. "You potioned my father, Edwin Brown, and he married you, helpless to fight your wishes and desires. It wasn't what you wanted though- your relationship with him. I recall how how told me you had been used to relationships with your men leaving you and you moving on to next poor soul entrapped in your games. The potion ensure utter loyalty and a willingness to meet your needs in the name of "love." But you couldn't stand it. I'm guessing you wanted to move on in under a year with Father but you couldn't. You needed him to stay married to you and you also needed to have me to keep your contract with Arthur Weasley, so you stayed fidelitous to Father until I was born." Again Lavender stopped. Her mother continued to retain her silence clenching her hands together tighter and tighter. Lavender had to go on.
"I'm guessing you started having affairs promptly after I was born. I don't know if you hid your affairs or willed Father ignore them and avoid the topic of more children. Your behavior continued till I was 9. You probably had wanted a fight, a break up with Father, to get rid of him for so long that if it was he or you implied in the fight that he wanted to die, you let him do so, making it your will. Am I wrong?" Still, still her mother said nothing. Lavender didn't know if she hated anyone more in her life at that moment.
Lavender persisted onward however. "And then there's me...I, who you traded when I was just an idea, a nothing, when making that deal with Arthur Weasley. Did you ever try to back out? Did you? Did you!?!" Lavender couldn't help but asking but knew in her heart the answer. Her mother had never really wanted her. It was her father who had been there every day, all day, raising her with so much love and tenderness. He was the one who would allow Lavender to stay up late at night and share stories about the different stars in the sky, the one to play fortune-telling games after they had seen a seer in a carnival, the one to comfort her after a nightmare. Lavender didn't know if her father had ever truly loved her, or if his feelings towards her were potion-induced, but she had loved her father and she would always treasure her memories of him. Always.
Lavender took a steadying breath and moved on, "I was born, finally for you and matched up with Ron Weasley and the two of you must have agreed to potion the both of us at the beginning of our Sixth Year. Only," Lavender paused to smirk at her mother. Her mother's eyes narrowed but held her silence. Lavender went on, "only Arthur Weasley double-crossed you. You didn't find out about it until after Ron broke up with me later that year- Ron wouldn't have been able to. But he did, for the potion Arthur gave to Ron, wasn't keyed to me, but to Ron himself." Lavender's smirk turned into a smile that bespoke pain was yet to come. "Except Arthur Weasley messed up and hadn't charmed Ron to be the only one to eat his mother's tainted baked goods. When he shared them with Hermione, she was the one to be potioned instead. If Arthur Weasley had keyed me into the potion, Hermione would have been potioned in love with me all this time."
Lavender couldn't help but wondered what would have happened if Hermione hadn't been potioned, and Ron would have been potioned as planned. She would have recognized Lavender had been potioned, and most likely Ron, but Lavender didn't know what would have happened after that. Harry would have probably not been potioned but Ginny might have still. This line of thinking, it could be done another day, with Hermione and Ron and anyone else who wanted to join in, with lots of alcohol available.
Lavender stood back, the conjectures she deduced been proven with her mother's reticence. Now, now she had a question to ask her mother, one she had wanted answered since this morning. "Mother... why did you apologize to me this morning?" That started her mother, finally. She started to speak but Lavender wrote to clarify her question, "Did you apologize to me because you potioned me, because you allowed dark magic into my body, corrupting it and enslaving me to Ron Weasley? Or did you apologize because if you had known I would have been attacked by Greyback, you would have waited to potion me?"
This agitated her mother so much she started to cry again. Holding out her hands to Lavender she cried, "Darling! Please."
Lavender took a step back and raised her wand to her mother. She had no sympathy for her mother's distress. What did she know about distress? "Do not call me darling ever again. Darling refers to a dearly loved person, and we can both agree on, with the two of us, it is not me." Her mother started to wilt where she sat, crying incoherent once more as she had this morning.
Ignoring her mother, she raised her wand, called to her magic, her cleaned, beautiful, mostly taintless magic, to do something she wished her father could have done. As ribbons wrote her thoughts, she imbued her magic to the intent of them. "I, Lavender Amelia Brown, Head of the Brown family, cast out Aurelia Brown née Altair, from the Brown family. I dissolve all familial relationships and contracts between Aurelia Altair and the members of the Brown family. Every item in her possession, either previously owned by Brown member or paid for by Brown money with be returned forthwith to the Brown Family Vaults in Gringotts to be gone over by representatives of the Brown family. May she never darken the Brown family magic every again. So mote it be." She immediately felt the family wards shift, excluding the woman, formerly her mother, Aurelia Altair.
