wl_mods (wl_mods) wrote in wizard_love, @ 2008-02-28 22:06:00 |
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Entry tags: | *fic, lavender, neville, seamus |
Special delivery for silvernatasha
Title: Reconstruction, The Business Of
Author: attilatehbun
Recipient's IJ/LJ name: silvernatasha
Rating: NC-17
Pairing(s): Neville/Lavender, Lavender/Seamus
Word Count: ~3600
Warnings (if any): Infidelity, kinda
Summary: He thinks of this rebuilding as a kind of planting as it is. He's making something new, making something come to life, watching it stretch to be more than the sum of its parts. So he throws himself into it, and here he's just another person rendering aid. One more wand that is doing the ordinary miraculous.
Authors notes: Written for silvernatasha who wanted Neville/Lavender or Seamus/Lavender. I hope you don't mind me giving you both, and I hope you enjoy it even if it edges more towards angsty than fluffy. Still got a happy ending though. :) Thanks to MTB and BK for being most triumphant.
~*~
Life is full of surprises.
It was just something people always said. Neville heard it often, and never had any cause to doubt it, but...
It wasn't his life.
Until he did that little thing with cutting off a bloody great snake's head and going toe to toe with The Dark Lord, and, well, surprises were suddenly around every corner.
Like walking into The Leaky Cauldron and having twenty grown men trip all over each other trying to buy him a drink. Or passing a table full of pretty witches and having them blush and giggle and for once, not in a way that made his stomach turn and his jaw clench.
It's a lot to take in all of a sudden, and it's not like Neville's ever had experience with this to begin with, so it's one of the few non-surprises in his life that he retreats back to Hogwarts and Hogsmeade and starts working the with reconstruction effort.
It's hard work, but he likes it: he's always liked working with his hands, digging into things. And there will be plenty of planting that needs to be done, once the town's back together and the grounds of the school aren't littered with rocks. Not to mention the greenhouses that were destroyed along with all of their wondrous plants.
He thinks of this rebuilding as a kind of planting as it is. He's making something new, making something come to life, watching it stretch to be more than the sum of its parts. So he throws himself into it, and here he's just another person rendering aid. One more wand that is doing the ordinary miraculous.
-
He's been there three days before he gets another surprise. He's working on digging a piece of rubble out of the bank of the lake (the squid adamantly refuses to release its grip on it) when a new voice casts a tickling charm at one of the tentacles. Neville turns, and it's Seamus standing there, grinning at the bubbles breaking the surface of the lake. It certainly looks as if the squid is giggling, and sure enough, the tentacle releases its grip and retreats back into the water.
Seamus wanders over, claps his hand on Neville's shoulder, and says, "How's it goin', mate? Need a hand shifting that?"
-
When the day is over they go out for a drink, Aberforth giving them a pint on the house, for old times and for new ones, the work they're doing. It's a bit strange for Neville. He and Seamus stuck by each other during that last year of hell, but they'd only had each other, really, and now that everyone's life got to start again, Neville had expected it not to stick. Especially once Seamus had gotten Dean back.
But it turns out that "Dean's sweet on Lovegood, can yeh believe it?" Neville can, and he smiles to himself, because Luna, of all people, deserves some admiration and some love. And he tells himself he is not thinking of her.
Even leaving aside the unexpected friendship, he wouldn't have expected Seamus to come back here of all places.
Seamus, gregarious as ever, is more than happy to explain why he's back without being asked. Neville sits and listens and surprises himself by enjoying Seamus's exuberant stories. Seamus has joined the reconstruction effort because it's paying very well. Not nearly enough people want to revisit the battlefield, even to do something positive, so there's Galleons in it. He tells Neville that he and Dean plan to open up a shop together, selling what Neville doesn't quite catch that first night, but two blokes fresh out of a recently destroyed school don't really have the capital necessary to get a shop started, d'they?
So they're both working multiple jobs and trying to turn their Knuts into Galleons. And it's good work and a job that needs doing.
Neville, pleased, replies, "And I'd rather be a part of getting this place back to what it was than have my last memories be of the pieces. It was too good to not be whole."
Seamus raises his glass. "I'll drink to that, mate."
clink
-
They work side by side after that, and it's good. Neville's not had a friend like that before, not really. There was always Harry and Ron, but they were Harry and Ron and as much as they liked him, not even a thread of Devil's Snare could have wormed them apart to make room for another. So he's happy to have a real mate, finally, and not one who's just banded together with him because there's a war on. They go out together and they drink and they play cards and talk about girls (though not that one) and Neville is surprised at how comfortable his life has become.
