Title: Catch a falling star (1/2)
Author: Altricial
E-mail: annabel@london.com
Category: Diabetic Fluff.
Rating: PG
Couple: Lavender Brown/Neville Longbottom
Feedback: *nods*
Warning: HET. HET. HET. I apologise.
Disclaimer: I own everything. Please sue. I'm bored.
The fic that wasn't supposed to happen wasn't supposed to have 2 fucking chapters. It's ok. I've come to a peaceful realisation that I talk too darn much. It's ok. Still, I apologise. And I've a sudden urge to write Lavender/Trelawney. I should probably apologise for that in advance as well. Especially to Krissy, for making Neville so darn adorable, and the rest at #malfoymanor.
Because there has always been heartache and pain
and when it's over you'll breathe again.
You'll breathe again.
"Lavender, where do you think you're going? It's past bedtime. Mcgonagall will throw a fit if she finds you wandering about at this time of the night," said Hermione Granger as she climbed eagerly into bed with a gigantic book of 'Redhead Wizards and How to Own One' for companion.
"Nowhere," came the curt reply from Lavender. She rolled her eyes and strolled purposefully towards the dorm door, not bothering to point out the stark irony of the situation. If anyone held the record for having most house points deducted for midnight adventures, it would be none other than Hermione herself, with Harry Potter and Ron Weasley thrown in for decorative purposes.
Anyway, she had more important business at hand. She had someone to hunt down. Fast. Taking one last glance at her reflection in the full-length talking-walking mirror and smoothing one stray strand of auburn hair down carefully on her cascading curls, she strode out of the dormitory, with a small box cradled in her arms, and into the common room, vaguely aware but not entirely sure why her stomach had chosen to perform some turbulent summersaults at this particular moment.
And there he was.
Just where she wanted him to be, curled up all alone by the roaring fireplace of the Gryffindor common room, casting forlorn shadows around the darkened room. The silence of the night sang a deafening hymn of shielded sorrows. Licks of stormy greys loomed predatorily upon the lingering red aura from the solitary boy. A trailing battle between hope and loss.
It unnerved her terribly. For a fleeting moment, she wondered if she should just run back to her room and forget everything she was seeing and has seen. But no, she couldn't bring herself to walk away, to walk away from a broken boy. And this wasn't just any boy, was he? She took a deep breath and moved silently across the burgundy carpeted floor. Very gently, she reached out and tapped him on the shoulder with her free hand, "Neville?"
He jumped and whirled around in surprise. He blinked. And blinked. Then finally a squeak, "Lavender?"
"Yeah, uh- hi, I didn't mean to shock you like that," She blushed and sat herself down gingerly next to Neville.
Another nervous squeak. "Oh! No, n-no, I was just, uh, I d-didn't expect anyone to be awake that's all."
"Uhm...would you rather be alone? I can go if you want-"
"No, no, uh." He cut her off mid-sentence and blinked a few more times at his intruder of the night, not entirely sure how to react. "I uh, you can, I mean, you can stay if you w-want to," he stuttered.
"Okay then," she smiled shyly then looked down at the little purple box resting on her lap. She fiddled with the glittery pink ribbon for an immensely uncomfortable moment before awkwardly shoved the box towards Neville with a simple, "This is for you."
The box gave an indignant yelp.
Neville stared wide-eye at the box, which was now making peculiar scratchy noises, and looked at Lavender, his brow creased in severe confusion, "F-for me?"
She nodded, looking down at her suddenly very fascinating fingernails.
He scratched his head. He poked the fidgety box carefully with one chubby finger then took it in his clammy palms and started to tear at the obscenely girly wrapping paper. A brown lidded box came into view.
He shoke it a little.
The box squeaked angrily.
He gulped.
Very slowly, he lifted the cover of the box, peered in and was very promptly attacked by a fluff monster.
He screamed.
Something, something furry and round, had propelled out of the box and had instantly latched itself onto his nose. It took a while but he eventually calmed down long enough to cross his eyes and squint down at his fuzzy attacker. He found himself staring back at beady black eyes and a twitching whiskered pink snout. He wriggled his nose with experimental curiousity and felt tiny little claws digging urgently into his pores.
Beady eyes, pink nostrils, whiskers, claws.
There was a gerbil on his nose.
He sincerely hoped it wouldn't choose this moment to defecate.
