Lavender Brown

This article is about the Harry Potter character. For the fan writer see, LavenderBrown.
Lavender Brown is a secondary Harry Potter character. She is a Gryffindor in Harry's year and is one of Hermione Granger's roommates at Hogwarts. She briefly dated Ron Weasley.
== Canon ==
Lavender is a minor character in the first five books. She is the best friend of Parvati Patil, and the two of them are characterized as rather silly and shallow. This is in contrast to the more pragmatic Hermione, with whom they share their dormitory. When the students in Harry's year start taking Divination in the third book, Parvati and Lavender become devoted to it and idealize Professor Trelawney. At the same time, Hermione grows to hate Divination, again emphasizing how different she is from her dorm mates. In the fifth book, Lavender initially doubts Harry's story about Voldemort's return, but she later joins Dumbledore's Army.
In the sixth book, Lavender's prominence increases when she dates Ron for a few months. As a girlfriend, she is portrayed as annoying and clingy. She refers to Ron as "Won-Won," amongst other cutesy ways of expressing her affection. Ron eventually gets sick of this and starts deliberately avoiding her. By this point, Lavender can tell that their relationship is on the rocks and grows jealous as she sees Ron reconciling with Hermione. Eventually, Lavender declares that she's breaking up with Ron, much to his relief. After that, Lavender essentially returns to being a background character.
In the seventh book, she is attacked by Fenrir Greyback during the Battle of Hogwarts. Her fate afterwards is not clear in the book, but in the movie, it's made explicit that she died.
== Controversies ==
=== Uncertain fate ===
During the Battle of Hogwarts at the end of Deathly Hallows, Lavender falls from a balcony and is attacked by Fenrir Greyback. Because Lavender is described as "feebly stirring" after being saved by HermioneJ. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, "Chapter Thirty-Two: The Elder Wand" (2007). and is not mentioned among the names of people who died, it is assumed that she survived the battle. However, the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 film depicts Lavender as dying. The Harry Potter Wiki considers the films to be canon, so it states that Lavender "died from her injuries" because the books do not explicitly state that she survived; this statement often causes confusion and is much debated.Accessed 22 August 2014. See e.g. Talk:Lavender Brown/Archive 1#Death.
Pottermore further stirred up the debate over Lavender's possible death when it released Lavender's "fact file" on the redesigned site in September 2015. Initially, the fact file stated "Death: 2 May 1998", but almost immediately this was changed to "Presumed dead, 2 May 1998" (emphasis added). This caused much confusion among fans, and after a week all mentions of a possible death were removed. on Pottermore. See also Lavender Brown lives? Pottermore removes ‘Death’ section from character’s profile at Hypable, 29 September 2015.
Though Greyback is a werewolf, Lavender was bitten when he was in his human form, as Bill Weasley was in Half-Blood Prince. Because Greyback had not transformed at the time of the attack, it is generally thought that Lavender would not have become a werewolf herself, but, like Bill, may have developed some wolfish behaviour such as a liking for very rare steaks.At Your Service by faithwood is one example of this in fanfiction.
===Whitewashing===
Lavender Brown was basically written out of the first five films, with her never speaking any dialogue or being identified onscreen. However, Jennifer Smith was credited as playing her in the third film. In the second film, she was played by Kathleen Cauley, who was not even credited. Both actresses are black, leading to the popular fanon that Lavender is black, which is never specified in the books.
After being absent from the fourth and fifth films, in which she was essentially replaced by Padma Patil, Lavender returned for her prominent role in Half-Blood Prince. For this film and the rest of the series, she was played by white actress Jessie Cave, which was criticized as whitewashing. Some argue this change was for the best because the storyline necessarily involves Lavender being portrayed as a repulsive girlfriend, which might not have made for the best representation. Moreover, the same film features Ginny Weasley failing in a relationship with Dean Thomas, and it could have looked really bad to have two mixed-race relationships failing in the same movie. There are also those who argue that Lavender being white is more canonical, since the sixth book contains a line that indicates Ron and Lavender's skin is about the same color.
==Fandom==
Lavender Brown is often portrayed as a secondary character in HP fanworks, sometimes even acting as the antagonist for Hermione Granger or other main characters.
===Common Tropes, Themes & Storylines===
* Werewolves - Lavender dealing with being a werewolf or dealing with some "wolfish behavior" popped up after DH was released. 
* Infidelity - this is common way to break Hermione/Ron up was to have Ron cheat on Hermione with Lavender (or other characters).
* Break Up - sometimes interchangeable with the above trope, common way to get Lavender together with a character or that character with someone else if it's dealing with the canon Lavender/Ron break-up.
===Shipping===
* Lavender/Ron
* Lavender/Parvati
* Lavender/Seamus
* Lavender/Neville
Rarer pairings for Lavender also exist: Lavender/Charlie, Lavender/Rodger.
==Fanworks==
===Fics===
* This is Where by Kicon (General Audience, Lavender/Parvati)
* The Kind of Eyes that Drive Wolves Mad by truethingsproved (Mature, Lavender/Parvati
* Full moon by Moonstone Ice (K-Rating)
* Comforting the Heartbroken by randompandattack (T-Rating, Harry/Lavender)
===Arts===
* Lavender Brown by bbcchu
* Lavender Brown by Lavender-Brown
* Lavender Brown - A Tribute by efmourn
* Lavender Brown by prydester
* Lav-Lav by limlight
===Vids===
* Lavender Brown | Do you like you? by Wizarding World shopping channel
* Lavender Brown-The Lonely by Mel Mari
===Other===
* Lavender Brown Becomes a Werewolf by mcpon14, a poem
==Archives and Communities==
* Lavender Brown works at FFN
* Lavender Brown fanworks at AO3
* Lavender Brown works at Lumos
* Lavender Brown tag works at hp_fanworks
Recs:
* Lavender Brown tag for Harry Potter Fanfiction Recs
==External Links==
* Fuck Yeah Lavender Brown (Tumblr)
* Lavender Brown at FanPop
* Lavender Brown search at DeviantArt
==Resources==
* Brown, Lavender at Harry Potter Lexicon
* Lavender Brown at Harry Potter Wiki
* Lavender Brown at Urban Dictionary
==References==
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Category:Harry Potter Characters