If there was one place at home where Neville felt most himself it was in the extensive greenhouses known as the East Wing Annex. Which was actually on the south side of the manor, as when the main wing had been rebuilt in the 1680s a North East facing main facade had replaced the previous entry between the east wing and the North Wing around original keep. It was the last major building completed in the wizarding world before the statute of secrecy had cut off such works. His own room was still at the very end of the Nursery wing, situated just to the north of the eastern most of the greenhouses.
The greenhouses of Longbottom manor were not just a place to grow the many plants that the family cultivated, for the extended family provided a good amount of the magical plants as well as the staples needed for every day life. They were a place where each Longbottom had their own little spot that they showed off their own favored plants. Neville still maintained the first little plot that he'd been given as a child of just four, some hardy geraniums that had somehow survived his clumsy initial efforts to make a garden, but now he filled half the same green house.
He now had magical plants, but they were not his pride and joy. The non-magical flowers were. Neville was particularly proud of his orchids at the moment. He carefully tended them, pinching off spent blossoms, before moving on to preparing a bed for some actual magical plants. Dragon dung had a rather powerful smell, but if you reduced it just a little bit, it actually had a rather sweet smell to it. It was that particular smell he was after, as it indicated that the dung was properly mixed.
He'd just about finished mixing the soil and dung when he heard his mother entering his greenhouse, well mostly his greenhouse, as his mother's morning glories still covered a trellis on the west wall. He could tell it was his mother by the fact that she was humming a tune that she'd gotten stuck in her head. His mother had told him that she got tunes stuck in her head a lot easier now. At the moment she had Jerusalem stuck in her head, it seemed.
Neville looked up, and discovered that his mother had apparently collected some of the pots of dirigible plums, prunus ceraifera tinnitus that he'd ordered, and was directing them ahead of her. The chimes of the seeded plums rang as she moved them in, her wand directing them up and down slightly to the tune she was humming.
"You know Mum, it's going to take hours before they stop ringing," Neville said as he began to dig the hole that the first of the plants would go into. "And they'll try to keep that tune going."
"At least it's a half decent tune, unlike that rhapsody that your father keeps playing from that muggle band," his Mum said. "I almost strangled Sirius for introducing him to that band, and Monty Granger has a lot to answer for lending your father the last few albums."
Neville had to agree, "Part of the reason I'm out here now, instead of later today is that Dad was playing that Princes of the Universe song, again. Can't he stick with the better ones like the Champions one, or 'Who Wants to Live Forever?' I like that one."
"Don't admit that to your father," his Mum said. "Nice choice with the plums, by the way. They should fit right in. Do you want me to move my morning glories next spring?"
"No, I kind of like them, and I need them with the plums," Neville said, loosening the roots in the pot bound plant before putting it in the hole. "They'll help orient the fruit."
"Really?" his Mum said. "I didn't know that."
"I read about it in Magical Fruits of the Old World," Neville said. "I need the silver one next. Give it just a little bit more of shake before you put it down though. I don't want it seed bound."
"Good idea," his Mum said. "Does the blue one need more shaking? It's a bit flat, note wise."
"No. It needs a bit more watering with gilly water," Neville said. "On, and thanks for the help getting Ginny's present yesterday."
"You're welcome my son," his Mum replied, and for a moment Neville basked in the warmth of parental presence. He was so going to miss Mum and Dad when it was time to go back to Hogwarts.
It had only been about three days since Ron had turned in the copy of Letters to the Boy Who Lived. It had been sent in right after Neville's birthday party, with a few extra comments inserted from his fellow Gryffindors, and even one from Draco Malfoy that was just too good not to include. So he was quite surprised to discover the advanced copy sitting on the Weasley kitchen table when he got up.
Somehow he'd ended up credited on the cover. He'd just taken it upon himself to organize the letters and do a little bridging, or get someone else to write a bridge in a few cases. It was one of the many times this year that he'd ended up doing something that originally everyone had expected Hermione to do. In retrospect he wasn't sure why people thought Hermione would have the time after she gave birth to Jimmy. Babies took a lot of attention from their mothers. So just like he had done when Hermione was in the Hospital Wing in January, Ron stepped up.
