Author's notes- Takes place 4th year. Companion story to Tea
With Moody, though I guess you don't really have to read it first.
They just both focus on Neville in the same way. I dunno whether
or not to call this fluff. I hope it's not, 'cause it's too...erm, non-fluffed
of a vision. Came to me in a math daydream 6 months ago, dug it out and
rewrote parts. I've always wondered WHY Neville asked Ginny to the yule
ball. It wasn't a mtter of just being desparate.....erm....just read. N'
review, 'cause although I dunno why, it's just a little story, but I've
never been so nervous about the final product of a fanfic before.
Croak.
Neville Longbottom
awoke with a start in the dead of night to find a large toad squatted on
his chest, looking up at him unblinking stare. Mumbling drowsily,
Neville rolled over and swept a hand over to knock the toad of the edge
of his four poster. But it was to no avail, it leapt right back and hopped
like mad atop his bedsheets.
So with a half sigh
he started over to close the door, but halfway past Ron's bed he tripped
over something furry and crashed to the floor. groping around for whatever
it was by his foot, the lost slipper was recovered. Surprisingly, his rather
loud fall hadn't woken the others. The only sounds for a few seconds
were the low breathing of five Gryffindor boys. And then the faint noise
started again. It wasn't a cat.
Neville got to his
feet, still pulling his left slipper on with one hand as he hobbled out
to the hallway. It was a muffled sort of sound coming from somewhere downstairs.
Counting the steps in darkness, he headed towards the common room. The
noise grew steadily audible, though still low.
"Peeves? Is that you Peeves?
If it is...um...could you shut it please?" he called in a loud whisper.
Now it seemed as if another set of slippered feet were pounding up some
staircase, and Neville could have sworn he heard a door close. For a moment
he considered heading back to bed, or a least getting his wand from the
bedside table, but mustering up courage against his silly fear of the dark
actually seemed to work this time. Listening carefully he could locate
the noise, or at least guess it was in the direction of the girls' dormitories.
There was a patter
of footsteps, and the rustle of covers. Neville rocked on his heels and
pressed an ear to the door, then knocked gently again.
" Who's there?" came
an unrecognisable gasp. Neville blushed, drawing back a bit.
"Are...are you okay
in there?" he whispered.
"Who's out there?"
the trembling voice repeated.
"Er..um" he paused,
wondering if heading back now was a good idea. "Neville Longbottom" he
blurted before stopping himself. There was a deadened silence, and then
the door creaked open, just enough to reveal a freckled cheek and one watery
brown eye.
"What are you doing
up here?"
"Ginny?" (for it was
unmistakably the Weasley girl)
"You'll get in trouble!
What are you up here for?" she hissed.
"Uh..." Neville suddenly
felt foolish "Well, I heard...was that you crying Ginny?" She shook her
head. "You okay?" Ginny nodded. "Oh...alright then" he turned, wondering
what odd figments of imagination would pop up next when a small had tapped
him on the shoulder. Neville jumped, and looked over his shoulder.
"Wait!" pleaded her
soft voice after a slight pause. The door groaned as Ginny slipped out
into the hall, the thin form of a girl in a dressing gown appearing at
his side. "I..I can't sleep, Neville."
"You were crying"
"Don't laugh" she frowned
seriously, folding her arms, already having experienced enough of Fred
and George's taunting earlier that day. Neville, however, merely wrinkled
his nose.
"What would I laugh
for? I've had plenty of nightmares myself, it's no big deal."
"Wasn't...nightmares"
she mumbled, sillowhetted head drooping a bit.
"Come downstairs for
a bit? I'll sit up with you till you feel better" he offered awkwardly.
Neville had no idea why he'd just suggested this, it was probably the third
time in his life he'd actually carried on a conversation more than five
sentances long with Ron's little sister. But Ginny seemed almost relieved
by his presence, and the two of them crept back down the staircase to the
common room without speaking to one another.
"Yes." A brow lifted
cautiously, eyes darting to the boy's staircase. "Are you the only one
awake Neville?"
"S'far as I know" he
nodded
"Ron or Harry didn't
wake up or anything?" she asked with an air of weary caution, worried of
what her brother of (as everyone knew well enough) her crush would think
if they woke up to her crying too.
"No...can you tell
me what's wrong?" Neville sighed. The redhead girl nodded, moving to sit
in an armchair near the fire.
"Only if you promise
not to tell anyone"
"I promise" he answered,
straining to keep the hints of curiousity from his voice. Ginny took in
a deep breath, staring down at her clammy hands
Neville merely blinked
in response, giving a matter-of-fact shrug. That was it? But reasonably
enough, he could see why that class could bother anyone into insomnia this
year. He had once already. He managed to find a sensible voice, something
around the patient tone Hermione Granger would use when attempting to explain
a potions lesson.
