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heroescutiesTitle: Something Blue
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
abarero
Rating: PG
Genre: Romance/General
Prompt: #5 Earrings
Word Count: 1,565
Summary: Post-DH. Neville supposed he had no one to blame for the oddity his life had become but himself. It had been his impulsive remark to Luna that had set the whole chain of events into motion.
Note: Thanks toharo for the beta. Written for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
loonybottom’s Trash to Treasure Challenge.
It was the middle of June and the weather was warm; the past month of May a blur of grief and celebration after the Battle of Hogwarts ended the war. Now, more than a month later, things were just starting to get sorted out. Priority had gone to the funerals and remembrances in May, so the matter of rebuilding the actual buildings had only minimally been attended to. This had left the Longbottom household, and more specifically Neville, in a bit of a unique situation for over a month.
Neville supposed he had no one to blame for the oddity his life had become but himself. It had been his impulsive remark to Luna that had set the whole chain of events into motion. But really, he reasoned, what was he supposed to do when Luna so casually mentioned that her house had been destroyed and that her Father really would like a soft bed after being held in Azkaban?
“You could come stay with me and Gran, if you wouldn’t mind it,” he had blurted out. Luna had excitedly hugged him, her odd earrings swaying back and forth due to the suddenness of her action.
And that was that; the Lovegoods would come to stay with the Longbottoms while their house was rebuilt. A generous favor that would end up driving the usually unflappable Neville up the wall.
First off, there was the matter of Luna's father. For being fresh out of Azkaban, Xenophilius was incorrigibly himself; something that drove Gran absolutely batty. He'd spend hours prattling on about various creatures and conspiracies that had covered the pages of The Quibbler before the war. Not having the heart to outright ignore him or politely ask him to shut his trap, Neville had announced that he was going to start a garden in the backyard.
"I sincerely hope you don't mind, but I'd prefer to tend the plants alone," he told the Lovegoods, "I'm trying some Muggle planting methods that are rather tricky."
The truth of the matter was the methods were actually not too different from the wizarding world's, but they were more time consuming; a fact that Neville cherished when he needed a breather from one of Xenophilius's longer lectures.
The second problem arose when Mr. Lovegood returned to the house one day with an odd contraption, a thing that soon proved to be a printing press.
"I've recovered it from our house," he proudly announced, "And with a little tinkering I suppose it'll be good as new. We need to get The Quibbler back in circulation or the Daily Prophet will steal all our devoted readers."
Luna was delighted at this news and immediately asked about the next issue.
"Daddy, do you suppose we could interview Neville?"
"Me? Luna, what for?" Neville had asked, genuinely baffled as to why they'd rather talk to him before interviewing Harry, Ron or Hermione.
"It'll be an exposé," Luna explained, "About how you fought off the Carrows at Hogwarts. People love those sorts of things, about average wizards being heroes."
"I don't know, Luna..."
Her dreamy gaze shifted to Neville and she smiled, "Oh come now, Neville. You faced He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named all by yourself and killed his snake. If that isn't a hero, then I don't know what one is."
Neville blushed to the roots of his hair at that and found he couldn't bring himself to protest further when both Xenophilius and his Gran seconded the idea.
This interview brought peace to the household for a day or so. The news that her grandson was being interviewed had quieted Gran's complaints about Xenophilius for awhile, but once he set up the printing press on her kitchen table her rants returned full force.
"News is the best kind of nourishment," he assured her. Gran had fumed for days and Neville spent more time in his garden than usual. Sometimes, he was joined by Luna who would sit nearby his patch of dirt and just watch the sky. But other days, she would be inside with her Father pouring over final drafts of the other articles for the paper.
It was one of those days when Neville had discovered it. He'd been waist deep in the ground, trying to dig a proper hole for the Wiggentree he'd acquired, when he spotted something small and blue.
"What's this?" he muttered to himself as he picked it up. Wiping it against his already dirt-covered shirt, Neville smiled on seeing the brilliant blue color flicker back at him in the sunlight, "It's a pretty stone, whatever it is. I wonder if Luna would like it?"
