ficlet - "A Thousand Wishes"

Besides the obvious inspiration, also inspired by the PoA movie trailer and the now infamous "blow me" glimpse of Draco and the paper crane.

Neville gets distracted by a folded paper crane and a particular wish.



“Neville, we’re going to be late for Potions,” Harry said, his hand on the door, “What did you lose now?”

Neville’s shoes were poking out from underneath his bed, his muffled voice answering.

“My calendar, I think it slipped off the wall again… oh, there’s Trevor!”

Ron laughed before he left the boys’ dorm.

“I’ll bet you could find a treasure map under Neville’s bed,” he said. “Anything you’ve lost, a sock or homework, it’s under Neville’s bed.”

“Just... a minute...”

When Neville squeezed himself out from underneath the bed, he waved the calendar.

“I found it, I...”

Ron and Harry had left. Snape gave a glare and an extra foot of homework to any latecomers. Neville put the calendar on his bed and inked a large “X” through the day. Christmas was next week. He had to make the mark before he forgot, even though the day had hardly begun. After all, it was a Potions day, so the day might as well be as good as over.

Neville hurried down the stairs, his sweaty palm gripping the banister. Ever since one of the stairs he had been walking on had moved on him, he made sure to hold on. He was about to head toward the dungeons when something fluttered by his face.

A gaggle of laughing girls came around the corner and Neville froze up, his hand still clutching the banister. They ran up the staircase past him without looking his way, except for the last one.

“Did you see the crane go this way?”

Neville shook his head. The question didn’t seem to make any sense. Crane?

“We were folding them in Muggle Studies,” the girl said, “Oh, there’s another!”

Neville looked where she was pointing and saw a yellow fluttering thing, paper wings flapping every so often to give it lift.

“You folded those? From paper?”

The girl didn’t answer, she was chasing the paper crane up the stairs.

…

Neville sat cross-legged on the common room floor, looking at the paper bird from all angles.

“You managed to catch one of those cranes?” Hermione said as she walked into the room. “They’re quite fast.”

“It was actually Trevor,” Neville said with a grin, patting the fat toad on the head. Trevor lazed next to the boy with a hungry glance toward the bird as it tried to flutter off again. “I was lucky to nab it before he swallowed it. Hermione, do you know how to do it?”

“Fold the crane?” Hermione sat down next to Neville and took a piece of parchment out of her satchel. “Of course I do. The first few times are difficult, but once you have the hang of it, it’s nothing really. They’re good luck, you know.”

“Maybe I’ll try to put a perch over my bed,” Neville said as he watched Hermione start to fold the parchment. “Think that would convince it to land there and give me good luck?”

“Silly, it’s not like a talisman or something,” Hermione said as she creased the paper with a critical eye. “I read a story once, about a girl who folded a thousand paper cranes. She was very ill and she had heard that if she folded one thousand, she would be granted a wish.”

“She was granted her wish?” Neville said, the excitement clear on his face. Hermione gave the crane’s tail a final twist and then tapped it on the head with her wand. She beamed as it flew up to the ceiling, but the look she gave Neville was uncomfortable.

“Well, not really... she died. But she hadn’t quite managed to finish all the cranes herself.”

…

When the children returned from the Yule holidays, Neville put a box upon the top of his trunk. He had gotten quite good at folding the cranes, though he was still having difficulties making them fly. He took out a new calendar and stuck it on his wall. Opening the box, Neville took out a smooth, shiny bubble gum wrapper. He sat down on the bed and began to fold it.

For some time after that, Neville was never seen without a wrapper. At first, everyone was fascinated to see the silver crane folded out of such a small square, but now the habit was bordering on obsessive. Neville was beginning to rival Luna in eccentricity. Even Luna helped Neville with folding the cranes at first, but he would never tell anyone what they were for. Not even in casual conversation.

“Neville, are you really planning on folding a thousand?” Hermione asked him one evening. Neville nodded as he set one finished crane aside and took up another gum wrapper.

“Your Mum gave you all those wrappers?” she said. Neville looked up to see her apologetic look.

“I don’t know if there’ll be enough,” Neville said. “I haven’t counted. But she’s given them to me every time I’ve visited. Even if it’s just been my Gran, or Uncle Algie, she’s given it to them and they always give it to me.”

