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Alice ([info]inadvertently) wrote in [info]expresslogs,
@ 2012-08-24 23:37:00

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Entry tags:alice longbottom, {neville longbottom

Snap-pop
Characters: Alice, Neville
When: post-arrival
Location: outside Neville's room
Warnings/Rating: None anticipated?
Summary: Alice sees a familiar name in an unfamiliar place, and is curious
Status: Complete




It was uncanny, but it wasn't the first time she'd accidentally floo'd herself somewhere she didn't mean to go. It didn't happen terribly often, but often enough it was a bit of a joke among her closer friends. So she rolled her eyes and turned to face the fireplace only to find no Floo powder present. Well, bugger that. With a shrug, she withdrew her wand to apparate herself back to somewhere familiar only to find that she couldn't.

Well. This was a muddle, wasn't it? No flooing, no apparating. Which left flying -- if she'd had a broom -- or walking. Exhaling heavily (despite the fact she seemed to be alone with no witnesses to her exasperation), Alice turned to make her way along the train. She started toward the front (well, what she assumed was the front, given the motion), and she moved as though she had every bit of business being there. She offered nods to anyone who happened to catch her eye, but until she had the feel of this situation, she was going to work it on her own, thank you very much.

When she reached some cars that appeared to be sleepers, she quirked a brow. She did notice names that looked neatly painted (or somehow imprinted) onto the doors, and she lifted her hand to trace one. The next name over caught her attention, and her brows lifted. If it wasn't for the wrong middle initial, she would have knocked -- but the Lily she knew was a Lily Belle, not a Lily L. All the same, it was yet another uncanny thing about the evening.

As she continued on through the car, she kept a close eye on the names. The next familiar one was Percy Weasley, and she recognized that last name, too. So far, a couple dozen names, and two of them familiar. Unsettled, she continued along, moving easily between the cars.

The next familiar name she came across caused her to do a double-take, and she very nearly tripped over her own feet. Neville? How on Earth was her infant son here? It had to be ... some other Neville. Longbottom. Because that was a horribly common name. Perplexed, she lifted a hand before she stopped herself.

Could it be a trap? It was possible. Things were getting very intense, after all. But was it likely? She'd been here for a solid five minutes, and no Death Eaters had leapt out at her. But ... she couldn't not knock. The worst that happened was ... well, some bloke who shared her son's name answered the door, she had a moment or two of awkward conversation, and she continued on with her dogged pursuit of answers.

Lifting her hand the rest of the way, she rapped sharply twice on the door, and awaited a response.


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[info]inadvertently
2012-08-29 09:58 pm UTC (link)
Alice didn’t think ‘complicated’ began to describe it. She had so many questions and she didn’t even know where to start. To stop teaching practical defense? She couldn’t even wrap her mind around that. And Dumbledore had allowed that? Had he gone daft?

Or … somehow been overruled? But in his own school?

No, she didn’t understand. Nothing about any of it was making sense. She thought, though, this was a discussion better suited for a time when she wasn’t already on edge and confused. Maybe after she’d had a chance to get a feel for this place … maybe then she could sit her son down and try to work out the hows and whys of the fantastic things he was telling her.

“Well, maybe it wasn’t so hard for you,” she chided him lightly. “Might be a little bit of a trick for an old witch like me,” she countered playfully.

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[info]not_nobody
2012-08-30 04:04 am UTC (link)
Neville allowed a small smile at that, although it was still a little forced. Really, she wasn't that much older than him. Well, she was. But not mom older.

"I'm sure you'll be fine," he said quietly. "It's just a straight line. But I can show you where all the different places are, where all the food is and everything. And where the other people from our world live? There are a lot of them here."

He hesitated, then continued carefully.

"Mum...there's...a lot of bad stuff that happened in the years between...us. And you're probably going to hear about some of it pretty soon."

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[info]inadvertently
2012-08-30 12:05 pm UTC (link)
She nodded as she listened to him, taking it all in and considering it. She wasn't completely certain she wasn't going to go mad before the night was over, but she guessed she'd deal with it if that was how it came about. One thing at a time though. She'd sort out the whole ... train thing, and go from there.

