Thanks for the reviews! I'm glad people like this story. It's a pretty rare pairing, I guess. But I think they're sweet.
Anyway. It's only polite I start answering some of your reviews, I think. J
So, to Marina Floyr – Another Neville fan! Yay! I confess I'm more a Ron girl, and one of the big reasons this has Neville in it is because Harry was such a shite to Ron in the last book. Still, Neville has always been up there on the list, and after OotP he's moved right up to second place! I think I saw a bit of the Gin/Nev in the book, and I admit I wouldn't mind much if JKR goes that way. Ginny'd be good for him. Just not as good as Ron would be.
To Sparkysparkles – Thanks! I'm glad you can see the pairing now. I know it's a strange one. I'm also glad you think Harry's in character. I was worried about making him too harsh. But he's that way in the book, so. Oh, well.
To Waitingfor6 – Here's more. J Glad you like it! Thanks.
To Shell – Thanks a lot! I think characters are so much more interesting when they aren't perfect. Don't you?
And, of course, to PadawanMage the Great. g Thank you times ten. I know you're just reviewing but you do it so well. And so often. Heh. In regards to your point about how fast they said I love you…well, it's like you said. They're too young to know what the marriage and forever kind of love is. They feel this new thing and they think it's love and they don't know any different, so they say so. Maybe they're right, maybe they're wrong. It works for them, though.
Here's the great Neville's Parents scene. 'Great', of course, being a word we use loosely. G I'm sort of nervous about this one, so…you know…your unwavering support is more than welcome.
Thanks again to all of you! Mwah!
****
Neville smiled at his grandmother as she strode into the house. "Good afternoon, Gran."
The tall, rigid, cool-looking witch smiled at him tightly. "Neville. I'm glad to see you well." Her eyes went to Ron.
Ron gripped his pack tightly and glanced at Neville.
"This is Ron."
"I've met you before," she observed. "At the hospital, was it?" She looked down her nose at him carefully.
Ron nodded quickly. "Yes. Uh. I mean… Um. Yes."
She smiled and nodded to the door. "Alright. Let's go. I've got a port key arranged for exactly noon."
"Yes, Gran."
"Boy, where are your parents?"
Ron blinked. "Um. My mum is…"
Mrs. Weasley saved him by appearing from the door to the kitchen. "Why, Mrs. Longbottom! I'm so sorry I wasn't here to greet you."
"Mrs. Weasley, is it?" Mrs. Longbottom held out a clawed hand regally.
Mrs. Weasley shook enthusiastically. "Very nice to finally meet you! Pity my husband isn't here as well. You know, I feel it's out of place but I almost want to thank you for sending Neville to us this summer. He is just charming."
Neville flushed darkly as his grandmother's eyes lit on him briefly.
"I'm glad he hasn't given you any trouble. Likewise, I shall take care of your son."
"I'm certain you will." She smiled and turned to Ron. "You behave, you hear me?"
"Yes, mum."
She reached up to wipe an invisible bit of dirt off his cheek. "Best behavior. I mean it."
He pulled away, making a face. "Mum!"
She let him go, turning a friendly smile to Mrs. Longbottom again. "We will see you tomorrow?"
"Yes. Noon exactly, I expect."
Mrs. Weasley nodded. "We'll wait right here for you."
Ron didn't notice until he was getting ushered out the door that Harry was standing at the top of the stairs, watching them go silently.
****
"Good afternoon, Mrs. Longbottom. Hullo there, Neville."
Neville smiled tightly, not even bothering to look which of the usual caretakers was greeting him. His Gran would handle the social bit of this.
He was nervous. Far too nervous to speak to a stranger.
Ron stood beside him, and while his Gran was talking politely to whoever was behind the desk that day, Ron took advantage of her back being turned and gripped Neville's hand hard. "Relax, will you?"
Neville forced a smile. "I'm fine."
Ron beamed at him. He kept his voice low. "Good, because I'm happy. I don't want you so nervous when I'm so happy."
"Happy?" Neville looked at him with eyebrows raised.
Ron squeezed his hand. "I'm meeting my boyfriend's parents today. Of course I'm happy."
Neville grinned and felt his cheeks warm up.
Ron grinned back, pleased. "That's better."
"Neville? Let's go."
"Yes, Gran." His stomach churned, but Ron kept tight grip on his hand as they followed his Gran, and that helped.
"Ron. I must say I'm pleased that you're here. I was shocked to discover Neville had been hiding the truth about his parents from his friends." Her disapproving eyes went back to Neville, and Ron let go of his hand just in time. "As if they were something to be ashamed of."
