A Most Interesting Career | Neville | PG-13
Title: A Most Interesting Career - Chapter 4: A Rose and Her Thorns
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Nothing really, tiny bit of angst in Chapter 4
Featured Characters/Pairings: Neville/Hannah, Ron/Hermione, Harry/Ginny, basically canon couples!
Chapter Word Count: 3,992
Summary: Neville looks back over certain days in his career teaching at Hogwarts
Author's Note: In realmer06's Beautiful Among Thorns and Fighting Briars she has Rose, Scorpius and Albus written wonderfully, I have, without her permission, stolen the Rose in those stories (and a bit of the back story of the three of them) and tried my best to write her into this story. Whether or not I have succeeded is for realmer06 to decide and hopefully she won't be totally appalled by my attempt. Regardless of whether or not I have managed to do what I intended I insist you go and read those stories if you haven't already. They deserve your attention. I have totally stolen one of her lines of dialogue, which if you go and read her stories, you'll be able to find. :)
A Rose and Her Thorns
Something was bothering Rose Weasley, so much so that her two best friends had noticed, so much so that he had noticed.
There was an unspoken agreement between him, Harry and Ginny, and Ron and Hermione that he would keep an eye out on the descendents for them. He wouldn't openly interfere (unless they were in danger), but the children knew they could go to him with any problems or concerns.
Rose was normally jovial, laughing with her classmates and friends but mostly taking in every new thing she was being asked to learn.
So when she started slipping points in the small, weekly tests Neville set for the class and her homework wasn't up to her usual standard (she never failed anything but just passing was hardly Rose Weasley's style) he knew something was really quite wrong.
At seventeen years old she was as headstrong as her father and as passionate about what she believed in as her mother. She knew her own mind and would defend her friends to the last. She was also one of three surprise Ravenclaws the year she started Hogwarts.
Rose Weasley, a Ravenclaw. Hermione was delighted and there was nothing Rose could do that would disappoint her father despite his jokes of disinheritance should she not be placed in Gryffindor.
She joined Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy in Rowena Ravenclaw's house and they had been firm friends since their first journey to school. While, after some thought their sorting may have made some sort of sense, their friendship took some people a little longer to understand.
But whatever drew them together stuck throughout their time at school. They were rarely seen apart, and although their parents may seriously disagree with Neville's thought that they had very similar traits to another, rather well known trio of friends, his proof for those thoughts grew with every week that passed.
However, either her normal support network was failing to help her deal with whatever was obviously troubling her or she was keeping her problems tight to her chest.
When she slipped into an otherwise unoccupied Greenhouse Two, checking behind her as she shut the door, he decided he would try and help her with whatever was bothering her. He watched her through the glass of Greenhouse One for a minute, and then made his way across the grass between the two Greenhouses and slipped quietly in through the back door.
He watched as she quietly stripped a few stems of Lavender of their flower and brushed them into a small bag that tied with ribbon. Neville stepped out of the shadows towards her.
'That's the second time in a week you've replenished the Lavender in that bag.'
Rose had jumped at his voice and instantly looked guilty at being caught.
'I'm sorry, Professor. I just…'
She didn't seem to know how to finish her sentence and slumped when she realised that fact.
'Rose, I know you use Lavender to try and calm yourself before you go to sleep, you have done since you were three and got yourself upset over a lost teddy bear.' He rarely used stories from outside school to get a response out of his students, but this time he felt it necessary. He was getting more concerned by the minute. 'You've never used my Lavender stores this frequently in all your time here. I know I never normally demand to know what's wrong if anything's bothering you, your brother or your cousins, but there's obviously something wrong. Your work's not your usual standard, you're rather unhappy and I need to know if your parents need to be informed.'
His words shocked her into turning to him. 'No, you can't. Please Professor. I'll… I'll concentrate harder and I'll redo any work that isn't up to standard-.'
'Rose, it's not your work I'm worried about, it's you! Please tell me what's bothering you so much so I can try and help.'
She smiled a sad smile. 'Uncle Neville, if you'd've been able to help, I would have come to you already.'
