Neville had prepared himself thoroughly in the hallway before he entered Alice's room - talking to himself and making sure he didn't take whatever his maddened mother was going to say to him so personally.
But this...
He had to close his eyes and swallow hard, even though his heart was pounding so hard that he swore it was trying to make it's way out of his body through the hard pulsing. Not letting any hope build up inside him was a difficult task. Neville wanted so badly to say 'I'm here, I'm your son, can't you see?'.... but he knew that she wouldn't understand, that she couldn't. It would be too much for her and he had no idea what it could possibly do to her already fragile psyche.
When Alice was clutching at the pillow, calling for her baby, Neville's brow furrowed and he willed himself to calm before walking towards her, urging her to give him the pillow. "It's alright Alice." Neville tried to give his mother the most reassuring look he could, the hammering in his chest notwithstanding. "Can you tell me where you saw him last, what he looks like... his name?" Even after he said it, Neville regretted asking. If Alice remembered, it might make that spark of hope rekindle, and he can't have it. He watched Alice's blue eyes with his own hazel... just like Frank's, and waited for her answer, those blue eyes darting around the room still in search, but searching elsewhere than in the room at the same time.