Author's Note: I am J. K. Rowling, I do own these characters, in fact, I
own most of you too. Ok maybe not. This is original, no one helped me.
Ummmmmmmmmmmmmm, that's about it. REVIEW!
The young wizard walked hand in hand with the wizened old witch. All around him the woods shown in the dwindling twilight. Rays of sunshine filtered through the early Autumn trees making crisscross patterns on the soft, loamy ground. Under most other circumstances, this would have been a pleasant walk through an enchanting wood. In this case, it was a trip made often, and each time a little less willingly.
The wizard was lost in thoughts no 15-year-old should ever have to be lost in. It had been almost a month since he and his grandmother (for that's who the witch was) had been to this secluded clearing in the wood behind Diagon Alley. It wasn't really that far from the main part of the Alley, but to the wizard, it always seemed to take hours to get there. Five minutes later the two reached the clearing. It was just like any other clearing might be in a wood, the only difference was the large stone doorway complete with door standing free in the middle of the clearing. The door itself had no handle, no hinges, and no discernable way to go through it. On the stone overhanging above the door, "St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies," was plainly visible. Beneath that was a gold plaque with the words, "Please select hospital wing from the below dial. If screams ensue do not worry, try again." The young wizard never liked this last sentence, but in a hospital like this it was wise to follow such advice. He sighed and turned his attention to the gold dial attached to the door. It was divided into several different sections resembling a muggle pizza each with a word like: Broken Bones, Severe Curses, Not So Severe Curses, or Thing That No Man Should Have To See inscribed onto the edge of the section. The young wizard pulled out his wand and touched it to the slice labeled Shattered Minds. A seam appeared on the door at the touch and split the door right through the seal and the door opened.
Neville and his grandmother walked into the hall that opened up before them. At the reception the pretty young witch who insisted that Neville call her "Gingy" (much to his red faced embarrassment) eyed him with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. Neville knew she pitied him, he knew that all the hospital employees did. Not many people at school knew Neville's situation. Dumbledore was the only one that Neville knew of for sure, but he knew how schools worked, he was sure someone else must have found out. But everyone at the hospital had at least heard of, if not met the boy. It was a big hospital, but not that big.
"Hi Neville, how are things with you today?"
It was Gingy, she always asked him how things were. What was he supposed to say anyway? "Oh yeah, great, fine." He didn't think so. He was here to visit his father who didn't even recognize him anymore. He would visit his mother too, if only she wasn't. But he wont think about that right now.
"I'm fine G-g-gingy." Neville lied.
She smiled indulgently and pulled the cord to call the doctors. In moments they had apparated to the lobby. They were dressed in all white robes with pockets on their breasts where they kept their wands. They both wore the same pasted-on smiles that didn't quite reach their eyes. Most people Neville encountered here wore those smiles. They made him sick, but he appreciated the thought.
The first doctor looked from Neville's grandmother to Neville, "Well then, let's get started shall we?" he asked?
Neville and his grandmother nodded and they followed the doctors up the stairs along the back wall. This lobby was built in a style much like that of a grand hotel, had the grand hotel been filled with occasional screams of madness. "Why didn't they soundproof this place?" Neville often thought to himself. The doors were on levels above the lobby each facing out towards the lobby. The stairs to reach each floor were located behind the main desk and made of white marble. They would have been beautiful, if not for the fact that Neville didn't see anything in this hospital as beautiful. He followed the doctor up the four flights of stairs to reach his father's room.
Thought's of his mother now flooded his brain like a deluge breaking through a badly fortified dam. A year ago he would have been visiting the both of them, mother and father. A year ago both of them were alive. Unfortunately, even the walls which had been enchanted to be malleable and springy to the touch had not been enough to preserve her. She had always had rather more violent spasms than her husbands. The doctors said it was a ghost of the Crutiatus Curse that the four rogue dark wizards had put on her for a considerably longer time than her husband. And as springy as those walls might have been, they couldn't stop her from literally propelling herself off of them and flying head first into the floor.
