100quills #3.29 Disease
For this section I took some liberty with the prompt by interpreting it as "dis-ease." See for yourself. ;)
Title: Advances and Retreats [Part 2 of "Neville's War"]
Rating (this part): PG
Prompt: #3.29 Disease
Length: medium (~2500 words)
Genre: drama, romance, humor
Pairings: Draco/Pansy, Neville/Pansy
Time: 7th Year
Characters (this part): Neville, Pansy, Harry, Hermione, Ginny
Warnings (this part): romantic tension between cousins, after-effects of torture
They paused the interrogation when Ginny brought in a tray of hot soup. "Harry, get up so I can use that chair," she said.
"Wait. I want to talk with all of you first. Put the tray on the table for now." They exited the room and Harry cast the Imperturbable Charm on the door.
"She knows more than she thinks she does," said Hermione. "And I'm not just talking about the torture addling her brain. She must have overheard lots of things that she didn't understand or want to understand. If we could get a pensieve..."
"She's given us some clues already," Harry said. "I think we should act on those first."
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Would it kill you for us to thoroughly investigate something before launching pell mell at it?"
He grinned at her. "Possibly. I wouldn't want to risk it."
She sighed loudly, but couldn't help smiling too. Having a lead had improved everyone's mood.
"I don't want to tell the rest of the Order about her," he continued.
"We can't leave her alone here," objected Ginny. "I don't think she's a Death Eater either, but that would be crazy. She has to be somewhere with a guard."
"I know," said Harry. "That's why Neville's going to guard her." Everyone looked at Neville.
"Me?" Neville was flabbergasted. "Why me?"
"Hermione, Ron and I definitely can't do it. That leaves you and the girls. You're the oldest, so you know the most about healing. Besides, I'm thinking it would be good to have someone here anyway. To protect it and watch for intruders, to be here if one of us returns injured, lots of things."
Neville wanted to object to this but couldn't. I want to go out and fight. It should be me that stops Bellatrix Lestrange, he thought. But he couldn't deny Harry's logic. Still, it felt humiliating. He was going to spend this war as a nursemaid.
---
"The girls are going to bring you clothes soon," said Neville that evening. The others had left. "But for now you're going to have to sleep in what you have on."
She didn't reply, but only sighed again. Her eyes were closed, and he wondered if she had fallen asleep already. "I need to give you your medicine now."
She opened her eyes wide. Incredulously she stared at the bottle of medicine in Neville's hand. Then she started to cry.
Neville was dumbfounded. What was he supposed to do? Chivalry would suggest a handkerchief, but he had none.
"I'm sorry," he said, which was true. He hesitated. "You still need to take this medicine."
"What's the point now? What can it do now?" she wailed, her body trembling.
Neville's stomach was doing knots. "Pansy..."
She still cried. He hesitated, then went forward and set the medicine down. He lifted her up in the same position he'd given her water in; somehow she felt heavier. Her sobs quieted and stopped, and he gave her a spoonful of the medicine. He put the medicine back on the side table, and she closed her eyes.
He studied her face. It was hard to believe that this was the same Pansy who had stolen his Christmas candy at age eight. He thought she had probably been hit in the face more than once. Although the girls had cleaned her up, her right eye was developing a truly nasty looking bruise and her lip was split, both of which had strangely resisted Harry's Episkey. And those were only two of the wounds.
A lump developed in his throat. Is this what his mother had looked like? No, she was probably even worse... tortured for days, until her mind was destroyed...
He blinked away the tears. Her chest was moving up and down in slow regular motion; had she fallen asleep already? He hated to move and wake her. But he couldn't just hold her all night; it would be absurd.
But I want to. The thought frightened him. He gritted his teeth and closed his eyes. I am overreacting, he told himself fiercely. It was a long day, and she made me remember my mother. That's all it is.
Gently, slowly, he got out from under her. She stirred once, but did not awake.
---
Guard duty was important, and proved itself useful to the others, but it was still boring most of the time. Those first days, she slept most of the time. Hermione, book queen, brought him some healing magic books, and he passed his time reading them. From them he learned that Pansy's frequent sighing had not been caused by condescension towards her captors, but was symptomatic of someone with great blood loss. He wished he could obtain some Blood-Replenishing Potion for her, but Hermione didn't think she could get some without raising suspicions, and it took weeks to brew. Pansy would have to rely on time.
