Chapter Text
“OH! Harry!~”
Harry looked up from the sketch of Padfoot and Moony he was working on and over to the girls’ dormitory entrance. Lavender was grinning ear-to-ear and heading towards him with something behind her back and a gleam in her eye Harry thought did not bode well for him.
“Hey, Lavender. You alright?”
“I’m great, Harry. But~ I could be better. If you would do me this small, itty-bitty, little favor, my day would reach peak perfection.”
Harry shifted slightly away from mocha-skinned girl, silently quelling the urge to flee, “…. I’m a bit ‘fraid to ask but, what’s the favor?”
“Alright, so hear me out. I bought these three pairs of fabulous heels to go with my outfits for a series of balls my parents are throwing over the summer break. And in the store, I tried them on and they fit perfectly. But! There is a teeny problem. They fit a bit too perfectly.”
Harry held a hand up with a confused frown on his face, “Wait, how can a shoe fit too perfectly? They either fit or don’t fit, right?”
Lavender’s face morphed into a slightly indigent moe, “What? No, Harry. They can fit, but can be too exact. They will rub or pinch in one or two spots. They’re not too small, but they’re not too large either,” she said as she walked around to take a seat next to Harry on the plush common room couch. “There are times when you simply need to stretch out a shoe a bit for it to be truly perfect and fit comfortably enough that you can spend all day in them without any worries about pain or blisters. Understand?”
Harry mulled it over for a moment, “So, basically you have to break ‘em in like new quidditch gear?”
Lavender’s face bloomed back into a wide grin, “Yes! Exactly, Harry, you have to break them in for them to be comfortable and not so stiff.”
Harry’s eyes narrowed as he tried to catch a glimpse of whatever was behind her back. “So~…why do you need me?”
Lavender took her hands from behind her back but, left whatever she was holding out of sight so she could clasp her hands together in front of her. With a hopeful tilt to her head as her smile turned a bit sheepish, “Because you and I wear the same size shoe? But your feet are a touch bit wider than mine, so you could stretch out my heels faster than I could.”
An incredulous expression fell over Harry’s face as he fully turned towards Lavender, his silver pin glittering in the firelight, “What?! No! Why in Merlin’s name would I want to do that?”
“Oh com’on, Harry, pleeease? Just for, like, three days after you get back to the dorm for the day.”
“Lavender, you just said they hurt and pinch. Why would /I/ put them on?”
“Because you are a wonderful, kind, and caring man who likes to help people in their time of need?”
“No, thanks. I only do immediate life-or-death situations and since Voldemort-“
Lavender automatically let out a squeak as she flinched.
“—is dead now, and nearly all of his Death Eaters have been locked away in Azkaban, I am happily out of business. I happen to like the peace,” Harry gathered his sketchpad and various colored pencils he asked Hermione to order for him through her parents, Harry headed off towards the boys’ dormitory. “Good luck finding someone to help you break in your shoes though, Lavender. I’m sure there’s another size 42 somewhere in the Tower.”
“Harry~ I’ll owe you one, pleeease. I already asked around the whole Tower. There are no other 42’s in Gryffindor!” Lavender yelled over the back of the couch.
“Sorry, Lavender! Try Hufflepuff!” Harry yelled back as he strode into his dorm and shut the door.
“Hey, Harry. You alright?” Dean said from where he and Seamus were curled up together on Seamus’ bed. Seamus was on his back snoring away, with his arms wrapped snuggly around Dean
lying half atop him.
“Can’t complain. Need a nap though. Guess I’m not the only one,” Harry said as he made his way over to his part of the room.
Dean let out a soft snort as Harry sat on the side of his bed and toed off his socks and shoes.
“Nah, not this time, mate.”
“Well, see you at dinner,” Harry said as he tossed his glasses on his side table.
Dean yawned and he laid his head back on Seamus’ chest. “Mhm.”
Harry crawled to the center of his bed before he remembered he had to take his hairpin off. Once it was safely placed next to his glasses, Harry made his way back to the middle of his bed and was fast asleep before his head even hit the pillow.
