Getting through the first few weeks without injury or tears (for students or Neville) was something Neville didn't even know was possible. Yet, there he was, three weeks in and everyone had all their limbs and sanities intact. His students were even doing well with the coursework itself. He was almost prepared to admit that he wasn't half-bad at this whole teaching thing.

Minerva had even congratulated him on how many students he had pulled in for NEWT-level courses. It was an unusual number, and Neville thought he knew why, but… It wasn't really something he liked to put on his own shoulders, so he ignored it to the best of his ability. He could see the questions rolling around in the student's minds, but thus far, none had come forward to ask them. Maybe it was still too soon. Maybe the scars looked too fresh.

The only complaint he had regarding this whole professor-slash-head-of-house gig was that he was required to roam the halls at night, looking for trouble makers. Luckily, it wasn't all night, but still, he was definitely feeling the exhaustion from last night still kicking around. He nearly fell asleep in the bath, but managed to wake himself up enough to put on a pair of pajama pants and sit down at his desk.

The stack of parchments in front of him was… a lot. More than he could get through tonight, so he almost decided to just go to bed. Instead, he groaned and took the top assignment off the stack, determined to at least get a couple done before he fell asleep.

He was halfway through the first essay, eyes just beginning to droop, when a quick series of raps at his door startled him back awake.

"Who on earth…" he mumbled, peeling himself off of his chair and heading to the door.

He opened it to the sight of Kyle, dressed simply in a long, pale yellow nightgown, her hair braided and tossed over her shoulder. That dark scar twisted around her neck, splaying out and tucking into her gown.

"Hello, Neville. Ready for bed, I see?" she said, eyebrows raised. Neville was suddenly aware that he had not put on a shirt after his bath.

"Oh, sorry!" he said, grabbing a shirt he had hanging on a chair nearby. He threw it on hastily, then took it off and put it on not inside out this time. When he was decent, he came back to the door where Kyle had waited patiently. "What, uh, what can I do for you?"

"I know it's late and you're probably about to head to bed. I had to tend to a student who fell down the stairs to his dorm room, so I just got a chance to come out." She shifted her weight to one leg and looked past him at all the plants around his office, some hanging, some sitting in pots. "I'm in need of some shrivelfig leaves. Do you have any I can take?"

"Well, most of them have already lost their leaves. It happens so early in the year," Neville said, thinking about what plants were available. "I had the second years collect the fruits the first week…"

"That's alright. I can probably get some from—"

"Oh! I do have one that I think still has a good number out in greenhouse seven!" Neville nearly shouted at her, glad to have that one reserved bush left. Without waiting on her to respond, he found and slid on his shoes and exited his office, shutting the door behind him and Kyle.

"After you, Professor," she said, stepping to the side. It was quite dark, so Neville illuminated the tip of his wand. He may have known where every rock and root was, but he didn't want her to trip out here.

He led her confidently to greenhouse seven, taking just a moment to unlock the doors, and let her inside. This greenhouse had the tendency to be hotter and more humid than the others, and it still retained a lot of the heat from the afternoon sun.

"Kind of in the back," Neville said, letting his wand light up a little bit brighter so that they could both see the still-mostly-green bush sitting over towards the right wall. He walked past her, grabbing a wicker basket to hold the leaves, then back towards the plant.

"Hey, Neville, what's this one?"

He turned back around to find her. He couldn't quite see what he was looking at, so he maneuvered to her side. She was crouched down, looking at a delicate little plant in a bright green pot, it's flowers curled up as if they were asleep—particularly because they were.

"Oh, just a little project of mine. They're notoriously hard to grow but pretty valuable. The flowers are used in love potions, mostly, but on their own it's a powerful aphrodisiac," he said, kneeling down next to her. "And, they have the added benefit of… well, being pretty."

He reached out to touch one of the thin stems, and immediately the multicolored flowers unfurled, glowing softly.

Kyle watched quietly as the flowers brightened momentarily, then started to dim, before curling back up and going back to sleep.

"Does it work well? As an aphrodisiac?"

Neville was a little startled by the question for a second, and stood up to give himself a moment to compose himself.

"Er, I've never… I've been told it's very powerful, but I'm not… personally familiar."

Kyle stood, a hand on a nearby shelf to balance herself. "Well, if you ever find out, let me know," she said, and Neville thought he caught a wink, but he couldn't be sure in the shadows. Before he even had time to blush, she turned and headed towards the shrivelfigs, and he followed after taking a moment to compose himself.

He set the basket on the ground between them, and they went to work, carefully picking off the leaves that were still good to use. Some of them were past their prime, so he went ahead and plucked them off and set them on the nearby table. It was simple, quick work. In no time, they had the basket packed full and the bush nearly bare, ready to rest and bloom again the following spring.

"I appreciate your help, and I'm sorry for coming out so late. Promise I'll try to catch you during daylight next time," Kyle said once they had left the greenhouse and were greeted with a brisk wind, refreshing after being in the humidity.

"It's not a problem. I'm just glad we got to it before all the leaves fell off," he replied, pulling on the hem of his shirt. He was about to wish her goodnight, but then he remembered that he had a dark, purple, spreading question.

"Before you leave, I did want to ask you something."

"Go for it."

Kyle tucked the basket under her arm and against her waist.

"Well, I know that – back when everything was horrible… "

He noticed how she shifted uncomfortably but something spurred him to continue. He normally wasn't so damned curious.

"Well, you were captured, right?"

Her dark expression remained but she nodded in response.

Neville cleared his throat and almost decided to back out of the question, but what good would that have done?

