SMILE » n. longbottom

xxxviii

"WONDER"

Curiosity fueled Alana's thoughts as she collected her feelings and ambitions. She indeed had left Neville to sit alone in St. Mungos' gardens, but Alana felt that her friend would have said something important. In truth Alana's assumptions would have been deemed valid, but Neville never spoke the words that he had wished to.

Alana Wallace set aside those thoughts about what Neville might have said, and began to focus on the situation at hand: Doctor Paddlewinn had requested that Alana come to her office. And indeed, the Hufflepuff girl wandered here.

And when Alana did, the woman stared up from the curved parchment that was held in her hands, and smiled shortly after, "Alana, dear. Your parents wish to ... extract you from the hospital as soon as they can. Which is soon to be about ... lets say ... less than forty-eight hours? It's hard to tell when a letter could have been written." The woman handed the letter to her patient, as she had noticed Alana's piercing stares that tracked the piece of parchment as it crinkled and cracked slightly under Doctor Paddlewinn's nervous grip.

Alana read for herself, trying to make sense of all this tension that seemed to be kept up:

"To whom it may concern,

The leave of our daughter, Alana Wallace has been demanded since her stay at St. Mungos is no longer necessary since she's completed her healing from the recent procedure. The Wallace family thanks you dearly for your help in the aid of our daughter; but she'll be well under our supervision.

Our gratitude is with you, Maurice and Aronn Wallace."

"I'm sorry about this, I can tell that you enjoy St. Mungos," Doctor Paddlewinn hesitated, stopping to glance at Alana and then to continue to stare off to the abyss that seemed to occupy in her office. "I can tell that you've become more open and less preserved. And this would have been just the start of improvement, Alana. But I can't forbid you to leave when your own parents request upon your leave."

Alana shuddered at the thought of returning to her family's mansion, as it has always been an environment that was quiet and haunting or sulky and negative. There had been days in the Wallace mansion where Alana had wished that she would escape its abyss of emptiness. But she'll have to face the mansion at some point - and soon, if that, "So, that's what is to happen?"

"Sadly, yes," Doctor Paddlewinn returned her hazy gaze to Alana. She sat up from her desk and sighed, "I suppose that they — your parents will be here soon, maybe at the latest: tomorrow."

And so after saying her brief farewells to Doctor Paddlewinn, she walked back towards the room that had provided for Alana Wallace. She waves her wand in the air, sighing a small spell that caused her suitcases that Alana had came here with and caused them to open up onto the hospital bed.

The Hufflepuff girl sighed and covered her eyes with her eyes as she felt as though mist had hovered around her eyes. She felt a small tanging that pulled at her heartstrings, and something had compelled her to weep. But something seemed to have been compelled the girl more as she heard a knock on her door, Alana wiped her tears away quickly and hid the frown that had been cast onto her face.

Clothes and possessions that had been owned by Alana Wallace continued to fold and stuff themselves into the suitcases that had been laid out onto the bed. Neville Longbottom had been astonished by what he had been seeing, and he mumbled, "How?"

Alana looked up, "Neville. I'm sorry that I left the gardens so early — my doctor just told me that my parents will be picking me up earlier than had been expected of them." The girl sighed and rubbed her arms shyly as she realized that Neville had been staring at the effects of the spell that Alana had cast that caused her bags to be packed. She nodded towards the moving clothes, "I picked up a levitation spell one summer — I had realized that magic could help the elves that work at my home."

"Oh?" Neville nodded understandingly. But then his eyebrows furrowed and his eyes became sorrowful and distant, until he returned his warm gaze onto Alana and questioned, "That's considerate, Alana. But, I was actually thinking about talking to you about something; I asked around for your room — so — here I am."

"What is it?" Alana tilted her head slightly as she stared at the boy who stood in the doorway.

Neville sighed and closed his eyes as he tried to calm his nerves and speak his mind. He opened them, and his heartstrings tanged as Neville saw Alana stare at him as if he had been the most interesting person in the entire wizarding world, "I ... have been meaning to ask you something for a while now — actually for an entirety, it would seem. And ... "

"And?" Alana's eyes widened in wonder as she urged for Neville to finish his sentence before it would be her time to leave St. Mungos.

"I was wondering if you would ever consider the possibility of —" and just like that, Neville was interrupted by a sharp shout that was behind him:

"Alana!" It had been Maurice Wallace who wore a petrified face as she stared in a sense of horror at Neville. She refocused onto her daughter who was holding onto her baggage, "Have you got all of your things packed?" After her daughter looked around nervously for anything and nodded reassuringly towards her mother that she had got everything, Mrs. Wallace hissed, "Well, good. Let's get a move with it, I've just sighed you out and your father is waiting outside for us — so no slacking."

And with that been said, Mrs. Wallace turned on her heel and headed to the front door of St. Mungos where Mr. Wallace must have been waiting impatiently in a sleek black limousine. This lead to Alana hurrying out of the door to follow her mother before turning to Neville and saying her goodbyes: "It always seems that I have been running away. Doesn't it?" She paused, "I'll post to you whenever I can, Neville. I'll see you at Hogwarts, maybe the express if I can find you. I'll figure that out later when I can."

Alana hustled to the side of her mother, who when realizing her daughter's presence whispered slightly, "Who was that boy you were speaking to, Alana?"

"His name is Neville Longbottom. He's in the same year as me at Hogwarts. Why do you ask?"

Maurice Wallace stayed silent, as she recalled a couple with the last name of Longbottom that had a son called Neville. But Alana would never know that her mother knew anything about what had happened to the two or how she would.