Aurelia Altair sat up, feel the wards shift as well. "You can't!" she begun to say before reading Lavender's words that she left for her to read, blanching as she read on. Popping sounds, started occurring as things Aurelia Altair once own and bought disappeared from all over the Brown house. She gasped as her jewelry vanished, included the wedding ring Edwin Brown had put on her left hand almost thirty years ago. The wand, Edwin's mothers, seemed to slip through her fingers and her clothes disappeared as well. Standing naked in front of the person she once had been able to claim as her daughter she tried to speak to Lavender, when Lavender raised her wand to Aurelia to cast her out of her home. Ribbons wrote, "Get out of my home," and Aurelia was cast out. She landed with a plop outdoors in some woods. Aurelia shuddered, taking hold of her surroundings and of her naked wandless body, she said nothing.
OoO
Lavender took a deep breath, and another and another and several more after that. She hadn't come home intending to oust Altair as her mother but she would not regret doing it, not with what Altair had done to her Father, to her. Lavender continued to breathe in and out taking in the mostly emptied room. Most of the decorations had been magicked into the Brown Vaults. Only a few ancestral pieces of furniture remained. Lavender thought it only suitable; her soul felt bared, why not her home. She promised herself tomorrow she would survey her home and find out what remained and what didn't. Tomorrow she would go to her attorneys, and then the Ministry and Gringotts. Tomorrow.
Lavender left the sitting room and headed to her bedroom. She was relieved at least her bedroom was mostly untouched. She considered her bed, oh how she wanted to sleep, but she wanted to do one last thing. She went to where a standing mirror had stood since she had become a teenager, but had been removed she she got home to convalesce. She thought about all the spells she knew to cast non-verbally before she remembered a reflection charm. Casting it on the wall she looked at herself, really looked at herself.
She slowly undressed into her night clothes watching how her body moved, how her scars that would remain forevermore, moved. She set her wand into her wand holster and walked towards her reflection. Gently she gather her hair, her long hair that she had used daily to shield herself, to hide. She pulled her hair up into a bun contemplated. She would wear her hair up from now on. Tomorrow, she promised. Tomorrow.
With that she gave herself a small smile before she cancelled the spell, walked to her bed, laid down, pulled a pillow towards her to hug and burst into tears.
Epilogue:
Several months later, Lavender found herself at Healer Fitzworth's practice, not as a patient but a visitor. She had owled her former Healer asking if she would be able to stop by and talk for a bit. He replied with a yes and set up a time to meet with her after his last appointment of the day. She was in his waiting room with only a few others, who were obviously waiting for Healer Fitzworth's last patient. They kept looking at her, a trio of two children and a older woman. Lavender smiled at them and gave them a nod of acknowledgement and then glanced at the magazines and newspapers available.
It was still strange being on the other side when coming to hospitals. She had her last appointment with Healer Pye weeks ago but had been having months of practice waiting in the visitor lounges with Ron and Harry for Herimione, Harry and Hermione for Harry and with Bill, Fleur and Victorie and rest of the Weasley clan for Molly. Life had been fueled with many arguments and many, many heartbreaking realizations and unburied confessions of true thoughts and feelings. Regardless of awfulness that spewed out of people after their Mind Healing sessions, everyone stayed- they listened, mourned and accepted and repeated after the each session. Everyone cuddled a lot afterwards; most claimed Lavender gave the best hugs but she wasn't so sure- maybe they said so because they knew she needed some hugs herself. After a couple of months, they were quite sure Hermione, Harry, Ginny and Percy who had preferred to meet up with only his wife, were completely dispelled, the potion was slowly being purged from their bodies with daily potions, but the effects diminished and suppressed.
Molly unfortunately, hadn't been doing so well. With her body and magic darkened for so long, Molly only worsened in a short time. Fleur proposed, with help of Hermione's researching skills, that Molly be sequestered in a long-term treatment center to get the more extensive care she needed. Molly who had fallen into a deep depression quickly agreed. Lavender was pretty sure Molly would undergo a potions-induced purification procedure like she had had, but with Mind Healers on hand at all times.
Thinking of her friends she couldn't help smiling to herself. Lavender didn't know if Hermione and Ron would get back together or Harry and Ginny in that case, but they were being very careful with one another. Very careful with no pressure or presumptions for the future. Lavender recalled Hermione's and Ron's first fight, their first real fight post-potioned with a grin. It had been a ridiculous fight, but it had been loud, angry and kind of mean- very similar to the arguments they used to have pre-Sixth Year. Afterwards, Hermione and Ron just looked at each other before laughing; they held hands the rest of the night before going home alone.
