Matryoshka Vignettes
True Bravery
By Jeconais
Neville Longbottom - Sat, May 30th 1998, 4:42pm
Neville strolled through the doors to Hogwarts, feeling confident in the school grounds for the first time. He headed toward the Gryffindor Common Room, and wasn’t really surprised when the Headmaster appeared alongside him.
"Mr Longbottom," Albus Dumbledore said. "Did you have a good day?"
"I did, thank you," Neville said politely. "It’s really nice to be able to go home, now that Voldemort is dead."
"Tell me," the Headmaster said, "were you able to call Voldemort by name before his death?"
"I tried. Harry always told me not to be scared of a name," Neville said sadly.
"Quite true, quite true indeed," Dumbledore said. "Did you go anywhere nice?"
"Just to see Gran," Neville said.
"I’m sure she was pleased to see you," Dumbledore said with a smile. "I was wondering if you would be willing to do me a favour?"
"Oh?"
"Yes. I’m in need of a new Head Boy for the final few weeks of school."
Neville stopped dead in his tracks. "You want me to be Head Boy?"
Dumbledore nodded, his eyes twinkling.
Neville put his hands on his hips — hips that had lost a lot of baby fat, especially after spending most of the last few weekends on Harry and Daphne’s island. "I hardly think that is appropriate," he said in a very low voice. "Harry sacrificed everything he had for this school, and I will not insult his memory by taking over his position. I would expect that the position would remain unfilled for the rest of the school year. Now, if you’ll excuse me."
He turned and walked away, laughing to himself internally. As if he would step into Harry’s shoes. Dumbledore was obviously looking for someone he could control, and Neville Longbottom was his own man now.
He mumbled the password to the Fat Lady, and entered the Common Room.
It seemed to be separated into two halves. In one, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were arguing furiously, in the other, the rest of the students were trying to stay out of the way.
With two senior prefects involved, and the personalities, no one seemed to want to interfere. Before, he would have been the same. But the time he had spent with Harry and Daphne, and, more importantly, facing down Snape, had changed that. He pulled out his wand and concentrated, casting Silencio on them.
One day he hoped to be able to cast spells like Harry did. It wasn’t the spells themselves that were impressive as the style in which they were delivered. Harry made spell casting look as natural as breathing, and it surprised people every time.
"There," he said cheerfully to the others. "Did you all have a good weekend?"
"Nev," Seamus said, "I could kiss you for doing that. But, erm, not to be blunt or anything, I think you just drew their attention on to you."
He turned and looked at the two Weasleys and Granger. They were all glaring at him.
"They can continue to destroy their friendships later," Neville shrugged. "I really doubt that Harry would want to see them arguing like that." It was the closest he was going to get to warning them about their behaviour. Harry was still very unsure about the loyalties of his old friends. Where once he would have trusted them with anything, this time around they had all proved to be firmly attached to Dumbledore — a man he did not trust in the slightest.
He could see that all three were trying to shout at him, and he turned his back on them. They’d find it very difficult to curse him without being able to say the words. Not that Harry would have had that problem. He smiled internally. Harry had shown him the extent of his wandless magic, and it wasn’t that much, but then Harry had done something with it, and he’d understood.
It was the flair again. He’d walked up to a door and unlocked it with a wave of his hand. And it was the wave that did everything. It implied so much more than a simple unlocking charm. It implied absolute mastery of all forms of magic.
"So, Seamus, what did you do this weekend?"
"I went to church," the Irish student said, taking a seat on one of the many couches. Dean sat with him, Lavender and Parvati sat on one of the others.
Lavender and Parvati exchanged a look, and then shifted to one side, leaving a space for Neville.
According to some of the conversations he’d had with Daphne, this was probably a test to see how much he’d changed. He felt like he’d been some sort of experimental subject for the female Potter during their stay, and hadn’t realised until it was time to leave just what she had done. If he could be comfortable with Daphne Potter, even when she was wearing a bikini, Lavender and Parvati held little fear for him.
