RP: The Amphibian Playdate

[rar_neville]

Date: 30 May 1998
Characters: Neville Longbottom, Eloise Midgen
Location: Hogwarts, by the lake
Status: Private
Summary: Neville and Eloise meet for lunch and to let Trevor and Marmite play.
Completion: Complete

Comments

[rar_eloise]

Eloise thought about Neville's suggestion about the WWN. She wasn't sure she would do that well at it, but it certainly was a thought. At least it gave her some sort of idea. Maybe she could do the horoscopes. She always thought the person doing it now was a bit dotty. Capricorns couldn't be facing a horrible tragic death every single day, could they?

It was something she'd have to think about, that was for sure. She was distracted from her thoughts as he fell back on the blanket and began to talk about getting married. She understood rather what he meant. While she certainly didn't have to get married. She rather thought she'd like to, someday, if she found someone who cared for her.

"You never know," Eloise said, giving him a perceptive look as she reached for the picnic basket and began to pull out the cold chicken sandwiches she'd made. "Everyone is only what, sixteen? And she hasn't seen someone else in a long time. You've been the one around the past year. Things change. People change." She sighed softly and poked him in the side with her index finger before handing him a sandwich.

"Don't be a stupid, bastard. You're too brilliant of a bloke to not find a girl to adore you. And if everyone doesn't come to realize that, I'll just have to marry you myself to prove it, you sad sod." She winked at him and began to rummage for the tea things.

"What? It's true," she was half laughing as she said it, though, and she almost spilled the hot tea out of the flash as she poured it into cups. "Hell. At least you have an everyone. I have absolutely no one I fancy and no prospects either, so if anyone deserves to look down in the mouth, it's me."

[rar_neville]

Neville took the sandwich and bit into it, chewing thoughtfully. "She's one of the few who don't look at me differently," he said. "Her, you, Luna, a few others. Everyone else looks at me like I've grown a second head, or a third arm. She likes me for me, but she thinks I'm a friend. I've learned to be happy with that."

"The problem is that I don't know now who would like me for me, or who would want to be with me just because I'm Neville Longbottom, Slayer of Serpents. I haven't been around girls long enough to know the difference. All the sudden attention...it's weird."

He looked over as Eloise nearly spilled hot tea on both of them. "At least if someone takes a fancy to you, you'll know it's because of you. I rather envy that, right now."

[rar_eloise]

"That's assuming anyone would ever want to take a fancy to me. They're not exactly lining up, Neville." She handed him a cup of tea and took a hesitant sip of her own.

"And it will be odd for a while, but it will fade. As for the girls, the ones who like you for you aren't going to be the ones with the big smiles and the sudden interest. Try the ones who actually talk to you, not the ones who just want to listen to the story of how you killed a snake."

She might not know boys well, but she knew girls. And she knew enough about people who were fake and people who weren't. She never had much use for the latter.

[rar_neville]

Neville sat up, accepting the tea, which El had made just as he liked it. "They weren't exactly lining up before I killed the damn snake, either," he pointed out. "I'll have to stay lonely until the ruckus dies down. And if I do find someone interested in me, I'll have you to suss them out to find whether or not they're for real."

He sipped the tea before setting it aside abruptly and leaping to his feet. "Trevor, come back here!"

[rar_eloise]

Eloise shaded her eyes and watched as Neville had to go reign in the toads as they made a bid for freedom towards the lake. She pulled out a sack of marshmallows and began to crinkle the paper to draw Marmite in closer.

Once both toads were settled down, happily munching, she looked over at Neville.

"I'm glad you're okay, you know," she said softly, reaching over and squeezing his arm. "If anything had happened to you... " she didn't finish the thought. It was too horrible. If something had happened to Neville, she wouldn't have had anyone left who really cared about who she was. She was getting to know Susan and Hannah better, but that didn't take the place of someone who'd known you well for years and liked you anyway.

[rar_neville]

"It was the scariest thing ever," Neville replied after a long moment, remembering the Body Bind spell and the struggle to sidestep it as they'd practiced during DA meetings. He could still smell the Hat's musty scent, hear the rush and crackle of flame and the screams of the crowd behind him. He picked at his sandwich, unable to look at anyone.

"I dreamed about it at night, the first few days after," he said slowly. "Except, in the dream, I couldn't break the bind, and there was no sword in the hat, and I died. Burned to death, screaming, and the last thing I'd hear was his laughter for my foolishness." He shivered in remembrance, suddenly cold, and reached once more for the tea, grateful for its more benign heat as he cradled the cup in his hands. "I haven't told that to anyone."

[rar_eloise]

"Oh, Neville," Eloise whispered. She wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him from behind, burying her face in his hair. She could only imagine how terrifying it had to have been. During the battle, she remembered hexes flying by her, debris falling, and the absolute terror she'd felt when the Astronomy tower had started to collapse around her. Her last thought had been of her family and she could imagine Neville, at the mercy of He Who Must Not Be Named, thinking he might die.

"You were so brave this year. And so strong. And not because you were trying to prove anything, just because you were. Because it's who you are." She let her chin drop so it rested on his shoulder.

"The Carrows wanted to kill me, I think," she said softly. "That last time? I never told you why I started writing the assignments, but it was bad. I didn't want you to feel you had to protect me like the other girls. Carrow beat me and then he sent one of the students in to torture me. He was supposed to use the Crucio for the entire detention. To be "thourough". But he let me go without doing anything. If he hadn't... I think I would have died." Or ended up like Neville's parents, although she didn't say that.

"I've never told anyone that, either," she said.

[rar_neville]

Neville leaned back into Eloise's embrace, accepting the offer of comfort. "I didn't feel strong," he murmured. "I'm surprised I didn't wet myself. I'm glad you think I am, even if I'm not sure I believe it."

