Author's note: I do not own these characters. The fabulous J.K. Rowling is the one who gave us Neville Longbottom and the fabulous backdrop of Hogwarts to play in. The other characters have grown out of the fun pastime of HP role play. As such I would like to give special thanks to Sirius Lupin, Fubsadoo, Grae Black, Kean, Cirdan, Storm and Natialya for letting me play with their role play characters in this small drabble.
36 years after the events of the Deathly Hallows
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"They're here," the fifth year Gryffindor with dyed red hair announced from the door to the greenhouse. "You asked me to tell you when they arrived," she added uncertainly.
"Thank you Miss Valentine," Neville answered with a nod. "I'm assuming Professor Lupin met them at the train?" It was fitting that the Muggle studies professor should meet their guests.
He thanked her as she gave a silent nod and he nearly jogged to the castle to try to spare them all any unnecessarily embarrassing moments.
Nev looked up at the large portrait of fruit and reached out to tickle the pear, which opened the door of the Hogwarts kitchens. The elves had the afternoon off and two Ravenclaw students were taking on the task of preparing tea and cookies for the arriving visitors. They had both tossed aside their student robes and had added cooking aprons over their trousers. The older one, David, wore his apron turned over at the waist and was wearing a traditional floppy chef's hat. The younger man, Declan, wore his apron to cover his shirt as well as his trousers and had opted for a more modern looking beanie to keep his hair out of his face.
"Did you just double up on the sugar?" David asked Dec as he stared into the bowl with a worried frown.
Dec returned the frown with a glare. "You saw me measure everything out. The sugar was in that bowl. It was the right amount."
"Fine, but you're going to be the one serving them out, so you'd better hope you did it right," David reminded.
"Why am I the one?" Dec grumbled.
"Because I'm far too old to be a student here. I'm sure that Hogwarts would like to keep me quietly in the kitchens tonight with the house elves." David ended that by sticking his tongue out at Declan.
Normally Neville would have argued with David Macmillan's desire to hide, but if the man was feeling insecure about completing his education ten years later than all of his peers, nothing good would come of forcing him out to meet their guests. He gave an easy wave to both students and slipped out of the kitchens to seek out the hospital wing.
The rare bit of warm sunlight lighted the tall room. At the far end, Neville noticed Jared Baker who had been one of his first students, years ago. It was nice to see their students becoming professionals, and even nicer when those professionals would come back to help the school for a favor on short notice. He recognized the man talking with Baker as one of the new psychologists at St. Mungos Hospital for Magical Maladies, but he had never been formally introduced.
"Healer Baker," Neville greeted with a warm smile that offered congratulations at earning that title as well as thanks for filling in for the missing Mediwitch. He turned to the man with golden curls and tan and offered his hand. "Deputy Headmaster Longbottom," he offered his formal title. "Please call me Neville."
The man gave an easy smile and shook Neville's hand. "That's quite the mouthful isn't it?" he offered in a teasing tone. "I'm Nicholace D'Mortefay. I prefer to be called Nico, though." He then confirmed Neville's guess at his career.
"Nico, then, I'm very pleased to meet you," Neville answered with a smile. "And that's a mouthful and a headache to go with it."
Nico gave an understanding chuckle. "Luckily I see my patients one or two at a time...a whole school full? Forget a saint...they should make you a pope."
Neville glanced around the hospital wing to make sure there were no students present. "The kids are easy, it's the teachers that can drive one round the bend."
"So much for adults being the sane and mature ones huh?"
"Dream on," Neville laughed. "Speaking of, I need to make sure the adults who teach here have tidied their classrooms and are ready to greet the parents we're expecting any minute."
Nico flashed a teasing grin. "Of course, if these guys drive you crazy enough you just might have to come and see me."
"I would rather send you my problem grown ups, and now I really must go get my people in line. It was nice to meet you," Neville told the man. He said his goodbyes to the shrink and the Healer and made his way toward the classrooms on the fourth floor.
He came round the corner and nearly froze in his tracks. "Professor Kaishu, why is all of your office furniture out in the hall on Parents' Day?"
"Did you not ask me to give my office and classroom a thorough cleaning?" the astronomy professor asked in a deadpan.
"I'm quite sure I asked everyone to do that last week so Hogwarts would be spick and span for company," Neville snapped back in complete frustration.
"I've been too busy to deal with trifles until this afternoon," Kaishu rejoined. "You wanted it done. I'm doing it now."
Neville swore in a thorough disparaging list about the professor's lineage, parenting and upbringing until he saw the saucer round eyes of a third year student coming out of Kaishu's classroom. He cut himself off abruptly at the sight of the child and settled for staring daggers at the impassive astronomy professor. He would simply have to close that hallway.
He heard muffled groans of pain from the room down the hall. For Merlin's sake, he seemed to have forgotten to ask the rookie Auror to reschedule the Defense Association meeting to another day. He knocked on the door to the room of requirement and upon entering found it had chosen to be a martial arts gym that day. Two of the older students were sparring with Ryker, the Auror who had graduated Hogwarts himself only last spring. Ryker clearly had the upper hand.
"Um, Ryker, I meant to talk to you last week. We have some people stopping through to see the school, and I was hoping we could make things look a little less... militant?" he tried.
The young Auror was already committed and finished throwing the larger boy over his shoulders and pinning him to the mat before lifting his eyes to silently acknowledge the deputy headmaster. When the boy tapped the mat twice to signal that he was yielding and wanted to be let up, Ryker released him, helped him up and gave him a formal bow of respect for the attempt. "Do you tink dey might understand extra curricular activities?" Ryker asked in a Cajun drawl.
Neville gave a nod. He understood the merit of clubs in general and ones that taught self defense in particular, so he offered a compromise. "If we could avoid the words war and curses, I would consider it a personal favor," Neville told him. "Unless you would like to force all the furniture back into Professor Kaishu's office."
"You'd rather I fight with da dust bunnies?" After an amused smirk he nodded. "Don worry professor. I'm trained to keep secrets. If dis class be one of dem I can easily cut class short tonight...and with your permission headmaster, start it up earlier tomorrow."
"That would make a fine trade," Neville offered his hand to shake. "It's a deal." With a satisfied nod, he walked away thinking about the beauty of deflecting two Dementors with one Patronus.
In the charms classroom he smiled as he spotted Professor Natailya Tarasov helping a fourth year student, Noel Fielding, with a particularly tricky charm.
"Make the movement from your elbow," she suggested, "and keep your wrist still, like you're holding a pencil."
Just then Cirdan of the Wizard rock band "Runespoor' entered the room at a near run. "We don't have anywhere to set up the amp..."
Swish and flick, the room was filled with feathers. Neville stared from the student to the hapless victim of the wayward spell. Runespoor's drummer was now an eight-foot tall electric blue chicken.
"Professor can you fix this?" Neville asked Natailya before bolting from the room.
He was out into the afternoon breeze just as Teddy Lupin's turquoise hair came into view as the teacher led the Muggle parents to their first view of the school their children would attend in the fall.
**********The End**********
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