The Incident
Neville Longbottom is a fairly average boy. Except for the fact that he's a wizard, (well, I did say fairly average) when I say 'wizard', I mean that he is the child of a wizard and a witch, but, at the age of nine, Neville was showing no signs of magical abilities, and this worried Neville's great Uncle Algie immensely.
You see, Uncle Algie was convinced that Neville was a Squib- a person of magical birth who possesses no magic, and therefore Uncle Algie was utterly obsessed with trying to prove that Neville was indeed magical.
Neville knew this, but what he didn't know was that his Uncle was going to do something potentially life-threatening barely fifteen minutes from now… Again. He intended to push poor, innocent Neville off Blackpool Pier to see whether or not he would drown.
In short; Uncle Algie is a raving lunatic.
"Enjoyin' that ice-cream eh Neville?" Algie asked his nephew.
"Y-yes thank you Uncle Algie" was Neville's stuttered reply. (He was nearly always nervous due to the fact that his family was so harsh on him, despite the fact that they loved him dearly.)
"Smashin' m'boy." Uncle Algie said with a smile, deciding now was the time to put his well-thought (if you could really call it that (which you couldn't)) plan into action.
As Neville tried in vain to find well-spaced gap between the bars, Algie thought gleefully how much easier his plan would be now.
"Would ya like to get a closer look?" he asked, hoping to maintain some innocence in his voice.
"Oh, okay then.' Neville replied, smiling. The poor boy really had no idea what was going to happen to him… Talk about naïve.
Uncle Algie lifted Neville on one of the middle bars that were there specifically to preventpeople from falling off the pier and leaned forward, pretending to give Neville a better view of the sea.
Neville leaned over eagerly, his Grandmother would neverlet him do something like this! She'd always say something like "No Neville! You're too darn clumsy, Merlin forbid that I'd even let younear a pier!".
Uncle Algie smirked in a way that rivalled even the Malfoy's and 'accidentally' let go of Neville, sending him into the crashing waves below. Yes, he'd show them Neville was a wizard alright!
He then proceeded to laugh rather madly.
People around him started to yell for help, screaming for the Life-Guard or some other form of assistance. Uncle Algie just stood there grinning; telling anyone who demanded to know what had happened that his nephew would be perfectly fine.
Several minutes past and there was still no sign of Neville. Algie started to panic. How the hell was he going to explain this to Augusta?
After what seemed like hours, Algie began to expect the worst. But what he didn't expect, was to see Albus Dumbledore suddenly standing next to him.
"Lovely day, wouldn't you say Algie?" Dumbledore said, a smile gracing his features as per usual.
"Oh blimey Albus, thank Merlin you're here! I was trying to se-" he tried to explain, but Dumbledore quickly interrupted.
"Trying to see if your nephew –Neville, I believe- possesses magical abilities, yes, I know" he replied, his eyes twinkling with humour.
"Well, Don't ya think we should try and save the poor lad? I left me wand at home, so I couldn't do anything myself…" Algie said, trying to defend himself, suddenly feeling slightly bad. I mean, he hadn't wanted to killthe boy!
"Ah, yes a wonderful idea!" Dumbledore cried.
He uttered an incantation and quite suddenly Neville appeared on the beach.
"There he is!" a woman cried, pointing to where Neville lay (although I must add he was lying quite still.)
"Do you think he's alright?" asked a tall brown-haired man.
"Of course not you bloody idiot! The lad just got chucked off a pier!" a chubby little man with a with a rather severe looking face barked.
As the argument regarding Neville's health between various stranger continued, Algie ran a quickly as possible down to where Neville lay quietly and began to smack him in thw face. Neville eventually began to come round and wondered how he had gotten from being on the pier to the beach.
"Oh no… Uncle Algie's done it again"Neville thought, secretly rather upset that his Great-Uncle had to resort to such methods to prove that he was a wizard. Nearly everyone else in the family had given up hope by now, which, to be honest, only made Neville feel even worse…
"Neville m'boy, are ya alright?" Algie cried, feeling shame burn inside him.
"I g-guess s-s-so" Neville said, shivering, there was a cool breeze in the air, which made being soaked to the skin even more unpleasant.
"Well, splendid," chuckled Dumbledore, clearly quite amused by the events that had taken place during the day. "I say you take young Neville back to Augusta's and let him rest up for a while, eh?"
"Yes, alright, thanks again Albus." said Algie, suddenly feeling utterly exhausted. He then wondered how Neville was feeling; the little lad looked like a drowned rat.
With a final laugh and a "Cheerio" Dumbledore disappeared with a loud 'POP!' leaving Uncle Algie to take Neville home.
Several hours later Algie arrived home with Neville asleep in his arms and wrapped up in a thick, woolly blanket he had purchased at a Muggle shop.
He tried to sneak in quietly, but clearly failed as a very shrill voice was the next thing he heard.
"Algie Longbottom!" cried the voice "What in the name of Merlin's trousers is all this I hear about Neville being thrown off Blackpool Pier?"
Frozen on the bottom step of the staircase all Algie could do was wince, mutter "Shit!" and wonder how in God's name she'd found out so quickly.
With a dejected sigh, he went to face his imminent doom. Maybe he'd have better luck next time…
Honestly had a great time writing this fic, Neville is my favourite character so delving into his background like this was really fun.