Therapy is not always...
Should have been posted at lunch. Sorry.
*~*~*~*
Mac was standing over Neville. "Come on then. Lunch time. Hannah's waitin', and ya need to meet th'new employees at th'bakery."
Neville sighed. It had been pointless to pretend he was napping, but he had hoped it would have tricked Mac into thinking he wasn't up to eating today. He also knew that if he didn't get out of bed and join her, a pillow to the face was the least amount of his worries. "Fine, fine. You'll let me whine the entire way there though, won't you?"
"As if I could stop ya. Get off yer fine arse. It willna be so bad. It needs to be done, Nev."
He was like a petulant child as he dragged himself from the bed and put on his shoes. Mac took his hand and led him down the street to the Happy Hearth. Hannah and Kristen were already sitting at a table with Grace. The new waitress Lucy was waiting to take orders.
Mac knew Amy, Shanti or Claire was in the back taking owl orders. The new girl Sunny was on the register. The new waitress named Ivy was talking to Mrs. Dearborn at her table, and Mac's cousin Argyle was busing tables.
"Hi. You must be Neville. I'm Lucy. Lucy MacRae. I'm new. Actually most of us are new."
Mac grinned. Lucy was peppy and cheerful about everything.
"That's Sunny over there," Lucy said gesturing to the blonde. "Over there is Ivy, and Claire is in the back doing owl orders today. I think you already know Argyle."
Neville hadn't really paid attention to anything the new face has said to him. His arms were crossed tightly across his chest, his knee wouldn't stop bouncing, and his eyes kept darting around to all the faces inside the bakery that he was getting dizzy. "Did we have to come when it was busy?" he hissed to Mac.
"Yes," Mac snapped. "We are moving out of yer comfort zone."
She pointed at the chair next to Hannah. Neville sat and Mac took the chair on the other side of her. Ivy edged Lucy out. She was quiet, more subdued.
"I'm Ivy," she said in low tones. "What can I get you to eat?"
"Tomato soup and a cheese sandwich," Mac said. "And a cup of fruit and a bag of crisps with a butterbeer. Then a plate of snickerdoodles."
Even though he was sitting, Neville was still skittish. Whenever someone looked at him, it felt like beetles were crawling under his skin, and it irritated him that just being looked at was causing such a reaction.
"Every time we come here you add a bit more to your order," he snapped, his words harsher than he wanted them to be. "Chicken sandwich," Neville mumbled, when the waitress' eyes turned to him.
Ivy nodded. They already had what Hannah, Kristen and Grace were eating. Everyone backed off, and Sunny had been staring at Neville. She immediately looked away. Grace didn't though. She was leaned around Hannah.
"Hi, Neville. We get to eat in the bakery today," she said in a loud whisper.
He gave Grace a small smile. Besides Mac and Hannah, she was the only one who didn't tiptoe around him, mostly because she didn't know there was anything wrong. "I know." Neville immediately went back to looking around. The last time he had been in this part of the bakery...
Neville closed his eyes as flashes appeared before his eyes. He could still hear the shouts and the bindings being thrown. With a gasp, he opened his eyes, trying not to appear that he had just relived his living nightmare.
Clearing his throat, he turned to Hannah. "So, have a good hols? I didn't have a chance to get presents for everyone. Sorry 'bout that."
"That's quite all right. I don't expect any. I never do. In case Mac has not told you., Blaise asked me to marry him, and she's going to be one of the bridesmaids."
Mac started choking.
"What?" Neville gasped, quickly looking to the ring on her finger. It was a nice-sized ring that no doubt cost more than he'd earned in the past year. Of course that was probably just pocket change to Zabini, the bastard. But he couldn't stop the grin from coming over his face.
"Bridesmaid, as in wearing a dress and carrying flowers bridesmaid? In Blaise Zabini's wedding. Did I tumble into an alternate universe in the past few weeks?"
"I am no'," Mac said.
Hannah glared. "Yes you are. I'll take no refusals."
Neville ducked his head to hide his grin. "What colors are the dresses?"
"I haven't decided as of yet."
"Probably pink," Kristen replied.
"No," Mac said. "No no and no."
Despite still being nervous as hell, Neville couldn't stop snickering. He tried to imagine Mac in a pink dress walking down the aisle, but it just made him laugh harder. "I'll be sure to tell Brody you're going to be wearing a pink dress soon. I'll make sure we get snaps to send to your Nana."
Mac punched him in the arm. Hard.
"Oh Brody and Nana will be there," Hannah replied. "They're on the guest list. Actually, I'm counting on Brody to help seat people. In his kilt... oh yes."
