Chapter 1: Fancy Seeing You Here

I do not own Harry Potter or any of the other characters the Queen/J.K. Rowling created. Enjoy : )

I walk down the windy streets, as the gleam of the sun shines through the corner of my eye. I look up and see the old, worn down sign attached to the building that everyone passes by as if it were invisible. I open the doors to the Leaky cauldron, thinking of how weird I must look, going into an abandoned building.

I get to the other side of the door gracefully, which to me is a big accomplishment considering I tripped over my own robes a few years back. I have changed now, I'm not the chubby boy in the back of the potions dungeons who cowered at professor's Snape's look anymore, the war changed me, it changed every single person who lived during that period really. Even if I try to forget sometimes, it's hard, I have the scars to remind me every waking moment, the one on my scalp from when Voldemort set the sorting hat on fire on my head or the one on my neck from when Bellatrix Lastrange pressed her cold, hard knife to my sweating skin. We're famous now, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Luna, me, and the rest of Dumbledore's Army, we even have our own chocolate frog cards, to which Ron practically cried when he first saw his. Even if we lost so much during those years we still made it a better place to live in, and I'm proud of that, and in all honesty I think it was worth it, all of it, just knowing that someday my kids are going to be able to go to Hogwarts without have in to face Voldemort or play quidditch and not have to use their patronus. That is if I do ever have children.

I hear a laugh and a woman with blond hair, pink cheeks and a warm smile enters the pub. She was carrying grocery bags as she made her way to the kitchen. I follow her with my eyes.
"Hannah, my shift is over!" A lady around 19 calls to her.
"Ok, I'll see you tomorrow!" She calls back and waves.

I smile finally recognizing her when she took off her robes and put down the bags. She is one of the many people who is in the D.A. Chocolate frog.
She comes over to the counter and starts cleaning a glass. "Hannah?" I ask, she was a Hufflepuff in my year. Suddenly her eyes get bigger and a tiny spark goes of in them, "Neville!" She exclaims, splitting a grin. "Fancy seeing you here, how have you been, we haven't talked since…" she suddenly stopped short and her smile got a little flatter but she still managed to look happy, "after Hogwarts" she finishes.

"I've been really good actually, taking care of the gardens, visiting family and friends, and just hanging around" I say trying not to make Hannah upset with the topic of the war. Hannah's mom had been murdered by some Deatheaters in our sixths year. We had been in herbology that day, an owl arrived to professor Sprout and as soon as she read the letter, a look of pure sadness crossed her face. She had pulled Hannah out of the greenhouse and talked to her, Hannah left crying and the next day Mcgonogall told us her mother had been murdered and she had gone to stay withe her dad for the rest of the year. To say I had been upset is an understatement, I was full of rage. That year I had developed a fancy for Hannah and to let Voldemort and his stupid deatheaters take away not only my family but also Hannah's had made me furious. That thought along with the fact that Harry was no going back to Hogwarts made me realize that I had to do something, so I took Harry's place as leader of Dumbledore's Army.

"Oh, that's right, you work at Hogwarts now, don't you!" Obviously my answer had done its job because Hannah was once again her cheerful self, "I always new you would get the job, you were the best in our year in Herbology, even better than Hermione". Her comment made blood start rushing to my face as I gave her a shy smile and my hands started sweating. Hearing her say that had also reminded me that I was talking to the girl, er, woman that I had fancied for years and obviously the part of Neville that was shy and clumsy around girls had not left because as soon as I picked up the butterbeer Hannah had handed me earlier, my hands started shaking so bad that it made the glass slip and fall to the floor, crashing into a million tiny pieces. I expected Hannah give me a glare and yell at me to get out or smack me upside the head like my gran always did but she just giggled a bit and with a swish of her wand the glass that had been previously littered on the floor was now in the waste basket next to the counter.

"I'm so sorry Hannah, here I'll pay for the glass!" I exclaimed frantically , my face turning a shade of red that would give the Weasley hair a run for its money. "Nonsense Neville, it's fine, just one out of millions I have." I had always wondered why she was not in Gryffindor, she was brave and courageous, but what she said made me remember why she was in Hufflepuff, she had the kindest heart that any living thing could have.

"No really Hannah take it, I'll feel horrible for the rest of my life if you don't", I may have exaggerated but I did want her to take it. "Fine, but only because I don't want you to be miserable", she teased with a smirk playing in her lips. I laughed as she took the galleon from me and put it in a jar that was to collect money for the casualties of the war.

"So how have you been Hannah?" I ask a bit awkwardly.
"Great" she says, "Tom left me the Leakey and I'm fixing it up."
"That's nice" I say and she nods.
I tell Hannah how I've been and she tells me everything that happens in the pub.

"It was great talking to you again Neville" she tells me honestly as I put on my jacket to go visit my gran.
"Yeah, it was" I agree. "And Hannah?"
"Yeah?" She asks
"If you ever need anything, I'm just a floo away"
"Thank you Neville, I hope we can talk again some other time"
"Yeah, that'll be nice" I nod my head and wink at her as I head out the door. I turn around one last time and see her smiling a she talks to one of the employees.
I disaparate to Hogsmade, wishing that I have another free hour this week to visit the famous pub.