silver shoes and hospital gowns Who: Lavender Brown and Cho Chang (as Parvati Patil!) When: Thursday, January 31 Where: St. Mungo's, Lavender's Recovery Room What: As Parvati has been visiting with Lavender every day since she's been hospitalized and allowed to have visitors, it, of course, is one of the top priorities on Parvati's to-do list for the day. Lots of gossping, painting nails and reading to be had!
Having her best friend visiting her every day while she was recovering certainly made the process easier. The mediwitches often told Mr. and Mrs. Brown that Parvati's visits were a blessing to their daughter's recovery. It was still taking longer than Lavender hoped for, but they were doing what they need to do to make her better. Still, there was the lingering news that some injuries would never be fully healed, but she could live with that. In fact, she had just come back from one of her grueling pain therapy sessions when a familiar faced popped in the door.
"Vati!" Lavender's face instantly lit up with a wide smile as she shifted to sit up in her bed. She could always count on her friend to be on time with her visits and to always have something interesting and fun to tell her about what was going on outside the drab walls of St. Mungo's.
Vati? Hadn't Andy said Parvati hated the nickname? "Hi Lavender," Cho said, giving the currently bedridden girl a winning smile. "How are you feeling today, sweetie?"
"Better now. I was hoping you'd be here after I got out of that session. I've had bad sessions before, but, oh my goodness that was one of the worst!" She made a face, giving the other girl a very large frown before shaking it off. "I asked the mediwitches to bring some extra pudding when they come by later. It's not the best, I know, but it's better than the other food they have downstairs." She didn't know how her parents had lived on it when they were staying here day and night. "So! Come on! Tell me all the good and juicy stuff. I know you have stuff!"
"Oh wait," Cho said, reaching for her tote bag. "I brought take out for us. I wasn't sure what you'd like so I just got us both chicken salad sandwhiches. Is that all right?"
"Mm! That sounds so much better than that gross pudding! You are so wonderful!" Lavender was practically squealing, but still managed to keep herself composed. "Did you bring tha latest issue of Witch Weekly, by the way? And how's everyone doing? How about Padma? Has she said anything? Oh! And what about Oliver Wood? I know you had a date with him! You're so lucky! He's such a hottie!"
"One question at a time," Cho said, laughing. "Yes, I have a date. Tonight, in fact. We've been on a couple dates, yeah? I've lost track. Do you know how many?"
"Lost track? How could you possibly lose track of how many dates you've had with the Oliver Wood? Silly girl! It's been about four. Maybe five?" She paused and giggled, shaking her head. "I guess I've lost track of them, too. Well, that's fine. Get it out of your system because when I'm out of here, you'll have to be sharing those blokes with me, you know!"
"Oh, I know!" Cho said, smiling. "That's probably why I'm letting him down easy today-maybe. Oh," she said as she rehearsed Parvati's list again in her head. "Have I told you about the cute bloke in the accounting department?"
"Letting him down? The poor guy. He won't know what's he's missing!" She paused, pushing some of her chicken back on to the breading. "Cute bloke in accounting?" She turned wide eyes to her friend and shook her head in mid-bite. "No!" She finally got out after biting and chewing. "Tell me more. Blond or brown? You know how I feel about dating red-heads. Blue eyes? Green eyes? Brown eyes? Tall? Built or just so-so?"
"Blond," Cho said. Maybe. The only "cute" bloke she'd seen anywhere near the accounting department was blond. "He's definitely built, and he has a great smile. You'd look perfect together, unless you think accounting is boring?"
"Mm...there's lots of interesting things he can ramble on about, I'm sure. But I think most of it would be, well, boring. Maybe! I don't know. I can't say I've ever dated a bloke who works with accounting or anything like that. But a blond is always nice to have! You know my favorite is brown hair and blue eyes, though!" For whatever reason that was. "So, when I'm finally released, which I keep being told is 'soon'-" she made air quotes with her fingers and rolled her eyes. "we must go out, all right? I haven't been out in so long!"
"Of course," Cho said, giving Lavender a genuine smile. "I brought a new pair of shoes for you. They're silver. Want me to help put them on?"
"Oh! Yes, yes, yes! That just means a new outfit is in order to go with them!" And Lavender began pushing away at the blankets. Turning slowly, she let her legs dangle over the side of the bed, giving them a few kicks with a smile. "They'll look absolutely stunning with my hospital gown!" She giggled a bit and then fell slightly serious. "Have you heard anything from Seamus?"
"Seamus? No, not since Christmas," Cho said, making it up as she went along. "You know how busy he gets."
"What about Dean? Anything from him? I guess not. They usually go hand in hand with each other, right?" She chewed on her lip and made a face. "Do you have any lip gloss with you? I know you do. You always have the best lip gloss. I've been telling Mum to bring me my vanilla stuff, but she always keeps forgetting. And you can't buy the good stuff here. It's just that gross stick stuff!" She made a face, shaking her head. "Oh! And I forgot to tell you! Mum said I can come work in her shop when I get out of here. I can't wait. She needs someone who actually knows what they're doing with Divination items. Other than herself, of course."
Cho held out Parvati's make up bag to Lav. "Everything's in here. Want me to apply it, or would you rather?" she asked. "That's great about your mum's shop. Do you think you'll like it?"
Lavender raised a brow as she was handed the make-up bag, but shrugged, taking it and began rummaging through it. "I got it and yes! I think I'll definitely like it there. I get to work with Mum and I'll be able to work on my Divination skills. It'll be brilliant!" She finished applying the lip gloss, slipped it back in the make up case and handed it back to her. "These shoes are fantastic, by the way! I love them!" She giggled, lightly tapping her heels together as she admired them. "You know me so well!"
"A girl's got to look pretty, even here. You never know when a hot Healer might walk through the doors."
"I wish one would! I mean, the mediwitches are really sweet and the Healers I've been working with are so nice, but! There has been no eye candy for me! How am I suppose to really get better without something nice to look at?" She let out a sigh, shaking her head and glanced down at her shoes with a smile. "These will do for the time being even if they're aren't tall and dark with a nice smile and nice eyes. And the sandwich was ace. Thank you again for that." Lavender beamed and leaned over to give her friend a tight hug.
"I've got Witch Weekly for you, so at least you can look at tall and dark with nice eyes. I flagged all the really good articles."
"You are a goddess! I owe you countless lunches and shopping trips when I get released from my prison cell." She settled back into her bed, shoes on and all and sat back against her pillows. "So other than your fabulous dates, what else are you up to today?"
Cho smiled, wondering how much--if anything at all--Parvati had told Lavender about their secret meetings. "Not much," she said. "I overslept so Andy Bell wrote the horoscopes."
"Andy Bell!? Are you serious? Merlin, I can only imagine how those will go. Why did he write them? I can't believe you let him write them. You hate him! You should have owled me. I would have written them while I was here." Lavender sighed, shaking her head. "Well, I just hope they're okay. I hope he didn't do anything crazy to make you look silly. I'd...well...I'd have to give him bad hair suggestions or something. That's all."
"I'll owl you next time, I promise," Cho said. "I didn't want to bother you while you were in your treatments. Anyway, I really should get back and make sure Andy isn't ruining my column. I'll stop by tomorrow, okay?"
"Sounds perfect as always. If you can get some pictures of that cute bloke from accounting, bring those with you. I can tack them into my magazine." She chuckled and gave Parvati a wave. "Tell me about your date with Oliver, too! Especially if there's some snogging involved!"
"Oh, there will be," she said from the doorway. "And cheesecake. You can count on it."