Neville sighed and nodded. He also took his staff robes off and stood before her in his jeans and jumper, back to being her uncle and not her teacher. She turned to him and seemed to gather some courage before speaking.
'Is there anything Finlay could do that would make you ashamed of him? Or very disappointed at least?'
Neville frowned and leant against the bench that housed his sought after Lavender stems.
'Every time he lets his bedroom get into a state after his Mother's asked him time after time to keep it tidy I'm disappointed.'
He was pleased when he managed to make her smile but he knew that wasn't the type of answer she was looking for. He took a deep breath.
'Finlay has never disappointed me. He thinks before he acts, he works hard, he's fiercely loyal and he stands up for what he believes in. If he's ever done something that has made me angry or frustrated, after the fact it has become apparent why he made those choices and I've been more proud of him for taking the right option and not the easy one.'
Rose nodded. Neville thought she looked like she wanted to ask him something else but wasn't sure if she should.
'Rose, you know by now nothing you could ask could offend me.'
She nodded again and took a deep breath. 'Do you think he ever worried about disappointing you like… like you did with your Gran.'
Neville smiled and nodded.
'Unfairly, over generations everyone with the name Weasley who came to Hogwarts had something of a reputation to live up to. Bill not as much, your Dad especially with not only his mother and father to follow but six older brothers and then a younger sister to be seen to be looking after when she arrived. Harry, well, he had to follow up defeating Voldemort as a one year old, which is hardly a great way to start your school career. And then there's you lot; Finlay, James, You, Al, Scorpius, Hugo and Lily, Teddy too when he was here. You had so much pressure on you, and expectations - good and bad - were placed on you when you were only a few years old.' He physically winced at his words. 'But, you lived up to all the hype and more because you became your own people. You defied all the hype and ridiculousness and you became exactly who you were supposed to be: you!'
He found he was a little out of breath at his words such was his belief in them and he rolled his eyes at himself.
'Anyway, to answer your original question, my pressure didn't come from the press or post-war hype, it came from my Gran who, at the end of the day, wanted me to make my Dad proud of me. I'm not saying her methods were right but her heart was in the right place. Did Finlay have similar worries when he started at school? Probably, but in his first lesson in this classroom he showed that he was being himself and not the person he thought I would want him to be.'
Rose smiled but it soon disappeared. Neville didn't know if he'd alleviated her stress or just added to it. He decided to have a stab in the dark, he found his intuition wasn't too bed in these cases.
'Rose, I don't believe there is anything you could do that would ever make your dad or your mum disappointed in you.'
Instantly tears formed in Rose's eyes. He wasn't sure if she was about to walk out of the Greenhouse but he was pleased when she just turned towards the bench and leant heavily on it.
'I have to disagree,' she whispered.
Neville was growing more alarmed by the second.
'Rose-'
'Before the war, there were some people you hated because of what they stood for, what they did and what they believed in. Is it ever possible to let go of that hatred or is something like that so deeply ingrained into you that you never move past it?'
Neville sighed deeply, forgiveness had never come very easily to him, it was something he'd had to work at for a long time after the war to get to a place where he was at some sort of peace with it all.
'Forgiveness is a very personal thing, Rose. There's not one rule that everyone abides to. A lot of people stay bitter towards people who have done them wrong, but, thankfully, me, your Dad, Harry… we've managed - over time - to realise there are more important things to focus our energy on. Some days you wake up and dwell on things that once hurt you so much, and then you go weeks without even thinking about them. At some point, they even stop bothering you when you do think about them, but… there are… things that will always hurt and that you can't forgive.'
Rose nodded and he worried that he had just added to her stress.
'And asking someone to forgive something they can't… pushing that hatred in their face for selfish reasons… not being able to stop something building despite knowing it's wrong… they're reasons to be disappointed in someone, aren't they Uncle Neville?'
'Rose, please just tell me what's wrong! I can help!'
'I told you, no one can help.'
'Not even your friends? Surely Al, or Scor-'
In an instant everything became clear. There were some people you hated because of what they stood for, what they did and what they believed in … pushing that hatred in their face for selfish reasons … not being able to stop something building despite knowing it's wrong.