Neville stopped right then. He didn't know exactly what had happened and every time he tried to imagine it he couldn't help but see his mother's flat dead eyes. Her eyes were what he remembered most about her. So kind and full of love when he was young. So vacant and staring after those wizards had finished with her. He didn't want to think of those eyes right now, he didn't even want to see his father, he just wanted to go home.
Only the strong grip of his often over-bearing grandmother kept him moving. Before he knew it they were there. The first doctor who was a little bit taller than the second said a word Neville didn't quite catch and the door gave a small click. He pushed it opened and ushered Neville and his grandmother into the room. The first thing he noticed when he entered the room, was the screams. They weren't the screams of his father. The second thing he noticed was that there was a wizard in a white robe lying sprawled in the most unnatural position imaginable, clearly dead. Two nurses were cringing in a corner staring at the man in the center of the room. That was the third thing he noticed. His father was crouched in the center of the room, the wand of the dead wizard firmly in his grasp.
"THEY ARE LEGION! THEY'RE EVERYWHERE! CROUCH, DAMN YOU CROUCH! GIVE ME MY WIFE BACK! DAMN YOU DAMN YOU DAMN YOU! DARK WIZARDS EVERYWHERE! I'LL KILL YOU ALL!"
Frank Longbottom had been one of the most powerful Aurors that the ministry had ever employed. He was feared by dark wizards everywhere, but more than respected for what had been almost infinite patience and legendary mercy. He never brought a dark wizard in dead. The merciful part of Frank was gone, the legendary power even stronger for his insanity. The doctors immediately turned and made for the door, obviously wishing to sound the alarm that one of the Close Watch patients had acquired a wand. They didn't get far.
"Not yet you bastards! Coroma Talusa!" Frank yelled, "You wont get away crouch until I get my wife back." Frank started laughing, high strained laughter, the way a man who hates to be tickled laughs.
Frank pointed the wand at the first doctor and screamed the name of the Unforgivable Curse. The doctor fell dead against the stones of the cell. Neville's grandmother screamed. Frank's wand was soon on the second doctor who managed to dodge with reflexes born of working with the mentally disturbed just in time to dodge the curse that had been meant for him. He couldn't dodge forever though, the room just wasn't that big. The doctor whipped his wand out just in time to hear, "Omnus Expelliarmus!" Every wand in the room save Frank's went flying into the rafters.
The look in Frank's eyes terrified Neville. It was bad enough when Frank didn't recognize him, sometimes he managed to get his name right, usually he just stared and said things like, "Gotta get out, have to find Voldemort." Hearing his father invoke the dark lord's name always gave him a chill. But just now, Neville would have rather kissed Voldemort right on the lips than have to look into his father's eyes. His father wasn't there anymore, not the caring man who had held him as a child. The thing that looked at him was nothing more than a gun waiting to be pointed.
"AVADA KADAVRA!" Frank screamed and this time he was right on. The doctor slumped against the floor, never to rise again. He wheeled on the two nurses, having, for some lucky reason unfathomable to the sane mind, not noticed Neville or his grandmother. He screamed a curse that Neville didn't recognize and one of the nurses appeared to Neville to seem to grow. It took Neville a moment to realize that the nurse wasn't growing, her stomach was. Her stomach was distending in the most horrible way and Neville turned his head just in time to hear the pop and feel the warm splash of blood and fluids that Neville didn't even pretend to recognize. His grandmother lost it right there, spilling out the evening steak and kidney pie onto the cold floor. The other nurse was screaming and running for the table, presumably to turn it on it's side and use it as a shield. The nurse was soon twenty feet in the air with Frank's wand trained on her.
"I'll teach you Sarah Courtnet! YOU THINK YOU CAN DO THAT TO MY WIFE AND LIVE!"
Frank moved his wand, and the nurse he had seen as one of the Deatheaters involved in the torture fell hard onto the floor.
Neville and his grandmother didn't dare make a sound. They knew they were alone with this madman now. Even Neville's grandmother, who always claimed that Frank saw them a little clearer every time they came, knew that Frank was gone. Suddenly, the thin and hunched man wheeled on his mother and son.
