InsaneJournal

RP: Desperate Uncertainty
Characters: Neville, Ari
Time/Date: Saturday evening, October 15 2023
Location: Her... room. *DECIDES ALL DECIDINGLY*
Warnings/Rating: PGish
Summary: Neville gets a letter he doesn't know what to do with
Status: Complete



He'd gotten the letter earlier that day. He'd been in the middle of pretending to write up his lesson plans for the week while actually daydreaming when the owl had slipped in being all official (and excited, if owls could be excited) and dropped a letter from the Ministry at his desk. He'd been startled, nearly falling out of his desk chair, and stared at the owl in bewilderment. The creature had just hooted, and waited expectantly for him to open it.

Which he had.

He wondered if the owl expected him to do something other than stare at the letter in absolute shock, and he was hoping not because he didn't really think he'd be able to do much else any time soon. He'd wondered when these dreams were going to start, or when old childhood dreams that he thought he'd left behind were going to resurface, and morph into something closer to his current reality.

The only thing missing from this dream was the fact that it was only Alice who had returned, not both of them. He thought though, that it was a nice touch that they'd thought to put her age down, knowing that he'd be able to do the backwards math and determine that it was before she'd been tortured into insanity, though he thought it would have been almost poetic to have his parents return from a time when they had already lost their mind. He could go through the nightmare all over again.

Dropping the letter onto his desk, he thanked the owl wordlessly, belatedly thinking to offer it a treat. He knew from the way the bird snapped the snack out of his hand that this was not the reaction it was hoping for - likely, it knew the contents of the letter, and expected him to rejoice. Could owls live vicariously through their recipients? Either way, he supposed the owl hadn't expected him to realize that he'd clearly just fallen asleep at his desk. Or something.

Though as the afternoon wore on, and he managed to get his lesson plan worked out for the next two weeks - unprecedented, since he didn't usually have that kind of focus - and he still failed to wake up, he realized that he'd have to do something to snap out of this dream. Maybe deal with the unresolved feelings he clearly had. So he picked up the letter and slipped out of his room.

The hallways were uncharacteristically quiet for afternoon, which made him suspect that it was evening or night now, but he couldn't bring himself to care, or stop on his track to Ariana's room, though he did hesitate briefly when he reached the door, knocking... quieter than he might have otherwise, in case it was really late and she'd fallen asleep.

Because... what if this wasn't a dream?

Aware he likely looked a mess from fitful not!crying, he leaned against the side of the wall and stared at the letter without reading it, hoping that Ari would be awake and able to talk him through this bout of unexpected childhood angst.