Work Text:
First Year
Harry looked around King’s Cross Station, desperately seeking out Platform 9 ¾. He had asked the man in the King’s Cross uniform, but the man had laughed at him and called him mad. He felt tears starting to form as he grew more anxious and desperate. He could not go back to the Dursley’s. He wouldn’t last another summer there, and they would never let him hear the end of it if he admitted defeat and retreated home with his tail between his legs.
Just then, a woman in a strange purple gown walked past him, nose high in the air. Was that a vulture on her head?! What in the–
A round-faced boy was following behind her, trying to keep hold of what looked to be a toad in his hands. The amphibian was trying to jump out of his grasp, and the boy was having a hard time keeping it from springing loose.
“Come on, Neville. Hurry up. The train waits for no witch or wizard, no matter how noble their family,” the woman said with a sniff.
…no witch or wizard.. Had he heard her correctly? Hope bloomed in his chest, and he jogged to catch up to them.
“Excuse me,” he said once he’d reached the woman.
She looked down her pointed nose at him just as the boy with the toad ran into him, loosening his grip on the slippery creature just enough that it jumped away, landing on Harry’s trunk.
“Trevor!” the boy screeched.
Harry, reacting quickly under pressure, reached out and cupped his hands around the toad called Trevor, catching it before it could hop away again.
“Thanks,” he sighed in relief. “My name’s Neville.”
“Harry.”
The boys smiled at each other.
“Let’s go, then,” the woman prodded. “No time to waste.”
“Could you…” Harry trailed off, uncertain how to ask what he needed to know.
“Help you get onto the platform?” the woman finished for him.
“Yes, please. It’s my first time.”
“It’s my first time, too,” said the boy called Neville. “We can go through together.”
They shared a smile, Harry exhaled, grateful to have found someone to help save him from having to go back to his dreadful aunt and uncle.
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Once on the train, they stowed their trunks. Neville managed to lose his hold on Trevor again, and they spent half of the train ride searching each compartment for him.
“That blasted toad,” Neville muttered. “He’s always trying to get away from me.”
“You really should get a case to hold him in,” a bushy-haired girl retorted at him. “That way, he’ll be safe, instead of someone stepping on him.”
They followed her gaze down to her shoe, on top of which Trevor was sitting, seeming to have fallen asleep.
“I’m Hermione Granger,” she said in a swotty voice. “And you are?”
“Harry Potter.”
“Neville Longbottom.”
“Pleasure,” she stated.
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Hermione was running after Trevor, as seemed to always be the case. One of the three of them was always having to chase down that blasted toad. He had disappeared from the Halloween feast, and disappeared out of the Great Hall. The boys hadn’t seen which direction he had gone, and the trio split up to look for him.
Hermione had been running down the corridor when she heard a croak, and saw Trevor hop into the girls’ restroom on the first floor. She ducked in behind him, and shut the door so he couldn’t escape the room, and set about trying to capture him.
She felt the ground shake under her feet, and heard a grunt from just outside the door. She ran into the stall that she had narrowed down as the one Trevor must be in. She spotted him on the cistern. He was as still as she had ever seen him; he must have sensed the danger outside in the hall as well.
Hands shaking, she reached out, scooped Trevor up, tucked him into the pocket inside her robes, then climbed up onto the seat, and crouched in, trying to make herself as small as possible, hoping against hope that Trevor didn’t give them away.
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When the boys heard the screaming of other students, followed by the grunt of the Mountain Troll, they gave up their search for Trevor and began to seek out Hermione instead.
Neville was terrified for the safety of his friend, guilt spearing through him at the thought of harm coming to her while she searched for his wayward familiar.
He really did need to find an enclosure to keep Trevor in.
Harry and Neville entered the girls’ restroom on the first floor, knowing that when Trevor disappeared, he could usually be found near some sort of water.
Just as they pushed open the door, their eyes climbed up the huge mass of the mountain troll, just as Hermione screamed from the last stall on the right.
Gathering their courage, they looked at each other before running headlong into the room, screaming as loud as they could to distract the troll from their best friend.
