(no subject)

[tt_neville]

Who: Neville & Ginny
When: Morning, 23rd February
What: Coming 'home'
Where: Neville's house in Settlement 1
Warnings/Rating: TBD



Neville woke up slowly with what felt like a mouth full of dirt. In ordinary circumstances he quite liked dirt, but he much preferred it where it belonged.

He sat up, taking a second to get his bearings. He'd slept in a few odd places in his life, and especially over the last few years. It had started with the Room of Requirement, in a hammock, which he had never quite got up the nerve to tell his Grandmother about. Then he'd crashed on Seamus' sofa for a while, and there'd been a brief stint at the Leaky Cauldron between flats. All of those had felt odd and strange for the first few nights, and that was how he felt now. Except the difference was, he realised as he sat up and rubbed a filthy hand across his eyes, was that this was his house. It had been his for months now. It just felt odd, because he'd only slept in it a few nights before wandering off into the surrounding jungle with a rucksack and a tent... and hadn't come back until late last night. So late that he hadn't even bothered to wash and undress before collapsing on the bed.

He groaned and stumbled off the bed, almost tripping over his boots lying haphazardly on the floor. He stripped off the jungle-stained clothes and staggered into the bathroom.

The shower was blissfully hot. He wasn't sure how they powered it - or anything - something to do with the sun or the wind or something. He understood very little about the new land they now lived in. It didn't seem to matter though when the water stripped months of jungle from his skin, leaving him warm and pink all over.

He found clean clothes, loose trousers that laced at the waist and a singlet. He'd taken all his T-shirts on the expedition (the word, he had to admit, was only loosely applied) and he'd wash them later when he didn't feel like his head was full of cotton wool. There was half a box of what seemed to be cereal in the pantry - he took a gamble and ate some dry. Buying food was clearly something else he'd have to do later.

He unpacked his bag with slightly more enthusiasm than he had the other tasks. He arranged the cuttings and notes on the floor in a square pattern that then turned into what was probably an incomprehensible mess to anyone other than him. Then he sat down and slowly typed it all into his datapad, which he had very carefully left behind. It took quite a long time, but then he vaguely remembered someone telling him he was going to be paid for whatever he found in the jungle, so he should probably make some kind of effort. Then, as an afterthought, he made a note on the pad to everyone so that they would know he was back. He deliberately tried not to think about who in particular might be pleased to hear the news.

Then he went out into the garden. He hadn't done anything with it before his last-minute venture, and it was almost as overgrown as the patch of vines he'd been sleeping in for the last week and a half (springier than the leaves of a month ago, but not as soft as the moss of two months ago). But the air was clean out here, and he was used to the heat of it by now so that it cleared his head. Well. No time like the present.

Comments

[tt_ginny]

She blushed furiously and stabbed her own sneaker toe into the dirt, shuffling uneasily. "Yeah, Flint. I mean, nothing happened but, yeah," she groused with mild annoyance.

'Sound have stayed home, raided Charlie's fridge. Oh, who am I kidding. His fridge probably has cobwebs and messaging mum is right out. RIGHT OUT.' Ginny thought darkly, taking a deep sigh. "I told you it was awful, Nev."

[tt_neville]

Neville suddenly found himself fighting against all sorts of mental images that made him alternately want to throw up or hit something. He opened his mouth to demand to know whether Flint had taken advantage of the situation - 'nothing happened', in his book, could mean a myriad of different things - but firmly, and with a great deal of effort, shut it again.

Be a good friend.

"Do you... want to talk about it?" he sighed.

[tt_ginny]

"There's not a lot to talk about, really, Nev. A bit of snogging and saying some ridiculous things, a game of one on one Quidditch... I ended up covering shifts at the medical center since so many people called out so there really wasn't any time for things to go any further," Ginny admitted with a slight huff.

She really didn't mind that he was asking, or that there was an air of protectiveness in his inquiries. It was kinda cute and sweet in a way that only Neville could really be. Gin couldn't imagine him going after Flint, nor did she want him to. Flint was a professional Quidditch player and Ginny didn't want Neville to get hurt.

[tt_neville]

A bit of snogging??? Neville had half a mind - more than half a mind - to march up to Flint and hex his teeth out. He might have even resorted to using his fists instead of a wand. If it wasn't for the slight problem of not having the slightest idea of where Flint might be, he might have left right there and then. Instead he clenched his fists tight for a moment before releasing them.

"Bloody hell," he said through gritted teeth, trying to sound cool. "Rather you than me." The thought made him positively sick to his stomach.

What did he do now? Manners, Neville. His grandmother's voice spoke as clearly as if she had been standing right next to him.

He really wished that wouldn't happen.

"Do you er... want to come in?" he managed. "I dunno what I've got in the cupboard but I bet there's some tea, or something... if you want."

[tt_ginny]

Ginny glanced down, wincing at Neville's response. She didn't blame him. Before the Love Potion debacle - as she'd taken to calling it in her head - there was little chance Ginny would have spared a decent word for Flint if her life depended on it. But he had been a gentleman and that's what stuck with her the most now that it was over.

Now Neville probably thought she was a tramp. It made her shift again, glancing toward the path quickly then back again, shaking her head. "I stopped by to see if you needed anything from market," she said.