He decided he'd have the stone polished, and he would check with Xenophilius to make sure it wasn't something that would attract Wrackspurts or other bothersome creatures, before giving to Luna. Pocketing the stone, Neville picked back up his Muggle shovel and went back to digging.
------------------
A few weeks passed, Neville having found some free time to take the stone to a jeweler and have it polished. The man who examined it kept gushing about how it was such a rare and unique stone. A moonstone, he had called it. Neville thought that made it seem all the more fitting for Luna.
That's when the boxes began arriving. Hundreds and hundreds of boxes full of papers and books and odd gizmos, gadgets and other distinctly Lovegood items. Needless to say, Gran was not pleased.
"There is something extremely off about those doodads," she'd told Neville when the Lovegoods were out recovering more box-fulls from their destroyed home.
"Gran, it's not like they're some dark wizard's horcrux," Neville had reassured her.
"Oh I'm not worried about that," Mrs. Longbottom chuckled, "You'd take care of that no problem. I'm worried it's something else that'll summon giants or who knows what."
Neville found he couldn't truthfully tell her that it wasn't something like that.
"They're just trying to sort through their things. Even people who don't have their houses destroyed by Erumpent horn explosions do that."
The glint in his grandmother's eye had alerted Neville immediately that he would regret saying that.
"You're quite right, Neville," she remarked, "I guess it wouldn't hurt us to clean out the attic of all the junk up there ourselves."
----------------------
And so, that brought Neville to where he was- sorting through boxes of dusty old things in his attic. The majority of boxes contained books, papers or clothing; but Neville had come across one small box that had jewelry in it. It was here that he found them.
"Gran, what's this?" he asked.
She walked over beside him and peered down into the box, "Ah, that's some of my old jewelry from when I was young."
A small pair of earrings caught his eye. They were silver, with small little white stones leading down in a chain to a circle that was shaped like a flower. The middle stone, the center of the flower, was gone from both earrings.
"Looks like it's damaged," he said more to himself than anything as he picked them up.
Gran put a hand on his shoulder, "Those were your Mother's."
It's not until his grandmother starts to hug him that Neville even realized that a tear had trickled down his face. But at that moment, he knew the earrings were perfect.
--------------------------------------
Luna was speechless when he gave them to her, the blue moonstone having been polished and used to replace to missing stones. At first, this made Neville feel all sorts of awkward; his mind was racing with thoughts of "you shouldn't have told her they were your Mums" and "maybe Luna doesn't like this sort of gift."
Finally she spoke; her lips quirking up into a smile.
"I hope your Mother doesn't mind that I'm borrowing them," she remarked casually.
"Luna, my Mum..."
"Something borrowed something blue. Something old, something new. Isn't that it, Neville?"
He turned bright red at her implication and fumbled for a reply. He eloquently managed her name.
"Luna..."
"Though I suppose it'll be quite sometime before I get married, but I'll just keep them borrowed until then."
Neville nodded in agreement, not trusting himself to say anything at that moment. His mind wandered as he watched Luna, her slender fingers unhooking her current earrings and replacing them with her new ones. She looked to him once she had done so.
"You can kiss me now, Neville."
For some reason, it was at that moment he remembered that moonstones were used in The Draught of Peace. He had no bloody idea why he was thinking of Potions at a time like this. The Draught of Peace is a potion which calms anxiety and soothes agitation, he thought to himself.
Hoping that moonstones by themselves could help calm anxiety, Neville mustered up his Gryffindor courage and leaned forward to kiss her.
She responded immediately. Her lips were soft and her body warm as she wrapped her arms up around his neck, the two of them swaying on the spot. When they finally pulled apart, Luna did so with a giggle.
"Kisses are rather wet, aren't they?"
Neville smiled, "Yes, I suppose they are."
And oddly thankful for Xenophilius driving him to dig in the garden and causing his Gran's random insistence on cleaning the attic, Neville reached down and took Luna's hand.
"Come on Luna, we have boxes to sort."
------------
Author's Note: The custom I mention is explained here if you're unfamiliar with it.
