Disclaimer: The ideas are mine, the characters are not.
Beneath the stains of time
The feelings disappear
You are someone else
I am still right here
Hurt, by Johnny Cash
July, the 31st, 1998. It was the crack of dawn, and Neville had just arrived.
The house was empty. His grandmother was traveling. For the first time in seventeen years Augusta had trusted her grandson to be home alone, and he couldn't be more excited. In fact, the first night she was gone, Neville tried to bake a celebratory pie and ended up setting the stove on fire. Nothing a few water-making spells and a gallon of orange juice couldn't solve, but he still had to fix the cooker before she got back. Neville kept forgetting that.
He would do it another time, though. This morning he was tired. The Weasleys had thrown a birthday party for Harry at The Burrow, and that's where Neville had been for the past six hours. It was fun. Hanging on a wall there was a big flag with the words "You Made it Till Your 18th Birthday Party". Somebody – perhaps George – had added: "even though everyone tried to kill you". Mrs Weasley was displeased.
Everybody was there. It wassupposed to be for close friends only, but the war brought a lot of people closer. Harry seemed happy. He held Teddy Lupin on his arms the whole night. The baby was supposed to be asleep, but whenever someone placed him on his crib he cried his lungs out until he was back at his godfathers' lap. Neville spotted Ginny watching Harry and the baby a few times. She seemed very much in love. Nevile smiled. He wasn't good at noticing these things.
Neville was so happy he completely forgot his own Birthday.
Then he got home, and there it was. Over his pillow. An envelope made of yellow parchment.
He knew exactly what it contained. It was the reason he hated his birthday so much, and now that he saw it, Neville couldn1t believe he'd almost forgotten about it. He had sixteen envelopes like that. One for each of his birthdays, ever since he turned two. He never read them more than once, but he knew exactly what they said.
1982. You're two years old. You probably can already walk by now. I wish I could have been there to teach you to run.
1991. Eleventh birthday. You're going to school. I wish I could be there to show you magic they won't teach you at Hogwarts.
1995. Fifteen years old. Wish I could watch you have your heart broken by some girl.
Nevile had gotten the first fifteen at once, on his sixteenth birthday. After the breakout. 1996: I've been saving these for you, read the card. Next year he got another. And now this one.
He signed his name on all of them. Because he wanted Neville to know he was out there, alive and well. He still had the power to hurt him.
Neville allowed himself to fall on the bed; the card on his hands.
1998. You made it till your 18th Birthday. So did I. Rodolphus Lestrange.
A/N: I wrote this for "The Not For the Faint of Heart Competition" (Operation Angst - Drabble)
Neville's birthday is on July, the 30th. I had this idea and wanted to work on it, though I don't think tihs is my best work. Drabbles are hard. Not a lot of space to work on. Be that as it may, I will explore these ideas further... I intend to write a longer fic with Neville, as an Auror, haunting down Rodolphus... Till then,
LLAP