I barely remember the worst day of my life. I was only a year old when my parents were destroyed by the forces of darkness, their shattered bodies left lying on the floor of their broken home. They fought to protect me, and I owe my life to their actions that day.
I know I shouldn't blame myself, but I do. You see, a little while before the attack, the Dark Lord Voldemort had learned of a prophecy that threatened to bring an end to his murderous campaign. A prophecy about a child, born in late July, who would finally vanquish him. A prophecy that perfectly matched... me.
Am I the child the prophecy speaks of? I honestly don't know. There was another... but it makes no difference. Voldemort is the reason I've never spoken to my parents, never eaten dinner with them, never had a stable home. I was brought up in isolation, with a guardian who had never expected to have to raise another child. I was fed and clothed and mostly ignored. When I woke up screaming there was no-one to hold my hand. Voldemort will pay for what he did.
That is, of course, assuming he lives. The wizarding world believes him destroyed when the curse backfired onto him, but I don't know if he had enough human left in him to die. I think he will return... and I will be waiting.
He will not find me unprepared. Ever since I first heard the story of that night, I have been training myself, preparing for the final battle with the Dark Lord. And today I go to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where I will work to master my magic, in the hope that I will one day be ready to take the fight to him. I will work hard, and I will make allies of his other victims' families, for I am surely not the only one who feels this way. Voldemort, we're coming for you.
And when my friends and I cut a swathe through the Death Eaters, and when we isolate the Dark Lord and drive him from magical Britain to the ends of the Earth, and when I finally can look down my wand at him and say those two magic words, then maybe my parents will know what I've done and will be proud of me.
My name is Neville Longbottom, and I will have my revenge.