Author Note: So here is my NanoWrimo for this year. I made it to the 50K, but shall be editing along the way as I post this. The good news it is a finished fic so it should not be too long between updates. It is another AU and dedicated to the lovely character of Neville Longbottom. After writing Alice/Frank in Four Letter Words, I fell in love with them and this story was the result!
Disclaimer: The Characters and world of Harry Potter is not mine!
The Bonds We Trust Too
Chapter 1
"Right little man I am going to get you to bed," said Alice Longbottom as she picked up her blonde haired son. He happily gurgled as he was lifted into her arms and settled on to her hip. She pushed a kissed to his head.
Alice was an ever optimistic woman and that gave her a glow that she was sure her baby had picked up on since a very young age. She also supposed it helped that whenever she was with her baby that glow tripled just because he was with her. No one could accuse Alice of being a bad mother. In fact, many had commented since she had had her son that she had been born to be a mother. All you had to do to know that she adored her baby to the point of spoiling the boy was watch the two of them together.
Neville was in her little ray of sunshine and he always had been. Maybe it was that he was her first born baby, maybe it was because his birth had been difficult but she didn't feel right when she was not with him some days. It scared her for them to be apart. No, she was always happiest when he was in her arms and he seemed to rather like being there too she thought as she kissed his cheek.
Her adorable baby boy. Her angel.
She glanced over at the clock. It was seven thirty. Frank had hoped that he was going to get away early that night but there must have been another busy day at the ministry she thought to herself. Aurors were in high demand. They had been for quite some time now.
The times were so troubled and they were only getting worse, not even she could deny that. And now they all lived in fear of some maniac who wanted to take over the world. Voldemort. She refused to think of him as He Who Shall Not Be Named. No, that man had a name and it was used in the Longbottom household. She was not running scared of him.
"Shall we get you upstairs and get you in the bath then Neville?" she muttered to him tenderly as she lovingly looked at his face.
"Pop?" the curious baby asked.
"Great minds hey baby? No, your daddy is at work. He isn't going to be able to bath you tonight baby. Just mummy tonight." She said with a small sigh.
They went up to the bath and thanks to the handy work of Alice's wand the tub was soon filled with water and bubbles. Neville was splashing about in no time. He had no fear of the water and he never had. At least no when he had his parents with him. No he positively enjoyed bath time. Always had done...
The rubber dragons and magical creatures flew about the bath room keeping him entertained as she washed him gently. His skin was sensitive to a lot of things as she and Frank had learned quickly so they were always gentle with their son.
But then she found it easy to be tender with her little poppet.
"You don't get any bigger little man," she said as she learnt across the bath and kissed him her sleeves rolled up so they would stay dry. Staying dry when bathing a baby was another art she had had to learn. "You just be my baby forever." There was just a hint of sadness in her voice.
By the time that her son had got into his warm pyjamas she had a rather tired Neville on her hands yet still he seemed to be fighting to stay awake. No prizes for guessing why she thought to herself.
Eight o'clock.
"Daddy will be home soon sweetie pie," she said as she put him in his high chair upon entering the kitchen. Instantly he whinged. He was happy until he was tired usually. Then he just wanted to be cuddle constantly.
"I know but mamma has to get your milk," she said running a hand down his soft hair and kissing him. It did nothing to appease him.
Neville had hit the grizzly phased of the night.
"I know," she cooed as he continued to whinge from across the kitchen as she got the formula together. "I know my tired boy, everything is ok. You just give your mummy a minute and she is going to be right with you." She said as she got his bottle together.
"The bottle is just heating up and then you can have some milk sweetie and a nice big cuddle to go with it I think," she said to him. "Ok, ok here it is." She said as the milk was magically heating to just the temperature he liked it. Honestly, she had no idea how muggle mothers coped with their little ones sometimes. She knew if it were not for magic she would be utterly lost at times. Especially when he had been a new born, she did not know how she would have coped! Not so much now she had got rather used to being a mother but the first few months had been a learning curve for her and he husband. She would not have liked to have faced them without magic.
