Fic: "Come Home" for gyutto
Title: Come Home
Author: lindy_grl123
Recipient: gyutto
Rating: PG
Character(s): Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood, other minor appearances
Summary: Years after the war, Luna goes to find Neville, who has been gone ever since.
Author's notes: 2329 words. I am not J.K. Rowling. The characters belong to her and no copyright infringement is intended
Come Home
Neville glanced around his room once more to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything. The closet was empty except for a few hangers and old shirts that he never wore anymore, and the dresser had been completely cleaned out. Taking a deep breath, he turned around and pulled out his wand.
"Locomotor suitcases."
He guided the two large bags downstairs to the sitting room, where Gran was waiting for him. She stood when he entered, a look of sadness just barely visible through her stoic mask.
"Send me an owl when you arrive," she said quietly. "Good luck."
"Thanks, Gran," Neville replied, not quite meeting his grandmother's eyes. He hated lying to her, but he knew he had to this time. He bent to give Gran a kiss on the cheek, and then grabbed his suitcases and Disapparated before she could say anything else. A split second later, he appeared in the Ministry, in front of the Department of Magical Transportation. He stared at the door for a few moments before his feet were ready to take him inside.
"Longbottom… Longbottom…" the witch at the desk said after Neville told her his name. "Yes, here we are." She pulled out a file from a large stack that was so lopsided it must have been held up by magic. "Ever traveled by Portkey before, sir?"
"Once, but not internationally," he answered. The witch explained the procedure to him, handed him a ticket from the file, and gestured him through a large door to his left. Neville thanked her and moved through the door nervously.
"'Ello, mate," a cheerful wizard loudly smacking on chewing gum greeted him. He held his hand out for the ticket, asking, "Where we off to today?"
Neville didn't answer, but allowed the ticket to speak for him. He was rather shy around people who were so outgoing.
"New Zealand, eh?" the wizard said loudly. "Never been there myself, but I've 'eard it's lovely. Now lessee…" He began to rummage through a large bin full of trash. "So what's in New Zealand, eh? A pretty girl?"
"Er… no," Neville said uncertainly. "I'm starting an internship. Herbology." At least, that's what he had told Gran.
"Sounds wicked, mate. Good luck. Now… tin can? Or how 'bout yesterday's paper?" The wizard was holding up a can in one hand and a Muggle newspaper in the other, looking at Neville questioningly. Before Neville could answer, the wizard decided on the newspaper. "Easier to hold with those suitcases," he reasoned aloud.
The man examined Neville's ticket once more, and then tapped the newspaper several times with his wand as he muttered to himself. "Alright," he finally announced, "you're set, mate. In fifteen minutes, make sure you are outside and holding the newspaper and your suitcases firmly. If you aren't holding the paper, it'll go off to New Zealand without you and you'll have to pay for a new Portkey. Once you are there, you can dump the paper in any ol' rubbish bin." He handed the paper across the counter to Neville, who took it and thanked the man.
~*~
New Zealand turned out to be the most amazing, most beautiful country Neville had ever seen. He fell in love with it right away, and he eventually wrote to Gran to tell her that the internship company had offered him a full time position and that he would be staying there for a while. In truth, the whole story of the internship had been an excuse for Neville to get out of England. He wasn't really "running away from home," he just needed to get away for a little while. Now that the war was over, Neville didn't want to stay in Britain. Memories of the fighting and the bloodshed haunted him, and he had to leave.
Neville made his new home in Queenstown, in the southern part of New Zealand. The summers were warm and temperate, and the winters were snowy and perfect for curling up next to a fire. Almost as soon as he arrived, his nightmares stopped. The country had an amazing way of making him forget everything about the war. He felt like he was starting over, like he had a new life. After he had been in New Zealand for almost ten years, Neville had absolutely no desire to leave Queenstown. He had close friends, an amazing job with some local Herbologists, a nice flat all to himself, and even a young woman that he had been on a couple of dates with. It was home.
On September afternoon, he was sitting outside a small restaurant, sipping his tea and enjoying the smell of spring in the air, when he thought he heard his name. Looking up from his book, he glanced around trying to spot a familiar face.
"Right here, Neville," said the voice from behind him. Neville turned, but he didn't recognize the woman looking at him from the table next to him. She seemed familiar, but as though she were someone he had seen in his dreams.
"Do I know you, miss?" he asked politely. The woman smiled and stared at Neville strangely.
