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In This River
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She had always wanted to be buried by the river. Her will had been tucked away in some forgotten pile in the Headmaster's office, written a year before her son's birth and detailing only the location of her burial. Now it was time. Neville felt oddly calm at the thought of setting his mother to rest. She had been gone for so long anyway, what did it matter if she was silent now? In some ways he had buried her years ago.
The way she lay, stiffly, was the only sign that she was dead. If they were in the hospital, with the sterile rooms and nurses, Neville would be able to make-believe that she was only sleeping. He could pull his fingers through her now gray hairs and pretend that things had played out differently. Pretend that she was holding him, that he was still an innocent child and hadn't survived a Wizarding War. That he hadn't grown up without his parents. Squeezing his eyes tight he could almost pretend that she had known him.
Those were childish dreams. Dreams that never changed his reality. Alice Longbottom would never know who her son was. She would never be proud of his accomplishments and never know of his bravery. She would never be able to tell him she loved him. Couldn't love him. Even if she was alive there would be no hope for that.
Neville could do nothing more than respect her final wishes. When the mediwizards had alerted him to her deteriorating state, he had requested a transport. With the aid of several witches and wizards, Neville had her moved to a little property near the River Eden. He had sat with her on the back porch of the cabin, overlooking the rapids, as she passed. He held her hand and whispered to her the way he used to as a child, making up stories about his day and rambling on about plant life. He hoped he had made her passing easier; hoped that he had somehow calmed her as she rasped out her final breaths. It wasn't a glorious death. It was tortuously slow and then incredibly sudden. Neville blinked back tears as his mother's eyes glazed over in death. She had still looked on him as a stranger.
He had levitated her body down to the bank of the river. She rested on the river rocks with water soaking into her worn hospital gown. Carefully, as though afraid to wake her, Neville folded her arms across her stomach and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. It was time. With the rushing lullaby of the river as a eulogy, Neville Longbottom laid his mother to rest.