Week In, Week Out

Holidays

25 February 1992

When Neville had originally been told about lunch club, his assumption had been that it would be akin to having a tooth pulled. He had had no expectation that he would actually start to look forward to it. He had looked at the group of woe betide misfits and thought that as a group, they were a disaster waiting to happen. The arrogant Slytherin, the presumably evil Hufflepuff and aloof Ravenclaw revealed themselves to be kind interesting people.

Adrian had previously been someone that Neville had only encountered in the hallways or when watching him playing Quidditch. He had of course gathered from Adrian's strict adherence to the rules and insistence that everyone else do the same, that Adrian liked Quidditch. That was an easy conclusion. He had not, however, ascertained that Adrian Pucey was a user of stock phrases, and not a convincing one. He had talked about home like an estate agent and had only really expressed any kind of emotion when talking about Quidditch.

Cho had not been someone he had even heard of before. She did not play Quidditch, they were not in the same year, and they had no friends in common. She kept herself to herself, and did not engage with anyone. If he had asked anyone about 'Cho Chang, you know the Ravenclaw?' almost everyone would have responded that they had no idea who she was. A few Ravenclaws would reluctantly admit to having talked to her once in first year, but nothing beyond that. Cho, however, was as interested in Astronomy as Neville was in plants, and he appreciated that there were others like him out there who cared about something beyond what they were required to learn about in school. She had a strong footing in both the Wizarding and Muggle worlds, which was something Neville had never experienced before.

Addie Potter had been presented to him by the entire house of Gryffindor as Harry Potter's treacherous sister. She had voluntarily been sorted into another house. They did not talk to each other. She was a monster. She was a bad sister. When any of them had tried to talk to her, she had refused to make eye contact with them, which made her a coward, and had given such bizarre responses that they had not quite known where to go. Neville had got to know someone who was the complete opposite to this. He didn't quite understand how the story could have been so misunderstood, but Gryffindors were not exactly known for their critical thinking. She was interested in his interests, she had interesting interests of her own, and she had questions for him about the wizarding world that he could both answer and relate to his own questions. She was also just really nice, and in some of his classes. He couldn't quite believe his luck in having been assigned lunch club associates like them. Perhaps he would one day be able to call them his friends. He very much hoped so.

It was Neville's new found confidence in having friends that prompted him to actually interact with one of his group in public.

"Addie," he called out to her at the end of class on Tuesday. It was the class before lunch, and he decided that now was as good a time as any to try and cement his new acquaintances. He was not exactly sure how people were able to make acquaintances into friends, but imagined that it must be possible as so many people seemed to have done so.

"Hi Neville," she replied, her gaze downcast, as it always was. He didn't actually know what colour her eyes were and he didn't need to. Feeling the need to stare into other people's eyes like it actually meant anything had always been confusing to him.

"Good week so far?" he asked. He knew he was going through his stock phrases, but she didn't seem to mind.

"Oh yeah, it's been great! I received a new book in the post yesterday morning, and it's on early magical farming communities, and how the magical world stubbornly reinvented the wheel once."

"We reinvented the wheel?" He hadn't exactly expected to hear that.

"Yeah. Muggles have had wheels since the 4th millennium BC when they were first thought up in what is now Iraq. After the statute of secrecy, the magical world went 'Ha-ha I know they've already been invented but I object to using them' before pretty much just spending a hundred years reinventing the wheel and calling it something else. 'Rolling supports' isn't exactly a creative name. Language is fascinating."