Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
A/N: This was written as homework assigned by Inkfire on Hogwarts Online II (it's an awesome place, definitely check it out). All reviews are greatly appreciated and DFTBA!
The young boy clutched onto his grandmother's skirt, hiding behind her as if he didn't want to be seen by the man and woman in the hospital beds. He had an expression of fear on his face, as if he were presented with monsters he was supposed to face. After a few moments of the old woman trying to comfort him and make the boy come out and face the hospital patients, muttering soothing words to him, she eventually gave up her attempts. She gently detached herself from the little boy's sticky grasp and stepped forward up to the gurneys herself. The two patients just lie there, blank expressions on their face. The elderly woman stroked the female patient's blond, wispy hair while looking down at her, searching for any trace of recognition in her eyes.
"Alice. Do you remember anything? Anything at all?" asked the old woman pleadingly.
The patient just continued her blank gaze up at her wrinkled face, not confirming or denying anything.
After a few minutes the old woman stepped to the left so as to be next to the man's hospital bed. "Frank, do you know who I am?" the old woman asked to no avail. The man responded with a glassy stare into the distance, with the hint of a miniscule sigh coming from his lips.
In the back, the young boy just stood there as he watched his grandmother interact with the two mental patients. He remembered his gran telling him before they left for St. Mungo's that they would be visiting his parents, but he didn't know these people at all. They seemed to him to be completely dead to the world. And, really, it scared him. People were supposed to be up and moving and talking, not just laying there like statues. For a brief second the boy wondered if the two people that his gran called his parents were dead, but he immediately dismissed the idea. If they were dead then Gran wouldn't be talking to them like that, almost treating them as if they were small toddles that needed to be cared for and watched over at all times. The two people in the beds intrigued yet frightened him.
After ten minutes of the old woman talking to and caring for the man and woman in the hospital gurneys, she said tenderly to both of them, "I need to go now. But I'll be back very soon, I promise." She swiftly kissed both patients on the forehead and turned to the boy as to collect him and then leave. "Come on Neville, it's time to go now. We'll come back and visit your parents again very soon, okay?" The boy nodded and they went to leave the room.
Right when they were about to leave the room, a sound came from the direction of the beds. It sounded nearly like a grunting sound, and the two about to leave turned around immediately to see what the cause of the noise was. The woman had sit up in bed and her eyes were wide open and attentive. The man soon sat up in his bed as well, copying his roommate. The woman opened her mouth to speak. "N-Nev-Neville," she stuttered and held out a closed fist towards the small boy. He looked scared, like a deer caught in headlights. "Neville," she repeated, more firmly and demanding.
"Well go on," said Neville's grandmother, gently pushing him towards his mother.
Neville cautiously approached the woman, not sure what to expect. Alice held out her fist towards him and had her fingers facing downwards, like she was holding something that she wanted her son to hold. Neville, picking up on this, tentatively held out his open palm below her fist. Alice opened her hand and a small, blue bottle cap fell into his hand. The small boy peered curiously at what had just been put into his hand, holding it up to the light in the room. He looked back down at the strange woman in the bed and saw that her face had broken into a tremendous and ecstatic grin, like a child on Christmas morning. Neville didn't understand what was so exciting about a bottle cap, but he could tell that it was very important to his mother so he smiled along with her.
Alice's empty hand fell to her side, to be caught by Frank's scarred hand. Frank squeezed his wife's hand lightly, and she squeezed back. It was one of the few ways that they could still show affection for one another. Even though they'd been tortured to the point of insanity, they still could find affection for one another. As the old woman and her grandson departed from the hospital room, Alice and Frank Longbottom sat there and watched them leave, hand-in-hand. They stayed in that position for hours; the smallest touch all that they needed to stay in love.
Throughout all that they'd been through together- standing up for what they believe in, unbelievable agony and suffering, only the slightest memory of their previous life together- they still stayed together no matter what. The beeping of monitors became a constant background noise for the two of them in the Permanent Patient Ward in St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. The green-and-white linoleum checkered walls became a constant backdrop for them, stuck in that one tiny room with rare visits to the rest of the hospital, much less going outside. Yet they never grew tired of one another. The bottle cap that Alice gave her son was her trying to reach out in the only way that she could: through a simple gift tat could be easily obtained anywhere. It was her one act in trying to unite them as a family again because, all mothers really want is for their families to be together. And even though Alice Longbottom was tortured to the brink of insanity, she still was a mother. All she wanted was her son and husband. Frank, Neville and Alice Longbottom, united at last.