Only Human
If there was one thing Neville Longbottom didn't take for granted, it was his friends. Awkward and shy, the first person who had talked to him was Hermione Granger. The first person to stand up for him was Harry Potter. So naturally, he was loyal to them to a fault. Therefore, when a mysterious person arrives at Hogwarts with a keen interest in his two friends, it had arisen a couple of flags in Neville's mind.
At first he thought it was just plain hero worship. New students always tended to gawk at Harry. But yesterday, Neville distinctly heard Ryan call Hermione "Mum". And then when Draco called Harry by his last name the two of them had turned and he could've sworn that the two of them were twins.
He tried to crack open Ryan's trunk but there was a powerful locking charm on it. And if Neville suspected who Ryan really was, it was no surprise that he would be adept at that sort of thing. But he couldn't prove it and he thought just outright asking him would send Ryan into some sort of panic. No, he had to go about this in a different way.
~~~~~~~
Ryan was sitting at a table in the library when Hermione walked in and sat down across from him. "Hey how are you feeling?" he asked her in genuine concern.
She sighed as she gave him a pointed look. Yeah, he knew that one and he shut up immediately.
For two minutes.
"You know Harry didn't mean it."
"I know that," she replied. Of course she did. She was his wife after all. "I just don't know what's gotten into him lately."
Ryan looked up at his mother then back down at his book. Okay, here goes. "He's just jealous," he said as he turned a page.
Hermione stared at him. "Jealous? Harry?" she scoffed. "He's the number one student in DADA, why should he be so upset if you disarm him? Nobody's perfect."
Ryan stared at his mother. That's not how she was supposed to take it. She was supposed to say "Why would Harry be Jealous?"
"Oh because he likes you in the more than friend way."
"Really? Well I like him too!"
"You should tell him!"
"I definitely will! Thanks Ryan you're the best. And if we happen to have a son, we're going to name him after you."
At least, that was how the conversation was supposed to go, in his mind. "No, Hermione, I meant-"
"Let's just drop it okay?" she sighed. "Besides, I'm surprised that you're defending him considering how horrid he's been to you."
"He hasn't been so bad," Ryan said quietly but dropped the subject all the same.
He walked with his mother back to the common room both of them strangely silent until she spoke up just outside of the portrait.
"You know, I'm totally embarrassed to say this but…you look really familiar to me," she said.
"I just have that kind of familiar face," he grinned.
When they entered the room, Harry immediately stood up from the couch where he was sitting and approached Hermione.
"Hermione, please, I just want to talk."
Ryan took this opportunity to hastily leave them alone and head up to the dorm. He unlocked the trunk and threw his books inside then went back out to eavesdrop on his parents. Neville was hidden behind the curtains of his bed and waited until Ryan left the room to cross it and kneel before the trunk.
When he opened it, it looked just like any other normal trunk that a student of Hogwarts would have. Until he pulled out a framed picture stuffed at the bottom of the trunk.
He stared at it.
It was a picture of Harry and Hermione, older but still looking the same, surrounded by seven children. One of them, the oldest it seemed was Ryan. Neville scoffed at his own idiocy and the idiocy of everyone around them. Ryan looked so much like his father, how could he have missed it? How could anyone have missed it, especially Harry and Hermione? Neville laughed out loud again. So that was why Hermione was so attracted to Ryan. He reminded her of Harry, especially since Ryan was the one who had jumped in front of Malfoy's hex. So like his father.
Then Neville frowned. Why was Ryan here then? In their time? He stuffed the picture back in the trunk and closed it. When he opened the dormitory door, he found Ryan standing behind the wall, listening to Harry and Hermione talking downstairs. Hermione seemed to still be upset about the whole thing and Harry was apologizing profusely. He walked up behind Ryan.
"Must be hard to see your parents argue," he said with a grin.
Ryan sighed. "No kidding." His eyes widened and he spun around. "I mean…I…er…"
Neville had a wry grin on his face. "You kind of gave yourself away when you called Hermione `Mum'."
Ryan looked distressed as he slumped against the wall. Neville felt a twinge of sympathy for the guy.
"Come on, lets leave them to talk," he said, nudging Ryan back to the dorm. He checked the room completely to make sure no one else would overhear what they were going to talk about.
He turned back to Ryan. "So, Harry and Hermione, huh? I always thought so." He sat down on his bed. "How did it happen?"
Ryan frowned and leaned against his bedpost. He raised a finger and traced the carved woodwork. "At the beginning of this year, on the Platform, Draco Malfoy sent a hex toward my mother and my father jumped in front of it, taking the hit."
Neville's brow wrinkled. "But you…oh!" He drew that last word out slowly.
Ryan shrugged. "Yeah, oh."
"So how did you get here in the first place and is that why you haven't gone back?"
"I got here by an accident with a faulty time-turner. Professor Lupin knows about my situation. In fact, before the accident happened he gave me something to give to himself. Anyway, he's working on how to fix the damn thing."
"And in the meantime, you're trying to fix up your little mistake."
"Trying is the operative word."
Neville nodded. "So the future huh? What's it like?"
Ryan shrugged. "Not much different than now. My mum works in the ministry and my dad's an auror."
He looked eagerly at Ryan. "What am I doing in the future? Wait! No, never mind. I don't want to know, I want it to be a surprise."
Ryan looked at him sadly. At the eager and happy face of a young man who thought his future was ripe with all sorts of possibilities.
The door opened and Harry stepped through looking stressed and a little sad.
