Hello! This is a fanfiction I wrote for the Fan-Made Potter Family Challenge with the pairing Lavender/Harry. I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Harry Potter material mentioned below.

1.

They called her the Pansy Parkinson of Gryffindor house.

Honestly she wasn't that bad. They just didn't know her. All they did was look at her carefully make-upped face and her short skirt and stereotyped her as a dumb blonde. She wasn't that thick. She was pretty smart if anyone cared to look but having Hermione Granger in your classes made any decent mark look like it was hardly anything passable. And sure, she over-reacted more than anybody else did and yes, she loved clothes and appreciated a good looking guy but was that really a crime? It felt like it, with all the judgemental looks she got. Hadn't they all wondered why she was in Gryffindor when she had hardly proven herself brave those days? People had expected her to be in Hufflepuff, like Neville Longbottom.

But she had learnt to not to take any of that anymore. Seven years at Hogwarts had done her good. The war had made her stronger. It had shown everyone how rightfully she belonged in Gryffindor. And it had brought someone unexpected to her heart later on.

The moment she had entered the great hall when she was eleven, she had wanted nothing else but to disappear in among the crowd. Her heart was beating rapidly against her chest, and all these kids looked like they were having fun while she was already homesick. She had been a shy, quiet girl who loved walking outside and writing her feelings every moment possible in her diary. She usually wore rimmed glasses but after getting teased by those mean boys in her neighbourhood she had made sure not to wear it as much as she could help.

When she had heard that Harry Potter was going to be in her year, she wondered what he would be like. Would he be a confident boy, a naturally born leader who was charismatic? Would he bravely ace his classes and help out all his classmates? She'd like to picture so. She hoped that he wouldn't tease her like those boys had, back home. She hoped they would get to know each other. She hoped that she would make friends with every girl in her dorm and possibly every girl in her classes, despite their houses.

Oh, how naïve she had been.

She had been the first girl to be sorted to Gryffindor house, the house of bravery. Her mother had been in Ravenclaw and her father had been in Hufflepuff. So it had been quite a surprise; that their tiny girl who barely spoke at home ended up in Gryffindor. Her cheeks had heated up when the whole table cheered for her and the elder students welcomed her warmly.

Yet how she wished she could disappear between all these students and be back in her cozy home, in her lavender room.

None of the girls spoke to her when they went to their dorms. She didn't know any of them even though two of the girls were already making polite conversation. She turned to look at the other girl, who had bushy hair and a book on her lap as she read hunched over it.

"Hello." She said, timidly.

The girl looked up from her book. "Hello." She replied and went back to her reading. Lavender blinked.

She decided that the girl seemed to rather read than talk to her.

By her second year, she had sort of buddied up with Parvati Patil. The girl was bubbly and chatty and very infectious. She seemed to be the only girl who was willing to talk to her and Lavender gladly accepted it, for every attempt to befriend someone had been somehow unsuccessful. She had talked a few times with Hermione Granger as well, whenever she didn't feel intimidated by the smart girl. After all, this girl hung out with Harry Potter, even though he turned out nothing like she pictured. But he was nice, the way he had stood up for Neville when that Malfoy boy was being terrible. He had faced You-Know-Who for the second time last year, according to what Parvati had told her. He was definitely brave and truly belonged to Gryffindor.

This was why she didn't believe what the others said when rumours were flying around like snitches that Harry Potter was the heir of Slytherin. That was absolute rubbish. She wanted to let him know that she didn't think that but her shyness won over and she never did.

It was the end of second year things started to change. She hit puberty. She felt feelings, emotions that were new to her. When she got home for the summer, she experimented. She experimented with her hair, her clothes, make up that her mother had let her borrow with giddiness and with boys. With the same boys who had teased her years ago. She was delighted how they listened to her raptly now, following every movement her fingers twirled around her hair. They talked to her, listened to her, made her laugh; just because her body changed and she looked different. She started to feel confident. She started to feel that she didn't have to be shy anymore. She felt powerful with her pretty face and slim but girlish figure. Finally she somehow felt fully accepted.

When summer was finally over, she returned to Hogwarts, feeling pleased by how she looked and how the boys reacted to her. She loved how Dean Thomas had blushed when she said hello and how Seamus had asked her and Parvati to join them to sit in the train. She had looked at her friend and giggled, feeling dizzy with excitement about this year.

When they had gotten to their dorms after an eventful ride on the Hogwarts Express, she had unpacked and shown all the things she had learnt to Parvati. They had talked about her summer, about boys, about their subjects they were taking this year and their mutual excitement over Divination.

