I met this girl from the other side. All kind of pale, dressed in black and white. She's not the same; quite different from any other girlfriend I've had ~ Alex Day
She Walks Right Through Me
"Watch where you're going, Longbottom." Crabbe and Goyle sneered as they banged into him, knocking him to the ground and Crabbe's knee connecting with the side of his head on the way down. He cried out in pain which just made the two Slytherin thugs laugh even more.
"Aw, does little Longbottom want to go home to mummy? Oh, wait, you don't have one!" Crabbe sneered as Goyle guffawed stupidly beside him. Neville whimpered slightly at the mention of his mother, how did they know about his parents? Oh that's right, Neville thought darkly, death eaters. Of course they'd know.
"Come on Greg, Malfoy's expecting us to be his bloody bodyguards down on the fourth floor."
Neville waited until their heavy footsteps faded away entirely, which was quite a while considering how large in weight and stature they were. He pushed himself up off the ground, his head spinning and every inch of him hurting from the fall. He struggled to hold back tears as he stumbled along the corridor, wishing for somewhere to sit down as his head throbbed away painfully.
He stumbled into a classroom, not caring if there were people inside or not. Thankfully, it was empty and Neville was able to sink down into a chair and rest his head on the cool desk.
"Hello?" A voice called, "Who are you?"
Neville's head jerked up off the desk and looked around wildly, making his head ache. He was sure that he had a concussion.
"Over here," the voice giggled and Neville turned around slowly to see a silvery white ghost hovering over a table at the end.
"Y-you're the grey lady." Neville stammered.
"Some do call me that, yes." She said coolly, "But my name is Helena, Helena Ravenclaw."
"A-are you Romilda Ravenclaw's daughter?" Neville asked nervously.
"No," Helena said, "I am Rowena Ravenclaw's daughter."
"Oh, s-sorry, I-I didn't mean to get her name wrong." Neville squeaked, looking at the ground, "I-It's just I can't remember any wizarding history to save my life and I get people whose names start with the same letter mixed up and –" he was cut off by Helena's tinkling laughter. He looked up to see her drifting towards him.
"It's alright," she smiled, hovering a few feet above the ground as she floated up onto the table, giving the illusion that she was sitting on it, "There have been many who have mistaken my mother's name over the centuries." She cocked her head sideways to look at him from a different angle as he fidgeted nervously with a loose string on the end of his jumper. "What's your name, child?"
"N-Neville Longbottom," Neville said politely, still not able to look Helena in the eye.
"You're not like the others, are you Neville Longbottom?" Helena said, "There is a touch of destiny about you."
"Wh-What do you mean by that?" Neville squeaked, jumping back from her as she leaned in towards him.
"One day you will accomplish great things." Helena said with a kind smile.
"How?" Neville asked softly, in a strained voice, "I can't even do a simple disarming spell."
"To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream." Helena said, "You try to act like your father, but you don't dream of being like him. If you see yourself as a great wizard, then you will be a great wizard."
"But how? I can't even walk down a corridor without getting pushed over. I can't make it through a potions lesson without being laughed at and my whole family thinks I'm a failure." Neville said his voice breaking.
Helena floated right up to him and this time he didn't back away. She placed her silvery hand on his cheek, making sure that it didn't sink through and whispered into his ear.
"I believe in you."
Neville staggered back in shock as Helena drifted away through the whiteboard. This was the first time anyone had ever believed in him in his entire life. He was always hearing words of how much he was a failure, but he had just met Helena and she had spoken nothing but kind words and encouragement to him. Was this a trick? He couldn't remember the last time that someone had encouraged him. It was incredibly narcotic behaviour.
His cheek tingled from where her cold hand had rested on it and somehow he craved her cold touch on his skin.
Slowly, but steadily he made his way back to Gryffindor tower, pondering over what Helena had said. It was all true, he did try to act like his father, and failed miserably every single time. Could Helena be right? Would he be like his father if he saw himself out there fighting evil? Would he be like his father if he simply envisioned himself like him? It seemed much too easy, he was just a failure that shouldn't even be in Gryffindor because he was so cowardly.
He had so many questions that he wanted to ask Helena, but she had drifted away, and when ghosts drift away through walls even Neville knew that he was going to have a hard time following her. So he resigned himself to seeing her at breakfast the next day to ask her the questions building up in his head.
