My Lovely Family

A/N: All right, everyone, I've decided not to stall out any longer. I used my imagination when conjuring up the mysterious Broch. Oh yeah, I did do that stalling thing on purpose. It works pretty well with my mom, so I wanted to try it on reviewers. *Slaps hand* ("Bad writer! Bad!") Any who, thus concludes... the mystery of Broch...

Broch ruffled his little brother's curly brown hair and tackled him to the ground.

"Are you excited about Hogwarts, mate?"

Broch's younger brother Frank nodded his head.

"Broch, how'd you get sorted?"

Broch looked up thoughtfully to the sky to try and conjure up a good enough lie to trick his bother.

"It all depends. Since I'm in Gryffindor, I had to fight this really huge manticore. It was awful; I almost lost one of my arms. I survived it though, chap. I'm a strong bloke, you'll do well too."

Frank had sudden look of worry and fear on his face. "A manticore! Are they mad? I'm not going! No way!"

"What is all the yelling about?" A woman's voice came from inside the house.

Before Broch could catch him, Frank had already ran inside to tell his mother the story about fighting manticores. Broch ran in to find Frankie out of breath and almost crying.

"And he said that all Gryffindors have to fight manticores to get in, and the Slytherins have to fight Basilisks and that..."

Broch shook his head, "I only said that Gryffindors have to fight manticores! I don't know about the Basilisk mess, although that's a great idea."

(And here it goes:)

Their mother, Susan Longbottom shook her head," Where do you get these ideas from, Broch Alastor Longbottom? I want you to tell your brother the truth. After that, I want you both to make sure you're ready to go to Hogwarts. Your father will be here in a little while."

Broch pushed Frank as they left to go to their rooms.

Susan Longbottom, formerly known as Bones, smiled at her two sons leaving. She thought about Neville and how proud he must be, being the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and all, of his two sons. Susan was to join the Hogwarts staff temporarily to teach Care of Magical Creatures with Charlie Weasley.

She only stayed home now, because Frank would always be here with her, but now that he was leaving, she thought it would be best to join her family at Hogwarts. Plus, she didn't like the idea of empty nest at such a young age.

Neville had been there most of the summer with his family, but of course he had to return to Hogwarts and get things ready for the next school year. Being a professor was not an easy task. Neville didn't even think he would be able to Apparate, he never considered being Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher. He was only nineteen when Headmistress McGonagall offered him the job. After finding that out, he jumped at the chance of proposing to Susan Bones. His first love. Broch had come a year later.

He loved his family and had begged Susan to come along. She did.

There was a loud thud heard in someone's room and Susan automatically thought it was Frank. He developed all of his father's clumsy habits and tended to be extremely accident-prone. Broch was extremely different. Neville had told Broch many times that he had developed all his physical and mental traits from his grandfather.

Broch was tall, dark, and cute. Yes, he was handsome, but most people considered him cute. He had huge playful eyes, that always failed him when he tried to avoid a sticky situation. He played for Beater on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, which surprised both Neville and Susan even more. At first, Broch had been chubby as his father was in school, but Broch immediately joined the Quidditch team in his third year and had become an over night Oliver Wood. He had begun to practice over the summer holidays and his chubby form had become muscular, causing tons of teenage girls all over Hogwarts to swoon. His rowdy manner in classes and quiet behavior outside class helped in this category also. At the moment though, only one girl captured his attention.

Frank, on the other hand, was very much like his father. Neville Frank Longbottom II was clumsy and chubby. He had showed fairly good signs of being a wizard when he was four years old. For four years, he had never possessed any magical ability. The only reason he proved to have magic in his blood was because he had chased Broch on to the platform in fear of never seeing his brother again.

Susan almost doubled over in laughter after seeing little Frank running through the platform screaming," Broch, take me with you!"

Her excited husband Neville returned Frank safely back to Susan.

There was another thud and Susan was knocked away from her reverie. Although Susan was reluctant to go upstairs, but figure she should seeing that Broch had probably managed to put himself in a bad predicament every time Susan blinked her eyes.

She quickly walked down the hall to Frank's room and went inside to find that Frank was sitting on his bed, observing his newly found Witches and Wizards' Card.

"Yes, mum?" Frank smiled at her, Susan smiled back. "Nothing, Frank dear. Did something happen in here a few minutes ago?"

Frank shook his head nonchalantly and went back to the card.

Susan sighed with relief. There was a never a day gone by without Frank getting into some mix-up. It didn't take magic to be clumsy, Susan knew that from her own personal experiences with Neville.

Frank had already been told yesterday to make sure that all his things for Hogwarts would be packed all ready for the morning. Frank had managed somehow to forget to take out his uniform to change into on the train, so the packing had to be done all over again Now, Frank sat on his bed in his Hogwarts uniform that was slightly ruffled. He had obviously attempted to brush and style his hair, because there were clumps of gel on the sides of his head.

"Frank, you've got some..." Susan pointed to the side of her head.

Frank looked at Susan completely confused. "Huh?"

Susan didn't want to embarrass him or show that she had noticed his attempt at trying to gel his hair.

