A/N:(*)I'm aware of the fact Neville was born on the 30th of July. I won't change it though, for plot convenience.

With a huge thanks to my Beta, AK!(AnneAquila)


Chapter 1: The arrival of the owl

It was only a couple of days until September the first and start of new term. Two weeks from Neville's seventeenth birthday, a huge brown owl landed on the roof of the Longbottom's home to deliver his Hogwarts letter. Just as usual.

Neville walked over, pet the bird and, absently providing it with its payment, fixed his eyes on the envelope.

He wasn't sure what to think of it. Quite a good start-off for more discussions, perhaps.

Through the entire summer break he had been arguing about whether returning to Hogwarts was a good idea with his grandmother. He had tried to persuade her to let her go to see what Harry was up to, but she had quite reasonably convinced him Harry was probably not entrusted with anyone, save his closest friends.

Then of course, they had figured Hogwarts might just be the best place to go to. McGonagall had stayed, after all, as had Hagrid and Flitwick...

The decree of compulsory education had been the final straw for her to allow him to go back.

From the outside the letter looked normal, but judging by recent events Neville doubted it contained the usual information. He hadn't enjoyed the Daily Prophet lately. The envelope was thicker than usual, and when Neville tore it open he noticed it did not contain the usual piece of parchment, but three of the same.

Alarmed and thinking this would be no good, he opened and began to read.


HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

Headmaster: Severus Snape

Dear Mr. Longbottom,

We are pleased to welcome you back to new term, starting on 1st of September, at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment required for your new school year.

Yours sincerely,

Amycus Carrow

Deputy Headmaster


Neville frowned at the new names, but till here, nothing serious seemed to have changed.

He looked at the second parchment.


INFORMATION on NEW DECREES concerning ATTENDANCE

Each student with proved Magical blood (cf. Blood status) between the age of 11-17 is obliged to attend to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry without fail. Students who have been taught recently at abroad schools are committed to attend to Hogwarts from now until the completion of their education and graduation, unless profound investigations and reasonable exceptions permit otherwise.

Home-schooling is, without exception, forbidden and will be controlled. (cf. Decree No. 126, section 2)

Each student is given a blood status. Students with no proof for magical ancestry (Mudbloods) are forthwith expelled.


Neville looked up, watching how the owl already faded at the horizon. The last piece of parchment contained his school books. He spotted some familiar titles and names. But there also were 'The noble Art and Work of curses', 'The Guideline to deal with Muggles and Mudbloods', and 'Mudbloods and the Dangers they pose'.

He stuffed the book list into his pocket, took the other two pieces of parchment, tore them in two pieces and threw them into the can in the corner of the room.

He rubbed with his hands over his face and sat down at the kitchen table. There had been nothing new to him in those papers but nevertheless the idea of returning to a Hogwarts so different from what he knew didn't feel too comfortable.

The name of Snape holding the Headmaster's office alone set him on edge.

While brooding over his thoughts, his grandmother entered the room, dragging a shopping bag. Neville rose to give her a hand.

'Thanks, dear,' she said, her voice somewhat exhausted.

Her eyes fell on the kitchen table and narrowed. 'Got your school list already?'

Neville nodded.

'A lot of new school books?'

'Some,' he mumbled. 'They wrote something about the new changes in school, too. And the rumors seem to be true, Snape's headmaster now.'

Her eyes narrowed, if possible, even more. 'So the Daily Prophet got that right.'

'It's got it all right. Has to, don't you think? With the ministry controlling over it now?'

'We never knew that for sure.'

Neville snorted silently. 'But it was obvious ever since Voldemort had taken over. Like they let them write what they want.'

'More to the point, as if the Daily Prophet wanted to write something else. I hear there had been a few changes in editors as well. More than the half of them are Death Eaters now. They're doing a clean job of it, don't they?'

She twisted her mouth as if her teeth were aching.

Neville began drawing circles over the table. 'And McGonagall is no longer deputy headmistress.'

Her face paled a bit. 'Damn,' she mumbled. 'That's no good. Who is it, now?'

'Amycus Carrow.'

'Death Eater if I have ever seen one,' she said, her fingers clenching. 'Well, nothing to do about it, is there? Apart from fighting, obviously.'

Neville nodded grimly, and then turned over to catch a glimpse of her shopping.

'There,' she said, stretching with her fingers into the bag and pulling out a magazine.

'The Quibbler. I thought it was a better read these days than the Prophet.'

Neville took the paper and looked at the front page.

"Remain faithful to the Boy Who Lived, not the Man Who Killed"

Curiously, he opened it.

'All good spirit,' his grandmother said. 'I met Xeno the other days - very loyal, very loyal to Harry Potter he is and remains to be.'

Neville smiled.

'Has he seen him lately?'

'Apparently, yes. The day the ministry had fallen. At a family feast of the Weasley's. Did you know? Their eldest son got married.'

Neville stared on the table. 'But not since?' he asked.

'No, obviously he went into hiding,' his grandmother said in a tone as if Neville was some dumb animal.

