A Bracelet With Elephants (Neville/Parvati) (87-93/100)
Written for 100quills
Disclaimer: None of these characters are mine.
4 ficlets and 3 drabbles on different themes and ages
Rating: G/PG
Prompt Table: A Bracelet With Elephants
VIGIL
When she was 16…
Parvati tried not to glance at the clock every twenty and a half seconds. It was only noon, no one was expected back for hours. She tried to concentrate on the paper she was helping Lavender finish. Whenever someone came in through the portrait hole, though, the motion made her whirl around. She sighed each time it wasn’t Neville.
“What are you so fidgety about?” Lavender asked with some annoyance. “I thought we stayed here today to get some work done.”
“Sorry. Neville had that date that Dean set him up on this afternoon, remember? With that girl from Hufflepuff.”
“So? What do you care?”
“He’s my friend. Of course I care,” Parvati said a little crossly. “I’m worried about how it’s going.” That was true enough, Parvati just wasn’t sure if she was worried that things weren’t going well or that they were.
She’d tried to be supportive of the general Gryffindor campaign currently underway to “Get Neville a Girlfriend” ~ she’d even suggested he wear his blue pinstripe shirt today. He did look really nice in that shirt, Parvati thought rather wistfully.
Lavender slammed her book shut and got to her feet. “Let’s finish this tomorrow, all right?” She briskly rolled her parchment into a tight cylinder and headed up the stairs, muttering to herself about how she could’ve been at Hogsmeade.
Parvati decided there was no point sitting around the Common Room keeping a vigil. Maybe she just needed some fresh air. Maybe she’d go over to Ravenclaw and visit Padma.
She had just walked into the courtyard when she found Neville sitting on a bench under a tree, reading a library book. She blinked, glanced around for any sign of a date in progress. There was none whatsoever.
“Neville?” she ventured, nearly tip-toeing over in case she was intruding. “What are you doing here? Where’s Mira?”
“She went back to the dorm,” he said simply, not looking up from his book.
Parvati sat down on the bench slowly. She was, she hated to admit, rather glad not to find Mira here, but she knew Neville might feel differently. “What happened?” she asked gently.
Neville mumbled something indistinct.
Parvati leaned in closer. “What?”
“Just didn’t work out,” he said, more loudly.
“Oh. I’m sorry.” She reached up and patted him on the shoulder.
“Don’t know why I let Dean talk me into it, anyway.”
“Well, she was pretty and she seemed nice. It was worth taking the chance to get to know her better.” Parvati’s hand trailed down to rest on the crook of his arm, where the blue and white stripes of his shirt folded into soft curves. “She wasn’t impolite about it, was she? Do I have to go and beat her up?”
Neville gave a bark of surprised laughter, finally looked up at her with a smile. “No, but thanks for offering.”
Parvati shrugged her shoulders innocently. “Anything for a friend.” She was inordinately pleased to have made him smile.
Merlin, that smile.
Mira didn’t know what she was missing.
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RING
When he was 17…
When Neville’s dorm mates found him on the Common Room sofa with his head propped on his hands, they congregated around him in a concerned ring.
“Neville? What’s the matter?” Harry inquired.
“Parvati wants me to visit her over hols,” Neville explained.
“Well, that’s good, isn’t it?” Harry asked.
“Oh, sure,” Seamus laughed, catching on. “If you like meeting your girl’s family for the first time.”
“You haven’t met any of her relatives yet?” Dean asked in surprise.
“Well, I’ve met the aunt…” Neville said, “and she was nice. But not her Mum or Dad yet…. and there are going to be cousins, and uncles, and … Merlin, probably grandparents! And all of them Ravenclaws! They probably sit around and talk about the latest model of the Astrorithmic abacus….”
“Breathe, Neville,” Ron suggested, looking a little concerned as he patted his friend on the shoulder.
“Ravenclaws! They’re just like you or me,” Seamus declared decisively. “They put their pants on one leg at a time, same as everybody else! Well,” he paused, “’less a’course they’re women… although I suppose it’s still possible that…”
“I’m not worried about them liking me,” Neville went on, ignoring Seamus, “because I know they won’t, I just don’t want to offend them.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, who wouldn’t like you?” Harry asked. “You’re kind and polite and you work hard in school, and…and…”
“And you’re very polite,” Ron reiterated helpfully.
