The urge to cling was there. He had major plans for holding Hannah and Sam tight when he saw them on Sunday. Lily and her daughter were gone and he had no idea why. True, she had been through a tremendous ordeal, and Neville had imagined, if not then, later, she would have to deal with the guilt surrounding her father's death. But she had said the Healers said she was getting better. Had they been wrong?
Those poor girls, one lost and one... Oddly, he couldn't blame her, he'd done that for a long time, about Harry, it was why he hadn't contacted her, or made any attempt to do so. Not until he could see her as Lily, who'd been through hell, and needed a way back, could he write to her. He was grateful he'd managed it before she died, and that she bore him no ill will. Selfish? He acknowledged that such thoughts probably were selfish. So was his need to hold on to and be around family. And if he couldn't have Hannah and Sam just then, well Al was family too.
Neville didn't smile this time entereing the library, he just made sure that Al saw him before he got too close.
"I wondered if you wanted company, it can be of the non-talkative sort if you like."