He sat between them and crossed his legs comfortably at the ankle, leaning back. "Church?" he asked Seamus.
"Yeah. It was kinda interesting. I’d not been since I was six. Pretty much everything was said in Latin, but Mum was proud that I was there."
"What about you, Dean? Any new girlfriends?"
Dean laughed and shook his head. "Nope, I spent the weekend surfing."
"Cool," Seamus said. "I’ve always wanted to do that. I didn’t think you could swim though?"
"Not that sort of surfing. Dad got a computer a few months ago, and it’s hooked up to this thing called the internet. It’s kinda like a giant library with loads of books that you can look through without leaving home. Looking through it is called 'surfing’."
The others nodded.
"Lav? Break a thousand boys’ hearts by returning to dreary old Hogwarts?" Neville knew he was laying it on a bit thick, but for the first time he was able to act like he wanted to. He’d seen Harry be the centre of attention a thousand times, and wished he had the ability to do it as well. Harry and Daphne had worked hard to make sure he could do so. And the main thing was realising that if you made a mistake, you shrugged it off, and continued, remembering not to do it again. It was strangely simple, but he suspected it was all down to self-confidence, something he had never really had before. And while he didn’t have much of it at the moment, it was growing every day, and he was determine that he would keep it growing.
She giggled, turning in her seat so that she could bring one leg up, which had the dual effect of making her more comfortable, and showing a lot more of her legs. "Nope, me and Parvati just spent time with our families. It was good, you know?"
"But enough of that," Parvati said. "Just where did you go, Mr Sun-tanned?"
"The Caribbean," he smiled. Sometimes obscurity worked, and the fact that Bora Bora was the other side of the world was irrelevant. "Spent some time on the beach, met a gorgeous girl, and then returned to happy Hogwarts alone."
"You’re not seeing her again?"
"I’d like to," Neville sighed. And he would, the next time he got to go to see Harry and Daphne, but this would put the idea in their heads that a holiday romance had caused the changes in confidence.
"Don’t worry," Parvati said brightly. "Your friends will help you get over her."
"Yeah," Lavender agreed.
He didn’t feel the need to point out that their offer would not have been made before the end of term. He looked up, and shifted to pull his wand out, and cancelled the silencing spell on the three dumb students.
"What the hell do you think…" Ginny started, her voice rising above the other two who were also shouting.
Neville shrugged and cast the spell again. "If they’re good, I’ll take it off them in the morning." He grinned suddenly. "Seamus, can you do that piercing whistle of yours?" He put his fingers in his ears, as Seamus put two fingers in his mouth and whistled loudly.
Silence swept over the Common Room as everyone turned to face him. "I’m enacting a new rule," he said, as he stood on the sofa so everyone could see him. "No arguing in the Common Room. If you want to act like childish idiots, you can do it where the rest of us don’t have to put up with that sort of crap."
"Shouldn’t a prefect be suggesting that?" one of the fourth years asked.
"Probably, but as our senior prefects are the ones doing most of the arguing," Neville said with a shrug, "I’m standing in." He was pleased that Hermione was blushing at the charge of dereliction of duty.
"We all miss Harry," he said, deciding to address the loss everyone in the room was feeling, but not talking about. The faces he could see all seemed to dim a bit at the mention. "But I can say without doubt that he would have wanted everyone to enjoy the fact that Voldemort is dead. He would have hated to see everyone down and Gryffindor arguing. It’s been four months. We’ve mourned enough, now it’s time to celebrate his life!"
"Nev’s right," Seamus said, standing as well.
"Yeah," Dean agreed. "Harry never wanted anyone to make a fuss over him, and that includes now. We’ll never forget, but we don’t let it take over our lives."
Neville sighed at the stubborn looks in the eyes of Ron, Ginny and Hermione. Still, it was their choice. He sat down with the others, and the continued to talk about their Easter holiday.
A few hours later, they all separated and went to their separate rooms. Ron and Hermione had gone on patrol — now un-silenced again.