"What happened? How did you get out?"

She was looking very uneasy now, not immediately answering his questions. But finally, she sighed and looked towards his office door.

"Can we go inside? I'm not a fan of talking about it out in the open."

She looked over her shoulder, as if she were scared of someone lurking around and eavesdropping.

Neville nodded, and they made their way back into his office, gently shutting the door behind them.

"Tea?" he offered, crossing the room and fetching the kettle. He filled it up and brought it to a quick boil while she took a seat across from his desk and made herself comfortable. Once he had the tea steeping, he slid a cup to her and took a seat with his own. He waited until she made the first move, not wanting to pressure her.

Finally, she looked up at him and gave him a little sigh.

"I ran from them for months. My parents were fine. They didn't really have any use for bothering them once they knew I wasn't there. So I hid anywhere I could. The good part about being Muggleborn is that it's very easy to hide amongst the crowds. I don't stick out as much as purebloods do."

Neville nodded and took a sip of too-hot tea, scalding his tongue.

"Well, a couple days before the battle here, they finally caught me. I was out on a dock near Liverpool, and I was talking to a fisherman about possibly paying him to let me stay on his boat during his 3-week voyage. He took me aboard to show me around, but turns out he was a snatcher, and they had caught on to my habits. My fault for not varying things around."

She stirred in a little sugar to her tea, taking a moment to breathe.

"I heard you gave them a pretty good fight, though," Neville said, hoping to get her a little more comfortable.

"Tried to, at the very least. I was able to stun two of them before a third got me from behind. Nothing spectacular. I'm just… quicker than they gave me credit for."

"Loads of people couldn't even do that," he suggested, taking her little smile as a win. "What did they do after?"

"Kind of a blur, if I'm honest." She took a sip from her cup, then set it down on the desk. "They took my wand, first thing. Snapped it into pieces and tossed it overboard. They took me to… I don't know where, but they had me chained by my neck and my leg. I could only move enough to stand or lay down. They mostly left me there alone, but every once in a while, someone might come in and… I was in pretty bad shape. They were talking about taking me somewhere else when they all rushed off. I assume they went to fight, called by Voldemort to Hogwarts. I didn't know that at the time, though.

"I was so exhausted, and I hadn't had anything to eat or drink in days. I figured I was going to die soon enough, so I just laid down, hoping that if I went to sleep, it would happen then."

Neville had forgotten all about his tea by that point, leaning on the desk and listening intently. She didn't seem to want to meet his gaze, so he looked down at his hands as she continued.

"I started to fall asleep, and I felt this… melting kind of sensation. It's so hard to describe, but my whole body felt like water. And I just fell asleep. Don't know how long I was sleeping, but when I woke up, dawn was breaking, and I was laying on the shore with a mouth full of seawater. I didn't know where I was at first, but when I got up, I realized I was maybe thirty meters from my home. I have no idea how I even got there."

Neville furrowed his brow. A mystery, indeed. "I've never heard of it happening, but maybe you apparated in your sleep?"

Kyle shook her head. "I hadn't learned to apparate yet, what with being on the run during my 6th year. Maybe it's possible, but I really don't think it's likely that I could have apparated without training while asleep."

"Oh, good point," he said, scratching at an itch on his neck. "I take it you were able to get home and recover, huh?"

"My mom saw me kind of hobbling towards the house, and she rushed out and brought me in. I got plenty of rest, and water, and excellent food. It took about a week before I could get up and move without so much pain, but it's not like we could have gone to a hospital; we would have been heavily questioned. As far as we knew, Voldemort was still out there and the snatchers would find out I was missing soon. It wasn't until May 7th that a friend bothered to send an owl to my parents, informing them of everything and asking if they knew where I was." She gave her tea swirl in the cup, then took a long drink to fill the quiet. "Everything about that year was absolutely awful, and to top it off, I couldn't even be here to help anyone. I felt so…"

"Helpless?" Neville suggested when she seemed to struggle to find the words.

She nodded, and finally looked up to meet his eyes. Neville was taken aback by just how much hurt that look could convey, and he shifted uncomfortably before continuing.

"We were all pretty helpless back then. You weren't alone. How many others were in hiding, or couldn't make it to Hogwarts that day? Not even just us kids, but look at all the people who were adults, who were powerful, who had no choice but to do what they had to to survive. It doesn't—It's not a commentary on you, but it did speak a lot about the situation we were all forced into."

"Yeah, I know that it's not something I should be hard on myself for. I just really wish things had been different, that I had had a way to do good, not just hide and get caught."

Kyle finished her tea and stood up. Neville could see just how uncomfortable this entire conversation had made her and, even though his curiosity was sated, he felt particularly awful about it. Neville stood as well, moving to walk with her to the door.

"Listen, it wasn't my place to ask. I'm sorry for making you feel uncomfortable, I should have known that this would bring up bad memories. It does for a lot of people. I wasn't thinking right."

He reached for the door knob and opened it for her.

"For what it's worth, though, I think that you surviving does more good than what could have happened had you given up. I'm sure you helped tons of people at St. Mungo's, and you're helping Hogwarts now. Being absent from the battle doesn't mean you didn't participate."

Kyle looked up at him and gave him just a bit of a smile. With her basket in one hand, she reached up with the other and placed it very gently on his cheek.

"You're sweet, Nev. Have a good night."

Neville shut the door after her, sighing loudly now that he was alone. His brain was full of emotions he couldn't quite place or shake. He took a look at the stack of essays on his desk, hung his head, and headed off to bed.