A/N: All right folks this is it. If we decide to start the story up again after the holidays, Longbottom Rose: Part II will be on Medievalwoman's account. Hope you enjoy it.
A week later, Neville and Alaire found themselves surrounded by their classmates and the few professors remaining for the holidays. Jeraldine Goodnight was a very persuasive woman and, as a result, almost every living person in the castle was now crammed into their suite. Even Severus Snape had attended, albeit briefly. He had accepted a cup of punch and spent most of his time conversing with Jeraldine about American potions. His only other interaction was a handshake with David Goodnight and a slight thinning of his lips and a nod of his head to Alaire who expected nothing more.
Even Dobby made an appearance wearing an even more outlandish outfit than his last. In honor of the holidays, he was dressed as an "American Christmas Elf" or so he believed. He was wearing a red Santa hat complete with large jingle bell on its tip, a red & white striped sweater made of old sweat socks, and on his feet were a pair of pointy shoes made of green felt. Jeraldine and David couldn't help but stare at the tiny figure as Alaire introduced them. Dobby then launched into his history, his warm regard for Harry Potter, and for Harry Potter's special friend at which David raised his eyebrows a bit.
Finally, even Hermione couldn't stand it any longer and asked Dobby's help collecting dirty plates. Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Harry seemed to be having great fun playing the American Muggle games that Alaire had taught them over the year. Ginny had become the ultimate poker player while Hermione had become the official Boggle champion of Gryffindor tower. Harry preferred the skill of Jenga while Ron maintained his love for chess.
Eventually, he lured David Goodnight into a match. Soon everyone in the room was huddled around the small board as the game became more and more intense and violent. David Goodnight had been a nearly worldclass chess player in his youth and was becoming increasingly frustrated whenever it appeared Ron had gotten an upper hand. When David's king finally won, it took great pleasure in crossing the squares and viciously kicking the remaining king's ass.
As they were watching the game, Jeraldine noticed Vincent Crabbe standing off to himself. He seemed a little lost without his buddies, Goyle and Nott. To make matters even more akward, Jeraldine noticed his eyes lingering on Ginny Weasley more and more. The poor boy would have to fall in love with one of his friends' girlfriends, on top of all the rest of his bad luck. Sighing, Jeraldine looked for some way to alleviate the boys glum mood during this festive occasion. It was then her daughter came into sight.
"Have you spoken with your cousin?" she asked Alaire.
"What? Oh, yeah. I said Hi."
"No, I mean, have stood and tried to have a conversation with him?"
"Have you? I've had more intelligent conversations with the plants in Neville's study. I mean he's not terribly stupid, he's just, well him."
Jeraldine had to smile. It was a well known family secret that the boy wasn't too bright. What her sister had ever seen in his father was beyond her comprehension. But it still broke her sister's heart when his father had insisted on sending the boy to a British boarding school after their divorce. She had fought hard to keep the boy over summers but a single month's influence did little against the overwhelming snobbery of the father.
"Go talk to your cousin."
"Mom," whined Alaire.
"Go talk to your cousin and I'll make sure that your father leaves you and Neville alone tonight."
Alaire's head whipped around. "You'd do that?"
"You're my daughter and I remember being your age. Now GO TALK TO YOUR COUSIN and please try to make him keep his mouth closed as he gawks at Ginny Weasley."
"Yes, Ma'am," Alaire said smiling brightly as she bounded over to him and struck up a conversation about what the two of them planned to do over the summer.
The party finally broke up around midnight. Several students were leaving the next day for Christmas dinners while many professors were dreaming of sleeping in for once. Soon it was only Neville, Alaire, and her parents.
As they cleared plates, Jeraldine called for Neville to accompany her to the kitchen.
"Have fun, Neville?"
"Oh, yes, ma'am. The chess game was fantastic!" he replied enthusastically.
"Yes. As you can probably tell, my husband is a bit hot blooded and competitive. It makes him a great lawyer but get him into a game and it can be a bit gruesome."
"Somehow, I'm not surprised. Alaire can be a bit . . ."
"Aggressive? That's her father in her." She fell silent as she waved her wand at a teetering pile of plates. "You know, Neville, Professor Snape says you're no slouch either. He told me that you're one of the best herbology students he's ever seen."
CRASH!! The wine glasses that Neville was holding hit the marble floor along with his jaw. He stood there awstruck for a moment unable to compose himself.
"You guys, OK?" David stuck his head in the door.
"Yes, dear. I just dropped a few glasses. Repairo!" The glasses pulled themselves together and she moved them onto the counter. David nodded and returned to the other room, as Jeraldine turned to a still stunned Neville. "I can tell that I surprised you."
