Title: Pumpkin Juice
Author: FallenShateiel
Rating: R
Parts: 7
Pairing: Ron Weasley/ Neville Longbottom
Summary: Neville loves to drink Pumpkin Juice.
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PART 1:
Ron's POV:
I can't say that I've really noticed much about Neville.
I mean he is one of those kids that fly under the radar of everyone's notice.
Not that it's any excuse.
He's a good guy I know that…
I like Neville. Really I do.
He's helped out me and Harry a lot…
It's just that lately he's come with a whole bunch of emotional baggage…
Hermione always did have a point when it came to the fact that I can't really deal with that. I mean, even last year with the whole Dumbledore being dead and all I couldn't really help out Harry.
And Hermione and Ginny actually expect me to help out with Neville and his whole lack of family.
Honestly.
Give a guy a break.
Besides if you ask me Neville needs to toughen up a bit more.
I know, I know he's toughen up a lot since the whole 5th Year DA club thing we had going on… but still he's quite obsessed with those plants…
Whatever…
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End of Ron's POV:
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If you ask Neville what he likes the most about the noisy breakfast, lunch and dinner's in the Great Hall he'll tell you he likes the tangy taste of pumpkin juice.
As it is no one asks so he just drinks it slowly swirling it around on his tongue playing with the rather thickness of the liquid.
He likes it better than coffee because it doesn't leave one with a sick feeling in the belly.
He likes it better than orange juice because there's nothing getting stuck in the teeth.
He likes it better than milk because it's not thick going down the throat.
Secretly he likes being able to follow the growing process of the pumpkin in his imagination as he takes a drink.
So he'll drink it slowly while listening to the bubbling laughter that either Ginny's jokes or Seamus's antics gives everyone in the room.
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It's hard to say what his place is in the Gryffindor Common Room.
He sits with Ginny still but there is no Dean or Harry trying to get her attention.
Dean being on the other side of the room trying to pick up Partavi, whilst Harry is probably off fighting demons that Merlin once cast enchantments on…
"Hey, Longbottom what is the latin word for banewort?" He doesn't really like this Demelza girl. There's something off about her to him.
"Atropa belladonna." Though he liked the common Witch Berries.
"Properties?"
"It helps in the flying ointment, and has gravity- defying qualities." It's not really correct after all it's most likely the hallucinations that gave it such astral traveling… however it is used in Sleeping/ Calming potions.
"Thanks."
"Hmm.." Maybe it's the nasally timber of her voice. A bit like Pansy Parkinson's.
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His grandmother has been sick for about a month.
Uncle Algie in August right after Hogsmeade shut down Hogsheade for the last time.
It bothers Neville though he doesn't really want to think about it.
After all if you dwell on things too long they become as they never were.
At least that's what his grandmother used to tell him when he was a child and would mope after seeing his parents in St. Mungo's.
Uncle Algie was the one who always insisted that Neville was more than he was.
Always said that the chubby boy was smarter, more of a person than he actually was.
Is.
Uncle Algie and his funny bald head that would shine as his skinny body was always doing something in the sun.
One time he bought a Muggle pool.
Nearly drowned himself in it.
But it was the way that his thin wrinkly lips would laugh as he told that story at the many family dinners they would have.
Grandmother always said one must never forget the bad things as well.
Like the time that Uncle Algie threw him out of the window and just laughed when Neville cried.
Or when Uncle Algie broke Neville's wrist because he insisted that pain would increase the magical capabilities.
No one mustn't forget the bad things either.
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It bothers Neville to no end that Hermione and Ginny can't see that he's alright.
Really he is.
After all in this time as well as all through history people have died. Grown old and sick.
Grandmother will get better because his parents still need her to visit them with Neville.
Uncle Algie may come back as a ghost and even if he doesn't Grandmother's house has a portrait of him in the sitting room. Which is where Neville talked to him before the funeral.
So really there is no problem.
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