A/N: I know there hasn't been much Neville/Ginny "lovey-dovey" time but it's coming. I promise. I'm just trying to get them where I need them to be for what's in my head to work right now. I'll have it in the next chapter. Once I get writing/typing a lot more comes out then I originally planned and I get sidetracked. Also, this has a part from Natalie's POV. One last thing, I changed the summary so it went with more of the story then just the start.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, spells, or places you may recognize. I am sure I'll make up people, places and such though. That is one point of being an author. There also may be a few lyric excerpts through out the story. I'll put the title and artist of those at the end of the chapter.
Chapter 4: One Step Closer
Nev's POV
"She's coming with us. I refuse to say no to her," is the first thing she says.
"Look Gin, I know you want to let her come, but think about this logically for a minute. You're a witch and I'm a wizard. We do magic, often. We can't move in with a muggle then let her leave with us. There's no way she wouldn't catch us doing some magic." I try to reason with her.
"Well, simple, we just won't do magic then."
"Are you serious? We both grew up in pure blood families. Everything our parents taught us growing up was magic. Honestly, do you know how hard it would be to do things with out magic or simply not to do it at all? Then you have to think what about all of our things? Cloaks, cauldrons, broomsticks, our wizarding books and so many other gadgets we have. It was easy to hide when we were staying with people a week or so, but this is different. Are we just going to throw it all out because you really like a girl you just met yesterday? Please explain the simplicity there."
"Okay maybe not simple," she says after a minute. As well as I know and understand her, I really wonder sometimes how she comes to the conclusions she does. "We'd tell her then. You said yourself that we can't not do magic and I want her to come with us."
"I'm not too sure that's a good idea either Gin. Who knows how she'd react to that news."
"Okay Neville, let me explain my way of thinking to you about this, then maybe you'll understand." She takes a deep breath and I can tell already that whatever is in her head will convince me. Come to think of it, she always convinces me in the end. "Natalie wants to get out of her life here. Just like we wanted to before." That said, I already caved. "She has money saved which means she has wanted to for awhile now, it's not spur of the moment. The only thing stopping her is the fear of going some place new alone. Then here we come along and she thinks she may have a chance. I had you Nev. With out you I never would have left. If we are the only chance at freedom she has do you really want to be the one to deny her that? What if someone stopped us?"
I sit and contemplate for a few moments. I already know I'll let Natalie come, but I don't need Gin to know she convinced me so easily. If she always gets her way at least I'll let her work hard for it. "You're right, I wouldn't want to be the one to deny her that. And what if when she says she's actually leaving this Eddie she mentioned decides he wants to come with her?" I ask.
"I didn't think of that. I guess he'd be coming with us too. If I tell her she can come there is no backing out. I won't get her hopes up then knock them down because her friend wants to come along. So, what do you say?"
"Okay, we tell her the truth about us, the wizard and witch part I mean, and depending on her reaction we either obliviate her or she comes. Does that sound good enough to you?"
Gin's POV
"Thank you so much honey. I'm proud of you. This is a good thing you are doing for her and for me. Plus, we'll get to have a real friend again, not just people we meet in passing. She'll be with us to stay. I really like her already. So did you." I rush out at him. I would have been sadder to leave her then any of the other people we met so far. I don't know why, but we just really clicked. Now I just have to hope she takes our news well.
"How do you suppose we tell her?" Nev asks me.
Time break
It's nearly time for Natalie's shift to end and I'm on my way to meet her. We decided to bring her back to the hotel and tell her there. We'll definitely need the privacy. I really hope she doesn't freak out about this. It's not everyday you meet a witch or wizard. I think she'll be okay with it though. She seems like she's the type of person who would actually be in complete awe of it all. Maybe if this works out we can bring her to Diagon Alley one day before we leave. Ha, that would be worth seeing her reaction to. As I approach her I smile brightly. She relaxes just a bit.
