Screams. That was all he could hear. It was hard to tell but it sounded like it was a man and a women. But wait, there were others. Dark figures in the room with them. One of them was laughing manically, the other three were watching. Then, he saw a bright green flash and yelling.
Neville Longbottom woke with a start. Sweat poured on his face and he was breathing heavily. He did have nightmares every once in a while like a normal person, but none that were this bad. It almost felt real, like it actually happened to somebody. Part of him felt like it happened to someone he knew. He shook his head to try and get the images out of his mind. Neville got out of the bed and got ready, surprised that he was the last one to be in the dorm. Usually it was Ron that they had to drag out of bed.
He quickly got ready and went over to his first lesson. The rest of the day went normally, though he was still slightly tormented by the dream. Somehow, he managed to go to bed fairly quickly.
He walked around towards the kitchen, hoping to take a cookie that was being baked by his mom, Alice. Before he could grab a cookie he was grabbed and swung around.
"Now what do you think you're doing little guy?" Frank said as he tickled his son. The boy's annoyance was quickly replaced by laughter. Frank went to take a freshly baked cookie off of the cooling rack and handed it to the five year old. The boy happily took it and devoured it almost instantly. He then put out his hands as a way to ask for more.
"Not now, you'll spoil your dinner," Frank said. The boy pouted but then smiled again as he was picked up by his father.
"How about we go upstairs to see what your mother is up to?" Frank said. The boy nodded his head, and the went upstairs to the living room. Once he was in the room, however, he immediately stopped in his tracks. In front of him was three people in cloaks, though he could tell who it was. Lucius, Severus and Rodolphus.
"What do you want?" Frank asked, hugging his son even tighter as though that would protect him.
"Information of course," A high pitch female voice said, "And to have a little fun," He looked behind himself to find that Bellatrix was there as well, holding his wife at wand point. She had her classic sadistic grin on. Frank put down his son, who now had a scared look on his face.
"Daddy, who are these people? Who are these scary people daddy?" The boy asked, terrified of what was happening.
"Listen to me son. Go lock yourself up in another room in the house. Get away from this room," Frank said. The boy was now shaking, but slowly nodded his head. "Good, now go," Frank said. The boy started to go away when one of the masked men stopped him. The man, who Frank identified as Snape, then took the kid and went to the other side of the room, forcing him to watch.
"Please spare him of this. He's just a boy. He doesn't need to see this," Frank pleaded. Bellatrix laughed, having thrown Alice to the ground after paralizing her momentarily, went over to Frank and moved her hands down his face, causing him to flinch.
"Actually, I think it will make for quite a show if your precious little son is watching," She said. He quickly got out his wand only to have it be flown away. Lucius and Rodolphus took Frank by the shoulders and threw him on the ground.
"Dad," The boy yelled, struggling in the tight grip that the man was holding him with.
"Neville, Neville, wake up man, come on," Ron said desparately. The boys in the Griffindor common room were woken up by Neville's tossing and turning and occasionally saying what to them, was nonsense stuff. Harry, who was at the other side of Neville, tried to wake him up as well, but was unable to. Seamus had already run out to grab Madam Pomfrey to see if she could help. That left Harry, Ron, and Dean in the dorm, trying to wake him.
Seamus burst through the door with Madam Pomfrey, not far behind. She looked at Neville and quickly went over to him. She checked him over and when she was done, she sighed.
"There is nothing I can do for this right now," She said.
"What do you mean there's nothing you can do?" Dean asked.
"Right now, he's in a nightmare. One that you can't leave until it's finished. I'm not quite sure though how or why it happens. Dean, go grab Minerva," She ordered. Dean nodded his head and ran out. Seamus looked at him then Neville.
"You guys got this?" He asked Harry and Ron.
"Yeah," Harry said. Seamus ran out of the room to follow Dean.
The little boy looked at the people who were hurting his parents. He didn't know why they were there or what they wanted, but he knew one thing for sure. He was scared to death.
"Here's what we want to know," Bellatrix started to say, as she walked over to Alice, "We want to know everything about the Aurors and the Order of the Phoenix. Think you can tell me that much?" She asked in a jeering kind of way.
"We won't tell you anything," Alice said.
"Crucio," Bellatrix yelled, pointing her wand at Alice. Alice started screaming from the excruciating pain that was going through her body. Frank was yelling at Bellatrix to stop and the boy was crying even harder. Bellatrix kept on using the curse on her until she passed out. Bellatrix got even closer to Alice and kicked her like she was a rag doll.
