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

[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."