Neville very carefully pulled the rude attacker off his face and placed the wriggling rodent on the square of his palm. It scampered around in circles for a while and then latched itself onto Neville's thumb, where it curled snugly into a brown and white spotted fur ball, gave a happy yawn and fell straight into a sweet slumber.
Neville gaped at Lavender.
Lavender giggled madly.
"Uh, Lavender, what is this thing?" he asked, unsure. He stared at Lavender then back at the creature. "I m-mean, it is a gerbil," he answered his own question, "b-but why?"
"His name is Squeaker," Lavender giggled some more, "I thought you might like him, reminds me of you." She blushed prettily.
Neville scratched his head with his gerbil-free hand. "I l-like him, but- but why are you giving him to m-me?"
"Oh," her voice dropped to a hush. "I know about Trevor, Neville. And I'm really sorry." She looked down at her hands, shuffling uneasily.
He almost dropped the now snoring Squeaker in surprise, and his voice came out in an almost choked whisper. "H-how do you know about Trevor? I... haven't told anybody!"
"I saw it," she continued studying her hand, "I saw it all in my tarot spread and the scrying ball, I just.I didn't know what to do. I thought maybe you'd like a new friend."
Neville cracked a tiny smile, "I knew Professor Trelawney isn't as kooky as Ron thinks."
"You did?" Her eyes flew up to meet his, shocked, "I mean, I know she isn't, but I thought Parvati and I were the only ones."
"I do. I'm just not very- I am pathetic at Divination," he mumbled, "but I believe you, uh, I mean, her. I think she's n-not a kook."
"Thanks, Neville, it means a lot." Lavender smiled bashfully, "And you are not that bad at it really. I can help you, I mean, if you want." She looked back down at her hands.
Neville stared down at the little woolly fellow sound asleep against his thumb, then looked away. All he could see was Trevor. He missed his best friend. The only friend he had but Trevor is gone. Not lost this time. Gone. Forever. And nothing can replace the void in his heart. He blinked away the moisture clouding over his eyes, his voice quavering, "Lavender, I-I... I thank you a lot, but I don't.. don't think I'm ready for Squeaker yet. I-I'm sorry. But I do ap-appreciate it. A lot."
"Oh," she said, barely able to conceal the disappointment, "it's okay. I can understand that." And she did. She understood how it was like to lose a dear pet. She was shattered when her baby bunny passed away last year. How it was like to be overwhelmed with sobs when everything reminded her of soft, white fur. "I'll keep Squeaker for you, Neville," she picked the tiny fuzz-ball up and placed it oh so gently back into the box. "But whenever you are ready, just know that he is here for you," she bit her lip for a second and added, "I'm here for you too, Nev." She decided she liked calling him that.
Neville flushed crimson but managed a heart-felt smile. He nodded tentatively. "T-Thank you, Lavender. I...it means a lot to me, really."
Her cheeks coloured. There appeared to be a blushing competition between the two bashful teens on this quiet, soulful night. Lavender played with the hem of her robes, feeling ridiculously edgy. She stole a glance towards the huge window. The winking stars peeped at her from behind the lush mahogany velvet curtains. After a beat, she stood up all of a sudden, startling the poor confused boy, and tugged at his sleeve nervously, "Come with me, Nev, I want to show you something."
Neville blinked at her in surprise, "W-where are we going?" He quickly stood up to follow her, almost falling back to the ground as he tried to gain his balance from the fast movement.
She tugged the fumbling boy all the way to the window bathed in shimmer of the moonlit night. She stared up into the sky for a moment, her head tilting in all directions, as if searching for a lost star in the midnight blue. Turned out that was exactly what she was looking for. Finally she gave an excited squeal and pointed up above, "See that, Neville? Over there, on the right, where five stars form a loop-sided pentagram and the three little stars at the end?"
Neville stared thoughtfully up at the pentagram, squinting in curiousity, "Er... yeah, I see it... W-what am I looking for?"
"That's the Pisces constellation, Nev, your constellation. The Sign of sensitivity and selflessness. It's beautiful, isn't it? It is the fourteenth largest constellation." Lavender smiled wistfully into the cloudless sky.
Neville blinked, "Um, Lavender..." his face turned bright red at the words. "...w-why are you showing me this?"
"Because I want to show the things about you that are written in the stars. Things you don't believe you are. Bravery. Kindness. Compassion." She sighed, enthralled by the wonders held within one twinkling night sky. "And also because I know you like nature, Nev."
Neville opened his mouth, then closed it. He was starting to feel like a retarded fish. Finally he squeaked out a stunned, "You...do?"