As soon as he was back in her arms Neville nuzzled into Alice with mop of hair tickling her neck. That delicious baby smell was all about her and it was comforting to them both.
Heading up to the nursery that she had lovingly painted herself (that time she had done it the 'muggle way'), telling Frank that she had wanted to pour all the love she had for her baby into it.
She had always been such a wonderful artist that he had simply stepped back and trusted her judgement implicitly. He had not been disappointed.
The room seemed to be a million colours that all worked wonderfully together, though blue dominated despite the fact she had wanted originally to keep away from the cliché of blue for a boy. There was a truck with elves and hippogriffs on it and pictures of unicorns all about them, magically charmed to run about the walls. Very muggle indeed her husband had said. She admitted when she had got going with it her ideas had just got bigger and bigger. When he had been in her womb he had been a big sense of inspiration to her.
But the thing that she was most grateful for was that she had listened to her mother when she had talked her to put a rocking chair into his room. It had been well used. It was her favourite place in the house. Near the world.
"Here we are then," she said as she sat down in it once more, her eyes still grazing adoringly at what she considered to be the miracle in her arms. She did not to ever let him out of them.
Despite being over one now, Neville still allowed his mother to cradle him as she had when he had been a new born and his head was soon lulled into her arm with his hand covering one of hers as she put the bottle into his mouth.
She supposed sometime soon she was going to have to start thinking about taking him off of the bottle. He wasn't going to be a baby forever. But not yet... not yet she thought... she just wanted to keep him safe and small forever.
But it seemed Neville had other ideas. He was just about starting to try to walk now. She knew that her friends Lily's boy, Harry had been toddling about for a while now but Neville seemed to be a bit of a slow learner. He was going to get there in the end though. She had a great deal of faith in her boy.
He was going to conquer whatever challenge came to him. For now he was just taking his own sweet time.
Soon he had given up his fight to stay awake. She could see his eye lids were getting heavier. Alice held him till she was sure that he was not going to wake. Her boy was such a deep sleeper when he was really settled that not a lot could wake him for anything. Putting the emptied bottle on the side she gently placed him in his crib that she and her husband had put in the nursery begrudgingly six months earlier to appease his Franks mothers.
Augusta had very firm views on how her grandson sound be raised. The trouble was that they did not go along with how Alice and her husband thought he should be. And Frank knew that she had the best instincts for what her son needed no matter what his mother said and he was always going to take her own advice above someone else's.
Alice made sure that he was tucked on, his blanket over her.
"Night baby angel," she muttered as she left the room, his night light still dimly on so she could see him sleeping peacefully from where she stood at the door. If only she could freeze the moment that they were in.
"Have you put him down already?"
"Frank," Alice said in hushed tones as she jumped out of her skin. She had been so wrapped up in their son that she had not seen him come in.
"Oh honey I'm sorry," he said as she realised he had made her jump. She had never been jumpy when they were kids, but he supposed they had a lot more to defend now and they were living in very different times to what they had been when they were young.
The Hogwarts days had been so peaceful he now appreciated. He wished he had known that at the time.
"Frank," she repeated as she stepped into his arms. She was so glad every time that he got home to her from work. When he came home she knew he had made it through another day.
"It's me baby," he said before he kissed her ear sealing in what he had told her. He just wanted to hold her. He had all day.
"He tried to wait up for you," She said to him as she turned so that she stood once more facing into her baby's bedroom. She held his hands so that they were still about her waist.
"Was he ok tonight?" he said in her ear tenderly as he felt her heart rate go back to what it had been. He had not meant to scare her.
"He was as happy as a button. Little grizzly before I put him down but I think he was just missing you." She sighed.
"He was?" said Frank as he unwrapped his arms from about his wife, and walked into his sons room. He had hoped that he was going to see him before he went to sleep. He hated days when he did not make it back in time to see him. He did not want to miss a day in his son's development. He knew that the years they were going through now were important ones. Leaning over his sons crib he looked in on the image of himself as a child. Father and son were both blonde and both chubby, though Frank had become more portly as he got older.