'But I bet, if the Death Eaters or even Voldemort had caught him, it would be all over the news. They wouldn't keep that silent. After all, they're printing a thousand of posters with his face on him right now. They would want to know public what they have achieved.'

'Yeah, I guess,' Neville mumbled, and bit his lip. Until now, a small hope had somehow survived, a hope telling him Harry might be returning to Hogwarts after all. They could be re-enact Dumbledore's Army, like the last time the ministry had turned against Harry...

But no, of course not. This was not only the ministry, this was Voldemort. Plus, they hadn't been labeling Harry "undesirable No 1" last time..

And above all, they had had Dumbledore.

In light of the approaching school year Neville felt his stomach twist.

Not fear, necessarily. But an uncertain, dreadful anticipation.


The next day he went to Diagon Alley to get the rest of his school stuff. When he first entered the alley, he stopped dead in surprise.

The alley looked completely different from what he remembered. Gone were the colorful, welcoming buildings and the variety of shops.

There were no laughing students, excited first years running around looking for their school books, curiously examining the shop window. Ollivander's wand shop had not remained empty after he had left - whatever that meant, Neville wondered - and a new shop with books had taken its place, with a grim looking vendor behind the counter.

But it was not only shops or visitors that had changed. The entire atmosphere was gone. Thinking about it now, Neville felt that Diagon Alley looked way more like Knockturn Alley than the Diagon Alley he knew.

Carefully, he took a few steps.

A mother with three kids passed him, apparently doing their shopping. Two of the kids looked like they were Hogwarts students, first years, Neville guessed, and the third seemed around five to six years old.

'Mommy, can I get a robe like that?' one of the older kids asked and stared longingly into one of the shops.

His mother looked up, with a frantic expression on her face. Clearly she didn't enjoy their shopping trip much, either.

'No,' she said with a glance on the sign, 'no, you can't have that one, Bill, they are exclusive for pure-bloods, only... Look, we'll get you one of these, they'll look fine on you, don't you think?'

'I guess,' the boy said, and looked at his mum curiously. 'Mum, why can't we be purebloods?' the smallest boy asked. 'Why didn't you marry a wizard? I'm sure there'd been nice fellows among wizards. James said the other day that we had done better to have a wizard father, from an old wizard family, the best.'

Neville noticed a frown on the women's face.

'Don't listen to such things.'

'But it's true,' the boy called Bill said. 'James has warned me. We'd better not brag about our blood status in Hogwarts, he said. He'd know, wouldn't he? He has already been to Hogwarts for a year and his aunt's teaching at the school now.'

The woman's exhausted face paled a bit.

'I don't think you should spent so much time and listen to what James Carrow is saying,' the woman said. 'Besides, I always only wanted your father.'

The boys face's turned a little red. 'It's not like we didn't like dad,' Bill said quickly, 'but it - I mean, James has shown me the paper-'

'Don't worry,' his mother cut him short. 'We are a fine family.' She looked around her shoulder, and spotted Neville. 'We will talk about this later,' she said, more quietly now.

'When we're at home.'

The two older boys nodded, but the third boy looked around the place now, curiously and had spotted one of the posters. Neville's stomach squirmed. Actually seeing Harry's face staring at him was worse, way worse, than simply talking about them haunting him. At any moment, his friend could be rounded up.

'Look, mum,' he said loudly, 'Harry Potter. I know him!'

'Shh,' his mother said and, hastily, looked around. 'At home,' she whispered.

But the boy didn't seem to pay attention. 'Why are they wanting Harry Potter?,' he asked, 'I thought you were saying that-'

'Shh,' she said desperately, and gave Neville a weird look.

Neville thought she probably thought he was likely a pureblood, or worse, a death eater waiting to spy on people who's blood was not so pure and come after her husband.

The thought made him sad.

The boy opened his mouth again, but before he could speak, she stretched out her hand, packed the three boys and disapparated with a loud crack.

Neville stared at the place where they had vanished.

They hadn't even bought their robes.

For a few seconds he remained where he was, then he remembered why he had come here in the first place, and started walking down the alley. While he was getting his books, he noticed that although quick escapes and whispered conversations were not uncommon, most people obtained their stuff in silence, barely talking to one another.

Apart from the people Neville quickly recognized as purebloods, that is. They had no problems shouting loud rather than talking softly like normal people to each other, and they obviously enjoyed buying products that were labelled "Purebloods Only".

Neville had thought those labels to be a unique exception for one shop, but he found out they were all over the place, found in every shop. He didn't touch a single one of the products, although he was sometimes offered them by the vendors when they heard his family name.

Most of the shop owners occupied lists with pure-blood-family names. In one or two places Neville saw a sign telling him purebloods were given 20% rebate, and he avoided those shops thoroughly.

He was more than glad when he had all his stuff together, and could return home, but the covers of his new school books didn't look very promising. More, they made him wonder whether it wasn't a shame to call the school Hogwarts any longer. It seemed to be on the way to become an institution for dark arts.

It didn't sound like the place he grew up with. And Neville wasn't sure what to make of it.