“Do you see her a lot?” Hermione said. “I mean, you must if you have enough to wallpaper your room, like your Gran said.”

“Only on Christmas.”

“But how could you possibly have that many wrappers if you...”

Hermione faltered as Neville crushed the crane in his hand. He opened his hand back up and unfolded each careful crease, smoothing the paper out against his book. When the wrapper was flat once again, he started to fold.

“I’m sorry,” Hermione’s voice was meek.

“Don’t be sorry,” Neville said. He did not look up right away, but when he did look at her, his look was of pleading. “Please don’t feel sorry for me, okay?”

Hermione nodded.

After dinner, instead of crocheting more hats, Hermione helped Neville fold cranes.

…

Neville put a large "X" through the date on the calendar. Herbology day, always a day to enjoy. A week before the Yule holidays.

“How will you bring all the cranes to St. Mungo’s?” Hermione asked as she helped Neville tamp the dirt down in his pot.

“I don’t know, but I’m more worried that I won’t have a thousand,” Neville said. They were working behind the potting bench so Hermione could do his assignment while he folded out of Madam Sprout’s view.

“Perhaps if we got Ron and Harry to help?”

“They’re good at Quidditch and all, but not crane folding.”

Neville rubbed his eyes after finishing another crane.

“You all right?”

“Yeah, just been getting these headaches.”

“You’re not folding them at night as well, are you?”

Neville began to smooth out another wrapper.

“I can’t rightly wake up Harry and Ron with the lamp.”

Hermione snatched the wrapper from Neville’s hands.

“Hey!”

“It’s just a story,” Hermione said, trying to keep her voice low. “You’ve done nothing but fold cranes in your spare time, Neville! People are starting to talk.”

“They’ve always talked,” Neville said, reaching for the wrapper, “What difference does it make?”

“The difference is that it is not going to work! It’s just a story, it’s no better than Divination!”

“Is that why you almost got killed to keep that prophecy away from the Death Eaters?” Neville said after Hermione jerked her hand away from his grasp. “Because you don’t believe in them?”

“I did it for Harry,” Hermione said fiercely as she moved back away from Neville as he lunged at her again.

“Give me that wrapper!”

Neville upset the pot as he reached for her again, Hermione kicking him away.

“You’re obsessed, you think it’ll make your wish come true and it won’t!”

The tussle was noticed by the other students, some snickering and pointing while others were making love pairing observations. Neither Hermione nor Neville seemed to notice or care as Neville grabbed her hand and tried to pry it open. All laughter stopped at Hermione’s shriek of pain. Neville had bitten her wrist.

“What is going on here?”

Madam Sprout was pushing students aside as she looked at her two prize students on the floor among the broken pottery and dirt. Hermione was holding her wrist while Neville had fallen back, his eyes wide in horror.

“You’re crazy,” Hermione whispered.

“Like parents, like son,” Neville said. She had never heard such hurt and bitterness in the boy’s voice before. He didn’t stop running out of the greenhouse, even when the professor called after him.

…

The gum wrapper was torn in one corner, but it was smoothed out in the envelope. The post was from Hermione.

…

“Do you have enough?” Hermione asked Neville at the station.

“I don’t know.”

“Why not?”

“I didn’t count.”

Hermione looked as if she might cry, then hugged Neville in a tight embrace.

“I hope you have a good holiday.”

“Thanks, Hermione. For the cranes, too.”

Neville picked up the handle of his trunk and started to walk away.

“Neville!”

He stopped and looked over his shoulder as she ran over to him.

“I never believed in wishes because I never had need to wish for anything,” Hermione said. Neville smiled.

“It’s okay. I do.”

…

The Daily Prophet had this headline: “Flying Paper Cranes Fascinate Muggles!” The article went on to detail how a flock of silver paper cranes had flown out the window of a hospital ward at St. Mungo’s on Christmas eve. The photograph showed the small fluttering cranes pouring from the window, the moonlight making their wings seem to shimmer. The Ministry was quoted as being appalled as the gawking Muggles were far too many to be dealt with by Memory charms. In the end, the Aurors had managed to leak something to the Muggle press about a publicity stunt for a movie.

In the obituaries, a photograph of Neville’s mother and father was published.

“Longbottoms Finally Succumb to Curse.”