soldier keep on marchin' on

Auror Potter. The words ring in his ears, electric. He has heard people refer to him using his final title more times than he can count. However, hearing Neville murmur the same words (or rather, the Neville he knew back then would have murmured. The Neville he knew now had a soft voice that couldn’t be mistaken for a lack of confidence) stirred something inside of Harry. They aren’t the same people than they were during this Hogwarts days. Neville had stayed in the first place Harry called home while Harry moved on from his past, or at least as much as he could have. The duo are so old that Harry has not one, two, but three children, the oldest of which had called Neville his “favorite professor” in his last letter. Of course, Neville has always stayed close to the Potter family and encouraged to visit his and Ginny’s house as much as possible, but Hogwarts’ environment is another kind of familiar to him, although just as welcomed. 

“Come on, Neville,” Harry chides. “Dumbledore most certainly practiced nepotism and we never looked down on him for it.” Harry was much too involved with his busy world to ever wonder what it was like to never win a House Cup while attending the famed wizarding school. Still, despite the fact that it was somewhat likely that Harry would have gratuitously rewarded points to his former house if he was in Neville’s position, he laughs with his friend. If Harry hadn’t been chosen by Voldemort, Neville would have carried out Harry’s role as well as he did, it not better. Perhaps their lives could have been switched– while Harry was often bored by herbology, he could have been a professor while Neville came in for guest lectures. However, Neville is content with his life as an educator in a way that Harry would have not been. While he loves Hogwarts, there were too many haunting events that happened here for him to stay year after year. 

“Thanks for your forgiveness. If only Wizengamot felt the same way.” As an auror, Harry frequently testifies at the judicial body, though he rarely arrives on time. “It’s been much of the same. Still putting down threats as usual.” He keeps it short; Neville doesn’t need to know that Harry’s plate is so full it would pile to the Hogwarts’ high ceilings. “How are you doing? I hope the kids aren’t giving you too much trouble.”

.

Dumbledore was a legend at the school, and would be long after his fall from the Astronomy Tower became a tale told from those who learned about it rather than those who had lived through it. Still, that didn’t mean the man wasn’t more than human, and didn’t have his faults, and his nepotism toward their house could certainly be seen as one. “That’s true, he never was afraid to make it painfully obvious either. McGonagall favors it too, but she does so in much more discreet fashion.” the professor admitted, his tone getting a little more somber as he turned the focus from their former headmaster to their former teacher. It lingered for just a moment before the light shined brightly in his eyes again as he remarked “I try to follow by her example, but you know, it might be just as painfully obvious. Only time will tell.”

 “The Wizengamot isn’t known for being very forgiving about much of anything. You really are at their mercy all the time, I’m surprised you’ve been late and lived to tell the tale, Harry. I’m glad I got out of that line of work when I did or I’m sure they would have eaten me alive.” the wizard jested with a chuckle. It felt nice to forget about the present tensions and focus on something as normal as the Wizengamot, even for just a little while. Focusing too much on the present reminded him of the parts of their pasts he would rather forget. Instead, pleasant conversations like this reminded him not everything about the past should be forgotten, and that sometimes you simply had to focus on the good to keep the bad at bay for just a little longer. “I’m doing just fine, just dealing with the normal things as well as the initiative. Right now it’s mostly loads of paperwork, organizing events for the holidays, and the typical administrative sort of things. As for students causing mischief… well, we have our normal pranksters and troublemakers, and your eldest is exactly like his father was at that age. Certainly, keeps us all on our toes. Bright student though, think he gets it from his mother.”

Terry chuckles, skilfully popping a piece of popcorn into his mouth before handing a tub to Neville and getting in line as per the deputy headmaster’s instructiom. “Why not?” he asks, “This way your letters to me can quite literally write themselves. Wouldn’t that be marvellous? You know muggle phones can do that too now - turn the spoken word into written; they do it via ‘applications’” Not that Muggles had applied themselves too much when it came to naming applications. Their lack of creativity sometimes irked Terry. “or that oracle they all have in their devices, Siri, they call on her for every inconvenience.” Can you tell he’d spent majority of his evening down at the Museum of Muggle Curiosities? 

