Rating: PG
Author: Sunnycouger ([email protected])
Disclaimer: Not mine, don't sue.
Summary: Neville is alone in the castle during a Hogsmeade weekend, or so he thinks...
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Neville Longbottom sat and looked at his toad in the empty common room. Hogsmeade weekend and he was the only one who had stayed. The first and second years were on some excursion in the forbidden forest and he was on his own.
"Just you and me Trevor...what are we going to do? Go owl Mum and Dad about winning the herbolgy prize? Good idea..."
The toad croaked and he sighed and picked it up and walked towards the portrait hole. This was what he was reduced to...talking to his toad, traipsing through the empty corridors to go owl his empty headed parents. He realised that there was very little point of it but, as he pulled the photo out of his robe pocket of him and Professor Sprout holding the plant he had won with, he always hoped that when they did realise who he was they would be able to looks over all the photos and letters he sent them every week and realise they hadn't missed anything. They knew everything about him. He let out a smile as he reached the owlery and pulled a quill out of his robes and got the picture. He drew a large arrow in the gold ink and pointed it to his grinning image and began to write below it. 'Neville Longbottom, age 16. Your son.'
He looked at the picture and grinned. They would be proud of that. As soon as they got better they would be proud of what he had done. "See, now they know it's me, Trevor...they will be able to look at them all and then when we go and see them next month they will know it's us..."
He tried to sound convinced and on the surface he was, but, deep down he knew exactly what would happen. The same thing that always happened...they would scream because he was a stranger. They would think he was going to hurt them. They would tell him to leave because they didn't know him.
They would hurt him without even knowing they were doing it.
He sighed and shook his head determinedly. That was before, this time it could be different. This time it *would* be different. "It will be different. They will know me this time."
"Who will know you?" Neville jumped at the sound of the voice behind him and spun around to see Lavender Brown standing behind him looking around expecting to see who he was talking to.
"La...Lavender. What are you doing here? Should...shouldn't you be in Hogsmeade?" Neville said desperately as he shoved Trevor and the quill in one of his pockets before reaching over for the picture only for it to spin away from him onto the floor.
Lavender looked at him strangely. "Shouldn't you be in Hogsmeade as well?"
He looked around his feet to see where the picture went as he answered, "I...I didn't really feel like it this weekend...what...what about you?"
"I went, but Parvati and Seamus are going out on a double date with Dean and Padma so I was kinda flying solo." She sighed as she bent down and picked something up from the floor. "I bet 10 galleons that Seamus and Parvati ditch Dean and Padma. Padma is so dull, even Parvati doesn't spend time alone with her...Dean went for looks alone. Typical boy."
She looked down at what she had lifted and looked at it intently and bit her lip before turning it face down and handing it over to Neville who was still looking around at his feet. "Is...is this what you're looking for?"
Neville looked up at her, his eyes wide as he took the photo and looked at it. His cheeks burning as he looked at her and then to the picture. "It's um...just...a joke...they...they never...be..believed I could win...anything, so that's why..."
She shook her head as she looked at him. "You don't have to..."
"That's...that's why I have my...my name, and...and the arrow...and the your son thing...it's...it's a joke..."
"Neville." She looked at him, her blue eyes glistening sadly as she walked over to him. "It's okay, I don't need to know."
He looked down as he avoided her gaze and shuffled his feet. "Just a joke..."
"I know it is...I believe you." She said as she put her hand gingerly on his arm. "You okay?"
He looked at her and sighed. This wasn't like Lavender at all...of course, she was only usually noisy when she was with Parvati but, she was clearly uncomfortable. He gave her a smile and nodded his head. "I'm good...I was just, you know...owling some people."
She smiled and nodded her head. "Good." She looked at him with a smile. "Okay, as we are the only people above the age of 13 in the school, would you like to accompany me back to the common room? Parvati has a crate of butterbeer that we could raid and Hermione has some Chocolate frogs..."