"Weeell...I'm not sure
if you can. You could drop divination for something else, or your muggle
studies class, but-"
"I'm serious, I'm not
going back inside that classroom!" her eyes flashed with a stern look beyond
her years, but even beyond that laid an apprehensive fear that Neville
could even pick out in the dim light. Considering this for a moment, Neville
bent down to sit cross-legged beside Ginny's armchair, watching the glowing
coals.
The truth was, Miss
Weasley wasn't the only one not too keen on the class. Neville hadn't enjoyed
it since day one.
"Does...does Professor
Moody scare you?" he asked gingerly, not wanting to bring up his own fears
at the moment.
"A little" she sniffed,
and Neville felt awfully relieved to hear he wasn't the only one. Now this
could be something he could easily relate to, not some girl problem like
the things Parvati or Lavender always seemed to be sobbing over.
"Yeah" he nodded fervantly,
"he gives me the creeps too, but my gran says-"
"It's not that!" Ginny
cut him off abruptly with a sudden flood of frustration in her voice. Neville
raised a finger to his lips, and she hurried on in a whisper "I don't think
I can do the cirriculum anymore"
Oh. So that was it.
Still, Moody didn't teach the 3rd years exactly what he taught them, right?
"Is he teaching you the unforgivables too?"
"Yes" she said flatly.
Neville looked up, giving her a sympathetic smile.
"Everybody was scared
of that...I was really scared of that" he admitted with a shrug. Ginny
propped up one elbow on the chair's arm and rested her chin on her palm.
She stared trance-like up at the picture of Godric Gryffindor over the
mantle piece. Her voice grew low.
"Did he put Imperius
on you?"
"Just this past lesson"
Neville grinned, "it was pretty cool, actually. He made me look like was
was in the circus" No sooner had the words passed his mouth had Ginny slammed
her fist down on one knee, glaring down at him.
"It's not funny!"
"I know it isn't, I
never said it was" he murmured defensively as a house elf hurried out of
the shadows, prodded the coals in the fireplace, and stirred up another
great flash of muticolored flames. The dancing light licked at Ginny's
freckled face, which was slowly turning pale again.
"You don't know how
it was, with that curse. Everybody shrugs it off like it's no big deal,
they've never had it done to them" Her voice was deadpan, filling the silence
like dead weight. Neville squinted, bewildered as he looked to her quizzically,
mouth forming a silent 'what?', but Ginny seemed to bust into a sob of
explaination at once
"From Riddle! Two years
ago when he- I didn't even know thats what it was till class today,
and it was my turn, and all of a sudden I felt the same way I did half
my first year, and Professor Moody said something abrout strutting around
like a chicken" she squeaked, voice rising and octave "and then thats when
it just hit me smack in the face! And I went hysterical right in the middle
of the lesson, and I had to go to Madam Pomfrey half the afternoon, and
they almost owled mum and dad but-"
"Ginny!" He reminded
her again, afraid her slowly building sobs would wake up the whole house.
"Gin...it's okay. You-...You-know-who isn't around anymore, you know that.
We've got three headmasters around, an ex auror, and a pile of creepy lookin'
screwts for protection" he sighed soothingly, reaching up gingerly to take
her hand. Ginny giggled slightly at first, but quicklyretained her seriousness.
"But you don't understand,
I can't go back to that class, I've been up all night thinking how I'm
going to explain this to Professor Mcgonagall, but now that you say thats
impossible I guess I'll have to try and face it because it's hopeless!"
"Hey, that's okay.
Last year Professor Lupin said you can always face your fears. But if you
want me to be honest, I think you were awful brave not to pass right out,
I think thats what I would have done"
"Brave?" Ron's sister
sniffed, sliding down to the floor beside Neville "I'm not brave, someone
like Harry, Harry's brave. I shouldn't even be in Gryffindor, I'm just
here 'cause the rest of my whole big family was" she muttered sullenly.
Neville sighed. Now he definitely knew where she was coming from, he'd
been feeling the same way since he was sorted four years ago.
"I know...me too, alot.
But...but sometimes it just doesn't show so soon, right?"
"You're right" she
admitted finally, pulling her hand back into her lap with a small smile.
"You know, funny how I never saw it before, but you're alot like me" Neville
grimaced. Was she? No, no Weasley was ever as big a squib, and he'd seen
her practicing charms in the common room before, a year younger and she
was loads better than he ever was. But now, there was certainly no need
to bring that up.
