Continued.
Neville hitched his rolled up sleeves back over his elbows. He lay back on the scrubby grass, letting the early afternoon sunlight bathe his face. He had been feeling useless in his new surroundings. Everyone around him seemed to be working busily, making plans and Merlin knew what else. No one was exactly eager to share specifics with him. Mostly they whispered behind his back and averted their eyes when he entered a room. It was worse for Narcissa, but he chose to ignore that most of the time.
Still, he wished he could do something, and he had told Charlie he wanted to do something.
"What are you good at?" the older man asked him, a little distractedly.
"Not much," Neville admitted. "Well, I was head of the DA for a while. I can fight."
"Well we always need soldiers when the time comes," Charlie told him, sifting through some handwritten, scruffy reports. "You're more than welcome to join us."
"I did a lot of guerilla stuff too," he added. "We almost stole the sword from Snape's office."
"Key word being almost," Charlie said. "I have my own guys for stealth missions, and no offence but it's way more important and dangerous than schoolkid theft. Anything else?"
Neville stood there, crushed. "No," he said rejectedly. "Except growing stuff. Much use that is."
"On the contrary," Charlie said, brightening. "You know how rationed we are. There's a sheltered patch out back. So far all we've been able to grow is weeds. If you can bring up some vegetables you'd be saving all our lives."
Neville couldn't help feeling that Charlie was exaggering a little to make him feel better, but he happily accepted the responsibility. He had spent a blissful few hours up to his elbows in dirt, and the scrubby patch of land was now converted into a healthy looking vegetable patch. Nothing was growing in it yet, but Neville knew a few spells that would help things along in almost no time at all. He closed his eyes, enjoying the rare sunlight.