Written for the HPFC Story A Week competition! Pairing: Neville/Hannah Prompt: That really is the strangest thing I've ever heard!
Enjoy!
~Mim
It took Neville about a week into the school year to decide he was not going to let this happen.
It took Neville, Ginny and Luna about one month to decide that Dumbledore's Army was coming back.
And it took roughly three days after that to get all of the former members of the D.A. to reassemble in the Room of Requirement. Neville had not been surprised to learn most of the students had kept the handy Galleons Hermione had charmed.
Saying that they would start this was all well and good, but Neville knew somebody had to actually do something to get the students hopes up. And one day, when his fury had reached a boiling point, Neville stood up and asked Carrow what he thought he was doing, right before he was about to punish an innocent child.
"What am I doing?" Carrow asked softly. He smiled evilly, apparently pleased that Neville had dared disrupt him.
"Yeah. Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" Neville asked. He knew what Carrow would take from the statement, but he also knew that it would help Carrow forget the child. And that was all that mattered.
A few hours later, Neville was limping through a corridor feeling wholly miserable. He knew he did the right thing, but students were still scared stiff. At least, that's what he figured from the terrified expressions he saw wherever he turned.
"Neville?"
Neville looked to see who called him.
"Hello," Hannah Abbott said with a shy smile.
"Er, hello," Neville said uncertainly. "How're you?"
Hannah grimaced. "I just…I just wanted to tell you that you were really brave. And, um, your plan worked. To give kids hope I mean." By this point, Hannah was staring fixedly at a button on Neville's shirt and blushing profusely.
Neville stared at her for a full minute before he managed to utter anything. "Thanks."
She finally met his eyes and smiled fleetingly before walking away.
Neville continued to gaze at her retreating figure. It took him several minutes to work out what was bothering him.
Her smile had never reached her eyes.
~:~
"Alright sixth years! This term we're dealing with Venomous Tentacula!" Professor Sprout announced. "What are the properties of this plant?"
Neville smiled when Hermione's hand flew into the air. He knew the answer as well of course (the bite of the Venomous Tentacula can be fatal and ingestion of it will cause the skin to turn purple) but he would rather let Hermione do what she does best.
Soon enough the sixth years were told to form pairs and examine the plant. Neville found himself besides Hannah Abbott, a kindly girl in Hufflepuff.
"Oh thank goodness!" Hannah said as they stood next to each other. "I'm so glad you're my partner, Neville! I was afraid I would've been stuck with Justin, who's really awful at this class. But he's with Ernie." Hannah grinned at her friend, who made a face at her.
"I'm not all that good at it," Neville said blushingly.
"Nonsense!" she cried, her brown eyes sparkling. "You got an O didn't you?"
Although Neville didn't answer, she didn't expect him to. Everyone knew it; it was just one of those things.
The two soon got caught up in evading the plant's tentacles. Professor Sprout only wanted them to examine it, but Neville wondered if the plant could be rendered less threatening. He shared his idea with Hannah and she agreed to help him.
The trick, Neville had read, was to treat the Venomous Tentacula gently and respectfully. As its feelers waved around dangerously, Neville spotted a nonthreatening portion of the plant. He pointed it out to Hannah.
"Maybe we should pet it there!" she said brightly.
"Alright," Neville agreed.
But as Hannah cautiously crept her hand towards the plant, its feelers shot out at her and she pushed the spot too hard in panic. Unfortunately, this greatly angered the Venomous Tentacula. It began waving its tentacles in earnest, effectively cutting Hannah and Neville several times on their hands with its pointy teeth.
"That went…well," Neville said at last, after the Tentacula appeared to be satisfied with their thrashing.
The two looked at each other and burst out laughing.
"Oh Neville," she said beaming, her brown eyes dancing, "you're too sweet."
~:~
Neville had come to expect seeing happy Hannah Abbott in herbology every year. It was as common as Hermione answering questions.
Of course he had known she would've been affected from her mother's death.
He just hadn't really considered what would've happened to her happiness. Well. This was something that needed to be fixed, and Neville was determined to do it.
He paced his bedroom a few nights later, still completely at a loss of exactly how to cheer Hannah up.
"What are you agonizing over now?" Seamus asked tiredly from his spot on his bed.
Neville and Seamus had gotten a lot closer this year, seeing as they were the only seventh year Gryffindor boys left. And together they had worried over the state Hogwarts was in, and how exactly the D.A. would raise the school's moral next.
"I need to make Hannah happy," Neville informed him.
"Hannah?" Seamus repeated.
"Yes. Hannah Abbott. You know, she's in our year in Hufflepuff?"
