Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
Chapter Ten: Wonderwall
As the days grew shorter, Ginny became more and more anxious. Sometimes it seemed as though she was comforted by Neville's presence, and other days he simply didn't know what to do for her and thus kept his distance.
She was clearly overwhelmed, between her schoolwork and preparing for the baby. Dark circles were a constant presence under her eyes. Molly was still on her all the time about nutrition and exercise and getting enough sleep, and Neville was waiting for the day when Ginny finally snapped and hexed her mother.
Neville finally decided during the second week of December that he would give Ginny her Christmas present early. He hoped it would cheer her up, especially since it had been difficult for him to keep it a secret this long.
"Where are we going, Neville?" Ginny asked. She wore one of Charlie's jumpers, which barely covered her rapidly expanding midsection, and her warmest cloak.
"Just Floo to Number Seven, Newberry Park," Neville said as he stepped into the fire. Coughing slightly, he disappeared into the green flames.
He straightened a few pieces of furniture as he waited for Ginny to arrive. He was suddenly nervous, worried that she would be upset about him doing this on his own. Before he had a chance to think about whether or not he could change his mind, Ginny landed in the fireplace.
"Where are we, Neville?" Ginny asked, looking around.
"Bristol," Neville answered with a nervous smile. "In our new house…if you like it, that is."
Ginny's eyes widened and she raised a hand to cover her mouth. "No…seriously?"
Neville nodded. "It needs a lot of work. The bedrooms need to be painted, the fixtures are all really old, and the kitchen floor is slightly sunken, but it should be ready for us to move in when the baby arrives."
Ginny ran her fingers over the fine, if slightly worn, oak of the mantle. "How can we afford this? Unless...you're using the money from..."
"No, we won't have to use Harry's money; I figured you'd want to save that for the baby's Hogwarts supplies and stuff like that," Neville said. "My Auntie Enid knew the person who lived here before us – a widow who's now moving in with her…daughter, I think. Anyway, she got me an amazing deal – I think the old owner is just trying to get rid of the place, since it'd be so hard to sell in this condition. I have some money saved myself, and my gran helped a bit…well, a lot...and your entire family has already agreed to help fix up the place. Your dad and the twins can do a lot of the refinishing…Bill agreed to set the wards…Ron's going to help me paint…"
Neville was cut off as Ginny flung her arms around his neck, laughing and smiling and crying all at once.
"You like it, then? Because it's not a done deal yet; I did want you to see it first," Neville said.
"Let's see the rest," Ginny said excitedly.
The staircase was located in the entrance hall between the lounge and the kitchen. The ground floor also had a small conservatory (though it was in disrepair from years of neglect), which was Neville's favorite part of the house. The first story held the master bedroom and two smaller bedrooms, and there was an unfinished attic. Ginny wandered around in awe.
"It's wonderful, but isn't it more than we need?"
Neville paused. "Well, maybe for now. But kids need a lot of space, and we'll have room for guests."
Ginny pulled back the heavy flowered curtains in the master bedroom and gasped. The room had a perfect view of the city, though the house itself was located a good distance from the city center. She looked back at him, her eyes twinkling.
"I love it," she said breathlessly. "I can't wait to leave the Burrow…make it harder for Mum to nag me constantly."
Neville laughed and kissed her forehead. "Happy Christmas, Ginny."
Neville awoke on Christmas morning to the smell of cinnamon and cocoa. Ginny was already gone and the sun had fully risen. Moving quickly, he pulled on a pair of trousers and a clean shirt and headed downstairs. He met a yawning Ron in the stairwell, and they entered the lounge together to much teasing about sleeping in late.
It was also much louder than usual, as most of the Weasleys had come for the holiday. He found a seat next to Ginny, who was already wearing her new, cream-colored jumper.
"Morning, Neville…just barely morning," she said with a grin, tossing him a soft package wrapped in brightly colored paper. He undid the wrapping to find a lumpy, dark blue jumper. A smile spread across his face as he held it up.
"Well, Neville, you're officially part of the family. Mum's knitted you a Weasley jumper," George said with a laugh.
