luna_in_the_sky (luna_in_the_sky) wrote in snark_n_bark, @ 2007-11-14 14:13:00 |
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Entry tags: | complete, luna, neville |
Fifteen Mice on a Dead Man's Chest
Characters: Neville, Luna, babies and pirate kittens
Summary: Neville shows that it's not only Luna who believes in conspiracies
"It must be getting so cold down there at nights now," Luna said as she laid one of the large daisies Neville had brought home that day on Anne's small grave. "I hope you're in a better place than that." She stood up, brushing a bit of dirt from her hands, but her shoulders remained bowed. She missed Anne. They owed so much to that one tiny body, and Luna couldn't even be certain of an owl's place in the afterlife.
Neville had seen Luna from the window of the nursery and decided that she would probably appreciate her family around her. He knew how much Anne had meant to her - had meant to them all when the owl had saved Luna's life. It was the work of two minutes to get Nimue settled against his chest in her sling. Gawain's sling he draped over his shoulder, and he picked up the boy, settling him in his arm so that he could face and babble at his sister.
Walking across the garden he could hear Luna talking to Anne and Neville thought that it was time to stop thinking about what he could do to help, and actually do something. He had been looking out for unusual pets for the past month, and he thought that Magical Menagerie finally had something to interest Luna.
"I'm sure that she is," he murmured softly in response to Luna's quiet words. "Nimue and Gawain wanted to come and say hello to Anne."
Luna shook off her melancholy and looked up at her family. This was what Anne had died saving, after all, and appreciating having them was more of a tribute to Anne's life and death than placing flowers on her grave. "Thank you, Neville," she said, wrapping her arm around his waist and leaning against his side. She stroked Gawain's fine blond hair and smiled at Nimue, who responded with a wide-mouthed grin that showed off her first little tooth. "I'll make sure that someday they know that animals can be just as brave as people," Luna promised Anne, though she continued to look at her children rather than the patch of earth that held what remained of Anne's earthly form.
Neville couldn't bend to kiss Luna with an arm full of Gawain and sling full of Nimue attached to him, so he settled for stroking her cheek with the fingers of his free hand. "With that in mind, do you think it would be a good idea for us to have a pet? Then they could learn about animals first hand. I passed Magical Menagerie the other day and thought I saw one or two animals that might interest you and the twins. I thought we could go out shopping today, anyway. What do you think, Petal?" he asked Nimue for good measure. "Shall we go get Mummy a pet to teach you all about?"
Nimue burbled 'Mmum-mum' encouragingly, and was echoed in the sentiment by Gawain's more dribbly 'pthleh'. Neville grinned. "I think that's a plan, then. If you would take the sprog," he offered to Luna, holding Gawain away from himself and narrowly avoiding the dribble reaching his jacket front.
Luna blinked at the abrupt turn the moment had taken, but she took it in stride and accepted Gawain from Neville. She blew a raspberry against his cheek in return for the one he'd answered Neville with, not worried about getting baby dribbles on her robes. They'd had worse. "You two," she told Gawain mock-seriously, "are very spoilt children. The closest thing to a pet I had until I was eighteen was the ducks in the backyard, and you get those too." With that in mind, she already knew what she wanted to get for the family pet, and she doubted that Neville would have guessed it. There wasn't any harm in seeing what Neville considered appropriate as well, though.
*
As they walked into Magical Menagerie, Neville went on ahead of Luna, already talking about the Fwooper that had recently arrived. Luna glanced over at the riotous rainbow of feathers and smiled. It really was sweet of Neville to give such consideration of what she might like to get even though she didn't think it was his first choice of a pet for their children, and if she didn't already have her heart set on something else, they would be going home with one of the silenced birds. As it was, her feet moved in the direction of the display of kittens without much thought on her part. The white one with a black triangular spot over one eye was just begging her to cuddle it.