And then she shows up.
Neville and Seamus are piecing together a bit of a wall when, just as Seamus had surprised Neville working alone, Lavender surprises them both. She adds her wands to theirs, but her voice is quieter than it used to be, not as brash, and it's not until the stone is in place that Neville and Seamus turn and jump to see her standing there with them.
Neville is at a loss for words, because she's here and she's the same but she's a different as can be. She's wearing ratty jeans and her hair is half-covering her face and there's dirt under her nails rather than nail polish on them. But before he can react, Seamus has scooped her into the hug that probably would have been an appropriate reaction for Neville as well, considering the whole used-to-be-school-chums and survived-a-terrible-experience-together dynamic.
"Lav! I didn't know you were comin' here! I haven't seen yeh since--"
She cuts him off. "It's good to see you too, Seamus," she says, and her smile doesn't reach her eyes. She turns to greet Neville and he can see the jagged purple lace-work of scars over her jaw and neck. But it is her eyes that make him blush and look away.
"Hello Neville, how have you been?"
"I've been good, Lavender, you?" He makes an awkward move to hug her, his arms come up, then drop. Instead, he holds out his hand and she shakes it, something a bit closer to a real smile on her lips.
"I'm getting by. Shall we finish this wall, then?"
-
Just like that, she becomes part of their group. It's not perfectly seamless, however. Both Neville and Seamus can see the change in her. Sometimes the sadness radiates, and when they try to bring her out with them, she resists. They know she can't stand the stares, and imagines them when they aren't there. It takes effort to make her laugh, though Seamus always tries. She avoids Floo calls from her old friends, even Parvati.
She's packed away all of her old pretty clothes.
She attacks the reconstruction work with a vengeance. When Neville asks her about her single-mindedness (though he is careful not to use those terms) she replies, "It's not like I have much else, do I?"
On one of the too frequent nights that they go out without her, he remarks to Seamus, "It's like she's trying to put herself back together."
But somehow she is comfortable with the two of them, and Neville finds it easier and easier to talk to her, to simply be her friend. He still wants to just hold her.
-
They move in together, which is surprising in that Neville is not surprised. It comes naturally to all of them, living together. They build their routines. Seamus and Neville are both shocked the first time they discover girly knickers in the loo, and Seamus makes raunchy jokes about them for days.
Neville covers every available surface with various magical plants (though he keeps his Mimbletonia in his room out of harms way) and laughs at Lavender's ribbing about not being able leave anything out for fear it'll be eaten by one of them.
On the day Seamus brings home a Crup puppy, Lavender shows, for the first time, a glimmer of her old exuberance as it licks her face. And Neville is surprised to see Seamus looking at Lavender in a way that is all too familiar.
-
It is not a surprise when Lavender moves into Seamus's room.
-
The reconstruction of the school and town progresses smoothly. Neville has moved on to rebuilding the greenhouses and he does not see his flat-mates as much during the day.
Sometimes he is glad of it.
But they still have their nights together, and he enjoys them. They are an unlikely group of friends, but they work.
One night all three of them go out together, meeting Dean and Luna and Parvati. And, surprise again, Lavender's hair is back away from her face, she is smiling, she hugs Parvati easily.
She is still not the girl she once was, but she is becoming more than the shell she has been since the battle.
Neville retreats to the bar as Seamus rests a hand against the back of Lavender's neck and runs his fingers through her hair. Luna follows him, rests her hand on his as he reaches for drinks, and squeezes it.
He smiles at her.
-
Time passes and Lavender continues to bloom. As the rebuilding continues, as the puppy grows, as she finds her feet, Neville sees her changing into a woman that has shed the girlish face she used to wear, and left behind the pettiness and insecurity and occasional vapidness that came with it. A woman that is no longer hiding from the life she lives now, and instead chooses to live it.
And Neville is surprised to find his schoolboy crush melting away, his protective urges fading, and instead discovers something quite terrifyingly like love growing for this woman who had her priorities violently reorganized and decided to not let it beat her.
But there is still Seamus.
There are times at night when they forget to use an Imperturbable charm and at those times his love of her wins out over his love for him. He can hear her, every moan, every cry, and he can't help himself.
