Comments | road_ahead: RP: Happy Birthday

rar_neville in road_ahead

RP: Happy Birthday

Aug 03, 2008 08:46

Date: 03 March 1999
Characters: Neville Longbottom, Pansy Parkinson
Location: Edinburgh, Moor Hall
Status: Private
Summary: Neville and Pansy explore Edinburgh on her birthday.
Completion: Complete

( Explorers )

march 1999, neville longbottom, place: muggle britain, pansy parkinson, place: private residence

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rar_pansy August 3 2008, 19:21:42 UTC

"Are you really over Ginny? You dated for awhile, and I'm not asking this because I want to do any clarification of what we have. I'm quite content with that for now," she said, glancing up at him.

"But as your friend, are you really over it all? I mean, you loved her. I just figured you'd get back together, and that it was better not to get my hopes up," she said without thinking. Shite. She didn't need to be giving away that sort of information, not now anyway.

"Guess I said a little too much," she whispered, taking a sip of tea and blushing.

rar_neville August 3 2008, 20:10:05 UTC

Neville sighed, "She and I weren't good for each other, Pansy. All the negative things about myself fed into that relationship. I'm not saying there weren't positives too, because there were, but..." He looked in her eyes, "But for all the good things I felt when I was with her, I felt guilty when I wasn't. Even sometimes when I was. I didn't want to look at it too closely," he still didn't, although he forced himself to because he needed to not make those mistakes again. "Merlin, I still feel guilty but it's more because I'm so relieved now. I feel so much lighter these days. It's not just you, Pansy. I'm flying. I'm exploring. I'm trying all sorts of new things and I'm working through the things that hold me back instead of harping on them."

Neville couldn't imagine not answering truthfully. "I think I loved her. I'm not positive anymore if I really did, or if I just convinced myself that I did, because of all we'd been through together. I am positive that we weren't meant for each other, so in that respect I'm very much over it. ( ... )

rar_pansy August 3 2008, 20:16:26 UTC

She nodded, understanding exactly where he was coming from. It hadn't been exactly that way with Draco, but close enough that she at least understood how he was feeling. It was hard to realize something you'd wished for and wanted to badly might not be the right thing, after all.

"I'm glad you realized that. You're awfully mature; are you sure you're only 18?" she teased.

"I think so, yes." She was pleased he seemed to miss her confession that she had actually liked him back when he was still with Ginny. That wasn't something that needed to be discussed now, certainly not if he wasn't going to pick up on it.

"Thank you for sharing that, Neville. I'm pleased you trust me enough to be honest."

rar_neville August 3 2008, 20:30:13 UTC

"18 and a half," he said with an ickle firstie voice and a smug smile.

He took a sip of his lemonade. "So I'm sort of a tarnished knight, I guess. I like that I feel like my old self around you instead of that Neville I didn't like very much."

Neville smiled at her but was interrupted from saying anything by the arriving of a sizzling tray full of food. Merlin, that smelled fabulous. The server put a large tray down and set out the smoking skillet of chicken, onions and peppers and squeezed a lime over the top. Cheese, salsa, sour cream and something green was set out along with the tortillas to put it all on. Neville had been sneaking peeps at another couple eating theirs, so he had an idea of what to do.

rar_pansy August 3 2008, 20:34:52 UTC

"Well, I suppose I can take credit for that," she winked. The server appeared again with their food, and Pansy felt her stomach grumble again.

Once he'd gone, Pansy glanced around and leaned forward. "How the bloody hell do we eat this?" she whispered. "Put it all together, maybe?"

She giggled a little and started to pile food on one of the tortillas, figuring that was a good place to start. Taking a bite, she closed her eyes and moaned. "Bloody hell that's good."

rar_neville August 3 2008, 20:56:05 UTC

Neville started with the tortilla and the hot food, then added some cheese since he was sure he'd like all of those together. He used his knife to put a bit of sour cream on the very end, enough for one bite. It was okay but he thought he liked it without the sour cream better. He took a small taste of the green stuff and crinkled his nose. He wasn't going to use that ( ... )

rar_pansy August 3 2008, 21:19:32 UTC

"Mmm," she smiled. "Yes, we should try it again for sure."

Pansy could have hexed Neville right there, damn the Muggles, when the group of servers started to sing to her. She blushed, and Neville looked so pleased with himself that she couldn't be angry with him. Not now, anyway.

Putting some cake on her fork, she started to hold it out for him to try, only to pull it back at the last minute, eating it herself. "Maybe," she teased, wiping some chocolate from the side of her mouth. Repeating her action, this time she let him eat the cake, smiling as he chewed. "Good, isn't it?"

She debated saying something crude to make him choke (harmlessly, of course) but decided against it. After the cake was finished, they gathered their coats and headed back outside. "Thank you, Neville, that was wonderful."

rar_neville August 3 2008, 21:38:07 UTC

She teased him with a bite and he growled at her a little. Then she relented and he moaned. "Oh, that is good. Don't blame you for not wanting to share." Neville pulled the right bills from his money clip. Paper money still didn't make sense to him from a value standpoint, but he understood how to use it just fine. The problem was he didn't like the coins he received for change. He was always afraid he'd mix in knuts, sickles or galleons with the muggle coins ( ... )

rar_pansy August 4 2008, 02:38:14 UTC

"You don't mind paying?" she asked carefully. "I know it's my birthday so I won't argue, but you don't have to always pay, you know."

"Not that I don't appreciate it," she added, smiling.