After that first puzzling incident, she took her medicine without complaint. However, she balked at allowing Neville to try any of the spells he had read on her.
"You, Longbottom? When have you ever done something correctly the first time?" she said scornfully.
She had a point. He practiced on Trevor, although he felt horrible giving his pet a wound, even if it was very superficial. Pansy still only acceded reluctantly, and had screwed up her eyes on his first attempt, as if she expected to be beheaded, even though he was casting the spell on her arm.
The wounds did not vanish as they would have if Madam Pomfrey had cast it, but they were visibly improved. Neville was thrilled.
"Let's do it for the rest of your wounds," he said.
"Wait!" she said. "I mean... yes, it worked... but you can't do... all my wounds..."
He didn't understand and his face must have shown it. She looked away from him uncomfortably.
"Maybe one of the girls..." she muttered, barely comprehensibly.
Neville understood instantly and blushed. "I feel like some tea!" he said, too loud. "I'll go make some!"
He ran away.
---
The days passed. Wizarding folk heal quickly, and soon Pansy could even walk a bit, although she suffered from frequent headaches and would sometimes shake uncontrollably--lingering effects of the Cruciatus, he supposed. He thought about offering her a cane, but doubted that she would accept it.
The New Room was actually a one story house in the south of England, some Muggle's seaside vacation home. He was unclear on the details of how they came to occupy it. From vague references to memory charms and other things, however, he decided it was better for his conscience not to inquire.
The two of them explored the house, small as it was. He remembered being taught about electricity in Muggle Studies. They examined the Muggle appliances with interest. Pansy had never taken Muggle Studies, and he found himself in the role of teacher as she asked him what this or that box-shaped thing was for. He enjoyed being the teacher so much that when he wasn't sure what a thing was he basically made things up, though he told himself he was making an educated guess.
They discovered a chess board and pieces. Pansy was very irritated when the pieces did not respond to her orders. Neither of them had much experience with chess, although Pansy boasted that she had been good as a child; they were fairly evenly matched, and played frequently. Pansy even grudgingly admitted that it was nice not having one's pieces complain after a loss.
The rest of the DA was very busy, and did not return often, although in those first few days they did have several more long conversations with Pansy which she still referred to as interrogations. They even brought a pensieve, and used it to analyze some key memories of Pansy's. They did not have time to explain their activities to Neville.
Pansy wanted her wand back, and so there was another debate, ironically the reverse of the first; Neville thought she should have it, Hermione disagreed, and the rest waffled.
"She doesn't need it for anything," said Hermione. "We can't be too careful. She's related to some known Death Eaters--her uncle Yaxley, for example. Suppose the Death Eaters found the New Room and he was one of the invaders? Could we be sure that Pansy would be on our side?"
"They tortured her, Hermione," retorted Neville. "You've seen her memories. I've been living with her 24/7 and she's on our side, I know it."
"But she still doesn't need the wand."
"I think I can understand why she wants it," said Ginny slowly. "My wand's almost like part of me... I don't feel really normal unless it's in my hand or my pocket."
"And if we do get invaded, and I'm the only one with a wand, I'm dead anyway. If Pansy has her wand too, we might have a chance, at least to escape."
This argument swayed the others, and Pansy's wand was returned to her.
That day marked the beginning of the conversations. Although they were first cousins, they really knew very little about one another. Pansy had detested him from childhood as a helpless crybaby and near-Squib, and Neville thought of her only as one of the many bullies he'd known. She began it with a contented sigh as she slightly bent her wand, testing its springiness.
"Elm, ten and one sixteenth inch," she announced. "My dad made fun of me for that--'You couldn't be satisfied with ten, it had to be ten and one sixteenth.' Elm's not a common wand-wood anymore, what with them all dying from Dutch Elm disease. Depressing, isn't it?"
"Mine's cherry, and plain ten inches," he said, grinning. "I guess I'm more easily satisfied than you."
"You used to have a different one, didn't you?"
"I used my father's, but it broke in the battle in the Department of Mysteries."