"Are you excited to take Divination, Hermione?" Lavender asked nicely, feeling bad about leaving her out.

"To be honest, I think it's a complete joke." She said and Lavender wasn't sure how to reply to this. She settled to just nodding her head as if accepting the girl's answer. Everyone had different opinions, she thought, she shouldn't take it personally.

But it really, really felt personal sometimes. One weekend Lavender and Parvati had decided to sit on their beds and paint their toenails together with some of their crazy nail polish. It was another rainy evening and the girls were trying not to fret over the things that had been happening recently. She saw Hermione Granger sitting on her bed, reading another book, scribbling notes every few minutes. Did the girl ever take a break?

"Hermione, would you like to join us?" She offered with a smile.

Hermione looked up from her papers and slightly narrowed her eyes at their toes. "That's fine." She refused and the way she said it, the way she scrunched her button nose, it was clear that she deemed herself above those activities, like painting nails. Maybe it was fruitless to try to include the girl in to any of her activities then. They just seemed too different.

And that time when the girl had insensitively remarked about her pet rabbit. That was when she gave up. She had tried, honestly. It was frustrating and it angered her. So she gave up and from then on decided to ignore the girl as much as she could, cause this girl made her feel as if she was some plastic person, only interested in materialistic things and 'delusions' like divinations. Don't muggles believe in horoscopes and such? As a muggleborn shouldn't Hermione be used to it?

She wasn't what Hermione Granger made her feel. She knew that, and she decided that she wasn't going to let anyone else make her feel that way. She knew she over-reacted a lot or she could be extremely chatty but she was going to be herself, and love who she was.

Fourth year arrived and she was having a good time. Her friendship with Parvati was brilliant and she was getting closer to Seamus too. She wasn't too thrilled about the fact that Quiddich games got cancelled due to the Triwizard tournament because she secretly enjoyed watching the game, not because of the players but the energy that built up in the stadiums and the house spirit that made her heart dance and brain go fuzzy with excitement.

She wasn't sure who to support when there were two champions from Hogwarts. Again she didn't believe that Harry put his name. She had faith in Dumbledore's magic and she had faith in Harry Potter to not to do such dangerous thing. She was pretty sure that he was aware how dangerous the game was rumoured to be and that he didn't need any more of it than he had. So she was inclined to fully support her house mate even though how dashing she thought Cedric Diggory was.

She had been thrilled when she had learnt that about the coming Yule ball and had been even more thrilled when Seamus had asked her. She had gotten ready like any teenage girl would have on her first date, excited and dreamily. She pictured her dancing in Seamus's arms, her dress twirling as she spun and her face in smiles. She wondered if her first kiss would await that night and sighed at the thought of it. She was even thrilled when she heard that Harry Potter had asked Parvati and they had talked about it endlessly till the night arrived. They didn't know their hopes were going to be broken.

Seamus had been perfect when he had arrived to escort her out. He looked really nice too and she was glad that he hadn't dressed like Ron Weasley. But things went downfall as soon as Seamus saw Hermione Granger. For the rest of the dance, all he had talked about was how bloody gorgeous Hermione Granger had looked. Why did it happen to her? Why did Hermione Granger make her feel less without even trying? There she was in her pretty blue dress with Viktor Krum, and her date hardly looking at Lavender. Seamus hadn't failed mentioning how pretty Hermione looked every few minutes even though he had not said once that Lavender looked nice.

She ultimately got the courage to leave the great hall early, her feelings a mess, her self-esteem dipped low as Pansy Parkinson's neckline. She broke in to tears as she entered the Gryffindor common room. It wasn't fair. It honestly wasn't. All she wanted was to feel special and Hermione had gotten it. Hermione had gotten what every girl would have wanted without changing her bushy hair or her know-it-all self. She had two boys on her heels all the time, her teacher's approval (Snape did not count) for all kinds of things and now she had her Cinderella moment with a very good looking Quiddich star.

Maybe she still was that plain bespectacled girl who got teased.

She had still been close to Seamus despite the Yule ball treatment and they continued to spend time together as their fifth year began. She didn't have any feelings for him anymore but he still made her laugh and they did homework together. This was when he had told her his doubts on Harry Potter's story that Voldemort was back. She didn't comment about it because her mother and father believed that You-Know-Who was back. And she believed it too. Why would Harry make up such a thing? Somewhere in her mind, she still had that first year picture of what Harry Potter was like. But the more Seamus told her his thoughts and the way Parvati agreed (Probably because of how Harry treated her in the Yule ball), the less she felt inclined to share her belief. So she dutifully, to make sure that she didn't cause any rifts between her friends, agreed that Harry Potter was lying through his teeth.