"I should have known you wouldn't recognize me." Her voice was more familiar than her face; it was melodious and dreamy, so that her speaking sounded like singing. "I haven't seen you in nine years and four months."
It would have been nice, he thought, if she had just told him who she was. He thought hard, trying to figure out who she was. Obviously it was someone he knew from England, if they hadn't seen each other in that long… someone from school, maybe? Suddenly it hit him.
"Luna!" he cried, nearly dropping his teacup in shock. Now that he knew her, he felt like an idiot for not recognizing her right away. She looked very different - her hair had been cut and barely touched her shoulders now, even though it was still hanging in soft waves. She was also dressed like a Muggle, which he wasn't used to. He chided himself, though, for forgetting her eyes. She had always stared at him as if she were looking straight into his soul.
"You do remember me," she said as her smile grew wider. She stood from her table and joined Neville at his, not saying anything else. She just stared at him, as if trying to memorize his face. Neville looked back at her, but it was very odd to be staring at one another without speaking, so he looked away. He stared down at his teacup, still feeling her eyes on him.
"So…" he said awkwardly, finally looking back up at Luna,
"what are you doing here?"
"Having lunch, same as you." She laughed her familiar tinkling laugh, and Neville smiled oddly at her. He was feeling rather uncomfortable, though he wasn't quite sure why.
"No, I meant… why are you here? In New Zealand?" he clarified.
Luna glanced down at the table, tearing her eyes from him for the first time, and shrugged. "I felt like coming," she said vaguely. It was silent between them for a moment while Luna reached up and tucked her hair behind her ear. "And why are you here, Neville?" she asked at last.
"I live here now," he answered. His voice came out sounding unintentionally apologetic. "I came to visit right after… er, about ten years ago… and I just decided to stay. It's really nice here."
Luna nodded. "I've only been here for a few hours, and I think it's wonderful. I can't wait to see some of the animals they have here. Hey, let's go for a walk." She smiled as Neville gave her a confused look. He wasn't used to her random trains of thought anymore, so she took him by surprise.
"Uh, sure," he agreed before he had really thought about the matter. He dropped a few dollar coins on the table to cover the cost of his lunch and stood up to walk with Luna, who was already a several paces down the block.
After jogging to catch up to her, Neville fell into step beside her. They didn't say anything right away, and the silence between them was getting to Neville. Luna was generally a quiet person, but the two of them had always been able to talk easily. Breaking the silence, Neville asked Luna how she liked the country so far.
"It's lovely," she replied with a slight nod. "I wish I could stay here longer, but I was only able to come for a couple of days."
They crossed the street now and headed into a park at the edge of Lake Wakatipu, around which Queenstown was built. Puzzled, Neville glanced at Luna. People didn't usually travel all the way to New Zealand just to stay for "a couple of days." They took long, relaxing vacations and took their time visiting different parts of the country. He paused a moment, and then asked, "Why did you come when you couldn't stay long? You should have waited until you could take a longer vacation."
Luna stopped walking to look at him. "You've been here since the war ended, haven't you?" Neville's eyes widened, and he looked away from Luna. Turning from her, he found a picnic table nearby and walked quickly over to it, not bothering to see if she would follow him. He sat down hard on the bench and stared out over the lake for a moment, until he felt Luna standing behind him. She didn't speak for the longest time, so Neville finally nodded in response to her question.
"You should come home."
Neville whipped around suddenly, looking confused and vaguely angry. "What are you talking about?" he asked, failing to keep the emotion out of his voice. Luna walked slowly around the table and sat across from him before she answered.
"Back in school," she started, "no one ever put much faith into what Professor Trelawney said. Even I didn't, and people used to say I'd believe anything." She paused briefly, smiling gently at Neville. "But she used to tell me that I had a certain… something. I forget what she called it, but she said that I would be able to see things or feel things sometimes. She was right, Neville."
As she looked at him intensely, Neville's mind was racing. "What the hell do you mean? You 'saw' that I was here or something?" Luna smiled a little more fully and nodded. "Wait…" Neville continued before she could speak, "Wait, are you saying that… what are you saying?"
Luna laughed softly. "I don't completely understand it either, Neville. But how do you explain that I knew I needed to come here - right here to Queenstown? How did I see you within five hours of arriving here? Why did I pick that cafe, of all places, to have my first meal here? I gave myself three days to find you, and I found you right away." She paused again and reached across the table to touch Neville's arm. He flinched at her touch, but she didn't withdraw.