"I missed you too my little man," he said gently as he caressed his sons cheek. Neville was his daddy's whole world thought Frank, along with his mother. Alice had a smile spread over her face as she saw her boys together. The world could melt away as long as the three of them were together. Frank put a hand over his sons and unconsciously the little hand held on to it and begun to dribble all over it. "Daddy is home now, so you just sleep sweetheart. Daddy and mamma are here." He said with a sad chuckle.
Kissing his forehead, he stood up and went back over to Alice. "Come on," he said and led her out of the room. They should leave him to his dreams he thought to himself, though he would loved to see his baby dream. He wondered what his son saw when he shut his eyes. How vivid the colours were or what shapes took forming his child's mind.
"Did you have a really busy day?" she asked. She looked into his face and saw he was exhausted.
Her poor baby... he looked as if he had the weight of the world on his shoulders.
"It is getting worse Ally, every day," He admitted to her. He was terrified that one day when he came home he wasn't going to have a wife and child to come back too. He saw what the world was doing to families just like theirs every day. He did not know what he was going to do if his family was ever separated. How on earth would he ever get by if he lost his wife and son now? There would be nothing left to go on for...
"You and the boys were swamped."
"We all only just got off. Sirius has gone back to Potters so that he might get a bit of home cooking. You two are the only ones I have wanted to see all day," He admitted. She was not the only one who found it hard to be away from the child. He knew he was not the only one who had been glad to be going home at the end of the day either. James and Sirius were always happy when they went back to the Potters.
"And you I sweetheart. Do you want a bit of dinner to? You must be starving baby, " she said as she took his hand and lead him into the kitchen.
While not as old as some families, the Longbottom's had been a wizarding family for years and so had gained some wealth. Eventually, they wanted to go to the country with their boy but for now they were living in an old Victorian town house in inner London. The area was clean and prosperous but it wasn't really what Alice wanted to remember as the home of Neville's childhood.
Neville should have a garden, or at least a bigger one to run out in, she mused to herself as she got her husband his dinner. They had spoken about moving further out but that that moment it made no sense. They were close to Order of the Phoenix head quarters and Order members could use their place to crash if they needed too. No, they were in the best place at the moment and they had to be there for the foreseeable future. The move just was not plausible yet. Maybe it would be one day, but not yet.
But for that night, at least, the small family was alone in their house and for that Alice was grateful. She did mind when people stayed over but she also loved it when they were alone. And she wanted her boys to herself that night.
"We have got some stew left over from last night if you want that or I can make you some pasta,." She told him. Whenever he got home from work she now had a need to look after him that she could not explain. She just wanted to protect him and look after him as much as she could. But she was not his little women.
It was bad enough that he would not let her go back to work – his argument that Neville had needed her more had in the end had won her round. She did miss the days when they had gone to work together though. When she had known he was going to be ok because the one holding his back was her.
"Stew will be good baby," he said as he collapsed in one of the chairs that was round there dinner table.
"Coffee too?" she checked. But really she knew the answer. He had a look on his face that told her he was on need of a caffeine hit.
"You are an angel," he said to her smiling. He knew he was always going to be able to be able to rely on her. "What did you guys do today?"
"Not a lot actually. He had a nap this afternoon and your mum owled us to go over to hers for dinner on Sunday, but we can't go. Lily wrote first and said she was going to do dinner for us. It is good for Neville to see Harry for a bit." She said with a smile. She was glad she had already made plans. It was not so much that she did not like her mother in law but at times she had to say she was trying. And that was something she had never found Lily.
"Yeah those boys enjoy being together don't they?" he nodded. He seemed to have got closer to James since the two of them had been fathers. It was a bond that the two of them had that James did not share with the Marauders. And he liked that. He liked that they were all drawing together as a group. In the times that they were living in it was just what they needed to do.
"I want to go see Lily as well," she admitted. She missed the days when the two of them had been girls in the dorm room together.
Everything was so different now, she mused.
"You ok Ally?" Asked Frank. He knew that far off look in her eye. It was liked she wished she was some place else.
"Just fine," she said to him with a forced smile.
