Stitch Me Up
Tress Blues
The Question
"Professor?" James gulped, knocking on the door of the Greenhouse.
Neville lifted his head enough to show he had registered James' presence as he hastily scribbled his last comments on one of his Second Year's essays. "Come in James." He looked up as the Seventh Year approached his desk and smiled. "How are you?"
"G-Good, Professor." James swallowed his nerves, unsuccessfully.
"Call me Neville, James," his teacher laughed as he sat back in his chair. "What can I help you with?"
"Well…you see- sir- I…er, I wanted to ask you a question." James stammered out.
Neville hid his smile but it was nearly impossible considering how amusing it was to see the suave teenager reduced to nerves. "Alright, what's the question?"
"I-um- I want-I need- I-I-I think I need to sit down." James gasped, sitting in on of the stools behind the benches.
"Take your time," Neville urged but having caught the sight of a little black box in James' possession not long ago, he had already guessed what James wanted to ask. But he decided to make the kid sweat a little first and since becoming a teacher, he knew how to make students nervous.
"Alright…" James wheezed and after a few minutes, he spoke, his voice quiet but with growing determination. "Sir, I wanted to ask you something. About Alice."
Alice Longbottom and James Potter had been inseparable from the time they were babies.
It was half due to the fact that their parents were good friends and half due to the fact that ever since James had pulled toddler Alice's hair and she'd whacked him for it, he'd thought she was pretty cool.
The pair were closer than they were to their own siblings and fiercely protective of one another. This, of course, stretched from people who pestered James for being the son of Harry Potter to wayward boys who flirted with Alice to get their Herbology marks raised.
Alice was her mother's daughter; curly blonde hair, fair skin, a tiny stature that made her seem deceptively fragile. But as her family discovered during her Sorting ceremony, she was a Gryffindor at heart like her Daddy and it definitely flourished at school. Alice was stubborn and nonsensically committed to helping everyone.
James, on the other hand, was a destructive mix of Weasley and Potter: he had a knack for trouble, a certain penchant for bravery to the point of stupidity. He was a dark auburn-haired, brown eyed, freckly piece of wizard who charmed girls like it was going out of style.
But even through their first years of Hogwarts when it was uncool for boys and girls to be friends, their bond withheld the teasing and scrutiny and in the end, they came out of it closer than ever.
A little too close for Neville's liking.
"They're just friends, love," Hannah said. "You never used to have a problem with them."
"You mark my words," Neville replied. "They won't stay that way for long."
It wasn't a secret that James liked to date pretty girls but it certainly a surprise to everyone but Neville when he and Alice came home from school in the Summer of Sixth year to announce that they were both mad for each other.
It'll never last, the public said.
Be careful or you'll ruin your friendship, their parents warned.
If I see a single finger on her in my presence, you'll regret it, growled Neville.
"Yes…?" Neville drawled.
"It's really…important." James said, slowly. "Because I know how much she loves her family. How much she wants your approval."
"Go on." Neville urged, casually studying the essays in his hand again.
"And so I need you to know that I'd never do anything to hurt her," James' voice was stronger as he spoke about Alice. "That I'd do anything to protect her and keep her happy."
"Keep her?" Neville said, idly. "You want to keep my daughter?"
"Not like that!" James rushed. "I meant, make her happy not keep her in the house or anything- I-I know she wants to go into the Ministry and I'd never try to stop her or anything…"
"Deep breaths James," Neville reminded the boy, idly.
"Right." James breathed. "I meant that I want her to be happy. As happy as she can possibly be."
"To make it easier on you?" Neville asked, raising his eyebrows. "Relationships aren't always happy."
"I know," James rushed on. "I want her to be happy because she deserves it. She wants to go into Beast Division Regulations, you know? For Aunt Padma?"
Padma Thomas had been bitten by a werewolf during the Battle of Hogwarts and had been badly mangled in the incident. Her husband, Dean Thomas, one of Hannah's closest friends, had married her in spite of what she considered to be her burden and they now had two children, twin girls, Poppy and Holly.
But Padma was still mistreated within society, despite her status as a War Hero. Neville knew how much it incensed his daughter to see the injustice and prejudice of the old ways still lingering now.
"I know." Neville agreed, observing the way James' eyes glazed over when he spoke about Alice and how his mouth quirked upward into a proud smile.
"And, anyway, I wanted to- I wanted to ask if-" James seemed to be summoning his courage so Neville cut in, his gaze still fixed on his essays.