"I...I don't know..."
She grinned wickedly as she looked at him. "Come on! It'll teach them a lesson for leaving us here alone. Besides, if I do it alone it won't be any fun..."
Neville looked at her as she looked at him pleadingly and nodded his head eventually. He could owl his parents later when he was alone. It would maybe be fun to do something he wasn't supposed to do. "Um, if you put it like that..."
"I do. But to make it fair you have to raid the boys stuff as well...just because they are responsible for us being alone as well..."
He smiled as he looked at her. "I could borrow some of Dean's crisps and Seamus's chocolate?"
She giggled as she nodded her head and rushed out the owlery. "Definitely, we'll make a feast out of it...they deserve it. Oooh, we are going to be in so much trouble if they catch us..."
Neville looked after her nervously as he followed her to the common room. He had barely even spoke to Lavender on his own and now he was raiding his room mates food? That was something different...
"There you are. Come on..." She said as she turned to the portrait of the fat lady and gave the pass word. He stepped in behind her as she ran up the corridor.
"Lavender...won't...won't the others mind?"
Lavender sighed as she turned to him. "Well, look at it this way...they are down in Hogsmeade right? They aren't here? We are, right? Besides, I told Parvati I was doing it..."
"You...you did?" Neville stammered as he looked at her with an amazed expression at her confidence.
She nodded her head and smiled at him. "Of course I did, I knew we would be here, I saw it in the runes..."
"Runes?"
She nodded her head with a giggle. "Uh huh, admittedly I didn't know it was going to be you, but I did tell Parvati to buy more butterbeer..."
He looked at her and began to laugh as she ran over to the girls staircase. "You go and get everything from the boys room and I'll be back in a second."
Neville watched her go and tried to process what had happened before he turned towards the boys dorm. "Well, Trevor...this is different..."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
He got back downstairs to find Lavender sitting leg crossed on the floor in front of the fire with a variety of butterbeer and chocolate laid out in front of her. She waved as he walked over and stood beside her awkwardly.
"I got this stuff...I...I don't suppose you told Dean, Seamus and Ron to buy more crisps, biscuits and muggle chocolate?"
She looked at him guiltily for a second before shaking her head and tossing her hair airily. "If they feel the need to abandon you then..."
"Oh no, they...they didn't abandon me." He said as he sat down beside her. "I...I just didn't feel like it."
She looked at him and nodded her head. "Of course you didn't...my point is, if they are decent and bring you anything back you can just give them the stuff we eat back."
He nodded his head as she continued. "And if they don't bring you anything back then they don't deserve any consideration...see?"
She finished with a smile as she handed him a bottle of butterbeer and looked at him expectantly as he took it with a nervous smile. "Thanks."
She shrugged her shoulders as she looked at him over at him. "So...I saw in your picture that you won a prize in herbology. I never knew that..."
He blushed slightly. "Um, it was an extra thing...it wasn't in class, so you wouldn't know."
She looked aghast. "You should have said something! Or Dumbledore should have said something at breakfast...he's quick enough to tell us about other stuff."
He shrugged his shoulders and looked down sadly. "It's not like it was anything important...you know, it's not really important like potions or transfiguration or charms...or...or divination even."
She looked at him with a pleased smile. "Well, divination is VERY important but so is herbology. I mean, people like Hermione and Harry can be the stars at the more glamorous lessons but...well, think back to 2nd year. What was it that saved all those people when the Chamber of Secrets was opened? It wasn't potions and it wasn't transfiguration...it was herbology. No, you are good at an important field, the same way me and Parvati are. Let them make fun..."
He looked at her and grinned happily. She did have a point: so he wasn't a tranfigurer or anything, he was a pretty good herbologist. He looked at her as she tried to open a chocolate frog and felt himself blush. She looked rather pretty as she concentrated her blue eyes on the packaging while her brown wavy hair skimmed her jaw line as she fiddled with the packaging before throwing it down in frustration. He reached over and picked up the packet and opened it and handed it to her tentatively.
