15-minute ficlet

[pauraque_bk]

From 15minuteficlets. 284 words, Neville, G.

The word was 'forgetful'.

+--

Forgetful

Clutching Trevor to his chest, Neville trailed the line of students into the Great Hall. He had never seen anything so horribly *big*. There were excited conversations going on all around him, but he almost couldn't hear them over the deafening *bigness* of this place.

Someone bumped hard against his shoulder, startling him so that he could hear again. It was the boy with the glasses. "Ouch," the boy said, rubbing his forehead. "Sorry..."

Neville mumbled something back and patted Trevor's head nervously. He glanced up at the table where the teachers sat, and he only had a second of awareness that black eyes were looking at him before he just--

Two years old today, and mummy showing him how to put up two fingers instead of one when someone asks the question. You're not one anymore, Neville dear, you're two years old today. The smell of black sticky candy from the kitchen where daddy is cooking, and he's saying no, it's not candy, it's fennel seeds, it just smells like candy, see? No, Neville, that's not to eat, that's magic, it's a potion to--

And daddy stops talking and he's looking out the window with his eyes too wide, and there's yelling outside, and mummy puts him under the kitchen table and locks the door, and it all smells like black liquorice candy as the pot boils over and spills bright red all over the white tile floor--

Neville stumbled, his vision blurry, and he grabbed onto someone's cloak to keep from falling. He looked up, and the man with the black eyes was still studying him, with the intensity of a jewel-cutter working over a rare and flawed diamond.

And Neville remembered.

end.

*

By the way, thanks to everyone who gave Christmas shopping advice; the suggestions were very helpful. I'm planning to hit the bookstore on my way home today to check out some of the authors you named, and probably get one of the LotR extended DVDs. I'm still waffling on which one; knowing my brother, he might well be more interested in how they animated Gollum than in how they cast the actors and wrote the script.

Comments

[thepiratequeen.livejournal.com]

*sniff* That was beautiful and so horribly sad. My poor Neville.

[pauraque]

Thanks. I love that icon of yours, btw.

[thepiratequeen.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Jeffrey and Neville both inspire that incredible need to hug them until everything is better feeling in me.

[maidenjedi]

Damn.

And that would explain *so much*.

[pauraque]

It really would. I feel like expanding this piece; I was really racing to beat the time limit.

[muridae-x.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's beautifully haunting and sad. Poor Neville.

It may not help any with your decision between the two LOTR extended DVDs, but the extras on both of them do follow exactly the same pattern, just with variations appropriate to which part of the story they're focussing on at the time. They both have stuff on the writing, stuff on how they filmed it, bits on the locations, bits on the special effects and models and stuff. TTT has Gollum, but FOTR has all these cool sequences on how they did all the camera trickery to make the hobbits and the dwarves look small and everybody else big (which included building two identical copies of Bag End to different scales, mixing and matching tall/small stand-ins, and depth of focus stuff). That was probably my favourite behind the scenes look at stuff, but I admit that I haven't watched the Gollum bit yet.

[pauraque]

Thanks, for both the feedback and the advice.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_hannelore/]

Yes, more Neville please! This was wonderful in the way it brought together those memories from the kitchen to the present.

[pauraque]

Thank you. The world needs more Neville fic!

[asphodeline.livejournal.com]

really touching with a hint of sinister. Thank you! I had to read the first part twice though because I couldn't think why you would teach a two year old the 2fingered gesture! Sorry, my brain is now back in the right way round!

[pauraque]

Heh, you just put me in mind of a childhood memory. When I was in preschool, they taught the class a song that involved having each finger talk to its counterpart finger on the other hand, like puppets. So at the midpoint of the song, all the kids would have their middle fingers extended (which, of course, is the American equivalent of the two-fingered gesture). We were so young that we didn't know it was offensive, but a parent got upset about it and made them stop doing the song. That was how I first learned about rude gestures!

Anyway, thank you for the feedback; I'm glad you liked the story.

[asphodeline.livejournal.com]

fantastic!
by the way, like the new pic with viaduct. It is not a million miles from here that the scene was filmed and I intend to take the train over that way some time just to try it out!