But it was her who had convinced them to come and join the Dumbledore army. And she was glad she did. She wasn't good at most of the spells they tried but nevertheless she vowed to get better and be as good as Harry was. She had watched him in awe as he cast spells, performed the Patronus charm and encouraged them by the most inspirational speeches. Right then, he was exactly the boy she pictured when she was in her first year.

It was during those sessions when the Dumbledore army met, when she started to get to know Harry Potter's best friend, Ron Weasley. She knew he was funny and was very good at chess. He was tall too, something she really liked, and something Seamus seriously lacked. As they practiced spells together and he helped her improve hers, she started getting fond of him. He was kind, funny and had a nice laugh.

She thought of him as school ended and thought of him over the summer holidays. She had a new crush.

So when her sixth year began she slowly but purposefully approached Ron Weasley. She complimented him, flirted, wished him luck for Quiddich and cheered for him during games.

And when she had got the chance, she bravely, gracefully grabbed it. She kissed him and he kissed her back to her delight. They snogged and it was everything she dreamed a first kiss would be like and more. She loved it.

Things changed rapidly. She felt like she was in a daze, like she was under the Imperius, walking in a dream, dizzy with what she had found. They kissed a lot, spent time alone a lot and kissed more a lot. She gave them nick names like the lovers in her romance novels had and she treated him the best she could ever treat him.

She was drunk with the feeling of having that special someone.

She didn't realize that he didn't feel the same way. That the kisses were getting half-hearted after a while and that he was avoiding her. She was in cloud nine.

And she dropped to the ground and broke her heart.

She watched as he whispered Hermione Granger's name in the hospital wing and the way the bushy haired girl was looked at him, it was obvious. Everything was now clear and she had woken up from her dreams. She had run out of the hospital wing as she tried to resist the pain of her heart wrenching. She tried to get used it, she really did. She noticed him brushing snow off Hermione and the way he looked at her, but her tears gushed out like waterfalls. Oh, she was such a feather brain. Even everyone else had realized and hoped that Hermione and Ron would be together, except her. She had seen the others give dirty looks at her, as if she was a big barrier to those lovebirds. And she had been, apparently.

She realized that it was about time she accepted that she would always be second best.

When she entered the great hall for her seventh year, nothing was the same. The great hall looked dull, gloomy and forbidden. Snape occupied the headmaster's seat and two new members of the staff sat beside him. There was a great deal of students missing, from Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. Harry Potter was missing too, along with Ron and Hermione. She looked around the great hall, her heart beating against her rib cage. Suddenly she felt that familiar feeling she had felt when she first came to Hogwarts. She wanted to disappear and go back home, to her room.

But she couldn't. Her parents were at risk too. Not that either of them were muggleborns; her mother was pure blood and her father was a half-blood. But they worked in the ministry and since the ministry was infiltrated, things were intense. She hoped that nothing would happen to them. She hoped that Harry Potter was out there finding some way to end this all. He was the chosen one, and like always she had faith in him.

When she entered the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, a chill ran through her spine. Amycus Carrow stood in front of the class, scanning the faces of all the students that entered the room. She felt his eyes linger on her a bit longer and it made her feel uncomfortable. Neville seemed to have noticed this and he gave a reassuring squeeze to her hand.

After two weeks, she was feeling uneasy staying at Hogwarts. She expected someone to drop dead any time, Amycus to shoot a hex at her any moment and You-Know-Who to terrorize them some day.

After two months she hated Hogwarts. It was nothing, nothing like what it used to be. The place she was in could hardly be called Hogwarts anymore. She had been slapped in the face at least a dozen times by the two Death Eaters, Crucioed by the Slytherins as training and denied to the great hall for food due to their 'arrogance' at least twice a week.

It made her sad, angry and helpless. She hadn't heard from her parents in ages and her hopes that used to exist at the start of the year were subsiding.

"We need to stay strong, Lavender." Neville urged one day after a gruesome 'Dark Arts' class. She looked at him, seeing why the sorting hat placed him in Gryffindor.

"But look at us. Look at this place." She said, trying to contain her pain in her abdomen where she had been hit by a curse by Crabbe. That son of bitch.

"We can't let them get us. At least, I'm not. Until I survive I'm going to keep fighting, you need to do that too."

This made her think. Wasn't Neville another of those people like her who was underrated as a Gryffindor? And now he was proving himself. She needed to do that too. When the time called he was standing tall, awaiting any doom so he could face it. She needed to do that too.