Panic spread across Rose's face and she turned towards him. She knew he had worked out that she was falling in love with her best friend, that she had followed in her mother's footsteps and fallen in love with a boy she had met on her first train journey to Hogwarts and become firm friends with over years.
Tears fell down her face. 'Don't tell them, please! I'm not even sure myself… it's not as if it's even mutual… I'll push past it, like you said people do…' She had run out of steam and run out of ways to try and make her situation seem manageable and not that big of a deal. 'How could a Weasley ever love a Malfoy?'
She had barely whispered it and seemed to be shocked that she had said it out loud at all. She swallowed hard and took a shaky breath.
'Please, don't tell them.'
Neville closed his eyes. 'Rose, every member of your family who fought in that war did so because we wanted our freedom and we wanted our children to have that freedom, too. We wanted freedom for everyone, Rose, whether Muggle born, Half Blood, Pure Blood, Mixed Breed, whether you want to live to the letter of Wizarding tradition or whether you want to marry a Muggle and fit your house with every electrical Muggle gadget that exists, we fought so you had the freedom to choose. In my experience you don't have a choice when it comes to falling in love, but we fought damn hard to make it so that you should never have to be ashamed of admitting your feelings. Please, whatever you do, Rose, don't ever, ever forget that.'
Rose looked a little stunned at his words and he hoped they had made a positive impression, only time would tell.
'I won't tell your parents your feelings, but if your work slips any further then your mum will figure things out pretty quickly. You are your mother's daughter, after all.'
Rose picked up her bag of Lavender off the bench.
'Last time I checked, my mother didn't fall in love with Draco Malfoy.'
She turned on her heal and stalked to the Greenhouse door.
'We live in a different world now, Rose.'
She looked at him and for a split second he could she her starting to believe his words, but then she set her jaw and shook her head.
'Not different enough.' And with that, she walked away.
Neville had been told that teaching would bring him challenges that he would never, ever expect.
He walked through to the office at the back of the Greenhouse and took the small bottle of Firewhiskey - usually reserved for the older students if they'd been attacked by a plant and needed to settle their nerves - out of his draw and took a swig.
Today was one of those days that he had never prepared himself for.
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Nothing really, tiny bit of angst in Chapter 4
Featured Characters/Pairings: Neville/Hannah, Ron/Hermione, Harry/Ginny, basically canon couples!
Chapter Word Count: 3,992
Summary: Neville looks back over certain days in his career teaching at Hogwarts
Author's Note: In realmer06's Beautiful Among Thorns and Fighting Briars she has Rose, Scorpius and Albus written wonderfully, I have, without her permission, stolen the Rose in those stories (and a bit of the back story of the three of them) and tried my best to write her into this story. Whether or not I have succeeded is for realmer06 to decide and hopefully she won't be totally appalled by my attempt. Regardless of whether or not I have managed to do what I intended I insist you go and read those stories if you haven't already. They deserve your attention. I have totally stolen one of her lines of dialogue, which if you go and read her stories, you'll be able to find. :)
A Rose and Her Thorns
Something was bothering Rose Weasley, so much so that her two best friends had noticed, so much so that he had noticed.
There was an unspoken agreement between him, Harry and Ginny, and Ron and Hermione that he would keep an eye out on the descendents for them. He wouldn't openly interfere (unless they were in danger), but the children knew they could go to him with any problems or concerns.
Rose was normally jovial, laughing with her classmates and friends but mostly taking in every new thing she was being asked to learn.
So when she started slipping points in the small, weekly tests Neville set for the class and her homework wasn't up to her usual standard (she never failed anything but just passing was hardly Rose Weasley's style) he knew something was really quite wrong.
At seventeen years old she was as headstrong as her father and as passionate about what she believed in as her mother. She knew her own mind and would defend her friends to the last. She was also one of three surprise Ravenclaws the year she started Hogwarts.
Rose Weasley, a Ravenclaw. Hermione was delighted and there was nothing Rose could do that would disappoint her father despite his jokes of disinheritance should she not be placed in Gryffindor.
She joined Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy in Rowena Ravenclaw's house and they had been firm friends since their first journey to school. While, after some thought their sorting may have made some sort of sense, their friendship took some people a little longer to understand.