"Thanks, Neville..."
He smiled as he shook his head and took a drink of butterbeer. "It's okay..."
"So, you looked really happy in the picture you were sending. Really happy." She looked at him with a smile, "I haven't sent a picture home in ages...I have one with all of this year that can you remember I took at Christmas? Well I still have that up in my room and never got round to sending it yet."
"I need one with everyone..." He said as he looked down and continued quietly, "my mum and dad have never seen my whole year..."
She looked at him for a second before getting up and running up the stairs. By the time he looked up to see where she had went she had disappeared. He silently cursed himself, how big an idiot was he? Why would he say anything about them again?
"Here." She said as she ran down the stairs again and sat next to him. "You can have this one. I have the negative still on camera so I'll just get that copied and you can send your parents that one when you are sending them the picture from herbology."
He looked at her gratefully. "You...you don't have to..."
She looked at him with a broad smile as she nudged him. "Of course I don't, but I want to...and you get to kill two birds with the one stone then. Of course," she said as she giggled again, "the look on some of the faces there will probably terrify your parents. I think I'm just going to cut Dean, Seamus and Ron off the end...and the half of Harry's face that he is pulling with his hand..."
He let out a laugh as he looked at the picture of the year as they all smiled and pulled faces at the camera before the Christmas holidays. The fact that Harry, Lavender and Seamus were all wearing Santa hats added to the fun.
"Are you sure you don't mind?"
She slid over to her butterbeer and looked at him with mock exasperation. "Neville, of course I don't mind."
"Thank...thank you."
"Well, now you can tell your parents who we all are now, right? That way they will know who we are when we graduate next year...that is if you plan on introducing them to us?" She said happily as she looked at her chocolate frog and bit her lip as she contemplated on whether or not to actually eat it.
Neville looked down as he sat the picture down. "Yeah...i guess..."
Lavender looked up at him worriedly. "What do you mean you guess? Even my muggle relatives are coming, they have it all booked already and there's a year to go. Of course, I've been reading their futures during the holidays and they are all excited because they know exactly how it's going to go...oooh, would you like me to read your cards? Or tea leaves?"
He looked at her nervously. "I...I don't think that's a good idea..."
"Why?"
He looked down. "Because there are something's that it's better if no one knows...like the future..."
She knelt up and looked in his eyes before he could get an opportunity to turn away. "Yes, but you know...there's something's that people should know...it can help."
He looked at her and nodded his head. "I know...so, while you were reading your relatives futures about graduation...did...did you see, where we all there?" He turned around and let out a nervous laugh as he continued, almost afraid of the answer. "You know, we were all there...even...even Harry?"
"Yeah, as far as I can remember we were all there. Harry had this dumb dog following him around as far as I think...I remember because one of the Slytherins is going to make a scene about it..."
Neville turned and looked at her with a smile. That would be the stray that Harry was feeding in the grounds. "I saw that dog in the grounds, I think Harry's adopted him..."
"Hmpff, well....there is a time and place for scraggy dogs and I don't think graduation is one of them..."
Neville let out a laugh, "I can't say anything with the problems I've had with Trevor at the worst moments..."
Lavender sighed as she nodded her head gravely. "That's why you should get a new pet...a nice owl...oooh, or a rat that way you could carry it about like you do with Trevor just not one as useless as Scabbers before Crookshanks took care of it."
"I don't think any rats are as useless as Scabbers was..."
She let out a laugh as she looked at him. "I agree!"
He sat and drummed his fingers against his leg as they sat in silence. What should he say to her?
"So...are you the only wizard in your family? Witch I mean...not wizard..."
She shook her head. "No, my dad's family is wizards my mum's muggle...so I'm half and half. One of those 'mudbloods' the Slytherins are always shouting off about."
