Harry's Game
A man, of perhaps twenty-three or twenty-four years, picked his way through the rubble that was strewn across his path haphazardly. Most people didn't understand what made him go back to the same god-awful place, time after time after time, or even how or why he could possibly face it again.
The war had gone on for many years, and the end was neither close at hand nor was it at all foreseeable in the distant future. The Dark side had been severely weakened by the Light side's improved fighting abilities, but they were cunning, and had stepped up their intelligence to a level no one had thought possible. The previous night, many Deatheaters managed to break in to Hogwarts, a feat that would be called impressive, were it not for the fact that Albus Dumbledore had been their target. He had not been there, as he was no longer the headmaster. This information was unknown to anyone other than the very top level in the Order. In their confusion, they had ended up killing Professor McGonagall, although everyone could see that she had put up a valiant effort to dispel them from the castle. Help was not at hand for her – no one found out about it until the next day, when Albus returned to find her dead in his office.
Dark versus Light: 1-1.
With the length of time and the effort that had to be put in to try to gain the upper hand, it was quite amazing the things that keep people going. For many, it was just a matter of belief. For others it was something much darker. Harry had been in it for revenge. Whether he had ever admitted it to himself or not, revenge was the real reason he fought. No prophecy could have prompted him into such drastic action. That, though, was a long time ago, and the name Harry Potter was no longer a household name any more than Peter Pettigrew was.
The Dark Lord had seen to it that his old nemesis would never rise to become what was expected of him by so many. Under the careful watch of many of his supporters (all of those who were not on the battlefield, or dying in a gutter somewhere), He performed the Crucatious Curse at great length on the boy. He tortured a sixteen-year-old boy to madness, and some people had said that He was just misunderstood. The Ministry made the only misunderstanding, when they thought he could be crushed easily.
Neville looked around again, just to make sure he was alone. He walked through the halls of what used to be the best hospital in the entire wizarding world. It had been reduced to cinders about a year previously, when the muggles finally caught on to the existence of something they called "other-worldly". They discovered the hospital and burnt it down. While most people made it out, there were some that were left because they could not get out on their own. He felt an almost empty sensation in his heart when he thought about the two that could not make it down from the Janus Thickey ward. During the ensuing violence, many fled the country, while others stayed to fight the good fight. The muggles were absolutely indispensable to the Light side's plans. It was doubtful that they knew the full implications of the Dark Lord rising to power, but the lack of secrecy that needed to be maintained was definitely a plus. This did not mean that all secrets were divulged to the non-magic folk.
For this reason, Neville headed straight for the back of the 'hospital', to a ward that only a select few knew about. Not even Harry himself had known about it before he had been sent there after his being retrieved from Great Hangleton by Light side's most elite. Most of the members of 'Dumbledore's Army' were notified, and those who were able to fit under Harry's invisibility cloak were able to sneak out to the Thestrals and visit him. Ron, who had been with Harry just a few minutes before his capture, was already there when they had arrived. It was Ron who told Dumbledore what had happened, and subsequently prevented his best friend's death at the hands of his greatest enemy. It was also he that cast the Unforgivable that nobody had the time to mourn.
He killed his best friend. Ronald Weasley cast the Avada Kedavera curse on Harry Potter and then cursed himself out of existence. At least that was the way the media portrayed it; Ron Weasley was a cold-hearted killer, and a turncoat. They then moved on to find their next hero, and the last reminder of the Potter name came in the form of a small obituary a week later, written by Rita Skeeter. But anyone who knew him knew that he was nothing of the sort. Ron had loved his friend like a brother, and would rather have seen him dead than insane. Neville was sure that Harry would have done the same if roles were reversed, and so when Ron asked for forgiveness, he was quick to give his. With that, Ron repeated the curse, only this time, on himself, safe in the knowledge that he was forgiven. He and everyone else knew that after murdering "The Boy Who Lived", he had only the choice between death and losing his soul, and so he chose.
Neville slid down the wall, into a couching position, and closed his eyes. Whenever he was asked why he returned whenever things got bad, he would reply with "I don't know", or something to that effect. Unlike Harry, who had sought revenge but never admitted it, Neville knew why he fought. For a while, he had floundered, trying to find meaning, trying to reason why he was joining the others. His first thoughts were of his parents, and how they had suffered. At the outset he wanted revenge, but after that day, he knew. He knew what it was all about. He was no longer fighting for retribution; he was fighting for his friends, his family, to preserve everything that he held dear.
The realisation had arrived when he had had to comfort Hermione, who had just lost her best friend and boyfriend respectively. Harry always had a place in her heart, no matter how much trouble he got himself into, and however much he infuriated her (which was quite often). She and Ron had only been together for a few months, but they had a five-year bond that would never have proven possible to break.
It had become apparent to Neville just how fragile life was, and how easily everything could be taken away. It was the reason he kept going back. When out in the field, on missions, fighting, everyone had to learn to tune out their emotions, and many fell into the trap of forgetting why they were there. People would get detached so much so that they became sloppy in their work, and fell into traps easily seen by others. Some became enraged and filled with revenge, like Harry and Mad-Eye Moody. Neville vowed to himself that he would never go out like that. His parents would be rolling in their proverbial graves.
He sat there for a number of hours, just remembering, and when he finally walked away, he possessed a cocktail of poisons that Lord Voldemort battled to squash: friendship, love, and above all, hope.