"I'm catching on," she admitted when he said bad things had happened. "I'll find out, when I'm ready," she added. If she didn't think she was ready, and someone tried to tell her anyway, she'd just make them shush until she thought she was ready.

While there were things she thought she wanted to know, there were other things she was pretty sure she didn't want to know -- especially if she wasn't going to be able to do anything about them. She also had a feeling that, like it or not, she was going to hear about the things.

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[info]not_nobody
2012-08-30 04:47 pm UTC (link)
"Yeah..." he said carefully. "I...don't really know what I can say without...you know, telling you before you're ready."

He shrugged as he led her into the hallway, his initial shock dulling into something where he was simply suspending disbelief. His mother was here. Alive. Talking. And although he'd spent months lying in bed and thinking exactly what he'd say to her if she could talk, none of it would come out now that she was.

He sighed heavily.

"So, um, where do you want to see first?'

He didn't want this to be so awkward, but he didn't know how to change it. His mum was going to think he was pathetic, but he didn't know how to change that.

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[info]inadvertently
2012-08-30 09:48 pm UTC (link)
“Suppose if we avoid the topic of people we might know in common, and home, we’ll be all right,” Alice pointed out. She did wonder a little if Frank was going to show. If he’d be older or younger. Or if the train wasn’t interested in nabbing complete families. Well, no matter. Until they worked out a solution, this was enough.

With her wand still out, Alice followed him along. She glanced curiously around the hall, and considered his question. What did she want to see first? Besides a way out, but she guessed it wouldn’t be that easy. “Dunno,” she admitted. “Kitchen, I suppose, and if there’s anywhere I can get something else to wear, that wouldn’t be a bad start, either.”

Slanting her eyes toward him, she regarded him before deciding pushing wasn’t going to get her anywhere. In time. They’d sort it out in time. For now, she was content enough to let her son tour her around the train.

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[info]not_nobody
2012-08-31 11:41 am UTC (link)
"Yeah, there's a kitchen, and there's a place where you can probably find some clothes...although a lot of times the clothes in there are really weird," he said with a little grin. "Pirate clothes and stuff. But...maybe we could have dinner and...I din't know...talk some more, maybe."

Talking was awkward and uncomfortable, but he knew he'd be angry with himself if he ran from her like he had his father, the few days he was here. It was a chance he'd probably never have again, to know his mother when her mind was still...healthy.

"You can, I don't know, tell me stupid stories and stuff, and I can tell you about Hogwarts and you can just..." be my mom. Whatever that meant.

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[info]inadvertently
2012-08-31 11:12 pm UTC (link)
Pirate clothes? That sounded like there was another story there, and she regarded him. “Sounds like an interesting sort of place I’ve wound up here,” she quipped. After she’d slept on it, she had a feeling she was going to dissect it, bit by bit, until she’d worked out the brunt of it. She’d ask around. Do her own sleuthing. Whatever it took to find out how this monster ticked.

“Of course we can have dinner,” she assured him, reaching out briefly to rest her hand on his arm. She didn’t want to push; she wanted him to take things at his own pace, but he was her son and she intended to be a mother.

“Tell me,” she prompted. “Tell me about your first day at school.” He’d probably owled her … Her expression shifted as she terminated that thought. Maybe he hadn’t. If her suspicions about the war were right … maybe she wasn’t around to be owled. Wasn’t it, then, more important she learn these things now, while she could?

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[info]not_nobody
2012-09-01 05:37 am UTC (link)
"Yeah, that's one way to put it," he said with a very dark laugh. "You could also say it's totally mental, and horrible, and absolutely terrifying sometimes. Like when the Zombies were here."

He jumped a little at her touch, but he didn't push her hand away, or move away from it. As strange at it was, and as unused to it as he was, it was still kind of...wonderful in a way he was almost afraid to admit. The train had taken away his father so quickly...how could he be sure that she wasn't just going to disappear without saying goodbye, just as he had?

"My first day at school?" He frowned deeply, turning his head away from her. "Well, I mean, it was great. I got sorted into Gryffindor, and Gran was really proud of me. Although I don't think she ever thought I was brave enough to be a Gryffindor. Until...until the end, of course. Other than that, well, you know what first days are like, right?"