He shook his head determinedly as he spoke strongly. "You shouldn't say that about yourself. You and all the others with muggle relatives are worth ten of most of the pure bloods here! I mean, Hermione is the best witch in the year and...and she's muggle born and I'm pure blood and I'm basically a squib."
"You're not a squib, Neville." She began sternly, "So you have a little trouble with wand work...so what? I have trouble with the History stuff...it doesn't make me an idiot. You need to stop being so hard on yourself. That's what Professor Trewlany said to me one day. She said that we all find out niche...and mine is in Divination so I can't expect to go and be good at everything else especially as my niche is so important." She looked at him proudly, "I mean, not everyone can be Hermione after all...and she couldn't stick divination so she quit. You haven't quit any classes, you keep trying."
He let out a laugh as he nodded his head enthusiastically. She did have a point, he was a bit dogged in that he wouldn't quit something. But that wasn't important just now. "I...do, I guess...but...but that's not the point. The point is you shouldn't listen to Slytherins. Ever. You...you are worth more than that: more than a label like what they give you."
He blushed again as he realised what he was saying and how he was saying it. It probably wasn't very smart of him to come out with something like that. He probably sounded like an idiot. She probably thought he was crazy.
"You...you think that?" She said softly as she looked at him with a strange smile tugging her lips. "Thank you."
"It's...it's the truth." He said with a shrug of the shoulders as he avoided her gaze, desperate to change the subject to anything. "So...so, aren't you scared of what you see...in divination I mean?"
She looked at him and pondered for a second before edging closer and whispering. "Honestly? I am always terrified of what I could see...I don't know how I would handle seeing someone I care about being hurt or ill or...or dying. I mean, if I knew about it....I would warn them and I'm not supposed to I know, but, what's the point of having a gift if you can't? Right?"
She looked at him almost for approval which he immediately gave. Of course he would do the same...it was a natural instinct to protect those you cared about. "Right. I...I would do the same...well, I would do the same if I saw anything other than nothing in the crystal ball..."
He smiled at her as he finished and she laughed, a real laugh, not the usual giggle and she put her hand on his arm for a second. "Thank you...finally someone who isn't Parvati who isn't going to accuse me of being crazy..."
He blushed slightly and looked down as he spoke quietly. "No. I don't think you're crazy...I think Professor Trewlany is though...she kinda scares me."
Lavender leant back on her cushion and nodded her head with a laugh, "She's not crazy...a little eccentric, but not crazy..."
He leant back in his own cushion and looked up at the ceiling. "You think being a little weird is a requirement to work here? I mean...Dumbledore is...well, more than a little eccentric, Trewlany, Filch is obsessive about his cat, Binns is a ghost who forgot his own body, Lupin was a werewolf..."
"Lockhart was an egotistical maniac, Sinistra is obsessive about having her class seated in different geometric shapes depending on the day of the week, Snape has an unhealthy obsession with black, McGonagall has an unhealthy obsession with quidditch, Hagrid has an unhealthy obsession with big dangerous animals...Moody wasn't really Moody but a deatheater living in Moody's body with a liking for tormenting spiders..."
Neville looked up uncomfortably at the mentioning of *his* name.
Crouch.
He was in the school.
His school.
He was in his class and Neville had been in his office talking to him all that time. He must have loved it, how stupid Neville had been...trusting him and telling his what he felt about the lesson on the unforgiveables. Telling him how he hated the deatheaters. Telling him how it hurt to visit his parents. And Moody...Crouch...whatever his name was just sat there and offered fake sympathy while silently loving it all. Enjoying what he had done all those years ago all over again and Neville had let him.
He should have known. He should have been smart enough to work it out.
He should have had his revenge before the Dementors got theirs. He should have been able to tell his parents he had did it for them.
He should have heard Couch beg for mercy like he had made his parents do.
He should have seen him scared. He should have seen him cry. He should have killed him.
But he failed in that as well. He had failed them.
