The Color Purple

Chapter 1:

Strange Feelings

One Saturday, on his way to Divination in his fourth year, Seamus Finnegan was muttering angry words of malice under his breath.

"Stupid Tri-Wizard Tournament…. Stupid age restriction…. I could've entered…. I could win the WHOLE thing…. Stupid, cheating Potter…."

He was walking by himself up the steep stairs. His best friend, Dean Thomas, had gotten held up at breakfast.

"Stupid Dean, being a STUPID slow eater…."

He was feeling particularly cranky these days.

"Stupid hormones…."

He slumped his way up the tower's spiral stairway and up to the Divination room.

He was earlier than usual, so he selected the table that he always sat at with Dean.

Seamus noticed that he wasn't the only person in the room. He could see a blonde head on the other side of the room, a girl's head: Lavender Brown.

He groaned to himself. Lavender and her friend, Parvati Patil were usually always the first ones in the Divination classroom, since they both worshipped Professor Trelawney. Seamus had forgotten about that.

But, Lavender seemed to be by herself. Parvati was nowhere to be seen.

She didn't seem to notice Seamus was even in the room, either. Her back was facing him. She hadn't heard him come in.

Seamus put his bag down on his chair. He slowly made his way toward the side of the room she was sitting. She seemed to be fiddling with something he couldn't see….

When he was right behind her, he decided he'd have some fun.

"Boo!" he yelled, catching the unsuspecting girl by surprise.

She yelped, dropping what she had been messing with. It had been a crystal ball, which shattered to pieces at their feet.

"Oh no," she muttered, looking almost green with worry. "Oh no… Professor Trelawney is going to kill me…."

Seamus looked at the remains of the crystal ball. What originally would have made him laugh, made him feel great regret. He hadn't meant to cause this much trouble.

"I'm so sorry," he said. "I… I didn't mean to make you drop that. I-I didn't know you were holding it."

As funny as it would have been to see Lavender Brown, teacher's pet of the crazy Divination teacher, get in trouble, he decided to help her.

"Here," he said, pulling out his wand. Seamus muttered a repair charm he had learned a week ago in Charms. The bits of crystal came together, forming a sphere that flew into Seamus's hands. It looked completely untouched.

"There you go," he said, holding the ball out towards Lavender.

"Thanks," she said, sheepishly, taking the crystal ball into her own hands.

As Seamus handed her the ball, their hands softly brushed against each other. Lavender blushed, hurriedly pulling her hands away, nearly dropping the ball for the second time. Seamus quickly dived slightly, catching the crystal ball to prevent another mishap with broken glass.

"Whoa!" he yelled in surprise, nimbly catching the ball with one hand.

"Not bad," Lavender said, taking the ball, this time avoiding his hands. "You should play Quidditch."

"Why, thank you," Seamus said, bowing deeply.

Lavender laughed, making something in Seamus's gut squirm. What was wrong with his emotions these days? First they're up, then they're down. It was really annoying him.

Lavender looked at him curiously when he stood up to his full height.

"What was your name again?" she asked, racking her brain, trying to match faces with names. "Was it… was it Tom or… or Ron?"

"The name's Finnegan," Seamus said, striking a spy pose. "Seamus Finnegan."

Lavender laughed again, causing Seamus to smile.

"Oh yeah!" she said, realizing, finally, who the mysterious boy was. "You're the funny one who is always getting in trouble! Seamus!"

Seamus pretended to be embarrassed. "Yup, that's me, Seamus. Or, as most of my teachers like to call me, Mr. Finnegan." He said Mr. Finnegan in a deep voice, almost exactly like Professor Snape's. Lavender erupted into a fit of giggles.

"Well, I'm Lavender Brown," she managed to say.

"I know," Seamus said.

The fact that he had known her name made Lavender turn red. How had she forgotten his name? The teachers were constantly saying it!

And he had known her name, even though she was always in the background. Even though she was usually unnoticed by most people. Why did this boy choose to remember her name?

Her thoughts were interrupted by Seamus's voice.

"So," he began, "what were you doing with that crystal ball, anyway?"

Lavender looked away as she answered, "Oh, that? I… I was just--"

"Oh, come on," Seamus said, propping himself on a desk across from her. "You can tell me."

Lavender took a deep breath. "Well… I was… I was practicing my crystal-gazing."

She braced herself for the laughter she knew was going to come, but when it didn't, she looked up.