"What happened there? All I know is what was in the Prophet."
So they talked about the battle. After that, they naturally talked about the battle in Hogwarts in June; after that, they somehow started talking about the Yule Ball back in fourth year.
"I can't think of a night I was happier," she sighed. "Well, except for when I realized that Krum's pretty date was Granger, of all people. You're sure she didn't give him a love potion?"
She looked so hopeful that Neville had to laugh. "She definitely did not," he answered.
"Amazing," she said, shaking her head. "Granger and Krum. Love must be blind. Well, there's nothing you can say to convince me that she didn't take some beautifying potions that night! Probably enchanted her dress, too." Her upturned nose sniffed daintily.
"Hermione wouldn't do that," he said, seriously.
"You're a boy," Pansy said knowingly, with an almost indulgent smile on her lips. "You don't know how girls are. She stole all my thunder. I wanted everyone to see how beautiful I made Millie."
"Bulstrode beautiful?" Neville said before he could stop himself, but Pansy only laughed.
"I know! It was an achievement! And I did it without potions--though I tried to get her to take some, she wouldn't. I got rid of that sickly cast with Lydia's Lustrous Liniment--volumizing charm for her hair--but now I'm boring you."
"So you really made Bulstrode attractive?"
"Well, I thought so--and Theo did too. I swear, Longbottom, if she wasn't a half-blood, he might have fallen in love!" She laughed as if this were a great joke.
Somehow Neville kept his face from darkening. It was an ugly reminder of her prejudice, but he didn't want to say anything yet. If she spends enough time with us, she'll learn the truth on her own, he told himself.
But it was her face that had darkened. "What's wrong?" he asked her.
"I never apologized to her..." she said vaguely.
"For dressing her up?"
She shook her head, still looking far away. "Maybe being half-blood is good for something... she saw the truth before I did."
Somehow she seemed offended by the broad smile on his face at this remark. "Don't get carried away!" she snapped.
"Pansy-"
"I want to sleep now," she said, and turned away.
But the next day she startled him at breakfast by relating a funny story about shopping for a wand for her younger sister Alice.
She seemed to alternate between admitting things and getting angry at him.
But the conversations continued.
Continue to Part 3
Title: Advances and Retreats [Part 2 of "Neville's War"]
Rating (this part): PG
Prompt: #3.29 Disease
Length: medium (~2500 words)
Genre: drama, romance, humor
Pairings: Draco/Pansy, Neville/Pansy
Time: 7th Year
Characters (this part): Neville, Pansy, Harry, Hermione, Ginny
Warnings (this part): romantic tension between cousins, after-effects of torture
They paused the interrogation when Ginny brought in a tray of hot soup. "Harry, get up so I can use that chair," she said.
"Wait. I want to talk with all of you first. Put the tray on the table for now." They exited the room and Harry cast the Imperturbable Charm on the door.
"She knows more than she thinks she does," said Hermione. "And I'm not just talking about the torture addling her brain. She must have overheard lots of things that she didn't understand or want to understand. If we could get a pensieve..."
"She's given us some clues already," Harry said. "I think we should act on those first."
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Would it kill you for us to thoroughly investigate something before launching pell mell at it?"
He grinned at her. "Possibly. I wouldn't want to risk it."
She sighed loudly, but couldn't help smiling too. Having a lead had improved everyone's mood.
"I don't want to tell the rest of the Order about her," he continued.
"We can't leave her alone here," objected Ginny. "I don't think she's a Death Eater either, but that would be crazy. She has to be somewhere with a guard."
"I know," said Harry. "That's why Neville's going to guard her." Everyone looked at Neville.
"Me?" Neville was flabbergasted. "Why me?"
"Hermione, Ron and I definitely can't do it. That leaves you and the girls. You're the oldest, so you know the most about healing. Besides, I'm thinking it would be good to have someone here anyway. To protect it and watch for intruders, to be here if one of us returns injured, lots of things."
Neville wanted to object to this but couldn't. I want to go out and fight. It should be me that stops Bellatrix Lestrange, he thought. But he couldn't deny Harry's logic. Still, it felt humiliating. He was going to spend this war as a nursemaid.
---
"The girls are going to bring you clothes soon," said Neville that evening. The others had left. "But for now you're going to have to sleep in what you have on."
