Like Gold

The day after the funeral, Hannah came over to his house. It was quite surprising to see her there because she hadn’t written or phoned ahead, but he welcomed her, nonetheless. He could tell that she had been crying, and it did hurt him to see her like that, but then again, he cried himself to sleep the night before, too, since he had just attended his boyfriend’s funeral. He put some tea on and laid out some of his mum’s brownies that she had made the night before to make him feel better.

“Are you alright, Hannah?” he asked.

“No… I guess you probably know why… it’s about Nev…” Hannah explained

“That he’s decided to join the Aurors?” Ernie knew as soon as she said it was Neville what this was about.

“Yes. Apparently, the minister personally approached him before we spoke yesterday, inviting him, and Nev agreed to think about it; he only told me he was considering it, but… how could he?” Hannah cried

“Because he survived the war, you thought he would never consider such a thing?” Ernie asked

“No…it just has come out of nowhere, for years he wanted to be a herbology professor, and now he’s… wanting to become a dark wizard catcher even after we fought in that horrible battle, lost our best friend, and he wants to return to that life of fear? I thought once all this was over… I thought things would go back to the way they were.”

“Hannah…I don’t think things will ever be able to go back to the way they were.” Ernie said it threw him back to the conversation he had with Augusta Longbottom and Clary. They would never be the same again. “I-I won’t… now you know.”

“Oh gosh, Ernie.” Hannah cried, “I’m sorry, coming here and…”

“Don’t.” Ernie insisted, “We all need each other, but why come here and not to Clary say?”

“Clary… she said that Neville could be an auror if he chose; she doesn’t get it…”

“Don’t you think it is his choice?” he asked.

“Yes, but I wish he wouldn’t, and I don’t want to lose him like I seem to have lost everybody. Do you remember in the battle when I tried to run out to Neville and Clary pulled me back, saying she couldn’t lose me too? It’s like that. She held me back from doing something I wanted to do at the time because she couldn’t lose me, and I can’t lose Neville.” Hannah admitted.

Ernie knew he understood what she meant; he wouldn’t wish his current agony on anybody, let alone Hannah, who had already been through so much.

“I understand, Hannah, but this is something you need to speak to Neville about; what if I invited him here right now, and you could talk it out? You shouldn’t fight with him, not right now.”

They all needed each other now; they didn’t need to be fighting over something like this, something so stupid.

“Okay…” Hannah agreed reluctantly; she sat herself down and drank more of her tea whilst Ernie went to phone Neville up. It was Augusta who picked up the phone. “Hello?”

“Hi, it’s Ernie. Is Neville around?” he asked.

“Oh, He’s just in the greenhouse, which shan’t surprise you; I shall go and get him,” Augusta said. She left the phone for a minute or so before Neville picked it up.

“Hi, Ernie, are you alright?” Neville asked, he seemed slightly concerned for him.

“I’m fine; look, Hannah’s here, at my place, and I think you should talk through whatever you have going on.” Ernie suggested, “If you want?”

“Okay, I’ll come over.” Neville agreed. “Are you on the Floo network?”

“Yeah.” Ernie said, “In a bit.”

“Okay, bye,” Neville said before he hung up.

He barely put the phone down or gave Hannah a warning before Neville appeared in the fireplace. He was still in his herbology stuff and covered in soil, but he took his boots off at the fireplace.

“Hannah.” Neville said, “You can’t stop me from doing this?”

“Even to protect you from your own stupidity?” she questioned. “Where the hell has this even come from, Neville? You said for years you wanted to become a Herbology professor and work with plants, and now you’re… you’re becoming an auror? Are you still so obsessed with pleasing your granny?”

“That was a low blow, Hannah!” Neville yelled back, “What has gotten into you? I’ve never seen you like this before; why are you acting so horrible.”

“Says the person who told me he was becoming an auror at our best friend's funeral, you idiot. How disrespectful and unempathetic can you get.” She screamed, Ernie placed a hand over his mouth, hearing this did bring him some pain, not at Neville but the minister deciding then would be a good time to offer Neville a job.