Two hours later the two of them were in bed and she had his arms over her. The two of them lay side by side, sleep evading both of them. He could recall the days when his wife had gone to sleep as soon as she had got into bed. He had to say those days were long gone and he missed them. She was always on edge now and he never seemed to be able to make her feel safe. He rubbed his hand up and down her arm trying to calm her. But there were muggle attacks every day. People were dying and fighting for what they believed in every day. It was not the world where she wanted her son growing up in. She wanted his world to be safe and secure.
"Why don't I go get baby? Bring him in here with us. You always sleep better when he is with us." He said as he kissed her arm. Neville was able to calm his mother it seemed. When she knew she was needed to feel calm for his good that made her calm. If her son needed her then she was there.
"I'll go." She said.
As if he had known what his parents had just said they heard there baby start crying in the other room.
"I swear that little man knows what us two are doing every hour of every day." She said with a fond smile over her shoulder.
She soon had her dressing shown on and was crossing the room to be with her son. He was sitting up in his crib and his big eyes were looking up at her.
"Hey baby do you want a cuddle?" she said to him. "Cause mummy does."
He was the best thing that had ever happened to her. She did not think she remembered life without him. But then she didn't want to.
"Daddy is home. Do you want to go and see your daddy?" she said as she bent down and picked him up.
As soon as he heard the word daddy, Neville was wide eyed and nodded, almost struggling to get out of his mother's arms. "Come on then my sweet pea. You want your daddy don't you my love?"
Frank had sat up in bed when his wife had got out bed. He knew what his son was like at times in the middle of the night. Not that Neville was bad, just that he needed a bit of fuss till he settled. Didn't they all?
"Hey baby boy," he said as he saw Alice bring him in the room. He had his eyes wide opened and reached out for his daddy as soon as he saw him.
"I told you that he missed you today," said Alice knowingly as she gave the child to his father.
"Aww, did you miss me son?" he said as he let the lad cuddle into him, "cause daddy missed you."
"Pop pop!" Neville said as he took his hand.
"Yeah your pop pop is here don't you worry my darling. I am with you." He said as he wrapped his arms about him and kissed him.
His gorgeous boy....
He knew that it was most likely that he was just being stupid but at times Frank was sure that his son knew something was wrong with their world. It was just the way that he acted, as if he had a sixth sense. Like he was as scared as his mother had been when he got home late. And the way he clung on to them both at times it was as if he thought he was never going to get to see them again.
In fact there were times he would not even go to his Gran or Lily and James. He was just a mummy and daddy's boy, Frank supposed. Not that he would nave his baby boy any other way. No, his Neville was perfect just the way he was.
Well it was not as if they did not give him enough reason to be scared, thought Frank guilty. If his mother knew that the majority of nights they still brought Neville in to sleep with them then he knew, that more than surprised, she would be angry and she would say that they were spoiling him. But in the times that they lived in...
He just wanted to keep his family close by. He didn't want his son to be in the next room when he could be right there with him and Ally. When he had married alike he had made solemn vows that meant everything to him. Namely that he was going to love her for the rest of his life. It went without saying that extended to their baby.
Their sweet baby boy. Their entire reason for being.
He knew that the two of them were going to have a big family. They had talked about it many times and they knew that they wanted to have more children. But there was no way that they were going to bring more children in to the world when they were fighting Voldemort with the rest of the Order. It would not be fair on any of them. It was bad enough that Neville sensed the stress that his parents felt so much. If there was one thing Alice could do except to defeat Voldemort it would be to take the stress her baby felt at times away from him.
"Is that better?" she cooed as she watched him snuggle into his father. He seemed so calm and happy when he was with them she noted. That was why it was best she did not go to work. Her son needed one of them with him.
"I think it is," said Frank as he kissed him on the forehead. He wasn't sure that he cared what his mother thought when he had his baby so close to him. He knew full well that when Neville was too old to hold as he was being held then that he would miss it and that he would simply treasure the memories that they were making.
Alice leaned across and ruffled her baby's hair. Frank gave her the warmest smile that told her she was all he was ever going to want for him and their boy. Then stretching out his hand he wordlessly brought her into their hug and soon the three Longbottom's were settled into their own affectionate world that no Dark Lord could disturb.
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