"What do you want from me, Luna?" he asked dully. "I live here now, and I'm not just going to leave everything I have here because you think you were 'sent' here to find me and bring me back to England."
"You didn't even come home when your grandmother died," she whispered gently.
Neville leaned back, pulling himself away from Luna's hand. "And I'm not going back now," he said, standing up and walking toward the water's edge. He didn't hear Luna following him, and part of him hoped that she would just leave. He stood at the edge of the lake, watching the birds flying overhead and feeling the spring breeze rustle his hair. Finally, his curiosity got the better of him and he turned to see if Luna had left yet. To his surprise, she was standing a few feet behind him.
"Why not?" she asked the second he caught her eye. Neville turned back around and sat down on the grass.
"I can't." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Luna come around next to him and sit with him. He could feel her eyes on him. "There's nothing there for me anymore. Even when Gran was still alive, I didn't want to stay. I couldn't stay. It was too… I did awful things…"
"We all did. It was a war, Neville," Luna said comfortingly. She lifted her arm to touch Neville again, but he shrugged her hand away.
"You didn't kill anyone, Luna. You didn't try to Crucio anyone because you were so angry and bent on revenge." He heard Luna let out a small gasp. "Yeah, I never told anyone about that. I stood over her and watched her shake in pain. Wasn't a very strong curse, but it was enough. Then I killed her." Looking away from the lake, he saw Luna with her head down. She sniffed and rubbed her cheek as if wiping away a tear.
Without lifting her head, she said, "I still want you to come home, Neville. It's been a long time; you can start over." She looked up, her eyes glistening and hopeful.
For a moment, Neville was torn. Part of the reason he had left was so that no one would find out what he had done. He was afraid they would turn him in or shun him, but Luna seemed to have the opposite reaction. And yet, he wasn't ready to face anyone. Maybe someday he could, but not now. Not yet.
"Go back to England, Luna," he said softly, pushing himself off the ground. He brushed off his backside and turned to go back to his flat. When he reached the road at the end of the park, he glanced behind for a last look at Luna. She was still sitting, looking out over the lake.
Author: lindy_grl123
Recipient: gyutto
Rating: PG
Character(s): Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood, other minor appearances
Summary: Years after the war, Luna goes to find Neville, who has been gone ever since.
Author's notes: 2329 words. I am not J.K. Rowling. The characters belong to her and no copyright infringement is intended
Come Home
Neville glanced around his room once more to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything. The closet was empty except for a few hangers and old shirts that he never wore anymore, and the dresser had been completely cleaned out. Taking a deep breath, he turned around and pulled out his wand.
"Locomotor suitcases."
He guided the two large bags downstairs to the sitting room, where Gran was waiting for him. She stood when he entered, a look of sadness just barely visible through her stoic mask.
"Send me an owl when you arrive," she said quietly. "Good luck."
"Thanks, Gran," Neville replied, not quite meeting his grandmother's eyes. He hated lying to her, but he knew he had to this time. He bent to give Gran a kiss on the cheek, and then grabbed his suitcases and Disapparated before she could say anything else. A split second later, he appeared in the Ministry, in front of the Department of Magical Transportation. He stared at the door for a few moments before his feet were ready to take him inside.
"Longbottom… Longbottom…" the witch at the desk said after Neville told her his name. "Yes, here we are." She pulled out a file from a large stack that was so lopsided it must have been held up by magic. "Ever traveled by Portkey before, sir?"
"Once, but not internationally," he answered. The witch explained the procedure to him, handed him a ticket from the file, and gestured him through a large door to his left. Neville thanked her and moved through the door nervously.
"'Ello, mate," a cheerful wizard loudly smacking on chewing gum greeted him. He held his hand out for the ticket, asking, "Where we off to today?"
Neville didn't answer, but allowed the ticket to speak for him. He was rather shy around people who were so outgoing.
"New Zealand, eh?" the wizard said loudly. "Never been there myself, but I've 'eard it's lovely. Now lessee…" He began to rummage through a large bin full of trash. "So what's in New Zealand, eh? A pretty girl?"
"Er… no," Neville said uncertainly. "I'm starting an internship. Herbology." At least, that's what he had told Gran.