He takes himself in his hand and strokes, because gasping with her, coming with her - those nights, it is as close as he believes he will ever get.
-
One bleary-eyed morning Seamus waves a forkful of eggs at Neville and asks him to be a part of the shop with him and Dean. Neville is more touched than he's ever been in his life and he flushes madly.
Lavender, next to Seamus, beams and him and says, "Go on, Neville, do. It'll be wonderful. We can all keep on together like we are now."
And he wants to, he does, but "I can't. I-" He blushes even more deeply. "Prof-Minerva offered me a job. A-At Hogwarts, once it's done. Sprout isn't as young as she was and - she wants an assistant, someone she can train up for the position once she's gone. They want me and I said I'd do it..."
Silence falls over the table, but it is brief as Seamus jumps to his feet and whoops and suddenly they're both hugging him and talking all over each other.
Seamus: "That's brilliant! You'll be excellent, Neville, I know you will. Who cares that it's ten-thirty, news like that deserves a drink."
Lavender: "We're so proud of you, Nev. I can't think of anyone better."
She kisses him lightly on the cheek just before Seamus flings him his coat and shoves him out the door.
-
Neville is unsurprised that it is getting hard to live in the same house as both of them. The rebuilding will be finished soon, and as sad as he is, he's happy. He doesn't like that he is starting to avoid her.
-
Then Seamus goes away with Dean, scouting locations or something like that, and it's just Neville and Lavender alone in the flat.
Neville makes awkward small talk for as long as he can stand, then escapes to his room. He is tending his Mimbletonia when he hears a soft knock on the door.
Lavender comes in, clearly fresh from the shower and glowing in tatty pajama bottoms and an old shirt. She has a bottle of wine in one hand, a deck of Exploding Snap cards in the other, and a look of determination on her face.
"You've been avoiding me," she says. When he starts to stammer, she holds up a hand. "You have, and you know it. I'm not stupid and I'm not blind."
"Lav, I-" But she holds up her hand again.
"I don't know why, and I don't care. It's your business, and I'm not going to pry," she says, and this too is a surprise, a change from the girl who breathed gossip like air, "But I need you to stop. We're friends, Neville, and I'm not going to lose that, all right?"
He smiles and puts down his shears.
"Let's go play some Snap, shall we?"
They go out to their tiny living room and work their way through the bottle of wine, playing Exploding Snap until they both get tired of singeing their eyebrows off.
By his third glass of wine Neville wonders why he ever thought avoiding her would be a good idea. He's having far more fun just being with her than he ever was sulking in his room. He's remembered why he loves her and forgotten why he hid all in one smooth moment.
Lavender puts the cards away and turns on the wireless.
"Neville! I love this song. Come on, you have to dance with me."
Neville laughs in spite of himself. "Lavender, you really don't want me to dance with you. Trust me, you'll end up at St. Mungo's."
Lavender rolls her eyes. "Nev, you can't be that bad."
"Yes, I can. I really can."
But Lavender won't take no for answer; she grabs his hands and leans back, levering him out of the armchair.
Neville finds that a few years time and quite a bit of wine combine to make him not nearly as uncoordinated as he thought he was. He still doesn't move much, preferring instead to watch as she dances around him, pulling him across the room or spinning beneath his arm. He tries not to pay too close attention to the way her breasts move under her shirt as she shakes or to the clean smell of her hair when it brushes across his face.
But it's not long before his nature reasserts itself and he stutter-trips over her feet and into her, knocking her balance backwards. He manages to get his arms up in time so she doesn't fall, but he's suddenly holding her weight and she's laughing and breathing heavily and Merlin her lips are wet.
He kisses her, hard, before he can even think about what he's doing or maybe that he shouldn't. She is so warm and soft and -- oh no, Seamus.
He pulls away from her as quickly as he had kissed her, nearly dropping her in his haste. His voice is a croak.
"Lavender, I-"
"Don't. Don't say you're sorry," she says, and kisses him again. Her arms wrap around his neck and she rakes her nails through his hair against his scalp. He shudders.
It all happens so quickly after that. His control is gone, and they stagger together until her back slams against the wall. Her tongue is in his mouth, sliding along his, and he is so hard. He has to grind against her. She breaks her lips from his and leans her head back, sighing and thrusting back against him.