"Did you know that there are seven ways the Hydra Plant of Southern Ethiopia can kill you?" the Longbottom patriarch asked, innocently. "Strangulation, biting, poisonous leaves, roots, and flowers, inch long thorns that can make you bleed out if you fall on one. Not to mention that some of the heads have hypnotic powers. They can make you want to throw yourself off a cliff if you're not careful."
James frowned, confused. "N-No. Sir. Neville. Professor?"
"And the Flutterby Bush? It seems pretty harmless but the roots are absolutely deadly when they're mixed with food." Neville continued, absent-mindedly. "And what's more, it's completely undetectable. It looks like a heart attack from the outside."
"R-Really?" James gulped.
"That's just two species. There's a whole world of poisons and malevolent instinctual responses in Herbology. My Second Years had to write essays," Neville explained, waving the parchment. "On a deadly plant they found interesting. It's a fun assignment actually, I remember you did it way back when." He chuckled.
James looked pale. "The Nigerian Axe Tree."
"Yes, that's it." Neville recalled, leaning back. "A spectacular kind of plant that waits for its prey to rest before it drops its razor sharp branches right across them." He seemed to startle himself back into reality and he turned back to James. "Sorry James, what were you going to ask?"
Every inch of courage James had went into his next question. "I wanted your blessing, Mr Longbottom. To marry Alice."
Neville couldn't deny he was impressed, considering the boy's pallor. He'd thought he would've given in by now and asked another day. But of course, that wasn't James Potter. The boy who never ran away, the teachers called him.
Because whether it be a school yard fight or helping someone else or getting in trouble, James did not run or flinch or cower.
It simply wasn't in his blood.
"Hmm." Neville said, contemplatively. "I want to ask you a question James."
"Yes sir?"
"You want to keep Alice safe?"
"Yes."
"You love her?"
"With everything I am," James admitted, honestly.
"You want to make her happy?"
"Of course."
"Even if it's not with you?"
James paused. "…Even if it's not with me." He finally agreed.
Neville sighed. "James do you have any idea how stressful it is to be thrown out into the world, expected to make a living and pay for yourself and become a self reliant adult?" He stood out of his chair and rubbed his eyes. "You and Alice have only months to graduation."
"I was going to ask her at Graduation, actually." James admitted.
"And to add the pressure of marriage to all that?" Neville continued. "You'll drive yourselves mad trying to keep up and the last thing I want is for you to crack under that insane workload."
"Alice and I could do it." James challenged.
"I'm sure you could," Neville agreed. "But would you come out of it for the better? James, marriage is for two, mature and respecting adults. It's for people who are ready to commit to one another through everything-"
"I am ready to commit to Alice!" James stood up, affronted.
"I know you are," Neville countered. "But are you telling me you'd both be okay with the immensely long hours you'll both be going through? You with Auror training and her working from the bottom of the Ministry? It's nothing to take lightly, James, it's hard work."
"We could do it." James repeated. "We're in love."
"You're both still young." Neville reminded him gently. "Hannah and I nearly broke up during her Healer Training. It's a lot of lonely nights and days without seeing each other. And with the added expectations of marriage?"
"My parents did it." James rebutted, trying not to seem sulky. "You and Hannah got married early too."
"To be honest James, we had a hell-bound War that made us mature a lot faster than any of us would've expected." Neville explained.
"So what? Because I don't have a war, I can't marry Alice earlier than most?" James snapped.
"I'm not saying that. I'm saying that a lot was sacrificed so that you could grow into your maturity," Neville said, reasonably. "Not be pushed into it. Your father was wiser than anyone should've been by the age of fourteen, James but it wasn't his choice. I'm not saying, go off and explore being with other people. I'm saying that you need to give whatever you two have, enough time to grow into what you want it to be."
"It's not fair." James moaned. "All I want is her. Why can't we just be together?"
Neville took a seat beside the young wizard. "Wouldn't you rather wait a year, focus on maintaining yourselves outside of school and your families so that when you do get married- when, not if- you can give it everything you have?"
"I hate it when you make sense." James complained, lightly. "But I get it."
"A year or so," Neville said firmly. "Give it a year or so and then come back to me and ask again, alright? And I will be happy to give you every bloody blessing I can think of."
James laughed and stood up but Neville put a hand on his shoulder and shoved him back in his seat. "And James?"
"Yes?" he asked, confused.
"Remember- I'm a Herbology professor. That world of poisons and malevolent instinctual responses? I know all of it. And I will not hesitate to use it, should you hurt my Alice." Neville smiled, warmly. "Clear?"
James stood and made his way to the door, his face a little paler. "Crystal. Sir."
Neville waited until he'd gone and leaned back in his seat, chuckling. "Sir. I could get used to that."
