THC: Round 5

House: Ravenclaw

Class subject: Herbology

Story Category: Standard

Prompt(s): [multiple characters] The Longbottoms (Alice and Frank)

Word count: 1110

Notes: Had to fill in blanks from canon so it might not be 100% accurate.

Cozy Little Cottage

Alice had a wonderful dream on the night of her engagement. Curled up in bed next to Frank, she dreamt about a cozy little cottage somewhere in the countryside with vines wrapped around the exterior. Inside, it's filled with beautiful furniture and the smell of food is wafting from the kitchen. In the dream, Alice has made Frank's favorite food, a wedding band is on her finger, and there's a child on her hip.

She remembered the dream when she woke up and told Frank all about it, but she didn't remember much about the child. She just knew that she had seen their future child in her dream and that she would love that child with all of her heart.

"It's too dangerous," Frank stated looking at his friends for back-up.

"And why is it too dangerous?" Lily Potter pressed. "Because she's a woman?"

"No," Frank shook his head. He knew his wife was more than capable of going on a mission, "Not because of that. It's because she's pregnant and should know better than to throw herself into a dangerous situation."

"I thought we were going to wait to tell them," Alice huffed, upset that the surprise had been ruined.

"You should have thought about that before you volunteered to go on a death mission."

"It's not a death mission, Frank," Sirius drawled from where he was seated. He hadn't bothered to look up from the newspaper he was skimming over.

"Well, now I agree it's far too dangerous," Lily's eyes softened as she looked at Alice. "Besides I'm in the same boat."

If they were shocked by Alice's pregnancy, then the room was doubly shocked about Lily's. Sirius looked at his best friends in disbelief, completely rendered speechless.

"Well, now you'll have company while we go on this mission," Frank stated.

"I hate that we have to sit here while they enjoy the fun," Lily scowled turning to Alice who nodded in agreement.

Later when they were tucked into bed, Frank turned to Alice, kissed her on the cheek, and said, "If you won't stay safe for yourself then stay safe for the baby."

That night, Alice dreamed about the child again. She didn't see a face nor could she make out anything about the child. She just knew that in her dream the child was about three and clung to her no matter where she went in the cottage.

She smiled in her sleep and couldn't wait for the child to become a reality. She couldn't wait for the day that she got to hold the child in real life and watch them grow.

"I love you," she cried as the spells wormed their way into her body. She didn't know if Frank could hear her from where he was being kept but she just kept saying over and over again.

She thought about the day Frank proposed to her how he had been obviously nervous all day and she couldn't pinpoint why. The way his hands shook slightly as he led her to where their friends had set up the surprise picnic. His usually stable voice had been thick with unshed tears as he got through his speech. Alice remembered being caught off guard despite wanting Frank to propose to her. Everyone had told them they were too young and should think about it. For a while, it seemed like Frank took that to heart but in reality, he had been planning the proposal for ages. He wanted it to be perfect because as he stated later to Alice, "she deserved perfect".

She thought about their wedding next as Bellatrix's laughter rang through her head. It had been a very small ceremony, but Alice wouldn't have changed anything about it. All she needed was her friends and Frank and that's what she got. She hadn't even worn a typical wedding dress instead she opted for a tea-length midnight blue gown. Frank had told her she looked stunning anyway. They had danced and laughed the entire night and Alice knew she made the right choice. Frank had swept her off her feet both figuratively and literally when he walked her into the apartment.

Neville's birth was the happiest moment of both Alice and Frank's lives. They had both been excited to be parents and give Neville the love he deserved.

Alice knew that she wasn't going to be able to give her son that anymore.

She didn't know how Frank was holding up. They had taken them to two separate rooms and the walls between them muffled any sounds. Alice was just glad they left Neville with his grandmother and that the Death Eaters hadn't gotten to him.

Alice knew her time was approaching. Her mind had been slipping for a while now as she reminisced on the life she had and the one she wished she could have.

Frank gripped onto her hand tightly no matter where they went in the hospital. Neither of them remembered much but they remembered each other. Just barely. Alice knew that she loved Frank and that he loved her. She couldn't piece anything together and often she was too far in her head to think about anything. The nurse told them when their friends came to visit them but Alice didn't remember any of them. Not like it mattered because they stopped coming after a while. No one told Alice that her friends had died. She wouldn't remember it anyway.

She patted Frank's hand as he mumbled some story to her. It sounded like a lovely story about a cozy little house in the countryside. Frank told her about the nice boy who lived in the house and how brave the little boy was. The boy, as Frank told her, had very nice parents who loved him very much but they couldn't see him as often as they would like. Alice thought it was a peculiar story since the boy was all alone in the house. She let her husband babble on and at night she would dream of the sweet boy who lived alone.

One day, Frank told her the sweet boy came to visit them, but Alice didn't believe her husband. By the next day, both of them had forgotten about the chubby-cheeked boy who looked at them with sadness in his eyes. Frank continued to tell her these wild stories about the boy, the boy continued to visit them, and Alice continued to dream about it all.

No matter who she forgot she never forgot Frank and he never left her side. They were together but something felt missing. Alice never quite figured out what it was.