meddow

I tend to avoid reading wedding fics like the plague, but found myself writing a wedding day anyway. I hope I haven’t fallen into the cliché.

Growing (14/18)
Chapter Fourteen – Hope
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: None
Chapter Summary: The day of the wedding has finally arrived and Neville finds himself in charge of seating and trying to give some peace of mind of Harry Potter.
Author’s Notes: Thank you very much to my beta Nathaniel and all those reading.

Previous Chapter

~*~*~*~

“Ron!”

Neville awoke to a familiar voice yelling rather loudly at the sleeping red-head in the bed next to his.

“Ron! Wake up!”

“Who?…What?” Ron managed to mumble.

Neville turned over, trying to put his back to Charlie’s calls, hoping it would drown out the noise and he would be able to sleep once again. Neville was an early riser these days but there was still no sun, it was far too early to be up.

“Get up. You have to go out and do your duty to the family,” Charlie insisted.

“What?” Ron mumbled again.

“Bill can’t go since he’s the groom. And I can’t go; I’m the best man, I’ve got to get Bill to the altar. Mum won’ let us send Fred and George for fear of bodily injury: to him not them. And Ginny can’t apparate, so the duty falls to you. Believe me you were the last choice. Today you do your duty to your family and become a man.”

“What duty?” Ron replied, sounding more awake. Neville heard Ron pull the bed covers. It was too late for himself, Neville decided; he was now wide awake.

“To go kidnap Percy, of course. Somebody’s got to get that prick to show up,” Charlie continued.

“Oh…okay,” Ron finally muttered.

“Great. Tonks, Kingsley and Mad-Eye are waiting.” Charlie left the room, and Neville continued to lie in bed while Ron put on some clothes. Once Ron left, Neville did the same - noticing that Harry was missing from the dorm - and headed down to the dining hall to see if anyone had put out any breakfast.

Instead of finding the great hall deserted like he had expected, it was bustling with life. Everybody was up, all eating breakfast. Neville spotted a place next to Lupin and sat down.

“Does everybody get up this early on wedding days?” he asked.

Lupin smiled and topped up his cup of tea. “Well, the girls have to be up, on orders from Fleur, to get their hair done. And the Weasley family has already had one argument over Percy that involved waking the whole family up and I suspect all the rest of us managed to get caught in the crossfire.”

“That’s me,” Neville muttered.

“It’s going to be a brilliant day,” Fred said sitting down opposite Lupin and grabbing a piece of toast.

“For men that is; Bill’s finally been taken of the market,” George clarified sitting down next to Neville.

“You two seem to be spending a lot of your time preoccupied by women lately,” Lupin said, smiling.

“Well, what do you expect, we’ve done everything else,” Fred replied.

“Money, fame, stunning good looks, wealth, notoriety,” George replied, holding up his hand and ticking the list off with his fingers.

“But strangely enough, if you tell a girl you’re the fabulously wealthy, very eligible bachelor who just happens to be one of the minds behind ‘U-No-Poo’ products, then she runs a mile,” Fred continued.

“As if anyone would want to harm us,” George replied, trying to look innocent.

They continued on like this for a while, until Mrs Weasley came round to their table and assigned them all tasks. Neville was placed in charge of seating, and a piece of parchment with a diagram on it was entrusted to him. He spent a good two hours moving furniture around until all the seats were entirely straight and parallel, only to have Ginny come down and tell him that they had measured the width of Fleur’s train wrong and if he could please widen the isle. She apologised profusely the whole time.

Eventually, Neville heard the doors to the Great Hall swing open, and three Aurors and two Weasleys arrived, soaked head to foot and covered from the knees down in mud.

“At least Scotland is backing me up on no outdoor weddings,” Tonks was saying to Percy Weasley, who was wearing what looked to Neville like his finest dress robes and a miserable and annoyed expression on his face.

“Oh, cheer up,” said Mad-Eye, who looked even more bedraggled than normal, slapping Percy on the back. Percy’s glasses slipped down his face and onto the floor, adding to the misery.