Neville tensed.
Beside him, Ron smiled at the old witch pleasantly. "I don't think Neville was ever ashamed of them, ma'am. Maybe he just considers them too important to gossip about in the common room at school."
She looked at him evenly for a moment, then turned ahead and kept moving.
Neville grabbed Ron's hand this time, smiling more sincerely.
"Here we are. Frank. Alice. You both look well."
Neville swallowed hard.
His Gran automatically drew curtains to separate the two beds at the end of the ward from the rest of the room. Neville and Ron moved past her, and Neville momentarily forgot his own nervousness as he saw his mother's familiar, vacant smile. "Hello, mum."
His mother kept her same smile, humming out a nonsense tune.
His father was the same as ever – sitting up against the pillows, watching everything with sharp eyes and not understanding a thing. At least, the medi-witches and wizards assured Neville he didn't understand anything. "Hullo, dad."
A hand touched his arm, and he turned back to his mother. She was smiling happily, her eyes shining. She nodded at him, humming.
He smiled back and moved to sit down, but then he remembered Ron. "Oh. Mum, dad, I'd like you to meet someone."
Ron moved to his side hesitantly.
"This is Ron," Neville caught his mother's reaching hand and held it. "He's my…my friend. From Hogwarts. I wanted you to meet him."
Ron seemed unsure of what to do. He smiled and waved awkwardly with one hand. "Hi."
His Gran's voice sounded out suddenly, interrupting. "Oh, I have about had it with this place. I have told them over and over again not to let people put these weeds around Frank's bed. He doesn't like plants." A tiny little potted tree was in her hand. She cast a glare beyond the curtain, and moved off abruptly. "I'm going to have a word with those people. Neville, you be good for your parents."
"I will." Neville watched her go, and couldn't help but feel a bit more relaxed when she was gone.
When he turned back, he saw that Ron had taken a seat on his mother's bed, uncertainly perched on the edge. Neville looked to his mother and saw her hand on Ron's arm. She was still smiling as blankly as ever, but her tuneless humming had a bit of a different feeling to it suddenly.
He moved to them, standing beside Ron. "Mum, is something wrong?"
Her eyes went to him, and her humming stopped. She released Ron and nodded at Neville.
Neville sat in his usual chair beside her. He glanced at Ron nervously, but began talking quietly. "I'm staying with friends now, mum. In a big house. You wouldn't like it there. It's sort of creepy. But the people are nice. Ron's whole family is there, almost. And our friend Hermione. I've told you about her. And Harry Potter has just come to stay with us." He held his mother's hand gently.
Ron's eyes were on him. Neville could feel his stare.
He ignored it, though. "I'm really safe there, which was why Gran sent me. Professor Dumbledore comes around now and then. There are always other aurors around. I'm sure you remember Mad-Eye Moody? He's there a lot. I think he'll be there more often now Harry's there. Everyone is really careful to protect Harry."
There was a sound from the other bed. Neville turned to his father and saw that he was leaning forward suddenly, looking around with even more wild a stare than normal. "Dad?" He set his mother's hand beside her on the bed.
His father made sounds sometimes, almost as if he was trying to talk but forgot what words sounded like. He would move his mouth and strange, garbled sounds would come out.
That's what he did when Neville moved to his side.
Neville frowned in concern. That noise always meant that he was unhappy about something – he usually made the sounds when Neville's mum would go wandering off and was gone too long, or when his Gran took to using sharp tones in front of him.
He wondered what was causing it now. "Dad?"
His father's hand seized, moving wildly and knocking against the table by his bed. He grasped at the table, moaning his strange words.
Neville frowned, then instantly left the curtained beds and went after his Gran.
He didn't see her, but that was no surprise. She usually got waylaid quite often by some visiting witch or wizard. Lots of people know Neville's Gran.
But the little tree she had taken with her, the one that had been at that table beside his dad, was now at the desk where the Healers sat.
He went up to the desk. "Miss Night?"
The woman recognized Neville easily. "Why hello, Neville. I just saw your grandmother."
He nodded. "Can I take this back to my dad? I think he wants it there."
She smiled, nudging the tree towards him. "Every time she visits she insists he never liked plants before he came here. But every time she brings this to us he pitches a fit until we bring it back. Of course you can take it. It's his, after all."
He slid it off the counter. "Thank you." He didn't waste time, not wanting to leave Ron alone for too long if he was uncomfortable.
But when he approached the curtain he heard Ron's voice over the sounds his dad was still making, and Ron didn't sound at all uncomfortable.
