(no subject)
100quills prompt: Doors
Neville was surprised to discover, not long after he left Hogwarts, that he had a special knack for getting past protective wards. A simple password to open a door, one that he was supposed to know, never managed to stick with him, but shifting the complex magic around, stretching it large enough to slip through, came as easily as parting the branches of a small bush.
It had been Draco that suggested the visualisation; Draco who'd recognised Neville's potential in the first place.
"I am not working with him," Draco had exclaimed, pointing at Ron, who looked about as happy about the suggestion as Draco himself did. "He's loud, he's clumsy, he's likely to get us both killed- and I can't make any guarantees about not killing him myself."
"I'd kill you first," Ron had shot back, and made to move forward, but Harry held him back.
"Who, then?" Remus had asked exasperatedly, "you've got to work with someone, because-"
"Because you don't trust me, I know," Draco had snarled. "I'll take him."
Neville still remembered looking up to find Draco's long finger pointing at him, those silver eyes boring into his. He had barely even noticed Harry and Ron coming to his defense over the clamour of words he had found written in Draco's eyes- please was about the only one he'd understood, and he'd known that Draco was asking not only for his help on the mission, but for his support in the fight going on around them. Neville had also known that please was a word Draco would never, ever have said aloud, especially not to him, and that the situation must be dire if he was willing to express it at all.
"I'll do it," he had said firmly, and the voices around him had paused briefly in their various assertions of Neville's cowardice (but they didn't actually say that word, for fear of hurting his feelings) and Draco's untrustworthiness (which they happily rubbed harshly in his face).
They had started up again a few moments later, but Neville had ignored them. He had brushed them off and moved forward, had taken Draco's hand, leading him away and out of the house before anyone could have stopped them.
Now, the thought of Draco is making his hands tremble, and Neville has to take a step back and close his eyes, breathing deeply to steady himself. He can't be distracted, not now, not when there's so much at stake. When Draco himself is at stake, and counting on him.
He imagines the Manor as a great, branching tree, and since he can't seem to get Draco out of his mind, he imagines him hiding beneath the leaves, smiling as he waits patiently for Neville to find him.
And then, before he knows it, he's inside, and Draco moves from where he was sitting on the floor, rubbing his wrists, to take Neville into his arms.
"I knew you could do it," he whispers in Neville's ear, and Neville shivers and holds him tight, wishing he could have the faith in himself that Draco does.
Purity