"His doesn't have a letter on, though. Pity – dead useful if you happen to forget your name," Fred added, pointing to his own green jumper, which had a yellow 'F' knitted into it.
"Thank you, Mrs. Weasley," Neville said seriously as he slipped the jumper over his head.
"How many times do I have to tell you to call me Molly, dear? And you're welcome," Mrs. Weasley said warmly.
The rest of the morning passed by quickly, full of laughter and good food. Neville and Ginny received many items for their new house, including a beautiful embroidered tablecloth from Fleur and Bill.
"I got ze pattern from my muzzer," she explained as Ginny admired the fine stitching.
Neville would have liked to stay all day, especially since Hermione was coming over later, but he knew he needed to meet his gran at St. Mungo's. To his surprise, Ginny stood with him as he prepared to leave.
"You don't have to come, Ginny."
"I want to," Ginny replied as she took her cloak off its hook. "Besides, it's only fair – you spent the morning with my family."
"But it's not like this," Neville said, aware that everyone in the room was listening carefully. "It's not fun…you don't want to see them…"
"Neville, you have no reason to be ashamed of your parents," Ginny said. "Let's go."
Neville had grown accustomed to St. Mungo's over the past few months, but he still visited this ward rather infrequently. He felt better about seeing his parents now, but he didn't think it would ever be easy for him. He trailed behind his gran and Ginny, who were talking about traditional Christmas puddings.
"Hello Mrs. Longbottom, Neville," the Healer said pleasantly. "Who is this young lady?"
"This is my wife, Ginny," Neville said, taking Ginny's hand.
The Healer smiled. "Nice to meet you, Ginny. It looks like congratulations are in order."
"Thank you," Ginny said, managing a small smile herself.
Neville's gran led the way through the ward, finally reaching the curtained off area. "Hello Frank, Alice," she said in a falsely cheery voice. "Happy Christmas."
Frank and Alice continued to stare blankly.
"Neville's brought his wife with him, isn't that nice? You're going to be grandparents, if you can believe that," she continued, her voice louder than normal. Neville slumped in his chair as Ginny looked on with tears in her eyes.
"Algernon and Enid are doing well…Enid just helped Neville buy a house. He's going to be living a bit further away from me than I would like, but of course we'll still come here to visit together on holidays." His gran always did this – updated his parents on the family and such things, speaking to them as though they were not actually there.
"You won't remember me telling you about the war last year, or about Neville's role in it. You'd be happy to know the war is over now, You-Know-Who was defeated by Harry Potter, who was the same age as Neville, you know. The Potter boy didn't survive, though, such a tragedy. You knew his parents, of course, James and Lily, and he was friends with Neville."
Neville glanced over at Ginny, who looked stricken by the sudden mention of Harry. His gran seemed to notice her reaction, too, for she frowned just a bit before turning back to Frank and Alice.
"Neville and Ginevra were at school when this happened, of course, or I'm sure they would have taken part. Ginevra is a Weasley; her brother was also friends with Harry. From what Neville has said, the entire family was always very welcoming of the boy, which I know would have made you glad to hear. You were both so worried about what would happen to the Potters' baby. The Weasleys have been treating Neville like family, too, since he's married their daughter and living at their house," his gran said. "I'm sure you would have accepted the situation as something Neville felt like he had to do."
Neville got the feeling his gran knew something was up, but he didn't dare say anything. From the way she was looking at Ginny, who had tears in her eyes and kept her hands firmly resting on her abdomen in a protective manner, it looked as though she was trying to solve a somewhat complicated riddle.
"Neville, why don't you tell your parents about your new job?" she said suddenly, still looking intently at Ginny.
"Um, okay," Neville said softly. His gran still didn't know that he sometimes came up here on his own, or that he had already told his parents about his new job, but it wasn't as though they really remembered, anyway.
"I work here in the hospital, in herbal research. I like working with plants, and it's nice to know that the work I do helps patients," he said, feeling rather stupid. One look at Ginny told him that she was no longer paying much attention but was instead lost in her own thoughts.
He stopped talking, then, feeling rather more distressed than usual. His gran turned to talking about the weather, and Neville and Ginny both sat there silently, neither daring to look at the other.
