Candidate Rebirth
AN: nobody got the joke AN from the previous chapter, I tried to do a winky face to show I was kidding. T.T
AN2: HELP Neville's kidnapped this chapter!
Chapter 24: Neville's Request.
Chloe had told the staff to wake everybody at seven am the next morning, as they needed to catch the bullet train at eight-thirty.
She herself was up at six to do some paperwork before she had to help the visitors.
She was shocked to see one of the guests awake and in the basilicom wanting to visit her a quarter of an hour later.
"Can I help you Neville?" she asked polity.
"Can I have a meeting with your sister? It's not fully urgent, but I want to try this as soon as I can, or at least hopefully get the process started," came the boy's response, a response with more confidence than she had ever seen him have.
"Why don't you tell me what you want, I can handle many of the same responsibilities my sister can," the candidate responded while putting down her paperwork.
"I wish to ask for sanctuary. I looked up your laws while my grandmother was reading, and much of what I went through would be considered, here at least, to be emotional and physical abuse. This is combined with the fact that, if I'm using the terminology correctly, she is treating me as a lesser version of my father, or if I read the terminology right, as Frank Longbottom version 0.5 instead of Neville Longbottom Version 1.0. everything I enjoy but my father didn't she tries to take away from me, everything he was good at and enjoyed she tries to force me to do. I am sick of not being allowed to be myself, and am forced to act as someone I'm not!" he finished with a shout. He then continued almost panting in repressed anger, "Just yesterday, I met someone I liked and she expressed how 'my father would be disappointed in me,' when I was talking with her instead of trying to court you, which no offense I don't have an interest in you.
Hell, I wasn't even allowed to get my own wand! I was forced to use my fathers!"
"I see," Chloe stated. "I can't make that decision, but I'll arrange a video call on the train. We might also need another goddess to officiate since your grandmother made a very poor impression on us both, and the only one I can think of that's responsible enough and calm enough to do it is Black Heart, in the last nation that we'll visit."
The boy sagged in relief, he needed to get away from his so-called family before he snapped. He had a feeling that he would be expected by his grandmother to 'woo' any unattached goddess or candidate he met, or if they are attached to someone his grandmother didn't approve of.
He personally wanted to try and get with that nice girl he met twice.
He turned to leave but stopped when a paper airplane hit his head.
"What...?" he started.
"A Dryad gave me her contact information to pass on to you along with a picture since she hasn't actually introduced herself to you properly," Chloe explained, and set the papers on the table, before turning back to her paperwork.
Picking up the papers he saw a picture of the girl he met, along with an odd number, and some information he couldn't make heads or tails of.
"Ummm what?" Neville started.
Chloe paused in her work and facepalmed. "Right, I'll explain everything on the train ride. Along with contacting my sister about your issue."
"Ummm... thank you," the boy said as he left to sneak back into his room before his grandmother discovered he was missing. He was lucky that the candidate was up early today.
He barely made it and slipped back into bed before the wake-up came around.
The group, after a quick breakfast and a lot of grumbling and whining, made it onto the train with five minutes to spare.
A certain blonde was the biggest whiner of the lot.
A certain grandmother was smug when Chloe led Neville to a private compartment but frowned when she came out five minutes later.
"What was that about?" the elder Longbottom asked the candidate.
"He wanted my help with researching something, and I gave him privacy after I set it up for him," Chloe answered vaguely.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
Neville was waiting anxiously, he had just repeated his request, along with how he was treated when younger, such as being thrown into a lake when he couldn't swim, all the way up to being dropped headfirst out of a window, all by his family, and how his grandmother never tried to stop it. The constant comparing him to a grown man also was mentioned.
Vert listened to the whole thing her eyes narrowing. After the boy had finished she thought for a second. Her reply gave him hope, "I will provisionally agree, as of this moment you are temporarily given asylum, this will last until we have a hearing with Black Heart, who will make a more permanent decimation. This will also allow you also to see if Leanbox is the best choice. Is this acceptable?"
Neville collapsed nearly boneless from relief this was better than he had hoped for, far better. Not only was his request being seriously considered but he has already been removed from his grandmother's authority, possibly permanently so long as he could make a better case than she can, something that he thinks he can do, considering that the laws that he saw would seem to consider his treatment as child abuse, if not attempted murder.
"Thank you Lady Green Heart," he replied with a wide smile.
