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The colour of Pansy's skin made Neville feel more than a little nervous. She was almost as green as the emerald of her pendant, but maybe slightly paler. She reminded him in that moment of a plant but he couldn't pinpoint what kind it was just then. He knew that he shouldn't be worrying about the type of plant, but it was distracting him from worrying about the cuts on her hand. He didn't want to assume that she had done it to herself, but at the same time he knew that he couldn't rule it out.
He held her close while she slept, keeping her as tight against his chest as he possibly could without hurting her. It wasn't the most comfortable position for him, but he wasn't thinking about himself. Keeping Pansy as safe as he possibly could was the only thing that Neville cared about. She might have spent a good amount of time pushing him away, but he felt a tiny pang of pride that it was him that she turned to when she was feeling low or even hurt.
He'd watched her grow - and that meant watching her struggle with the pressures that her family constantly put on her and watching her struggle with the demons inside her own head. He'd hoped that after the war that she would have been able to lighten up on herself, but he knew now that it just wasn't that easy. He knew that he had his own demons, that everyone had all these demons to contend with. It was a difficult world that they lived in - it wasn't the same as it once was.
He ran his fingers through her hair as he watched her, hoping that she would get enough rest and eventually lose that green complexion that he now realised reminded him of sage. When she'd first turned up on his doorstep, the blood still dripping down her arm, she'd looked awful, like she hadn't slept in a year, which had scared him more than anything else when she hadn't looked like that the night before at his party.
Neville let out a sigh. His party. The one where he hadn't even realised how Pansy was being treated, how she was being isolated. He knew that it wasn't exactly his friends' fault; they didn't exactly help matters with their slightly prejudiced ways, but at the same time he knew that Pansy wasn't the sort to make the effort to talk to other people either. He understood that it was difficult for her. He understood that she wasn't the sort of person who could just go out there and make friends with everyone who came across her path, but…
But Neville knew that he was in love with Pansy. Neville knew that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her and he knew that for that to happen, she needed to at least make an effort to become friends with his friends, especially because they were now his family. He wanted her to become part of that family, but she had to want it too and he just wasn't sure if that was actually something that she did want.
He ran his fingers through her hair again as he continued to let himself watch her face. He knew that eventually she and his friends would eventually get on, but for now he was just going to have to move on and see what life threw their way next. The thing was that he didn't want to wait any longer to ask her out. He was actually planning to do just that when he saw her on Tuesday, but now as she lay in his arms he had to wonder if she was in fact too fragile for that sort of question, for that sort of proposition.
Her eyelids flickered as she started to stir and he quickly looked away but he didn't dare let her go. Part of him was worried that if he did let her go then there was a chance that she would just simply disintegrate into nothingness. He couldn't risk that happening, he couldn't risk losing her. He knew that it was a ridiculous thought, but he also knew that it wasn't something that he could just squash down, at least not until he knew that she was okay.
Pansy's cheeks turned a soft pink as she woke up fully in his arms and obviously realised where she was. Neville wondered if she was reliving what had happened last night, but he decided not to ask. When she was ready to talk to him about what had happened, he was sure that she would do so, but he wasn't going to push her.
She lay on him for a while, which was something that warmed Neville from the pit of his stomach. She continued to feel safe in his arms and that was something that he would cherish for a long time to come. And if she agreed to be his girl, then he hoped that they would get many more moments like this in the future.