"So, now you try to attack me like THAT huh? What is it, polyjuice potion? You don't fool me, I know what you are. YOU AREN'T MY FAMILY!"
He screamed and seemed to forget he was holding the wand, instead he rushed at them, ropes of saliva flying out of his mouth, his eyes blazing. He was almost there, he had remembered that he had his wand and was training it on Neville's grandmother.
Before he knew what he was doing, Neville found that he had drove himself headfirst into Frank's gut. He stumbled away, his neck aching, and his father sat down hard, his wind long gone. He still gripped the wand hard, but this gave Neville the moment he needed.
Neville ran to where his wand had fallen. He had never been as good as magic as most of his classmates, indeed some spells that most first-years could handle were still a challenge to him. One thing that he had managed to learn however, quite well in fact after having it applied to him his first year at Hogwarts, was the petrification spell.
"Petrificus totalus!" he yelled and his father was suddenly no more threat than a simple picnic table.
Doctors rushed in after Neville's grandmother broke the spell Frank had put on the door. They quickly sedated Frank Longbottom and muttered things Neville didn't want to hear. Things that Neville refused to believe he had heard. Things that sounds suspiciously like Azkaban.
Neville and his grandmother were escorted to the door by a kind nurse and Gingy. Gingy wasn't smiling anymore. She had dropped the façade. She gave Neville a warm hug as they were leaving, her eyes wet with tears as she whispered, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." over and over again into Neville's ear. Neville never heard a word.
As he and his grandmother made their way back to Diagon Alley she was crying very softly to herself and holding on tight to Neville's hand, as though it was the only thing that could keep her from going under. Neville didn't notice any of this, Neville didn't notice anything anymore.
But Neville's mind wasn't as blank as his expression. One thought kept sounding loud as a church bell in Neville's head, and nothing had ever sounded so pure, so right, so compelling as that one thought.
Neville looked at his grandmother and fingered pulled his wand from his pocket, that one thought screaming in his ravaged mind.
"They are legion." "They killed them." "They're everywhere." And Neville knew what he had to do.
The young wizard walked hand in hand with the wizened old witch. All around him the woods shown in the dwindling twilight. Rays of sunshine filtered through the early Autumn trees making crisscross patterns on the soft, loamy ground. Under most other circumstances, this would have been a pleasant walk through an enchanting wood. In this case, it was a trip made often, and each time a little less willingly.
The wizard was lost in thoughts no 15-year-old should ever have to be lost in. It had been almost a month since he and his grandmother (for that's who the witch was) had been to this secluded clearing in the wood behind Diagon Alley. It wasn't really that far from the main part of the Alley, but to the wizard, it always seemed to take hours to get there. Five minutes later the two reached the clearing. It was just like any other clearing might be in a wood, the only difference was the large stone doorway complete with door standing free in the middle of the clearing. The door itself had no handle, no hinges, and no discernable way to go through it. On the stone overhanging above the door, "St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies," was plainly visible. Beneath that was a gold plaque with the words, "Please select hospital wing from the below dial. If screams ensue do not worry, try again." The young wizard never liked this last sentence, but in a hospital like this it was wise to follow such advice. He sighed and turned his attention to the gold dial attached to the door. It was divided into several different sections resembling a muggle pizza each with a word like: Broken Bones, Severe Curses, Not So Severe Curses, or Thing That No Man Should Have To See inscribed onto the edge of the section. The young wizard pulled out his wand and touched it to the slice labeled Shattered Minds. A seam appeared on the door at the touch and split the door right through the seal and the door opened.
Neville and his grandmother walked into the hall that opened up before them. At the reception the pretty young witch who insisted that Neville call her "Gingy" (much to his red faced embarrassment) eyed him with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. Neville knew she pitied him, he knew that all the hospital employees did. Not many people at school knew Neville's situation. Dumbledore was the only one that Neville knew of for sure, but he knew how schools worked, he was sure someone else must have found out. But everyone at the hospital had at least heard of, if not met the boy. It was a big hospital, but not that big.
