As Lavender Brown's body lay amongst the ruins of what was once her home, she watched a family grieve the loss of one of their own, wondering why fate had so cruelly dealt them such cards. From a young age, all she wanted was to love and be loved in...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
»»» IF Lavender were to return back to the moment she woke up in this strange limbo and told herself about the crazy adventure she was about to go on, she would have burst out laughing.The question that had been posed would definitely make her consider she was being pranked. No matter how many times she replayed the moment in her mind, it felt surreal. She stole a glance at her ghostly companion who was busy rummaging through a rack of dress robes. After meekly nodding in response, he had taken the lead, time-Apparating them to the outskirts of Hogsmeade the night of the Yule Ball.
The journey to the castle was spent in silence, until Lavender had built up the courage to ask the question that had been bothering her since she had agreed to his insane idea.
"Where am I going to get a dress from?" She had asked only to receive a smirk in reply. Fred had asked her to trust him, and whilst she hated not having any control over the situation, trust was part of the rollercoaster of life with Fred Weasley. Even so, Lavender knew that it was far easier for her to consent to his kind brown eyes, especially when they lit up with the foundations of yet another ridiculous plan.
She smiled to herself at the image.
The solution happened to be an extremely simple one. With most of the school busy in the Great Hall, it was easy for them to slip into the castle unnoticed. Fred led her to the Room of Requirement and after a couple of failed attempts, they figured out the right instruction to get a room filled with gowns and dress robes.
Lavender had stopped at the doorway, stunned at how easy it was, but was quickly ushered inside and it wasn't too long before she was sifting through the various options. Dresses of all styles decorated the rails; some long, others frilly, a few covered with sequins and diamonds, they all had elements of her style woven into their fabric.
"Have you picked one?" Fred asked, pulling out a midnight blue set for himself. As he held it against himself, she couldn't help but marvel at how the colour brought out the hazel specks in his eyes.
She blinked at him, before shaking her head and pulling a face. "There's so many and they're all stunning," she continued absentmindedly as she ran her fingers down a soft lilac dress.
"How about you let me choose? If it's all the same to you," Fred offered, causing her to widen her eyes in response. It took Lavender a moment to process his request, but again she found herself nodding silently.
Whilst Fred took it upon himself to sort through the options, Lavender sat on one of the chairs in a daze. Ever since he had asked her to go to the Ball, she was placed under some sort of enchantment. Her stomach was riddled with tight knots and in every glimmer of silence, she found her mind drifting away. She had already rehearsed multiple potential scenarios that could play out, but it was difficult to prepare for whenever he turned to smile at her, or shared a prank idea.
His recent ability in rendering her speechless, taking any and all opinions away with one small look, made it impossible to actually converse. It wouldn't be long until he realised she was acting strangely, that was if by some miracle he hadn't figured it out already. As he began humming to himself, she felt her skin alight with goosebumps, the image of them dancing momentarily causing her to freeze.
