Glamour

Aftermath

 Early winter winds ripped through the main courtyard causing Harry to shiver as he waited for Neville to appear. He had agreed they would head down to the greenhouses together, with Neville promising that he would show Harry the Snapdragons he had been growing with the herbology club. Harry tucked himself behind one of the pillars, wincing as the occasional passing student brought snippets of gossip to his ears.

Harry didn't really want to know that he was off plotting with Slytherin's about Dark Arts. Or that he had been caught kissing a bloke by Umbridge. Or that this was the latest proof that he had gone insane after the Triwizard Tournament last year. Being shunned by the school was a yearly occurrence at this point, and it was easier to ignore the pointed whispers and stares that followed him.

Neville finally appeared, accompanied by Luna who gave Harry an enthusiastic wave once she spotted him.

"Hey Harry, you mind if Luna tags along today?" Neville asked, rubbing his gloved hands together in an attempt to keep warm.

"Not at all. The more the merrier" Harry grinned, pleased to be spending time with his new friends.

The warmth of the greenhouse was a nice contrast to the winter weather outside. Harry settled himself on one of the long benches, content to watch as Neville began pottering around the Lazy Lavender which the first and second year Herbology club members had been growing as a group project. Luna had wandered off into a corner and was chatting to the Fanged Geranium, not seeming to care that it was currently attempting to bite her fingers off.

After a few minutes, Harry brought out his sketchbook, idly doodling a particularly nice clump of lavender that was on the table next to him.

"What you doing Harry?" Neville asked, looking up from the clump of lavender he was petting.

"Uh drawing...?" Harry said cautiously, unsure how Neville would react.

"Oh that's cool." Neville said with a smile. "I didn't know you could draw, can I see?"

Harry nodded, shyly holding out the journal for Neville to look at. The shy Gryffindor carefully picked up the journal and glanced at the drawings on the open pages, before flicking back through to see the previous sketches.

"This is great Harry, the drawings look almost alive." Neville gushed holding the journal up to the light, "How long have you been drawing, I never noticed in the common room?"

"It's sort of been a secret." Harry admitted, taking his journal back and continuing to add lines to his sketch. "I used to draw a lot before Hogwarts, but I only really started again this year."

"These are so good." Neville mumbled almost to himself. "Have you considered doing commissions?"

"I'm not that good. Anyway these are just for me really." Harry stuttered, the thought of others knowing he drew, or worse seeing his sketches was terrifying.

"Well would you be interested if I asked you to help me with some drawings for my Herbology project?" Neville asked his face flushing red as he tripped over the words in a rush to get them out.

"We need drawings?" Harry asked, thinking back to the work Professor Sprout had set them earlier that week.

"Oh this isn't for class work. The herbology club are putting together a paper on the life cycle of moulting thistles but none of us are good enough to draw the last two stages of the flowers."

"I don't really want anyone to know about this." Harry mumbled shuffling his feet. "If I did would you not tell anyone it was me?"

"I don't like it, but I can." Neville sighed. "You shouldn't hide the things you are good at."

"Its just, I've never had good response. I'm happy this being something that is just for me." Harry admitted, shuffling slightly in his seat.
"If that's what you want then fine." Neville smiled reaching over to give Harry a light squeeze on his arm. "Enough of that though, I'm getting cold, you want to go and find a hot chocolate to warm up?"

Harry quickly agreed, the prospect of warm drinks in the warmth of the kitchens was always something he could agree to. The two quickly tidied up and made their way inside exchanging outlandish theories as to where Luna could have wandered off to this time.

The bustle of the house elves in the kitchen was always a heart-warming sight. The elves squeaked in pleasure at their entrance, seating them at the corner table before offering a large selection of sandwiches and cakes. Neville poured them both tea from the pot placed in the centre of the table, blushing red and muttering about his grandmother as he did so.

Harry smiled, grabbing a sandwich from the plate in front of him. Neville was such an odd mix of shyness and old time manners, it was adorable and Harry was very glad he was now getting to know his diminutive room-mate.

"Uh Harry, do you know anything about animation charms?" Neville asked hesitantly once they had both had their fill of food.

"No? What are they?" Harry asked in confusion.

"They make small drawings come to life for a little bit. Luna taught me one last year, I thought you might like to learn it."

Harry grinned and pulled out his journal.

"Yes, can you show me?" He quickly flicked to a sketch of Hedwig that he had finished that morning. Neville nodded shyly taking out his wand and looking at the sketch for a moment.

"Imago Vitae" He intoned, flicking his wand in a zig-zag pattern over the image. For a moment nothing happened causing Neville to frown, but then the owl gave a huff, ruffling its feathers in the manner Harry had seen Hedwig do thousands of times. "Even though its a charm you sort of need to treat it like a transfiguration, the key is to really visualise what you want the image to do."

"Oh yeah, this is so much better than the muggle version." harry grinned, looking at the freshly animated drawing as it fluffed its feathers in irritation.

"The muggles have an animation charm?" Neville asked confused.

"It's not a charm, its just an illusion they have." Harry explained, grabbing a piece of parchment and tearing it into small rectangles, "Look, I can sketch a slightly different image on the corner of each piece and then when I stack them and flick through you get an animation."

Neville took the stack of parchment and flicked through himself, his face changing from sceptical to slightly impressed.

"Muggles can be pretty inventive sometimes." He said with a small smile, flicking through the images of a plant flowering once again.

"I guess you have to be if you don't have magic to help you along." Harry said with a shrug. It was something he had noticed in his extra-curricular reading into wixen culture. While the muggles seemed to have an answer for every hurdle they came across in not having magic, it came at the price of warping the natural world around them, forcing the inherent magic of the earth to bend to their will. Harry was finding that he much preferred the easy relationship you had if you actually worked with magic. Casting aside his muggle ways had not only improved his magical abilities, but also allowed himself to feel more at peace with who he was than ever.