“That’s kind of you, but I know how it’s going to go. I won’t know what to say, and I’ll spend three hours sitting next to a plant, and they’re going to think their daughter is dating some strange and lunatic mute!”
“Surely there must be something it would be safe to talk about. ’Spose there are any books in the library on this sort of thing?” Dean suggested.
“Of course. There’s Mrs. Teaworthy’s Guide to Extremely Exacting Etiquette,” Hermoine informed them from her spot at the study table, where she had evidently overheard the entire conversation.
Neville looked suddenly hopeful as he turned to her. “Would you check that out for me?”
Hermione rolled her eyes. “Honestly. If I had a knut for every time you boys sent me to the library for something… Mrs. Pince is not a fire-breathing dragon, you know.”
Harry glanced up and arched a brow. “Might I remind you of the time I agreed to get you “A Hundred and Nine Useful Things to Know About…”
“Fine! So I’ll get that for you now, shall I, Neville?” Hermione said quickly. She darted a quick glare at Harry and stalked out of the Common Room with her head up.
“It will be all right, Neville,” Harry assured his friend.
“Sure, mate,” Ron added. “Only…” he leaned in closer and confided softly, “You might not want to do that thing where you communicate with ferns.”
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FORESHADOW (100)
“Well,” Parvati stared down at Neville’s invitation to the botanical expedition he’d been talking about for months. “This is quite an opportunity. Congratulations.”
“Thanks.” He looked so happy that Parvati couldn’t bring herself to begrudge him a few weeks on the other side of the planet. Five and a half ….very long…. weeks ….
“So,” she began, as brightly as she could manage. “What part of this little jungle ecosystem will you be studying?”
“Oh, various toxic man-eating species, I don’t want to bore you with the details…”
“Sounds dangerous.”
“Don’t worry. It’s never plants I can’t handle. Only people.”
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POISON (100)
Neville hadn’t intended to make one of the three expedition leaders this angry this soon into the trip, but really, there’d been no way he could comply with her request, and a shocking request it had been, too.
He sat there on the edge of his cot, still stunned by what had just transpired. Caradella Sprinkle was undeniably beautiful, but that hadn’t mattered to Neville.
She’d sneered when he explained about Parvati. Her tone became as poisonous as the plants she specialized in. “Do you think she’s sitting around back home waiting for you?”
“Yes,” Neville had replied. “I do.”
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INNOCENCE (100)
Neville retreated gratefully to his tent at the end of a long day. Things were going much better since he had asked for a transfer over to the Bromeliads group, though he had gotten a bit of teasing for his abrupt change of subject.
Neville conjured up a light and opened his notebook, intending to make his notes for the day. Instead, he found himself writing
Dear Parvati,
He stared down at the parchment, quill tip poised. He considered telling her about the exciting canoe trip they’d made, or the sunbathing crocodile he’d seen.
Then he had a better idea.
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SOUL
When she was 18…
Lavender was just reaching for another scone when a strange owl came hurtling through window of their flat and landed in the middle of the breakfast table. Despite the fact that teacups and butter dishes went flying, Parvati leaped to her feet in joyful anticipation. “It’s from Neville!” she exclaimed. “I just know it!” It had to be from Neville this time, she didn’t think she could bear it if it was another sales flyer. She detached the letter from its feathered messenger with trembling hands, and then stared down at it.
“Well, is it?” Lavender asked, trying to maneuver the sizeable owl off the rest of the scones.
Parvati nodded. There was her name, all right, spelled out in Neville’s familiar handwriting against the pale green parchment.
“Aren’t you going to read it?”
“I’m not sure I want to,” she said softly, sitting back down. “He’s been off in a jungle for weeks with all those trainees. What if he’s writing to tell me that he’s ...” she broke off, she couldn’t even say it. All she’d been able to think about was that half of the other Herbologists and collectors he’d left with on the expedition had been women, and some of them had been quite attractive.
“Oh, don’t be ridiculous, Parvati, just open the thing.”
Parvati thrust it across the table. “Read it out loud for me, will you, Lavender?”
