the history of magic meme

[1castle4houses]

welcome to AU hell

RULES;

1. tag in
2. tag around!
3. mix and match - pick a setting from the first column and an AU from the second column (or use RNG if you like to live on edge -- there's 10 prompts per column)
4. have fun

HINTS;

We welcome and encourage all OCs. Add a little blurb about your character so other players have an idea what to play with, and feel free to add your preferences and permissions.
Ship, don't ship; make out, don't make out - all is fair game.

PROMPTS;

Setting	AU
1. Ancient	a. Soldiers on the same side
2. Middle Ages	b. Arranged marriage
3. 1600s	c. Great new discovery
4. 1700s	d. Childhood friends
5. 1800s	e. Met on the road
6. 1900s	f. Rags and riches
7. Roaring 20s	g. Members of two feuding houses
8. 1940s	h. It's all about the art
9. 1970s	i. Co-conspirators
10. WILDCARD	j. WILDCARD

Comments

Neville Longbottom

[plantdad]

[My body is ready]

1800s, rags & riches

[reparo]

The existence of magic does not, as Hermione had once upon a time hoped, eliminate the class problem.

Hermione Granger grows up part of the local gentry in Islington. Her father and mother meet during the war, serving as doctor and nurse on the same side, and because they are on the winning side, when her father is honourably discharged, he marries Helen Smith and builds a modest but comfortable abode in Islington. Hermione Granger does not grow up filthy rich, by any means, unless you count her parents' passion for reading that the instill in their only daughter, and their wealthy book collection that no local doctor should afford to have. Hermione Granger grows up with delusions of grandeur, precisely because her parents never teach her that she shouldn't: she wants to go to university (Cambridge, of course) and to become a doctor (the first female one in the country if possible); she has no talent for embroidery and piano playing, despite the many lessons she receives, and she is not spoilt enough to think that all her problems will be fixed by getting married.

Finding out that she is a witch is the turning point in Hermione's life, in a way. She is whisked off to a magical school, where she can learn to control her powers so they do not harm her loved ones, and she attends it believing that she will find a new world to belong in. She is somwhat wrong.

In the wizarding world, it turns out, there is one more category that creates a separation between class: blood. People like Hermione - born and raised by Muggles, not surrounded by magic - are low class citizens, treated mostly like children in some ways. Poor muggleborns, they don't know about this ritual, they never read this children's book, they don't understand the marriage rules! It's eminently frustrating, for her entire life at Hogwarts, to be condescended to despite performing well in class. To be questioned for being better than those older families at magic, when all their propaganda says that muggleborns are dumb and weak.

When, after finishing her fifth and final year, she is shown the door, Hermione does not feel any closer to belonging in the wizarding world than she did in the muggle one.

Nothing short of a miracle rescues her from returning to her parents' home to become a solitary, reclusive spinster; Lady Alice Longbottom requiring an educated young lady to take notes during her literary salons. Hermione has no idea how she ends up employed by Lady Longbottom - could it be that her son mentioned her, from when they were in Hogwarts together? could it be that maybe Professor McGonagall had recommended Hermione to the Dowager Longbottom? - but regardless of that mystery, she has been in their employ for over a year now.

It shouldn't come as a suprise when, upon entering the reading room on Monday morning, she finds Neville sitting in her favourite armchair, reading a book on magical plant care that Hermione found last winter in Paris. After all, Hogwarts is finally over, and by her calculations Neville will have finished it. Sure, there is that initial bitterness, over how purebloods are allowed to further their education for an additional two years, whereas muggleborns are expected to sod off on five years of condescension alone. But it is also Neville, who was a friend to her for those five years, and she's not been able to write to him (having no owl of her own) before to let him know.

(Though maybe his mother did inform him. Or maybe he knew.)

"Ah, the prodigal son is finally home, I see," she says by way of greeting, with a cheekier grin than she would've afforded around any of their other classmates.

[plantdad]

He shoots up to his feet the moment Hermione speaks, and honestly, he should have known this would happen.

His mother told him that she hired Hermione, of course, and it's not like Neville wasn't there to suggest to her that she should in the first place. It would be a crying shame, they both said, for someone as bright and skilled as Miss Granger to have to go back to the muggle world. It's atrocious enough that she can't take advanced classes, but of course she can't. It would make old blood idiots uncomfortable to see how much smarter than them she is.

So while he knew very well to expect her here, he didn't quite appreciate how much of an effect it would have on him to see her again.

She looks at home here. She looks like she is bright, and sharp, and full of energy, and all serves as a very vivid reminder of exactly why he's been in love with her since he was fifteen. Only a fool wouldn't love her, really.

"Miss Granger!" he greets her, too shy to use her first name, like he used to in school. "How have you been?"

[reparo]

She can't feel nervous around Neville, not like she does around his grandmother, or even his mother, because they've known each other longer and because she knows that Neville is not an asshole.

Unlike most of their peers, he comes from an old family but does not believe that he should never be bested by anyone who is not of noble or pure descent. Hermione's first reason for having said yes to the job in the first place had been the fact that she'd been friends with Neville. If he turned out so nice, there was no way his family were monsters or bigots.

"I've been well, thank you," she answers, then adds a very melodramatic: "My Lord." Because he went from calling her Hermione in school to this sudden distinction of Miss Granger, when only two years ago they were chopping up frog legs together? It's just silly.

"How was your last year?"

[plantdad]

"Grueling," he says honestly. She knows he doesn't do well at school, and there is no point pretending that he does. He also doesn't think she would enjoy him rubbing in how great advanced classes have been, when she didn't get to go to any of them.

"I'm sorry for the formalities, Hermione, it's just... Look at you, all grown up. I wasn't sure."

