Sweet Revenge
Sweet Revenge
The final battle of Hogwarts raged on, and Neville was trapped in a broom closet. Lovely. He banged his fists against the wall, and yelled at the top of his lungs in anger. He wanted to help, he truly did. His wanting was more of a need, to be honest. If this was it, he wanted to be in it until the end, even if it meant his end.
Willing to do anything to break down the door, he pulled out his wand. But it seemed, however hard he tried, the door was impervious to magic. Someone inside the castle must have caused that, so that once locked in, all doors in the castle could only be opened from the outside. It was a smart plan, in case any Death Eaters got in. One problem, though.
He wasn't a Death Eater.
Hitting the door more fiercely now, he bellowed, "GET ME OUT OF HERE! I WANT TO FIGHT!" he hit the door again, and his knuckles began to bleed. He looked down at them, his breathing heavy.
Sighing, he felt like he should give up. For one, Harry had given him a job. He said that if Ron and Hermione were "busy" (whether that was supposed to mean they were actually busy, or that…something else…happened to them, he didn't know), he was to kill Voldemort's snake, Nagini. Secondly, all of his friends were out there, fighting. Every moment counted. He wanted to be there to help them, and he didn't like the fact that something could have happened, or could be happening to them right now, without him knowing it. A twisting in his stomach happened at the very thought if it. He needed to get out of there.
In an instant, he had gotten his wish. Or, something very close to his wish. The door opened; This was where the very nearly part came in. Standing in front of him was Bellatrix Lestrange, his parents' tormentor.
No words were spoken, no action was taken. For several moments, they just stood there, staring at each other. In a few moments, Neville glared at her, and raised his wand. Bellatrix only smiled, and began to chuckle.
"Dear boy, do you really think that-," she began to say, but could not finish because Neville leaped at her. He tackled her to the ground, and by then, she was cackling madly. She pulled out her new wand (being that her old one was stolen by the, in her mind, foul Harry Potter and his friends). She yelled, "Stupefy!" and Neville was sent flying backwards into the wall. He fell to the floor, but he was getting himself up quickly. She had not aimed properly, which caused the spell to be fairly weak.
Bellatrix did not seem threatened at all by his lack of weak state. Instead, she just kept smiling, "Neville, is it? Yes, that's it. Your parents," she emphasized this word before she continued, "must be so proud. Their wittle baby's all grown up and is picking his own fights now."
Neville drowned out her laughter; he couldn't stand it. He winced, shutting his eyes tight but remembered; a very powerful, evil witch stood before him. She could, and would be more than happy to, kill him in a second. He opened his eyes again. He then remembered something else. She was talking about his parents. His parents, who she had tortured. She had no right. His glare toward her grew more menacing, "Expelliarmus!"
Her wand twitched, but did not fly out of her hand like he had intended it too. She tilted her head and looked at him, as if amused. This only made his rage grow stronger.
"I don't think I'll kill you just yet," the crazed witch stated, "You seem like…fun."
Neville looked around for any sign of another person, another creature, anything that could possibly help him. There was nothing. They were in an empty hallway. The only noise other than them was the sound of the battle. A noise that Bellatrix could not hear, however, was also being sounded loudly through every particle of the wizard before her; a battle that was fought only within the boundaries of his being.
"Kill her."
"What? No. I can't…I'm not strong enough."
"Look what she did to your parents."
"I know. I wish I could do something about it…"
"You can."
"No, I can't. I'm not evil."
"You don't have to be. She's evil; she deserves it."
"But…I'm a good wizard."
"Even good wizards deserve revenge, Neville."
This battle, though unheard by anyone other than himself, was tearing him by the seams. Here he was, arguing with no one other than himself, with the person he most despised standing in front of him. For some reason, she was not making a move. She looked at him, bewildered. It almost looked as though she was going to step closer, but she didn't. Instead, she began telling him, an evil smirk spreading across her face, "You are a coward, just as your parents were. They refused to let themselves use an Unforgivable Curse to stop me, and yet that is the reason they are…indisposed. Such fools, and I see that the apple has not rolled very far away from the insignificant tree."
A few words rang in Neville's ears. Coward. Indisposed (how she could refer to the state they were in as that…). Fools. Insignificant. It felt as though his blood was boiling, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
His parents hadn't used any of the three curses on her. He couldn't either, because he did not want to betray what they seemed to hold dear to them- their pureness, their good of heart. If he used one of the Curses on her now, even though she was the exact opposite of pure, it would haunt him for the rest of his life. He looked down for a second. And in that second, Bellatrix had sprinted to the other side of the room, because she had spotted something. Or rather, someone.
Without a moment's pause, Neville looked to see who it was that Bella had already had in her grasp…it was Luna. Luna, who had probably come wandering in the hallway for a reason that even she did not know. Poor, innocent Luna looked as calm as she would if it were a simple stroll on a perfect summer's day, though there was no reason to be.
"Make so much as a move, and she's dead," Bella said as she pointed the wand at Luna's neck as if it was a knife. Neville gulped. He and Luna had grown surprisingly close over the past year, and he couldn't imagine the thought of her dead because he wanted revenge for something that happened years ago.
Suddenly, an explosion was heard, and Bellatrix let her guard down for a few moments, looking to see who it was. It those few moments, Neville had figured out what he had to do. He concentrated really hard, and pointed his wand at a pillar that seemed to be holding up part of the ceiling. It began to fall, precisely where he had both wanted and not wanted it to- toward Bella and Luna. He quickly turned his attention to his blonde classmate, "Accio Luna!" Soon she was hurdling toward him and Bella turned around to see the Pillar a foot from her head; She had not time to move out of the way. It fell on her, crushing her. Neville was looking at Luna, making sure she was okay. He didn't say a word, because he didn't know what to say. The shock of the past few moments was hitting him, hard.
"It's okay; I think I shall be quite alright. Do you think I could get some sweets from the kitchen? I'd like that…," she told him, and then after looking down at the Death Eater's body, "I don't think she'll be alright. That might have done damage to her mind," and with that, she began humming and walking off into the hallway. Neville stared after her; she seemed a bit stranger than usual, wanting sweets when the war of the century was going on. He would question that later. At the moment, he looked down at the body.
Several thoughts came crashing into his head. The most overwhelming and powerful, though, was that he had done it. He, Neville Longbottom, had avenged his parents. He killed someone to do it. He wasn't sure how he felt about that, but many images of his parents suffering, and a scene of Luna almost being killed made him realize that he had done the right thing. He stared down at her once more, for the last time, before swiveling and finding his way out of the dark, broken hallway.
What they said was true; revenge was sweet. But the war was not over.