WISHLISTS: Together.

[reynardo.livejournal.com]

Author: reynardo
Recipient: maidenjedi
Title: Together
Pairing: Frank and Alice Longbottom
Prompt: Alice Longbottom/Frank Longbottom - going into hiding, finding out they're having Neville, something about their "defying" Voldemort
Rating: G
Word Count: 346
Summary: Frank wants Alice to go into hiding, but she won't. Not even to protect their child.



He held her in his arms, smoothing her hair and looking into her eyes.

"I wish you'd go"

"No, Frank. I'm not leaving you. No matter what."

"Not even for the sake of our child?"

She shook her head. "Not even for that. Besides, you're the one that said I should stay"

"Me? The last thing I want is for you to be hurt, killed, gone from me. When did I say you should stay?"

"Last year."

"Last ... "

She held up her left hand. The ring she wore, exact match to his own, gleamed with a light that came from deep inside it. "Your exact words. I promise to love you, hold you, and never put you away, for you are my light and my life, my strength and my protection, my equal and my everything, from this day for ever. How can I protect you, hold you, be strong for you, if you're out defying Him and I'm hiding in some Vainamoinen-forsaken cave in the middle of nowhere?"

"You're right." He buried his face in her hair, and tried without success to hold back the tears. "I keep wanting to protect you, and I forget that you are strong enough to stand up for yourself. And me."

"You should be ashamed of yourself, Frank. We're not sweet, delicate little flowers. I dread to think what your mother will do when they land at her place." Her arms tightened around him, the bulge in her midriff binding them closer together. "Besides, I never told you, but the Sibyl gave me a prophecy."

He started, and she drew back and looked up at him, puzzled.

"She gave me one too."

"You first, then."

"She promised we'd be together for years and years and years. And I believe her."

"So do I."

"Then spill, Alice. What did she tell you."

"That our son would treasure our gifts forever, although others might think they were worthless rubbish." She drew his head down and kissed him gently. "We should go."

"Yes. We should. Together."

"For years and years."

Comments

[maidenjedi]

So sweet - I can see all of this happening, and I can just hear how Alice and Augusta are more alike than Frank probably realized when he married Alice :-) Exactly the kind of Gryffindor attitude, too, that Neville has. Thank you so much for writing this!

[reynardo.livejournal.com]

Thank you! And Neville himself, who has the strength from both sides. I see him having the silent, quiet strength that shows up when needed.

Now imagine Neville, aged, quietly weeding in the Hogwarts greenhouse even though he should have retired twenty years before, and the Headmaster finding a couple of Trolls dead in the garden outside and trying to work out what could possibly have happened. And Neville just quietly shakes one hand where the knuckles got a bit scorched with the ferocity of the blast he sent out, and then goes back to weeding...

Dammit plotbunnies GO AWAY I HAVE TOO MUCH TO DO!