But whatever drew them together stuck throughout their time at school. They were rarely seen apart, and although their parents may seriously disagree with Neville's thought that they had very similar traits to another, rather well known trio of friends, his proof for those thoughts grew with every week that passed.
However, either her normal support network was failing to help her deal with whatever was obviously troubling her or she was keeping her problems tight to her chest.
When she slipped into an otherwise unoccupied Greenhouse Two, checking behind her as she shut the door, he decided he would try and help her with whatever was bothering her. He watched her through the glass of Greenhouse One for a minute, and then made his way across the grass between the two Greenhouses and slipped quietly in through the back door.
He watched as she quietly stripped a few stems of Lavender of their flower and brushed them into a small bag that tied with ribbon. Neville stepped out of the shadows towards her.
'That's the second time in a week you've replenished the Lavender in that bag.'
Rose had jumped at his voice and instantly looked guilty at being caught.
'I'm sorry, Professor. I just…'
She didn't seem to know how to finish her sentence and slumped when she realised that fact.
'Rose, I know you use Lavender to try and calm yourself before you go to sleep, you have done since you were three and got yourself upset over a lost teddy bear.' He rarely used stories from outside school to get a response out of his students, but this time he felt it necessary. He was getting more concerned by the minute. 'You've never used my Lavender stores this frequently in all your time here. I know I never normally demand to know what's wrong if anything's bothering you, your brother or your cousins, but there's obviously something wrong. Your work's not your usual standard, you're rather unhappy and I need to know if your parents need to be informed.'
His words shocked her into turning to him. 'No, you can't. Please Professor. I'll… I'll concentrate harder and I'll redo any work that isn't up to standard-.'
'Rose, it's not your work I'm worried about, it's you! Please tell me what's bothering you so much so I can try and help.'
She smiled a sad smile. 'Uncle Neville, if you'd've been able to help, I would have come to you already.'
Neville sighed and nodded. He also took his staff robes off and stood before her in his jeans and jumper, back to being her uncle and not her teacher. She turned to him and seemed to gather some courage before speaking.
'Is there anything Finlay could do that would make you ashamed of him? Or very disappointed at least?'
Neville frowned and leant against the bench that housed his sought after Lavender stems.
'Every time he lets his bedroom get into a state after his Mother's asked him time after time to keep it tidy I'm disappointed.'
He was pleased when he managed to make her smile but he knew that wasn't the type of answer she was looking for. He took a deep breath.
'Finlay has never disappointed me. He thinks before he acts, he works hard, he's fiercely loyal and he stands up for what he believes in. If he's ever done something that has made me angry or frustrated, after the fact it has become apparent why he made those choices and I've been more proud of him for taking the right option and not the easy one.'
Rose nodded. Neville thought she looked like she wanted to ask him something else but wasn't sure if she should.
'Rose, you know by now nothing you could ask could offend me.'
She nodded again and took a deep breath. 'Do you think he ever worried about disappointing you like… like you did with your Gran.'
Neville smiled and nodded.
'Unfairly, over generations everyone with the name Weasley who came to Hogwarts had something of a reputation to live up to. Bill not as much, your Dad especially with not only his mother and father to follow but six older brothers and then a younger sister to be seen to be looking after when she arrived. Harry, well, he had to follow up defeating Voldemort as a one year old, which is hardly a great way to start your school career. And then there's you lot; Finlay, James, You, Al, Scorpius, Hugo and Lily, Teddy too when he was here. You had so much pressure on you, and expectations - good and bad - were placed on you when you were only a few years old.' He physically winced at his words. 'But, you lived up to all the hype and more because you became your own people. You defied all the hype and ridiculousness and you became exactly who you were supposed to be: you!'
He found he was a little out of breath at his words such was his belief in them and he rolled his eyes at himself.
'Anyway, to answer your original question, my pressure didn't come from the press or post-war hype, it came from my Gran who, at the end of the day, wanted me to make my Dad proud of me. I'm not saying her methods were right but her heart was in the right place. Did Finlay have similar worries when he started at school? Probably, but in his first lesson in this classroom he showed that he was being himself and not the person he thought I would want him to be.'