"Nev, Seamus," Dean said, quickly casting a silencing spell around the room and charming the door shut. He took a deep breath. "Harry’s alive!"
"What!" Neville spluttered. "How do you know that?" He groaned as soon as he said it. Seamus and Dean both turned and stared at him, and he felt himself starting to blush. He closed his eyes for a second — he had to handle this. He had to deal with it. He would not backslide.
He shrugged. "Whoops," he continued with a grin. "So, how do you know, Dean?"
"I think the question is, how do you know?" Dean replied dryly.
"But I asked first," Neville replied, now determined not to let this conversation get away from him.
Seamus looked from him, to Dean, and back to him again. "Yeah, spill the beans, Deano," Seamus said.
Dean nodded slowly. "Okay, so I might not have said exactly why the internet is cool. You can find pictures of all sorts of women on there — free!"
Seamus’ eyebrows seemed to hit the ceiling. "I’m just a poor Irish catholic boy," he said, exaggerating his accent, "these wouldn’t be being naked girls, would they?"
Dean smirked. "So, I was chatting with some guys in America a few weeks ago, and they were going nuts about this new model — not a naked one, by the way — and someone pointed me to the store that was selling her posters. Well, I looked at it for about two seconds, before I borrowed Dad’s credit card and ordered it. It arrived yesterday.
Dean reached into his trunk and pulled out a long cardboard tube. With reverence and care, he opened the top and eased out a large sheet of rolled out paper. He carefully unrolled it — the look in his eyes saying he was deliberately increasing the tension.
With a final flourish, Dean grabbed his wand and attached the poster to the wall.
Rather than look at it directly, Neville watched Seamus’ face, and smiled.
The Irish boy blinked, and then his jaw dropped over and a stunned expression took over.
Neville laughed softly and looked at the poster. The background was a gorgeous white beach, with deep turquoise water behind it, but he doubted anyone would ever really notice it. In the centre, crawling out of the surf was Daphne Potter. Her hair was swept over one side of her head, and hung down the other side, the tips just brushing the water. She was wearing a simple white bikini, and was looking at the photographer with an expression that got to him every time.
"Shit!" Seamus said. "That is Daphne Greengrass! And we went to school with her for how long?"
"Six and half years," Neville said dryly.
Seamus shook himself. "Well…" he stuttered.
Neville laughed and slapped him on the back. "The great ladies’ man, Seamus Finnegan, struck dumb? Daph will be pleased."
"Daph?" Seamus and Dean asked together.
Neville shook his head. "So, how did this tell you that Harry was alive?"
Dean pointed to the bottom corner, and Seamus and Neville leaned into see it.
Copyright: Magic Productions. Model: Daphne Potter.
"Now," Dean said with a grin. "The one thing Daphne didn’t say at the funeral was that they were married. So that means that they got married afterward as society tends to frown on marrying dead people. But that’s my story; I think that Neville has a much more interesting one."
"Have you told anyone else?" Neville asked Dean.
"Of course not," Dean replied.
Without hesitation, Neville pulled his wand out and pointed it at the two boys, backing away slowly so that he’d have a chance of getting both of them. "I’ll take a vow on your magic now, gentlemen," he said seriously, "that you will not reveal that Harry is alive to anyone, until he does so himself."
"Nev?" Seamus said.
"We’re not playing games any more," Neville said firmly. "This is more serious than you can know. Now, you either swear, or I’ll Obliviate both of you."
Seamus moved first, taking his wand in his hand. "I swear on my magic that I will not reveal that Harry Potter is alive to anyone."
Dean shrugged. "I’d rather know what was going on, than not. I swear on my magic that I will not reveal that Harry Potter is alive to anyone."
Neville smiled and relaxed, putting his wand away. "That picture was not supposed to be made into a poster," he said, a frown on his face. "Daph is going to be very upset with the company."
"You’ve seen it before then?" Dean asked eagerly.
