This story is based on Harry Potter written by J.K Rowling
This is written for the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition season 6
A/N: Round 1- Never Have I Ever
BEATER 1: Write a writing style you've never written before (eg. poetry, first person, letter!fic)
Prompts- 1. (Dialogue) "your silence scares me." 2. (Setting) thunderstorm.
Normal text- Present
Italics- Past
February 10th 2006
Dear Hermione,
Your due date is really close right? I hope you're doing alright. Last I checked, Astoria and baby Scorpius are doing great. Let me know how you are and try to send me a Patronus if anything happens.
Your Anxious Best Friend,
Neville
It had been a week since Neville had sent the last owl and he was worried. He still hadn't heard from her or anyone else.
The constant thunder over the last few days wasn't helping his mood either. It added fuel to his paranoid thoughts. Is Hermione alright? Are there any complications? Has she gone into labor already? If so, why hasn't anyone sent a Patronus yet?
He ended up anxiously pacing in front of Susan who is sitting on the couch reading and keeping her swollen feet elevated. She reaches over and pulls him down next to her. "Pacing is not going to help, if you're really worried try floo calling them."
He nods and gets up to do just that. Four unanswered floo calls later and Neville is in official panic mode.
With no other options, he conjures a Patronus, sure it might be nothing but he would rather make sure. "Hey Hermione, sorry for bothering you, but nobody has answered my floo calls and I'm really worried. Can you please let me know what's going on? Your silence scares me."
With a flick of his wand his Patronus message is sent directly to Hermione. If that doesn't work he doesn't know what else to try.
He sits down next to his heavily pregnant wife and waits for the news, good or bad, while listening to the relentless thunderstorm outside.
To keep his mind busy, he thinks back on the box of letters he has kept over the years. Most, if not all of them, sent to and from Hermione. He nods to himself and goes in search of the letters.
8 years ago
The war against Voldemort was finally over and the rest of the wizarding world started to pick up the pieces. The ending was recent enough that the effects were still very fresh to everyone, but there had been enough time for the initial shock to wear off.
Due to this, Neville started to wonder how everyone was doing. He hadn't really talked to anyone besides Luna and his Gran. He wanted to find out but not at the expense of disturbing everyone's peace with a swarm of owls. Sending a letter to one person with all of the information about everyone else would be a better idea. And he had the perfect friend in mind.
July 6th 1998
Dear Hermione,
Sorry to bother you if this is a bad time, but I really wanted to make sure everyone's okay. As soon as I had gotten everything sorted, I realized that I haven't heard from anyone since we all left Hogwarts, aside from Luna. How are you? Do you know how Harry and the Weasley's are doing? Reply when you get the chance, there's no rush if you're busy.
Your Concerned Friend,
Neville.
He ends up busying himself with things to do around his family home for about a week doing everything from gardening to managing the family books. That was usually Gran's job but Neville really needed the distraction. He hopes his friends are alright.
The reply letter arrives shortly after, setting off a never ending series of letters.
July 15th 1998
Dear Neville,
I apologize for not getting the chance to reply sooner. I have been busy trying to locate my parents. Sent them away to Australia last year using some extreme methods to keep them safe. I am happy to say that I was able to find them safe and in one piece about a week ago. I have been spending this time getting them settled back into their old house. Needless to say, I am doing very well under the circumstances. Based on the owls I get from Harry and Ron, they're all as good as they can be, though the atmosphere is understandably dreary. I won't know for sure until I go back there. I'll be heading over to The Burrow as soon as possible. Until then know that we're all doing fine. How are you and your Gran? And you mentioned Luna so I'm assuming you know how she is too. Did you get that owl from Professor McGonagall asking for help repairing the castle and coming back to retake our last year? I'll most likely take her up on that. You definitely can't have a fulfilling job without NEWTS.
Your Friend,
Hermione.
July 16th 1998
Dear Hermione,
That's good to hear, I can't imagine not knowing where my parents are since they are always at St. Mungo's. I'm glad everything worked out. I do hope Harry and the Weasley's are doing as well as they say they are, let me know if they aren't? I was able to get ahold of Dean and Seamus since I sent my last letter. They told me they're doing fine and that they decided to move in together for the time being, I think it's a good start. And Luna's as calm as ever if not a little shaken still. She's doing fine overall, keeping herself and her father busy as best she can. Gran and I are doing good so far, she has started getting our estate back in order and updating everything. I have been gardening mostly. And yes, I got the owl from Professor McGonagall, I'll definitely accept. There's no way anyone will hire me without those NEWTS. I'm planning on doing a mastery in Herbology when I get the chance.
Your Friend,
Neville.