Lavender looked uncertain, but accepted it. “Are you sure? What if it’s full of soulful poetry and long descriptive paragraphs about how much he’s yearning for you?”
“Neville’s not a love letter sort of guy.”
Lavender arched a brow, shrugged, and unfolded the letter. She scanned down over the lines quickly.
Parvati gripped the edge of the table, focused intently on Lavender’s face. But her friend’s expression only gentled, and the corner of her lips curved up in a slight smile. She handed the letter back to Parvati. “You don’t give him enough credit,” she said. “It looks like a love letter to me.”
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SUNRISE
Hermione almost rolled out of bed when the loud call of something exotic rang through her open window. It took her a moment to remember she was in the guest bedroom of the Longbottoms’ house. She seized the headboard to steady herself and climbed to her feet. It was sunrise, but that had been no rooster. The call came again ~ a distant eeYAH eeYAH emanating from a bank of trees.
Hermione pulled on her robe and wandered into the hallway, where she ran into Parvati just stepping out of the bathroom.
“Good Morning,” Parvati said cheerfully.
“Is that a peacock?” Hermione demanded incredulously.
“It’s two peacocks, actually.” Parvati gave her a sunny smile. “Remember when my mother rented them for the wedding?”
Hermione blinked. “I thought they belonged to the hotel. You mean there’s such a thing as peacock rental?”
“Well, of course. Featherby’s Fine Fowl for All Festivities. Anyway, I told Neville how pretty I thought they were and he bought them for me. As a wedding present. Wasn’t that sweet?”
Hermione rubbed at her eyes. “So you guys always get up this early, then?” she asked blearily.
“Oh, Neville’s usually up by now anyway,” Parvati said. “They’re good company for him out in the garden.” Parvati gave her a mischievous glance full of meaning. “Besides, you can do so many things with the feathers!”
Hermione’s eyes widened at the abrupt mental picture.
“Sorry,” Parvati laughed. “Too much information?”
“Um, no,” Hermione said quickly, gears turning as she thought about the fact she was meeting Harry at the coast that evening. “I was just wondering if … you know, you had any extra lying around?”
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Disclaimer: None of these characters are mine.
4 ficlets and 3 drabbles on different themes and ages
Rating: G/PG
Prompt Table: A Bracelet With Elephants
VIGIL
When she was 16…
Parvati tried not to glance at the clock every twenty and a half seconds. It was only noon, no one was expected back for hours. She tried to concentrate on the paper she was helping Lavender finish. Whenever someone came in through the portrait hole, though, the motion made her whirl around. She sighed each time it wasn’t Neville.
“What are you so fidgety about?” Lavender asked with some annoyance. “I thought we stayed here today to get some work done.”
“Sorry. Neville had that date that Dean set him up on this afternoon, remember? With that girl from Hufflepuff.”
“So? What do you care?”
“He’s my friend. Of course I care,” Parvati said a little crossly. “I’m worried about how it’s going.” That was true enough, Parvati just wasn’t sure if she was worried that things weren’t going well or that they were.
She’d tried to be supportive of the general Gryffindor campaign currently underway to “Get Neville a Girlfriend” ~ she’d even suggested he wear his blue pinstripe shirt today. He did look really nice in that shirt, Parvati thought rather wistfully.
Lavender slammed her book shut and got to her feet. “Let’s finish this tomorrow, all right?” She briskly rolled her parchment into a tight cylinder and headed up the stairs, muttering to herself about how she could’ve been at Hogsmeade.
Parvati decided there was no point sitting around the Common Room keeping a vigil. Maybe she just needed some fresh air. Maybe she’d go over to Ravenclaw and visit Padma.
She had just walked into the courtyard when she found Neville sitting on a bench under a tree, reading a library book. She blinked, glanced around for any sign of a date in progress. There was none whatsoever.
“Neville?” she ventured, nearly tip-toeing over in case she was intruding. “What are you doing here? Where’s Mira?”
“She went back to the dorm,” he said simply, not looking up from his book.
Parvati sat down on the bench slowly. She was, she hated to admit, rather glad not to find Mira here, but she knew Neville might feel differently. “What happened?” she asked gently.
