EAT YOUR YOUNG ━ HOTD & HP

𝐓𝐖𝐎 ─ 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐕𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐆𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐒

[ two, the vanishing glass ]

Neville Longbottom couldn't say that his early childhood had been particularly happy.

While he loved his gran, he wasn't blind to how she'd destroyed his self-esteem when he was younger by constantly comparing him to his father and pointing out how the man would have never made the same mistakes and struggled as much as Neville used to.

Don't get him wrong, he was one of the lucky ones: for all their faults, he knew his family cared about him regardless of his 'shortcomings' ( as Augusta would call them ), but he didn't come to this realisation until later on in life when the damage had already been done.

For the longest time, he'd kept everything bottled up with no intention of telling anyone about it...well, that was until he met Aemma Potter, someone who managed to radiate sunshine whenever she smiled despite everything life kept throwing at her.

Just as Aemma had become the sole keeper of his secrets, she'd entrusted him with her own ━ whispered stories that no one other than himself and Dumbledore knew.

Neville had always been calm, kind, and level-headed, but hearing how Aemma's family had treated her had awakened a silent storm within him that had latched onto his magic, the same righteous anger and indignation he'd become accustomed to in the past few years.

Feeling his girlfriend stiffen beside him at the prospect of revisiting unhappy memories and sharing them with so many people, Neville clenched his jaw. However, he quickly pulled himself together, aware that the last thing Aemma needed at that moment was his anger.

"I'm here for you, my sweet spitfire." He whispered to his girlfriend, pulling her closer into his embrace to comfort and support her.

[The scar's glow immediately dies down, and the camera pans to see Aemma who is now 10 years old, still sleeping. Then, the light turns on outside her bedroom cupboard under the stairs]

Petunia: Up! Get up! [She knocks on her closet door repeatedly] Now! [Smacks door of closet and walks into the living room]

[Aemma wakes up, turns on her bedroom light and puts on her glasses with tape on the bridge, indicating that it was partly damaged. A large, tubby boy, Dudley Dursley, suddenly comes running down the stairs above the closet. He stops half-way down and goes back, jumping on the staircase.]

Rhaenyra was utterly enraged by what she'd just seen. "How dare they force you into a 'room' not even fit for a servant, let alone a growing child?" She asked through gritted teeth.

Her daughter deserved better than a small, dusty cupboard she'd clearly outgrown. Her treacherous mind briefly took her to Lucerys' room on Dragonstone, the same one she'd ordered be left untouched, and a new wave of melancholy hit her with such force it'd have sent her stumbling had she been standing. Her sweet girl would never cross that threshold ever again.