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4th year
Neville had asked Hermione to go with him to the Yule Ball. Both of them had been too nervous to ask anyone else and had decided to go together, as friends. It allowed them to avoid the awkwardness of approaching other people and facing possible rejection, plus, they were comfortable enough with each other that they thought they would have more fun without the added stress of a “date.”
Harry and Neville had been waiting together by the punch bowl for their respective dates to arrive, chatting about the upcoming task for the Triwizard Tournament.
“Woahhhh” Harry had stopped mid-sentence, prompting Neville to turn at look at what had caught his attention.
Parvati Patil, Harry’s date, looked beautiful in pink dress robes, but Neville’s attention could not be pulled away from Hermione. Her periwinkle blue gown, shimmering under the lights decorating the room, made her look ethereal as she walked toward him. As she approached, he bowed low, then extended his arm to invite her to dance, which she happily accepted.
Pulling her close to him for their dance, Neville felt a stirring in his belly that he hadn’t experienced before, and wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. Chalking it up to nervousness, he led Hermione around the dance floor with the other students in attendance.
They laughed throughout the night, switching dance partners often with their friends, and made the most of the first Yule Ball Hogwarts had had in years.
When Harry and Parvati shared a sweet kiss at the end of the night, Neville and Hermione had giggled awkwardly at the couple. Neville pulled Hermione into a side hug and kissed the side of her forehead, as he often did. Hermione didn’t think much of it at that time. Neville, however, suddenly realized how much he loved the scent of Hermione’s shampoo, and pulled away quickly. He blamed the magic of the evening and how much fun they had all had, and tucked away all thoughts of anything else that he might be feeling.
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Neville and Hermione huddled together in the stands, watching the maze, hoping against hope that Harry made it through. It wasn’t so much that they wanted him to win the Triwizard Tournament, as much as they wanted him just to survive it.
Something was wrong.
When the screaming started, Hermione threaded her fingers through Neville’s, and he squeezed her hand, trying to reassure her as much as himself.
They couldn’t see the end of the maze from their vantage point, but the whispers were quickly approaching as people passed the word from one person to the next throughout the stands.
Please don’t be Harry. Please don’t be Harry. Please let Harry be ok.
“It’s Cedric!” someone yelled from down the way. “Harry is ok!”
Relief that it wasn’t Harry flooded through both Hermione and Neville, and they turned to embrace each other, holding on and rocking together for a moment before pulling apart. As they did, they each paused, their lips a hair’s breadth away. Neville could smell the scent of butterbeer on Hermione’s breath, and pulled his own breath in sharply, then blushed and quickly looked away, tucking his hands into his pockets.
Hermione tucked her chin to her chest, a smile on her face. She could feel the heat that flooded her face, and stirred something deep in her belly.
“Let’s go find Harry,” Hermione suggested.
“Right,” said Neville. “Lead the way.”
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August 1, 1997
Summer between 6th and 7th years
Harry, Neville, and Hermione walked into the marquis where Bill and Fleur’s wedding reception was being held, smiles stretched across their faces. They were so happy for their friends, and the love they had found in the midst of the darkness that had surrounded them all for these past few years.
Seated together near the head table, they watched as the newlywed couple entered the tent, moved to the center of the space, and began their first dance as husband and wife.
Hermione sighed as she watched them, tears of happiness on her cheeks, and laid her head on Neville’s shoulder. He put one arm around her shoulders, and the other hand on her knee, this thumb moving side to side in a show of comfort for his best friend.
Harry glanced over at them and smiled, happy that they had become such close friends throughout everything. Should anything happen to Harry, if Voldemort got his way, at least they would have each other to lean on in his absence.
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May 1998
Battle of Hogwarts
Spells of every type flew around them as they ran through the halls, chunks of the castle falling from the crumbling ceilings that they had had to dodge while simultaneously casting spells to stave off Death Eaters and Dementors alike.
Neville had held Hufflepuff’s cup while Hermione stabbed it with the basilisk fang, then they had set off again to find Harry. Pulling out the Marauder’s Map, they saw him disappear outside of where they knew the Room of Requirement was located, and they ran to catch up with him to help him find Ravenclaw’s Diadem.
When they entered the room, they saw Harry in the midst of piles of lost and hidden items, facing off against Draco Malfoy, Gregory Goyle, and Blaise Zabini. Then Goyle set the room ablaze with a poorly cast Fiendfyre curse, and they all ran, or rather flew, for their lives, saving Malfoy and Zabini in the process in a surprising turn of events.