So the next day when she felt a blinding rage at a Slytherin who had a first year under the Imperius, she hexed the sixth year so bad that Harry would have been proud. Unfortunately Amycus Carrow saw her. Within seconds she was on the floor writhing in pain, his wand pointed at her.

"Detention after my class tomorrow, Brown." He demanded, with an ugly sneer on his face when he was done. He walked off leaving her lying on the ground, barely conscious. The Slytherin and the first year were nowhere to be seen.

When she arrived to the class the next day, her heart was banging against her chest.

After class she felt like throwing up but she stood her ground. Neville had insisted on staying but Carrow gagged him and threw him out of class with his wand. The door slammed shut.

He started talking about manners, about treating fellow purebloods the right way. He mocked and ridiculed Gryffindor and asked her what she thought of it.

She remembered Harry. "Muggleborns are nothing compared to the filth you're spewing out right now."

He hit her face hard, his nail scratching her lip, causing it to bleed. She didn't cry out, merely gasped after being hit by him countless times before. He drew his wand out and Crucioed her. She clamped her teeth together to keep her screams in as her body tore against her nerves, willing her to voice out her agony. She didn't even realize that she way lying on the floor.

He disarmed the wand she had tried to take out. "Stubborn bitch, aren't you." He hissed.

He stopped and the pain was still settling in her bones when she heard something rip. She felt her clothes tug.

Rip, rip, rip.

Oh, dear merlin no. she thought as she tried to fight him away, trying to push the vile monster away from her body. But his wand kept cutting.

Her flesh, her clothes

She finally screamed, with pain, to stop, for help. She wasn't strong enough, her muscles didn't want to co-operate and she hardly had energy. But when she managed to knee him to his crotch, she grabbed the chance. With the non-existent energy she had left, she kneed him again, jabbed her elbow against his nose and dove for her wand in her tattered uniform. Feebly she managed to perform a simple body-bind curse. She hadn't realized that she had been crying till she felt a tear fall down on to the floor. She heard him grunt and she limped out of the classroom, wondering how she would escape the hell hole before he found her again.

Luckily she ran in to Neville when she had been about to collapse and Neville, infuriated and worried, took her to the hospital wing to Madame Pomfrey.

"What happened" He asked later, even though he had some idea what happened. He wanted nothing but to destroy the poor excuse of a human being.

She told him, everything, and she sobbed. She felt weak, dirty and as if death was going to greet her any time soon.

"Don't cry, Lavender. He's not going to touch you again, nor is he going to see you." He held her hand, as she cried. "We're going to go to the Room of Requirement tonight. And stay there." He didn't say for how long because he didn't know. He waited till her sobs quietened.

"You know, you were really brave. Foolish, but brave. That's what makes us gryffindors." He chuckled grimly. But he looked up, his face serious. "But I mean what I said. It's unusual of hearing someone who can resist the Cruciatus as long as you did and being able to fight back physically after that."

"Maybe I got used to it."

"You can't get used to a curse like an unforgivable, unless you have the ability to resist it to some extent from the beginning. Maybe you have the ability to resist the Crucio longer like Harry was a natural at resisting the Imperius." Neville smiled.

Lavender smiled a little, though she though it was silly of Neville to compare her to Harry Potter.

._.

When she fought in the Battle of Hogwarts, she had fought with her all. She had nothing to live for except to prove herself as a Gryffindor. She fired spells that were taught in the Dark Arts class viciously at the Death Eaters. She didn't realize she saved the necks of few of her professors, Ginny Weasley, some member of the Order and Harry Potter himself. She was in her rage, her anger fresh from hearing her parents' death a week ago.

Her face was bruised, cuts against her arms and face. She had dark circles under her eyes for she had not bothered with makeup for the past few months. She struggled with her spells, sometimes almost getting herself killed.

Until Greyback found her and disarmed her after a grisly fight. She knocked her head against a piece of rubble as she collapsed on the ground and was in the verge of unconsciousness. The last things she felt and saw was Greyback biting her arm and a spell hit him and toss him half a meter away from her by Hermione Granger.

Fate was a bitch.

When Lavender Brown opened her eyes again, the first thing she saw was a pair of bespectacled green eyes staring warmly at her.

Thank you for reading! I'd like to mention that all of these are written in the point of view of Lavender Brown and it doesn't mean that I share the same views as what's written. So that means, I don't have a problem with Hermione, in case any one feels offended by this fan fiction (I know I would have)
Please leave a review! Thanks.