"Sounds wicked, mate. Good luck. Now… tin can? Or how 'bout yesterday's paper?" The wizard was holding up a can in one hand and a Muggle newspaper in the other, looking at Neville questioningly. Before Neville could answer, the wizard decided on the newspaper. "Easier to hold with those suitcases," he reasoned aloud.
The man examined Neville's ticket once more, and then tapped the newspaper several times with his wand as he muttered to himself. "Alright," he finally announced, "you're set, mate. In fifteen minutes, make sure you are outside and holding the newspaper and your suitcases firmly. If you aren't holding the paper, it'll go off to New Zealand without you and you'll have to pay for a new Portkey. Once you are there, you can dump the paper in any ol' rubbish bin." He handed the paper across the counter to Neville, who took it and thanked the man.
~*~
New Zealand turned out to be the most amazing, most beautiful country Neville had ever seen. He fell in love with it right away, and he eventually wrote to Gran to tell her that the internship company had offered him a full time position and that he would be staying there for a while. In truth, the whole story of the internship had been an excuse for Neville to get out of England. He wasn't really "running away from home," he just needed to get away for a little while. Now that the war was over, Neville didn't want to stay in Britain. Memories of the fighting and the bloodshed haunted him, and he had to leave.
Neville made his new home in Queenstown, in the southern part of New Zealand. The summers were warm and temperate, and the winters were snowy and perfect for curling up next to a fire. Almost as soon as he arrived, his nightmares stopped. The country had an amazing way of making him forget everything about the war. He felt like he was starting over, like he had a new life. After he had been in New Zealand for almost ten years, Neville had absolutely no desire to leave Queenstown. He had close friends, an amazing job with some local Herbologists, a nice flat all to himself, and even a young woman that he had been on a couple of dates with. It was home.
On September afternoon, he was sitting outside a small restaurant, sipping his tea and enjoying the smell of spring in the air, when he thought he heard his name. Looking up from his book, he glanced around trying to spot a familiar face.
"Right here, Neville," said the voice from behind him. Neville turned, but he didn't recognize the woman looking at him from the table next to him. She seemed familiar, but as though she were someone he had seen in his dreams.
"Do I know you, miss?" he asked politely. The woman smiled and stared at Neville strangely.
"I should have known you wouldn't recognize me." Her voice was more familiar than her face; it was melodious and dreamy, so that her speaking sounded like singing. "I haven't seen you in nine years and four months."
It would have been nice, he thought, if she had just told him who she was. He thought hard, trying to figure out who she was. Obviously it was someone he knew from England, if they hadn't seen each other in that long… someone from school, maybe? Suddenly it hit him.
"Luna!" he cried, nearly dropping his teacup in shock. Now that he knew her, he felt like an idiot for not recognizing her right away. She looked very different - her hair had been cut and barely touched her shoulders now, even though it was still hanging in soft waves. She was also dressed like a Muggle, which he wasn't used to. He chided himself, though, for forgetting her eyes. She had always stared at him as if she were looking straight into his soul.
"You do remember me," she said as her smile grew wider. She stood from her table and joined Neville at his, not saying anything else. She just stared at him, as if trying to memorize his face. Neville looked back at her, but it was very odd to be staring at one another without speaking, so he looked away. He stared down at his teacup, still feeling her eyes on him.
"So…" he said awkwardly, finally looking back up at Luna,
"what are you doing here?"
"Having lunch, same as you." She laughed her familiar tinkling laugh, and Neville smiled oddly at her. He was feeling rather uncomfortable, though he wasn't quite sure why.
"No, I meant… why are you here? In New Zealand?" he clarified.
Luna glanced down at the table, tearing her eyes from him for the first time, and shrugged. "I felt like coming," she said vaguely. It was silent between them for a moment while Luna reached up and tucked her hair behind her ear. "And why are you here, Neville?" she asked at last.
"I live here now," he answered. His voice came out sounding unintentionally apologetic. "I came to visit right after… er, about ten years ago… and I just decided to stay. It's really nice here."
Luna nodded. "I've only been here for a few hours, and I think it's wonderful. I can't wait to see some of the animals they have here. Hey, let's go for a walk." She smiled as Neville gave her a confused look. He wasn't used to her random trains of thought anymore, so she took him by surprise.
"Uh, sure," he agreed before he had really thought about the matter. He dropped a few dollar coins on the table to cover the cost of his lunch and stood up to walk with Luna, who was already a several paces down the block.
