In The Vine Covered Cottage
Book 2: Alice Eidan Longbottom
Neville had been gone most of the night, as it was his Friday to patrol the hallways. There was a thunderstorm and he was not thrilled to have walked home in such conditions, he was never confident in his Apparating skills to make it worth it. He'd lost too many finger nails over the years to risk it.
After he arrived home to their vine covered cottage on the outskirts of Hogsmead he climbed the stairs to where the bedrooms resided.
Neville looked in to see his sleeping wife, his Sam. When she slept, he couldn't see the worry lines that had consistently etched around her eyes since she was fifteen. Her dark wild hair was pulled up and the burn scars tracing her neck were on full display. He'd loved her nearly his entire life and he sometimes wondered what an incredible woman like her, had ever wanted to do with a lump like him.
His youngest, almost nine year old Alice, slept in his wife's arms. The family Pygmy Puff, Artie was cuddled into her arms. Her little sandy blonde curls covered some of her delicate face and tiny little nose. It was probably the quietest he'd seen her in a while, she was quite a firecracker. She always had questions about everything and a boisterous voice to coincide.
He hoped she'd grow out of it, for the poor little girl's sake. Sam insisted Alice inherited his smile, but he couldn't remember ever having a smile as nice as little Alice's. In his mind, other than her hair color, she thankfully looked nothing like him.
She had been obviously frightened by the storm's rage, as she often was, and climbed in bed with her mother.
Duke, his wife's miniature dragon was curled up on Alice's shoulder.
Duke awoke and quickly abandoned his daughter's shoulder, flying to greet Neville. Duke nudged against his cheek as Neville closed the door.
"Take care of my girls tonight?" He asked the dragon who sat upon his shoulder.
Duke danced on his shoulder a little as if to say, yes.
The dragon was a more than permanent member of his family. He went wherever Sam did, her constant companion and protector. When the girls were babies he'd guard their cribs.
"Good boy, I'm sure I can get you an extra Saturday steak tomorrow for dinner." He promised the dragon, nudging under his neck.
Minerva, his eldest daughter wasn't curled in bed with her mother and sister. They called her Minnie so as to not confuse her with her namesake. She was in her own very purple and blue room down the hallway.
He checked on her. She laid with her arms hanging off the side of the bed. A tiny stuffed dragon dangled from her hands. She was going to turn eleven soon and tried to insist she was too old for cuddly toys, but they found a whole stash of them beneath her bed.
Minnie's dark curly hair was braided in two tails and dark freckles speckled across her cheeks and nose. He was ashamed to say she'd gotten his ears, thankfully she wore them better than he ever did. She was a very smart girl, she'd read nearly every book they had and already knew how to tend difficult plants in his greenhouses.
Neville made his way across the little bridge that connected their upstairs into the sitting room. The sitting room, like the rest of his home was covered in bookshelves, but these were special. These bookshelves were covered in his wife's work. All of her books were displayed along with folders containing categorized Daily Prophet editions. Two solitary books held his name, both were textbooks, but they were books all the same.
Between the books and folders sat a small scrapbook full of pictures and Hogwarts Gazette articles from their childhood. Sam's Gazette students had presented it to her at one of the annual galas celebrating the little paper. Beside the scrapbook, they had the group picture of the Gazette from their sixth year. It felt like a lifetime ago now.
He sat down on his sitting room sofa and began taking off his boots. His feet felt like rocks from walking every corridor and hallway. He'd been teaching nearly twenty-five years now and the late night patrols had never become easier. He was tired, but in an almost wired way. He knew he wouldn't really sleep quite yet. He might stay awake and quietly grade essays. He lit a fire and hoped keeping the light soft would eventually make him sleepy.
"Dad?" A soft voice called to him. It was Alice in her pygmy puff pajamas with Artie in her arms. Her eyelids were heavy but she managed to look around the room. "Where's Duke?"
"He was just making sure I got in alright." Neville said as Duke flew onto Alice's shoulder.
"Thank you Duke." She nudged the dragon lightly on the nose. She yawned a little.
"Need me to tuck you back into bed?" Neville asked as she stood in the doorway.
Alice shook her head and pouted her lip, "I can't sleep, the storm is too loud."
Neville chuckled to himself, she'd been sleeping just fine a few moments ago. "Is that so? You and mum seemed pretty cozy."
"I was pretending, mum keeps shaking in her sleep." Alice pinched her cheek.
Sam had a condition that caused her shakes, but they rarely presented themselves now. She'd been on a few potions to handle them for years. He knew she shook in her sleep, he had dealt with it for years. He figured since he snored their sleeping woes balanced out.
She nodded, "Can you read to me till the storm stops?"
Neville rolled his eyes, "It's late and I need to grade these papers. How about you read a book till you fall asleep and I won't tell mum."
She stepped closer into the room. "Please dad. You always do all the voices."
"Fine." He had a hard time saying no, which was why Sam said he was the pushover parent. He'd probably get in trouble for it tomorrow, but if he were lucky, Alice would fall back to sleep. "Pick out a book you little terror and come here. Just don't tell Mummy or we will both be fed to the tentacular."
She went to one of their big bookshelves and grabbed a book off of the middle shelf.
He immediately turned it down as she brought it to him and he saw the title.