Rubbing his arm where Mac had punched him, Neville leaned forward and tried not to burst out laughing. He didn't know the last time he had laughed this hard. "Please say she has to wear heels. Or put flowers in her hair, or something like that."
"I think all the bridesmaids will wear orchids in their hair. Blaise likes orchids, but I don't want Mac totally uncomfortable. If she can't walk in heels, she won't wear them."
Grace had slipped out of her chair and came around to stand next to Neville as Ivy set all the food on the table with Lucy's help.
"Grace, come back to your seat," Hannah said.
"I want to sit with Neville."
Neville waited for Mac to politely decline, or for Hannah to get up and retrieve Grace herself. When neither of the women moved to do either, Grace took it as an open invitation. He tensed up as Grace crawled in his lap and smiled up at him. "Um... hi Grace."
Grace just giggled and took her cheese sandwich from the plate Hannah had pushed over. She started eating happily. Mac grinned at Neville. This was good. This was very good. Hannah and Kristen were both smiling as they started eating their pot pies.
He awkwardly reached around Grace and grabbed his own sandwich, and took a bite. He really had no idea what to do. Ignore Grace and talk to everyone else? What type of conversation was he supposed to hold with a little girl?
Hannah smiled. "Look at it this way, Neville, you're that much closer to working at the clinic now."
Mac snickered.
"Just pretend she's not there," Kristen offered. "She's like a hairless cat. She just wants your body heat."
Neville blinked at the very strange analogy and then looked down at Grace, who was happily munching away at her sandwich. Shaking his head, he took another bite of his own.
"I honestly haven't thought about going to work at the clinic. My relationship with Ginny is a bit strained. She's still mad at me for leaving. Plus, I'd have to go back over the basics. It's been so long since I healed anyone."
"Ya healed me when I were broken," Mac said.
"Hogsmeade is growing," Kristen said. "I think Ginny would be happy to have more help."
"Gin's no' mad at ya," Mac snapped. "Stop usin' tha' as an excuse or we'll start havin' dinners wit her and Draco."
Neville's eyes widened in horror. "Oh please no." He would not have dinner with Draco Malfoy. All the hard work he had done in the past months would fly out the window and his hands would claw up and he'd go after Malfoy's neck and then Ginny would really be mad at him for killing her boyfriend and--
Mac elbowed him, and he realized that he had been hyperventilating. "Right. No more excuses. I would have to go back over the basics. I was going off of diagnostic charms that had already been performed on you, because I was looking at your chart," he told Mac.
"All th'more reason for ya to go to th'clinic and practice up."
Hannah grinned. "I agree. You have to do things that make you uncomfortable, Neville. It's the only way to be better. One day it won't bother you anymore."
"You could practice on me," Kristen offered. Then blushed darkly, realizing how that had sounded. "I mean... I..."
Neville blushed just as much as Kristen did. "Sorry, but running healing charms on someone who isn't healed doesn't really help, because I don't know if they worked." He wanted to scoot down in the seat to hide a bit more, but Grace made that impossible. "I'll owl Ginny about it. I need to thank her for my Christmas gift anyway."
He finished his sandwich and sat back, listening to Mac and Hannah make small talk. There were a few random things about the wedding thrown in, but Neville just sat back and let the words wash over him. Suddenly, he realized he hadn't been paying attention to anyone who had been in the bakery along with them. It was almost as if they were in the back just having lunch by themselves. The realization made him smile a bit.
Mac noticed Neville smiling. He had not been paying attention to Hannah babbling about the wedding. He also was not fidgeting. He was sitting back with Grace in his lap and just being relaxed. People were going in and out of the bakery. Everyone was talking and coming by close, and Neville was calm. Mac smiled.
His eyes found Mac's, and noticed that she was smiling at him. He flushed a bit. "What?" Neville asked a bit defensively. "Sorry, I just got distracted. My mind wandered. I didn't mean to ignore you."
"Yer fine," Mac said.
"Neville, you want some nan?" Grace was holding up some banana.
"Banana," Hannah corrected.
He grinned down at her. "No thanks. I'm full just on my sandwich." At Hannah's glare, he looked a bit sheepish. "I am! I may have snacked a bit before we got here."
Grace snagged a biscuit from one of the plates. "Try this."
"I'm not-"
Grace made a squealing sound and waved the bikkie.
Neville tensed up and quickly grabbed the biscuit before she protested anymore. He dutifully took a bite, but then looked at it curiously. He chewed and swallowed. "What's in this?"
Hannah smiled. "They're just sugar cookies with ginger and allspice added."
