SMILE » n. longbottom

xxx

"A CELEBRATION
AND A SURPRISE, PART ONE"

Neville had decided to finish unpacking his things that he had packed for Hogwarts. Once he had, he read his Herbology book about all herbs and plants.

He had spent his time reading the school book until light no longer creeped through the fabric in his curtains.

Neville heard a knock on his bedroom door, a voice he easily recognized as his Great Uncle Algie Longbottom, "Neville — your Great Aunt Enid has made some food." The door opened, revealing the man with his aging grey hair. "Are you going to join us for supper, my boy?"

"Great Uncle Algie, I am not really hungry for any food," Neville paused, observing his great-uncle's face that frowned deeply. He continued, "I ate on the train-ride back."

"Oh..." his great-uncle's voice deepened. Algie's gaze no longer was concentrated on his great-nephew, as it was swayed to the window where rain had been collected in droplets onto the glass.

"If it means so much for me to attend supper, I will. Besides, I haven't spoken much to either you or Great Aunt Enid..."

Algie nodded, his lips pursed into a unreadable expression and returned back to its previous state, "That's good to hear, Neville. Please do not allow the supper to become cold while we wait for you..."

"I won't," Neville assured his great-uncle. And so Algie Longbottom left his great-nephew to follow him down the stairs, where Enid and Augusta had been waiting with the dinner table set.

The scarf that Enid Longbottom had knit was floating in a corner, and the odd-looking cactus that Algie had required had been moving oddly in a corner.

Neville had not expected for this presence in the dining room. He had expected just a bowl or plate of whatever his Great Aunt Enid had prepared for him. But here everyone was waiting for them with a buffet of glorious foods and sweets, and there had also been presents in the corner of the room.

The Gryffindor boy smiled at this, this indeed was something that he had not expected. He sat down where his Great Aunt Enid had been motioning for him to sit, "What is this for?" he asked aloud, a smile still hung onto his face.

Enid Longbottom was the one to reply: "Your Great Uncle and I decided to throw together a somewhat surprise welcome-back party for you." She smiled. "I made you a scarf, based off of your Hogwarts house ..."

Algie Longbottom patted Neville on the shoulder and sat down beside his wife, then he waved towards the seat at the end of the table and exclaimed, "Sit down, my boy."

And so Neville had, therefore predicting the current night to be much more manageable than the aspect that he that thought this night would come to be.

Enid Longbottom spoke a charm that caused four empty plates, three platters for their supper, and a pitcher of tea to float from the kitchen onto the table before them. Algie had nodded to the food, looking rather surprised, "Enid, dear, the food looks splendid."

Enid smiled at that, "Of course it does. I had just bought a cooking book, all of the recipes are exquisite and complex — so the appearance of each dishes would of course be at it's upmost state."

Augusta Longbottom, or rather commonly known by Neville as Nan, had stayed silent. Once Enid had begun to serve servings from each platter onto everyone's plate and everyone had grown silent, she looked to Neville, "I read some newspapers this morning. The paper informed me of the events that had happened at Hogwarts. That boy, Cedric Diggory, you must have known him. Did you?"

Enid and Algie had been listening to what Neville might say. He paused for a while before he spoke, staring at the plate of food that Enid had presented, "Well he was a bit older, but ... sure — I saw him maybe once or twice about the castle grounds. I never knew him personally, but if I had and perhaps events had not happened then: maybe we would have known each other ... under certain circumstances, of course."

Enid chirped in, posing a feature of worry that casted itself onto her face, "Some theorists theorize that the cause of Cedric Diggory's death was caused by a faulty disfunction that the Triwizard Cup had."

"It couldn't have been a disfunction, Dumbledore would have known of any fault that the cup would obtain," Neville concluded, he looked up from his food and stared at each of his family members' faces.

Harry Potter had told him what he believed what truly had happened: Cedric had been killed by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Harry had not told him any more, perhaps he had felt a pity for Cedric Diggory's father and possibly for all of those involved in the vast spell of torture and loss that He-Must-Not-Be-Named casted.

Perhaps that was why Harry had only told Neville that one detail was because there must have been a web of complex details and intricate information that Harry believed were too serious of a matter to speak of simply.

Neville repeated himself, rather confused and tired with the situation that he felt was a sort of déjà vu — as this had been the talk that haunted Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. "It couldn't have been a disfunction. Everyone would believe whatever Dumbledore would say. Who wouldn't?"

Neville knew what he had been implying, that this death of a boy had not been caused by a faulty champions cup, but rather by a major force that would yet be returning.

Silence endorsed the room's excitement and joy, joining it's acquaintance, sorrow, among the four who thought if what is yet to come according to this sorrow that had haunted the Triwizard Tournament in a recognizable tone of loss.