"—would have been really proud of him. I mean, we all were. He knows even more magic now than I do, I think, and he's really good at it. Anyway, he's a really good friend to me. I care about him a whole lot. More than almost anything. So I'll look after him for you, since you're stuck here and all."
Neville held his breath, smiling into the trimmed leaves of the plant. His cheeks went warm.
He moved away from the curtain, then back again with heavy footsteps to let Ron know he was there. He pushed in through the curtain and went straight to his dad's bedside. "Here you are, dad. I'll speak to Gran about this, don't worry."
The moment the tree was back in its spot his father relaxed, quieting. He sagged against the pillow and blinked his vacant stare at Neville for a long moment before looking away.
Neville turned back to his mother with a smile. "Sorry, Ron."
Ron looked back at him cheerfully. "Nothing at all. I was just filling your mum in a bit on what was happening."
Neville took his seat again, and his mother immediately looked to him, reaching out her hand.
He took it again and settled in. "Well, I'm not sure what Ron told you, but it's been pretty quiet this summer. We might live in the base of operations for Dumbledore and the wizards he trusts, but we're always sent off to our rooms when anything's actually going on."
"A shame, that," Ron put in, his eyes on Neville's mum as though there was nothing unusual about talking to a woman who obviously wasn't listening. "If only Fred and George would stop bringing their pranks over and bring something useful, like those Extendable Ears of theirs. Fred and George are two of my brothers, by the way."
"They have a shop, mum, their own shop in Diagon Alley. They're brilliant." Neville grinned. "Ron's got a really interesting family. His oldest brother worked breaking curses for the Goblins until he came back here to help Dumbledore. And Charlie, his other brother, works with dragons in Romania. Dad worked with dragons for a few months while he was still training," Neville informed Ron.
Ron smiled. "I don't know how people do it. They scare me frozen."
Neville hesitated, then looked to the curtain just to make sure his Gran hadn't magically appeared. He gripped his mother's hand tighter. "Mum. Dad. Me and Ron are more than just normal friends."
Ron reached out and touched his arm lightly, as if sensing this would be hard.
Neville glanced at him. "I don't really know what we…" But then he remembered what Ron had said on their way in. "Boyfriend," he repeated with a smile. "He's my boyfriend, mum. I really hope that's okay with you. That's why I brought him here. I know Gran would say that we're too young to talk about things like this, but I love him, mum."
Ron spoke seriously when Neville paused. "And I love him back. I'm going to try really hard to make him happy, I promise."
Neville swallowed. "I don't know how you would feel about it if…I don't think Gran will like it very much. But I'm happy. Really. I hope that's okay."
His mother's eyes drifted to him, then away again. She hummed under her breath.
Neville sighed, releasing her hand. He should have known better than to expect anything. It seemed every tie he paid them a visit he couldn't keep from hoping for a miracle.
Still, he felt better having told them.
He sat back, looking to his father for a moment, then up at Ron.
Ron smiled down at him happily. "Did you know," he said suddenly, turning back to Neville's mother. "The Herbology teacher at Hogwarts thinks Neville's the most bloody brilliant student she's had in years? I'll bet he didn't tell you that."
Neville flushed. "Well. She's very nice, and I do well in that class. And I like it a lot, mum. I think maybe I'd like to work in Herbology when I get out of school." He glanced back at Ron.
Ron looked comfortable sitting there. He acted like he was meeting any normal parents of any one of his friends. He didn't make Neville feel awkward at all about sitting there talking to people who never once gave any sign that they understood.
He would have to remember later to tell Ron how grateful he was.
For now, though, he turned back to his mother and kept talking.
***
Neville couldn't help feeling a bit apprehensive as they left the front doors of the hospital and stepped out into the street.
It had been right there that the curse had nearly hit him last time.
But his Gran seemed prepared. As soon as they walked out the door three robed figures strode up. "Mrs. Longbottom. Ready to get home?"
"Yes. Thank you. Neville, these are trusted wizards whom Dumbledore recommended personally. One will be outside of your bedroom tonight. If you have to leave the room for any reason before morning, I expect you to be accompanied by one of these men. Is that understood?"
"Yes, Gran."
"That goes for you as well, Mr. Weasley."
Ron nodded dutifully. "Yes, Mrs. Longbottom."
She nodded, satisfied, and turned her eyes to the aurors. "Shall we?"
***
Across the street, in the shadows, a pair of glassy, crazed eyes was watching the group depart.
Thin lips cracked into a smile. And a giggle rang out, high and malevolent.
The Longbottoms were right on schedule.