"Neville? Are you okay?" Lavender was kneeling beside him when he became aware of her voice. He sat up quickly and backed away.
"What?"
"You were a little zoned out there...you looked upset..."
He stood up and walked over to the window quickly. "No...no I'm not upset...I'm good."
"You don't look good...you look kinda sick..." She was now standing behind him, her blue eyes locked in apprehension.
"I'm fine!" He snapped abruptly before turning and looking at her apologetically. "I...I...I'm sorry. I didn't mean...I'm..." He walked quickly walked towards the door of the Common Room before stopping and looking at her sadly. "I'm sorry."
Before she could even reply he was walking quickly out the portrait and down the hall.
"Neville!"
Her voice echoed behind him and he stopped and span around but kept his eyes down as she caught up to him.
"I do not appreciate being yelled at! Not only that but you apologised before I even had a chance to respond. And now you're running off? That's not very nice is it?"
He looked up at her and opened his mouth to respond when she shook her head fiercely as she continued. "Now, I have never heard you yell at anyone...now either you find me particularly annoying..."
"No!"
"Or something is really upsetting you. Now, I know me...and I'm not that annoying. I mean if I was you I would like me. I'm a very likeable person to people I like so I would definitely like me if I was you. Don't you agree?"
He looked at her confused and tried to work out what he was actually agreeing to before giving it up as a hopeless cause and nodding his head in agreement after which she continued.
"Exactly what I thought. Now I know you don't know me that well...and you probably think I'm this awful gossip...which I suppose I kinda am but not malicious stuff, you know...we just gossip about the usual stuff. Anyway, I digress..." She took a deep breath as she continued quickly, "anyway, what I mean is I can keep a secret, or I can give hypothetical advice, or I can be a friendly ear...or I can totally curse the arse off whoever it is that has upset you without them knowing. What I'm trying to say is...there is more to me than the hopeless dizzy girl you see. And I have never taken the chance to get to know you right...in the 6 years we have been here together today is probably the first time I've spoke to you for any length of time one on one and...and I feel bad about that. Because you are so different from how I always saw you..."
He blushed as he shook his head. "I'm not...I'm exactly the same..."
She sighed as she shook her head. "You don't know what I thought of you before...how do you know you're the same?"
"Because I'm not that complicated. Hermione...she says the good thing about me is that what you see is what you get. There's nothing hidden..."
She reached out and touched his arm and smiled. "But that's not true...is it?"
"No..." He looked at her and sighed. What was the point in denying it?
She nodded her head and took him by the arm. "No. And none of us bothered to take the chance to see that..."
He shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. "That's...not true."
She sighed and reached down and took his hand hesitantly. "It is...I'm not so self absorbed that I can't see that."
"You...you're not self absorbed."
"I am...sometimes and I'm shallow and I worry too much about appearances, and I can be spiteful. But I can be a lot more than that too...I need you to know that."
He looked at her and bit his lip. "Why?"
She shook her head as she looked at him with a sad smile. "I...don't know. I just feel like you should...not even because of divination or anything, just...just because..."
"I knew that anyway..."
She let out a breath of relief as she looked at him. "Good."
She let go of his hand and pulled the sleeves of her robes down and tugged at them. Neville looked at her with a confused expression. Why would someone like Lavender care what someone like him thought? "You shouldn't worry what I think...I'm just me. I don't even have the guts to have my fortune read..."
He spoke with a laugh, hoping to lighten the air a little. She looked at him hopefully. "Why don't you let me see if I can see anything? I won't tell you anything you don't want to know. I'm not even that good at other people's yet...it'll let me get to know you a bit better..."
He shook his head as he looked at her apprehensively as he went to the wall and slid down to sit on the floor. "Why don't you just ask me what you want to know?"
She looked at him and slid down beside him. "Because you might not answer."
"I might..."
She turned away from him and shook her head. "It might upset you."