_*_*_*_
It was raining the next day and Harry was napping on the armchair in the common room closest to the fire, completely covered by a blanket from head-to-toe. He had a rather good nap the day before, but when it came time to go to bed after dinner Harry had back-to-back nightmares. They covered everything from flunking all his classes and being kicked out of Hogwarts, to Uncle Vernon and his meaty fists, all the way up to the day he officially put an end to Voldemort, before circling back around to Tom Riddle and the Chamber of Secrets.
Harry gave up on sleep after it hit the basilisk dreams at 3am. He took another shower to quell the lingering anxiety and rid himself of the cold sweat clinging to him. Ron woke up as Harry made his way back into the room to get some fresh pjs to lounge in while he did some homework by the fireside and offered his bed so they could sleep together. Harry was highly tempted because he found that his nightmares took a vacation when he slept curled up to either of his best friends. But Harry already knew he would be too jumpy for sleep to truly claim him; so he declined, hugged Ron goodnight before quietly grabbing some of his homework and heading to the common room.
By lunchtime Harry was wishing he had taken Ron up on his offer. And by the end of their classes he was nodding off in his seat, graciously saved from Professor McGonagall’s wrath by Hermione placing a Notice-Me-Not spell on him while Ron let him use his arm as a pillow so he didn’t topple over onto the floor.
Harry startled awake at the sound of the common room door opening and the clatter of heels on the stone floor. He stayed curled in his spot in the hope that the other student was just passing through, but apparently luck was not on his side this week.
Harry heard them toss their bag onto the couch and flop down after with a groan. Harry heard a long hiss of pain and stealthily peeked out of his blanket mound to see what was the matter.
Lavender sat bent over one of her feet, gently prodding what was probably a blister forming on her heel. Harry felt a twinge of guilt as she poked at two more spots before moving on to take her other heel off, examining the two located on that foot as well. As Lavender dug in her bag and pulled out a jar filled with what could only be Murtlap Essence, judging from the smell after she popped the cork top off, Harry came to a grudging decision that he was definitely sure he was going to regret on a variety of levels.
Clearing his throat, Harry popped his head fully from his blanket and swiftly caught the lid of the jar as it came sailing at his face.
“Oi!”
“Oh Merlin!! Harry! What in the--You nearly frightened me half to death! Have you been there this whole time?!”
“Hello, Lavender. Good to see you too. Perfect way to greet a guy waking up from a nap,” Harry said as he tossed back the cork and sat up fully.
“Sorry ‘bout that, Harry. I just…really didn’t see you there when I came in.”
“It’s alright. I wanted to talk to you anyway.”
“Oh, yeah? ‘Bout what, Harry?”
“I’ll help you with your heels—”
“REALLY?!? OH, THANK YOU HAR--“
Harry held a hand up “Hang on, hang on. I have conditions.”
Lavender grinned as she put the jar on the table and sat up straight, beaming with excitement.
“Name your price, Harry.”
“I want one favor for each pair of heels, you have to teach me to walk in them so I don’t fall flat on my face trying to cross the dorm room to nick some parchment off Neville, and I only have to wear them for a maximum of an hour a day.”
“…. Wait, that’s it?”
“…Yeah?”
“Really?”
Harry raised an eyebrow at Lavender’s shocked expression, “What’d you expect me to ask for? Your firstborn child or something?”
Lavender snorted and playfully threw the top at Harry again, who batted it out of the air.
“Oi, what is it with you and throwing things at me today?”
“Sorry, I just thought you’d ask for, like, tickets to a Quidditch game since my dad gets them for me every chance he gets or, like, help with your Charms homework for a month. Something along those lines.”
Harry shrugged and avoided looking at Lavender by staring into the fire, “Yeah well, it’s just shoes. Not battling a basilisk, you know?”
Lavender’s eyes grew wide as saucers as her mouth dropped open. “That actually HAPPENED?!? I THOUGHT THAT WAS JUST A RUMOUR?!?” Lavender screeched, looking like she wanted to hop over the table and shake the story from Harry.
“Lavender, please go get your heels before I change my mind.”
“But—”
“I’ll start on the first set today if you go get them right now.”
Lavender looked torn for a few moments before she swiped her stuff up and scrambled barefoot up the Girls’ Dormitory stairway.
“I owe you one, Harry!”
“You owe me Three, Lavender! Three!”