InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "I LOVE THE QAFANDOM."

Neville (their_legacy) wrote in resurrectio_rpg,
@ 2008-07-24 22:01:00

Who: Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom
When: Early Christmas Eve
Where: Hermione's home in Surrey
What: Being generally adorable and chatty and perhaps a bit sad
Rating: Neither's big on the swearing, PG at the max

They hadn't even been out of school all that long and already Neville was ready to get out of the house. It wasn't anything against his grandmother. Augusta Longbottom had cared for him and raised him better than anyone might've expected her to under the circumstances. But she was, in the end, an older woman with older feelings and beliefs and interests, and while that was all well and good for the first seventeen years of Neville's life, he was ready to start becoming an adult. The events of the past summer had proven to him that he could make it in the outside world and whether she believed it or not, he needed to be away for a bit.

So that was how Hermione found herself with a visitor during Christmas Eve. It might have been an inappropriate time for some, but Neville had the feeling she could do with a bit of company, even if only for an hour or so. Being alone in that big house during her first holiday without her parents had to be difficult. And no matter what she said, he was able to deal with weepy and sad. Merlin knew he'd spent more than one Christmas that way.

Thinking she might be able to do with a bit of cheering up, he'd packed a bag of sweets from his Gran, a tree (shrunk a bit, and well to his own surprise) in case she'd wanted one and forgotten it, and a few little Christmasey odds and ends. He may not have been all that talented, but he liked to think he could be thoughtful when it came down to it. However, the bag weighed him down a bit and when he rang the doorbell, it was with his elbow, and full of relief that he hadn't splinched himself or wound up over a lake near her house or anything.

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ex_booksmart673
2008-07-24 09:34 pm UTC (link)

Being home hadn't been what Hermione quite expected. Of course, she knew it would be difficult and the first day she settled into the big, quiet house on own, it was. There were buckets of tears shed, but not all of them were sad. In fact, there were plenty that were... well, not happy, per se, but ones that were pulled from her eyelashes when she remembered past Christmases with her parents. Of course everything she did served to be a memory. The Christmas tree had been her favorite. It was a good thing she was allowed to use magic outside of school, otherwise, it would have been an impossible feat. But once it was set up, she laughed at the recall of the time when her father knocked the entire thing over onto her mother when Hermione was still young. Such memories lifted her spirits.

The days that followed were filled with dozens of tasks. Hermione was still finishing up her shoppings, nervous after one of her previous conversations with Neville that her gift-giving hadn't always been the best it could have been. Truth be told, this year, she held more confidence.

She was keeping with tradition this year. Every Christmas Eve, Hermione and her mother would bake up a storm for the following day. Of course, there were a few years in which Hermione was elsewhere for the holiday, but the Granger women prided themselves on good Christmas cooking. Because she was going to the Burrow on Christmas Day and thus, would be eating dinner there, Hermione instead settled on simply baking sweets. But there were a multitude of them. Perhaps too many. She was engrossed in the project when the doorbell rang. Well, that was surprise -- she hadn't been expecting anyone. Nonetheless, she wiped her hands on her apron and moved to the door. Upon doing so, she shrieked with delight. "Neville!" she said, enveloping him in an awkward hug due to the items in his arms. "What a nice surprise! Come in, come in," she said, waving him in.

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their_legacy
2008-07-24 09:47 pm UTC (link)

Neville flushed slightly, both at the hug and at the fact that his arrival was actually a surpise. "Is this a bad time?" he asked, smelling the scent of treats baking. He'd never actually been to Hermione's home--or many muggle ones, come to think of it--and he took a good long look around. "I can always come some other time, I just had some extra time and thought..." Well, saying he thought she might need some cheering up sounded both presumptuous and depressing, really. "I just thought you might need some help getting the house decorated, but I see you beat me to it!"

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ex_booksmart673
2008-07-24 09:55 pm UTC (link)

"Don't be silly," she said making a face at him as he began to express worry about his arrival. Closing the door behind him, she chuckled when he noted the house. "I've been busy," she said. And if one took a good look around, it really did look like a Christmas paradise. Nothing over the top or tacky of course, but tastefully done. She would never admit to it, but magic had helped a little there. If her parents were alive, it was something they would have scolded her for. They didn't approve of quick fixes and she hardly doubted using her wand to tie perfect ribbons and bows counted. "You can help me bake!" she said, hopefully. "I fear I may have made a bit too much. It will take me ages to decorate all the cookies and the gingerbread houses," she admitted. "I could really use the extra hands if you're willing!"