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[info]inadvertently
2012-09-01 01:21 pm UTC (link)
Zombies. "On ... the train?" She prompted, her brow furrowing. Was that possible? Well, why not? If the train could pull her on, why not zombies?

She didn't miss the jump -- she didn't miss much -- but she opted not to comment on it. Instead, she'd just be a little more careful with her casual touches. At least until he was more acclimated to her presence.

Until the end. End of what? She had a feeling that was something she was going to file away for later, when she was ready to hear about things that probably ended badly. "I do. I had one, but it was ages ago," she teased with a little wink. "My mum wasn't nearly so impressed I wound up in Hufflepuff, but what can you do? The hat knows what its doing, and I was a good little badger."

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[info]not_nobody
2012-09-01 03:35 pm UTC (link)
"Well, not on the train exactly. They were more...outside. I don't think they ever came on the train, which was really good, of course. I wouldn't have wanted them to come on the train, that would have been awful. They were...horrible things," he shuddered.

"Everyone thought I was going to end up in Hufflepuff," he frowned. "I mean, no offense or anything. I had friends in Hufflepuff. But...I think they thought I was going to end up there just because I wasn't brave enough for Gryffindor, or smart enough for Ravenclaw, or bad enough for Slytherin. Not because I was actually a Hufflepuff, but just because I wasn't good enough for the others. I was...surprised myself when they put me in Gryffindor. I mean, I'm not particularly brave. I mean, everyone has their moments I guess, but..."

He shrugged as he remembered his actions from the Battle of Hogwarts, actions that had even surprised him. Maybe that's how bravery was - it snuck up on you out of nowhere and surprised you as much as anyone else.

"I wasn't really good at much, at first."

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[info]inadvertently
2012-09-01 06:52 pm UTC (link)
"Ah," she replied. "Has there ... ah. Ever been anything on the train? Like that?" She was thinking along the lines of dementors, but if things did have a habit of showing up on board, she'd like to know what to expect.

Her brows lifted at his rundown on why he wasn't in the various other houses. It interested her that he'd used bad for Slytherin. She didn't deny it was a darker house, generally, but ... "Slytherins aren't bad," Alice replied gently. "They are cunning, and ambitious, and often misunderstood," and misdirected upon occasion ... "But they aren't bad, as a whole." She'd had a friend or two there, and she knew one of Lily's friends had been there. Granted, he had gone bad, but ... he hadn't necessarily started that way.

"Bravery shows itself in different ways," she added softly. "And not everyone has the same idea of it. What's brave for one may not apply to another because they're different. Different minds. Different fears." And what was brave in one's eyes, might be recklessness in another's. "But good on you," she added, since she was sliding into something like a lecture mode.

Maybe that was her way of dealing with the train. To lecture facts. It wouldn't surprise her.

"Oh?" That was a curious statement, and Alice flicked her eyes to regard her son. "How do you mean?"

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[info]not_nobody
2012-09-02 03:12 pm UTC (link)
"Uh, not since I've been here," he said with a shrug. "I mean, bad stuff's happened on the train, but the really bad stuff has stayed outside, for the most part."

He hoped it stayed that way, but he didn't have a lot of faith in the train's ability - or desire - to keep them safe.

"Slytherin...well...they kind of are bad, mum. At least...I mean, most of them are Death Eaters and supported Voldemort...and it was a Slytherin who killed - "

He stopped before speaking the Headmaster's name, or blaming Snape or Draco for that. He didn't know the whole story, and that was probably information that his mother didn't want to know. He wished that he didn't know it, really. It was one of the most terrible losses of the war. "I just...my...my experience with Slytherins isn't good, mum." At all.

"Yeah, I know," he said, shoving his hands into his pockets. It was, after all, the same sort of speech that Dumbledore had given him before awarding him the ten points that had thrown the balance of the House Cup his first year. But still, with all the bravery he'd seen in his last year...well, his hardly stood up to examination. In his mind, anyway.

"Well, I...I mean, I broke my arm the first time I tried to fly, for one thing. I was dreadful at potions, even the teachers liked to mock how pathetic I was, mum."