"Y-Yes, ma'am. I-I didn't know that. Snape, I mean, Professor Snape has never mentioned that to me."
"Well, we were talking about American potions and he said that I could get some ingredients from you. He said he hadn't seen anyone so talented in growing rare plants since your mother, Alice."
Luckily, Neville had just put his pile of plates in the sink as his hands began shaking violently.
"Are you OK, Neville?" Jeraldine asked grabbing his hands and patting them in a very maternal way. "I didn't mean to upset you. Alaire told us about your parents. I hope that's all right with you."
Neville could only nod.
"Anyway, I could tell that Professor Snape was quiet proud of you. I thought you should know. I can tell that he's not the communicative type. Must be a real bear in the classroom."
Neville finally found his voice though it was very quite. "Yeah. I quit potions after fifth year. He was happy to see me go."
"Hmm. Well, we all have our talents, eh? You'd never let Alaire take care of your plants for longer than a day would you?"
Neville smiled. "A day, yes. A week, maybe. Beyond that, I don't know."
"I do," Jeraldine said with a smile. "She loves plants but after awhile she gets bored and wants a new challenge. She does better at potions where she can learn something new everyday.
"I wanted to tell you Neville how happy I am that you're with Alaire. I haven't seen here this happy in a very long time."
"Um thank you?" he said blushing.
"You are a very honorable young man. What you said under the soul truth spell was just amazing and I want you to know I approve of you and Alaire completely. David does to in his own asinine barbarian alpha male sort of way."
"Thank you very much Mrs. Goodnight," he said. "I really do love –"
"I know you do dear boy," Jeraldine said cutting him off. "But I just want to let you know when the two of you decide to express that love, I'm not ready for grandchildren yet."
Neville was sure he was as red as a tomato as he sputtered, "But we aren't, we haven't, that is to say I wouldn't –"
Jeraldine smiled as she watched the poor boy turn a lovely shade of fushia. "Maybe not yet, but as you said you would do anything my daughter asks you to and you go no farther than the limitations she's set. I've seen the way Alaire looks at you."
"I, well, but. . . how does she look at me?"
"Like you're a walking bundle of cashmere," Jeraldine said smiling as the boy continued to turn another shade of red. "I'm keeping David busy tonight so you two can have some time alone. I remember what it was like to be young too you know."
"Are you two done yet? How many dishes can you stack up?" Alaire's voice carried through the door. "Are you two talking about me?" Her head popped in, "You can stop it right now. Neville has no need to know about my skint up knees or my skeeter bites when I was seven."
"Actually, I was going to tell him about you the time last summer when you tried to give your cousin a magical wedgie and it backfired. You should have seen her face!"
Neville didn't have time to laugh as Alaire had grabbed him by the collar and dragged him out of the room. "Goodnight, Goodnights!" Alaire gave her mother and father quick hugs as she pulled Neville toward the door.
"Hold on there! I'll walk you to your room." David Goodnight started toward the couple.
"Now, David, I think Alaire and Neville are perfectly capable of finding their own rooms."
"That's what I'm afraid of, Jeraldine."
Despite David Goodknight's initial reservations about Neville, he had gradually accepted that if he could not be at Hogwarts personally escorting his daughter to her classes and meals, Neville would suffice. But he wasn't going down without a fight.
"David, why don't you stay here? I've got an early Christmas present for you to unwrap," Jeraldine whispered seductively in his ear.
"But . . ." he sputtered looking at his wife and then back to his daughter and Neville. He then shot a look over at the couch, where he had indeed been sleeping the entire visit and then back to his wife. "Night, kids."
Alaire took Neville's hand and quickly pulled him out of the room.
"If he hurts her, I'll kill him. If he breaks her heart, I'll kill him. If he touches her . . ." David muttered under his breath as he watched the two of them leave the room.
"Yes, dear. You'll kill him. Honey, if you haven't noticed, that boy is so far in love with our daughter that she could walk all over him and he'd never notice."
David cast a last look at the hall door. "But-"
"Somehow, I don't think that its Neville we should be concerned about. Now, come on. Unwrap this present."
In Neville's study, a similar sentiment was being expressed. After a week of chasteness, it took Alaire and Neville almost half an hour to come up for air.
"Neville, we have to stop. I want to give you your Christmas present."
"Got it," he replied as nuzzled her ear. "Holding you and kissing you is the best present ever!"
