Neville's Magical After All

by belladisordine

Poor Neville is too young to understand the term "Squib", however, he is old enough to be scared he'll never live up to his Grandmother's standards. Thankfully, his Great Uncle Angie as about to fix that problem.

"Still no magical talent eh?" Algie asked, watching the boy from the corner of his eye as a young Neville played with a set of muggle building blocks.

"Nay" Augusta said with a heavy sigh. "'Tis a good thing my son doesn't know his wife produced a Squib, he'd be heartbroken"

Neville stopped playing with his toys long enough to glance up at his Grandmother. She was slicing her world famous lemon meringue pie, no doubt to serve as the centerpiece of the dessert table at the annual Longbottom Family picnic. And while she looked, to everyone else, as calm and collected as she always did, Neville knew there was something wrong. Every day not, she poked and prodded at him. Practically begging him to do something magical. And while Neville didn't know exactly what that meant, he knew he wasn't doing it. And he knew that every day that went by that he continued to not live up to her expectations, he was letting her down.

"I'll get the magic out of him" his Great-Uncle Algie suddenly declared, standing up from his chair and scooping Neville up in his arms.

"ALGIE!" Augusta called out in alarm, striding after him up the stairs to the second floor balcony, "What on Earth are you doing?!"

"Its a simple test" Algie replied, holding Neville by the ankle out over the ledge, "If this doesn't bring the magic out of him, nothing will!"

"I'm not sure about this" Augusta fretted, "You'll hurt him"

"I won't!" Algie argued, "This is how my dear old dad got the magic out of me!"

Augusta drew a breath, holding it as she watched her grandson squirm and cry as he dangled upside-down over the ledge.

"Algie.. I think you'd better stop now" she began, "It doesn't seem like its working"

"Hey Alg, want some pie? Its Augusta's lemon meringue"

Augusta glared at her nephew, only to let out a glass shattering scream a moment later as Algie reached for the slice of pie, letting go of Neville's ankle in the process. Rushing to the ledge, she watched in horror as her grandson plummeted towards the ground at a breakneck speed, only to bounce a moment later, laughing hysterically as he did so.

"Would you look at that!" Augusta beamed happily, "He's magical after all!"

"Told You" Algie said between mouthfuls of pie, "Works every time"