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Tweak says, "Why am I always Lois Lane?"

Neville Longbottom [Harry Potter] (not_nobody) wrote in expresslogs,
@ 2012-08-18 12:36:00

Entry tags:

!dice, lily luna potter, {neville longbottom

WHO: Neville Longbottom and Lily Luna Potter (!dice)
WHAT: Neville is spending some times with the plants in the indoor observation car, and runs into one of his future students
WHEN: Saturday morning
WHERE: Indoor observation car
WARNINGS: TBD

Neville had taken to getting up early in the mornings and making his way down to the indoor observation car. He'd discovered, a few weeks prior, that someone had planted a small herb garden there, and even though they weren't magical plants, he found a certain peace in tending to them. Weeding. Trimming. Watering. Giving them the attention they needed to prosper. And he was pleased to see, as he entered the car today, that they were flourishing under his care.

A smile crossed his face as he went to them again, running a finger over their tiny leaves, talking to them softly, gently. They never spoke back (as magical plants sometimes did...and they weren't always incredibly polite about it, either), but it brought him a sort of peace.

He'd never been particularly good with people. Shy by nature, his grandmother's grief for the loss of his father had tried to force him to be someone he wasn't, making him even less comfortable in his own skin than he would have normally been. He wasn't his father...and he never would be. At Hogwarts, even his professors had occasionally found it appropriate to tease him - even the ones who weren't cruel to him like Snape had been.

Plants, though, seemed to like him, and he had a particularly good hand with them.

So engrossed was he with his tending that he didn't hear the door open behind him.

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the_lily_luna
2012-08-24 12:34 am UTC (link)

Her brows lifted slightly as he went on in a voice that sounded like he was going to start in on a lecture. "Right. I've heard as much." Repeatedly, in a variety of phrases and tones, and voices, as different professors attempted to pound that particular lesson into her head.

Lily nodded. She'd had to actually find a history book to get some of the details -- her father hadn't been forthcoming with a lot of it -- but she knew the highlights. "I read about that," she replied. "Pretty impressive, really," she said without any indication of flattery or falseness -- because it was impressive.

"Transfiguration because I don't suck at it. Defense for the same reason. I hate potions," she added. Honestly, potions had to be the dullest class on the planet, but she'd taken all seven years of it just in case she wanted to follow a path that required it.

"Besides Herbology, what was yours?"

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not_nobody
2012-08-24 01:40 am UTC (link)

"Well, apparently you survived, even if you didn't listen," he said with a smile, only very gently scolding.

"About the Battle of Hogwarts," he said - a statement, not a question. "It was...terrible."

She'd read about it. Read about it. He could still smell the smoke, hear the screams of the dying and wounded, see Voldemort's terrible face as he tried to recruit him to his side.

As if he would ever...

"I did what I had to do," he said with a humble shrug. "Harry needed me to come through - everyone did. Everyone has their moment of bravery, I think."

He knew that what he'd done was important, but it didn't make him feel that way. He'd just been in the right place at the right time, and for some reason had been able to pull the sword of Godric Gryffindor out of a hat. In retrospect, the part that moved him the most, that made him most proud was the fact that he'd obviously been proven worthy of his house, after all those years of feeling he'd been mishoused.

"Defense against the Dark Arts," he said. "When it wasn't Snape's. And I guess...mainly when it was Harry. Your dad...the reason I was ever able to do anything was because of him, and Dumbledore's Army."

It had given him all the confidence he had never had.

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the_lily_luna
2012-08-24 02:43 am UTC (link)

Lily couldn't relate. At all. She'd grown up in a time of peace, of happiness, with her family intact and unharmed. War stories were just that -- stories. They were things in her past that weren't real to her the way they were real to the people who'd lived through them. She knew they were events that had happened, but she couldn't completely understand the reality of it. Not that she meant any disrespect, and she did try to understand ... but it was beyond the scope of her reality.

"I suppose," she replied in regard to a moment of bravery. She couldn't recall any particular instances in which she'd been particularly brave, but she also didn't have a war in her time.

"You had a different professor every year for that, didn't you? That was the time when it was cursed." Lily shifted her weight. "I only had two," she admitted. "One up through my fifth year, and a different one for my last two."

All things considered, Lily still wasn't at a point where she was interested in hearing any praise for her father. She was still sore about the whole punching thing, and would be until he fixed it. If nothing else, she'd inherited her relatives amazing ability to hold grudges. So she simply nodded to acknowledge what Neville had to say on the topic of her father.

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not_nobody
2012-08-24 02:36 pm UTC (link)

"Yeah, I did. First year it was Professor Quirrel, then Professor Lockhart, then Professor Lupin...and fake Professor Moody, and then Umbridge, Snape and that wretched Carrow. He was the worst, of course, worse even than Umbridge or Snape, or even Quirrel with Voldemort under his turban. Your parents never had him, though, that's the year they were out destroying Horcruxes. I...kind of led a little rebellion against the Carrows, though, and I've still got some of the scars to prove it. I don't know why they didn't just kill me sometimes, unless it was because I'm pureblood or something ridiculous like that."