"Lady Vert in this form please, and my pleasure, I'll have the documents sent to the printer on the train, so you'll have them in minutes."
"Thank you again, Lady Vert, I really appreciate this," Neville said as he ended the call as he was shown and closed the laptop to give it back to the candidate, all the while wondering how much something like it cost.
Unlocking the compartment he went to return it to its owner and to get the paperwork.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
Vert was chuckling to herself. She really was sympathetic to the boy, and would under normal circumstances done the exact same thing, well with the exception that she would have done the entire process herself, rather than outsourcing it to someone else to prevent bias. The fact that this would most likely piss off the old woman was a massive bonus.
She had pulled up the appropriate paperwork when she had heard the request, so she only needed to fill in the blanks save it, then send it to the appropriate printers.
It took her five minutes.
Five minutes to change a young boy's fate.
Five minutes to give a young boy a taste of freedom.
Five minutes to give a young boy hope.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
Neville found the candidate easily and handed her her computer back.
"So how did it go?" Chloe asked as she placed her computer in her inventory.
"She's sending some paperwork to something called a printer on the train," he replied.
They both turned toward a printer, not that Neville knew what it was as it sprang to life, and started making an odd sound, and spitting out papers with neatly formatted text.
Chloe picked up the two sheets, which were identical copies. Handing the boy one, she kept the other as a backup.
Reading it over she said, "This is only valid until the hearing you understand?" at his nod, she continued, "I'll hold onto this copy in case she attempts to destroy yours."
"I don't know why you continuously disobey me boy, but when we get back I'll set you straight. Your father would have been doing much better," the elder Longbottom said as the two approached.
Said boy' held up a paper in a way that the woman could read. The woman snatched it and read it, going red in fury as she finished the document. She tore it to shreds as she turned towards the boy, uncaring that she was making a scene in front of her peers and other guests, "How dare you! After all, I've done to make you into a great man like your father! I don't accept this!"
"You don't have a choice, that paper was one of multiple copies," Chloe started. "The process has started, and the only way to stop it is for Neville to withdraw his request, or for you to convince Black Heart to take your side in the hearing."
"How dare YOU you have no right to interfere in family matters, the old woman hissed.
"We have the right to grant or refuse asylum to anyone who asks, that is our 'right' to interfere. We also have the legal obligation to step in in the case of child abuse. He has listed many things that would count as physical and emotional abuse, so we have decided to grant him temporary asylum, which may be made permanent according to the decision of a neutral arbitrator," she paused and looked at the gaping woman, a woman that couldn't believe a girl so much younger than her was telling her off, before finishing, "If I was you, if I want this canceled, I would try and think up some arguments to counter what Neville will be saying at the hearing."
The older woman looked at the candidate as she moved to her seat and brought out her laptop to do some gaming. There was approximately two and a half hours left to the trip.
Lucius Malfoy was chuckling to himself, as he has some very interesting material to use against the Longbottom Matriarch next time they butt heads over a law. He also saw that supporting the young Heir might make him a useful ally later, as he has shown that he has acquired a backbone.
His son on the other hand was sneering and planning on how to use the fact that the boy is abandoning his family so easily against him. A pureblood abandoning magical society, and his pureblood family to join a world filled with mudbloods. He couldn't wait until Hogwarts started again.
Nobody else around really had an opinion on what happened.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
It was time. The doors of the train opened and the group filed out to show a city that looked like it had come out of a Sci-fi novel, or movie. Technology so advanced that most of the wizards and witches thought it was magic was all around them. Ahead of them was a teenage girl with purple hair, who was approaching them.
When she got into a comfortable speaking distance she started speaking, "Hello, my name is Nepgear, Goddess Candidate of Planeptune, and I welcome you to our capital. If you will follow me, I'll lead you to your hotel so you can check-in, eat, and decide on an activity for the afternoon."
As they started to the hotel a figure snuck up behind Chloe and before she could react...
she was enveloped in a hug, with the one hugging her speaking in a sultry voice, "Well if it isn't my little Chloe, it's been too long."
CC, who had been observing everything turned and groaned. She had been requested by Vert to keep this particular goddess far, far away from Chloe.
Chloe managed to free herself from the arms to see...
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
Chapter end.
EN: I know not much of a cliffy considering almost everybody can probably figure out who owns the arms, but this is NOT what I wanted to do in this chapter, but Neville decided to kidnap the chapter.