“I know I messed up with that, alright? My head was all over the place. When Kingsley asked me, I was so surprised, and I wanted to talk to you about it…please, I’m so sorry.” Neville apologised.

“Okay, I’m sorry too.” Hannah said, “But please, Neville, you can’t.”

“I can.” He said, “Hannah, this is a prestigious job; I’d be a nutter to turn it down.”

“You’d be a nutter to take it,” Hannah retorted.

“Look.” Ernie interrupted, “I don’t want to interrupt, but this is going around and around in circles; what is this really about? You need to be honest with each other…”

He knew what this was really about, they were both grieving and therefore not in a good state of mind therefore driving this argument.

“I don’t want to lose you, Neville… alright, I’ve lost mum, Susan and James, and I’m not…I refuse to lose you…” Hannah admitted, almost tearfully. “I couldn’t bear it again.”

Ernie felt a jolt of pain when he heard Hannah’s admission; she had lost so many people now he was surprised she was still alive. Neville stepped forward and embraced her; she didn’t fight it, luckily. Ernie was pleased his intervention worked.

“Hannah, I understand more than anybody; remember what happened to my parents? But I could walk out of Ernie’s house and get hit by a car; I could… yeah, this job carries risk, but for the most part, I’ll be rounding up petty criminals. And I also can’t go back to Hogwarts because if I went back there, I would…I just can’t.”

“But why would you need to go back to Hogwarts?” Hannah asked.

“If I want to be a professor, I’m going to need more than OWLs.” Neville said, “And to get NEWTs, I’m going to need to repeat the year, right? Because last year, all we learned was pure-blood supremacy and how to use the unforgivable curses. But if I could get a job as an Auror work that for a couple of years, then it would show that I’m good at lots of things, and they might overlook it.”

“Oh.” Hannah nodded. “That makes sense, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s alright; I’m so sorry too; yesterday was a horrible day for us all…” Neville agreed; he was pleased as Hannah leaned up to kiss Neville.

“You should tell Kingsley you agree.” Hannah suggested, “We could go to London right now?”

“Now?” Neville exclaimed, “Yeah, alright. Thanks, Ernie… sorry we decided to argue in your house.”

“It’s fine.” Ernie brushed off “I hated to see Hannah upset so, and if you two making up would make her feel better it was worth it. But Neville are you sure it’s a good idea to go to London to see the minister of magic in your herbology stuff.”

Hannah laughed “Oh dear maybe not… we should send a letter; we probably shouldn’t show up uninvited.”

“Yeah.” Neville agreed; Ernie gave him some parchment and a quill and began to draft something with Hannah’s help whilst Ernie sat there, lost in his own thoughts. He thought that, for one, both Neville and Hannah would be happy now she had made up with Neville, but also, he thought that James wouldn’t want his best friends to fight. So, Ernie was happy to have helped. Neville was done within a couple of minutes, and so they sealed the letter. Ernie sent his owl Athena to London with the letter in her beak, hoping the minister would get it and it wouldn’t end up on some pile somewhere in the Ministry of Magic.

“Now we wait.” Neville sighed.

“We don’t have to wait here alone.” Ernie suggested, “What if we called the others?”

“Oh my gosh, yes.” Hannah gushed. “And today is such a nice day, too.”

Ernie hadn’t looked outside yet, but today was perhaps the nicest day they had so far that year. He thought they had to do something nice, and it would help them all. He was so tired of the routine grief had given him, and though it still hit him, he felt like he wanted to have something fun. Or at least try to. He got dressed properly as Hannah called everyone: Clary, Daphne and Justin.

“They will be here in fifteen minutes.” Hannah told him, “Clary was already dressed about to go on a walk. Would you believe it?”

“That’s such a coincidence.” he laughed.

“You know, I’m surprised we all have phones now.” Hannah added, “I’m glad we do. It makes life so much easier, and I don’t see why we shouldn’t use muggle technology, as long as we don’t enchant it.”