"They're good." Before he was even done with the first biscuit, Grace handed him another. Hoping she wouldn't make another noise, he grabbed that one as well. "That's it though. No more," he told her.
"Two is plenty," Grace commented, looking very satisfied with herself.
Mac was wondering if the girl was quite as young as she seemed. She had to have heard them saying how Neville was not eating enough. Mac thought having Grace about was a good plan. Neville could not argue with her without looking like a bastard.
"I like having lunch with Neville," Grace announced.
"Yeah," Kristen remarked. "Be sure to tell Blaise that."
"I can't believe you're marrying Zabini," Neville said, shaking his head and taking another bite out of the biscuit. "Isn't he allergic to marriage or something?"
"He wants to make Hannah happy," Kristen said. "I've never seen anyone want to make someone else happy like that."
Hannah considered what Kris had seen - her father leaving, her mother blaming them. It was enough to make a person not believe in happy endings. Not that the wedding was an ending. It was most definitely a beginning.
"Sometimes I can't believe I am marrying him either, Neville," Hannah said giggling.
He made a face and turned to Mac. "Since you're in the wedding, does that mean that there won't be anyone to sit with me? I'll go mad."
"Neville Longbottom," Hannah scolded. "Most of the MacDougals will be there. Ginny will be there. Harry too. Dean and Natalie. There will be plenty of people for you to sit with. Especially since I was thinking of inviting your Gran. She 's such a lovely woman."
Neville started to choke on the biscuit and looked at Mac in horror. His Gran would see him in a suit and Mac would be in a bridesmaids dress and she would certainly get ideas. She'd also probably go about talking of sex and grandchildren again, and then all the MacDougals that would be in attendance at Hannah's wedding would really like to kill him.
Mac was frozen with her butterbeer halfway to her mouth as Hannah clapped Neville on the back. "Is there anyone yer no' invitin' to this wedding? Where ya going to have it? A quidditch pitch somewhere?"
"I know Zabini is part of the who's who for rich bas--" Neville took an elbow to the ribs from Mac and stopped mid-word. "For rich people, but are you handing out invitations to everyone who went to Hogwarts and steps in your bakery?"
Hannah glared at him.
Kristen started laughing. "Yes."
{SUMMARY} Mac and Hannah make Neville have his first public lunch in the bakery - complete with little girls in his lap and new employees.
*~*~*~*
Mac was standing over Neville. "Come on then. Lunch time. Hannah's waitin', and ya need to meet th'new employees at th'bakery."
Neville sighed. It had been pointless to pretend he was napping, but he had hoped it would have tricked Mac into thinking he wasn't up to eating today. He also knew that if he didn't get out of bed and join her, a pillow to the face was the least amount of his worries. "Fine, fine. You'll let me whine the entire way there though, won't you?"
"As if I could stop ya. Get off yer fine arse. It willna be so bad. It needs to be done, Nev."
He was like a petulant child as he dragged himself from the bed and put on his shoes. Mac took his hand and led him down the street to the Happy Hearth. Hannah and Kristen were already sitting at a table with Grace. The new waitress Lucy was waiting to take orders.
Mac knew Amy, Shanti or Claire was in the back taking owl orders. The new girl Sunny was on the register. The new waitress named Ivy was talking to Mrs. Dearborn at her table, and Mac's cousin Argyle was busing tables.
"Hi. You must be Neville. I'm Lucy. Lucy MacRae. I'm new. Actually most of us are new."
Mac grinned. Lucy was peppy and cheerful about everything.
"That's Sunny over there," Lucy said gesturing to the blonde. "Over there is Ivy, and Claire is in the back doing owl orders today. I think you already know Argyle."
Neville hadn't really paid attention to anything the new face has said to him. His arms were crossed tightly across his chest, his knee wouldn't stop bouncing, and his eyes kept darting around to all the faces inside the bakery that he was getting dizzy. "Did we have to come when it was busy?" he hissed to Mac.
"Yes," Mac snapped. "We are moving out of yer comfort zone."
She pointed at the chair next to Hannah. Neville sat and Mac took the chair on the other side of her. Ivy edged Lucy out. She was quiet, more subdued.
"I'm Ivy," she said in low tones. "What can I get you to eat?"
"Tomato soup and a cheese sandwich," Mac said. "And a cup of fruit and a bag of crisps with a butterbeer. Then a plate of snickerdoodles."
Even though he was sitting, Neville was still skittish. Whenever someone looked at him, it felt like beetles were crawling under his skin, and it irritated him that just being looked at was causing such a reaction.