She scoffed. "It's possible. He did wink at me," she joked. "It was lovely. I don't think I've ever had total strangers sing to me."

"Oh! It's a movie place. Have you ever been to one?" she asked, keeping her voice down. "I've never seen one, but I've heard about them. Never seen a telly, either," she admitted, shrugging.

rar_neville August 4 2008, 03:04:34 UTC

"I asked for the date, so I get the joy of paying. If you want to pay, you can ask me out," he told her with a wink. "I don't mind sharing expenses, Pansy. It's more automatic to go ahead and take care of it, but I can hold back if you're not comfortable with me always paying." He didn't want to make her uncomfortable. "Not today though. Today is your birthday and this is my time to treat."

Neville laughed, "They were a little exuberant." Not to mention, not entirely on key. Not that Neville thought he could do any better. "At least I won't feel the need to sing to you now. That really wouldn't be a very good present. Well, you heard me at The Hog's Head." He rolled his eyes.

He shook his head, "I've heard of their moving portraits... pictures, but never seen one. Want to give it a try? We can always try the museum another time." Neville had to admit he was curious. The queue was good too, because it would give him people to watch so he could figure out what to do.

rar_pansy August 4 2008, 03:12:15 UTC

She shook her head. "I'm not uncomfortable. I just don't want you to think I take it for granted. You know," she smiled mischievously, "since I'm going for this whole independent woman thing."

"You're not so bad. You just never heard my dad sing. If you had, you'd be trying out for a wizard's choir yesterday."

Pansy picked up her pace and pulled Neville towards the group of people. "I've always wanted to see one," she said happily. "Casablanca," she read, scrunching her eyes at the word on the marquee. "Think it's one of the romance ones or one of the action ones with the-" she stopped, realizing talking about 'shooting sticks' wasn't appropriate considering they were surrounded by Muggles. "I've read about them," she admitted.

They stood in the queue, and Pansy leaned up to place a kiss on his cheek.

rar_neville August 4 2008, 03:36:31 UTC

She pulled him toward the queue. He loved it when she got all excited over something like she was now. Neville pointed up a little way to a large portrait with the same name and a couple cheek to cheek. "Looks like a romance one," he said softly. "Look, that woman is in that one too," the portrait had the word 'Gaslight'. "The man is in that far one with the boat too... African Queen, I think. It's a little far to read but that looks like romance and action." Pansy kissed his cheek and he grinned at her and gave her a little squeeze.

Neville pulled out his pocket watch and craned his neck up to see the marquee. "Casablanca is in North Africa. I wonder if it will be like being there? Twenty minutes until 2 o'clock. Think we'll make it through the queue?" The line seemed to be moving well but every now and it then it slowed to a halt for a bit before picking up again. More people came along behind them, so he supposed it would be okay if they weren't the last in line.

rar_pansy August 4 2008, 03:54:02 UTC

"You think it will take that long to get through the line?" she asked. The line seemed to move at varying paces, which was interesting. Pansy didn't understand, but gathered that some people were slower then others when it came to paying.

She bounced on the balls of her feet, excited that she would finally get to see one of these movie things. The fact that it was with Neville made it even better.

They reached the 'box office', which was a confusing name in her opinion, and purchased two tickets. Following the crowd of people, she tried to memorize the way they came in so they could get out without much trouble. There were so many people, though, that she really had no idea which way was left or right.

Once they entered the actual room with the screen, they found seats and settled in. "Do you think the pictures come from behind? I know it's recorded, like a memory I guess, but I don't know how it gets to the screen."

rar_neville August 4 2008, 04:12:31 UTC

"I don't know. I don't think so, but every time we start moving along, it stops again. I'm not sure why," he spoke softly.

Pansy was practically bouncing in her excitement. Neville loved that she let him see her like this when she usually kept herself so composed. It didn't take too long to get through the queue. Inside a lot of people looked to be forming up again to get drinks and food. They had just eaten so he didn't think they would want anything. The followed some people into a darken space and found seats together in the middle. Very few people seemed to be sitting in front, so he figured those were reserved for something. Once they were seated, Neville wrapped their hands together on the arm rest.

"I don't know, Pan..." He jumped when a loud noise started and the blank space in front now had a picture of letters. Neville looked around and saw a light through a high window. "Up there, behind us. That's how they do it, I think," he spoke close to her ear. "This is exciting."

rar_pansy August 4 2008, 04:20:43 UTC

Pansy jumped in her seat a little when Neville was startled. Looking at the screen, her eyes widened and she tried to figure out how the letters and pictures got on the screen from the window with some odd light in the back of the room.

"Sort of scary, how they do everything," she whispered, noticing no one was talking very loudly. In front of them, a couple seemed very excited to be together, snogging randomly and making strange little sounds. Pansy tried not to giggle, but found it rather hard not to.

Pressing her lips together, Pansy sat up straight in the theater seat, watching the screen change second after second.

rar_neville August 4 2008, 04:59:07 UTC

There were some very silly things at first and it took Neville some time to figure out that they weren't part of the Casablanca but adverts like in The Daily Prophet and announcements about not talking and banishing your rubbish. When Casablanca did start, Neville was surprised that it was all in shades of black, gray and white. He sort of liked that because it made it feel more special. Soon enough he was lost in the story of Rick, Ilsa, Laszlo, Renault and even that awful Major Strasser. He had a bit of a sick feeling when for a moment, he heard the He-Carrow's voice when Renault said to 'round up the usual suspects', but it passed quickly ( ... )

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