Set during Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows; For Alice (:
Neville felt like an idiot.
Of course, this was hardly a new experience for the meek Gryffindor, but it felt bad all the same.
Every year, every single year, he was the only person fear-mongering about getting through the barrier to platform 9 3/4.
What if someone saw him? What if someone suspected what he was? What if the barrier was sealed? Naturally, he had never known the barrier to seal itself before, but that was the exact sort of thing that usually happened to Neville Longbottom.
He shook his head. The world was being shrouded in a cloud of Death Eaters and fear. He would be worrying about a barrier sealing itself. A barrier that had worked without fail for the past six years.
He sighed. Same old routine.
"I used to be scared too," said a chirpy voice from behind him. Neville turned around and watched her as she scampered over and stood beside him, her hair bobbing along to the bounce in her step. "But I've found, when you do things with somebody else," she held out her hand, "it's not as frightening to do." She looked up at him and smiled with such radiance that he couldn't help but to grin back sheepishly. He took her hand and tried to ignore the muggles rushing about, as unaware as they were that he was there.
This was easy when he was holding hands with her. She didn't grip it and pull it and tug it like his Gran used to. And she didn't just hang onto it, as if she didn't particularly want to hold it.
She simple held his hand and led him through the barrier.
Everything seemed easy with Luna.