After jogging to catch up to her, Neville fell into step beside her. They didn't say anything right away, and the silence between them was getting to Neville. Luna was generally a quiet person, but the two of them had always been able to talk easily. Breaking the silence, Neville asked Luna how she liked the country so far.
"It's lovely," she replied with a slight nod. "I wish I could stay here longer, but I was only able to come for a couple of days."
They crossed the street now and headed into a park at the edge of Lake Wakatipu, around which Queenstown was built. Puzzled, Neville glanced at Luna. People didn't usually travel all the way to New Zealand just to stay for "a couple of days." They took long, relaxing vacations and took their time visiting different parts of the country. He paused a moment, and then asked, "Why did you come when you couldn't stay long? You should have waited until you could take a longer vacation."
Luna stopped walking to look at him. "You've been here since the war ended, haven't you?" Neville's eyes widened, and he looked away from Luna. Turning from her, he found a picnic table nearby and walked quickly over to it, not bothering to see if she would follow him. He sat down hard on the bench and stared out over the lake for a moment, until he felt Luna standing behind him. She didn't speak for the longest time, so Neville finally nodded in response to her question.
"You should come home."
Neville whipped around suddenly, looking confused and vaguely angry. "What are you talking about?" he asked, failing to keep the emotion out of his voice. Luna walked slowly around the table and sat across from him before she answered.
"Back in school," she started, "no one ever put much faith into what Professor Trelawney said. Even I didn't, and people used to say I'd believe anything." She paused briefly, smiling gently at Neville. "But she used to tell me that I had a certain… something. I forget what she called it, but she said that I would be able to see things or feel things sometimes. She was right, Neville."
As she looked at him intensely, Neville's mind was racing. "What the hell do you mean? You 'saw' that I was here or something?" Luna smiled a little more fully and nodded. "Wait…" Neville continued before she could speak, "Wait, are you saying that… what are you saying?"
Luna laughed softly. "I don't completely understand it either, Neville. But how do you explain that I knew I needed to come here - right here to Queenstown? How did I see you within five hours of arriving here? Why did I pick that cafe, of all places, to have my first meal here? I gave myself three days to find you, and I found you right away." She paused again and reached across the table to touch Neville's arm. He flinched at her touch, but she didn't withdraw.
"What do you want from me, Luna?" he asked dully. "I live here now, and I'm not just going to leave everything I have here because you think you were 'sent' here to find me and bring me back to England."
"You didn't even come home when your grandmother died," she whispered gently.
Neville leaned back, pulling himself away from Luna's hand. "And I'm not going back now," he said, standing up and walking toward the water's edge. He didn't hear Luna following him, and part of him hoped that she would just leave. He stood at the edge of the lake, watching the birds flying overhead and feeling the spring breeze rustle his hair. Finally, his curiosity got the better of him and he turned to see if Luna had left yet. To his surprise, she was standing a few feet behind him.
"Why not?" she asked the second he caught her eye. Neville turned back around and sat down on the grass.
"I can't." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Luna come around next to him and sit with him. He could feel her eyes on him. "There's nothing there for me anymore. Even when Gran was still alive, I didn't want to stay. I couldn't stay. It was too… I did awful things…"
"We all did. It was a war, Neville," Luna said comfortingly. She lifted her arm to touch Neville again, but he shrugged her hand away.
"You didn't kill anyone, Luna. You didn't try to Crucio anyone because you were so angry and bent on revenge." He heard Luna let out a small gasp. "Yeah, I never told anyone about that. I stood over her and watched her shake in pain. Wasn't a very strong curse, but it was enough. Then I killed her." Looking away from the lake, he saw Luna with her head down. She sniffed and rubbed her cheek as if wiping away a tear.
Without lifting her head, she said, "I still want you to come home, Neville. It's been a long time; you can start over." She looked up, her eyes glistening and hopeful.
For a moment, Neville was torn. Part of the reason he had left was so that no one would find out what he had done. He was afraid they would turn him in or shun him, but Luna seemed to have the opposite reaction. And yet, he wasn't ready to face anyone. Maybe someday he could, but not now. Not yet.
"Go back to England, Luna," he said softly, pushing himself off the ground. He brushed off his backside and turned to go back to his flat. When he reached the road at the end of the park, he glanced behind for a last look at Luna. She was still sitting, looking out over the lake.