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their_legacy
2008-07-24 10:04 pm UTC (link)

At that, Neville beamed a bit, placing his bags on the floor. Clearly she wasn't in need of--well, ninety percent of that. "I've been known to make a mean snowman cookie," he joked. "Mean in the 'he's really ace' sort of way, not in the 'growling-taking-over-gingerbread-houses way'." Laughing a little, he shook his head, wondering if he'd ever stop babbling around her. At least Luna didn't have to put up with his rambling. "What I'm trying to say," he added a moment later, "is I'd love to help, if you don't mind."

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ex_booksmart673
2008-07-26 09:32 pm UTC (link)

Hermione smiled when Neville agreed to help her decorate. She imagined if she ever asked Ron, he'd laugh right in her face. Even Harry would object flat out. But Neville was kind enough to indulge her, but not only that, seem to enjoy it. Laughing at his joke, she waved him toward the kitchen, finding him a spare apron like the one around her waist. "I'm sorry if it's a bit... frilly," she said handing it to him and trying to bite back a laugh in the process. It was like blue and like hers, had a ruffle along the sides and the bottom. "This one was Mum's," she explained. "Blame her if you don't fancy the style," she said with a gentle smile.

If she were to dwell on mentioning her mother, she wouldn't have been given the time. A small bell chimed to signal the cookies she had in the oven were finished, thus gaining her full attention for the moment.

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their_legacy
2008-07-27 12:50 am UTC (link)

He had the feeling that she'd been baking up a storm, partially to keep herself from thinking. But that was alright, really. He was never one to stay too still if he could help it, especially over the holidays. Idle hands were the Devil's playthings, his grandmother had always lectured, and perhaps she was right.

"Well," Neville said, cheeks turning a light pink but wrapping the apron around him proudly, "if it was hers, then I'm in good company anyway. At least it's not pink!" He poised himself in front of a large stack of cookies and, without being asked, reached for the frosting. "I usually help Gran with this anyway," he added as she took the next batch out of the oven. "When I was little I used to ask her why she didn't just do it with magic, but she said they always came out better when done by hand. Which I think was just her way of saying I needed to be kept out of trouble...and out from under the Christmas tree."

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ex_booksmart673
2008-07-28 05:42 pm UTC (link)

"Well then, it's good you're here, isn't it?" she said with a smile, straightening after pulling her tray of sugar cookies shaped like Christmas trinkets from the over. The smell was delicious, though it would take a few minutes for this batch to cool down enough to decorate them.

"I hope I didn't go too overboard," she admitted, waving her hand at the multitude of decorating items strewn on the counters. Sprinkles, frosting, gumdrops, different colored pastry gel, chocolate pieces, licorice pieces, chocolate chips -- literally almost everything. Picking up a tube of red frosting, she attacked one of the stocking-shaped cookies an another tray before asking, "How is your Gran, by the way? Doing all right?"

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their_legacy
2008-07-29 12:29 am UTC (link)

Without being asked further, Neville started in on a Christmas tree, knowing there was fun to be had on those. Because not only did he have to frost it in green and yellow for garland, but then he also got to decorate the tree. It felt a bit like being all of five again, propped on a stool in Gran's kitchen while she helped him hold the frosting tube, his tongue tipping at the corner of his mouth in concentration. Which, hopefully, he wouldn't do here and now. He may not have fancied Hermione (any longer, but first years were small and dumb), but she was a girl and girls had that network of knowing everything about other girls.

"She's pretty good," he answered slowly, though more from putting thought into the question than actual concentration. "Finally starting to look and act her age, if you ask me, but she's fighting it. Think she' more worried about what'll happen to me when she's gone than her actually... Well." He hadn't meant to say that. Not in front of Hermione. She had her own problems with that, she certainly didn't need his ramblings.

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ex_booksmart673
2008-07-30 06:52 pm UTC (link)

Hermione never cared what Neville looked like. To her, he could have had a bag over his head and purple, spotted skin and she would still consider him to be one of he very closest friends. Besides, it was his quirks that made him so lovable to begin with. Of course, his loyalty and honesty helped as well. Hermione didn't know many blokes who she would openly discuss who she fancied with. But with Neville, things that were more serious in that nature, or perhaps, when she spoke of her parents, she was comfortable. She knew and trusted he would never make her feel silly just as she hoped he understood that she would do the same.

By the time he'd finished telling her about his grandmother, Hermione has successfully covered the cookie in red paste, now picking up a small tube of white to finish off the top of the stocking. She froze for a moment when he stopped abruptly and she understood why. However, she merely nodded. "It's in her nature to worry about you," she said simply. "It just means she cares."

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