Neville mumbled something indistinct.
Parvati leaned in closer. “What?”
“Just didn’t work out,” he said, more loudly.
“Oh. I’m sorry.” She reached up and patted him on the shoulder.
“Don’t know why I let Dean talk me into it, anyway.”
“Well, she was pretty and she seemed nice. It was worth taking the chance to get to know her better.” Parvati’s hand trailed down to rest on the crook of his arm, where the blue and white stripes of his shirt folded into soft curves. “She wasn’t impolite about it, was she? Do I have to go and beat her up?”
Neville gave a bark of surprised laughter, finally looked up at her with a smile. “No, but thanks for offering.”
Parvati shrugged her shoulders innocently. “Anything for a friend.” She was inordinately pleased to have made him smile.
Merlin, that smile.
Mira didn’t know what she was missing.
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RING
When he was 17…
When Neville’s dorm mates found him on the Common Room sofa with his head propped on his hands, they congregated around him in a concerned ring.
“Neville? What’s the matter?” Harry inquired.
“Parvati wants me to visit her over hols,” Neville explained.
“Well, that’s good, isn’t it?” Harry asked.
“Oh, sure,” Seamus laughed, catching on. “If you like meeting your girl’s family for the first time.”
“You haven’t met any of her relatives yet?” Dean asked in surprise.
“Well, I’ve met the aunt…” Neville said, “and she was nice. But not her Mum or Dad yet…. and there are going to be cousins, and uncles, and … Merlin, probably grandparents! And all of them Ravenclaws! They probably sit around and talk about the latest model of the Astrorithmic abacus….”
“Breathe, Neville,” Ron suggested, looking a little concerned as he patted his friend on the shoulder.
“Ravenclaws! They’re just like you or me,” Seamus declared decisively. “They put their pants on one leg at a time, same as everybody else! Well,” he paused, “’less a’course they’re women… although I suppose it’s still possible that…”
“I’m not worried about them liking me,” Neville went on, ignoring Seamus, “because I know they won’t, I just don’t want to offend them.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, who wouldn’t like you?” Harry asked. “You’re kind and polite and you work hard in school, and…and…”
“And you’re very polite,” Ron reiterated helpfully.
“That’s kind of you, but I know how it’s going to go. I won’t know what to say, and I’ll spend three hours sitting next to a plant, and they’re going to think their daughter is dating some strange and lunatic mute!”
“Surely there must be something it would be safe to talk about. ’Spose there are any books in the library on this sort of thing?” Dean suggested.
“Of course. There’s Mrs. Teaworthy’s Guide to Extremely Exacting Etiquette,” Hermoine informed them from her spot at the study table, where she had evidently overheard the entire conversation.
Neville looked suddenly hopeful as he turned to her. “Would you check that out for me?”
Hermione rolled her eyes. “Honestly. If I had a knut for every time you boys sent me to the library for something… Mrs. Pince is not a fire-breathing dragon, you know.”
Harry glanced up and arched a brow. “Might I remind you of the time I agreed to get you “A Hundred and Nine Useful Things to Know About…”
“Fine! So I’ll get that for you now, shall I, Neville?” Hermione said quickly. She darted a quick glare at Harry and stalked out of the Common Room with her head up.
“It will be all right, Neville,” Harry assured his friend.
“Sure, mate,” Ron added. “Only…” he leaned in closer and confided softly, “You might not want to do that thing where you communicate with ferns.”
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FORESHADOW (100)
“Well,” Parvati stared down at Neville’s invitation to the botanical expedition he’d been talking about for months. “This is quite an opportunity. Congratulations.”
“Thanks.” He looked so happy that Parvati couldn’t bring herself to begrudge him a few weeks on the other side of the planet. Five and a half ….very long…. weeks ….
“So,” she began, as brightly as she could manage. “What part of this little jungle ecosystem will you be studying?”
“Oh, various toxic man-eating species, I don’t want to bore you with the details…”
“Sounds dangerous.”
“Don’t worry. It’s never plants I can’t handle. Only people.”
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POISON (100)
Neville hadn’t intended to make one of the three expedition leaders this angry this soon into the trip, but really, there’d been no way he could comply with her request, and a shocking request it had been, too.
