And Sons. [Harry Potter, fanfic100]
This is the first piece I've written for one of the fanfic100 challenges. I'm writing in the Harry Potter fandom, subtopic of The Longbottom Family. Not surprising, really, is it?
Anyway, this piece was done for prompt o28: Children. It features Remus Lupin, and Neville Longbottom. Yep.
Title: And Sons.
Fandom: Harry Potter.
Characters/Pairings: mostly genfic; Remus Lupin + Neville Longbottom. [Remus/Frank implied.]
He falters on the boy’s name when calling roll, because for some reason he’s shocked to see it. He doesn’t know why, but somehow he’d managed to forget about the boy’s entire existence until this moment, standing in front of a class, reading names off of a list. His voice falters on the third-to-last syllable in the name and someone in the class giggles.
“Present, sir,” says a small voice, and the professor forces his gaze off of the paper to look up at him. The boy is something small and pathetic and is wearing an uncertain shy smile that is so painfully awkwardly familiar that Remus cringes. He goes onto the next name on the list; he knows that his own smile is something almost-nervous and he wonders how he could have spent so much time preparing himself to meet James’s son and somehow managed to forget entirely about Frank’s son, Frank’s, Frank.
[If anyone in the class notices his faltering, no one mentions anything.]
* * * * *
“Professor?” a familiar small voice asks, and he looks up to notice Neville hovering by his desk. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to bother you,” the boy stammers, “It’s just…youknewmyparent’sdidn’tyou?”
Remus nods wide-eyed. Once again, he was prepared for the question, but from someone else entirely. “How did you know that?”
Neville blushes. “Some of my father’s things are in the attic,” he says, speaking so softly that the professor has to lean across his desk in order to hear. “There’s a book with your name written in the front cover. I always wondered…”
“Oh! Yes.” Remus thinks he might possibly be blushing as well, which he knows is unbecoming on someone his age.
And when he finds out that Neville doesn’t know much of anything at all about his parents, he shares stories about Frank - about how he was always melting things in Potions class much to the dismay of Professor Slughorn, about how he took to pacing circles around the library when attempting to study for exams, about how muggle flowering plants were his favourite, about being one of the witnesses at his and Alice’s elopement.
[There are many other stories that he doesn’t tell of Frank, of course. He doesn’t speak of the remembered trace of Frank’s lips against his collarbone or late-night whispered erotic poetry; he doesn’t speak of the time when Frank was beautiful and glowing and young and alive and his. Of course.]
* * * * *
It doesn’t do for a professor to play favourites, of course, but Remus can’t help but try to watch out for Neville. It’s not as though anyone else is, after all. He helps out Harry too, but that is only to be expected. He does what he can; shares stories and remembrances and it’s all-right because he’s had plenty of time to get used to speaking for the dead.
Neville’s a dear boy, he thinks, and sometimes he’s reminded of a time when he used to think that he might want to have children of his own someday. He might have liked to have been a father. He might have made a good one.
[He tries very hard to keep from playing the game of what-ifs, of envisioning the way the future might have been - of a familiar ivy-covered cottage and Frank and Neville as their son to be shared, because this is not the way it happened, after all.]
And the rest of my table for Fanfic100:
001.Beginnings.
002.Middles.
003.Ends.
004.Insides.
005.Outsides.
006.Hours.
007.Days.
008.Weeks.
009. Months.
010.Years.
011.Red.
012.Orange.
013.Yellow.
014.Green.
015.Blue.
016.Purple.
017.Brown.
018.Black.
019.White.
020.Colourless.
021. Friends.
022.Enemies.
023.Lovers.
024.Family.
025.Strangers.
026.Teammates.
027.Parents.
028.Children.
029.Birth.
030.Death.
031.Sunrise.
032.Sunset.
033.Too Much.
034.Not Enough.
035.Sixth Sense.
036.Smell.
037.Sound.
038.Touch.
039.Taste.
040.Sight.
041.Shapes.
042.Triangle.
043. Square.
044.Circle.
045.Moon.
046.Star.
047.Heart.
048.Diamond.
049.Club.
050.Spade.
051.Water.
052.Fire.
053.Earth.
054.Air.
055.Spirit.
056.Breakfast.
057.Lunch.
058.Dinner.
059.Food.
060.Drink.
061.Winter.
062.Spring.
063.Summer.
064.Fall.
065. Passing.
066.Rain.
067.Snow.
068.Lightening.
069.Thunder.
070.Storm.
071. Broken.
072.Fixed.
073.Light.
074.Dark.
075.Shade.
076.Who?
077.What?
078.Where?
079.When?
080.Why?
081.How?
082.If.
083.And.
084.He.
085.She.
086.Choices.
087.Life.
088.School.
089.Work.
090.Home.
091.Birthday.
092.Christmas.
093.Thanksgiving.
094. Independence.
095.New Year.
096.Writer‘s Choice.
097.Writer‘s Choice.