He stiffened as she told about the Carrows and what they'd done to her. He'd tried to protect everyone from them when possible, taking others' detentions and beatings and cursings when he could, deflecting attention onto him, doing his best to make himself the target. He knew he couldn't succeed with everyone, but to hear El's story...

"I'm sorry," he said, wrapping his hands around her wrists and holding tight. "Who was the student who spared you?" That alone was intriguing. He certainly hadn't been spared, but by the end the only student the Carrows sent to him was usually Crabbe.

[rar_eloise]

Eloise closed her eyes for a moment, picturing Goyle's face in her mind. She'd promised him she would never tell anyone, but that was before the war was over. Neville wouldn't tell a soul. And besides that, if it helped him somehow, for him having done her a kindness, perhaps she should say something.

Neville's hands were strong around her wrists, and she snuggled closer to him.

"It was Goyle," she admitted softly. "I told him it would be a secret. That I wouldn't tell anyone so he wouldn't get into trouble for it. I'm not sure why he did it, only that he said some things that made me think maybe he was only following the Carrows orders because he had to. Because he didn't think there was any other way.

She shivered a little, remembering how she'd collapsed on the cold stone floor at his feet and how he'd raised his wand to curse her and not been able to.

[rar_neville]

Neville's eyes widened in shock when Eloise named her savior. Goyle?

He'd seen him around the school, usually walking along the edge of the Forbidden Forest, but over the past school year he'd become adept at hearing whispers and rumors, sifting through them for possibilities of further acts of rebellion against the Carrows and their regime. He was hearing those same whispers now, of various students seeing him at work, actually participating in the cleanup effort.

He'd dismissed those rumors until now.

"His father is one of the Death Eaters they haven't caught yet, isn't he?" Neville asked, curious. "D'you think he's here because he wants to be, or because he feels safer here than elsewhere?"

Or he could be plotting more trouble, a voice whispered in his mind. He's the son of a known Death Eater. He can't be trusted...yet.

"If it wasn't you telling me this, I wouldn't believe it," he admitted. "I mean...Goyle!"

[rar_eloise]

"He seemed... confused," Eloise said, trying to put it into words. The whole encounter was a little blurry to her, dulled by the pain she'd been in and her fear.

"But it was him. And I don't know why he's here. I've seen him the past week here and there. He doesn't seem to be doing much but working, so I don't know." She thought about Goyle's father, wondering if the man was cruel like the Carrows, and if that had anything to do with it.

"I don't know," she repeated. It wasn't something she thought about much until now other then being grateful to him for not hurting her. It had been a mixed feeling, as she knew he'd done plenty of things to other people throughout the year.

They were silent for a time and finally, Eloise shifted slightly, puling her hands fron Neville's grip and letting them rest on his sides.

"I brought desert. If you're interested. Some little treacle tarts."

[rar_neville]

It had to difficult for her to talk about it. Neville didn't press. He didn't like talking about his own experiences and the things that had been done to him over the past year, and he wasn't about to force anyone else to talk about theirs. She was still dealing with the fallout as much as he was.

All the same, he decided it might be a good idea to keep a closer eye on Gregory Goyle.

"Treacle tarts? Really?" Straightening, he hurriedly finished the rest of his chicken sandwich. "How many?"

[rar_eloise]

A soft laugh escaped Eloise. "A half dozen. Which is three for me and three for you, not five for you and one for me. Don't think I won't be watching you."

She appreciated that he was trying to change the subject. It was very like Neville, always trying to make others feel at ease, feel better. Like her, he knew what a horrible feeling it was to live uncomfortable in your own skin.

She gave him an awkward backwards hug then turned away to dig in the picnic basket. As she did she made a horrified noise.

"MARMITE!" There, on the plate where the tarts had been were two very fat, very satisfied looking toads with smug looks on their faces.

Eloise made a disgruntled noise and shooed the toads out before reaching further into the basket for a little tin.

"Well. Lucky for us I brought more. I wasn't sure I couldn't count on you not to eat five."

[rar_neville]

Peering over Eloise's shoulder into the picnic basket, Neville sighed and picked up Trevor, looking directly into his jewelled eyes.

"What, the marshmallows weren't enough, you little thief?" he admonished. "You had to have the tarts as well?"

Trevor croaked happily, looking thoroughly unrepentant.

"It's probably a good thing toads don't have opposable thumbs," Neville said with a rueful smile, setting Trevor back onto the ground well away from the basket. Trevor waited until Marmite joined him before hopping away, a bit more slowly than before. "I doubt he'll want crickets tonight after today's feast."

He accepted the tart Eloise handed him from the opened tin and bit into it.

[rar_eloise]

"Cheeky little bastards," Eloise said, watching as Marmite and Trevor made a beeline for a burrow they'd made in the ground on other, previous occasions.

She took a bite of tart and chewed blissfully for a few moments. It was nice to sit here and just be for a little while. To let the thoughts of Megan and the war and her father go to the back of her mind. Someday, she knew, they would be there permanently. Someday it wouldn't hurt to think about them, and she'd be able to mention them and smile.

For now she was content with the sunshine that came out from behind the clouds now and then and the sweet taste of treacle on her tongue.

She looked up at the sun, peeking out from behind a cloud, then over at Neville.

"Looks like the sun's coming out."

[rar_neville]

Neville savored his second tart more slowly, letting the sweetness melt over his tongue before taking the next bite.

Sitting here by the lake, watching the wavelets lap at the shore and the toads at play, he could start to believe things might eventually return to something resembling normalcy. There was something good about looking forward to a future, rather than wondering whether or not there'd be a future with him in it.

Tipping his head back, Neville let the sun's rays fall onto his face and smiled, feeling a quiet sense of contentment that hadn't been there for a long time.

"It always does, sooner or later."