He bit his lip as he looked down and sighed. This was ridiculous, why didn't he just go away and spend time on his own like he usually done. Why was she here? Why wasn't she with other people? "If...if it upsets me I wo..won't answer."
"You can ask me something as well if you want, okay?" She looked at him and to his surprise she wasn't wearing an expression that said that she was just gossiping. She looked interested. In him.
That was a different feeling. No one really seemed interested in him before. He nodded his head in agreement.
She took a deep breath as she looked at him nervously. "Why don't you live with your parents. Neville?"
He shifted as he looked at her. That was a little abrupt. "I...just don't. I can't..."
"Do...do you miss them?"
"All the time." He answered honestly. "But I'm kinda used to it now..."
She nodded as she guided him to the portrait hole. "I guess...why...why did you write that on the picture? Really?"
"Because I want them to remember the important things. So when they look back they will see it all. They will see that there was more to me than just all the howlers gran sends. I wrote it so they will know."
She bit her lip sadly as she looked at him again. "Were...are your parents aurors?"
"My...my dad is...was."
"Did...when did he stop working?"
He looked down and felt his throat constrict like someone was squeezing it. And at the same time like they were pulling his heart to pieces. "Um...13 years ago..."
She gasped and turned away from him as she continued quietly. "Um...how...how long have you lived with your gran?"
"Same."
She nodded her head as she lifted her hand to wipe her eyes. "I see...I see..."
He gulped hard and took a deep breath and forced a smile on his face. "Yeah...um, gran says I've aged her to an early grave..."
She turned and forced a smile on her face and as he looked at her he could see her eyes shining with tears. "I don't see that being the case...howlers aside."
"So...so I'm entitled to a question, right?"
She nodded her head. "If you want one."
"Why do you care? I mean...why do you care where I live?"
She closed her eyes for a second before shaking her head. "I don't know. It just feels right. And easy and...and for purely selfish reasons, I know I can trust you, and I know I like you. Really like you and I want you to like me back."
He smiled at her and nodded his head slowly. "I already like you. Everyone likes you."
"Not everyone knows me though. It's kinda like you: they already have their preconceived ideas and stuff...I'm not always like they see me."
He nodded his head as he sighed. He understood exactly where she was coming from. How many times had he just wanted to scream at people and tell them to ask why he lived with his gran. Get them to ask him where his parents were. Get them to look at him without seeing stupid Neville. Or Neville, the boy who let Sirius Black run through the common room. Neville who was stupid, Neville who could barely pass a class. Just Neville...
"I think...I think we all want that. Sometimes..."
She leant her head against the wall beside him and sighed before sitting forward abruptly. "I cannot believe we are sitting in the middle of the corridor having this conversation. Come back to the Common Room."
He shook his head, "You go back. I'm...good here."
She sighed as she looked at him and shook her head before leaning back. "I'm not going back to sit myself...I'll look both pathetic and a right gannet with all the junk we have out."
"Just tell them I was there. They won't mind..."
She shook her head. "It's not about that."
"Then what's it about?"
"Stop it."
"Stop what?"
She looked at him impatiently. "You are being infuriating!"
He looked at her, his eyes wide. What had he done? "I don't get it, what...what have I done?"
She let out a hmpfh and folded her arms around her knees. "Don't you think there's maybe a reason I'm sitting in the middle of the corridor, in the middle of winter with you? Do you not think there's maybe a reason I followed you out of the common room after you yelled at me?"
"You...you wanted to yell back at me?" He asked helpfully. He had clearly missed something.
She groaned and looked at him. "I was worried about you. I wanted to see if you were okay. I wanted to spend some time with you."
He smiled as he looked down. She wanted to spend time with him? But...well, she was Lavender. She was popular and pretty. He was Neville. Just Neville.
He looked up to see her looking at him intently. "I don't know what upset you Neville and I'm not going to guess...although I think I have a fair idea now. But I want you to know that you can talk to me about it. I promise you I won't tell anyone."
He nodded his head as he smiled at her. "Thanks..."