Seamus frowned. "I thought she was a sixth year."
"That's only because she missed the entire last year!" Neville said exasperatedly.
Seamus' eyes widened as he remembered what exactly had made Hannah leave school. "Oh."
"Yes. And she's sad, and Hannah never used to be sad, and it must be fixed," Neville rambled.
Seamus was solemn in his understanding. Most people were sad nowadays. And he had watched Neville pace back and forth enough times to realize how much he cared about helping others in need.
Neville thought hard, trying to recall all of his conversations with Hannah. It wasn't easy. The two weren't particularly close, after all.
But then, it came to him.
~:~
"Ooh, these are so pretty," Hannah marveled.
Neville looked over and saw her admiring a patch of rounded flowers. All of them were in varying pastel shades.
"They're called Bauble Blossoms," Neville told her quietly.
Hannah smiled at him. "What a lovely name. They remind me of bubbles. I loved to blow bubbles when I was little, me and my mum and dad would all try to pop as many as we could."
"That sounds fun," Neville said, grinning at the way her eyes lit up when she talked.
"It was," she said, her smile fond.
~:~
"I need bubbles," Neville said aloud as he walked towards the Great Hall for lunch.
"I have some," Luna said serenely, who was walking with him. She slipped her hand into her pocket and pulled out a pink bottle with the words Bubble Fun written across.
It was a mark of how long he had known her that Neville did not question this. He just thanked her tucked the bottle into his own pocket.
Neville and Seamus were walking across a courtyard when Neville finally spotted Hannah.
She was sitting on a bench, immersed in a book.
"Look there she is!" Neville pointed out.
"What are you going to do?" Seamus asked.
Neville proudly pulled out the bubbles. "Know what these are?"
"Yeah…," Seamus said slowly, drawing out the word. "What's bubbles got to do with anything?"
Neville deflated ever so slightly at his inability to explain the contents of the plastic pink bottle, but grinned at his genius revelation earlier.
"Well, go for it," Seamus said albeit a little skeptically.
Neville ignored this.
"Hannah!" he called when he reached earshot.
Hannah looked up and smiled at the two boys. "Hello," she said with a tiny smile. Of course, it wasn't enough to cause her eyes to sparkle, but Neville knew she tried to appear fine.
"I've got a surprise for you," Neville said excitedly. Seamus snorted behind him.
"What is it?" she asked warily.
"Just watch," Neville said confidently. He pulled out the bottle and unscrewed the lid. To his surprise there was a stick with an oval at the end attached to the lid. He frowned and waved the stick around, but nothing happened.
"Give me that," Seamus snapped and grabbed both the stick and bottle from him. Neville watched as Seamus expertly swirled the stick inside the bottle before pulling it out and blowing at the oval.
Nothing happened.
Seamus tried two more times, but no bubbles emerged from the mysterious stick. By now he was grumbling obscenities under his breath.
"Let me try," Neville said as he cautiously retrieved the bubble maker.
He swirled the stick in the bottle as Seamus did and pulled it out. Sure enough there was a colorful sheen of liquid trapped in the oval. Puffing out his cheeks, Neville blew at the oval. The liquid splattered out of the oval, but no bubble formed. Irritated, Neville determinedly shoved the stuck into the bottle once more.
Just as he was about to blow, Seamus came forward with his arms outstretched. "I'm sure I can do it, just give it to me," he was saying. But at that moment Neville puffed strongly at the oval.
He watched as the soapy water splattered directly into Seamus's wide eyes.
"Ow!" Seamus howled, clutching at his eyes in pain.
"I'm sorry!" Neville wheezed, aghast.
"You just—you just spit soap in my eye!" Seamus spluttered.
"I know! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to!" Neville apologized.
And then, Neville heard the most delightful sound.
Hannah Abbott was laughing so hard, she was doubled over clutching at her chest. It seemed she could barely breathe from laughter. It took her awhile but eventually she managed to choke out, "That really is the strangest thing I've ever seen!" And she smiled the widest, most wonderful smile, her warm brown eyes sparkling and dancing.
Seamus's anger abated at Hannah's laughter and soon all three of them were laughing loudly. When they managed to control themselves, Seamus put on a determined face and rubbed his hands.
"Right then," he began seriously. Neville scrunched his eyebrows, wondering what was so important.
"Let's blow a damned bubble," Seamus declared.
Neville and Hannah burst out laughing once more. And Hannah caught Neville's eye and smiled her amazing smile and Neville thought that even if the future looked bleak, there was always laughter with your friends to brighten the day.
I've never written these characters before so let me know if I did them justice!