Ten Years Later

Ten Years Later

"Ginny," said Neville, as he entered the room, "we need to talk."

Ginerva Weasley-Longbottom started, whirling to look at Neville. She was so lost in her thoughts that she hadn't heard him enter the room.

Twilight was just starting to lighten on the South African coast. Within the hour, the sun would rise, and another day would begin in Cape Town.

Neville walked over to the patio table where his wife was seated. He rubbed his mustache, drew on his pipe, and exhaled cherry tobacco fumes into the room, a glassed-in patio he'd had built primarily for Ginny; the view of Camps Bay was breathtaking, she'd called it. But for nearly four months running she'd spent nearly every evening here, staring out to sea, not speaking, just wanting to be alone. "What's wrong?" When she didn't answer, he sighed and sat in a chair opposite her and looked at her, his wife of nearly two years. "I think I know what it is, but I want you to tell me yourself."

Ginny lowered her head, and took a shuddering breath. She started to speak, but stopped. She gulped, and Neville reached into the sleeve of his dressing gown and pulled out his cherry-and-unicorn-hair wand and created a glass of water for her. "Thank you, Neville," she said, and drank thirstily. But she didn't speak, as he'd hoped.

"I know you're not happy," he said, giving her an opening. "I'm a stolid man, Ginny, but I'm not stupid. You've been spending more time here than you have been with me, and when we're together, you're quiet, like now." When she didn't answer, he played his final card. "We haven't made love in months, either. So, I have to know: is it me, or is there someone else?"

She looked at him in alarm, and then shook her head violently. "No, not like you think!" She pursed her lips, and then blurted, "Neville...I don't love you!"

Neville's teeth gripped his pipe hard, and he lowered his head, and drew on his pipe. He held the smoke in his mouth for nearly a minute, and then finally let it all go in a blast that made him look like a dragon. But he didn't explode in a rage, as Ginny had feared. Instead, his eyes shone tears. "So, it's like I feared."

She gripped his hands, and lowered her head, and slowly began to cry. "It's nothing you've done, Neville. It's me," she sobbed, and at last looked at him with a mask of anguish. "I've been holding this inside for nearly six months! I didn't know how to tell you, but...now that you've opened the door, I have to tell you everything."

Neville sucked on his pipe, and blew smoke out of his nostrils. He pulled his mustache hairs, a sign that he was thinking. Finally he said, "I think I can guess: it's him, isn't it?"

She looked up at him, her eyes wide with surprise; finally, though, she nodded.

Neville shook his head ruefully. "I've been half-expecting this, ever since we got married."

"What?"

Despite the hole growing in his heart, Neville Longbottom chuckled. "Your Maid of Honor warned me, three days before the wedding. Good old Luna! She's a real Cassandra, you know? Always speaks the truth, but either we don't listen, or we say nothing because we know she's right and we don't want to admit it! She spoke to me when we were in the Red Nymphy restaurant, when you left for the lavatory. 'Ginny has never gotten over Harry Potter. If you two marry, it won't be for long.' That's what she said, word for word."

Tears rolled down Ginny's face, and she pulled a handkerchief from her sleeve and dabbed at her eyes. "She's right. I can't stop thinking about him. Every day I think that maybe it's too late; maybe he's found somebody else. It's a miracle he wasn't killed fighting Voldemort, of even later in the mopping-up; that took three years, and he could have been killed, then, too." She sniffled, "So many people were, after all! I thought it was just puppy love when we were teenagers, but now, I realize that it was the last time that I was really happy."

Neville sighed, and repacked his pipe and took a fresh mouthful of smoke. He tried to blow a heart, a trick that had always made Ginny laugh, but instead the heart came out malformed, and quickly became a meaningless cloud. He tried again, with the same result. Perhaps it's an omen, he thought. He thought of the tealeaf warnings of Sibyll Trelawney, and wondered if there was a class for interpreting cloud formations.

"Ginny, is this what you're feeling? Really?"

She bowed her head, took a shuddering breath, and nodded. "I'm sorry, Neville." She looked up at him, and he could see that her eyes were red from crying. Then she said in a rush, "My contract with the St. Dabanyika Children's Hospital runs out in four months. I'd like to begin the separation now, so we divorce at the same time my job ends." When he said nothing, she rushed on. "I don't want any alimony from you. I've worked for everything I've ever had, so I won't put any kind of constraints on you."

Neville thought his soul was tearing in half, but he took the pipe from his mouth and took a steadying breath. When he spoke, he was proud of how calm and even his words were. "No, Ginny. If this is what you want, then I'll see you properly cared for. I'll speak to my solicitor, and do two things for you. First, we'll get started on the paperwork right away; second, I'll see to it that the Gringotts branch bank in Cape Town has a vault set up for you, and filled with a proper separation package." He thought for a moment, and then said, "How does seven thousand Galleons sound?" When she looked at him with wide eyes, he managed a smile. "I'll take that as a yes!"

"Neville!"

He drew on his pipe and smiled. "Ginny, I remember what you were like when you were dating Harry at Hogwarts. You had a look like you'd just found eternal happiness; you've never looked that way when you're with me." He raised a hand to forestall her protests. "I'm not accusing you. I'm doing the Luna Lovegood act now: I'm telling you an unpleasant truth!" He took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. "Have you even thought about how you're going to approach him?"

"Well, I'm hoping that Ron is over his problem with Harry--that he'll tell him that I'm back in London. But if not, then I'll just have to 'accidentally' meet him, sometime in Diagon Alley, or run into him as he's leaving work. Luna tells me he sometimes stops in at the Leaky Cauldron on the weekends." She stopped, and blushed, feeling embarrassed talking about man hunting to her husband. To his credit, Neville said nothing.

A silence built between them, and at last Neville heaved himself up. "Well, I'd best get changed and then send an owl to the solicitor." He looked at Ginny, and cocked an eyebrow at her. "We've both got a big day ahead of us, and many more to come."

Ginny stood up and went over to her husband and kissed him on the cheek. "I'm sorry, Neville. I never meant to hurt you, never!" She clung to him, weeping. "It's...it's like something I can't control. I don't know why I don't love you, when you've done so much for me. We met up here in Cape Town. You gave me help when I needed it most, let me stay in your home when I had no place to go; you've done so much for me!" she repeated, shaking, and wailing.

Neville held her, and let her cry herself out, then stroked her hair, each movement a bit more forceful, until her head was back, and she was looking at him. "My grandmother told me something once that I've never forgotten. She said, 'Love isn't about logic; it's not about what a person has done, or what you think they deserve. Love is unbidden, and follows no rules but its own. When you can't explain why you feel it, then you know you're in the middle of it!'" He smiled. "She was a hard woman, and a lot of the time I was afraid of her. But I never stopped loving her." He kissed Ginny on the forehead. "I know what you're feeling for him is true; and I envy Harry! You're going to land him hard, and I know you'll both be very happy." He held her until he felt she was strong enough to stand on her own. "Just promise me one thing! Send me a wedding invitation! I want to see that look in your eyes again!"

She swallowed thickly, and nodded.

The sun broke over the horizon, and filled the patio with light. The smoke from Neville's pipe hung in the air like battle fumes, and in a flash of inspiration, he waved his wand, and changed it into sandalwood incense, Ginny's favorite. He grinned as she smiled, and he waved a hand. "There you go! A bright sunrise, and your favorite scent, and the beginning of your new future: I think that's the kind of good omen Sibyll Trelawney would have approved of!"

Ginny watched her soon-to-be-ex-husband turn and leave her alone, and she took a deep breath. "I hope so," she murmured.