Lavender Brown + Jesse McCree
PG-13 | Complete
Warnings: Greyback is featured so warning!
It wasn’t the first time Jesse had woken up somewhere strange, but it had been awhile. He was behaving. Less crazy drinking and reckless hook-ups. He was dating for real now and was shockingly loyal once he decided somebody was worth it. Which was why he frowned over at the unconcious girl next to him. At least they weren’t in a bed. That would’ve really put his head on backwards.
He looked around. They were sprawled out on the mats in the training rooms. No one was around but Gabe and Jack standing off to the side. Jesse tried for a moment to wake up the girl. He didn’t know her name.
“Hey, you,” he murmured, shaking her arm lightly. She was breathing so at least that was good. “Wake up. Some weird shit is happenin’.”
Lavender stirred for a moment a little too groggy to realize that she wasn’t in her own bed. “Hm?” She said sleepily. Her eyes fluttered before the reality set in. Suddenly she sat up and looked around wildly before looking at the young man next to her. “Mwo?” The surprise caught her off guard and she realized he probably wouldn’t understand Korean. “What? Where the bloody hell are we?” She looked to the side and saw two people but she didn’t recognize them.
“The training area,” Jesse shrugged. He gave her a once over glance, rubbing his hand up over his hair. His hat was missing. “You hurt?” he asked as he climbed to his feet and held out a hand to help her up.
Lavender took his hand and looked around more carefully when she was up. “This is-” She paused for a moment. “Weird. Why would we be in here.” She looked back over to the two off to the side. “I suppose we should ask them what’s going on.”
“Yeah, I got this,” he smiled. Weird as this shit was, he was all about putting on a good show. Especially in front of Gabe. “They’re with me,” he assured her. Swaggering over to the pair, Jesse flashed a cheeky grin.
“Howdy, jefe. What the hell’s goin’ on? We just woke up here.” Jesse frowned as Gabe continued talking to Jack as if he hadn’t heard a thing. “Boss? What?” Gabe laughed and turned away. Jack half-jogged after him. Jesse’s blood went cold and he shouted after them. “Hey, I was talkin’ to you!”
Lavender did appreciate the confidence he displayed, it made her feel a little better. Though that faded when she watched their interaction and noticed that the two men did nothing to display that they had even seen the young man she woke up with, let alone heard him.
Lavender quickly made her way over to him then looked back at the other two men walking away. “What the hell?” Her eyes narrowed before she looked back. “That’s not some sort of game you and your mates play, right?” Her instincts obviously told her no but the thought was way more preferably than the alternative, which she hadn’t figured that out yet.
“Hell no.” There was a lingering sting behind Jesse’s ribcage. Hurt. Embarrassment. Something else entirely, maybe. But he tried to shake it off with a shrug. “Could be a test. Let’s just find somebody else and ask them.”
Without waiting for an answer, he stomped off down the hall, his spurs jingling. His steps slowed though, when person after person acted like he wasn’t there at all. Eventually, he spotted Sydney and he rushed the last few steps to grin like an idiot at her.
“Oh damn am I glad to see you, darlin. There’s some kinda crazy bullshit goin’ on and--”
Sydney walked right towards him, never even making eye contact. He had to dodge out of the way at the last second, as she kept right on going. “Goddamn it!” he shouted. He knew hearts didn’t actually break but damn did it feel like it. No one was in a hurry. No one was looking for him. He was just...forgotten.
Insignificant.
Lavender looked concerned then quickly turned towards the girl. “Hey, what’s the deal-” But she just kept walking as if Lavender was invisible. “Well that’s just bloody rude.” Lavender glared.
She turned to look at the young man who was obviously frustrated. “Hey um-” She paused for a second. “What’s your name? I know I’ve seen you around Atlantis, but I don't think we’ve been properly introduced.” It was a first step at least. If everyone they kept meeting ignored them then it would be easier to at least know the young man’s name. “I’m Lavender.”
Distracted by the panicky ache in his chest and the worry that this was something more permanent than he could get through in one piece, Jesse took a second to answer. He spun slowly in circles, feeling his heartbeat pound in his chest. Finally, he shook his head and turned to her. “Uh, I’m Jesse. McCree. I’d like to say it’s nice to properly meet ya, but this whole thing’s a whole lotta not fun, huh?”
Frowning hard, he glanced away again and looked down a long hall, full of people that seemed to not see him either. “Maybe we’re ghosts.”
“Yeah, not exactly the way I’d choose to meet someone new.” Lavender continued to frown as she looked around the training area. “Maybe. I mean I don’t have my wand here with me but-” She paused. “I don’t feel like we’re ghosts. They’re very different in my world, they’re more transparent and they actually remember dying and they float around.” She poked up her arm, thinking it’d be rude if she poked him.
“I guess we keep looking around?” Lavender did find it odd though that so far it had only been people that Jesse recognized. Or at least she had not seen any of her friends or anyone from her world here. “We wont be able to get any answers standing around here.”