"Hey Natty," I start out, "I need you to come back to the hotel with me. We have to ask you some questions and then tell you some things about ourselves. I promise this isn't like some death trap either. I just realized how weird that sounded. We just need to talk to you some where privately because of what we have to tell you."
She laughs a little while saying, "Oh, I don't think you have any idea how weird that sounded. I'll come with you though. I know you wouldn't be asking me to if there were no chance of you guys letting me come. So lets get moving."
Natty's POV
Sitting across from them on the bed in their room I am more excited then I should be. This would be a time to be nervous really. I have no idea what they have to tell me or ask me really. And it's obvious the outcome of this conversation is the deciding factor on me joining them or not.
"Do you want to ask your questions first or tell me whatever you needed to about yourselves?" I ask, anxious to break the silence.
Ginny nods at Neville and he begins, "I guess we'll start with the questions. The first that I, personally, would like to know is why do you want to leave? And how long have you wanted to really?"
"Well, I've wanted to for a few years now. I just," here I pause because I don't know exactly what to tell them, "I guess I have several reasons for wanting to leave. I don't really fit in anywhere here. I never have. Eddie is the only real friend I have. I have no family left here. And since my parents died in an accident three years ago I don't really talk to any of my family. I guess I'm the town loner..." I trail off not really wanting to finish that thought. I hate talking about my pathetic life. I want a new start. In a place nobody knows me and I can be myself and finally have friends. Even just the two of them would be fine for new friends. I just want something different than what I have now.
Probably realizing I'm not going to continue he asks the next question, "If we were to let you come, would Eddie decide to come too? Do you think the realization that you're actually leaving would take away his resistance to go?"
I laugh at this quickly before sobering up. I'm not sure why they're asking that. Do they think I won't go with them anymore if Eddie wanted to go? Would that be what they want to happen? If he did want to come, would they let him come along with them? "That's hard to say actually. He doesn't really have anything tying him here. So I'm not sure why he was unwilling to go with me before. So I guess that depends on what's been holding him back. I just don't know what that could be. So, unfortunately my answer is I don't know."
"And you could definitely get us both jobs for a month or so to make extra money?" I guess my answer was accepted if he moved on.
"I could absolutely get you jobs. It's perfect actually everyone there has been complaining about not getting vacations. So you guys could fill in through out the time people take off. I would just need to know which positions you would or wouldn't be able to fill, but we can deal with that when we have a definite decision here."
Neville nods to Ginny and I assume that means he's asked all he had to and was satisfied with my answers. It's her turn now, "Do you believe in magic?"
I blink. "What?"
"I said do you believe in magic?"
"In the sense of a miracle? Or in the sense of like wizards and witches and all the Halloween stuff?" I ask, completely baffled at the turn in questioning.
"In the wizards and witches sense," she says. They are both watching me intently.
"I've certainly never seen any proof of that kind of magic, but I suppose it is possible it could exist," I answer. Is this seriously part of the decision? Or are they just messing with me?
"What if I told you I could show you proof?" Gin asks next. I look between her and Neville trying to figure out what in the world is going on.
"And what kind of proof of that could you have? I've never heard of anyone having proof of magic," I say skeptically. I watch them turn and grin at each other and start to feel rather nervous for my safety. "What is going on you two?"
They don't answer me. They both just extracted what looked like a wooden stick out of their pockets and turn to face me. Now I'm extremely nervous for my safety. No, skip nervous I'm terrified. Gin seemed so normal when I met her. Now she's acting mental!
"Are you willing to trust us?" Neville asks.
"I'm not too sure about that right now," I say, poorly hiding my nerves. "You two are acting like you're mental."
They laugh at me. They actually laugh! Just as I'm deciding to sneak away while they're distracted Gin starts talking to me. "Natty you'll have to trust us right now. I know we seem mental to you. And if I were in your position I'd feel the same way, but this is what we need to tell you. Magic exists, witches and wizards exist, and we have proof for you."