"Hi Neville, how are things with you today?"
It was Gingy, she always asked him how things were. What was he supposed to say anyway? "Oh yeah, great, fine." He didn't think so. He was here to visit his father who didn't even recognize him anymore. He would visit his mother too, if only she wasn't. But he wont think about that right now.
"I'm fine G-g-gingy." Neville lied.
She smiled indulgently and pulled the cord to call the doctors. In moments they had apparated to the lobby. They were dressed in all white robes with pockets on their breasts where they kept their wands. They both wore the same pasted-on smiles that didn't quite reach their eyes. Most people Neville encountered here wore those smiles. They made him sick, but he appreciated the thought.
The first doctor looked from Neville's grandmother to Neville, "Well then, let's get started shall we?" he asked?
Neville and his grandmother nodded and they followed the doctors up the stairs along the back wall. This lobby was built in a style much like that of a grand hotel, had the grand hotel been filled with occasional screams of madness. "Why didn't they soundproof this place?" Neville often thought to himself. The doors were on levels above the lobby each facing out towards the lobby. The stairs to reach each floor were located behind the main desk and made of white marble. They would have been beautiful, if not for the fact that Neville didn't see anything in this hospital as beautiful. He followed the doctor up the four flights of stairs to reach his father's room.
Thought's of his mother now flooded his brain like a deluge breaking through a badly fortified dam. A year ago he would have been visiting the both of them, mother and father. A year ago both of them were alive. Unfortunately, even the walls which had been enchanted to be malleable and springy to the touch had not been enough to preserve her. She had always had rather more violent spasms than her husbands. The doctors said it was a ghost of the Crutiatus Curse that the four rogue dark wizards had put on her for a considerably longer time than her husband. And as springy as those walls might have been, they couldn't stop her from literally propelling herself off of them and flying head first into the floor.
Neville stopped right then. He didn't know exactly what had happened and every time he tried to imagine it he couldn't help but see his mother's flat dead eyes. Her eyes were what he remembered most about her. So kind and full of love when he was young. So vacant and staring after those wizards had finished with her. He didn't want to think of those eyes right now, he didn't even want to see his father, he just wanted to go home.
Only the strong grip of his often over-bearing grandmother kept him moving. Before he knew it they were there. The first doctor who was a little bit taller than the second said a word Neville didn't quite catch and the door gave a small click. He pushed it opened and ushered Neville and his grandmother into the room. The first thing he noticed when he entered the room, was the screams. They weren't the screams of his father. The second thing he noticed was that there was a wizard in a white robe lying sprawled in the most unnatural position imaginable, clearly dead. Two nurses were cringing in a corner staring at the man in the center of the room. That was the third thing he noticed. His father was crouched in the center of the room, the wand of the dead wizard firmly in his grasp.
"THEY ARE LEGION! THEY'RE EVERYWHERE! CROUCH, DAMN YOU CROUCH! GIVE ME MY WIFE BACK! DAMN YOU DAMN YOU DAMN YOU! DARK WIZARDS EVERYWHERE! I'LL KILL YOU ALL!"
Frank Longbottom had been one of the most powerful Aurors that the ministry had ever employed. He was feared by dark wizards everywhere, but more than respected for what had been almost infinite patience and legendary mercy. He never brought a dark wizard in dead. The merciful part of Frank was gone, the legendary power even stronger for his insanity. The doctors immediately turned and made for the door, obviously wishing to sound the alarm that one of the Close Watch patients had acquired a wand. They didn't get far.
"Not yet you bastards! Coroma Talusa!" Frank yelled, "You wont get away crouch until I get my wife back." Frank started laughing, high strained laughter, the way a man who hates to be tickled laughs.
Frank pointed the wand at the first doctor and screamed the name of the Unforgivable Curse. The doctor fell dead against the stones of the cell. Neville's grandmother screamed. Frank's wand was soon on the second doctor who managed to dodge with reflexes born of working with the mentally disturbed just in time to dodge the curse that had been meant for him. He couldn't dodge forever though, the room just wasn't that big. The doctor whipped his wand out just in time to hear, "Omnus Expelliarmus!" Every wand in the room save Frank's went flying into the rafters.
