Title: Almost
Characters: Frank/Alice, Neville
Forum/Challenge: The Golden Snitch 'Prompt of the Day' challenge / The Golden Snitch 'Tiggerific Times' challenge
Prompts: (song lyrics) 'Love Can Save Us All' - Andra (chorus) / (pairing) Frank and Alice Longbottom
Word Count: 504
Other: 5 points (Mahoutokoro, House Mizu) each for Tiggerific Times and Prompt of the Day
The days blur together. The green people walk in and out. Sometimes they bring food; sometimes they bring drinks that taste bad.
She doesn't like those drinks. She tries not to take them, to give them back to the green people.
She sleeps a lot. It feels like there's something important in sleep, something she can find that she can't when surrounded by the green people.
"For better, for worse," Alice said.
"For richer, for poorer," Frank said.
"'Til death do us part," they said.
They twirled in their wedding finery, and she leaned in to lay her head on his shoulder. She looked around at all their friends, drinking and dancing and laughing. It was almost enough to forget there was a war on the horizon.
When she wakes up, she's not alone. There is someone important with her. She turns and sees the man. He's always there, looking at her. And she looks at him.
They look at each other, searching.
There was something there, but it felt a thousand miles away. But it's important. He's important. So she looks.
After a bit, she reaches in her drawer and pulls out a crinkle. The sounds sooth her. She hums, and the man takes her hand.
She does not pull away.
"Neville Franklin Longbottom," Alice said, cooing over her baby.
"The most beautiful baby in the world," said Frank, leaning down to kiss his wife.
She looked up at him, adoration in her eyes. "We made this, Frank. You and me."
There's another man there when she wakes. He seems familiar, but sad. She finds the crinkle still in her hand, and she gives it to the sad man.
It will make him feel better.
"Mum," the said man says.
This word seems familiar. When the green people speak, she can't understand them. Their words have no meaning.
But this word, it means something. She doesn't know what, but it's important.
Like "Dad."
Like "Love."
He took the crinkle when he left. The man who was there with her took her hand and laid down.
"Don't give up on me, Alice!" Frank called, firing curse after curse.
He had the Lestrange brothers locked in a fierce duel, while she took on Bellatrix and Barty Crouch Jr-because of course the Head of the DMLE's son was a Death Eater. She would have rolled her eyes at the thought, had she not been dueling.
She was holding her own, hoping their quick Patronus would draw the Order for backup.
Then she saw Frank fall.
Then she heard him scream.
"Frank!"
"Crucio," hissed Rodolphus.
"Crucio," hissed Rabastan.
"Crucio," hissed Bellatrix.
And her whole world went black, and there was nothing but pain.
Some days she feels like it's almost there, the answer. Like she could almost reach out and take it—like she could remember.
Until then, she hums and keeps her crinkles for when the sad man visits and holds the hand of the man who's there with her.
She'll work it out, somehow.