But Helena was not at breakfast the next morning. Neville glanced over at the Ravenclaw table every two minutes to see if she'd turned up, but she never did. Heart sinking heavily, Neville rose after everyone else and left the Great Hall, returning to his Saturday OWL studies, not that he was going to pass anyway.
He kicked a small stone along the halls, which were empty. Everyone having gone outside to enjoy the remaining sunshine before winter took over, or up in their common rooms studying. Neville sighed, hoping for a distraction from the work that was waiting for him up in Gryffindor tower. He was going to fail his exams, what was the point?
You have a touch of destiny about you. One day you will accomplish great things. To accomplish great things, you must not only act, but also dream.
Helena's voice drifted back to him, as if she was standing right there. He wheeled around but nobody was there. Mentally cursing himself for getting his hopes up, he looked back down at the ground and continued back to Gryffindor tower. Maybe Helena was right, maybe he just needed to dream.
Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months and still Neville had seen no hide nor hair of Helena Ravenclaw, it was as if she was avoiding him. In fact, it was almost Easter when Neville decided that he would never see her again and it was also almost Easter when he did see her again.
Neville walked slowly down a darkened corridor away from the Easter festivities in the Gryffindor common room. He'd never liked parties, he'd never fitted in.
Sitting down, he leaned against the wall and ran his fingers through his hair. With a jolt, he realised that the last time he had stopped on this floor was the time that he had met Helena, all those months ago.
He was glad that he had taken her advice, because he was greatly improving in the classroom and he was even sure that he had passed his transfiguration OWL, which was the subject that he was most worried about, potions was always a lost cause. Doing better at all of his schoolwork and had earned him a lot more friends, which Neville found extremely weird. (It was almost like they were on some sort of narcotic substance, the way that they were so nice to him when most had ridiculed him.)
Not a day went by that he didn't miss Helena. He wanted to thank her for helping him, to thank her for believing in him when no one else did. He loved her for that, and he loved her for other reasons too. He loved her for being there for him when no one else was, he loved her for giving him words of advice. He loved her, and that was all. He just wanted to see her once more just to tell her that. He knew that a relationship with a ghost was impossible, she was transparent and he was solid, she was well over a hundred years old and he was a mere fifteen, she was dead and he was very much alive. They didn't belong together but that didn't stop Neville from telling her that he loved her, if he could find her again.
"Why won't you come back, Helena?" Neville whispered into the darkness, shutting his eyes and remembering her cold touch on his cheek all those months ago.
"Neville?" a voice said and Neville jumped up, looking around. He knew that voice, that voice was Helena's. He may not have heard it for six months but that voice had definitely belonged to the beautiful ghost.
"Helena?" Neville hissed, "Where are you?"
"I'm right here, silly." Helena said, drifting through a wall with a slivery aura around her, illuminating the darkened corridor slightly.
"Why haven't I seen you for a while?" Neville asked, "Where did you go?"
"I've been here the whole time." She said.
"Then why didn't I see you?" Neville asked.
"Because you didn't need me, if you needed me then I would've appeared to you immediately."
"But I did need you." Neville said, "Every day."
"No you didn't, just thinking of me was like a narcotic to you and you improved from it, I'm so proud of you, Neville."
Neville's face broke into a smile. "Then how come you appeared tonight?"
"Because I believe that you need to tell me something." Helen said, drifting closer to him. Neville's heart began to beat at a thousand miles per hour as she came closer and he felt his courage fail him.
"Uh, no I just wanted to see you again." Neville said quickly.
"Oh, now Neville I know that's not true." Helena said, and in a rush of silver, she had walked right through him. Neville felt every part of his body tingle in pleasure as he whipped around to see her standing behind him.
"What, was that?" Neville asked, surprised to find himself breathes.
"That…" Helena said, placing her cold hand on his cheek in the same place that she had done all those months ago, "Was what you people who are alive, call a kiss."
AN: Okay, please don't flame me?
This was for
- The 3rd Annual Can You Write a Romance Competition. My pairing was Neville/Helena Ravenclaw's Ghost and my prompt that I had to use three times was Narcotic.
-The Pairing Diversity Bootcamp Challenge – Prompt #41: To accomplish great things we must not only act but also dream.
I'm not too sure on this, but please judge on the way that it's written, not the pairing, because I know that I won't write them again. (I originally got Neville/Nagini and that would've mortally scarred me forever)
I'd love it if you could leave a review
Potter on
~The Original Horcrux~