The Marriage Law//Neville Longbottom

4

Hands. I can feel hands and pressure. My eyes fly open and I am immediately out of the bed screaming bloody murder as I rush across the room. Once my eyes are adjusted to the light I lock eyes with the man staring at me in bewilderment. Neville. Neville?

Immediately, the memories from last night flood back into my brain, flushing my system of its initial panic. I let out an audible sigh of relief and look away from the brunette.

"Good morning to you, too," He mutters with an exasperated laugh.

"Yeah, well I'm not exactly used to waking up with a bloody man in my bed," I guffaw. He simply shakes his head with a small laugh and lays back down. "We have school, Longbottom," I tell him in a clipped tone.

He gives me a nasty look and doesn't respond. I roll my eyes and go into the restroom to shower and do my makeup. Once I finish putting on my mascara and concealer I put on my uniform and cast a drying charm on my hair. It fails three times before finally drying my hair. When I exit the bathroom I find Neville still lying in bed, perfectly sound asleep. I quickly flick my wand at him and a bucket of dirty water falls onto his face.

To avoid any fight or retaliation, I rush out of the room and to the kitchen where I find Ron and Ginny talking. I snatch Ron's piece of buttered toast with a cheeky grin. He whined over it for nearly twenty minutes and Ginny and I talked about our courses.

"You seem rather cheery today," She notes, sipping her tea and lifting an eyebrow in question. "Neville finally screwing you? Shocking I thought he would be the kind of bloke to wait until marriage so his mummy can walk him down the aisle," Ginny pauses for a minute before adding on, "Though, I suppose he doesn't have a mummy."

"Ginny!" I nearly choke on my still half-eaten piece of bread, "No, I would— we would never!" I suspect that my cheeks are turning an unforgiving shade of red and I mentally scold myself.

She smiles into her mug and shakes her head. Her eyes were glinting with mischief and she quickly blinked it away before walking over to greet Harry. He had seemed to just come out of their dorm.

Neville came down shortly after and smiled at me. I nodded back and finished the last bite of my bread before walking to class alone. I had nearly made it to my first block when I heard my name being called across the courtyard. Swiftly, I turned on my heel and faced the person calling after me. It was my cousin, Draco Malfoy.

Why Draco decided to return is beyond me. His arrogance isn't nearly as reproachable as it was in our younger years of Hogwarts, but still, the arrogant rich white boy lays heavily in his tone. His hair was still his annoyingly crisp platinum blonde and his stupid smirk remains. We haven't spoken a word since the day the war ended.

########## (Flashback)

I rush over to Draco as the statue across the corridor breaks loose and comes thudding down. The rubble throws up dust which fills my lungs. I heave and cough and finally latch onto his sleeve. Quickly, he rushes us away from the dust.

"You alright?" He mutters hurriedly.

"Fine," I breathe out. "I'm switching sides, Draco. Switch with me?" I ask him with small tears beading in my tear duct.

He shakes his head as an answer, swallowing his spit hard. "I can't, you know that. I won't fight family, blood over everything," He recites to me. A family saying. A stupid saying.

I feel a tear slip down my cheek, "The dark side will lose and where will we be if not dead? Azkaban. As good as dead, Draco. I will not fight you if you try to kill me, but know this; I will never forgive you if you don't choose the light." I tell him, pleading was filling my voice.