“I agree.” Ernie smiled. “It would be frowned upon if we didn’t at least have a landline. It’s not 1898.”

“Well, exactly.” She agreed. “Thanks, Ernie, though, for earlier.”

“Hannah, I was there for you like you were there for me.” Ernie said, “We need each other more than ever now; that’s why we need to…”

“Not fight. Not let silly things cause a rift we might never repair.” Hannah agreed, “We need to stick together… or Jem and Sue would never forgive us.”

“You’re right.” Ernie admitted, “It’s the last thing they would want us to do.”

The pair then hugged each other; Ernie closed his eyes. For once, tears didn’t go well, but his heart still burned. The pain in his heartfelt worse than it had the day before. It was then when he realised, he hadn’t thought about it much today because of everything that had happened in the past hour.
Ernie then heard a knock on the door, it was he who answered it and it was Justin who arrived first. He looked slightly like he had just come back from Polo practice which Ernie knew he would have to tease him about later on that day.

“Hey Ernie.” Justin said, “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m good, I just helped Hannah and Neville avert their first marital crisis.”

“Marital?” Hannah cried, sending an accusing look at Ernie.

“Well, who knows what the future holds?” Ernie teased.

“Oi.” Hannah grinned, Neville than appeared in the doorway.

“You don’t want to get married Hannah?” Neville questioned. He pretended to get annoyed, and he folded his arms.

“I never said never.” Hannah grinned as she ran over and hugged her boyfriend almost like earlier hadn’t happened. Then another knock at the door came and Clary and Daphne were there.

“Hey.” Clary said as he let them in, she looked at Hannah and Neville in an embrace and then looked at him “Well done Ernie. I suppose you had everything to do with making these two make up.”

“I did.” Ernie smiled.

“How?” she asked

“I just forced them to talk about what was really going on.” Ernie said, “Let’s just say all is well.”

Clary smiled “Well congratulations. So, Nev does this mean you could become an auror?”

“Yes.” He said, “I’m sure you could apply if you wanted too Ari.”

“No thanks.” Clary agreed “I am going back to Hogwarts if they allow us.”

“You know that’s another thing.” Justin said “What are we going to do about our grades, because they can’t just force us to come back. Like Neville has a job offer, but I assume you still want NEWT grades, right?”

“Wouldn’t mind them.” Neville agreed. “I mean even if I do have a job offer, I admit I may want a career change at some point.”

“Let’s talk to Professor Sprout.” Ernie suggested “I think I have an idea.”

Ernie’s idea was this, he thought that if say someone wanted to go back to Hogwarts they could and earn their NEWTs but if say they couldn’t for any reason, they would be given provisional grades based off their most recent test scores and Professors judgements. So, as they all sat in the garden he composed a letter to Professor Sprout, she did say once that if he needed anything to contact her so he hoped she wouldn’t mind it if he wrote to her.

“It’s a really great idea, Ernie.” Hannah smiled, “I’m sure she will agree.”

“I hope she does agree, I mean some people… speaking for myself I don’t think I could stomach going back,” Ernie said.

“Same.” Neville admitted, “I know it seems weird because in being an auror sounds more drastic than going back to school but I don’t think I could.”

It was then that Athena landed on the table next to where Ernie and Neville were sat. She was holding a letter in her beak that had the purple seal of the Minister of Magic.

“It’s here!” Neville announced, “Gosh I don’t think I can open it.”

“I’ll do it.” Hannah offered as she carefully removed the wax seal and unfolded the letter. She took a couple of seconds reading as they all drew their breath. “Neville, it looks like you’ve been successful, the minister would like to see you tomorrow where he will formally offer you a job.”

“REALLY!” he cried. He hugged Hannah and then took the letter out of her hands and carefully read it over. “He says he wants me to start the day after tomorrow.”

“Woah that’s quick!” Clary commented “But well done Nev!”

“Thanks.” Neville smiled “You’re all going to have to address me as Auror Longbottom now.”