He shook his head at the memory, remembering that as the year - and the time - that he'd really learned to stand up for himself, and for others. At least as well as he ever would.

"Guess Dark Arts aren't as important in your day, though. Which is good."

He raised an eyebrow at her with a slight smile.

"So what is it that you do? You're out of Hogwarts now, right?"

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the_lily_luna
2012-08-25 01:15 am UTC (link)

Lily's brows arched again. "My mum was at school," she pointed out. Or she had been for a bit of it. Lily was fairly certain they'd gone into hiding at some point during that mess. Depending on who was telling the story, the details varied from telling to telling, and of course things like that didn't make it into the books.

Still, it was interesting to hear Neville talking about it. It had been infinitely more recent for him, after all.

She shrugged slightly. "Depends on what you want to do. Witches and wizards didn't stop practicing Dark Arts just because Voldemort's gone. So Aurors and stuff still need to have a good basis in them."

Lily shook her head and shrugged again. "I hadn't decided. Hugo and I were supposed to tour around Europe and see if we could figure out what we wanted to do. I didn't really have any ideas. Dunno what I'm really suited for, honestly. I don't have any interest in working as an Auror or a hit or really anything to do with the Ministry. I thought about experimental charms or something, but ..." Lily glanced to the side. "I dunno. It just sounds like more work than I want. I'm not good enough for a quidditch team professionally, and I'm not much for the writing aspect of journalism.

"I figure I'll find something, sooner or later, or my parents will kick me out, yeah?" She grinned, and she doubted that ... but still, she would eventually start to feel lazy if she didn't get some sort of job.

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not_nobody
2012-08-25 04:13 am UTC (link)

"I didn't really know what I wanted to do, either," he said, hoping this could get them off the topic of the war. It made him exceedingly uncomfortable to talk about it, as it brought back the pain of all those they had lost, and all the terrible memories of the day he had come face to face with Voldemort.

"I was an Auror of sorts - I mean, not really, but I helped Kingsley out at the ministry in the immediate aftermath of the War - but I knew that wasn't what I was good at, or what I really wanted to do. I didn't feel that I was good at much at all. I'm glad to hear from you and Harry and Luna that I find something in the future and settle down."

He smiled at her a little nervously.

"So, uh, I guess the question is, what do you like to do? What makes you happy?"

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the_lily_luna
2012-08-25 05:18 am UTC (link)

Lily nodded slightly. It had been different for people back then, she guessed. When he was her age. Which was still weird to think about, even if he was standing right there in front of her, about her age.

She snorted slightly at his question, and honestly, it was on the tip of her tongue to inform him exactly what made her happy -- but that was just an awkward topic to get into with a future professor. Even if he wouldn't remember if he ever went home.

"I dunno," she admitted. "I mean,I'm still kind of venturing around a few ideas. I know what I don't like, but I dunno what I'm passionate enough about to make a career out of it.

"I mean, things like cursebreaking and whatever sound very interesting, but I dunno that it's really for me. There was an internship for the zoo in September I was thinking about, but ..." Lily shrugged one shoulder. "I hadn't gotten around to applying for it."

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not_nobody
2012-08-25 02:50 pm UTC (link)

Neville nodded slightly, understanding to an extent where she was coming from. Although he had developed a passion for herbology while at Hogwarts, he had never been quite sure what he could do with that. And there were so many wizarding jobs that he didn't feel that he could do...

But he supposed it was different for Lily. The world was such a different place, and her days at Hogwarts...it had just been school. Maybe she was looking for the excitement that he was tired of by the time he graduated. Maybe peace and settling down weren't things she was looking for.

"You'll find something," he said with a shrug. "And I'm sure your parents won't kick you out if you don't."

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the_lily_luna
2012-08-25 11:02 pm UTC (link)

"Probably not," she agreed. Her mum might threaten it, but she knew her da' never would let it happen. And if it did, she could always move in with Jamie or Albie for a little while -- by the time she ever got kicked out, she was sure they'd have flats of their own, and she couldn't see them turning her away.

Even if they did, she had a boat load of cousins to turn to.

"But ... I'm sure eventually something will speak to me. Or I'll start somewhere at some job at random and eventually work my way into a place where I want to spend my days working." She reasoned, too, she'd have a better time of it if some of her family was there as well. She guessed the odds were better she'd stick with a job if someone like Hugo was around to work with.

Since the conversation was sort of petering out, and she was interested in finding Tris or Marvel -- or both of them -- she cocked her head toward the door. "It was nice chatting with you," she replied -- which it had been. "See you 'round?"

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