RA Day 24: Only your soulmate can hurt you.
AN: Given the soulmate AU, I can only interpret this as a world where there is no war, because there can be no mass killings.
It starts with a spade.
Well, no.
That's not quite right.
It really starts with an exploding bubotuber and a frown from Professor Sprout and an insistence that Daphne gets help before her abysmal Herbology skills become deadly.
Sprout sends her to Neville Longbottom, who Daphne could identify in passing but knows very little about.
Neville, it turns out, is soft-spoken but firm, his lessons conveyed in a quiet voice, in words that make things click together in her mind in a way they never have before.
It's not long before it's not really about Herbology anymore.
Neville brings her favourite chocolates from Honeydukes sometimes, and can always tell when she's had a bad day. He listens, and he's perceptive and sharp, always cutting straight to the heart of her issue.
He seems surprised when she tells him she wants to listen in return.
She gets the impression that no one has ever really stopped and listened to Neville before. He has a lot to say, though, once he starts.
He talks to her about Herbology, but also about other things — about what being a Gryffindor means, about how he feels a lot of pressure to live up to his parents, about what he wants to do after school.
And Daphne talks back.
One day, Daphne realizes they aren't just a tutor and his tutee anymore. They're friends.
From there, it's an easy slide into best friends — he takes her to Honeydukes and helps her pick out her own chocolates. She teaches him to feel comfortable on a broom for the first time.
When Daphne falls asleep on a table in the library, Neville carries her all the way to the Slytherin Common Room without waking her; Daphne isn't even sure how. She just knows that when she wakes up, Astoria — who let him in — won't stop smirking at her.
It's soft and it's easy and he makes her smile. It's not what Daphne expected when she started failing Herbology, but she's not complaining.
…
So it starts with an exploding bubotuber and a frown from Professor Sprout and an insistence that Daphne gets help before her abysmal Herbology skills become deadly.
But it all changes because of a spade.
They're in Greenhouse Three, Daphne prepping for an upcoming while Neville re-pots some plants for Sprout, and Neville asks Daphne to toss him a spade.
Daphne does, except that she's not thinking and she actually tosses it — she knows better by now, she knows that Neville can't catch to save his life.
But he reaches out anyway, tries to grab the spade, and hisses in surprise.
His hand is bright red.
"Is that… blood?" Daphne asks, staring at it in shock. She's never seen blood before. It's shockingly red against his pale skin.
"I… I think…" Neville says, and then he drops to the ground in a dead faint.
"Shit," Daphne says.
…
In the end, Daphne levitates him toward the hospital wing, where Madam Pomfrey deals with all the cases of flu and colds that go around, but before they get halfway there, Neville is waking up and Daphne is setting him down gently and then they're staring at each other, taking in the realization that they are soulmates.
They are meant to be.
Daphne wasn't looking for a soulmate. Her parents aren't soulmates. They aren't always easy to find.
But she doesn't think she minds it being Neville.
…
When she tells Astoria that she and Neville are dating now, Astoria tips her head back and laughs and laughs and laughs.
"What?" Daphne asks.
"You mean you weren't before?" Astoria shoots back.
And Daphne thinks about it. Thinks about late nights and hot chocolates and Honeydukes and the way it feels to tuck her head into the crook of Neville's shoulder.
"Oh," she says.
Astoria looks at her face and starts laughing all over again.
Writing Month/Dragons: 647
Auction: House: Slytherin, 65 coins
Romance Awareness: Day 24
Holmes: Trope: Didn't know they were dating.
Debate: Starting, Hogwarts
Seasonal: Days of the Year: National Cheese Day: Write a really cheesy romance.
Gryffindor Themed Prompts: Neville
Count Your Buttons: D3: is that… blood?
Lyric Alley: 24. Yeah, that's what we've become
Sophie's Shelf: 10. DaphneNeville