Author:
abareroRating: PG
Genre: Romance/General
Prompt: #5 Earrings
Word Count: 1,565
Summary: Post-DH. Neville supposed he had no one to blame for the oddity his life had become but himself. It had been his impulsive remark to Luna that had set the whole chain of events into motion.
Note: Thanks to
haro for the beta. Written for loonybottom’s Trash to Treasure Challenge.It was the middle of June and the weather was warm; the past month of May a blur of grief and celebration after the Battle of Hogwarts ended the war. Now, more than a month later, things were just starting to get sorted out. Priority had gone to the funerals and remembrances in May, so the matter of rebuilding the actual buildings had only minimally been attended to. This had left the Longbottom household, and more specifically Neville, in a bit of a unique situation for over a month.
Neville supposed he had no one to blame for the oddity his life had become but himself. It had been his impulsive remark to Luna that had set the whole chain of events into motion. But really, he reasoned, what was he supposed to do when Luna so casually mentioned that her house had been destroyed and that her Father really would like a soft bed after being held in Azkaban?
“You could come stay with me and Gran, if you wouldn’t mind it,” he had blurted out. Luna had excitedly hugged him, her odd earrings swaying back and forth due to the suddenness of her action.
And that was that; the Lovegoods would come to stay with the Longbottoms while their house was rebuilt. A generous favor that would end up driving the usually unflappable Neville up the wall.
First off, there was the matter of Luna's father. For being fresh out of Azkaban, Xenophilius was incorrigibly himself; something that drove Gran absolutely batty. He'd spend hours prattling on about various creatures and conspiracies that had covered the pages of The Quibbler before the war. Not having the heart to outright ignore him or politely ask him to shut his trap, Neville had announced that he was going to start a garden in the backyard.
"I sincerely hope you don't mind, but I'd prefer to tend the plants alone," he told the Lovegoods, "I'm trying some Muggle planting methods that are rather tricky."
The truth of the matter was the methods were actually not too different from the wizarding world's, but they were more time consuming; a fact that Neville cherished when he needed a breather from one of Xenophilius's longer lectures.
The second problem arose when Mr. Lovegood returned to the house one day with an odd contraption, a thing that soon proved to be a printing press.
"I've recovered it from our house," he proudly announced, "And with a little tinkering I suppose it'll be good as new. We need to get The Quibbler back in circulation or the Daily Prophet will steal all our devoted readers."
Luna was delighted at this news and immediately asked about the next issue.
"Daddy, do you suppose we could interview Neville?"
"Me? Luna, what for?" Neville had asked, genuinely baffled as to why they'd rather talk to him before interviewing Harry, Ron or Hermione.
"It'll be an exposé," Luna explained, "About how you fought off the Carrows at Hogwarts. People love those sorts of things, about average wizards being heroes."
"I don't know, Luna..."
Her dreamy gaze shifted to Neville and she smiled, "Oh come now, Neville. You faced He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named all by yourself and killed his snake. If that isn't a hero, then I don't know what one is."
Neville blushed to the roots of his hair at that and found he couldn't bring himself to protest further when both Xenophilius and his Gran seconded the idea.
This interview brought peace to the household for a day or so. The news that her grandson was being interviewed had quieted Gran's complaints about Xenophilius for awhile, but once he set up the printing press on her kitchen table her rants returned full force.
"News is the best kind of nourishment," he assured her. Gran had fumed for days and Neville spent more time in his garden than usual. Sometimes, he was joined by Luna who would sit nearby his patch of dirt and just watch the sky. But other days, she would be inside with her Father pouring over final drafts of the other articles for the paper.
It was one of those days when Neville had discovered it. He'd been waist deep in the ground, trying to dig a proper hole for the Wiggentree he'd acquired, when he spotted something small and blue.
"What's this?" he muttered to himself as he picked it up. Wiping it against his already dirt-covered shirt, Neville smiled on seeing the brilliant blue color flicker back at him in the sunlight, "It's a pretty stone, whatever it is. I wonder if Luna would like it?"
