A woman looked at the set of three graves in front of her, clutching her red handbag to her chest. She knew that she needed to stop coming here so often. What was under these tombstones was nothing more than empty shells of what was once her son and his family. A chill went through her and she wished she would have thought to bring an umbrella. It looked like it would rain. She turned her eyes skyward. The sky was stormy grey. Just like Frank's eyes.
The Aurors had taken the memory from Frank's mind soon enough to get the whole story. She wasn't quite sure why she had insisted on watching it. Maybe, it was because she was known as a stubborn old woman and wanted to keep up that front. Now as she stood there haunted by the sounds she wished that she hadn't watched it.
Frank sat in the small parlor in their house reading the Evening Prophet. He looked up. Alice walked down the stairs toward him smiling.
"You got Neville to bed?" He asked her.
"He's out like a light." She smiled at her husband. "Want some tea?"
Frank nodded and Alice walked out of the room into the kitchen. He went back to his paper and frowned at something he read.
Suddenly, the door burst open. He sprung up and grabbed his wand. This was the day they had feared. Their secret keeper had given them up.
"Frank?" Alice called from the kitchen.
"Al, Grab Neville and run!" He called. Of course Alice never listened. She barreled into the room with her wand drawn. She froze when she saw him.
Lord Voldemort was standing in the doorway. Why he hadn't made a move yet?
Frank realized that he had to start it. Voldemort was smiling cruelly at him. "Alice, go get Neville and get out of here." Frank ordered.
"Go get Neville and escape." Voldemort sneered in the doorway, mocking Frank. The old woman had never wanted to curse anyone so bad in all of her life but it wouldn't save him.
"Stupify!"
"Avada Kedavra!" Alice and Voldemort cried their spells so different in nature, in tandem. There was a flash of green light and Frank flinched as his wife froze and fell to the ground. Her body stiff and lifeless. The light was gone from behind her bright blue eyes.
Frank looked at Voldemort who had taken another step closer.
"Now, Frank. If you just give me the boy, this will all be over. You can pick up the pieces and move on. Find another girl or even better join the winning side." Voldemort sneered in a voice that chilled to the bone.
"I'm already on the winning side." Frank spat.
"Wrong," That was all the Dark Lord said before he whispered the words of the curse that killed Frank.
Voldemort stepped over the cold bodies of Frank and Alice Longbottom and went up the stairs. A baby was crying and she wanted to scream for him to stop. That it was just leading the Dark Lord closer but she couldn't.
Voldemort stopped in front of the door that led into the pale blue room. He stepped in and looked at the blonde boy wailing in the crib along the far wall.
"Hush, little one. It will all be over soon." Voldemort said and Neville wailed harder.
She saw his mouth move but she didn't have to hear him say the words that ended her world. Everything went black and it was over.
She was brought back into reality by the rain that started to fall from the grey sky. A reality she wished as fake. No one understood how badly she wished that it was all just a terrible nightmare.
Her own hot tears mixed with the cool rain sliding down her face. The only thing that separated the empty shell that was Augusta Longbottom from her family was the beating heart inside that she just wished would stop so the pain would disappear.
A/N: This was for the What If challenge. My prompt was What if Neville was the Chosen One?
I took it and made it a no. Neville may have been the chosen one but he wasn't the boy who lived.
Please review.
-Prim