"Oh well, she was fun while she lasted," She said, "Now it's time for the other one," She grinned as she looked at Frank.
"What the hell is going on?" McGonagall asked as she went into the room with Seamus and Dean. She looked at where everybody was to see that Neville was breathing very heavily and flailing around in the bed.
"I believe that it's some type of nightmare. One that the person cannot get out of until it's over. Though I've never come across it before so I don't know much about it," Pomfrey said. McGonagall looked up at Pomfrey with a concerned look.
"What does this mean then? Will he be okay?" Harry asked.
"We won't know until he get's out of his nightmare," Pomfrey said.
"I think I remember reading something about this," McGonagall said. Everybody looked up at her as she spoke, "Sometimes, when a person experiences something really traumatic and gets their memory erased, this can happen,"
"So you're saying that Neville is reexperiencing something traumatic in his childhood?" Ron asked.
"That's exactly what I'm saying Weasley," McGonagall said.
"What could Neville have gone through that would be this bad though?" Pomfrey asked.
"That is for him to say. Not me," McGonagallsaid.
Bellatrix walked around Frank like he was prey ready to be eaten. She stopped and put a boot on his stomach and pressed down, hard. Frank gasped for breath then was immediately screaming when she used the cruciatice curse.
"Tell me what I want to know," Bellatrix yelled, getting more crazy the longer she was there.
"I won't tell you anything," He said between heavy breaths. He was put through the curse again, this time, longer than Alice until he too, passed out.
"That's a shame. I would have liked to know more and have more fun," Bellatrix said.
"You went to far," Lucius said. Bellatrix rolled her eyes.
"Whatever. I had my fun though," She said and started to walk out the door when she remembered something, "Oh and Severus. Wipe that kids memory. We don't want him to tell anybody about this," She said. Severus did as he said. Little did Bellatrix know, however, that he used something slightly different than a memory wipping charm. He used one that would one day show up in a dream. A dream that would show him everything about that day.
Neville woke up and shot out of his bed. He looked around frantically to see where he was. Soon, he was able to calm down slightly once he figured out that he was in his dorm, though was still breathing heavily. He was shocked to see that both Madam Pomfrey and McGonagall were there beside him.
"What are you too doing here? I'm fine," He said.
"To hell you are," Ron said. That was when Neville also realized that everybody in his dorm was watching him.
"Longbottom, come with me," McGonagall said. Neville shakily got out of the bed and walked with her. They walked through the corridors to her office. They both sat down and McGonagall looked at Neville, who was still slightly shaken by the nightmare.
"I figured you didn't want to talk about this with them, even though they are your friends," She said. Neville nodded his head. She was right about that part, but dreaded the next question that he was sure to come.
"What did you dream of?" She asked. Neville stared at the ground. Part of him wanted to tell her, but the other part of him didn't. He sighed then looked at her.
"It was about my parents," He said in a quiet voice.
"I was afriad it was about that," McGonagall said.
"I always knew that Bellarix had tortured them to insanity, but I never knew the exact details. Until tonight that is," He said. It was another few moments until he spoke again, "There were three other people with her," Neville started to say. McGonagall looked shocked. She never knew that there were three others.
"There was Lucius, Rodolphus and," Neville cut off, not sure if he wanted to say the last person.
"And?" McGonagall asked.
"Snape. Snape was there," He said. McGonagall leaned back in her chair and sighed.
"Listen to me Neville. There is more than meets the eye with Severus. He is a very complicated person. However, it is up to you to decide if you want to trust him or not. Cleary he had a motive for not completely erasing your memories. What that was, I don't know. I will talk to him and tell him that you memory has recovered," Neville looked shocked.
"Is that really necessary?" He asked.
"He needs to know. He was the one who made it so that you'd remember, so he deserves to know," She said. Neville nodded in defeat, still worn out from that nights events. Even though he had been sleeping, it felt like he wasn't.
"I'll walk you back up to your room," McGonagall said. With that, they both went back to the dorm. The other boys were about to ask him a bunch of questions when McGonagall stopped them.
"Don't. Don't ask him unless he wants to talk. And right now you all need to go back to sleep," She said, and walked out.
Neville went back to his bed, more confused than ever. Why would Snape want him to remember such a horrible event? As he fell asleep, he was even more unsure whether or not he could trust Snape. Part of him, however, wanted to.