"Everything okay?" Neville asked.
Harry looked furtively at Ryan who immediately got the hint that he was not wanted in the room at the moment.
"I'm just going to…yeah," Ryan made a hasty exit, giving a pointed look to Neville that said that none of what they discussed was to make it to Harry's ears. He closed the door behind him and leaned against it. His father must have put a silencing charm up because he couldn't hear through it. So, he went downstairs and flopped onto a couch, watching the flames in the fireplace. A sadness washed over him. He missed his parents, his family, his friends at Hogwarts…and Emily.
He sighed.
What he wouldn't give to see Emily again. He'd talk to her this time. He'd ask her out and finally tell her how he felt about her. All these years that he had stayed silent was just wasted time. And time, he realized now, was so precious.
Another weight settled next to him on the couch and he looked over to see his mother. "Hi there! I was…you know, wondering…" he noticed that she was twisting her hands in her lap. "Well…um, do you want to take a walk somewhere?"
Ryan just stared at her. Days of frustration with her and Harry was finally just too much for him. "No I
don't want to take a walk! I don't plan on taking a walk and I never want to take a walk with you! I don't
want to study! I don't want to sit down next to you in class! I don't even care about seeing you in the Great
Hall! TAKE A HINT! I don't like you in that way, in fact, it's really beginning to creep me out. Between Harry
itching to wrap his hands around my neck every time he looks and me and you hitting on me, it's a wonder I'll
get out of this stupid mess unscathed and without therapy!!"
He hated the look on his mother's face. The look of shock and hurt and then she did the worst thing possible and
burst into tears before she ran up to her room. He felt horrible for it but he was still seething with anger at his
parents.
He marched upstairs and barged into the dormitory. Harry looked at Ryan with annoyance.
"Do you mind?" he asked.
Ryan stared at his dad. "Yeah I do mind! I'm sick of you taking your frustrations out on me and looking at me like you want to squash me to a pulp! It was supposed to be you who jumped in front of that hex not me! Why weren't you paying attention anyway? You know what?" Ryan tossed his hands in the air, "it just figures that you would be the one to ruin everything!"
He threw himself onto his bed and drew the curtains, casting a charm that would leave him in silence and privacy.
~~~~~~~~~~
It was raining. He stood next to his father in it, both of them getting wet. Ryan wasn't even sure his father noticed. His mother was sitting next to Aunt Ginny who was sobbing. He felt so sad for her. Grandpa Arthur was holding the hands of his twin cousins, two red-headed girls, as they watched their father's casket being lowered into the grave. Ryan felt guilty that he still had his parents.
At the wake, Ryan sat next to Caleb as the two of them watched everyone else in silent repose. His father stood in the corner of the room, tie undone, sleeves rolled up to his elbows and a glass of amber looking liquid in his hand. Ryan wasn't sure how much he had drank but he vaguely wondered if his father was drunk.
Aunt Ginny had approached him. "Harry…please don't blame yours-"
"I'm going to go," his father cut her off. He bent down and kissed his aunt on the cheek. "I'll see you later."
He grabbed his jacket and left the Burrow. Uncle Ron helped his mother load everyone in the car and drive them back home. It was a quiet ride. The only sound was of the rain hitting the windshield and that rhythmic strokes of the wipers that washed them away. Ryan and Emma helped unload their siblings while mum and Uncle Ron stayed in the car. What they talked about Ryan didn't know, she was out there for awhile but when he peered out of the window one time he saw his mother's shoulders shaking with sobs. Ryan realized that he hadn't seen his mother cry once since they found out about Uncle Neville's death. She was being strong for the family, for his dad but now she could let go.
His father didn't come home that night, nor the next. Uncle Ron came by again with Caleb to help with odds and ends around the house that his dad usually took care of. An argument the next night between his mother and his long-lost father brought him and Emma sitting in the stairs, listening.
"Ginny is not your wife. I am! This family needs you."
His father left again. The next day, Caleb's mom came over to help his mother, then Grandma Weasley herself. For two weeks, Ryan didn't see his dad and the anger and resentment was building up in him each day he saw the sad look in his mother's eyes. Finally fed up with it all, he made his way down to the ministry to have a few words with the man. He felt a pang of sadness and anger when he passed the now empty desk that used to be Neville Longbottom's. Sadness at the fact that he would never see the man again, anger because he was somehow breaking apart his family.
The door to his dad's office was closed but it sounded as if someone was in there and they were arguing. The door suddenly opened and Ryan quickly hid himself around the corner as he heard his Uncle Ron's voice.
"Go home, Harry," he said angrily. "I'm not her husband."
"And I bet that just kills you," he heard his father reply. There was silence after that but Ryan saw no one leave the office.
"I'll ignore the remark just this once because you're upset," Ron said in a low tone. "Once, Harry." Then he left.
Ryan stood there hidden. He had NO idea what his uncle meant by that. The idea that his parent's had outside lives that didn't revolve around him and his siblings was just so foreign to him.
He didn't confront his father that day. He just came home and helped his mother get dinner ready. As everyone sat down to tuck in, the front door opened and his father walked in. The family was in shock but no one said a thing. The meal was eaten in silence and when it was over, he and Emma took their siblings upstairs so their parents could talk.
Later that night, Ryan went downstairs to get a snack and found his parents sitting on the couch. His mother was cradling his father in her arms as he heard, for the very first time in his life, his father crying. The family slowly started putting itself back together after that but Ryan always held a tiny seed of resentment against his father for becoming human in his eyes.
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