Little Brave Hearts || Neville Longbottom

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

The garden was Neville's sanctuary inside their big mansion. It was the place that soothed him the most whenever his gran made him upset or he made her upset. He found plants easier to deal with than humans, they do not speak, they do not hurt, they do not insult, they simply listened, and grow depending on how you took care of it. The silence of their garden calmed him to his satisfaction, and thankfully his gran did not say anything about his love for plants.

The sound of footsteps alerted him, and he saw his grandmother walking towards him, all dressed up.

"We'll be leaving soon," she said, waiting for him.

It was the morning of Christmas, meaning they would have to go to St. Mungo's to visit his parents and spend the day with them.

His parents may not recognize him, but he would make the most out of their visit to fill up the hole in his chest that their absence had created even just for a little bit.

Wiping off the dirt from the soil with a clean cloth, he first examined his appearance before walking after his grandmother out of the garden.

..

A sweet smell of apple pie woke Maykha on the morning of Christmas. When she opened her eyes, she noticed that she was the only one left in the bed room and her two cousins were out of sight.

It was the letter from Neville that made her stay up until late last night. The boy sent her a long letter talking about his own Christmas. He told her that his great-uncle and great-aunt came to join him and his grandmother for Christmas, thankful that this year was not going to be one of those awkward holidays he had to spent with her alone. Neville ended the letter saying he missed her, and that was enough for Maykha to end her night with a smile on her face.

Finally having enough motivation to get out of bed, she sleepily walked her way towards the kitchen, following the sweet aroma with her eyes closed until she bumped on something that made her open her eyes to see that her father was in front of her.

"Good morning, dad! Happy Christmas!"

"Happy Christmas to you too, dear. You woke quite a bit late today"

"Yes, I was too busy reading letters from Neville and the others that I lost the track of time. Have you seen Reina and Ren? "

"Yup, they're in the kitchen. Your mum is baking an apple pie, by the way," her father said, wiggling his eyebrows.

"I knew it!"

Maykha raced her way towards the kitchen and saw her mother and Aunt Erika wearing an apron with freshly baked apple pies in their her hands while the twins were patiently preparing themselves to devour the pie their mother has made.

"Hey, why didn't you wake me up!?" Maykha complained to her cousins, placing her hands on her waist.

"Oh bummer, we were actually planning on eating this by ourselves," Reina said, teasing her.

"We tried, Maykha, but we weren't informed that waking you up was as hard as making Yuiko to shut up," Ren said blankly.

"I'm not sure if you're trying to be funny or what, brother," Reina said as she gave her brother a look

Maykha snorted, "Is this the part where we should laugh?"

"Who told you I was joking? That's a fact," the boy replied as he took a sip from his glass of milk.

"That's a lie!" both Maykha and Reina said, disagreeing to the boy's comparison.

"Okay kids, that's enough. Why don't you twins help your Uncle Herbert in waking your dad up?" Erika commanded her kids but the Reina simply chuckled and Ren shook his head disappointedly.

"Mum, you should by now know that that's impossible. Dad's a sleeping monster, let him wake up on his own. We don't want to go and waste our energy to him."

"Who's going to waste energy to whom?" Just then, Mason entered the kitchen, scratching his back and looking as if the man hadn't been woken up in a very peaceful way.

"Nothing!" all of them answered in chorus making him look at them suspiciously.

"What happened, love?" Erika asked her husband, sounding quite concerned when Herbert appeared behind Mason.

"Stop the act, Erika. You were the one who told me to wake Mason up. It would have been nice of you if you atleast warned me that he's a bit brutal in the morning!" Herbert complained, rubbing his back as he turned to his wife, looking for her sympathy "My back bloody hurts, love. Aid me."

Instead of doing what his husband wanted, Maddison just slapped him on his back making the man groan in pain, "Bloody hell, Maddie! How are you so barbaric early in this Christmas morning?!"

The woman just laughed at her husband and gave him a peck on his cheek, "Well, Happy Christmas to you too, my love."

It looked like her father still wanted to protest, but eventually changed his mind after his wife gave him a kiss. This earned giggles from the kids. Maykha knew that she loved seeing her parents laugh and tease each other, her father was a complete fool for her mother as much as he was for her too. It was this kind of relationship that Maykha wanted to have in the future too.

As all of them proceeded on eating their breakfast, Maykha noted that aside from the pies, they had a complete Japanese-styled breakfast that was enough to make Maykha's stomach to growl.

"So what's the plan for today, mum?" Maykha asked her mother as she took another bite from her food.

"Decorate the whole house and open the gifts we bought for our Secret Santa. Gah! I'm excited!", Maddison answered with a lot of enthusiasm as she clapped her hands together.

Maykha too was excited for the Secret Santa portion of the Christmas party although she didn't know what to expect with Reina's taste in buying gifts.

She wondered how her friends were doing. Though, they're keeping in touch through their letters, it still feels different when she hears their voices and needless to admit, she missed her daily bickering with Ron and Harry, Hermione's scolding, and Neville's...well,  she missed Neville's presence.