[reparo]

She looks down at herself when he gestures towards her, almost to check what exactly he's seeing that's wrong. Is there a spot, or a smudge of ink on her fingers from last night? Are her stays not sufficiently tightened?

But her clothes look fine and in order, and Neville continues to talk, and doesn't seem to be upset at anything he sees.

"You weren't sure I'd grow up?" she asks, one eyebrow raised in amusement.

Then again, look at him, whispers a little voice in her head. He's gotten taller, shot up a few extra inches, and his posture is different too. More portly, maybe more refined, maybe more comfortable now that he's out of the school that made him feel like a disappointment.

He's got great shoulders. She imagines that a lot of ladies will want to dance with him, in the Season to come.

"Not an unpleasant discovery, I hope?"

[plantdad]

"Not at all," he rushes to assure her, and finally comes up closer, like a friend instead of a stranger. His mother's reading room is a little gloomy first thing in the morning, so closing the distance means he can see her better. He very much wants to see her better.

"And I wasn't sure if I was allowed to be familiar with you, now that you're so grown up. You look lovely, Hermione. How have you been?"

[reparo]

Right, another distancing mechanism: the difference in class, in blood, and in sex. She represses a little huff of frustration, and walks up to give him a hug. They are friends, and that is that. There is no forbidden familiarity, and she doesn't want Neville to act any differently around her than he used to in school.

The hug lasts a few seconds, as long as proper, and then she pulls back to give him a little smile. There, that does it.

"Ah, thankfully busy! Her Ladyship runs a very popular salon, and I find myself with many notes to take."

Her Ladyship runs what would indelicately be put as a feminism venting club. Dozens of young ladies trickling in every month for a meeting, grumbing about their social standings and rights and trying to figure out how to manipulate the Wizengamot into giving them more.

Needless to say, Hermione loves it here. "I'm sorry I never wrote to you since I took this post, I wasn't sure I could."

[plantdad]

Neville is intimately familiar with his mother's venting club, as well as her lady friends and her absolute lack of patience when it comes to bigotry. Alice Longbottom doesn't suffer self-important idiots. She makes them suffer.

So maybe it shouldn't surprise him that after spending some time under his mother's tender care, Hermione is so direct and so impatient with formalities. It still fills him with relief.

"And I didn't write to you for the exact same reason," he admits sheepishly. "Which makes me feel very foolish, now that I say it out loud. So which law is my mother trying to overturn this month? She's been a menace ever since she took the family seat."

[reparo]

Hermione lets out a little laugh, and gives up pretending like the literary club is anything else than what it is. Political power play.

And that she thoroughly enjoys being involved in it.

"Voting rights for unwed women," she answers. "And widows, as well." Which Augusta Longbottom is staunchly in favour of too. "I honestly believe that the only reason it hasn't passed yet is because the Chief Mugwump is terrified of your grandmother."

[plantdad]

"I mean, he should be, gran is scary as hell." And she knows it, and uses it for good. Neville has as much respect for his grandmother as he has for his mother.

"I think he's really hoping that I'll take the Longbottom vote, now that I'm out of school, but... He's going to be very disappointed."

[reparo]

"Oh yes?" She is sure that his mother will be very proud, no matter what he chooses to do. The woman might be a political fiend in many ways, but she is a fierce mother as well.

"What was it that you were planning to do, then?" Something tells her that gallivanting across the world on his tour is not really within the young lord's plans, no matter his wealth.

[plantdad]

No, gallivanting across the world is definitely not in the plans, as much as it raises eyebrows among his friends, who are all preparing for their grand tours now. Neville has no interest in that.

"Stay home, and take over managing the family properties so that my mother can focus on her Wizengamot work," he says easily. "She's been a real power house, handling both while I was finishing school, but I can see it's taking a toll, even with you here to help. I haven't got the skills for politics. I'd much prefer to handle accounts and tenants."

[reparo]

That still pulls a pleased smile out of Hermione, nodding. "I think that's wonderful - you'll be grand at it too, I'm sure."

And he'll be around a lot more, she realises, which means he will see her around a lot more too. She'd be lying if she didn't say that was exciting, because it was. Of course, before she manages to open her mouth and say anything at all, the door opens and in comes the whirlwind that is Alice Longbottom, dressed to the nines already and looking dashing and pleased to see them both.

"Ah, good, you've found each other!" the older woman declares, and then heads to her writing desk for Hermione's notes, which she left there last evening. "I've got to dash and convince McKinnon not to strangle her fiance, my dears, so I'll be leaving you unchaperoned - don't be naughty." Alice then laughs. "Or do - you're old enough now, I suppose. Although, just as means of discouragement, Auggie might drop by for tea any minute. Ta! Love you, Neville!"

And she's gone.

[plantdad]

He manages to kiss his mother on the cheek as she whirls past him on her way out, but that's about it. In and out, chaos incarnated, and calling gran "Auggie" on top of everything else.

Merlin, he's missed her so damn much.

"I forgot just how much we don't care about propriety and reputations in this family," he says with a sigh, once the dust has settled. "Are you... alright with that? Because I know myself, the shock will wear off and I'll forget all my Hogwarts manners within a week." Which she's never seen, because he always made an effort to be on his best behavior in school. "But I'd hate to make you uncomfortable, so if you'd like me to not become quite as shameless as my mother and grandmother, please tell me right away."

[reparo]

"If I weren't alright with that, I wouldn't have stayed on for a year now, Neville," she answers, reasurring, with a crack of a smile. "And now I'm curious to find out how it is you act when you've forgotten your Hogwarts manners."

[plantdad]

"Not quite as chaotic," he says, gesturing widely at the general direction in which his mother disappeared a moment ago. "But I definitely don't normally wear a cravat at home. I'm really glad you like it here, Hermione. And I look forward to seeing more of you."