“Well, is she?” Terry never asks such questions outright; but in Neville’s company, he doesn’t feel the need to weave and wind his words. “I think she deserves a break after all she’s done.”He shrugs, looking over at Neville, “And you, a promotion.” he adds on half-jokingly. “Ah, well, who’s winning the House Cup this year? Ravenclaw I hope is making some strides?” How are things going with you? A simple question that had a not so simple answer. Terry sometimes wondered if Neville would still be his friend if he knew what he’d exactly need but up to, “Ah, same old same old.” Terry says, moving forward as the line does, he looks straight on to see they just might make the show, “You know, Wizengamot hearings, daily letters to the ICOW, other meetings” with the British Wizarding Front  “…appointments…” with the Syndicate  “…being persuasive so that progress continues, like the very event we’re at..” bribing wizengamot members to push WRF policies “…all those boring things I have to endure to ensure our democracy works the way it is intended to.” He smiles, moving another step forward. Everyone needs a push now and then. Terry isn’t a corrupt politician himself, he just makes use of them to get what he wants. And what he wants right now, is for this technomagical initiative to truly succeed.

“I’m glad you think so,” Terry says with a smile, “in the Auror Office i’m known as a pain in the arse.” They didn’t use those exact words, but with the looks he gets they might as well have. The number of times Terry, or someone from his department, had to storm down there to sort out a preventable issue was astounding. He quickly changes the topic, not wanting to talk about the woes of his work but rather distract himself from it. Terry asks, “So, which movie would you like to watch?”

“Call me old fashioned, Terry, but I think that the feeling of a quill against parchment is one of the most relaxing sensations in the world. When the topic is something exciting, of course, whenever you’re scrawling on and on about Merlin knows what for more formal paperwork it makes me wonder if there is a torturous experience aside from Azkaban.” the wizard offered with a chuckle of his own,though the notion was clear that he was teasing. If the wizarding wars had taughtthe Longbottom anything over his forty years, it was that there were manythings much more agonizing than paperwork, and even death. Though, standing alongside the delegate, his mind wasn’t riddled the horrors of war, or the tensions rising in the wizarding communities, or the uncertainties lying ahead of them. For a moment, the professor could unwind, and he was going to cling tothat for as long as he could.

 As Terry explained the muggle advancements, and his own perceived opinions of them, the wizard chuckled and nodded along. He hadn’t heard much about it, though he’d heard whispers of it in the halls of Hogwarts from some of the muggleborn pupils who’d grown up in a world filled to the brim with the technology that filled the fair around them. He was sure as things got underway, he would be learning far more about the technology at the fair than he’d ever bargained for, but that was part of the job, and he would do it dutifully for as long as he could, or until something had to give.

 The question is one that leaves Neville fixing himself, his shoulders getting a bit tenser as he stands up a bit straighter. It isn’t an easy question to answer, it’snot one he likes to address, though among a friend it feels a bit easier,though he is all too aware of the world around them, and the damage of prying ears listening in. He never considered himself paranoid, but recently, he’d hadto be more reserved with his words, and his actions. He had to think about his friends, his colleagues, his students, and Hogwarts. “She’s done more than anyone could have asked of her. I don’t know about a promotion for myself, I hardly think I could ever step into Dumbeldore’s shoes, let alone hers. She always seemed so much larger than life in school, and that hasn’t changed, even now.” With that out of the way, the wizard relaxed, his demeanor returning to it’s more lighthearted nature, even summoning a chuckle at the next question heposed. “Perhaps, at this point, it’s anyone’s game, though you know I am a bit partial to Gryffindor myself.”

 He listened dutifully as the wizard explained how he’d been, and what he’d been up to. It did sound like a day in the life for the former Ravenclaw, and while Terry did his job very well, Neville was eternally grateful the position wasn’t his. He couldn’t imagine it, honestly, he couldn’t imagine himself anywhere but his current position, and he wished the world could stay the way it was for just a bit longer.Innovation, change, and trouble were looming on the horizon, and there was no stopping it, so the wizard knew he simply had to brace for impact. Not right now though, not tonight.

The words out of Neville’s mouth forced her smile into something a smidgen more fond. She shrugged, dainty shoulders rising and falling with the laugh that escaped. “That’s rich coming from one of the kids who did try to listen.” Katie had not been one who was so easily persuaded by the words of those people who were older, more wise. Like most of the students they now faced every day, she had been one of the many who preferred to figure it out on her own. No words of warning, no advisement, nothing could deter her from her own mind when it was made up. At a young age, Katie made a choice to grab life by the lapels, and it wasn’t long before she realized life had a habit of fighting back. 