She nodded her head and looked away from him. "When I was 9 years old my sister was attacked. She was 15 and she wasn't a witch, she was coming home from school one day and a group of people were waiting on the pathway." She looked at him briefly before continuing. "She tried to go around but they wouldn't let her. They beat her so badly that she lay on the path unconscious for more than 4 hours and when someone found her she had lost so much blood the ground splurged red when you walked on it. They took her to hospital and she barely regained consciousness. She couldn't remember anything at first, even my parents. That was probably the hardest thing because I didn't know what was going on. Anyway, after a while she got better...but she was haunted. Haunted by the memories of what happened and everything and she wouldn't go out or anything and I resented her. I resented that she wasn't my sister anymore. That she had let them take her away from me and I couldn't be in the same room as her because of the way she was. She was 15 and she was scared to walk outside. I swore then that I would never be like that. Ever. And I wasn't. What I didn't know was that she hated being like that as well...and a few months later she wasn't. In the middle of the night she went into the bathroom and cut her wrists, and that was it. Over."
He looked at her wide eyed. What was she saying? Why was he telling him this? This must hurt her a lot and he was about to say this when she began talking again.
"Anyway, what I mean is I learned a lot that year. I learned that you can't deal with things on your own. I learned that you have to let people in. I learned that if you let circumstances change you, you will be eaten away inside and it will kill you."
She turned and looked at him with a sad smile. "No one else knows anything about this. No one outside my family. Not even Parvati. What...I wanted to show you is that...I trust you enough to tell you this and I don't even know you that well. I just...I feel...like you would understand." She waited a second before continuing. "Anyway...I think I've maybe made a big enough fool of myself now so I should probably leave..."
She stood up to go and he looked at her for a second before scrambling to his feet and reaching out hesitently.
"Lavender?" He looked at her unsurely as he took a deep breath. "My...my parents are in St Mungo's, they were attacked when I was 3 by Crouch the guy who was pretending to...be Moody in 4th year. They don't know who I am...that's why I wrote that on the picture. So that when they...if they get better..."
He looked down and reached into his robe pockets and pulled out a crumpled and dog-eared picture. He looked at it and sighed. "The...the witch on the left is my mum, the wizard beside her is my dad. That...that's me, that's hanging onto his leg with the little wand. I...I was 3 when I had that picture...that, that is the last picture I have of the three of us together...they scream when I visit them now. They don't recognise me."
She looked at him and nodded her head as she smiled at him sadly. "Now I get it...I'm sorry."
He shrugged his shoulders as he put the picture back in his robes. "I'm sorry too...about your sister."
"It was her decision." She smiled sadly. "You have nothing to apologise for."
He shifted as he looked at her. Feeling closer to her than he had felt to anyone at school, they had shared something with each other than no one else knew. Even Hermione.
She reached out and took his hand and gave a smile. "Well, I think we both deserve a drink after that, don't you?"
He looked up at her and nodded his head. "I guess..."
"Well come on, go grab your cloak and I might let you buy me a butterbeer at Honeydukes." She said with a mischievous smile as she pulled his hand.
"Honeydukes? I didn't know we were going to Hogsmeade?"
She giggled as she pulled him faster. "Neither did I...but sounds good doesn't it? As opposed to sitting here? We can get a butterbeer and then something to eat. It'll be fun, just the two of us."
He stopped and looked at her with a smile. "You...don't mind? The...the Slytherins, and others...they might tease you..."
She looked at him with an aggressive smile. "They can try..."
He let out a laugh before she took a step back and linked her arm with his while still holding his hand. "Listen, I could care less what anyone else thinks. I...I am having a good time. With you."
"I'm...having a good time with you too..."
She nodded her head in approval as she walked with him and sighed happily. "See, I knew there was a reason I came back today..."
"Because of Parvati and Seamus?"
She shook her head as she lay it on his shoulder. "No. Because of you."
~fini~