RP: Happy Birthday

[rar_neville]

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

Comments

[rar_neville]

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.

"You're welcome, Pansy. I had nothing to do with the cake, though. They didn't even bill us for pudding. I think the server liked you," he wasn't sure how he felt about the server flirting with his date but then looking through the window, he noticed the same group of servers was gathered with a sparkling candle on a piece of cake near another table. "Then again they might do this for everyone who comes in on their birthday. He did hear me when I wish you happy birthday after all." Neville tilted his head toward the window.

It had stopped raining, and Neville was glad to leave the umbrella folded up. There was a small queue of people on the pavement up ahead. "What do you think is going on up there?"

[rar_pansy]

"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]

"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]

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]

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]

"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]

"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]

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]

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.

He wasn't exactly sure how Ilsa could love both Rick and Victor at the same time even if there were different kinds of love. He filed that away for later because he thought he might want to think on that. Ilsa reminded him a little bit of Fleur, beautiful, but not in a fake way, and really more uncommon because of the way she was lit from within, instead of the structure of her face. Neville liked that she wasn't perfect. He liked Rick but Neville felt he drank too much and he seemed to be making a poor choice but in the end he did the right thing and Neville liked that.

The story of people making a difference against an oppressive regime struck Neville hard. While there were elements of the story and characters he didn't approve of, the overall story itself was wonderful. If the grip Pansy had on his arm and hand was any indication, she liked it too.

[rar_pansy]

"Oh that was lovely," Pansy said as the names of people started to scroll across the screen.

The idea that one might love more than one person didn't sit particularly well with Pansy, though she supposed true and real love was more complex than any other emotion.

They stood up and made their way, along with the crowd of people, back onto the street. "Thank you, Neville, that was wonderful. I'll have to ask Hermione how it all works when I see her later this week."

[rar_neville]

Neville was quiet as they made their way outside with the others. Apparently people were expected to start leaving while the program scrolled at the end. He found it curious that they put the program into the show at the beginning and end instead of handing them out like they did that time Gran had taken him to the theatre to see a play. He supposed it was less trouble that way but it didn't really give you anything to take away to use to spark your memory. The two ends of the tickets were the only things he had.

He noted the dates in front of that African Queen portrait as they passed it by. It would be 'showing' at the end of the month. Neville thought he'd ask Pansy later once he knew he would have the time if she would like to come back and see it. When they were back out on the pavement again, Pansy thanked him. "You're welcome, Pansy," he said quietly. "You can explain it to me after she explains it to you. I really liked it. We should try it again sometime." He opened the umbrella against the drizzle and moved close to her again.

[rar_pansy]

She grinned. "I will make a full report."

"Oh yes, that would be fabulous. This was wonderful, like reading a novel. Do you think all the pictures are that good? I gathered that one was older, or at least was supposed to be older."

"Did you want to explore some more? We could walk around, or get some tea at my place if you want," she said, biting her lip. "Unless you had something else in mind, of course."

[rar_neville]

Neville had to turn his attention back to Pansy. She was all keyed up and excited, which made it hard to keep up with her while his mind was working on other things. Not exactly on other things, he was focused on her but not on what she was saying. That part there at the end with Rick and Isla left Neville with a powerful urge to grab Pansy and kiss her until they were both quaking. Definitely not the sort of kissing a bloke needed to be doing on a seventh date.

"I was thinking it was like watching a play and reading a novel. You don't get that kind of scenery in a play, or at least not in the one I saw with Gran, but you don't get the characters thoughts like you do in a novel. I really liked it. It was exciting." She asked if he thought they were all good and he considered that. "Probably not, I think. Not all plays or all books are the same, so I don't think the... film -- that's what they're called I think -- the films would all be as good as each other either." Neville nodded, "Remember the German soldiers? The Nazis were in power back at the time of Grindelwald. I suppose it could be new and set back then, I get the feeling it's old though. Lots of people there seemed to have seen before. Did you hear some of them talking along with Rick when he was telling Sam to play the song after all? I liked that song," he hummed a bit of 'As Time Goes By'.

His arm was around her shoulder again and Neville rubbed his knuckles against her neck gently. "It's your birthday, love. What do you want to do? I left the whole afternoon and evening open to explore but that doesn't mean we have to." She looked at him with her lip between her teeth and Neville had to look away. He was already having trouble focusing on something other than kissing her, Pansy biting her lip only made it harder.

[rar_pansy]

"Yes, I thought that sounded familiar, but it's not as if I have much experience with Muggle history."

She grinned as he hummed some of the song from the film, thinking that was rather adorable. He looked away from her though, and she wondered what it was she had done. "Oh, um," she looked to the ground, confused. What had she done that made him look upset?

"We can keep exploring, I'm not sure what we'd do back in Hogsmeade, anyway," she said, shrugging her shoulders. Maybe he didn't want to be alone with her, and staying out was preferable.