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[info]inadvertently
2012-09-02 07:41 pm UTC (link)
While Alice couldn't -- and wouldn't -- argue that most Death Eaters weren't of Slytherin, they weren't the only ones who wound up as Death Eaters, and there were plenty of Slytherins who didn't venture that way. Maybe in his time through school, things had progressed that way, or gotten to that point. The prejudices had always been present, of course, and Slytherin had very, very few positive associations, and it perhaps wasn't a surprise. Maybe something about how the war had turned out had perpetuated and strengthened that mentality among the wizarding community.

It wasn't a very cheerful thought.

She also wasn't going to ask who a Slytherin had killed, because entirely too many possibilities came to mind. Her? Frank? Members of their family, of the Order? No, she'd rather not know just yet.

"Well, I won't say they're all sunshine and roses, and I don't know how things were in your time," she admitted. Maybe they were worse.

"You wouldn't have been the first to have an accident learning to fly," Alice replied. "And potions aren't for everyone." She was a little curious about the professors mocking him; that didn't seem right. Not in the least. Her brow furrowed, and she wondered if he'd always lacked self-confidence. How had that come about? She and Frank wouldn't have let it happen. They would have supported him and encouraged him, and ensured he entered the world with all the confidence they could instill in him. So what had gone wrong?

The obvious answer was that ... she hadn't raised him. So she was dead, and ... who would have taken him in? Frank's mother? Her lips thinned into a grim line, because that would explain at least some of it. "You're not pathetic, Neville," Alice said firmly. "You're my son, and you are not pathetic."

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[info]not_nobody
2012-09-03 04:22 am UTC (link)
Neville just kind of shrugged at that. He wasn't good at taking compliments - probably coming from a childhood where he hadn't gotten many. And plus, she was saying that because she was his mom, and also because she didn't know him.

He wasn't evil, and with Dumbledore's Army, and everything that had followed, he wasn't as pathetic as he had been...but he still wasn't Harry, and knew that - at best - he was an average wizard. He wasn't as talented as his parents, as his grandmother had always told him growing up. And even though she'd said just a few months ago that they'd be proud of him for what he'd done in the Battle of Hogwarts...well, the years of telling him how ashamed they'd be just didn't wash away that easily.

"Slytherins..." he trailed off, not knowing how to explain it. "Well...when I was at Hogwarts, all the trouble we ever had came from that house. And there was a bloody lot of trouble."

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[info]inadvertently
2012-09-03 05:33 am UTC (link)
Her lips pursed slightly, but one thing at a time. She'd work her way through the train, and then she'd tackle the matter of her son and figure out what had gone so badly wrong.

"Oh, I won't deny their house was the source of the worst of it," Alice replied with a lightness she didn't entirely feel. "But they were never the only source of it." She didn't like how dark his life was starting to sound.

Later though -- tomorrow, or the next day -- she'd start gathering up the pieces to try to put them together into something like a picture. She doubted she was going to like what it turned out to be, though. Still, she'd never shied away from anything like that before, and just because she was stuck on a bloody train didn't mean she was going to start avoiding it now.

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[info]not_nobody
2012-09-04 03:26 am UTC (link)
Neville shrugged a little at that. There was never only one source of evil, and in that war it had seemed to come from everywhere at once. But mainly from Slytherin. Or ex-Slytherins. Maybe it was unfair to blame them entirely, but it was hard to keep from doing it, too.

"Well, that's all over now for the most part, anyway," he said. "We're just...cleaning up now, you know? Making sure there's nobody out there who's going to...start things up again."

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[info]inadvertently
2012-09-04 11:26 am UTC (link)
"Right," Alice replied. Except, that never was the case, was it? There was always going to be someone who wanted to start things. Leaders had followers, and followers sometimes had ambition -- and it only took one spark to light a fire. But that hardly seemed worth mentioning just now, so Alice held her tongue.

While she was curious about the years between, she wasn't ready to ask yet. So she lapsed into silence as she followed along with him, content enough to engage in small talk or talk about the train as she was toured around.

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[info]not_nobody
2012-09-04 04:48 pm UTC (link)
[OOC: Shall we fade, and start another one after she finds out some stuff? :)]

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[info]orientexpress
2012-09-04 05:52 pm UTC (link)
((Sounds good! Pls ignore journal; am at lunch ))

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