July 17th 1998
Dear Neville,
That's a relief to hear. Tell everyone I send them my best. I'll be heading to the Weasley's in a few days so I'll keep you updated on that. I'm so happy that you're accepting! I don't know for certain, but something tells me that Harry and Ron aren't going to go back. Not that I blame them. It will be nice to see a few familiar faces. Will you be free sometime in August? We could meet up at the Leaky Cauldron and get our supplies at Diagon Alley. It would be nice to just do something normal again. Maybe this school year will finally be normal too.
Your Friend,
Hermione.
July 25th 1998
Dear Hermione,
Meeting at The Leaky sounds like a great idea. Try and drag Harry and Ron along even if they aren't returning. Getting out would be good for them, and it would be nice to see them too. I'll make sure to bring Luna. For the record, I don't think any of us is capable of normal, especially not a normal school year. Voldemort wasn't necessarily involved in half the stuff that happened, just the life threatening things.
Your Long Suffering Friend,
Neville.
Neville stretched and looked up at his ceiling after finishing his latest letter. His decision to write Hermione was definitely the best he'd made. They never really got many chances to just talk before. Of course that school year was jinxed from the start.
He shifted in his seat on the couch and watched the windows for any signs of Hermione's Patronus. But there were none, nothing but storm clouds and thunder.
July 10th 1999
Dear Hermione,
You know when I said that there's no way we could have a normal year, that wasn't permission to prove me right. And getting into a relatively harmless prank war with Malfoy is not what I had in mind for normal. I'm surprised there was any time left for school work and revision. It was pretty funny I'll give you that, but definitely not worth it for me.
Your Extremely Long Suffering Friend,
Neville.
July 12th 1999
Dear Neville
I beg to differ. I think it turned out rather well. After all, Astoria ended up naming us future Godparents because we made her laugh so much at all of the things we pulled. I would call that a win. Plus Malfoy enjoyed himself, even though he won't admit it. It might not be normal, but at least we kept things interesting without threats to our lives. George will be so proud when he hears about it.
Your Best Friend,
Hermione.
P.S. And don't think I forgot about you promising to ask Luna out. Get on that.
Neville groans as he puts down the letter. He's already nervous enough without the reminder, thank you very much.
He takes a deep breath and nods to himself. He'll build up his courage and ask Luna on a date next week. Maybe.
August 10th 1999
Dear Hermione,
There, I finally sent her the owl. She hasn't replied yet, but it's only been 30 minutes, so that's fine, right? I'll just wait calmly and without panicking.
Your Terrified Best Friend,
Neville.
August 11th 1999
Dear Neville,
Finally! Don't panic there is no way she's going to say no. Hang in there, if Ronald and I can handle going on dates it will be a breeze for you. Wishing you the best of luck.
Your Best Friend,
Hermione.
Neville reaches over to pat Susan's leg. She was right of course. Luna's reply came soon after and a date was set. He remembers being very optimistic and reminding himself to let Hermione know how it went.
Afterwards they came to a mutual understanding that they were better as friends, it was still a great date and worthy of sharing.
Neville shuffled around in the box for a minute before he decided to skip ahead to one of the most recent letters.
His worry over Hermione is great, but the memory is happy enough to bring a smile to his face.
August 25th 2005
Dear Neville,
Have you heard the good news? Astoria just owled me, she's pregnant! She said word for word, "I hope you remember your soon to be Godmother responsibilities, because this baby is coming." Goodness I'm so excited! You'll probably be getting an owl from her, if she's keeping her word on making you the Godfather. I can't wait to see Malfoy's face when he realizes we'll be spending time around his precious little baby. She's four months along, and I can't wait. There's so much we need to prepare.
Your Best Friend,
Hermione.
Neville drops the letter and calls down the hall from his office, "Susan! I just got an owl from Hermione!"
She calls back from what seems like the living room, "Oh? What was it about? You certainly sound excited."
Without realizing it, he very dramatically runs into the living room and shouts, "Astoria's pregnant! I'm going to be a Godfather!"
Susan stares at him in amazement of his behavior. "That certainly is exciting."
He manages to calm himself down enough to sit on the couch next to Susan. "There is so much to do, I can't wait, Malfoy's face will be the best thing I have ever seen. I'm sure Ron's will be just as hilarious."
She laughs and pats him on the head. "I guess I don't have to worry about your reaction to my news, have no idea why I bothered worrying in the first place." She shrugs. "I was going to tell you tomorrow anyway but now seems like a good time."
Neville looks over at her with wide eyes. "What news?"
Susan pats his cheek. "I'm pregnant too of course."
