A/N: - This is a story that I've toyed with in a couple of incarnations, and I submitted another version with my old account, but I decided that I wasn't happy with that one and took it down. Basically, I've always wanted to hear more about certain underappreciated characters, and who doesn't love reading about 1940's Hogwarts? So I cooked this one up and voila!

I hope you enjoy reading.

PROLOGUE

Augusta

Neville looked like he'd seen a thousand wars on the morning of the day he was going to depart for his last year of Hogwarts. Augusta watched her grandson as he toyed with the bacon rind on his plate, pushing it backwards and forwards through the leftover egg yolk without actually registering what he was doing. His eyes, the same blue colour that his father had, that Augusta herself had, weren't focused on the room. They were a million miles away, probably searching for answers to questions he would never fully understand.

She knew the feeling.

Augusta turned back to the sink, and the self-cleaning dishes she had been supervising. The sky beyond the kitchen window was a stormy grey, and she couldn't help thinking that it was an omen for things to come.

"Where do you think they are?"

The sound of Neville's voice roused Augusta from her thoughts. She glanced back at him. He had put down his fork, and was instead staring intently into his glass of orange juice. His brow puckered in the middle whenever he was deeply contemplating something, and it was a trait that Augusta remembered fondly. His grandfather had used the exact same expression.

"Where who are, dear?"

"Harry. And Ron and Hermione, too. Do you think they have a plan?" Neville looked up suddenly, and his face was filled with so much earnest hope that it made Augusta's heart clench painfully.

"If anyone does, they do," she said carefully.

Neville sighed. "I don't know what to do, Gran. Everyone at school is going to be lost without Harry to lead us."

"You don't need Harry to lead you, Neville."

He snorted. "Oh, yeah? Who else is going to do it?"

Augusta tilted her head to one side. It amazed her that after all he had accomplished in his short seventeen years of life, Neville still doubted his own abilities. He had the steel spine of a true Gryffindor, and the makings of a great hero. She just wished he believed that.

"You can."

"Nobody will listen to me. Not like they listened to Harry, anyway."

Crossing the room in three strides, Augusta pulled out the chair opposite him and dropped into it. Her muscles groaned in protest, but she ignored the feeling.

Hasn't anyone ever told you? Getting old is for the weak, Augusta.

She didn't know what made her think those words after so many years, but she could still hear his voice saying them like it was yesterday. He'd laughed when he told her that, his dark eyes sparkling with life and the kind of vibrant energy that she couldn't help being drawn to.

She shook the thought from her mind as quickly as it had come. Instead, she refocused her attention on her dejected grandson. "You're selling yourself short, you know. It doesn't take great heroic victories to be a leader, Neville. It just takes conviction and faith in yourself. If you have that, then everyone else will believe in you, too."

"But I don't believe in myself," he muttered.

"Well, then, you're an idiot."

Neville almost smiled at that. "I know, Gran."

"Listen," she said. She leaned across the table and grabbed his hand firmly in both of her wrinkled ones. "I've seen people leading out of intimidation and fear in my time. I've seen them leading out of twisted beliefs, and I've seen them leading out of some fairly sound beliefs, too. But you know who the best leaders are?"

He shook his head. "No."

"The ones who lead out of love. Your grandfather was like that. I know you can be."

"I'm not Granddad," Neville pointed out.

"No," Augusta agreed. "You're you. And it's about time you realised that that's more than good enough, Neville Longbottom."

He withdrew his hand from hers and patted her knuckles clumsily. Augusta knew that he wasn't convinced, but she didn't allow herself to dwell on it. Neville would realise his own worth soon enough, and on that day, he would make her proud enough to last a thousand lifetimes.

"What was he like?" Neville whispered. "Granddad, I mean."

Augusta paused for a moment while she searched her brain for the right words. Melvin, God rest his soul, had been the best kind of man. Kind, patient and braver than anyone else she knew. He'd poured his whole heart and soul into everything and everyone he cared about.

"He was a lot like you," she replied gently.

"You loved him a lot." It wasn't a question. Neville, like his father before him, had grown up hearing stories of how much Augusta had loved her husband.

"Yes, I did. With all my heart."

"You only get that kind of love once in your life, don't you?"

It was an innocent enough question, but Augusta felt the guilt gripping her heart, as she did every time anyone so much as hinted at her life before Melvin Longbottom. She had made mistakes in her younger years, and she wasn't alone in that. Even Dumbledore had had somewhat of a misspent youth.

Her biggest mistake was also her biggest regret. It was a well-kept secret, these days. Barely anyone knew. But Augusta couldn't keep secrets from herself, and in moments like this, it wasn't Melvin's tousled blond hair and earnest green eyes that popped up in her mind. No, the face she saw was crowned with hair as black as night, a face with flashing dark eyes that saw far too much and far too little at the same time.

It was his crooked smile she thought of. His laugh. His tears.

Not Melvin's.

"Yes, Neville," Augusta lied. "You only get that kind of love once."

She tried to quell the guilt in her heart by justifying it to herself. What she had told her grandson wasn't a complete lie, after all. She could never have had the life she shared with her husband if she had been with him. He wasn't built for it.

Melvin Longbottom had been Augusta's last love. Her longest love.

But he hadn't been her first.

This is going to be Augusta's story while at school, but it won't just be from her perspective. I'm sure you might have guessed who else we'll be hearing from. ;)

Thanks for reading!

OldValyriaRises