"You've got..." she pointed again. Frank never changed expressions, so Susan came out with it. "Dear, you have gel on the sides of your head."

Frank jumped up turning a bright red and ran out of his room to the bathroom, tripping over his untied shoelaces.

"Tie your shoes!" She called after him.

Frank always seem to try so hard to be like his older brother Broch, mainly because he admired him so much. Susan sometimes thought that Frank felt as if he would forever be in Broch's shadow.

Frank had made all his friends because Broch was so out going. Frank was extremely shy and when he did make friends, he tried to be as a good a friend as possible. Fearing that people would not think him loyal enough.

Susan had remembered the reason she came to check on Frank and made her way upstairs to Broch's bedroom.

When she opened the door, she found Broch sitting on the bed, reading a note, and shaking his head.

"Broch is something the matter?" Susan stood in the doorway observing the worried look on her son's face. It was very rare for Broch to look worried and confused.

He sighed, "Do you remember me telling you about that girl Lucy Malfoy?"

Susan nodded her head. Did she remember? Ever since she had sent Broch the Howler about his detention, he had been doing nothing but talking of this girl Lucy. To Susan, she sounded like everything but sweet. She came off as a know-it-all, bossy sort of girl in Broch's letters.

Broch continued, "Well, she decided that we should move things further up in our relationship."

Before he could continue, Susan held up her hand. "Aren't you already dating each other? How much more could she ask for?"

"She's going to tell her parents about us dating and she wants me to spend Christmas with her. I mean, it sounds nice, but her dad's... Draco Malfoy. Won't he not approve of me dating his Slytherin daughter?"

Susan laughed.

Obviously, this did not amuse Broch, because he not only did not laugh, but he sighed and mumbled something along the lines of terrible mothers.

After containing herself, Susan caught her breath and sat on the bed beside Broch.

"Broch did Lucy ever tell you about her siblings?"

"Yes, but this has nothing to do with us."

There was a silence until Susan broke it.

"Do you know about a younger brother named Drake?"

Broch nodded his head, "Yeah, he's the same age as Frankie. He's starting Hogwarts this year."

Susan shook her head, "I don't need to know all that information. Do you know who his mother is?"

Come to think of it, Broch didn't know who his mother was. All he knew was that his mother was not Pansy Parkinson. "Well, Luce just said that Drake's mum wasn't Pansy and..." Broch smiled.

"She's not a Slytherin?" Broch turned to Susan excitedly. Susan shook her head.

"I'm not saying. You can ask Lucy or Drake if you want to get the entire story. Now, I think you should change out of these things. Try to look nice when you meet Lucy on the train."

Broch rolled his eyes. He thought he looked perfectly fine. He had on his favorite stone washed blue jeans, that were sort of ripped at the knees, a regular white tee shirt, and a pair of worn out rugged tennis shoes.

"You don't think it was a nice pair of trousers that got Luce to notice me?" Broch winked at Susan.

The downstairs gave a loud boom and Susan left Broch behind to run downstairs. She almost knocked her husband down, bumping into him.

"Hi dear!" She kissed him on the lips and he almost fell on his face, but was caught by Broch's strong arms.

"Hey dad." Broch got a hearty pat on his back from his dad.

There was only one person missing.

"Hey Frankie! Your dad's hear old chap!" Neville looked around for his youngest son.

"Coming dad!" Frank ran into his father's arms mainly because he tripped, but nevertheless, it ended well.

"All right guys, I need you all to bring all your stuff for school downstairs. We should be on our way to the train as soon as possible. I would have been here earlier, but I had to get myself out of a long drawling conversation with Professor Snape."

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After losing Frank three times, the trip to the Hogwarts Express managed to be successful. Frank still believed in the back of his mind that he was going to have to do a dangerous task to get sorted, was a little reluctant about going to this school of magic.

While Neville talked to Frank and Broch, Susan had given their trunks and things to the men boarding things away. (I'm so dumb, I forgot what they're called.)

"Before we get on this train I want you to know, that you don't fight lions, Basilisks, crazy badgers, or mean ravens that pick your eyes out. You have your brother to help you whenever you need it. Your mother and I will be there for you, and I'm sure you'll make some excellent friends. I want you to have a fun year. I know things will turn out for the best."

Neville patted Frank on the back. He stood up to face Broch and said quietly.

"Take it easy on your brother. It's his first year. I also want you to be more serious about your schoolwork. You remember your grade for your OWL'S. and N.E.W.T.S? Exactly. Be a little bit more focused on school. You know I want my kids to set good examples for other students in Hogwarts. On the train."

Both Broch and Frank got on the train with Frank looking back, causing him to trip over a step.

Neville then turned to Susan, "I know why you decided to come to Hogwarts." He smiled.

Susan shook her head. "No you don't. I came because I didn't want to leave the boys behind. I also thought it would be nice to work on the grounds. I only worked with the Ministry for seven years."

"I see. Well, you won't be upset when I tell you that we have a private room together, will you?"

Susan simply kissed Neville on the lips and boarded the train.

"I think that was a pretty good answer." Neville ran his finger over his lips and tripped on the first step of getting on the train.