"Yeah, I do." She chuckled lightly at the bewildered boy and returned her gaze towards the night. "I've seen the way you observe your surroundings. Most people think you are just spacing out, but they don't see the way your ears perk up at the chirp of a sparrow or the way your eyes dance with the falling leaves."
Neville gulped and made various vague shocked noises in his throat. He couldn't trust himself to speak.
"I'm like you too, you know? Just that I don't observe nature, I watch people."
"Uh, people?"
"Yes, people." Lavender nodded, still engrossed with the starry sights. "I watch the different ways people get on with their lives. I watch the popular people get caught up in their sweep of life-altering events. Like Harry and gang. They spin around in their world, blind to everyone else's. I watch the quiet characters become quieter. People like you and me. We blend into the background. I don't know about you, but I like it there. It's safe."
Neville nodded slightly, "Y-yeah, I agree, Lav," the nickname rolled off his tongue uncertainly. And he quickly turned his gaze to the ground before she could comment.
Lavender flushed, her cheeks stained an endearing cerise glow. She cleared her throat and blabbered, "I play my role as the ditzy superficial girl and I watch people believe that's who I am. I watch people never bothering to look underneath. I watch them not watching me. It sounds depressing but it really isn't. I watch and I learn. I learn who to trust and who not to." She stole a sideway glance at her jittery companion of the night and added, "Like I trust you."
Neville blanched, not knowing how to respond to that. Nobody has ever trusted him before. Not even his own Gran. The countless howlers and his impressive collection of rembralls. In fact, he had a feeling Trevor wouldn' t be hopping in line to trust him either, since he was lost half the time. Neville stared at Lavender. "Y-you trust...me?" he finally squeaked.
She nodded shyly then looked away, fidgeting with the curtain frills. Suddenly, she gasped, pointing back up into the sky, breaking the awkward silence, "Look over there, just next to Pisces, that's the Pegasus star! Pegasus is the thundering horse of Zeus, protector of the stars. Trevor is your Pegasus, Nev, he's looking out for you from way up high." She turned and touched her hand softly on Neville's droopy shoulder. "You have your very own guardian angel now."
His heart floated with hope, faith, dreams and everything else he thought he had lost together with his beloved pet toad. He rubbed roughly at his eyes, refusing to let her see his shadow of tears, "I... don't know what to say, Lav, but," he paused uncertainly, voice quivering. "Thank you, f-for everything. For being there, as a friend, and for Squeaker."
Lavender shrugged, looking away. She was touched, beyond words, but she knew Neville was at the brink of over-spilling woe, so she looked away, as her heart sang ardent tunes of promises. She leaned against the window, tracing patterns of sparkling balls of night lights on the glass pane, she asked, "Do you know the myth behind the Pisces stars, Nev?"
He shook his head slowly and prodded ungainly against the window, nearer to Lavender. He had no idea why he had this insane urge to be closer to her. He just did. And so they stood, side by side, facing a boundless sky, like two missing pieces from a puzzle that once again glistened a vision of beauty. Of completion.
"When Venus and Cupido had to fly from Typhon in Egypt they were changed into two fishes in the sky. There they are, as one way up high," Lavender said to him, drawing diagrams on the glass. Shoulder brushing against shoulder, fuzzy wuzzy sparks spiralled their way up and out, binding the two in a bashful glow of puppy love.
Neville turned to look at her, his face flushing, and mumbled quietly. She gave him a quizzical look, so he repeated himself, voice a fraction louder. "...that must be nice... two fishes in the sky....they don't have to be lonely anymore," it came out in a shaky breath, but he didn't stammer. It was too important not to. "....they have...each other."
Lavender gazed deeply into his eyes, trembling with unsaid emotions. She slipped her hand gently, but firmly, into Neville's, and whispered, "Everyone is lonely, Nev, but it takes a strong person to admit it." Lacing her fingers through his in an entwine palm kiss, she leaned into him and rested her weary head on his welcoming shoulder. "Everybody is alone but it gets easier when you have somebody."
Neville looked into the eyes of his brown-eyed angel, choked on unshed sentiments. He has always been lonely. He had gotten used to it through the years. Just being alone. Lonely. But in this one moment of contact, with his heart in her hands, he realised he was not.
A shooting star glided across the smiling night sky, and he knew, he'll never have to be lonely again.
Some starless night
Just in case you feel you want to hold her
You'll have a pocketful of starlight