The rest of their friends and former classmates took the news with shock. Many reunions and gatherings started being held. Lavender went to everyone of them with confident steps, her hair always pulled up. The first time she had been photographed and put on the front page, her arm entwined with Harry's she ignored it. Just like she ignored the pictures of her with Ron, Neville, Dean and even Draco Malfoy for that one memorable dance. Reporters kept referring to her as scarred, marred or worse defaced. That all came to an end when Witches Weekly had put a picture of her in their "Best Dressed" section. An Editior's Note had been posted underneath her picture that had filled the rest of the page.
Miss Lavender Brown. This witch is always photographed in neat, form-fitting and beautifully appropriate clothing. Everything she wears in public is chosen with style and elegance. Despite this being the first time portrayed in our magazine, Miss Brown is acknowledged as becoming a fashion icon as of late, particularly with her ingenious hairdos.
Let's talk about her scars though, something that is always mentioned as of late when Miss Brown is of the topic.
It is known that Miss Brown received those scars from Fenrir Greyback, a renowned werewolf who savagely preyed on children for decades. It is known that during the Battle of Hogwarts, Greyback attacked fifteen children that night, of whom Miss Brown was the only one to live- the youngest had been a Slytherin First Year. This is all public knowledge.
However, in contrary to current media views, We at Witches Weekly, now and onwards, refuse to let Miss Brown be further attacked or even ashamed. We will follow her stead, neither showcasing nor showing off her extensive scaring as some people have accused her of doing, nor hiding it and pretending they aren't there. We have acknowledged them like Miss Brown obviously has and moved on.
Miss Brown might not always be in our Best Dressed section, but we will welcome the sight of her on the arm of any witch or wizard or even by herself. Miss Brown has such courage, confidence and perseverance that she inspires all of us at Witches Weekly, beauty isn't skin deep as culturally portrayed. Keep your head up Lavender. We will do the same.
Emma Vanity
Editor-in-Chief
Lavender had cried a little when she read the article and sent an extremely heartfelt thank you to Witches Weekly. She knew her friends did the same and bought subscriptions, even Harry who would probably always be uncomfortable with the fawning tone of some of the articles took about him in Witches Weekly. Ever since, her scars were no longer commented on in any publication. Wizards and witches of all ages started to look at her, not just looking at her clothes or the air around her face, but looking at her and giving her smiles. She made sure to smile back and acknowledge them acknowledging her.
Rita Skeeter even, when she approached Lavender had an apologetic look as she looked Lavender in the face before asking Lavender about Altair. Lavender made Skeeter a deal, if she found out why Lavender had cast out Altair, Lavender would share her memory of the event. Skeeter who had been investigating Altair to write a tell-all about Arthur Weasley (may he remain missing for the rest of her natural life), quieted and looked at Lavender with a hungry look and agreed promptly. Skeeter hadn't come back yet to talk to Lavender, but she felt any day now she would receive an owl asking for a meeting. Altair had gotten in contact with the media but Lavender's attorneys has quickly sent out cease-and-desist notices. Using Skeeter to investigate what had happened to the Brown and Weasley family would mitigate Lavender's reluctance to be interviewed, to talk. The Daily Prophet's reporters had not been kind and her voice was used seldom.
Healer Pye had worked for months getting her used to using her mouth and throat. She could finally open and close her mouth, chew, swallow, and burp to her pleased embarrassment. Lavender doubted she would ever be the verbose talker she once had been in her youth but she loved to hum nowadays. Her favorite thing to do was to sit in her garden and hum a tune for the fairies to dance to. Bill, Fleur and Victorie had come over to her home just last week where they had spent a delightful afternoon in her garden. When Lavender started humming, Fleur and Bill joined in while Victorie, fascinated by the fairies, danced with them joyously. It used to be Lavender dancing with the fairies while her father hummed tunes; it had been a good day to remember.
OoO
Lavender looked her fill of Healer Fitzworth. It was almost a year ago when Altair and her had come for a consultation. He looked even more gorgeous now. She waited till his patient and visitors left before standing to greet him. "Hi," she said, slightly breathlessly.
