A/N: Sorry it's taking so long with Reclaiming Family. I think my subconcious doesn't want me to finish or something... I don't know, but I am slowly working on it. As for this, it came to me suddenly, and I thought I'd take a break for a while to let my mind unwind a bit. Enjoy!
I do not own Harry Potter
"Have fun Neville!" his dorm mates all laughed loudly when he blushed deeply. The school year was out for Christmas and Neville was about to experience the chance of a lifetime: living as a muggle. His good friend, Hermione Granger, had invited him to stay at her home for a few days so he could have a firsthand account on how to live without magic.
Ron stopped laughing suddenly. "Not too much fun though. If I hear that you've even looked at Hermione the wrong way—" Dean and Seamus clonked him on the head to shut him up.
"Leave him alone, Ron," Harry grinned. "He's only going to be there a couple days."
Neville nodded enthusiastically to reassure his redheaded friend he'd never do anything to his girl. "I'm excited to see how she grew up," he admitted.
"And you should be," Dean said.
Seamus waved his hands at Neville. "Aye, now off with ye. Ye're not learnin' anythin' standin' 'ere, are ye?"
"I don't know why she didn't invite me too. I grew up as a pureblood. I want to learn too," Ron crossed his arms in displeasure.
Dean clonked him on the head again. "What are you talking about? You're coming home with me, aren't you? I live in a muggle home."
"Plus you don't care about learning how to live as a muggle. You just want to be completely alone with 'Mione so you can do things your mother never lets you do in your own house." Harry easily swatted Ron's swinging fist away. "Easy now, I'm just kidding." He looked to Neville. "You all should be leaving soon. The carriages won't wait for you forever."
"Don't know why you want to spend the holiday by yourself," Ron grumbled.
Harry's humor left him. He'd been moody ever since the end of the war, choosing to spend his time alone to take in everything happened. "Just go."
Dean, Neville, and Ron grabbed their trunks and headed down the stairs. Seamus gave Harry a weak smile before he headed off to find a girl to bother, leaving Harry in his solitude.
--
"Thanks again for inviting me over," Neville said.
Hermione smiled brightly as she led him through the parking lot. It would have been easier to just apparate home, but Hermione had missed her car and the whole reason Neville was visiting was to see
the muggle culture. She figured they might as well start right away, so she had her parents leave it at the train station. "As soon as you said you were interested in learning more, I knew I had to bring you home." Her step slowed as they neared her car. It was a small, beat-up, red car. After they had gotten their trunks inside—with the help of a little magic—they climbed in and took off.
It didn't take long for them to get to Hermione's house, but it felt like an eternity to Neville. His face was glued to the window as his eyes darted to the many things around him. He couldn't get a good enough look at everything. When they pulled into Hermione's driveway, Neville looked dejected.
Hermione laughed. "Don't worry, Neville. We'll be out again to see things." Leaving their belongings in the trunk for the moment and headed inside. "Mum, Dad, I'm home!" Hermione called from the entrance. "Odd," she commented when nobody answered. She then noticed a note tacked to the door. "Had a meeting, be back in a couple days," she read out loud followed by a sigh.
Neville was busy looking around the lavish house and turned to her. "Do they do that a lot?"
"Quite often, yes. Why do you think I became obsessed with books? There was hardly anyone to talk to around here." She shook her head of her negative musings. "It doesn't matter; we can just make do without them. What do you say to something to eat? I'm famished." Neville followed her into the kitchen and kept her company while she made them some dinner. They were just cleaning up dishes when the doorbell rang.
"I'll finish these," Neville offered. He heard Hermione's shoes click out the kitchen and up the hallway. Then he heard Hermione scream. Startled, Neville dropped the dish, breaking it, and ran to the hallway as he drew his wand. When he saw Hermione, he quickly stashed his wand. Hermione wasn't screaming of fright, more of excitement because she had her arms wrapped around another girl her age.
"Oh, Neville!" Hermione noticed her friend as she pulled away from the mystery girl. "Joy this is Neville. He goes to the same school I do. Neville, this is Joy, one of my best friends before I left for school."
"Before?" Joy scoffed and ruffled her hair. "You're not getting rid of me that easy." She looked at Neville as if evaluating him. "Hey, 'sup?"
"I—uh..." Neville found his tongue twisted in a knot as he took in the girl. She was a lot shorter than Hermione was, and Hermione wasn't very tall in the first place. The first thing he noticed was Joy's short bright purple hair sticking out at odd angles. Neville had seen piercings before, but never as many as this girl. All along the edge of both her ears were covered in earrings, which carried on through her face with a lip and nose piercing. His eyes never drifted from her face to her skull-covered tank top, short skirt, and ripped leggings. "I-I..." he looked to Hermione for help. Hermione's friends with her??