"Wait, are you telling me that you are a witch and he is a wizard?" I half scream. They nod. Nod. All they can manage is to nod at me! I'm starting to go slightly hysteric. "Fine, fine. Just show me your proof. You'll have to prove it to me! This is not a funny joke!"
"Okay, we'll try making this fun too," Neville says. With that he lifts his stick at the wall and murmurs something I can't understand. "Now, are you willing to trust us? We're willing to trust you or we wouldn't have told you this. Now we need to know if you're willing."
"Okay," I whisper quietly. Then nod in case they didn't hear.
"Stand up a few feet away from this wall facing the room."
As I do what he instructed, all I can think is "What did I just get myself into?"
"Good. Now watch what Gin does and do the same." With that said Ginny gets a running start and propels herself at the wall. She bounces off while laughing uncontrollably. "Your turn."
"You want me to run into the wall?" I ask just to make sure.
"Well we were just going to have you fall back into it, but if you rather run go ahead. It is funner that way. We just figured you could test it for yourself first."
So I do test it. I fall backwards waiting for the hard impact. Instead I'm pleasantly surprised when I land on a soft, fluffy surface. I instantly turn and feel at the wall and still it's that fluffiness. This is insane. The wall should be hard. I'm starting to believe them now. How else would the wall be like that? With that thought in mind, I walk across the room, turn and sprint at the wall like I had just seen Ginny do, in the background I notice them grinning at me, and just like her, I bounce off laughing.
"Okay now I trust you more," I say once I calm down a bit, "but I want another piece of proof."
Ginny pulls out her stick, which I now realize must be a magic wand or something of the sort, and points it at me. I tense at first but realize she most likely wouldn't do anything to hurt me. "Tarantallegra!" she shouts. A beam of light comes at me and suddenly my legs are moving around uncontrollably and dancing like crazy. I try to stop it and can't. Now I really believe them.
"Okay! Okay! I believe you. Just stop my legs. Please?" I plead with her. She does as I ask.
"So, do you still want to join us now that you know our secret?" Ginny asks nervously and I notice Neville looks just as nervous. That must have been a big decision to tell me. I can understand why though. They must have expected me to flip out, well a lot worse than I did.
"I'm still in!" I answer.
Nev's POV
"Oh thank Merlin. We thought you might change your mind." Ginny says to Natalie.
"So, about this arrangement then. If we're still welcome to move in with you, we'd like to. And we'll definitely need the jobs you said you could get us. And you'll have to let us know about Eddie once you tell him you'll be leaving. We need to know if he'll want to come because then we'll have to go through this again." I say getting straight to business.
"Always so serious aren't you honey? Can't even wait and she what questions she has about what we just told her?" Gin teases me.
"Right, right. Do you have any questions Natalie?"
"Yes! I have a dozen. I think the best way to go about this is you just tell me about your childhood and stuff. I'll ask the questions as I see fit," she says excitedly. "Oh, and I think you'll have to retell me the story about why you guys ran away. I'm starting to think a good amount of it had been left out because of this secret."
As the girls sit down to talk I excuse myself. I'm rather relieved this worked out the way it did. I know Gin would have been heart broken if she had reacted differently. She didn't want to have to leave Natalie behind. I'm glad how it all went down too though. I wouldn't have wanted to leave her behind either. Not after her reason for leaving. When she was talking about not really having friends and being the town loner I could tell she hated that about herself. I hated it when my life was like that back in the early years of school. Not many people wanted to be friends with forgetful and and blundering Neville. And she has a personality to match Gin so I can't imagine her not wanting to have friends. Gin can't wait to settle down and make lasting friends finally. We're getting there though. We're one step closer now with Natalie's help. We're one step closer to ending up who and how we want to be.
A/N: Like I said up top. I'll make sure the next chapter has some nice fluffy Neville/Ginny time. Thanks for reading, I hope you liked this chapter. Review if you'd like to.