“Sure but we ain’t in your world,” he countered gloomily. Knowing it didn’t do any good to drag his feet and take this shit personally, Jesse squared his shoulders and blew out a long shaky breath. Gabe would tell him to get his act together. Get more information then strategize. So what if he was on his own with a partner he didn’t know. So fucking what? He’d survived worse. He had value, goddamn it. No matter if the people he valued decided to move on without him.
Just having that thought eased some of the tension in his shoulders. The anxiety attack started to leak away and he felt more in control. Ready to face what came next. He glanced over her as he moved for a door.
“Do you feel like time’s movin’ funny? Feels like it’s been minutes and a whole buncha hours at the same time.” When he opened the door and step through, he was somewhere else entirely. Somewhere dark. An old castle or something? “What the hell…”
“I suppose so.” She said, though she wasn’t quite convinced. They might not be in her world but if she died and became a ghost, surely she’d be the same as her kind would but she wasn’t quite positive of that either.
Lavender wasn’t sure how much time had passed as they spoke or sat in silence. It wasn’t even until he said something that she blinked in recognition. “Now that you say something it does feel a bit odd. I can’t put my finger on it,” She followed him as they stepped through the door. “There’s something not right-” Her words slowed and she paused.
“No.”
She looked around it was dark and in the distance she heard something like thunder and screams. She went to cover her mouth with her hand and noticed that somehow her wand was with her. “No no no.”
“Easy now,” Jesse frowned. He knew the basic gist of the Harry Potter books, but because he hadn’t read them, he couldn’t put two and two together with Lavender. And he had no idea what was coming next. He did know he had his gun on his hip and some stun grenades, because if he was wearing his belt, he always had that much. He stepped up to her and put a hand on her shoulder. “You know this place, I gather. You know what could be causin’ that screamin’?”
Lavender nodded her head slowly as the castle rumbled. “We need to get out of this area.” She said as she held her wand tightly in her hand. “It’s a school,” she explained. “The school I went to when I was younger. My last year there was-” She paused. “There was a war going on and the final battle took place here.” She looked around the abandoned hallway. “There will be some adult in masks-” On cue one of the Death Eaters was dueling a younger student, she didn’t get a good glimpse of the student but the hair made her think it could have been Seamus. “There!” She quickly flicked her wand and stunned the Death Eater, but the spell did nothing. In fact the Death Eater didn’t even look her way. Lavender frowned.
“Let’s keep going. I don’t know what-”
“Hey there girlie.” Lavender froze and all color drained from her face. No no no no.
Jesse had seen plenty of magic in his time in Atlantis, but that was practice. That wasn’t a duel like what was happening in front of them. It meant he was distracted when the voice spoke up. Sounded like a villain, that part wasn’t hard to figure out. Jesse turned towards the danger, hand hovering over the butt of his gun. If they were up against something magic, though, he wasn’t sure how much help he’d be. A hairy looking figured loomed up out of the darkness and Jesse glanced sharply over at Lavender.
“Hey, stay with me, darlin!” he half-shouted, trying to get her to snap out of her fear.
“She can’t do anything.” Fenrir spoke. He crouched down and smiled menacingly and Lavender was certain it was blood that dripped from his mouth. “She’s helpless...I’d prefer my prey to give me a chase but I’ll take them helpless too.”
Lavender shook her head. “N-no! You’re dead. Y-you’re not real!”
“Oh I’m very real girlie.” He licked his lips at her and Lavender closed her eyes and shook her head as she tried to take a step back.
It was probably a damn good thing Jesse had no idea he was looking at a werewolf. Sure the fella was hairy and moved like a dangerous animal ready to pounce, but he was scary enough without knowing exactly what he was. Jesse didn’t jump in front of Lavender like some cocky overprotective idiot, but he did move up by her side, gun at the ready now.
“Ain’t nobody helpless here, mister. Not her, not me.” He glanced over at her and gave her a little nudge with his elbow. “I’m with ya, alright? Whatever the hell this is.”
“I think I’ll have a piece of you ne-”
“SHUT UP!” Lavender screamed. “Shut up!” Her wand was out in her hand, though shaking slightly, her grasp was still firm. “You’re not going to hurt anyone. Never again. Confringo!” The blasting curse exploded as it made contact with Fenrir as he was about to pounce. He faded and as she turned to look at Jesse she felt heavy as her surroundings started to fade. “Jesse what’s going-”
“Whoa there, badass” Jesse rushed forward the few steps he’d taken back when Lavender cast her spell and wrapped his hand around her arm to steady her. The creepy fella was gone and something damn sure seemed to be changing around them, but his instinct was to make sure she didn’t topple over after that blast of power. As her eyes started to droop, his relieved grin sagged and the world tipped sideways. He collapsed at her feet, a slurred ‘way to kick some ass’ tumbling from his mouth.
When he woke up, the world was bright and smelled medicinal. And his head hurt like a sonuva bitch. “Goddamn,” he grumbled. “Somebody turn off the sun.”