It was at ten years old that Lavender Brown discovered that there was something deeply, deeply wrong with her.

When she was still in primary, Lavender went to a Muggle school. This was considered quite unorthodox for a pureblood, but her parents had told her that they didn't want Lavender growing up with "blood prejudices." (In actuality, it was more of a PR move to save face. Lavender's father was caught making jokes with anti-Muggle sentiments at work, and while Muggles were far from popular in the mainstream, it was still considered in poor taste.)

The trouble all started with a girl named Sagal. She was in Lavender's arithmetic class, and Lavender almost failed maths that year. Everyone told her that she shouldn't beat herself up about it, that girls were naturally less inclined towards mathematics and science. She had no idea what that meant, but was glad they didn't blame her for her lack of success. Truthfully, she failed because of Sagal.

Sagal had dark skin and big, white teeth that made Lavender feel as if she were looking into the sun. Whenever she laughed, her large curly hair would shake and her cheeks would absolutely glow. Lavender had never seen anything so beautiful. She couldn't help but spend every second of the class staring at her. Sagal would catch her constantly; and each time, Lavender's face would blush pink and her eyes would dart elsewhere. But she couldn't resist going back to look at her. When you've just discovered what heaven looks like, how are you supposed to focus on silly things like multiplications?

But the staring had other consequences. All her classmates would call her weird, psycho, and other words that she hadn't heard before. There was also no shortage of physical abuse as well, and Lavender became more than accustomed to getting thrown out of the lunch line and her hair pulled if she did anything besides go to the back and wait again. There was one particularly nasty incident when Lavender attempted to play a game with a group of girls, and they pushed her to the ground and kicked her in her ribs. It hurt her stomach so badly she thought she might vomit, and when she looked up, she saw Sagal staring at her, her large eyes even then making heat rise to Lavender's cheeks. Lavender had reached out to her, hoping she might help her up, maybe tell the other girls to leave her alone. But Sagal just walked away. After that, Lavender hid in the bathroom every day during play hours.

Lavender didn't understand why it was so strange finding girls beautiful, why it brought her such pain. Didn't all girls appreciate beauty? Isn't that what her mother talked to her about every night?

"Lavender, you are a beautiful girl. You're very lucky; a lot of girls aren't as pretty as you are. Never forget the importance of being put together, darling." And she never did. She always had bows in her hair or rouge on her cheeks. So why did the girls hate her? Why did they call her names?

Why didn't Sagal want to be her friend?

The next year, she received her letter from Hogwarts. She had been looking forward to it for quite some time, as her parents told her of this day since she barely knew what being a witch even meant. Her fingers actually shook with joy as she opened the letter. Surely, in Hogwarts, she wouldn't be weird. She was just magic. And when she went to a magical school, everyone would be just like her.

She was wrong.

That day she walked into the train, in her pretty new pink dress and matching shoes, she bumped into a slight girl with short, dark hair. This girl was Pansy Parkinson, a Slytherin down to the bone, but to Lavender she was just a stranger who, in her opinion, had an interesting face. Staring at her for longer than was appropriate, Lavender was about to tell her just that, before she received a hard shove from the girl.

Pansy's lip curled as she said, "What are you staring at, freak?"

The push had caused Lavender to stumble backwards into a boy's lap. He instantly bucked her off and made a noise of disgust as he did so. Tears burned Lavender's eyes and flooded her vision as she ran to the back of the train, leaving the sounds of cruel laughter behind her. She sat there alone the entire ride.

From that moment, she vowed to never stare at a girl again. She would have friends here if it killed her. And she did it. She managed to get a friend her very first year. Her! A friend! She thought she might collapse of happiness. Parvati Patil. She was the first person at Hogwarts who was ever nice to Lavender, and the two quickly became inseparable. Lavender thought Parvati had wonderful skin and glorious hair, and Parvati would let her touch it all she wanted. Lavender couldn't believe her luck. She would practice different braids on Parvati and became quite skilled at the art. Soon, more girls had Lavender do their hair. She now had more friends than she could count, and she woke up every morning smiling because nobody called her strange anymore. She just braided hair and giggled and gossiped and touched Parvati's skin whenever she allowed it. Nothing could spoil this. Nothing.

By the end of first year, of course she knew all about Hermione Granger, and not just because they were dorm-mates. (In fact, she hardly gleaned any information at all from Hermione herself despite their shared quarters, as Hermione seemed to prefer books over most people.) But everyone was always talking about Harry Potter, and consequently, his two friends that seemed to always hang about him. Lavender didn't really care about Harry Potter. Her parents had told her that he hadn't actually done anything the day You Know Who attacked his family; it was all just a fluke. So Lavender never paid much attention to him or his friends. And besides, she couldn't braid Hermione's hair even if she wanted to. It was a bushy mess, and people said she was an annoying know-it-all. Hermione didn't even try to get along with the other girls, and it was difficult for Lavender not to resent her for it. Not everyone had the luxury of being so blasé about making friends.

But then there was the news that she was attacked by a troll. Lavender couldn't believe it. How could someone defeat a troll? They were huge! Big as houses! But, quite incredibly, Hermione and her friends had done it. She looked at Hermione differently from then on. Here was a girl who was really brave. People said Gryffindors were born courageous and bold, but Lavender didn't feel like either of those things. Truthfully, she thought she might do better in Hufflepuff. Lavender was ashamed of the fact that she felt rather weak most of the time, always on guard for an unkind word or a sharp smack if she was ever caught doing the socially unacceptable activity of being herself.

But Hermione wasn't ever afraid or ashamed; she was a true Gryffindor. Lavender always respected her from that point. And, almost begrudgingly, she noticed what a nice shade of brown her eyes were.

Author's note: So I made some changes after reading that Hermione and Lavender were actually roommates, and want my fic to be as close to canon as I can get it. The first chapter is kind of slow but I PROMISE it will pick up, it's just that Lavender is a super super background character in the first few books and I really wanted this chapter to set up Lavender's backstory to give perspective on why she is the way she is. Thanks for reading and for your patience! xoxo