[tt_neville]

"Oh." Neville mentally kicked himself. She had mentioned that, hadn't she? Hiding his disappointment, he said. "Er... well, yeah, I probably do. You don't even want to know what I've been eating lately." He managed a weak grin. "Could I come with you? You can show me where everything is."

[tt_ginny]

"I probably don't," Ginny agreed with a soft chuckle. "Of course you can. Do you want to lock up?"

She was happy that he wanted to join her. Ginny had really missed Neville while he was gone and it felt good to talk to him again, to be around him. "You'll probably want to bring a backpack or a basket, if you have one."

[tt_neville]

"I'll get my pack," Neville said quickly. It probably still had leaves it in, but probably nothing that would contaminate food. He hurried back inside, stepping carefully over the plant map on the floor, and grabbed his backpack, upending it just to make sure. Then he came half way outside, remembered he'd left his keys inside, and went back to get them. He locked the door and jogged back to where Ginny was waiting for him. "Sorted," he said, slightly out of breath. "Merlin, I should not be allowed to live on my own."

[tt_ginny]

She nodded, pushing her hands into her jeans pockets as Neville raced into his house. He'd gotten fitter during his time in the jungle, just a bit leaner and Ginny could swear his shoulders were a touch broader.

Looking around, Ginny saw one of his neighbors looking at her and ducked her head, not wanting to deal with another person judging her the way she was judging herself in her thoughts. Neville returned, drawing her from those very thoughts.

Ginny laughed soft, looping her arm through his and steering him out onto the path toward the market place. "You're never here, Nevile. That's hardly living on your own."

[tt_neville]

"Camping on my own is different," Neville pointed out firmly as they walked. "I'm a bloody expert at camping by now. Give me a hammock or a tent and I'm good to go. But my own house? That's like real life, or something. I don't think I'm quite equipped to deal with it."

[tt_ginny]

"Well, if you ever feel like it's too much, you can always crash in my spare room," Ginny offered after a moment, shrugging. It wasn't like they hadn't spent nights sleeping next to each other in hammocks in the Room of Requirement.

"As long as you haven't taken up snoring," she teased.

[tt_neville]

Neville flushed. He was a champion snorer - he knew this. The other Gryffindor boys had complained about it enough growing up. He'd learned a pretty decent muffling charm though by the time they started crashing in the Room of Requirement.

"Cheers," he said anyway. "It might be all right once I've figure out things like food and laundry." He winked, to show this was an exaggeration - he did after all know how to do some things, though mostly by magic.

[tt_ginny]

Scoffing, Ginny just shook her head at his teasing. Reaching up, she adjusted her backpack as they turned the last corner, the marketplace just ahead.

"Well, here we are," she said, smiling. "The vendors on the right side do all the fruits and vegetables, the ones on the left do all the dairy and meats. The ones along the south side, they have pretty much everything else."

[tt_neville]

Neville looked around, vaguely remembering the first time he'd come through here but without much clarity. He'd been too overwhelmed by the change to be paying much attention.

"Remind me where the meat comes from?" he asked, looking dubiously at a slab hanging from a nearby stall.

[tt_ginny]

"This way," Ginny said with a soft chuckle. Leave it to Neville to be lost in the market but not lost in the jungle for three months.

"The basics are fish and fowl, really, but the tastes vary depending on what color the fish is or how the bird is shaped," she explained, leading Neville to the first cart that held fish laid out on a thin layer of ice. "See how this one has reddish colored scales? It will take a bit like lamb. The bluest ones taste like beef, oddly enough, but they are the biggest of the fish here."

[tt_neville]

Neville looked dubiously at the fish. "Fish that tastes like beef, right. Are we sure we haven't accidentally stumbled onto another planet entirely?"

This was a joke. Mostly. It was true that a lot of the plant species he had found technically oughtn't to be growing here, so he would have to do a lot more research. The whole fish thing was weird, though.

[tt_ginny]

"I said 'like', not exactly," Ginny replied wryly. "I don't know if they do something to them to make them that way or if they come out of the water that way. Personally, I'd rather not know, you know? It's better than straight up fish all the time, er, although its all fish or birds here anyway."

She laughed, shaking her head. "Same planet, different universe. I guess for all the things that are the same, there'll be a lot of things that are different." Ginny requested a few of the fish and they were wrapped up for her.

[tt_neville]

Neville dubiously examined some of the produce before selecting certain things that he thought he probably couldn't mess up too much. His mouth started to water a little as the stall keeper packed up a pre-prepared fowl. It had been a while since he'd eaten any real food.

"I'm surprised we haven't seen any mammals," he said conversational as they continued on. "It seems a perfect place for them."

[tt_ginny]

"Charlie says there's only birds on this island, even birds that can't fly, but there's big predators on Australia. Sirius has been putting up wards over there so they can start building the next settlement, but he's been doing it alone for months," Ginny told him, lowering her voice, and glancing over her shoulder to make sure no one else was close enough to hear her.

She shrugged again. "Not my field, love. Oh, look! Coffee! Thank Merlin! My supply from home has been gone for months," Gin exclaimed, doing a little skip over to the vendor. "Do you want some or are you sticking with tea?"

[tt_neville]

Neville shook his head. "Coffee. We travel to another universe with no cows or sleep or elephants, but there's still coffee." He grinned. "No thanks. I'm not quite so far gone as that yet."