Neville broke off trying to convince himself he could live with a Fwooper as Luna wandered away. A smile began to spread over his face as he realised she was heading into the part of the shop that contained all the nice normal pets. It abruptly died when he saw where exactly her interest lay. He thought he might prefer the Fwooper, after all.
"Luna," he said, hurrying over to her as quickly as he could without jiggling Nimue about. "Luna, I think they have a fire crab as well."
"Mmm," Luna said, only marginally listening as the white kitten got its bearings where she'd set it on Gawain's tummy and butted its fluffy head against Gawain's chin. Gawain patted its flanks with clumsy hands, burbling cheerfully, and the kitten licked his cheeks in response.
Luna was completely in love.
"Your grandmum was allergic to cats, but I always wanted one," she told Gawain softly. "And after she died, we didn't have much money to spend on pets. The Quibbler didn't take off until after the interview with Harry, you see. And then after that, I was traveling too much to take care of more than an owl. So really, it's because of you and your sister that I'm settled enough to have a cat at all." She nuzzled Gawain's cheek and the kitten batted at her nose, claws sheathed. Still lost in memory, she continued, "I wouldn't have dismissed your dad altogether if he'd proposed before the two of you came along, I love him too much for that, but settling down this much, I'm not so sure."
Awareness of Neville's presence behind her finally filtered in, and she turned to him with a gentle smile. "I do appreciate your considering what kind of pet I might like, don't think for a moment I don't, but I know you'd rather we got something less... exotic, for the children at least. And what could be more normal than a cat?" She rubbed the patch of black over its eye, and it purred back, pushing its ears under her fingers. "We could name him Swash. It's a pirate kitten, but I don't think he's up to much buckling yet."
Neville would have laughed at Luna's observations had he not been horrified by the fact that of all the available creatures in the shop, Luna had chosen a kitten. Kittens were bad. Kittens turned into cats.
"But it's white," he said, trying for a reasonable argument against it while he anxiously hovered and resisted the urge to rescue both Gawain and Luna. "It's bad luck. The Fwooper is colourful."
Luna cocked her head at Neville and frowned at the fretful lines etched on his face. She'd never known him to be particularly superstitious before. "That's just a tale, Neville," she said. Hearing those words in her voice felt rather odd. "It's not all white anyhow, see? I suppose we could pick out another one if you're that worried about it though." She bit her lip at the idea of leaving this particular kitten in the shop, but she would live with it if that would put Neville's mind at ease. "This one's already good with children, though," she added as Gawain tugged on a fistful of kitten fur and the kitten merely butted its head against him again.
"It's not that," Neville said, frowning at the look of quiet disappointment which had briefly passed over Luna's face. "It's just, why have a cat when there are all these other... things. I really don't mind if you want something more exciting. Nimue would love it, wouldn't you, Petal?" He tried to get Nimue on his side, but found that his daughter was straining in her sling, trying to reach across and touch the kitten her brother currently had sole possession of.
"Um, but it's a kitten, right, which are cute," he babbled. "But soon it'll turn into a cat. Which are evil."
Luna stared at Neville, wondering if perhaps she'd heard him incorrectly. "What?"
Neville's eyes had widened when he had realised he had spoken his thoughts aloud, and he coughed now, desperately racking his brain for an explanation. However, all he could think to say was to repeat himself and add, "They always look like they're up to something. It's like they're plotting behind your back. They're... shifty. I don't trust them."
Luna had always considered herself exceptionally open-minded, but she could feel parts of her mental processing break down as she attempted to connect cats to Voldemort. "But cats aren't shifty, they're cute too, just different from when they're kittens! They -- I don't think -- " She cut herself off with a sigh. Neville always accepted her beliefs even if he didn't believe them himself. "Well. All right then."
She extricated Swash from Gawain's grip -- even if it wasn't coming home with them, its name had already stuck in her mind -- and put it, him she noted absently in the moment Swash dangled from her hand, back. Gawain began to wail, setting off a chain of mewling kittens and barking crups, and Luna desperately tried to shush him before the entire shop turned into a cacophony. "Shh, shh, let's go see the pretty bird. Like Daddy said, it's very colorful," she said, mustering a tight smile.