"Silly!" She pushed him away toward the couch. He watched as she bent down to pull a box from under the worktable. Unintentionally, his eyes traveled slowly from her black leather boots to her short corduroy skirt.
"Neville Longbottom, are you looking at my ass?"
"Umm," he said ashamed that he had infact been doing that and that he had gotten caught.
"About time. I thought you'd never notice that I wore a thong tonight."
Neville swallowed hard. Snape. Snape in a dress. Snape and Filch in a broom closet. Snape and Filch in a thong. That image did it. He breathed again.
"You OK?" Alaire worried as she looked at Neville.
"Yep. Fine."
"Then come here and open your present."
Neville approached the gaudily wrapped box with trepidation. "Come on! Are you a ripper or one of those anal persons who slits the tape and save the paper?"
Neville responded by carefully cutting the tape off one end of the box and pulling the paper off.
"I should've known."
Neville opened the box to see nothing but seed packets. Hundreds of them. Some were clearly American Muggle packs while others seemed to vibrate with magic. "Wow! There are rambling rose, tumbleweed, and . . . What's kudzu?"
"Oh, be careful with that. One wrong move and Hogwarts will be under vines before you can blink. Some witch accidentally dropped some in Georgia and it covered most of the Southern United States within a year. We had to concoct a Muggle story to cover it up and it's still growing!" Alaire reached into the box and pulled out a large white packet. "These are my favorites, sunflowers."
Neville smiled and put the packet to one side. He would have to try and do something special with those. "These are great, Alaire. Thank you." He reached over and gave her a tender kiss.
"Mmm. You can thank me some more later."
"Now, how about your present?"
"Naked Neville with whipped cream?"
"No! Now sit down, woman. Close your eyes and no peeking." Alaire heard rustling of paper. "Hold out your hands."
Alaire put her arms bracing for the weight of a plant and was surprised to feel instead the softness of a fabric being wound around her arms. She opened her eyes to see a swathe of cashmere fabric in her hands.
"Neville! It's beautiful!"
"You wanted cashmere sheets but this is as close as I could get. It's a 'Pangforn EverChanging Pashmina'. There's a spell to change the color to anything you want. It's guaranteed not to fade or have the colors run."
Alaire was rubbing the soft fabric on her face with a look of ecstasy. She stood up and wrapped the large shawl around her. "Mmm. This feels so good." She leaned down and hooked the fabric around Neville's neck pulling him close. "Thank you."
She leaned in and gave him a kiss that sent shivers straight to his toes.
"You are most definitely welcome."
When they finally broke apart, both were breathing hard. They tried to stop touching each other but the temptation was too strong. Moments later, Neville had pulled Alaire into his lap and was losing himself in the perfume she had dabbed between her breasts.
"Neville, is that your hand up my skirt?" whispered Alaire in his ear.
Neville jumped when he realized what his hand had been doing of its own accord and started to pull away but Alaire stopped him.
"Did I tell you to remove your hand Mr. Longbottom?"
"Alaire, you're parents are still here. Your dad just now doesn't want to kill me, please don't tempt me any more," he nearly begged.
Later that night as they lay on the couch slipping off to sleep, Neville reflected that months ago, he would have never imagined himself in this situation. That same blue cloaked figure that he had seen from his study window was now wrapped around him as tightly as possible. Her lips grazed his neck and her breath tickled his ear.
He looked up to see that both his and Alaire's Longbottom Rose had spilled off the shelf and were intertwining themselves along one of the roof beams in a botanical imitation of the couple below them. It had been the best few months of his life. He could only hope that the trend continued.
Author's Note II: Remember "Peter Pan" and "Tinkerbell"? That you had to keep clapping to keep her alive? Longbottom Rose is a bit like that too. If you have been reading and not reviewing, please leave us a note. If we get enough responses, LR II may appear in February. Thanks to all our loyal reviewers: RYUAMalfoy, LadyLifeCharm, Mad Jupiter, and Blatant Discontent. You've helped us carry on!!
This story may go on sometime in late January or early February. Our lives have been taken over by Alaire and Neville and we'd like them back for just a little while.
Longbottom Rose: Part II will deal with some of the darker things that have been going on in the background. For instance, the Lestrange/Malfoy escape. (They've been busy making some interesting plans.) Will Alaire be dragged into the war? Is there another reason for Dumbledore allowing her to make a fresh start at Hogwarts? Why does Snape dislike Neville so much or does he? What happens when you try to create SUNflowers? And, last but not least, what happens when you give two red-blooded teenagers who love each other a study room with no supervision? If you have any suggestions or have any other questions that you would like answered, let us know in your reviews.