Joy smirked. "Is he your boyfriend?"
Hermione gasped, but Neville quickly shouted, "No!" Both girls looked at him startled. "I mean..." Ron's girl, Ron's girl, Ron's girl...
"Whatever," Joy said with a smile. "I saw your car out front and had to say hello. Is Mr. and Mrs. G. here?" she looked around for Hermione's parents.
Hermione shook her head sadly. "Nope. They left me a note saying they'd be gone for a few days. We just got done eating, but I can get out some snacks or something."
"Great! You don't mind if I butt in, do you?"
"Of course not, right Neville?" Neville nodded his head quickly. "Great. Why don't you two go into the living room and I'll bring in some stuff."
Neville looked at her panicked. I don't know how to act around a muggle! "A-Are you sure you don't-t need any help?"
Hermione grinned at him. "Nope, I got it covered. Go and relax." She quickly dashed past Neville into the kitchen before he could say another word.
"Living room?" Joy asked as she moved that way. Neville slowly followed her and sat at the opposite end of the couch from her. "So do you like your school? Hermes is always telling me such cool things about it."
Hermione hasn't told her anything magical, did she? Right, Neville; this is Hermione we're talking about. "I-I love it there. It's like home for me." He blushed suddenly, "Except for some professors."
Joy surprised him by laughing. "That Snake teacher? Hermione told me about him. She would go on about him for hours, then turn around and say he's one of the most respectable teachers there is."
"P-Professor Snap-pe," Neville corrected. "He scares the living daylights out of me."
Joy laughed again. "I bet. I wouldn't want to be near him, by the description of him. What's your favorite class?"
"Herbology," Neville answered without thinking.
Joy scrunched up her nose. "Is that some sort of science class? Like plant lore or something?"
I don't know what science is, but, "Sure." He smiled nervously.
"Cool. I like science too. It's a lot of fun. My parents are trying to convince me to go to school for it, but I don't want to."
Curious, Neville asked, "What do you want to do."
Joy smiled and looked around conspiringly before leaning across the couch towards him. "Can you keep a secret?" she whispered.
Neville found himself leaning towards her as well. "Er, most likely I'll forget it," he said blushing.
"Perfect then!" Again she whispered, "I really want to become a magician."
"Magician?" What's that?!
"Yeah, you know magic. Levitating stuff, making other things disappear, card tricks."
"Really!?" Neville scooted closer to her on the couch. Is she a witch? Is that why Hermione told her about Hogwarts?
"Yeah! Want me to show you something?" Neville nodded eagerly and watched as she looked around the room. She saw a small pile of coins on the coffee table and picked one of them up. "Now, you're about to witness something special. Ready?" Again Neville nodded. "Alright, now first I'm going to make this coin disappear." She held the coin in the palm of one hand and swiped her other across it.
Neville squinted at her hand when he saw it missing. He quickly grabbed both of her hands and flipped them back and forth looking for it. "Where'd it go?"
Joy withheld her grin and squinted at him. "Actually..." She raised her hand towards his ear. When she pulled it back, the same coin was pinched between her thumb and forefinger.
"Whoa!" Neville slapped his hand over his ear and felt around. "How'd you do that?"
I can't believe he's never seen that trick before. "I'm magical."
"Really?! Me too!"
"Really?" she sounded doubtful. "Show me one of your tricks." She sat back to watch and laughed when Neville pulled out his wand. "A wand? Really?"
"Well, yeah," Neville hesitated. "You must be really good to be able to do wandless magic."
Wow, he's really into this. "Well, I'm the best."
"Yeah!" Then he turned to the stack of coins. "I'm going to make those coins levitate. Wingardium Leviosa!" Slowly, the coins began to float up and crash into each other as he moved them across the table before setting them down.
"Whoa!" Joy nearly jumped on him. "How'd you do that?!"
Suddenly a crash came from the doorway and Hermione stood white as a ghost as she stared at them. "Neville, what are you doing?!"
He smiled at her. "Joy and I were showing each other magic tricks. She pulled one of those coins out of my ear!" Neville reached up again to see if anymore showed up, but he felt none.
"Neville, you're not supposed to do magic in front of muggles," she said as she heard the pop sound of a ministry official arriving to obliviate Joy's memory.
"But I thought—"
"What's a muggle?" Joy asked.
A/N:
Poor Neville...Hope all is well! :)