As soon as Neville was done with the chairs and quite happy to never use another levitating charm in his life, he headed up to the boys' dormitory. Getting dressed in his dress robes, Neville’s mind fell back to the Yule Ball in his fourth year. Neville was taller, so were Harry and Ron getting dressed next to him - and Ron’s dress robes were now from the same century - and of course Seamus and Dean were missing; but it seemed like so little had changed. An odd feeling considering so much had.

Neville arrived down at the hall; many of the girls were still missing, but many of the men were there, dressed up to the finest. Neville found a seat next to Lupin, who was dressed in a particularly old set of dress robes that were slightly moth-eaten and a rather horrible brown colour.

The hall was decorated in gold and white, white banners lined the walls, replacing the usual house banners that would be present at the end of the year, bringing life to the wooden rafters. Gold fabric lined the aisle marking out the path for the bride. White roses and lilies were everywhere, but the biggest bunch sat in vases by the altar, which stood where the high table would normally be.

But most beautifully in Neville’s mind was the roof. In contrast to the rain and wind outside the school a warm summer's day shone down on them, clouds passed overhead but never blocked out the sun: the sunlight lifting sprits and bringing hope and, for the first time since the storm, unaccompanied with fear and dread.

Charlie emerged, walking down the aisle with Tonks in tow, who had paid heed to Fleur’s wishes and not only had quite normal looking long wavy brown hair, but was wearing green dress robes, causing her to have a resemblance to her mother.

Charlie seemed to have picked up on the resemblance as well. “Don’t look now,” he said loudly to the hall, a malicious grin on his face, “but Tonks looks like her mother.”

Tonks turned pink. “Oh, sod off,” she said, elbowing him in the ribs.

“Ow.” Charlie pretended to limp the rest of the way to the front of the aisle. Tonks took a seat on the other side of Lupin.

Hermione, Ron and Harry arrived, sitting in front of Neville, who thought Hermione looked very pretty dressed in blue. Following them was Bill. Even with all the scars that lined Bill’s face, Neville still had the impression that Bill was the most handsome man in the room. He stood by the altar, glancing to the door every few seconds.

Then Fleur’s three friends from France arrived, giggling, and out of nowhere music filled the hall. Gabrielle emerged, followed by Ginny, both wearing gold dresses and having small daisies woven through their hair. Then Fleur arrived, accompanied by her father. Fleur was by far the most beautiful girl Neville had ever met, but dressed in the white dress and beaming at her fiancé, who himself staring in awe at her from down the aisle, she had managed to surpass even herself.

~*~*~*~

Bill and Fleur recounted how much they loved each other in front of the whole world, exchanged rings and a kiss, and Professor McGonagall pronounced them man and wife. Mrs Weasley and Mrs Delacour both cried quite a bit, and so did Fleur towards the end.

In not much time, Neville’s handwork was undone, and small tables were put in place with one of the finest feasts Neville had ever seen at Hogwarts lying in front of them all.

Speeches were given, and Fleur’s friend Michelle told everyone at the hall how Fleur had returned from Hogwarts after the Tri-Wizard Tournament with only one goal in mind: to get a job at Gringott's. Charlie had a similar speech to give, recounting how when he was Bill Weasley’s little brother at Hogwarts, every girl tried to befriend him in order to get him to recommend them to Bill, Neville noticed he looked specifically at Tonks during this, who glared back at Charlie.

Once the guests had gorged themselves on elven-made wine and soufflé, people began moving around. Neville found himself sitting with Lupin, Harry, Ron and Percy when the music became louder, and Fleur and Bill took to the dance floor. Together they looked like a happy ending; the beautiful couple dancing as one, surrounded by friends and family. Then Fleur's parents joined the dance floor, followed by Mr and Mrs Weasley.

“Do it,” Neville overheard Harry whisper to Ron.

“Are you sure?” replied Ron, who looked very nervous. The colour had drained from his face.

“Yes…go…or you’re an idiot,” Harry hissed, putting hand on his friends shoulder and pushing Ron up off the chair.