"Well, it's getting late, dears. We'll see you soon," his gran said after about an hour. "Yes, Alice?"
Neville's mum shuffled over to where he was sitting. She held out her hand, and Neville almost reluctantly took the candy wrapper from her.
"Thanks, Mum," he said in a strangled voice. For whatever reason, this was much harder than he had expected…harder than it usually was. He suspected it was because he was spending so much time around the Weasleys, coupled with the fact that Ginny was there looking sorry for him. This was why he had never told anyone at Hogwarts about his parents. Looks of sympathy were hard for him to deal with.
They took the Floo back to his gran's house for Christmas dinner. His gran didn't say anything about what had happened at St. Mungo's, and Neville didn't feel like getting into anything with her right now. Instead, he took Ginny up to his room while they waited for the meal to start. Ginny sat on his bed as he pulled down a large wooden box from his wardrobe. He opened it so Ginny could see.
"I've saved all of them. Isn't that stupid? Gran probably wouldn't like it if she knew I had all these; she always tells me to throw them away." The box contained a large quantity of sweet wrappers, mostly Drooble's Best Blowing Gum. He dropped in the latest one and shut the lid.
"I don't think that's stupid at all, Neville," Ginny said softly.
"Gran doesn't like to talk about it. The only time she mentions my parents it's usually in the context of me not being more like them. I just wish someone could really tell me what they were like," Neville continued, his tears flowing freely now.
"Maybe it's just too difficult for her to think about them all the time," Ginny said.
"Maybe. I hate it, though…I really hate it." Neville leaned forward, elbows on his knees and head in his hands.
"Sometimes," he whispered, "I just wish they were dead. Awful, right? But then I could just visit their graves, and not have to see their faces…their blank eyes that don't recognize me."
Ginny gingerly crawled over to him, putting one arm around his waist and pulling his head down on her shoulder. He felt like a fool, crying on Ginny like that, but he couldn't help it. Something had just…snapped.
"Thank you for listening," he mumbled finally, wiping his eyes with his sleeve. "I've never told anyone that before." He broke away and stared intently into Ginny's eyes. "That's part of the reason I married you, you know. No one should have to grow up without a father."
"It was terrible, Hermione," Ginny recounted several days later. Hermione had the day off work and had come to talk and knit. "He just…cried. I felt like he had never cried for them before."
"Well, maybe he hasn't. He doesn't remember how they once were, and his grandmother doesn't seem to have reacted well," Hermione said as she eyed her knitting critically. "She still doesn't know the truth, does she?"
"Neville says he's going to tell her…but I get the feeling she's figured it out. She's far from stupid, after all." Ginny groaned and rubbed her belly. "And even if she hasn't figured it out yet, she will eventually – she's bound to notice the baby doesn't look like Neville."
"Everyone always said Harry was a carbon copy of his dad," Hermione pointed out.
"Ugh, I hope not. That hair…" Ginny fanned herself with a copy of Witch Weekly. "I just feel like he's ashamed or something, hiding the truth. Just like he was with his parents."
"I don't think he's ashamed…he was just never taught to talk about anything. It seems as though he and his grandmother have never had a real conversation," Hermione said. She had given up on her knitting, which was probably good. Her tiny baby hat was shaped more like a sock than anything else.
"That's another thing he mentioned, that he and his gran don't really talk much. She hasn't told him hardly anything about his parents…he knows less about them than Harry knew about his parents, which is just ridiculous," Ginny said, frustrated. "Neville has more extended family members than he knows what to do with, and not one of them will tell him anything about Frank and Alice besides the fact that he's not as good a wizard as they were. Seeing him so lost and confused about the whole situation just makes me so angry."
Hermione was smiling, and Ginny shot her a puzzled look. "What?"
"Nothing," Hermione said, waving her hand. Ginny looked at her, exasperated, but Hermione remained silent.
"I don't think you need to worry about Neville being ashamed of you or the baby," Hermione said finally. "I think you're good for each other…and he loves you, it's so obvious."
"I know he does," Ginny said softly, a small smile almost unwittingly flashing across her face.
A/N: The baby will finally make his appearance in the next chapter. Thanks for reading, and please let me know what you think!