why is it always me

There was no stopping Hannah when she heard his voice. She moved as quickly as she could manage in order to wrap her arms around her husband holding him as tightly as she could. “I don’t know,” she admitted wishing that there was more of an answer than that. But she knew that they were trying to figure out what was going on. Perhaps she should have waited to help out with that process she knew though that nothing would keep her from her husband. “How are you handling it though? You know you don’t have to just be okay or say you’re okay. You can tell me what’s going on.” Hannah knew she was going to have to tell him about his mother too, but she wasn’t entirely sure on how. He deserved to know though. Of course he did.

“I don’t know.” Neville repeated heavily. Of everything he ever imagined to happen in his life, ever seeing either one of his parents actually recognize him let alone be sentient wasn’t on the list. They had been alive, but they were gone. To say nothing of looking like they did in the few pictures he had of being a baby. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. Or think, or feel, or... I don’t know, Hannah. About anything.” That wasn’t exactly a new feeling for him, but it didn’t make it any less difficult to deal with.

Frank had rehearsed what he was going to say to Neville to explain the situation the best he could, but all of that fell to the side the moment his son had called him dad. There was no controlling the way he rushed over to him wrapping him tightly in his arms. “It’s me, sweet boy,” he promised cupping the back of his son’s head. The last he could remember was holding his son as he was a sweet tiny infant. The day he held his son for the first time everything else had melted away. Alice and Neville was his entire world there was never a question of that. Slowly he stepped away taking a good look at his son a smile swept across his face. “Look at you. Merlin. I had so many hopes and dreams about what you would be like as an adult, but look at you. You’re better than I could have even dreamed of. I’m proud that you’re my boy, and that my mum didn’t mess up too terribly much. Just wish I had seen it for myself.”

Neville’s entire body went stiff, tensing in a way that somehow wasn’t familiar to him at the feeling of his father’s arms. Seeing his parents was nothing new, not when he had spent his entire life going to visit them in the hospital. But this was... this was different. Despite always feeling like maybe Alice knew he was there, he had never heard their voices. Not that he remembered. “I don’t understand.” Neville heard himself say, his entire body seemingly going into autopilot as Frank pulled back and he got to look at his father’s face. More alive and present than he’d ever seen him. So much younger than he was supposed to be. “How are you here? What happened? I don’t... is Mum - ” So many questions, so much fear. Would it be better or worse if his mother was in the same state she had always been? “... You did see it. Sort of. Gran took me every few months to see you. All the Healers always said you wouldn’t come back. And now you’re...” My age. Neville had been confused all his life, but this felt entirely different. He couldn’t find any way to make sense of it.

Hannah knew what she had to do, but that didn’t mean it brought her any joy to do it. The moment her eyes had landed on a 20 something year old Alice Longbottom standing in the hallway at St. Mango’s she knew she had to tell her husband. Neville deserved to have a chance to go see his parents no matter how strange things were. Still she paused in the doorframe leading to the kitchen as she drank in the sight of her husband before she let out an unsteady breath, “honey?” Her voice came out quietly as she stood there unsure of how to continue at all but she had to be brave for him it’s the bare minimum of what he deserved, “there’s been a change in your parents. In everyone’s.”

@lcngbttms​

Neville’s mind was spinning, so much so that he felt as if he could fall over from the dizziness of it all. Hearing reports of strange things happening was different to really seeing them, and far different still to the reports he had grown used to. People disappearing and ending up dead had become such normalcy that this, people returning from the dead, felt like a worse omen. One that had nothing on facing his father and feeling, for the first time in his life, that Frank actually knew he was there. His father was there in more than just physicality. He hadn’t wanted to leave him, but he needed to go home. He needed Hannah, and at the sound of her voice, Neville let out a sigh as he looked up from the counter, where his head had hung between his arms, holding him up. “I just saw my dad.” Neville heard the shaking in his voice as he looked to his wife. “I-I don’t... what’s going on?”

There was so much information being thrown at Frank’s head that if he was being honest he wasn’t sure which way was up or which way was down. It was all at a confusing loss that he didn’t know how to handle. All he did know for certain after getting a medical clearance to leave St. Mungo’s was that he needed to see his son. His grown son. He sucked in a deep breath knowing that Minerva had said she would fetch his son for him but still as he stood in the office rocking back and forth on his feet nervously. He needed to see him first before he brought Alice and got her hopes up at reuniting with their son.

@lcngbttms​

Something strange was going on. It was the story of Neville’s life, hardly anything new. His entire life had been a joke and frankly, that it had been somewhat decent following the death of so many people felt wrong. Hogwarts was still in shambles, regardless of how much work they were all putting into it; repairs had been easy enough to do in a physical sense, but the spirit of the castle was still broken. Or maybe that was Neville’s. So much had changed in a year that it nearly felt like nothing had. It was probably luck that McGonagall had let Neville stay in the castle so long, or maybe it was that half the time he and Hannah were still living in Hogsmeade; that was better now, with Harry and Ginny there, but Neville knew if it was hard for him to be there, it was just as bad for them. Being summoned to McGonagall’s office was nothing new - often the case to discuss renovations or to do the check-ins Neville had grown accustomed to. Each time in recent weeks, he had the sinking feeling he was about to hear something terrible. How could he not worry, when everything had always been that way, and people were now coming back from the dead? He knew the best thing to do would be to go see his parents, but he was - well, he was afraid to. Not that it mattered much as Neville stepped through the doorway and froze at the sight in front of him. His father. Younger than the last time Neville had been to St. Mungo’s...younger than Neville could remember ever seeing him outside the hospital. He looked behind him, half-expecting his former professor to be standing there, his mouth falling open as he looked back at him. Frank looked more alive now than Neville remembered ever seeing him and that didn’t make sense. “Dad?” He asked warily, unsure if he should believe it.