Something in the way you move
Makes me feel like I can't live without you.
It takes me all the way.
I want you to stay.
-Stay, Rihanna.
Neville squeezes his wife's hand, sending her a reassuring glance.
Her face is pale, her fingers trembling. Her mouth, usually turned up in a smile, is now twisted by the pain.
"You'll be all right," he whispers, and he hears her exhale ever-so-slightly.
"You have a new baby daughter!" The doctors and nurses are smiling and telling him something but he's not listening because he only has eyes for his new daughter.
Hannah smiles, the same smile that captured his heart so many years ago and still lights up his world today. "Look at her."
Neville gingerly places a hand on her tiny hand, in awe of the miracle she is. "She's beautiful."
Hannah nods, before drifting off into an exhausted sleep.
"There's too much internal bleeding," the doctor tells him grimly. "We...we can't stop it."
The world goes mute. Neville can't hear a thing, except bleeding and can't and his own heart, pounding on when apparently his wife's will stop.
"Please." He begins to beg, beg them to do anything, anything to have her survive because how much more can he take? How much more tragedy must he suffer in his life?
They shake their heads. It's hopeless.
Neville has never been so angry at the world.
"Neville."
Her voice is still so calm, so graceful. He loves it and hates it at the same time.
"Hannah." And he breaks down in front of her, crying by her side as she weakly wraps an arm around him.
"Why?" he asks. "Why?"
She sighs. "Some things are meant to happen."
"Don't say that," he interrupts. "Don't say that something good will come out of you dying. Because nothing will."
Hannah blinks back tears. "I love you, Neville."
Neville leans down and kisses her for the last time, savoring the taste of her sweet lips on his and saves it in his heart.
He touches her face for the last time, relishing the feeling of her cold skin under his hand. He drinks in the sight of her face, her freckles, and her blueblue eyes that even a chameleon couldn't match.
He will never see her again, except in his own mind and in pictures.
He can't breathe. He can't move. Everything is spinning out of control and he has never felt so utterly hopeless.
"Neville," she sobs, and Hannah is not one to break down. She has always been his pillar of support and now she is crumbling and his whole world is falling into darkness.
"Please don't leave me," he pleads, holding her hand and gazing into her eyes and realizing that this is the last time she will be there at all for him.
Her face is that of a completely broken soul. Her bright eyes are rapidly fading, until they are completely colorless. Neville is the mirror image, reflecting her in his own dead eyes.
"Neville, please. Remember this," she tells him strongly. "Remember that I always have and always will love you. And tell Alice-" She chokes. "Tell Alice that I love her more than anything in the world. I only wish that I could have been a better mother for her."
Neville shakes his head, unable to say anything in return. Hannah just cries, weeping for the life and love and daughter she is leaving behind.
A few hours later, Neville is staring at his wife's unmoving body.
That is the day Neville dies.
He's dead on the inside but he still has to live because he can't leave little Alice - the only thing Hannah left behind for him.
She's a beauty. The bed is cold and empty without Hannah's warmth, but Alice makes him feel almost whole again.
He holds his daughter close and tries not to cry in front of her.
She's only a year old and still so precious, but the similarities are already too striking.
Her hair - a unique strawberry blonde, that swishes around in soothing waves - is exactly the same as Hannah's. Her eyes, a pale blue, are like a vintage image of Hannah's eyes. The dusting of freckles on her cheeks and over her nose are there too.
Alice is Hannah reborn.
Raising her is like falling in love all over again. She is both healing him and breaking him, all at the same time.
A few years later, Alice is walking and talking and is the average, bubbly, adorable eight year old.
Neville loves her. He loves her, so very, very much. She is his only purpose now.
But, still, it hurts. She is a living memory of someone long-gone.
He listens to her young voice but only hears Hannah's dying voice. He watches her play with Harry's children but only sees Hannah jumping around in the rain. He carries her on his back but only feels Hannah in his arms. He kisses her good-night, but remembers Hannah's lips instead.
He can't love Alice without thinking of Hannah.
It makes him feel horrible, because a true father would blindly love their daughter, rather than love her out of love of his deceased wife.
One rainy evening, she asks about her mother.
He breaks down in front of his daughter, and has never felt more ashamed.
Now she is eleven and about to leave for Hogwarts. Her blue eyes shine brightly, and her hair swoops down in pigtails - the same style Hannah had them in on their first date.
"I'll miss you." He hugs her tightly, and never wants to let her go, because letting her go means saying good-bye and he can't afford to lose her now, because losing her is losing both Alice and Hannah, all over again.
"Bye, Dad," she says, hugging him back, but he hears the excitement in her voice and knows that he shouldn't let his crippling feelings hold her back.
"I love you," he tells her, finally letting her go. "Always remember that."
"Yeah." She kisses him on the cheek and begins to walk away.
Neville blinks back tears, watching her walk away. Her hair moves in a rhythm with her feet, and suddenly, he sees Hannah, walking towards him with a smile on his face, completely at ease.
He knows she's not there, but he can definitely feel her spirit, making him strong and watching out for Alice. She has always been there, in Alice and in him, and she always will be, because that's what they promised each other - together, forever.
"I love you," he whispers, knowing that she will hear him.
A/N: I'm crying.
Done for:
Big/Lil Sister Competition - Round 5 (Using prompts Hannah/Neville, the last time, Stay by Rihanna, colorless, and Romance.)
Pairing Diversity Boot Camp - Prompt #37: Chameleon.