He handed the book back to her, "Not this one again."
"Oh come on Dad it's my favorite!" She griped.
'Why do you like this damn book of all them?" Neville asked, pretending he didn't just swear in front of his child.
"There are lots of dragons and Kai Jones is really awesome. I think I want to be a Dragonologist when I grow up." Alice insisted. "Or a world famous Quidditch player like Aunt Ginny was."
"You can do whatever you want to do Alice." He smiled, enjoying that she had her ambitions. He hoped desperately that she didn't inherit his incapability on a broomstick. Maybe she took after her uncle Jack who had always been a good quidditch player, "But can we read a different book?"
"But Duke's in it!"
"Duke is in at least three of your mother's books." Neville raised his eyebrows, wishing she'd occasionally pick one where his wife wasn't snogging another man.
"Well you are also in it." Alice crossed her arms.
"Not helping your case kid, I hate books with me in them." Neville reminded with a smirk. "Especially if your mum writes them, she's always too flattering."
"You are only in it for a few paragraphs!" Alice rolled her eyes, looking slightly like his Gran. "Mostly you just snog mum."
"True." He chuckled thinking of that particularly nice memory, "Alright, only until you fall asleep, then you can't ask me to read it ever again."
Alice nodded quickly as her face contorted into a smile before sitting onto the sofa and snuggling into the crook of his arm. She held her stuffed dragon close to her.
He began reading aloud after kissing the top of his daughter's head. It wasn't long before he and Alice fell into a deep sleep.
Creak
The sound of his wife's footsteps on the one squeaky floorboard he'd never fixed made his eyes flutter open. His wife leaned against the wall with both of her eyebrows raised and the dark circles under her eyes making a ghastly appearance.
He smiled at her, before smiling at the little girl in his arms.
"She couldn't sleep." Neville tried qualifying. He handed her the book in his hands.
"So you read to her?" Sam asked while placing it on the shelf.
"Yeah."
"You are a pushover by the way."
"Of course I am." He said before picking up his daughter into his arms. "She bats those big blue eyes she got from you, and I can't tell her no."
Sam quietly laughed as Neville carried Alice over the bridge, "I knew something good had to come from my genetics."
They made it to Alice's lemon colored room. He placed her into her bed, with Artie curling herself into Alice's arms.
He kissed her cheek. Samantha followed suit and kissed her cheek. Duke curled up on Alice's shoulder.
"For the record though, The Heart of The Dragon isn't my favorite." Neville mentioned after shutting Alice's door.
She looked at him with both eyebrows raised. "You have notes on a book I wrote decades ago?"
"I've officially read that damn book five times." Neville began laughing. "Of course I have notes."
"Alice needs a new favorite book." Sam rolled her eyes.
"She wants to be a dragonologist." Neville reminded her. "Or a famous Quidditch player like Ginny."
Samantha grimaced, "Damn kid knows what she wants, I guess."
He laughed, "She's so much like you."
Samantha rolled her eyes, "Obnoxious and loud, yep, that's my kid alright."
"I meant ambitious." Neville chuckled before taking Sam's hand.
"Ok, now I'm curious." Sam squeezed his hand back, "I need the notes."
"Will you murder me if I give them?" He questioned.
"No, but only because you fathered my children and I can't raise those terrors alone." She chuckled.
"I have a hard time believing his brain wasn't just stuffed with facts about dragons." Neville laughed, "He and Freya are too lovey dovey in that first chapter."
"For the record, that was in Freya's notes." She defended, "And I don't actually know what he thought about. It was creative license to seem more interesting."
"I mean the dragons would have been interesting." Neville shrugged.
"I-well-damnit Nev, you know what, I'm not exactly fond of dragons." She admitted as they made it to their room.
He laughed, "Says the woman who's lifetime companion is a dragon."
"I didn't get a choice on that you know?" She said as she climbed into bed and flopped her head back.
"It's like if you wrote a book about me and only slightly mentioned plants." He continued as she felt him climb into bed beside her.
"You won't let me write a book about you anyway." She closed her eyes.
"Well, now I'm absolutely convinced I shouldn't ever let you." He breathed out.
"Then I won't." She said drowsily.
"Can you believe our Minnie is getting her wand next weekend?" Neville asked into the darkness.
"You are hyper for someone who spent an evening walking hallways and reading a book to an eight year old." She shook her head and opened her eyes.
"Sorry." He whispered.
"I'm honestly worried about Minnie starting school." Sam breathed out honestly.
Neville chuckled. "She's never been trouble and she already has friends, so she won't be incredibly lonely at school. She's smart too, smarter than I ever was anyway."
"I worry she won't know how to stand up for herself once she gets to school." She rolled over, "Josie and Cody are good kids, but I worry so much that she gets lost trying to handle their personalities. They love her like a sister, but you can tell she's not understood."
"What about Luna's boys?" Neville asked, "Lysander's in Gryffindor after all."
"I dunno." Sam shook her head. "Maybe they could be friends. Honestly I think Alice has scared them both off with that stupid crush she has."
"I think it's cute." Neville insisted.
"It won't always be cute." Sam looked over to him.
He pulled her closer. "She will figure it out."
"I certainly hope so." Sam laid her head down on his chest. He could feel her shakes begin as she fell asleep again.