Rose smiled but it soon disappeared. Neville didn't know if he'd alleviated her stress or just added to it. He decided to have a stab in the dark, he found his intuition wasn't too bed in these cases.
'Rose, I don't believe there is anything you could do that would ever make your dad or your mum disappointed in you.'
Instantly tears formed in Rose's eyes. He wasn't sure if she was about to walk out of the Greenhouse but he was pleased when she just turned towards the bench and leant heavily on it.
'I have to disagree,' she whispered.
Neville was growing more alarmed by the second.
'Rose-'
'Before the war, there were some people you hated because of what they stood for, what they did and what they believed in. Is it ever possible to let go of that hatred or is something like that so deeply ingrained into you that you never move past it?'
Neville sighed deeply, forgiveness had never come very easily to him, it was something he'd had to work at for a long time after the war to get to a place where he was at some sort of peace with it all.
'Forgiveness is a very personal thing, Rose. There's not one rule that everyone abides to. A lot of people stay bitter towards people who have done them wrong, but, thankfully, me, your Dad, Harry… we've managed - over time - to realise there are more important things to focus our energy on. Some days you wake up and dwell on things that once hurt you so much, and then you go weeks without even thinking about them. At some point, they even stop bothering you when you do think about them, but… there are… things that will always hurt and that you can't forgive.'
Rose nodded and he worried that he had just added to her stress.
'And asking someone to forgive something they can't… pushing that hatred in their face for selfish reasons… not being able to stop something building despite knowing it's wrong… they're reasons to be disappointed in someone, aren't they Uncle Neville?'
'Rose, please just tell me what's wrong! I can help!'
'I told you, no one can help.'
'Not even your friends? Surely Al, or Scor-'
In an instant everything became clear. There were some people you hated because of what they stood for, what they did and what they believed in … pushing that hatred in their face for selfish reasons … not being able to stop something building despite knowing it's wrong.
Panic spread across Rose's face and she turned towards him. She knew he had worked out that she was falling in love with her best friend, that she had followed in her mother's footsteps and fallen in love with a boy she had met on her first train journey to Hogwarts and become firm friends with over years.
Tears fell down her face. 'Don't tell them, please! I'm not even sure myself… it's not as if it's even mutual… I'll push past it, like you said people do…' She had run out of steam and run out of ways to try and make her situation seem manageable and not that big of a deal. 'How could a Weasley ever love a Malfoy?'
She had barely whispered it and seemed to be shocked that she had said it out loud at all. She swallowed hard and took a shaky breath.
'Please, don't tell them.'
Neville closed his eyes. 'Rose, every member of your family who fought in that war did so because we wanted our freedom and we wanted our children to have that freedom, too. We wanted freedom for everyone, Rose, whether Muggle born, Half Blood, Pure Blood, Mixed Breed, whether you want to live to the letter of Wizarding tradition or whether you want to marry a Muggle and fit your house with every electrical Muggle gadget that exists, we fought so you had the freedom to choose. In my experience you don't have a choice when it comes to falling in love, but we fought damn hard to make it so that you should never have to be ashamed of admitting your feelings. Please, whatever you do, Rose, don't ever, ever forget that.'
Rose looked a little stunned at his words and he hoped they had made a positive impression, only time would tell.
'I won't tell your parents your feelings, but if your work slips any further then your mum will figure things out pretty quickly. You are your mother's daughter, after all.'
Rose picked up her bag of Lavender off the bench.
'Last time I checked, my mother didn't fall in love with Draco Malfoy.'
She turned on her heal and stalked to the Greenhouse door.
'We live in a different world now, Rose.'
She looked at him and for a split second he could she her starting to believe his words, but then she set her jaw and shook her head.
'Not different enough.' And with that, she walked away.
Neville had been told that teaching would bring him challenges that he would never, ever expect.
He walked through to the office at the back of the Greenhouse and took the small bottle of Firewhiskey - usually reserved for the older students if they'd been attacked by a plant and needed to settle their nerves - out of his draw and took a swig.
Today was one of those days that he had never prepared himself for.