"I bet you don't like
it either, after what happened with your parents and all"
Neville's mind froze,
going fully numb for a moment. Giving a weak shrug, he picked at the loose
lining of his slippers. Ginny returned her eyes to folded hands, wincing
with regret for opening her mouth.
It was Ginny's turn
to look surprised. Nibbling on her lower lip, she looked away.
"I thought everyone
kne- Well I heard mum talking to someone she had over for tea last year,
she worked at St. Mungos...have you seen them lately?" she asked, attempting
to be polite while walking on eggshells.
"Yeah we stopped before
I caught the train. They still don't know who I am." his voice dropped
to a mumble. "Probably best they don't, don't think they'd be too pleased
with me"
A hand touched his
shoulder, a small pitying hand.
"I think you're wrong
there. I think they'd be glad you've stayed the way you are...you're really
sweet Neville, sitting down here with me when my brothers or someone else
could have heard me and just would have laughed. You're not like that.
And look, I heard all from Ron about how you won us the house cup in your
first year...you're braver than me."
There are times when
a silence is needed. For the Gryffindor common room, it might have lasted
minutes, might have lasted an hour or so, neither really noticed. Both
sat entirely motionless, watching the fire, sifting through thoughs till
each was put in place, all except for the odd, distant mood of it all.
When the fire simmered to the coals again, Neville blinked back to consciousness.
"Are you gonna be okay
now?"
Ginny yawned, picking
at the sleeves of her pale yellow dressing gown.
"I think so...thanks
so much Neville, you've been really nice to me" she beamed awkwardly for
a moment, and then pulled him into a unabashed hug. Neville guessed she
was used to hugging her brothers, or maybe it was just because he wasn't
Harry. His cheeks, on the other hand, flushed a bright pink.
"Uh...you're welcome.
Anytime" he offered weakly, helping her up with a rather dazed expression.
"I owe you one...and
you promise not to tell a soul, right?" she repeated while backing out
of the firelight. Neville nodded, and followed her up as far as the break
in the staircase. "So...um, goodnight then" she whispered, and out of nowhere
Neville had a sudden urge to give her a light kiss on the cheek. For a
girl, she was sorta easy to talk to, and tonight had shown her in an entire
new light. But being it was Ron's sister, and for a million other reasons,
he could bring himself to. Besides, she had already started up the staircase.
Neville watched her
till she moved out of sight.
"Goodnight" he echoed.
"Trevooor...come off
it Trevor, I'm trying to sleep" he groaned peevishly. A moment later, Dean
Thomas answered across the dormitory with a vague 'and West Ham scores!'
before rolling back over into his pillow. Neville blinked up at the ceiling,
snapping into consciousness. Realising his mouth was dry, he sat up and
rubbed his eyes before searching the floor for his fuzzy grey slippers
gran had sent last weekend. Only one was found by his trunk, but one warm
foot topped two cold.
Once reaching the
water jug under the windowsill, Neville paid extra care not to spill as
he filled a porclein mug. Nose pressed to the window, breath fogging up
the pane, he looked out over the grounds. A full moon of mid-october rose
imperiously over the sky, lighting the glassy black surface of the lake
below. For a solid minute or so the round-faced boy stood motionless, taking
in the silence.
Then from somewhere
outside the dormitory he heard a very soft noise, almost like the mew of
a cat. Neville noticed the door was ajar when he turned around, and really
didn' want any cat slipping in while anyone was sleeping. It was bad enough
that Hermione's ginger cat found it's way up there often and seemed to
find it's true feline content picking through their open trunks. Just last
week, the whole dormitory had been woken up when Crookshanks had dug up
an old pair of socks and batted them around...the socks containing Harry's
sneakoscope.
He took the staircase
to the girls' wing on tiptoe, as if the stone steps might creak. He was
treading on dangerous ground, after all. Two weeks prior, Fred Weasley
and Angelina Johnson had been caught in her dorm after hours, and McGonagall
was not pleased with any news of boys being found in off-limits
areas of Gryffindor Tower. Suddenly, a realization struck him...someone
was crying, and it was coming from two doors down in the 3rd years' dorm.
He waited for a moment, listening to the quiet sobs from within before
hesitantly attempting a knock.
It was an awkward
silence, especially when the firelight of the common room revealed Ginny
with a tear-stained face and flushed cheeks. Odd though, she didn't seem
as mortified as one would expect. Neville was sure that if a fifth year
girl had shown up at his dormitory door in the middle of the night,
he would have hidden under the bed. "You okay?" he asked again.
Ginny looked cautiously
at him, as if there was a plaguing itch to speak, and then finally decided
on opening another can of worms. An even more tedious subject.
"No" he finally admitted,
head hung. "I don't." And then more quietly, "How did you know that?"