Chicago - All That Jazz (I've also got my headphones in because it's two o clock in the morning. Fun, fun, fun! I think I'm going weird from sleep deprivation)
Merlin, guys! First ever Harry Potter fanfic of any type! I thought I'd start with a one-shot that was originally written for a Headcanon Contest on one of my favourite HP Facebook Pages: 'Albus Dumbledore can't die as long as people still loyal to him' - You should all go and like this page, they have regular competitions/contests/quizzes etc. Overall, it's a pretty damn special page. Anyway, you didn't click on this to hear me rave about a Facebook page, so - on with the story!
Neville's Visit
Three years after the Battle of Hogwarts, Neville was taking one of his regular trips to see his parents at the hospital. Nothing will have changed, he told himself, quashing the hope rising in him. It was always the same. But for some reason, today felt good. Something had shifted today. He walked over to his mother's bedside and put his bunch of flowers there next to the picture of him as a baby. She was playing absent-mindedly with a strand of her hair as he sat down next to her, the same as every other time.
"I've got a story today, Mum." He said, his throat tightening already from unshed tears. "I'm afraid it's not a completely happy story, but I have to tell it. I have to talk to someone. It's been too long."
And he launched into a detailed account of the Battle. The bloodshed, the drama, the curses flying past his head as he ran to help his friends, the pride he felt for the other DA members… the death and destruction all around him. It had been three years and he still remembered the glassy stare of the dead. They haunted his dreams. His face was streaked with tears as he reached his personal climax – the moment he pulled the sword from the Sorting Hat to kill Nagini.
His mother was still braiding her hair when he finished. He added a single sentence to the end of his tale, glancing out of the window at a storm cloud to the South-West, an admission that he was almost ashamed of.
"I just wish everything could have a happy ending, Mum." He sighed.
"Me too." She said, out of the blue. "I'm proud of you, love."
His eyes lit up at this rare moment of lucidity from his mother. It gave him hope for a brighter future, until, of course, she handed him a sweet wrapper and started muttering to herself again about what was on her shopping list.
A shopping list that Neville knew didn't even exist.