"Along with the rest of them," Neville nodded. "I’ve spent the past few weekends on their island."
"They have an island?"
"Yeah, in the Caribbean." Vow or no vow, he wasn’t telling anyone the true location. But it was nice to have someone at Hogwarts he could talk to.
"And Harry knows about the posters?"
"Not about this one… due to a situation I can’t go into, a Muggle company arranged permission to use a picture of Daphne in her wedding dress to promote their wedding dresses. The photo got syndicated around the country, and it became really popular, and Daphne decided to do a few more, she quite enjoys modelling. The deal was that these posters would only be available in America, and that they wouldn’t have her name on them. The American Bureau agreed to help keep it out of the Wizarding press altogether.
"Well, that worked," Neville continued. "But the new pics didn’t exactly work as intended. She’s now got standing offers to appear on numerous TV shows, magazines, and sporting events in the States. All she’s agreed to do is a calendar next year, and do it properly, as the need for secrecy should be gone by then." He paused for a second, and smiled slightly. "The marketing company is desperate for Harry to do one as well. But you know what he’s like."
The other two laughed and nodded. "No chance," Seamus stated.
"Well," Neville grinned. "He will be appearing, he just doesn’t know it yet."
"Huh?" Dean asked.
"Daphne is planning on doing one shot, for December that has her wrapped around him, displaying her wedding ring. She’s just not told him yet."
"So, they’re happy?"
Neville laughed softly. "Very much so. They’ve found their island, and once they have their problems here sorted, they’ll be fine."
"Problems here?"
"Yeah," Neville sighed. "You know about the Malfoys?"
Both boys nodded.
"And they were the ones who dealt with Snape as well. He’s alive, but he won’t be coming back."
"All right!" Dean yelled, and high-fived Seamus.
"And they’re laying some pretty deep plans for the Ministry as well. I’m helping them with Hogwarts, and they have others in different circles reporting to them."
"Can we help?" Dean asked eagerly.
"No idea," Neville replied. "I’ll let them know you’re interested and you’ve promised to keep their secret. It is fun watching them work. Daphne’s very direct, and Harry is pretty circular, but together they bounce ideas off each other and it works."
"So they’ve been corrupting you, taking away that sweet innocent boy Neville and replacing him with a man?"
Neville grinned. "Absolutely. Well, mainly Daphne. I think my blushing every time she wandered around in her bikini irritated her."
There was a bang at the door, and Ron shouted, "Oi, let me in!"
Acting as if rehearsed, Neville grabbed the cardboard tube while Dean pulled the poster off the wall and rolled it up. As soon as it was out of sight, Seamus cancelled the spell.
"What were you doing?" Ron asked, obviously in a foul mood.
"I… I…" Neville stuttered deliberately. "I kinda like Parvati," he continued.
"And we were giving him some advice," Dean said amicably.
"Take my word for it," Ron snorted. "And stay away from bloody girls; they’re more trouble than they’re worth." He grabbed his towel and stomped into the bathroom.
"Nice cover," Seamus whispered softly.
Neville shrugged. "Harry doesn’t know who they’re loyal to," he said quietly. "And seeing the way they’re tearing into each other, I’m not either."
"Don’t worry," Dean said. "We swore, and neither of us has any particular wish to become a squib."
Neville nodded and changed, before climbing into bed. "You know," he said thoughtfully. "Parvati is pretty."
Seamus laughed. "And single. And definitely in need of spending more time with the new and improved Neville Longbottom."
Neville laughed. "As Daphne said, it was always inside me, she just showed me where it was."
"You really like them, don’t you?"
"When you see them, you won’t believe it. Harry’s more confident than before, and carries himself like a man, and well, Daphne, she looks just like in that poster."
"You’re a lucky man, Neville."
"Night," he replied. He rolled over and went to sleep; they didn’t need to know what had happened with Snape.
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"True bravery is shown by performing without witness, what one might be capable of doing before the whole world." — La Rochefoucauld