“And did this one come away with all of his fingers?” Their world was a glorious place, one that was filled with a wonder unmatched in the one that coddled her in her youth, but with that grandeur came the constant underlying danger lingering just around every corner. While she hoped the student was lucky, that this was a bad memory of an almost catastrophe rather than a missing body part to remind them of the root of the lesson, she wasn’t naive enough to get her hopes up anymore. Her question left a jaded taste in her mouth, causing her to wrap her arms about her middle as she turned to face him across the desk, she toyed with the hem of her sleeve. 

A dry laugh escaped, though not at the expense of his mention of his wife. Her own anxiety just got in the way of any semblance of genuine response at times. Rolling a stray piece of string around between her fingers, her honied eyes never left his face, but it was a moment before she spoke. “I seem to have a bit of a student issue of my own.” A part of her job was knowing what was worth divulging to someone who held a higher rank than her own. It was never a part she particularly enjoyed, breaching the trust that was placed in her, but she made relative peace with the idea by reminding herself of the eventual good that would transpire. “Hadeon Hughes, the fifth year?” A ravenclaw, the young muggleborn had excelled in most anything he tried since he came to the school, but when the statutes returned, something inside him changed. “He told me he doesn’t have anywhere to go once the term is up because his parents gave him an ultimatum.” She exhaled heavily. “He chose Hogwarts.”

“All of his fingers are more or less intact. He’ll have someminor scarring, but it should heal in time, especially with our healers atwork. I just hope it taught him a lesson, though sometimes even a nip from aplant isn’t enough to stop them.”

The corners of Neville’s lips twitched up to form a softsmile at her laughter, though the wizard was aware something was behind it. Itwasn’t as warm as it normally was, and he waited patiently to hear what causedthe uneasiness that lingered with the chuckle instead. As she explained, he tookmental notes, trying to anticipate what would come next, and already trying towork it out. Though, he wasn’t prepared for what she had to say, and everyshort burst brought more concern to the Longbottom, his eyebrows knitting themselvestogether as she finally admitted the end of the ultimatum, and it felt like theair had been knocked out of his lungs at the forcefulness of it.

The struggles of muggle parents were troubles he would neverunderstand, though he couldn’t imagine any sort of stress that would ever leadto him forcing his child chose between their education and their home at thetender age of fifteen. In picking up more and more of McGonagall’s duties overthe years, he’d come into contact with all sorts of parents of muggleborn wixenchildren. Some were understanding, open minded that there was more to the worldthan what they knew, some were confused, lost in the sea of information beingthrust upon them seemingly out of the blue, and, of course, there were parentsthat were angry and afraid. He’d learned how to navigate the waters ascarefully as he could over the years, and this situation was no different.Still, the Longbottom couldn’t help but feel his heart go out to his student,knowing that he was dealing with something no one should ever have to deal with.

Even past the age of forty, Neville Longbottom’s face was asexpressive as ever, and his heartbreak was clear on his face in the momentsthat passed from her admission. “He’ll always have a home here at Hogwarts. We’llfigure something out.” he reassured Katie with a nod and a soft sigh. “I’llreach out, and get something arranged, but I’ll meet with him personally andlet him know nothing will change. I’ll also see if I can talk with his parentsand make them see reason – but if not, well, it’s their loss.”

Paperwork can be monotonous and tedious. As someone who practically lives under an avalanche of parchment and ink, Terry is no stranger to how utterly exhausting it can be. “I know what to get you for Christmas now.” Terry chuckles, “Liz got me one of those new and improved Quick-Quote Quills, now even I don’t have an excuse to be late to things.” He jests, stepping to the side so that Neville could join him in the line for the ticket counter. “How are things at Hogwarts?”

“Well I am a considerate gentleman,” Did he barter their tickets away for The King’s Speech?Absolutely. Was he going to tell Neville that? Absolutely not. “I think you should have the pleasure of choosing.” Terry looks up at the big board displaying each movie and their timings, “If we make it to the front of the line in the next 12 minutes we can catch Dunkirk.” ·

As the other wizard chuckles,Neville visibly relaxes, grateful for the understanding. Terry was a busy man (just as busy as he was, he supposed, if not busier ) so any time they could get together was limited at best, and he truly felt sorry for being late as he was.No need to dwell on it though, not this time. “You needn’t get me anything,Terry. I’d have to have something to write for the quill to be any use anyway.”The Longbottom teased, before taking a more serious tone to address the question. “As expected I suppose. Rumors are swirling about McGonagall’s retirement,the houses are buzzing with excitement for the winter holiday, and we’re trying to figure out arrangements for some of our students with everything going on.”The topic, while important to him and important in the grand scheme of things,didn’t make for light talk, so he left it at that. “So, eventful as always, how are things going for you?”