qlfc finals

magpies, keeper

Prompt: KEEPER: The Makeover Challenge - Write about a pair of opposites bonding/forming a bond.

warning for one swear

recovery (under these moonlit towers)

The sun slips past the worn stone towers and tall, flourishing trees of Hogwarts as the clock ticks on. Most students playing or reading in the courtyard look at the skyline, dusted with orange and red, and start heading inside. A loud murmuring erupts as they enter the castle, excited for dinner.

One student does the opposite and exits the castle, heading towards the greenhouses. Neville has already eaten, having taken what started as a couple snacks to a full-on meal from the kitchens an hour ago. Excited to get close to the newest plants, the time when the grounds are silent is perfect for him to work without interruptions.

Except—

He sighs and spots a blond head a little away, not looking forward to his and Malfoy's first interaction after the Final Battle…months ago. Maybe Malfoy wouldn't talk and they could both get back to what they wanted to do.

Maybe.

"Longbottom."

Neville silently prays that this will go at least alright.

"Malfoy," he says awkwardly.

Malfoy surveys him, and Neville notices that even after the Final Battle, after the Malfoy family was left in the rubble with Lucius in Azkaban, Narcissa on house arrest and compensation that crippled their Gringotts vault, Draco still carries an aristocratic aura. Neville tries not to feel insignificant under his cold gaze, reminding himself that Draco has nearly nothing now, no reputation, no money, no future—while he himself already has offers lining up and more promising NEWT results by the week.

That just makes him feel worse.

"It's very calming, isn't it?" he says mildly to break the silence.

"I suppose so," Malfoy says haltingly, and if there's anything the blond originally wanted to say, it's clear that he isn't saying it for some time.

"It feels different now," Neville says, more to himself.

"Yes, thanks to your lot," bristles Malfoy suddenly, and Neville can't say he's shocked but he'd thought that Malfoy was attempting to be at least semi-civil.

"I would say I'm sorry, but I'm really not," Neville bursts out, shocking himself along with Malfoy. He cringes and stumbles back, registering his words. He knows he's been a bit more bold, a bit more outspoken since the Battle, but that was more like oh hi, can I say something instead of-whatever that had been.

Malfoy blinks and looks at him again.

The silence is once again undeniably awkward, so Neville tries to wave and subtly back away to the greenhouse. It isn't the most pleasant way to end the conversation, but it really wasn't one in the first place, and it isn't like Malfoy was kind to him before-before everything.

"Goodbye," he mutters, and starts making a beeline for the greenhouse.

To his surprise, Malfoy does not consider the conversation ended and begins to follow him. Neville almost cries.

They enter and Neville pretends not to notice the blond trailing behind him, pulling on his gloves and beginning to start his daily care routine for the plants. He's helping Professor Sprout clean up this greenhouse, which suffered some damage last year. It's hard and sweaty, but herbology has always been where he shines, so-

"This place is a shithole."

Neville snaps around to Malfoy, looking utterly bored and a little bit disgusted as he looks around. "What did you say?"

"I said what I said," he drawls, and by Merlin that voice has not changed one little bit since the stupid first year on the train over seven years ago. "This place is an utter mess. How do you stand it?"

Neville's fists clench. He wonders whether he should respond or not, if Malfoy will leave if he's being ignored or just become more persistent. Honestly, Malfoy's already stressed him out and his decision-making skills and anxiety are dropping and hiking up respectively. "I enjoy it," he says in the end. "Like, taking care of the plants, I mean. Sometimes it's kind of mindless. It's therapeutic for me." He lifts his soil-covered hand to gesture around the greenhouse. "This place is a bit of a mess now due to...yeah, but when it's all cleaned up and everything is in full bloom, I promise it's a sight to behold."

He returns to working for a moment, then hears footsteps. Malfoy speaks up again. "Is that supposed to look like...that?"

Neville follows his gaze to an exotic plant in the corner, blue and green, with boil-like things covering its drooping leaves. "No, it's just...very sensitive to changes in the environment, so the Battle really threw it off. We're trying to recover it, and it honestly looks a lot better than it did a month ago, but there's still not a hundred percent chance it'll go back to normal."

Draco steps closer to the plant, looking at it with a strange expression. He stays silent for a moment before abruptly saying, "My mother used to grow these in our greenhouse. She said they were a bit of a handful, but once you figured them out, they were easy enough to manage. She'd cover them with a potion made from unicorn horn and moonstone, I think, at dusk every week. I don't know exactly what that did, but the plants seemed to like it."

"Oh. Thanks." Neville blinks, surprised. He hadn't expected Malfoy to know a single thing about herbology, much less share a tip. "Does she still do it?"

"No," Malfoy says in a steely tone. "The Manor didn't exactly emerge as pristine as ever and even if that area wasn't basically destroyed, I doubt the Ministry would allow her to keep them." He hesitates. "I could...ask her for the recipe, for the plant, and give it to you to help with the recovery process. If you'd like."

"Yeah. That'd be appreciated. Thank you, Malfoy."

"You're welcome," Malfoy says, and Neville hears footsteps receding until he can't hear them anymore. He lets out a breath. Maybe Malfoy wasn't still terrible, after all. Maybe.

The moon rises up and the clouds cover its light, but Neville doesn't hear the clock ticking as he works, still thinking, What was that?

wc: 1018 (gdocs)

thank you to bellwhether for beta-ing at the last minute!

random author ramblings

found out i had an extension the day i was supposed to submit lol

anyways wasn't really sure what to do with this prompt, i hope this isn't too terrible lmao

terrible title check

terrible title that does not really match the story but sounds appropriately mysterious DOUBLE CHECK

This was actually the second ver of this story, my original had a different ending and these two were on basically entirely different tracks after the first 'awkward' (how many times did I write that again...)

final final final note hopefully the formatting wasn't too off, I originally wrote on Apple Notes then switched to FFN's doc manager, then Google Docs, then back here lmao (that's my excuse if there's a random - when there should be -)