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Lavender Brown lay on her side, gazing out the window of her bedroom. There was a knock on the door. She was here.
“Come in.” Lavender listened to her bedroom door open, followed by the familiar cadence of Parvati Patil’s gentle steps.
“Hey,” Parvati said, sitting down at the end of Lavender’s bed.
Lavender switched sides to face Parvati. Parvati looked beautiful in what must be a new, bright, red robe. Her long, dark hair was meticulously maintained, smooth and silky.
“What’s the matter, Lavender?”
Lavender hesitated, then said, “Mum and Dad are sending me away.”
“What?” Parvati said, her dark eyes big and her mouth falling open.
The truth was that Lavender had barely slept in the two months since the battle. Nightmares woke her nightly, nightmares of Fenrir Greyback. In her nightmares, he finished her off, or he invaded her bedroom to do unspeakable things.
Sometimes she dreamt that she had become just like him: a werewolf. Madam Pomfrey and the doctors at St. Mungo's had given her many assurances that he could not have turned her, given that the Battle hadn’t taken place during a full moon, but when the first full moon came a week after the Battle, she had still been paralysed with fear, unable to sleep.
“Mum and Dad are sending me away to Australia. To finish my education somewhere with fewer… reminders.” Lavender sat up, wishing she’d had enough energy to get pretty for Parvati, but her depression had full control these days. Even putting on lipstick was a chore that she barely managed.
Parvati moved over to sit next to Lavender, reaching over to lightly run her fingers through Lavender’s dark brown curls. "You're of age now, Lav. You don't have to go.”
“Don’t you think I know that, Parvati?”
Parvati squeezed her hand. “Sorry.”
Parvati wasn’t just Lavender's best friend; she was really her only true friend. Lavender had never felt for anyone the way she felt for Parvati Patil, not even Ron Weasley. Oh, Lavender had liked Ron well enough. He was an excellent distraction from her feelings for Parvati after all. He was cute, and making out with him was fun, even if she had never been comfortable enough to explain that she was trans. Still, it had hurt to break up with Ron, especially since it left her with no choice but to focus on Parvati.
Beautiful, sweet Parvati, who was the only person in the world willing to talk about symbols, prophecy, and the meaning of happenstance. Since the Battle, she’d been constantly at her side, providing comfort, but Lavender never knew if Parvati really felt what she felt. Not until Parvati stumbled upon Lavender in the great hall, having her wounds tended to, the look in Parvati’s dark eyes clear: it was true love. Romantic love.
There were tears, and they had held each other for a long time before their respective parents insisted on taking them home. The first week after the Battle was the worst. The nightmares were intense, and Parvati wasn't around. The second week was better. Parvati started to come around to visit, and everything felt more manageable, though the nightmares persisted.
Then came her parents’ unease. She couldn’t say what it was exactly. They’d always been so open-minded about her gender, but Parvati’s presence made them uncomfortable. Perhaps being bisexual was a bridge too far. Or perhaps it was simple racism. Either way, she couldn’t say with complete confidence that her parents had purely noble intentions. And yet she was faced with an uncomfortable truth.
"The problem is that they are right. I know that if I go back with everyone else next year, the nightmares will get worse. I don’t want to be separated from you, but…” As hard as she tried, she couldn’t stop her eyes from filling with tears. Merlin, how could she survive without Parvati?
Parvati’s eyes shone as she brushed Lavender’s pale cheek with dark brown fingers. Softly, Parvati said, “I love you, Lavender. How am I supposed to go on without you?”
Lavender’s heart beat hard in her chest. Her lips quivered, on the edge of sobbing, as she replied, “I don’t know but… I love you too!” In an instant, they kissed, Lavender no longer able to hold back her tears. And then Parvati was crying too. For a moment, Lavender was in heaven, Parvati’s soft lips smoothly exploring her own lips. They parted, and Lavender gazed sadly upon Parvati’s face, mascara running down her cheeks. She grabbed some tissues from her nightstand and handed them over, saying, “Your makeup.”
“I don’t care about that right now. I care about you. I want… I want to be with you, Lavender. Fully and completely. I want to be-” Parvati stopped speaking for a moment, then finished, speaking a little softer, “Your girlfriend.”
Lavender kissed her again, unable to help it. If only she had more time, she would give Parvati a thousand more kisses. When they parted, Lavender said, “It’s only a year, and I can write to you.”
“You promise?” Parvati said, clearly struggling not to cry.
“I promise. I'll write every week, no matter what I'm doing," Lavender said.
"When are you going?" Parvati asked.
"Sometime in the next few days. They want me to have a few months to settle in and acclimate," Lavender said. Parvati burst into tears and clutched Lavender tightly, making Lavender cry too.
Through her tears, Lavender said, “Sometimes I feel like I died that night, but I know I didn’t. I’m alive, and I will be with you.”
Parvati said, “I had a dream last night about us. You returned from a trip and didn’t think I loved you. I woke up thinking how ridiculous it was that you would ever think that. But now I hope it means that you really will return to me.”
“I’ll miss you!” Lavender said, brushing her fingers through Parvati’s black hair.
“I’ll miss you too!” Parvati echoed.
Eventually, they stopped crying. Lavender said, “Dreams can come true, Parvati. You know it as well as I do.”
“I know. And I also know that I've loved you for nearly as long as I've known you. I think about you every hour of every day. You're a part of me," Parvati said, gazing lovingly into Lavender’s eyes.
"You're a part of me too," Lavender said and rested her head on Parvati's shoulder, Parvati leaning over and kissing the top of Lavender's head. Everything would be all right. Time apart would only strengthen their desire to be together.
After all, Lavender had been having her own dreams, recurring for some time now. A bright spot in all the nightmares. In her dreams, she and Parvati were older and married with a daughter and a home all of their own. Lavender knew that dreams weren’t always true, but she prayed that if only one dream she had was true, please let it be that one.