She didn't reply, but only sighed again. Her eyes were closed, and he wondered if she had fallen asleep already. "I need to give you your medicine now."
She opened her eyes wide. Incredulously she stared at the bottle of medicine in Neville's hand. Then she started to cry.
Neville was dumbfounded. What was he supposed to do? Chivalry would suggest a handkerchief, but he had none.
"I'm sorry," he said, which was true. He hesitated. "You still need to take this medicine."
"What's the point now? What can it do now?" she wailed, her body trembling.
Neville's stomach was doing knots. "Pansy..."
She still cried. He hesitated, then went forward and set the medicine down. He lifted her up in the same position he'd given her water in; somehow she felt heavier. Her sobs quieted and stopped, and he gave her a spoonful of the medicine. He put the medicine back on the side table, and she closed her eyes.
He studied her face. It was hard to believe that this was the same Pansy who had stolen his Christmas candy at age eight. He thought she had probably been hit in the face more than once. Although the girls had cleaned her up, her right eye was developing a truly nasty looking bruise and her lip was split, both of which had strangely resisted Harry's Episkey. And those were only two of the wounds.
A lump developed in his throat. Is this what his mother had looked like? No, she was probably even worse... tortured for days, until her mind was destroyed...
He blinked away the tears. Her chest was moving up and down in slow regular motion; had she fallen asleep already? He hated to move and wake her. But he couldn't just hold her all night; it would be absurd.
But I want to. The thought frightened him. He gritted his teeth and closed his eyes. I am overreacting, he told himself fiercely. It was a long day, and she made me remember my mother. That's all it is.
Gently, slowly, he got out from under her. She stirred once, but did not awake.
---
Guard duty was important, and proved itself useful to the others, but it was still boring most of the time. Those first days, she slept most of the time. Hermione, book queen, brought him some healing magic books, and he passed his time reading them. From them he learned that Pansy's frequent sighing had not been caused by condescension towards her captors, but was symptomatic of someone with great blood loss. He wished he could obtain some Blood-Replenishing Potion for her, but Hermione didn't think she could get some without raising suspicions, and it took weeks to brew. Pansy would have to rely on time.
After that first puzzling incident, she took her medicine without complaint. However, she balked at allowing Neville to try any of the spells he had read on her.
"You, Longbottom? When have you ever done something correctly the first time?" she said scornfully.
She had a point. He practiced on Trevor, although he felt horrible giving his pet a wound, even if it was very superficial. Pansy still only acceded reluctantly, and had screwed up her eyes on his first attempt, as if she expected to be beheaded, even though he was casting the spell on her arm.
The wounds did not vanish as they would have if Madam Pomfrey had cast it, but they were visibly improved. Neville was thrilled.
"Let's do it for the rest of your wounds," he said.
"Wait!" she said. "I mean... yes, it worked... but you can't do... all my wounds..."
He didn't understand and his face must have shown it. She looked away from him uncomfortably.
"Maybe one of the girls..." she muttered, barely comprehensibly.
Neville understood instantly and blushed. "I feel like some tea!" he said, too loud. "I'll go make some!"
He ran away.
---
The days passed. Wizarding folk heal quickly, and soon Pansy could even walk a bit, although she suffered from frequent headaches and would sometimes shake uncontrollably--lingering effects of the Cruciatus, he supposed. He thought about offering her a cane, but doubted that she would accept it.
The New Room was actually a one story house in the south of England, some Muggle's seaside vacation home. He was unclear on the details of how they came to occupy it. From vague references to memory charms and other things, however, he decided it was better for his conscience not to inquire.
The two of them explored the house, small as it was. He remembered being taught about electricity in Muggle Studies. They examined the Muggle appliances with interest. Pansy had never taken Muggle Studies, and he found himself in the role of teacher as she asked him what this or that box-shaped thing was for. He enjoyed being the teacher so much that when he wasn't sure what a thing was he basically made things up, though he told himself he was making an educated guess.
They discovered a chess board and pieces. Pansy was very irritated when the pieces did not respond to her orders. Neither of them had much experience with chess, although Pansy boasted that she had been good as a child; they were fairly evenly matched, and played frequently. Pansy even grudgingly admitted that it was nice not having one's pieces complain after a loss.