The trio had made their way to the Great Hall after Voldemort commanded his followers retreat, knowing the next steps would be the hardest. What they encountered when they entered was unimaginable. Those who had lost someone had gathered them all here, bodies lined up one after the other, the sounds of crying filled the hall.
Neville and Hermione left the room, unable to look into the faces of their friends and lost loved ones any longer. Shock and utter devastation flooded through them both as the quiet settled in in the absence of battle, and they embraced and cried for the many losses.
They fell to the stairs in front of them, arms wrapped tightly around each other as sobbed wracked both of their bodies. They cried for their friends, for the families who lost loved ones, for the loss of the innocence that they should have been able to have as children.
They sat there together for several minutes, time passed by at a slug’s pace now that the Death Eaters had gone. As Hermione sniffed, and pulled away to wipe her face on her sleeve, she looked up into Neville’s sad eyes. She reached her hand up, and wiped a tear off of his cheek, and he leant into her touch.
His eyes fluttered shut, then opened again. He felt a rush of desperation rush through him. Not because he thought he would never find love, but because he had found it, and wanted to be sure he made his feelings known, just in case– just in case they didn’t make it out of this alive. He wanted– needed her to know.
He lifted a hand to her face, cupping her cheek and rubbing his thumb across the soft skin. He opened his mouth to speak, huffed out a breath and finally forced the words out.
“Hermione, you know I love you, right? I think I always have,” he said softly, but with such conviction that there could be no question of his words or intention. “If we make it out of here alive…” he let his words trail off, not sure of whether or not he wanted to make a promise he wasn’t sure he would be able to keep.
Hermione leaned forward, resting her cheek against his, placing her small hand on the side of his neck.
“I know, Neville,” she whispered in his ear. “And I love you, too.”
Neville felt pride swell within himself. Even in the darkest of times, times like these, with so much devastation around them, there was still hope, still a bit of light at the end of the horrible tunnel.
He pulled away to look at her again. Holding her face in his hands, he pulled her to him, crashing their lips together. Their mouths parted, and they allowed themselves this moment to savor each other in a way they never had before. Tasting, teasing, and loving each other in the only way their could at the moment, it would have to be enough for now.
They stood, embracing one more time, one more kiss, and they broke apart, each running a different direction to set about their final tasks, to end this battle, one way or another. But now they had hope; a new reason to survive.
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19 Years Later
Harry and Ginny walked their sons through the platform at King’s Cross Station, and approached the gleaming red steam engine before them.
As they drew nearer, they saw many people they knew, Harry paused every few seconds to shake someone’s hand, nodding at the thanks whispered to him even now, nearly twenty years later.
Neville walked up to Harry, extending his hand as well. Harry grabbed it, a grin stretched across his face, and pulled him in for a tight hug. The two men had stayed close, accepting positions in the Auror department at the Ministry, godfather to each other’s children.
When they separated, Harry turned to Neville’s wife, Hermione Longbottom, and nearly tackled her in a hug that almost broke her in two, spinning her around in a circle before setting her back down next to her husband and children.
“Are you kids ready?” Harry asked the children. James Potter had already grabbed Alice Longbottom’s trunk, and was walking toward the storage compartments to stow them below the train.
“For a while, I wasn’t sure we would see this day,” Harry said, looking around awestruck at the sight of the Hogwarts Express, and their children walking to board it like they had so many years before.
“Me, neither,” admitted Neville, reaching out for Hermione’s hand. She slipped hers comfortably into his, threading their fingers together, and resting her cheek on his shoulder.
“At least they’ll get a chance at a normal childhood,” said Hermione, grateful that the past was behind them. “And they’ve got all of us, our chosen family, to watch over them.”
The four of them watched together and waved as the train pulled away, smiles and tears on their faces as their kids set off on their new adventure.
When the train was out of sight, Harry clapped Neville on the back and said “Drinks at ours?”
“Absolutely,” Hermione agreed, and Neville nodded, and the four set off toward the Apparition point, not quite ready to leave their children, but knowing they were saf and in good hands at Hogwarts.