His lips find her throat all on their own, sliding down the cords of her neck, nipping and suckling. She arches her breasts into his hands and clutches at his back, gasping his name. Her nails hurt and he doesn't care because she's salty under his tongue and his thumb is rubbing her nipple to a tight peak.
She pulls back from him for just a moment, stripping off her shirt and tossing it behind him. Then she's crushed her lips to his again and is undoing his flies and reaching for his cock. He sucks in a deep breath and rests his forehead against her shoulder when her hand circles his length and gives him one, two, three, hard strokes. Her breasts move under his hands as she laughs softly and he kisses her again, catching her lip between his teeth and sucking.
"Merlin, Neville, I want- I want- " she says as he cups her through her pajamas, thumb pressing against her clit. He can smell her, and it makes him so hard he thinks he might burst. She releases his cock and uses both hands to clutch his arse, sliding down his trousers and pants as far as she can reach. He in turn fumbles with her bottoms, shimmying them and her knickers off her hips. Lavender helps, pushing them down as far as she can. He grips her arse and lifts her, and she manages to free one leg from the confines of the pajamas. She locks that bare leg around his hip, sliding it deliciously against his arse, and leaves the remaining pajama leg dangling from her other ankle.
His cock butts against her, sliding through her folds, and she whispers "please" as he takes her breast in his mouth. She is so wet and so hot and he doesn't think he can hold out much longer, not with the sight of her biting one swollen lip. He forces himself to stop, to look into her eyes.
"Lavender, is this-? Do you-?" Instead of answering, she kisses him with such ferocity that he nearly drops her. He finds his balance again, kisses her, and thrusts home.
It is amazing. He's buggered everything up but he doesn't care, it's Lavender and she's tight and gasping and biting his shoulder.
The rest is hard and fast. He pounds into her, unable to slow down or measure what he's doing. Lavender cries out and reaches one hand down to where they're joined, fingering her clit as he thrusts. He can feel her fingers squeezing him on every long slide, each time building the pressure in him.
And suddenly her legs are clamping around his waist, her back is bowing away from the wall, and she's coming and calling his name. Neville can feel her clenching around his cock, can feel her breasts crushed against his chest, and it's almost too much. But then she leans forward and bites his earlobe. His whole body shudders as the pressure in him breaks. He thrusts one last time, her heels keeping him pressed into her as he comes.
There is a long quiet moment. They are both panting and sweaty, and Neville's legs are shaking. He slowly lowers Lavender back to the ground and she lets out a breathy little laugh.
Neville tries to speak, but she cuts him off one more time. "Let's- let's just go to bed."
Neville nods and readjusts his clothing. Lavender sorts out her pajama bottoms, but leaves her shirt where it fell. They crawl into Neville's bed without saying a word and fall asleep like spoons.
-
In the morning, they do it again, and it's everything the first time was not. It is slow and soft, and the first light of the morning hits her body as she rides him. It is completely silent.
-
When it's over, Lavender sits facing the headboard and hugs one drawn-up knee. Neville lies next to her, hand loosely circling one ankle, and knows what she is going to say.
"We can't do this again, Neville."
He reaches up and cups her face, thumb running over the scars. "I know."
Her mouth quirks just a little. "I...I can deal with being in love with two people. But...I can't deal with this. I can't deal with doing this, not to all three of us. If things had been different-"
It is Neville's turn to cut her off. "Don't. It's- just don't. I understand."
Lavender leans in and places a gentle kiss on the corner of his mouth. Then she stands, and dresses, and walks out the door.
-
That day is, surprisingly, one of the best days the two of them have had in a long time. They go out after breakfast and the talking comes easy. Seamus sent word that he and Dean had found a place, so by unspoken agreement, Neville and Lavender purchase the ingredients to cook a celebratory feast.
The tension hasn't gone from between them, but it's grown into something else. The wall they had constructed came down, if only for a little while, and Neville can finally see her again.
When Seamus bursts into the apartment, grinning and hugging them both so hard he manages to lift Neville off his feet, everything is right again.
Seamus drops his packages on to the table. "A feast, eh? Sounds great. I'll tell yeh both all about the shop while we're eatin'. But first," he turns to scoop up Lavender, "I've gotta take me girl off and ravish her. See you in a bit, Nev."
Lavender turns to catch Neville's eye as she leaves with Seamus, and he gives her a wide smile that holds no regrets. She grins back.
And Neville is not at all surprised to discover that he's happy.
-fin-