The rest of the DA was very busy, and did not return often, although in those first few days they did have several more long conversations with Pansy which she still referred to as interrogations. They even brought a pensieve, and used it to analyze some key memories of Pansy's. They did not have time to explain their activities to Neville.
Pansy wanted her wand back, and so there was another debate, ironically the reverse of the first; Neville thought she should have it, Hermione disagreed, and the rest waffled.
"She doesn't need it for anything," said Hermione. "We can't be too careful. She's related to some known Death Eaters--her uncle Yaxley, for example. Suppose the Death Eaters found the New Room and he was one of the invaders? Could we be sure that Pansy would be on our side?"
"They tortured her, Hermione," retorted Neville. "You've seen her memories. I've been living with her 24/7 and she's on our side, I know it."
"But she still doesn't need the wand."
"I think I can understand why she wants it," said Ginny slowly. "My wand's almost like part of me... I don't feel really normal unless it's in my hand or my pocket."
"And if we do get invaded, and I'm the only one with a wand, I'm dead anyway. If Pansy has her wand too, we might have a chance, at least to escape."
This argument swayed the others, and Pansy's wand was returned to her.
That day marked the beginning of the conversations. Although they were first cousins, they really knew very little about one another. Pansy had detested him from childhood as a helpless crybaby and near-Squib, and Neville thought of her only as one of the many bullies he'd known. She began it with a contented sigh as she slightly bent her wand, testing its springiness.
"Elm, ten and one sixteenth inch," she announced. "My dad made fun of me for that--'You couldn't be satisfied with ten, it had to be ten and one sixteenth.' Elm's not a common wand-wood anymore, what with them all dying from Dutch Elm disease. Depressing, isn't it?"
"Mine's cherry, and plain ten inches," he said, grinning. "I guess I'm more easily satisfied than you."
"You used to have a different one, didn't you?"
"I used my father's, but it broke in the battle in the Department of Mysteries."
"What happened there? All I know is what was in the Prophet."
So they talked about the battle. After that, they naturally talked about the battle in Hogwarts in June; after that, they somehow started talking about the Yule Ball back in fourth year.
"I can't think of a night I was happier," she sighed. "Well, except for when I realized that Krum's pretty date was Granger, of all people. You're sure she didn't give him a love potion?"
She looked so hopeful that Neville had to laugh. "She definitely did not," he answered.
"Amazing," she said, shaking her head. "Granger and Krum. Love must be blind. Well, there's nothing you can say to convince me that she didn't take some beautifying potions that night! Probably enchanted her dress, too." Her upturned nose sniffed daintily.
"Hermione wouldn't do that," he said, seriously.
"You're a boy," Pansy said knowingly, with an almost indulgent smile on her lips. "You don't know how girls are. She stole all my thunder. I wanted everyone to see how beautiful I made Millie."
"Bulstrode beautiful?" Neville said before he could stop himself, but Pansy only laughed.
"I know! It was an achievement! And I did it without potions--though I tried to get her to take some, she wouldn't. I got rid of that sickly cast with Lydia's Lustrous Liniment--volumizing charm for her hair--but now I'm boring you."
"So you really made Bulstrode attractive?"
"Well, I thought so--and Theo did too. I swear, Longbottom, if she wasn't a half-blood, he might have fallen in love!" She laughed as if this were a great joke.
Somehow Neville kept his face from darkening. It was an ugly reminder of her prejudice, but he didn't want to say anything yet. If she spends enough time with us, she'll learn the truth on her own, he told himself.
But it was her face that had darkened. "What's wrong?" he asked her.
"I never apologized to her..." she said vaguely.
"For dressing her up?"
She shook her head, still looking far away. "Maybe being half-blood is good for something... she saw the truth before I did."
Somehow she seemed offended by the broad smile on his face at this remark. "Don't get carried away!" she snapped.
"Pansy-"
"I want to sleep now," she said, and turned away.
But the next day she startled him at breakfast by relating a funny story about shopping for a wand for her younger sister Alice.
She seemed to alternate between admitting things and getting angry at him.
But the conversations continued.
Continue to Part 3