Neville's embarrassed triumph crumbled in the face of Gawain's cries, and then turned completely to dust when he saw Luna's brave face. He really really didn't want a cat in the house, and yet...
"Oh, bloody hell," he cursed, venting his frustration with knowing that his bias against cats was completely irrational, and yet deeply rooted. "It better not crap in my plant beds," he griped, and scooped the kitten up so that it was standing on the palm of his hand. He held it out to Gawain at arm's length and let out a breath of relief when the boy quickly quietened. "Don't think you can get your own way like this all the time," he warned his son grumpily.
Luna considered pointing out that the feces would just be additional fertilizer, seeing as she could easily cure toxoplasmosis if Swash contracted it in the first place, but she decided not to in the face of Neville's peevish acquiescence. She did want a kitten, she'd wanted a kitten for years, and she especially wanted this kitten, but she didn't want Neville to be so unhappy either. It was her fault that Gawain had become attached. She'd thought it would be a good surprise when she picked an ordinary pet, not something that made Neville miserable, and she tried to think of a way to correct her mistake. "Maybe... maybe we could get them a puffskein instead? They're furry and hum and, er. They have tongues," she said tentatively, remembering how boring she'd thought Ginny's Pygmy Puff was. Gawain was probably too young to care, though, and Nimue, well, Nimue would find something else to distract her anyhow.
She watched Swash explore his new perch, rubbing his nose, then cheeks, on Neville's fingers. With a purr that sounded far too loud for such a tiny body, he flopped down on Neville's palm and curled up with the tip of his tail resting between his closed eyes. "I think Swash likes you even though you don't like him," she said quietly, more thinking aloud than intending to speak.
Neville watched the kitten making itself comfortable on his hand. Luna might think that the kitten liked him, but Neville knew that it was just trying to lull him into a false sense of security. Any moment now it was going to use his hand like a pin cushion. Still... he had to admit that Swash was cuter than the average kitten, being a pirate.
He sighed, realising that he would never have the power to refuse something to Luna, even if he might try with the kids. "You've already named it," he said. "And puffskeins are worse than cats." He encouraged Swash to return to his perch in Gawain's sling, and then sighed again when Nimue nearly tipped herself out of her own sling to reach. He shuffled closer and watched Swash narrowly for any sign that the tiny creature might turn on the twins. Unfortunately the kitten really was good with the kids. "They like him, and you like him. That's all that matters," he said, and he kissed the top of Luna's head to seal the deal.
It wasn't all that mattered, but Luna wasn't going to argue the issue. She might have, if it were just her, but Gawain and Nimue seemed just as taken with Swash as she was. Besides, she thought as Swash settled back down on Gawain's stomach for his nap despite the twins' prodding fingers, pets that were this unfazed by young children didn't come along every day. At least not ones that weren't utterly dull, and/or apparently even more evil than cats in Neville's view. She was sure that Neville would find out soon enough that Swash was nothing like Voldemort, and then it would all be fine. "We'll need to get him food and a litter box, and maybe a dish of his own. Oh, and a scratching post, the sooner you start them on those, the more likely they are to use them," she listed off, then quirked an eyebrow at Gawain holding an unresisting Swash like he did his stuffed toys. "And possibly his own little oxygen tanks."
Neville finally laughed at that comment, even if it was a reluctant grunt of amusement. "I'm not sure they stock those, but the other stuff you mentioned seems to be here." He frowned at the kitten. "Are they normally this docile?" He shook his head, and began walking towards the till. "Definitely up to something," he muttered as he went.
Luna overheard Neville's muttered comment and shook her head slightly. "You've got an uphill battle there, I think," she told Swash quietly before following Neville, careful not to jostle either kitten or child. "Don't give up on him though. Took me over six years to end up here, after all." Swash opened his eyes, and she could have sworn that he winked at her before he nestled his face alongside Gawain's cheek and purred.