House: Gryffindor
Position: Prefect 2
Category: Short
Prompt: April 13th
Word Count: 1568 – excludes header, title, and A/N
Beta: Tigger
A/N: This was written for The Houses Competition, Y2R10.
Hospital Happiness
April 13th was the day that changed Neville Longbottom's life forever.
He had always been a pretty ordinary and average guy. He knew his faults. He wasn't very smart. He was forgetful and he sometimes lacked courage. He tended to get scared more often than he felt brave and he was probably the most pathetic Gryffindor in existence. He wasn't great at school. He fell just in the middle in almost every aspect of his life: school, looks, and skills. He was okay with that, though, and never wished for anything more.
After the war, people started noticing Neville a little bit more. He was celebrated and revered for a little while at least, and then he slowly began to fade back into the background and unknown. He didn't mind though; he saw what fame was doing to his friends. Harry literally had to dodge the paparazzi everywhere he went. His fame only continued to grow after the war; his famous Quidditch player wife, Ginny, didn't help alleviate the issue. Ron had loved being famous and started to spiral out of control. He kept doing one outrageous stunt after another to ensure he stayed as front page news and Hermione's face was splashed across The Daily Prophet more times than anyone else, but she had actually earned it. She was the youngest Minister of Magic in history and she was pushing herself to make sure that she only ever received positive praise. She was constantly striving to make positive changes and create a better Wizarding World for them all and Neville admired her drive, but he was certain that she was going to push herself too far.
Neville had often wondered if maybe he had stayed in a more central wizarding town if his 'fame' would have faded so quickly. Instead, he lived at Hogwarts as the Herbology professor and the only people that gave him a second thought were his student's and only because they needed to pass his class to graduate.
Neville never wanted to be in the spotlight but he often wondered if fame might have helped in the women department. Neville heard about all of the women that threw themselves at Ron and couldn't help but wonder if maybe he could have used that to his advantage—not that Neville would ever take advantage of a women, he just needed help meeting them. He was surrounded by young students or older women here at Hogwarts so his dating prospects were limited. Being a professor often times led to a lonely life; that was why, Neville suspected, so many teachers were single or unmarried, because there was no possible way to meet anyone.
Neville loved his students but he longed for a family of his own; he never had that growing up. It was just him and his Gran, who had passed a few years ago, leaving him all by himself. He, of course, had his parents but they didn't recognize him so it wasn't a very comforting thought.
Neville left his room and his dark thoughts behind him and made his way to the school's Great Hall. It was no use thinking about what could have been; Neville loved his job and couldn't imagine any other profession in the world that was better suited for him. If he never had a family of his own, at least he had hundreds of students to love and care for.
He heard a student behind him on the stairs and quickly sidestepped to get out of the way. He wasn't paying attention to where he was going, though, and in true Neville fashion, he tripped on a disappearing step. He fell face first onto the landing and pain radiated up his leg.
He heard students laughing and saw them pointing at him and just hung his head in shame. Maybe it was better that he didn't have anyone to see all of his accident-prone behaviors.
He saw Headmaster McGonagall shoo the crowd away and make her way towards him. Neville's face burned; he was still the same clumsy student who used to grace these halls.
"Professor Longbottom, are you okay?" McGonagall groaned pulling him to his feet.
"Oh, of course Minerva, I'm fine." He let out a mangled groan as he tried to walk and put weight on his right foot.
"Nonsense, you can't even walk. Let me take you to the Hospital Wing; Madam Pomfrey will get this all straightened up in no time."
Neville started to protest but was cut off when McGonagall shot a piercing look his way.
He hobbled to the Hospital Wing with his arms around McGonagall supporting his weight. He couldn't fathom how he was going to face his students again after this ordeal, but then again, Neville had been through much more embarrassing moments in front of his students and he was sure there would be many more.
McGonagall dropped him on the bed and went to inform Madam Pomfrey of his arrival. He often wondered if McGonagall ever regretted hiring him from all the trouble he inadvertently caused. He sighed heavily and shifted in the bed trying to erase all the negative thoughts from his mind. It was a constant struggle for him to stay positive. His self-doubt was probably brought on from the years of bullying that he had endured at Hogwarts. That was one of the reasons he had wanted to become a teacher: to help those students who were like him, who didn't quite fit in.
He stood up straighter as a women, vaguely familiar to him, opened the curtains and stepped towards his bed.
She was beautiful with shoulder length blonde hair and a golden smile to match. Neville was so stunned by her beauty that he didn't even hear the question that she asked him. He slowly began to register that she was staring at him with an exasperated look across her face.
"You aren't Madam Pomfrey!" he blurted out, and his ears began to burn.
She began to giggle, her laughter like tiny bells. Neville's whole face began to heat up. Of course she was laughing at him now; he was an idiot, someone like her would never want someone like him anyway.
"No, I am not Madam Pomfrey. Neville, right? It's me Hannah, Hannah Abbott. We were in the D.A. together. I know it's been a long time but you look the exact same!"
Neville could feel tears begin to well in his eyes and hung his head to avoid looking at her. He looked the exact same as the scrawny, uncoordinated kid that she used to know.
"I am doing my internship here with Madam Pomfrey to become a Healer. After my internship ends and I get my license they are thinking of hiring me full-time. Madam Pomfrey wants to retire," she whispered to him.
She began to remove his shoes and socks and roll up his pant legs. She gently poked and prodded the ankle.
"It's just as I thought." Hannah sighed dramatically.
"What?" Neville asked, now worried.
He whipped his head up to look at Hannah and she began to laugh again.
"It's a… sprain!" She smiled warmly at him. "I will just give you a little healing ointment and you should be all better in about fifteen minutes.
"Oh," Neville said quietly, his ears burning again.
She slowly massaged the ointment into his ankle and then sat down in the chair next to his hospital bed.
"What are you doing?" Neville asked cautiously.
"I was going to sit with you for the next fifteen minutes. Unless you don't want me to?" she quickly added.
"No, I want you too. I really want you too." He groaned.
She just giggled in response.
"What I meant was," he amended, "is that I don't mind if you want to sit with me."
She flashed a smile at him again. "I like you, Neville; you're cute when you're all frazzled."
Did she say cute? Neville's face reddened again. He met her gaze but didn't see any malicious intent hidden in her eyes. He saw them dancing with laughter and kind-heartedness but not anything bad that he could see. Neville sighed heavily, trying to cool off his heated face. 'What the heck?' he thought to himself.
He took one more deep breath, steeled himself, and blurted out, "WouldyouliketogotoHogsmeadewithmethisweekend?"
Her eyebrows scrunched up. "What?"
He took another deep breath and tried again, his gaze taking in every little detail of the room to avoid her face. "Would you like to go to Hogsmeade with me this weekend? We could get some drinks or dinner, if that's something you would like to do. You don't have to," he rushed, "If you don't want to. I mean to catch up. If you'd like and it's fine if you have plans or something else to do."
She laughed at him good-naturedly but nodded her agreement. "I would love to go to Hogsmeade with you this weekend, Neville, but only if we go as more than friends."
Neville eagerly agreed to it being a date.
April 13th would forever be a day ingrained in his memory as the day he met the love of his life. Sure, it had also been the day he fell down the stairs in front of half the students at Hogwarts but he didn't like to think about that. He was only focusing on the positives.