It takes a few seconds but as soon as Neville absorbs the news he jumps back up and yells, "I'm going to be a father!" He squeezes Susan tightly. "This is amazing."
They sit there like that for a few minutes just basking in the happiness.
Suddenly, Neville jumps back up with a realization. "I have to floo Hermione! She'll be so excited!"
Susan shakes her head fondly as she listens to Neville shout about there being 'two babies.'
She is again shocked out of her thoughts when she hears Neville scream from the other room, "Merlin Susan! There's going to be three babies! Three! Hermione's pregnant! Three babies! There's so much we need to do!" She just sighs and laughs to herself. At the rate this is going someone will pop up with news of a fourth baby and poor Neville will have a heart attack.
Present Day
By the time he's finished looking through his box of letters, it's been around twenty minutes from the time Neville sent his Patronus. He looks up the moment an otter Patronus swims through the window in a glorious blue glow. They hear Hermione's breathless voice come from the otter, "I'm so sorry Neville, I can't believe nobody told you. My water broke five hours ago and we flooed to St. Mungo's. I swear I told Ronald and Harry to inform you. I haven't given birth yet but so far everything is fine."
Once the otter fell silent and vanished into thin air, it was like an enormous weight, brought on by the worry for his friend, was lifted from Neville's shoulders. He sighs and saggs back into the couch, closing his eyes.
Only for him to be brought back into awareness by a slap to the chest and Susan's voice, "Now's not the time for a nap! Hermione went into labor."
Struck by the realization, Neville shoots up from the couch and starts running around the house, grabbing things they might need. "Oh Merlin, she's in labor! Are you going to be alright here? Traveling through the floo isn't safe so far along. I'll be back as soon as I can, but there is no way I can miss this." He zips the bag closed and gives his wife a kiss on the cheek. "You'll be fine?"
She chuckles to herself before saying, "Of course I'll be fine, Hermione's in need of your help. Get going."
With a final kiss goodbye, Neville takes the floo straight to St. Mungo's.
Upon arrival, he immediately gets directions to the Maternity Ward. They aren't complicated and it isn't hard to spot the giant group of Weasley's and a few other people in the waiting room.
He jogs over to them shout whispering, "What did I miss?"
Harry shrugs in answer. "Not much yet, sorry I didn't send you a message. I didn't realize I had forgotten until I saw your Patronus come through."
Ginny snorted. "If you had been paying attention, you would have noticed Hermione reminding you."
George giggles and stage whispers, "More like screaming it at him."
All Neville can bring himself to do is shake his head and find a place to sit and wait for his opportunity to visit when everything's over.
He ended up waiting for hours, going from late night to the early morning hours of the next day. There was even time for a nap.
At around 6AM, after Molly finished passing out cups of coffee to everyone still there, one of the doctors assigned to Hermione came out to the waiting room.
The doctor spoke in an even tone, "Family of Hermione Weasley?" Not even a blink changed their neutral expression when the entire group stood up. "The birth has been successful and there haven't been any health complications. You are allowed to visit in small groups."
It was decided that the first group to go in would consist of Neville, Harry, and George.
All three of them file into the hospital room and we were greeted to one of the best sights of our lives at that point in time.
Hermione was sitting up in her hospital bed, looking tired but happy. Ron was seen sitting on the chair next to the bed, holding the most beautiful baby in the world. George walked over and sat next to Ron and stared at the baby intently. Harry settled at the edge of the bed and Neville picked the chair across from Ron.
Neville sets down his bag and asks, "How are you feeling? Have you decided on the name?"
Hermione smiles tiredly. "I'm just fine and we decided on Rose Weasley."
Harry pats her leg. "That's a lovely name Hermione."
Rose makes a sound and flails her arms around, lightly tapping Ron on the chin.
George chuckles lightly. "She's a menace already."
Hermione huffs dramatically. "Of course she is, she's your Goddaughter after all."
George seems to choke on his spit a little at that. "Yeah… she is, isn't she."
Neville turns back to Hermione. "I brought a bag of all the things I could think of, it's mostly stuff for your aftercare and some stuff for the baby. Everything's labeled."
She sighs. "You're the best Neville. I'll be sure to use them and thank you for waiting this whole time. I'm sure you've kept Susan waiting for far too long so head home, you can come by to see us and the baby anytime."
Neville sends her a grateful smile. "Of course, I'll visit as soon as I can. That child is going to be severely spoiled." He stands up and gives her a kiss on the forehead and a hug before waving goodbye to everyone else. It was time to head home.
There was no rush. They had all the time in the world to see each other and catch up.
As Neville made his way back home, he wondered about the future and what Hogwarts would be like for their children. At least one thing is certain, their lives will never be typically normal.