When Hermione had read it, and she was a speed reader, completing it before everyone else, she'd complimented him, telling him that he'd made it a lot more relatable than she would have. Ron had just blushed, but in the back of his mind he had to admit that she had a point.
So the light brown copy from Obscurus Books that did not yet have the cover picture on it now laid to the right of Ron's breakfast. He kept looking over at it. "Letters to the Boy Who Lived: And His Replies to Ginny. By Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley. Edited by Ron Weasley. With the assistance of the Gryffindor Class of 1998." He couldn't stop his gaze drifting over to it, even as he stoked his night depleted bunkers with food for what would no doubt be a very busy day.
"I've already looked at it," Ginny said, at Ron's quick glance over at her. Ginny had been up a lot longer, and was currently helping their mother prepare a package of baked goods that would be sent to their brother Charlie in Romania. Their oldest brother Bill was at home at the moment, and Ron knew that Ginny was hoping that he'd still be there for her birthday in eight more days.
"Any problems?" Ron asked, not bothering to swallow first.
"They misspelled my name in your preface," Ginny said. "At least I hope it was them, because if you thought my name was spelled Ginerva, there is a hex I will be trying. And swallow before you talk, Ron."
"It might have been my hand writing," Ron replied, swallowing first. "I wrote that kind of late at night ... well, re-wrote it. I still don't think its good enough."
"Well, the editor of Obscurus Books seemed to think it was," his mother said. "In fact, I believe he said you should go into editing when you pass out of Hogwarts."
"Is Dean still working on the cover?" Ginny asked.
"He turned it in yesterday," Ron said. "And I haven't seen it either. Probably won't see it until the actual book is out in a couple weeks."
"Are we really going to do the signing at Flourish and Blotts?" Ginny asked.
"They want us to do it, but you will be on your best behavior," his mother said. "Now, Ron, I know you want to see the book, but finish your breakfast first. And Ginny, go clean your room. It's a mess."
Ron finished his breakfast in record time. He was a growing boy, but this was the first time he had his name in print, and on the cover too. Even a boy set on joining the Chudley Cannons some day couldn't resist it.
Fortunately it was a gray summer day, with a steady driving rain, so Ron wasn't exactly looking forward to going out to swim or play Quidditch.
"Mum!" Percy said, having run across the garden from the small three room shed that had been turned into a cottage for the newlyweds. He was soaked from the downpour outside. "Penny's water just broke!"
Ron was quite aware what that meant. He'd been told what to do with Hermione went into labor after poor Draco Malfoy had ended up delivering his half-sister's baby. "How far apart are the contractions," he asked almost without thinking. Apparently the lessons had stuck.
Their mother had almost immediately gone over to pick up a bag next to the pantry, but she stopped suddenly. She looked over at Ron with surprise.
"What?" Ron asked, as he noticed both his older brother and mother's eyes on him, as well their sudden stillness. "Madam Pomfrey made sure the entire Gryffindor First Year knew what to tell her and to do after the Malfoy birth. We did have Hermione in our dorm. A day earlier and Jimmy would have been born on the Express. So Percy?"
"Three minutes," Percy replied after a moment.
There was a loud crack in the aftermath of his mother's apparition across the garden.
"I don't think you've got long, Perce," Ron said.
"How is it that you always know more about pregnancy and babies than I do?" Percy asked as he said down heavily on the bench opposite Ron.
"After we heard about Malfoy, none of us could avoid learning," Ron said. "And with Hermione we learnt everything."
The kitchen remained silent for quite some time. Only the sound of the driving rain against the windows filled the room.
"You know, Harry was with Hermione when she gave birth," Ron said. "Why aren't you with Penny."
"Didn't know," Percy mumbled. "Penny told me to send Mum," Then he looked up. "Shall I go back."
"Harry seemed to think it was good that he was there," Ron replied.
Percy stood and stumbled out into the rain. Ten minutes later, though, he was back, soaked with rain, to let his siblings know that they were now aunt and uncles to Fabia and Gideon Weasley.