The look in Frank's eyes terrified Neville. It was bad enough when Frank didn't recognize him, sometimes he managed to get his name right, usually he just stared and said things like, "Gotta get out, have to find Voldemort." Hearing his father invoke the dark lord's name always gave him a chill. But just now, Neville would have rather kissed Voldemort right on the lips than have to look into his father's eyes. His father wasn't there anymore, not the caring man who had held him as a child. The thing that looked at him was nothing more than a gun waiting to be pointed.
"AVADA KADAVRA!" Frank screamed and this time he was right on. The doctor slumped against the floor, never to rise again. He wheeled on the two nurses, having, for some lucky reason unfathomable to the sane mind, not noticed Neville or his grandmother. He screamed a curse that Neville didn't recognize and one of the nurses appeared to Neville to seem to grow. It took Neville a moment to realize that the nurse wasn't growing, her stomach was. Her stomach was distending in the most horrible way and Neville turned his head just in time to hear the pop and feel the warm splash of blood and fluids that Neville didn't even pretend to recognize. His grandmother lost it right there, spilling out the evening steak and kidney pie onto the cold floor. The other nurse was screaming and running for the table, presumably to turn it on it's side and use it as a shield. The nurse was soon twenty feet in the air with Frank's wand trained on her.
"I'll teach you Sarah Courtnet! YOU THINK YOU CAN DO THAT TO MY WIFE AND LIVE!"
Frank moved his wand, and the nurse he had seen as one of the Deatheaters involved in the torture fell hard onto the floor.
Neville and his grandmother didn't dare make a sound. They knew they were alone with this madman now. Even Neville's grandmother, who always claimed that Frank saw them a little clearer every time they came, knew that Frank was gone. Suddenly, the thin and hunched man wheeled on his mother and son.
"So, now you try to attack me like THAT huh? What is it, polyjuice potion? You don't fool me, I know what you are. YOU AREN'T MY FAMILY!"
He screamed and seemed to forget he was holding the wand, instead he rushed at them, ropes of saliva flying out of his mouth, his eyes blazing. He was almost there, he had remembered that he had his wand and was training it on Neville's grandmother.
Before he knew what he was doing, Neville found that he had drove himself headfirst into Frank's gut. He stumbled away, his neck aching, and his father sat down hard, his wind long gone. He still gripped the wand hard, but this gave Neville the moment he needed.
Neville ran to where his wand had fallen. He had never been as good as magic as most of his classmates, indeed some spells that most first-years could handle were still a challenge to him. One thing that he had managed to learn however, quite well in fact after having it applied to him his first year at Hogwarts, was the petrification spell.
"Petrificus totalus!" he yelled and his father was suddenly no more threat than a simple picnic table.
Doctors rushed in after Neville's grandmother broke the spell Frank had put on the door. They quickly sedated Frank Longbottom and muttered things Neville didn't want to hear. Things that Neville refused to believe he had heard. Things that sounds suspiciously like Azkaban.
Neville and his grandmother were escorted to the door by a kind nurse and Gingy. Gingy wasn't smiling anymore. She had dropped the façade. She gave Neville a warm hug as they were leaving, her eyes wet with tears as she whispered, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." over and over again into Neville's ear. Neville never heard a word.
As he and his grandmother made their way back to Diagon Alley she was crying very softly to herself and holding on tight to Neville's hand, as though it was the only thing that could keep her from going under. Neville didn't notice any of this, Neville didn't notice anything anymore.
But Neville's mind wasn't as blank as his expression. One thought kept sounding loud as a church bell in Neville's head, and nothing had ever sounded so pure, so right, so compelling as that one thought.
Neville looked at his grandmother and fingered pulled his wand from his pocket, that one thought screaming in his ravaged mind.
"They are legion." "They killed them." "They're everywhere." And Neville knew what he had to do.