"Every time we come here you add a bit more to your order," he snapped, his words harsher than he wanted them to be. "Chicken sandwich," Neville mumbled, when the waitress' eyes turned to him.
Ivy nodded. They already had what Hannah, Kristen and Grace were eating. Everyone backed off, and Sunny had been staring at Neville. She immediately looked away. Grace didn't though. She was leaned around Hannah.
"Hi, Neville. We get to eat in the bakery today," she said in a loud whisper.
He gave Grace a small smile. Besides Mac and Hannah, she was the only one who didn't tiptoe around him, mostly because she didn't know there was anything wrong. "I know." Neville immediately went back to looking around. The last time he had been in this part of the bakery...
Neville closed his eyes as flashes appeared before his eyes. He could still hear the shouts and the bindings being thrown. With a gasp, he opened his eyes, trying not to appear that he had just relived his living nightmare.
Clearing his throat, he turned to Hannah. "So, have a good hols? I didn't have a chance to get presents for everyone. Sorry 'bout that."
"That's quite all right. I don't expect any. I never do. In case Mac has not told you., Blaise asked me to marry him, and she's going to be one of the bridesmaids."
Mac started choking.
"What?" Neville gasped, quickly looking to the ring on her finger. It was a nice-sized ring that no doubt cost more than he'd earned in the past year. Of course that was probably just pocket change to Zabini, the bastard. But he couldn't stop the grin from coming over his face.
"Bridesmaid, as in wearing a dress and carrying flowers bridesmaid? In Blaise Zabini's wedding. Did I tumble into an alternate universe in the past few weeks?"
"I am no'," Mac said.
Hannah glared. "Yes you are. I'll take no refusals."
Neville ducked his head to hide his grin. "What colors are the dresses?"
"I haven't decided as of yet."
"Probably pink," Kristen replied.
"No," Mac said. "No no and no."
Despite still being nervous as hell, Neville couldn't stop snickering. He tried to imagine Mac in a pink dress walking down the aisle, but it just made him laugh harder. "I'll be sure to tell Brody you're going to be wearing a pink dress soon. I'll make sure we get snaps to send to your Nana."
Mac punched him in the arm. Hard.
"Oh Brody and Nana will be there," Hannah replied. "They're on the guest list. Actually, I'm counting on Brody to help seat people. In his kilt... oh yes."
Rubbing his arm where Mac had punched him, Neville leaned forward and tried not to burst out laughing. He didn't know the last time he had laughed this hard. "Please say she has to wear heels. Or put flowers in her hair, or something like that."
"I think all the bridesmaids will wear orchids in their hair. Blaise likes orchids, but I don't want Mac totally uncomfortable. If she can't walk in heels, she won't wear them."
Grace had slipped out of her chair and came around to stand next to Neville as Ivy set all the food on the table with Lucy's help.
"Grace, come back to your seat," Hannah said.
"I want to sit with Neville."
Neville waited for Mac to politely decline, or for Hannah to get up and retrieve Grace herself. When neither of the women moved to do either, Grace took it as an open invitation. He tensed up as Grace crawled in his lap and smiled up at him. "Um... hi Grace."
Grace just giggled and took her cheese sandwich from the plate Hannah had pushed over. She started eating happily. Mac grinned at Neville. This was good. This was very good. Hannah and Kristen were both smiling as they started eating their pot pies.
He awkwardly reached around Grace and grabbed his own sandwich, and took a bite. He really had no idea what to do. Ignore Grace and talk to everyone else? What type of conversation was he supposed to hold with a little girl?
Hannah smiled. "Look at it this way, Neville, you're that much closer to working at the clinic now."
Mac snickered.
"Just pretend she's not there," Kristen offered. "She's like a hairless cat. She just wants your body heat."
Neville blinked at the very strange analogy and then looked down at Grace, who was happily munching away at her sandwich. Shaking his head, he took another bite of his own.
"I honestly haven't thought about going to work at the clinic. My relationship with Ginny is a bit strained. She's still mad at me for leaving. Plus, I'd have to go back over the basics. It's been so long since I healed anyone."
"Ya healed me when I were broken," Mac said.
"Hogsmeade is growing," Kristen said. "I think Ginny would be happy to have more help."
"Gin's no' mad at ya," Mac snapped. "Stop usin' tha' as an excuse or we'll start havin' dinners wit her and Draco."
Neville's eyes widened in horror. "Oh please no." He would not have dinner with Draco Malfoy. All the hard work he had done in the past months would fly out the window and his hands would claw up and he'd go after Malfoy's neck and then Ginny would really be mad at him for killing her boyfriend and--
Mac elbowed him, and he realized that he had been hyperventilating. "Right. No more excuses. I would have to go back over the basics. I was going off of diagnostic charms that had already been performed on you, because I was looking at your chart," he told Mac.