The whole table watched as Ron walked over to the other end of the room where Hermione was talking with Ginny and Tonks. He put out a hand, and Hermione, who looked shocked, got up and together they headed for the dance floor.

“Are you going to ask Ginny?” Lupin asked Harry. His eyes had not followed Ron and Hermione to the dance floor. They remained fixed on Ginny, who looked particularly stunning the evening.

“No,” he replied. Neville knew Harry wanted to; probably everyone knew Harry wanted to.

Lupin looked like he was going to say something else, but decided against it and did not push the issue. Tonks wandered over shortly thereafter and sat down in Ron’s empty seat, leaning over and resting her head on Lupin’s shoulder.

“They look cute,” she said, referring to Ron and Hermione, who were dancing awkwardly. Ron seemed to be having difficulties deciding how to hold Hermione, whether to hold her closely or keep her at arm's length.

“They do,” Lupin replied, kissing her head.

“Would you like to dance?” Tonks asked, having moving her head so she could look Lupin in the eyes.

“I would, but I’ll end up breaking all your toes, and then I don’t think you’ll like me anymore,” he commented.

“I can’t dance either…not like this anyway, and head banging would look ridiculous to this music. And I’ll let you in on a secret – I’m wearing my work boots underneath this skirt. They’ve got steel caps.” She smiled, got up and led Lupin by the hand onto the dance floor.

Antoinette also wandered over to their table. Neville thought for a minute that he might have to dance with her. He would embarrass himself by being awful at it. He breathed a sigh of relief when she chose Percy instead. The twins, true to their current aims in life were dancing with Michelle and Claire, and Ginny was having fun dancing with Charlie. Even Gabrielle managed to find a partner, dancing with Kingsley Shacklebolt.

Neville was happy watching the couples dancing around the floor, from the graceful movements of Fleur and Bill waltzing in time to the music to the lunacies of Fred, George and Charlie who were spinning their partners and dipping them around the hall. From the familiarity of Mr and Mrs Weasley, holding each other tightly and staring in each others eyes to the new of Ron and Hermione, who would stare at each other in the eyes for a few seconds and then awkwardly finding something else in the room to stare at. From the polite by-the-numbers dancing of Percy and Antoinette to the blatant longing of Lupin and Tonks, who were not dancing at all, but standing on the dance floor, arms wrapped around each other, faces buried hidden in each other, seemingly enjoying one of the few times they were together.

“I’m going to go to the library,” Harry announced, drawing Neville out of his trance. “If anyone wants me, that’s where I’ll be.”

Harry got up, hiding his face from Neville. His right hand was clenched in a fist. Sensing something was not wrong and knowing that Ron and Hermione were not around, Neville got up and followed Harry out of the hall.

Neville waited for the doors to swing closed on the party before making a sound. “Are you all right?” he asked, feeling silly for asking the question. Of course he was not all right. He was Harry Potter, the Chosen One, living in a state of self-exile, the whole world resting on his barely grown-up shoulders.

Harry turned around, his eyes red. “People in that room are going to die, and I’m not going to be able to save them.”

Neville couldn’t think of anything to say in response to Harry's statement. He knew it to be true. “Voldemort’s going to rip those people apart. More children will be like you and me, orphans to another war. It’s happening every day, and I can’t stop it!” he cried, tears running down his face.

“I can’t,” Harry continued, his voice now quieter. “I know what to do, what to look for but I need time and I don’t have it, and every day more and more people are dying and it’s because I don’t have time.”

Neville didn’t know what to do, Harry was right, and there was nothing Neville could do to reassure him that it wasn’t happening. Death and destruction was occurring by the day, and Britain was moving closer and closer to chaos, and all the beautiful, isolated weddings in all the world could not make that go away. Neville knew this and so he stood there not knowing what he could say to help Harry.

“I’ve been doing a lot of research. Every time we get rid of one, another madman rises up or another war begins, and another generation is scared,” Harry continued, sitting down on the stairs, holding his head in his hand, blocking any tears.