Seamus was starring at her, a look of disbelief on his face. Lavender watched to see what he'd do next.

"Oh. My. Merlin." That was all Seamus could manage.

"Hey!" Lavender said, blushing and trying to change the subject. "Don't use Merlin's name in vain!"

"So, let me get this straight," he said, trying to stop himself from grinning. "Lavender Brown, worshipper of Professor Trelawney, Divination extraordinaire… needs help crystal-gazing? I expected this from Ron, but surely not you!"

Lavender felt her face burning. "I knew you'd laugh!"

"But, I didn't laugh," he said, a wide grin across his face. "This is laughing."

Seamus couldn't hold it anymore. He erupted in laughter. "You need help in Divination?" He laughed until he collapsed on the floor.

"Please stop Seamus!" Lavender yelled, hitting him on the shoulder. "Someone will hear you!"

When his laughter slowly receded, he got up to his full height to look her in the eyes.

"Look," he said softly, "I'm no Divinations expert, but I could teach you some techniques on crystal-gazing I learned from my mum."

Lavender looked at him, eyes full of hope. "Really?"

"Sure," he said, getting up and heading toward where the crystal ball stood proud on its stand. "My mum loved this subject. She taught me tons of things about it when I was I kid. She even has like seven crystal balls at our house. When she found out that I was taking it in my third year, she went nuts teaching me techniques and tricks on Divination."

Lavender smiled. "Wow, your mum sounds cool. Both of my parents don't favor the subject too much, both of them having gotten failing grades in Divination in their day."

Seamus laughed as he stepped aside, letting Lavender step in front of the ball.

"Now," he said, standing directly behind her, speaking quietly in her ear, "you have to relax your muscles. Close your eyes… and relax."

Lavender found it kind of hard to relax with Seamus so close to her, but she managed. She closed her eyes and thought of familiar things that freed her of worry and stress.

"Are you ready?" Seamus said.

She nodded, afraid that if she opened her mouth, she'd lose her concentration.

"Good. Now what you have to do is open your eyes, and position your hands lightly on both sides of the crystal ball."

Lavender cautiously opened her eyes. She could see her and Seamus's reflections in the ball. He was looking at where she put her hands over her shoulder.

"Like this?" she asked, unsurely and clumsily placing her hands on the crystal ball.

"No, not like that," he said, taking both of her hands into his and placing them on the sphere. "There you go."

Lavender was glad Seamus couldn't see her blush-ridden face. He still had his hands on hers. They felt warm, caring… almost gentle.

Seamus removed his hands from Lavender's and placed them on her shoulders. "And now, all you have to do is remain calm and collected, and look into the crystal ball."

Lavender scrunched her eyebrows tightly and looked.

"Not that hard," Seamus said, letting the hands that he had on her shoulders move down to her elbows. "You have to relax."

Lavender took a deep breath and looked again, this time not as hard.

She saw something besides her and Seamus. There seemed to be something… glowing. It looked like the Northern Lights for a second, full of colors of all sorts, until it seemed to focus itself more.

Then it looked like two people. They were both male. Lavender could see one of them laying on the ground, the other one seemed to be crying over the other one, yelling, too. Now that she focused, she thought the first figure, the one laying on the ground, looked to be dead. It's face looked really familiar….

Lavender suddenly gasped, breaking her concentration, realizing whose face was the one lying down. It was the face of Cedric Diggory.

Lavender pulled back from the crystal ball so quickly, she fell back, right into Seamus's arms.

"Lavender, are you ok?" he asked, looking at her with worry.

"I'm fine," she reassured him. Not even the fact that she was in his arms shook the terrifying image from the crystal ball out of her head. It had all looked so real….

"Lavender? Are you sure you're ok?" he asked her, looking deeply into her eyes. "Did it work?"

"Oh yeah, it worked," Lavender said, a little more shakily than she had planned.

"We should probably sit down," Seamus said, releasing her from his grasp. "Class is going to start soon."

Lavender awoke form he trance and walked to her own table, while Seamus walked to his.

He had been right: Students had started to arrive into the class now. Dean sat down next to Seamus, though he barely noticed.

Lavender, he thought. Like the color purple.

Seamus thought she looked as beautiful as the Lavender flower, too.

What was wrong with him these days? His emotions were simply driving him crazy.

. . .

Author's Note: That's all there is now, but that's definitely NOT the end of the story. Alas, my story has just begun.

-May