He decided he'd have the stone polished, and he would check with Xenophilius to make sure it wasn't something that would attract Wrackspurts or other bothersome creatures, before giving to Luna. Pocketing the stone, Neville picked back up his Muggle shovel and went back to digging.
------------------
A few weeks passed, Neville having found some free time to take the stone to a jeweler and have it polished. The man who examined it kept gushing about how it was such a rare and unique stone. A moonstone, he had called it. Neville thought that made it seem all the more fitting for Luna.
That's when the boxes began arriving. Hundreds and hundreds of boxes full of papers and books and odd gizmos, gadgets and other distinctly Lovegood items. Needless to say, Gran was not pleased.
"There is something extremely off about those doodads," she'd told Neville when the Lovegoods were out recovering more box-fulls from their destroyed home.
"Gran, it's not like they're some dark wizard's horcrux," Neville had reassured her.
"Oh I'm not worried about that," Mrs. Longbottom chuckled, "You'd take care of that no problem. I'm worried it's something else that'll summon giants or who knows what."
Neville found he couldn't truthfully tell her that it wasn't something like that.
"They're just trying to sort through their things. Even people who don't have their houses destroyed by Erumpent horn explosions do that."
The glint in his grandmother's eye had alerted Neville immediately that he would regret saying that.
"You're quite right, Neville," she remarked, "I guess it wouldn't hurt us to clean out the attic of all the junk up there ourselves."
----------------------
And so, that brought Neville to where he was- sorting through boxes of dusty old things in his attic. The majority of boxes contained books, papers or clothing; but Neville had come across one small box that had jewelry in it. It was here that he found them.
"Gran, what's this?" he asked.
She walked over beside him and peered down into the box, "Ah, that's some of my old jewelry from when I was young."
A small pair of earrings caught his eye. They were silver, with small little white stones leading down in a chain to a circle that was shaped like a flower. The middle stone, the center of the flower, was gone from both earrings.
"Looks like it's damaged," he said more to himself than anything as he picked them up.
Gran put a hand on his shoulder, "Those were your Mother's."
It's not until his grandmother starts to hug him that Neville even realized that a tear had trickled down his face. But at that moment, he knew the earrings were perfect.
--------------------------------------
Luna was speechless when he gave them to her, the blue moonstone having been polished and used to replace to missing stones. At first, this made Neville feel all sorts of awkward; his mind was racing with thoughts of "you shouldn't have told her they were your Mums" and "maybe Luna doesn't like this sort of gift."
Finally she spoke; her lips quirking up into a smile.
"I hope your Mother doesn't mind that I'm borrowing them," she remarked casually.
"Luna, my Mum..."
"Something borrowed something blue. Something old, something new. Isn't that it, Neville?"
He turned bright red at her implication and fumbled for a reply. He eloquently managed her name.
"Luna..."
"Though I suppose it'll be quite sometime before I get married, but I'll just keep them borrowed until then."
Neville nodded in agreement, not trusting himself to say anything at that moment. His mind wandered as he watched Luna, her slender fingers unhooking her current earrings and replacing them with her new ones. She looked to him once she had done so.
"You can kiss me now, Neville."
For some reason, it was at that moment he remembered that moonstones were used in The Draught of Peace. He had no bloody idea why he was thinking of Potions at a time like this. The Draught of Peace is a potion which calms anxiety and soothes agitation, he thought to himself.
Hoping that moonstones by themselves could help calm anxiety, Neville mustered up his Gryffindor courage and leaned forward to kiss her.
She responded immediately. Her lips were soft and her body warm as she wrapped her arms up around his neck, the two of them swaying on the spot. When they finally pulled apart, Luna did so with a giggle.
"Kisses are rather wet, aren't they?"
Neville smiled, "Yes, I suppose they are."
And oddly thankful for Xenophilius driving him to dig in the garden and causing his Gran's random insistence on cleaning the attic, Neville reached down and took Luna's hand.
"Come on Luna, we have boxes to sort."
------------
Author's Note: The custom I mention is explained here if you're unfamiliar with it.
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