Safe as Houses (Part Six)
Written for: 10tunes
Disclaimer: None of these characters are mine.
Title: Safe as Houses (Part Six)
Characters: Neville/Harry
Prompt Song: Snowed Under ~ Keane
Rating: Slash
Summary: There were ten moments when everything changed for the better.
Author's Notes: Prompt table is here.
Part SIx
...then I open my eyes... and it's a lovely day....
Molly polishes the worn wood of the breakfast table by hand, because it is her table, and her mother's table, and her grandmother's table, and one day it will be Ginny's table, and Molly has always felt the need to tend to it by hand.
A presence in the doorway makes her start. She pauses with the soapy cloth clutched in her red fingers. Neville's dressed in a coat and scarf.
"Going out?" she asks.
"Yes. Can I use the Floo?"
"Of course, dear, you don't have to ask every time."
Neville's not a difficult houseguest. In fact, it sometimes rattles her a bit. She almost wants to yell at him to just ask for something... anything ... soap, towels, a fresh pitcher of water for the nightstand. Then she thinks of Ginny, and Harry, and she polishes the wood harder and harder. She doesn't look up when the Floo rushes with green light, and barely notices when he says "St. Mungo's."
~~~
Neville had always known better than to take what his mother says to him seriously. Still, she's been growing increasingly hostile and some of the things she mutters at him in the ward leave him feeling hurt, and sometimes, though he'd never admit it, angry.
His grandmother's been sending him owls for months, full of warnings and mediwizard reports, but Neville chooses to ignore all of them, until the day he shows up, and one of the beds in the little room is made, and empty. He accepts all the platitudes and sincere murmurs of apologies from the staff for as long as he can stand it, and then he simply walks out of the building.
He takes a long walk through Muggle London. It's snowing, just a little, and he takes what sunlight he can get. It's not enough to warm him, but really, it's a beautiful day. He thinks about Alice ... young-Alice, not mother-Alice... and he sees birds up in the bare trees .... and he feels terrible about it, but he's glad she's free.
~~~
The Weasleys are no longer giving him the cold shoulder, they seemed to be thawing out from sympathy as the land outside the Burrow freezes over. Neville's been allowed to borrow the piano in the sitting room, and he finds some comfort in pounding on the keys for hours on end, daring anybody to scold him for it or throw him out.
He gets a letter from Harry on the eighteenth. It's short. It says "Mission over, coming home."
Neville reads a lot between the lines. Or rather, because it is only one line, he reads between the words. He puts the letter in his pocket and he carries it all day.
~~~
Continue…
Disclaimer: None of these characters are mine.
Title: Safe as Houses (Part Six)
Characters: Neville/Harry
Prompt Song: Snowed Under ~ Keane
Rating: Slash
Summary: There were ten moments when everything changed for the better.
Author's Notes: Prompt table is here.
Part SIx
...then I open my eyes... and it's a lovely day....
Molly polishes the worn wood of the breakfast table by hand, because it is her table, and her mother's table, and her grandmother's table, and one day it will be Ginny's table, and Molly has always felt the need to tend to it by hand.
A presence in the doorway makes her start. She pauses with the soapy cloth clutched in her red fingers. Neville's dressed in a coat and scarf.
"Going out?" she asks.
"Yes. Can I use the Floo?"
"Of course, dear, you don't have to ask every time."
Neville's not a difficult houseguest. In fact, it sometimes rattles her a bit. She almost wants to yell at him to just ask for something... anything ... soap, towels, a fresh pitcher of water for the nightstand. Then she thinks of Ginny, and Harry, and she polishes the wood harder and harder. She doesn't look up when the Floo rushes with green light, and barely notices when he says "St. Mungo's."
~~~
Neville had always known better than to take what his mother says to him seriously. Still, she's been growing increasingly hostile and some of the things she mutters at him in the ward leave him feeling hurt, and sometimes, though he'd never admit it, angry.
His grandmother's been sending him owls for months, full of warnings and mediwizard reports, but Neville chooses to ignore all of them, until the day he shows up, and one of the beds in the little room is made, and empty. He accepts all the platitudes and sincere murmurs of apologies from the staff for as long as he can stand it, and then he simply walks out of the building.
He takes a long walk through Muggle London. It's snowing, just a little, and he takes what sunlight he can get. It's not enough to warm him, but really, it's a beautiful day. He thinks about Alice ... young-Alice, not mother-Alice... and he sees birds up in the bare trees .... and he feels terrible about it, but he's glad she's free.
~~~
The Weasleys are no longer giving him the cold shoulder, they seemed to be thawing out from sympathy as the land outside the Burrow freezes over. Neville's been allowed to borrow the piano in the sitting room, and he finds some comfort in pounding on the keys for hours on end, daring anybody to scold him for it or throw him out.
He gets a letter from Harry on the eighteenth. It's short. It says "Mission over, coming home."
Neville reads a lot between the lines. Or rather, because it is only one line, he reads between the words. He puts the letter in his pocket and he carries it all day.
~~~
Continue…