He sat there on the edge of his cot, still stunned by what had just transpired. Caradella Sprinkle was undeniably beautiful, but that hadn’t mattered to Neville.
She’d sneered when he explained about Parvati. Her tone became as poisonous as the plants she specialized in. “Do you think she’s sitting around back home waiting for you?”
“Yes,” Neville had replied. “I do.”
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INNOCENCE (100)
Neville retreated gratefully to his tent at the end of a long day. Things were going much better since he had asked for a transfer over to the Bromeliads group, though he had gotten a bit of teasing for his abrupt change of subject.
Neville conjured up a light and opened his notebook, intending to make his notes for the day. Instead, he found himself writing
Dear Parvati,
He stared down at the parchment, quill tip poised. He considered telling her about the exciting canoe trip they’d made, or the sunbathing crocodile he’d seen.
Then he had a better idea.
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SOUL
When she was 18…
Lavender was just reaching for another scone when a strange owl came hurtling through window of their flat and landed in the middle of the breakfast table. Despite the fact that teacups and butter dishes went flying, Parvati leaped to her feet in joyful anticipation. “It’s from Neville!” she exclaimed. “I just know it!” It had to be from Neville this time, she didn’t think she could bear it if it was another sales flyer. She detached the letter from its feathered messenger with trembling hands, and then stared down at it.
“Well, is it?” Lavender asked, trying to maneuver the sizeable owl off the rest of the scones.
Parvati nodded. There was her name, all right, spelled out in Neville’s familiar handwriting against the pale green parchment.
“Aren’t you going to read it?”
“I’m not sure I want to,” she said softly, sitting back down. “He’s been off in a jungle for weeks with all those trainees. What if he’s writing to tell me that he’s ...” she broke off, she couldn’t even say it. All she’d been able to think about was that half of the other Herbologists and collectors he’d left with on the expedition had been women, and some of them had been quite attractive.
“Oh, don’t be ridiculous, Parvati, just open the thing.”
Parvati thrust it across the table. “Read it out loud for me, will you, Lavender?”
Lavender looked uncertain, but accepted it. “Are you sure? What if it’s full of soulful poetry and long descriptive paragraphs about how much he’s yearning for you?”
“Neville’s not a love letter sort of guy.”
Lavender arched a brow, shrugged, and unfolded the letter. She scanned down over the lines quickly.
Parvati gripped the edge of the table, focused intently on Lavender’s face. But her friend’s expression only gentled, and the corner of her lips curved up in a slight smile. She handed the letter back to Parvati. “You don’t give him enough credit,” she said. “It looks like a love letter to me.”
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SUNRISE
Hermione almost rolled out of bed when the loud call of something exotic rang through her open window. It took her a moment to remember she was in the guest bedroom of the Longbottoms’ house. She seized the headboard to steady herself and climbed to her feet. It was sunrise, but that had been no rooster. The call came again ~ a distant eeYAH eeYAH emanating from a bank of trees.
Hermione pulled on her robe and wandered into the hallway, where she ran into Parvati just stepping out of the bathroom.
“Good Morning,” Parvati said cheerfully.
“Is that a peacock?” Hermione demanded incredulously.
“It’s two peacocks, actually.” Parvati gave her a sunny smile. “Remember when my mother rented them for the wedding?”
Hermione blinked. “I thought they belonged to the hotel. You mean there’s such a thing as peacock rental?”
“Well, of course. Featherby’s Fine Fowl for All Festivities. Anyway, I told Neville how pretty I thought they were and he bought them for me. As a wedding present. Wasn’t that sweet?”
Hermione rubbed at her eyes. “So you guys always get up this early, then?” she asked blearily.
“Oh, Neville’s usually up by now anyway,” Parvati said. “They’re good company for him out in the garden.” Parvati gave her a mischievous glance full of meaning. “Besides, you can do so many things with the feathers!”
Hermione’s eyes widened at the abrupt mental picture.
“Sorry,” Parvati laughed. “Too much information?”
“Um, no,” Hermione said quickly, gears turning as she thought about the fact she was meeting Harry at the coast that evening. “I was just wondering if … you know, you had any extra lying around?”
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