"Mademoiselle Brown! It is wonderful to see you and hear your voice. I'm glad I heard from you. Will you come into my office?" asked Healer Fitzworth with a smile. She nodded and walked closer before he led her into his office. She hadn't imagined it. She really did have a crush on him- it wasn't just thankfulness. His magic helped her nerves being just as soothing as before. He led her to a sofa before sitting down next to her. She had to look briefly away from him to try to control herself- he was so pretty. She looked back at him when he asked, "May I?" She nodded her agreement recognizing easily what he intended and relaxed he raised his wand to start a medical check on her, his magic mingling her hers lightly.
Lavender waited until he was done before giving him a smile. "Well Healer?" she asked.
"Heart rate is a little high, else everything it looking fine. There is no inflammation or tearing. You are doing very well Mlle Brown." He lowered his wand and returned it to his robe. "Mlle. Brown," he began.
"Thank you," interrupted Lavender. "Thank you so much. I can't begin to thank you enough..."
"Please," Healer Fitzworth interrupted, "please don't thank me, Mlle Brown. I'm so sorry. Part of the privacy agreements I signed about your healing didn't allow me to act in your best interest. I should have been the one to tell you of the results. Also, if I tested you more extensively before we started treatment, perhaps with deeper scanning methods, I could have detected..."
Here Lavender interrupted, "A Mente Mutata class potion that she who was my mother gave me, that enslaved me to another when I was fifteen years old?" Healer Fitzworth frowned heavily at that. Lavender continued her voice softly questioning, "Would you have been able to detect it if you didn't know to look for it? Or would the overall darkness in the Cicatricem Potion and Greyback's lingering magic obscured its diagnosis?" He shook his head, not knowing. Lavender pick up his hand and held it in hers. "I will thank you. I woke up and felt like myself after years of not being myself. I don't care about the scars. They are nothing to what I have gained. I thank you for that, with all of my heart."
He again shook his head regretfully but brought his other hand to hers and squeezed them. They sat in silence for a while. He had carefully followed any news about her in British papers. Mlle Brown had left his practice shortly after he left her former mother to inform her what he had been barred from saying. Never again would he agree to a privacy contract where his patient's wellbeing would be jeopardized by their guardian's own motives. The next day, The Daily Prophet had included notices of the exile of Aurelia Altair from the Brown family. He had not been too surprised, having had suspicions prior to Mlle Brown's waking that all was not as it should be. He squeezed her hands again before asking, "Was there anything else?"
Lavender couldn't help but blush then. When she pick up his hand, she just wanted to comfort him but she couldn't help cataloging feel of his hand in hers. When he brought his other hand to squeeze hers, she thought her heart had leaped into her throat. This was the first time being alone with someone she liked. She dismissed the girlish fantasies she had as a teen before Ron. Nothing ventured is nothing gained she once heard Hermione say. She would do this; she would venture. If he rejected her, that would hurt but it would she would risk it.
"May I ask you some personal questions?" Lavender couldn't help but wince on how abrupt that sounded. He gave her a crooked gorgeous smile and tilted his head, curious. "Are you dating anyone?" blurted on Lavender. Mortified, she looked away.
"No," he said after a pause, sounding amused.
Looking away, her heart pounding even more, she grimaced. Still not looking at him, she asked, "Are you betrothed or contracted or married, which I should have asked first?" She knew she should have had Hermione research him. She knew it. This was so embarrassing.
"No," he repeated, still sounding amused but also a little pleased.
Lavender thought about tugging her hands from his and just leaving. She couldn't do it though. She promised herself she would ask him and she wasn't going to break a promise to herself. Gathering her courage she looked back at him, trying to smile but still grimacing slightly. She took a deep breath and another and another. "..." Lavender closed her mouth before trying again. "May I kiss you?"
His eyebrows rose up, not expecting that question. He couldn't help but ask, "Are you sure?"
This she could answer confidently. "Yes. Yes, I'm sure. The only other person I've kissed was the one I was potioned to love. I haven't, I haven't kissed someone of my own free will and I want that to be you. Some of my friends have offered, to help me get comfortable, to get used to the idea of wanting someone else but I haven't taken them up on their offers. I want you, if you don't mind. I know with my scars it might be..." But here he let go of her hands and gently took hold of her face.
"It would be my honor and my pleasure," he said before leaning over to kiss her softly. It was better than her fantasies. Better than kissing Ron, even when at that time her magic would create this pleasurable tingling sensation in her body. It was so much better than that. It felt real and alive and glorious. When he pulled away, she couldn't help but give a laugh. Answering his questioning look, she said, "I'm not sure what to call you."
He smiled at her and leaned in again. "Call me Jacque," he replied before kissing her again.
The End