098.Writer‘s Choice.
099.Writer‘s Choice.
100.Writer‘s Choice.
Anyway, this piece was done for prompt o28: Children. It features Remus Lupin, and Neville Longbottom. Yep.
Title: And Sons.
Fandom: Harry Potter.
Characters/Pairings: mostly genfic; Remus Lupin + Neville Longbottom. [Remus/Frank implied.]
He falters on the boy’s name when calling roll, because for some reason he’s shocked to see it. He doesn’t know why, but somehow he’d managed to forget about the boy’s entire existence until this moment, standing in front of a class, reading names off of a list. His voice falters on the third-to-last syllable in the name and someone in the class giggles.
“Present, sir,” says a small voice, and the professor forces his gaze off of the paper to look up at him. The boy is something small and pathetic and is wearing an uncertain shy smile that is so painfully awkwardly familiar that Remus cringes. He goes onto the next name on the list; he knows that his own smile is something almost-nervous and he wonders how he could have spent so much time preparing himself to meet James’s son and somehow managed to forget entirely about Frank’s son, Frank’s, Frank.
[If anyone in the class notices his faltering, no one mentions anything.]
* * * * *
“Professor?” a familiar small voice asks, and he looks up to notice Neville hovering by his desk. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to bother you,” the boy stammers, “It’s just…youknewmyparent’sdidn’tyou?”
Remus nods wide-eyed. Once again, he was prepared for the question, but from someone else entirely. “How did you know that?”
Neville blushes. “Some of my father’s things are in the attic,” he says, speaking so softly that the professor has to lean across his desk in order to hear. “There’s a book with your name written in the front cover. I always wondered…”
“Oh! Yes.” Remus thinks he might possibly be blushing as well, which he knows is unbecoming on someone his age.
And when he finds out that Neville doesn’t know much of anything at all about his parents, he shares stories about Frank - about how he was always melting things in Potions class much to the dismay of Professor Slughorn, about how he took to pacing circles around the library when attempting to study for exams, about how muggle flowering plants were his favourite, about being one of the witnesses at his and Alice’s elopement.
[There are many other stories that he doesn’t tell of Frank, of course. He doesn’t speak of the remembered trace of Frank’s lips against his collarbone or late-night whispered erotic poetry; he doesn’t speak of the time when Frank was beautiful and glowing and young and alive and his. Of course.]
* * * * *
It doesn’t do for a professor to play favourites, of course, but Remus can’t help but try to watch out for Neville. It’s not as though anyone else is, after all. He helps out Harry too, but that is only to be expected. He does what he can; shares stories and remembrances and it’s all-right because he’s had plenty of time to get used to speaking for the dead.
Neville’s a dear boy, he thinks, and sometimes he’s reminded of a time when he used to think that he might want to have children of his own someday. He might have liked to have been a father. He might have made a good one.
[He tries very hard to keep from playing the game of what-ifs, of envisioning the way the future might have been - of a familiar ivy-covered cottage and Frank and Neville as their son to be shared, because this is not the way it happened, after all.]
And the rest of my table for Fanfic100:
001.Beginnings.
002.Middles.
003.Ends.
004.Insides.
005.Outsides.
006.Hours.
007.Days.
008.Weeks.
009. Months.
010.Years.
011.Red.
012.Orange.
013.Yellow.
014.Green.
015.Blue.
016.Purple.
017.Brown.
018.Black.
019.White.
020.Colourless.
021. Friends.
022.Enemies.
023.Lovers.
024.Family.
025.Strangers.
026.Teammates.
027.Parents.
028.Children.
029.Birth.
030.Death.
031.Sunrise.
032.Sunset.
033.Too Much.
034.Not Enough.
035.Sixth Sense.
036.Smell.
037.Sound.
038.Touch.
039.Taste.
040.Sight.
041.Shapes.
042.Triangle.
043. Square.
044.Circle.
045.Moon.
046.Star.
047.Heart.
048.Diamond.
049.Club.
050.Spade.
051.Water.
052.Fire.
053.Earth.
054.Air.
055.Spirit.
056.Breakfast.
057.Lunch.
058.Dinner.
059.Food.
060.Drink.
061.Winter.
062.Spring.
063.Summer.
064.Fall.
065. Passing.
066.Rain.
067.Snow.
068.Lightening.
069.Thunder.
070.Storm.
071. Broken.
072.Fixed.
073.Light.
074.Dark.
075.Shade.
076.Who?
077.What?
078.Where?
079.When?
080.Why?
081.How?
082.If.
083.And.
084.He.
085.She.
086.Choices.
087.Life.
088.School.
089.Work.
090.Home.
091.Birthday.
092.Christmas.
093.Thanksgiving.
094. Independence.
095.New Year.
096.Writer‘s Choice.
097.Writer‘s Choice.
098.Writer‘s Choice.
099.Writer‘s Choice.
100.Writer‘s Choice.