"All th'more reason for ya to go to th'clinic and practice up."
Hannah grinned. "I agree. You have to do things that make you uncomfortable, Neville. It's the only way to be better. One day it won't bother you anymore."
"You could practice on me," Kristen offered. Then blushed darkly, realizing how that had sounded. "I mean... I..."
Neville blushed just as much as Kristen did. "Sorry, but running healing charms on someone who isn't healed doesn't really help, because I don't know if they worked." He wanted to scoot down in the seat to hide a bit more, but Grace made that impossible. "I'll owl Ginny about it. I need to thank her for my Christmas gift anyway."
He finished his sandwich and sat back, listening to Mac and Hannah make small talk. There were a few random things about the wedding thrown in, but Neville just sat back and let the words wash over him. Suddenly, he realized he hadn't been paying attention to anyone who had been in the bakery along with them. It was almost as if they were in the back just having lunch by themselves. The realization made him smile a bit.
Mac noticed Neville smiling. He had not been paying attention to Hannah babbling about the wedding. He also was not fidgeting. He was sitting back with Grace in his lap and just being relaxed. People were going in and out of the bakery. Everyone was talking and coming by close, and Neville was calm. Mac smiled.
His eyes found Mac's, and noticed that she was smiling at him. He flushed a bit. "What?" Neville asked a bit defensively. "Sorry, I just got distracted. My mind wandered. I didn't mean to ignore you."
"Yer fine," Mac said.
"Neville, you want some nan?" Grace was holding up some banana.
"Banana," Hannah corrected.
He grinned down at her. "No thanks. I'm full just on my sandwich." At Hannah's glare, he looked a bit sheepish. "I am! I may have snacked a bit before we got here."
Grace snagged a biscuit from one of the plates. "Try this."
"I'm not-"
Grace made a squealing sound and waved the bikkie.
Neville tensed up and quickly grabbed the biscuit before she protested anymore. He dutifully took a bite, but then looked at it curiously. He chewed and swallowed. "What's in this?"
Hannah smiled. "They're just sugar cookies with ginger and allspice added."
"They're good." Before he was even done with the first biscuit, Grace handed him another. Hoping she wouldn't make another noise, he grabbed that one as well. "That's it though. No more," he told her.
"Two is plenty," Grace commented, looking very satisfied with herself.
Mac was wondering if the girl was quite as young as she seemed. She had to have heard them saying how Neville was not eating enough. Mac thought having Grace about was a good plan. Neville could not argue with her without looking like a bastard.
"I like having lunch with Neville," Grace announced.
"Yeah," Kristen remarked. "Be sure to tell Blaise that."
"I can't believe you're marrying Zabini," Neville said, shaking his head and taking another bite out of the biscuit. "Isn't he allergic to marriage or something?"
"He wants to make Hannah happy," Kristen said. "I've never seen anyone want to make someone else happy like that."
Hannah considered what Kris had seen - her father leaving, her mother blaming them. It was enough to make a person not believe in happy endings. Not that the wedding was an ending. It was most definitely a beginning.
"Sometimes I can't believe I am marrying him either, Neville," Hannah said giggling.
He made a face and turned to Mac. "Since you're in the wedding, does that mean that there won't be anyone to sit with me? I'll go mad."
"Neville Longbottom," Hannah scolded. "Most of the MacDougals will be there. Ginny will be there. Harry too. Dean and Natalie. There will be plenty of people for you to sit with. Especially since I was thinking of inviting your Gran. She 's such a lovely woman."
Neville started to choke on the biscuit and looked at Mac in horror. His Gran would see him in a suit and Mac would be in a bridesmaids dress and she would certainly get ideas. She'd also probably go about talking of sex and grandchildren again, and then all the MacDougals that would be in attendance at Hannah's wedding would really like to kill him.
Mac was frozen with her butterbeer halfway to her mouth as Hannah clapped Neville on the back. "Is there anyone yer no' invitin' to this wedding? Where ya going to have it? A quidditch pitch somewhere?"
"I know Zabini is part of the who's who for rich bas--" Neville took an elbow to the ribs from Mac and stopped mid-word. "For rich people, but are you handing out invitations to everyone who went to Hogwarts and steps in your bakery?"
Hannah glared at him.
Kristen started laughing. "Yes."
{SUMMARY} Mac and Hannah make Neville have his first public lunch in the bakery - complete with little girls in his lap and new employees.