Neville sat down next to him and put a hand on his shoulder, hoping that his presence will bring Harry some needed relief. “Even if I succeed, it will just start again in another twenty years or so. And then what do we do. One day they are going to win. What am I supposed to do?”

“You do what we’ve already done twice in my lifetime.” Professor McGonagall appeared from behind them, Neville and Harry both craned their heads looking up at the Headmistress. Harry’s face was puffy and red. McGonagall looked as stern and fierce as ever.

“You try to work out what went wrong. And then you try and start anew with changes so it will never happen again…as futile as it sounds it is the only thing we ever can do, Harry. And we do it each and every time in the hope that it will never happen again.” There was a steely determination in the headmistress's gaze. Neville suddenly had the urge to ask her if she had lost someone in one of the wars, but part of him already knew she had.

“Come with me, Harry. There are some biscuits in the headmaster’s office,” McGonagall said.

Harry rubbed his eyes with the sleeve of his dress robes and got up off the step. “No…I think I will just go to bed,” he replied calmly.

Neville and Professor McGonagall watched Harry walk up the steps in silence. “Professor,” Neville asked when Harry was no longer in sight, “do you think…is Harry going to be all right?”

McGonagall looked down at him. “You’re a good friend, Mr Longbottom. I think that Harry Potter needs those right now, whether he knows it or not…and I’m not sure,” she replied, before heading back up the stairs.

Neville got up and headed back into the hall. People were still dancing, as if nothing had happened, the music having droned out any shouting. Neville sat down and thought about what Professor McGonagall had said and what Harry had said. Maybe there was no end. Maybe the hate would never stop. Neville watched the dancers again. For one of them, maybe more, it might be the last time they were happy.

~*~*~*~

The next morning everybody packed up their clothes and began to empty out the castle. Harry, Hermione and Ron were some of the first gone, to where Neville did not know, but they were gone before breakfast.

Neville sat next to Lupin and Tonks again, who both were in a pleasant, smiling mood that morning. Tonks’ long hair was now gone; replaced with lime green and purple spikes.

“So, now that I’m a member of the Order,” Neville asked, “what do I do?”

“Do what you normally do,” Lupin replied, “I don’t think you’re going to be sent on missions, not until you finish school anyway.”

“But why make me a member now if I can’t do anything?” Neville asked, wondering why on earth they had bothered with inviting him to a meeting if they weren't going to let him do anything.

Tonks seemed she like she wanted to reply, but had a rather large mouthful of toast, so Lupin did instead. “Because if you’re in trouble, or if you have any information, or you have any questions, you can come to us.”

“Plus you have a knack for being in the middle of the action,” Tonks added, having swallowed. She looked thoughtful for a second. “Actually I have a mission for you - keep an eye on my parents. Make sure they don’t do anything to attract attention to themselves, okay?”

Neville agreed and went to pack his bags. Bill and Fleur were wishing all the guests goodbye as Neville went to leave. Bill thanked Neville, and Fleur gave him a kiss on the cheek, causing Neville to blush again. He headed outside and climbed into a coach, then apparated away from Hogsmeade station.

Neville arrived outside Andromeda and Ted’s front door, patting himself down to make sure had hadn’t splinched himself. He may have managed to pass his apparation test, but Neville still was not all that confident about his own ability.

After Neville rang the doorbell, Ted opened the door with a puzzled expression on his face.

“How did you get there?”

Neville began explaining about how he had gone to Hogsmeade and got his apparition licence as he walked into the lounge with his bags, when he noticed small pile of presents sitting on the couch, next to where Andromeda was sitting.

“Happy Birthday, Neville,” Ted said with a big grin on his face.

Neville was stunned, he wasn’t really expecting much fuss for his birthday, especially since it had been and gone. “I-I wasn’t really expecting much,” Neville replied, moved that they cared.

“We couldn’t help ourselves, I’m afraid,” Andromeda replied, smiling. “Ted cooked, and Nymphadora and Remus agreed to come around for dinner. It’s just a small thing. We thought it would be nice.”

Neville could not help but smile.

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