Summary: It's time that the young generation of wizards and witches learned about events that transpired during the 2nd war against Voldemort. And they shouldn't hear it from Professor Binns or Rita Skeeter. Lee Jordan presents Footprints of War.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

A/N: You know, I had this chapter playing out in my head as I was falling asleep last night, but it sounded different and much better in my head than it will here. So many good lines got lost after I fell asleep. But I've tried my best to recall most of them.

TheDarkKunoichi: Thanks for the review! Well, what I meant to say is that I am making it up as I go, very much like Lee and that I don't really know how far inbetween the updates will be, how long this fic will be (there's a lot of stuff it could potentially cover) and so on. But look you get an update already on the next day, haha. And I can tell you for sure that the next one won't come earlier than next Tueday though.

uratwat: Thanks a lot!

DealiaDee: Thank youu for the review, as well a she great suggestion. I will make sure to use it for one particular special edition of Footprints of War. Three guesses what that one will be about, haha.

Footprints of War

"Greetings, my fellow wizards and witches, my name is Lee Jordan, some of you might know me as River and this afternoon I am back with the second edition of our brand new show Footprints of War. You will have to excuse us for coming back on air so late after our first show, but we ran into some scheduling isues with our guests. But the important thing is that we are back today. Most of you probably know the drill by now, but for those innocent souls who are by some kind of accident listening for the first time today, over the span of the next few weeks we will be looking back at the events, which transpired at the end of the last century. We will cover the period of the dark times in the days before Harry Potter thwarted Lord Moldywart's pants. So, if you would like to reminiscence without restraining yourselves from attempting to murder a certain not so lovely reporter or if you finally want to learn the whole truth, stay tuned in over the next hour. And yes, you did hear correctly, we will be on air for one whole hour today, after the success of our very first programme, Celestina Warbeck had to move along to make room for us this time around. Anyway, my dear listeners, buckle your seats, because today we are in for a ride crazier than a night trip on the Knight Bus as we cover the topic of Dumbledore's Army. Our special guest today is noone else than your favourite Herbology professor at Hogwarts Neville Longbottom. Welcome, Neville!"

"Thanks, Lee."

"So, Neville, before we dive deep into your Hogwart years and the DA, tell us a few things about you. After all, your He Who Had No Nose story started much earlier than the second war came knocking on our doors and you happen to share quite a lot with Harry Potter, and by that I don't just mean that you guys were both born on the very same day."

"Well, I did share a bedroom with Harry for six years."

"Very funny, mate. I am sure that were Rita Skeeter here, her quill would be going at it million miles an hour trying to uncover the shenanigans that went on in Harry Potter's dorm room. But given that we consider ourselves to be a far more serious and reliable source of news, I am sure that you will understand that I was aiming for something a tiny bit different."

"Well, then ask more specific questions."

"Okay. I will start with one very personal question in particular. One of the things you and Harry share is that both your parents fell victim in the first war. Everyone in the wizarding world knows that James and Lily Potter were murdered by Voldemort. But what about the fate of Frank and Alice Longbottom? I might be going too far with this question, but I maintain that people need to know."

"Oh, not at all. There was a time when I wouldn't want this particular story to be heard. A time when I was ashamed of my parents or rather what became of them. But over the years I learned that the one whom I should be ashamed of was myself. My parents deserved a son who was proud of them, not one that was wallowing in shame and self-pity. The reason why it isn't widely known that they were victims in the first war, is because they are both very much alive. I have known them my whole life, yet in all those years I have never seen a glimmer of recognition in their faces. They don't seem to realise that I am their son. They are very much alive, but they live in a world of their own, in a shell that can not be accessed from the outside."

"I know this is a sensitive topic for you, but could you explain what actually happened to them?"

"They were hunted down by a group of Death Eaters headed by the Lestranges and tortured with the Cruciatus curse until they broke on the inside..."

"Why do you think their story needs to be told today?"

"I think it's important, so that people understand what kind of people Voldemort attracted. I mean, Voldemort himself might have been a power hungry, muggle hating bastard, but you could claim that some of his supporters were even crazier than him. People like Bellatrix Lestrange or the Carrows who took joy in inflicting pain upon people."

"Well, luckily Bellatrix Lestrange won't be able to hurt anyone anymore. We all have Mrs. Molly Weasley to thank for that. Neville, do you still remember the words that the Weasley matriarch spoke before ridding us of Bella?"

"Of course, how could I forget."

"Would you care to share those words with our audience? Parents, guardians, if anyone under the age of ten is listening this might be a good time to cover their ears."

"Well, okay, not my daughter, you bitch is what she said."

"And quite right so. But there's one further thing about your parents. The Death Eater's attack came after Harry Potter defeated Voldemort the first time around. Was it pure revenge that motivated Bellatrix and co. or was there something depper?"

"It had to do with the fact that they were opposing Voldemort, but I can't say more than that."

"But you know the whole truth."

"Yes."

"And won't share it with us."

"Correct. It is a story that can only be told by one person alive and his name isn't Neville Longbottom."

"Oh, well, okay, in that case I will try to pry the story from Potter if I manage to drag his arse here one of these days. Anyway, moving on. You already mentioned the Carrows, the unfortunate siblings who terrorised Hogwarts during your seventh year. That brings me to the topic that we are actually here today to discuss. Dumbledore's Army. And another similarity between you and Harry Potter, you happen to be one of the few people who opposed Voldemort openly to his face. I for one will never forget your battle cry of Dumbledore's Army when he offered you to join his forces. I am sure that your students had no idea how cool you actually were. And now they will finally learn. I'm sure there's quite the number of young impressionable girls developing a crush on their valiant Herbology teacher. Oh, what's up with that blush, Nev? What would Hannah say?"

"Shut...up!"

"Ok, ok, calm down, mate and give that wand away."

"I'd like to let you know that I learned the Bat-Bogey hex from the one person who mastered it the best, so you will stay on topic, Lee Jordan, or I swear..."

"Now, is this how you give an example to your students?"

"One more word and I swear...besides, I doubt most of them are even listening."

"And see, that's exactly where you are wrong. Actually they are all currently sitting in the Grreat Hall of Hogwarts and listening intently. After our first programme we consulted this with the headmaster and it was decided that our show was made to be a part of the Hogwarts curriculum. So, hello Hogwarts!"

"And you seem to be more gleeful than you ought to be that all of them are listening."

"Well, I must confess that it does bring back some memories. And it's nice to have them listening without McGonagall constatnly behind my back. It's not like she's gonna pop up here anytime and stop me."

"Oh, I wouldn't bet on it."

"You know, Nev, I actually feel quite sorry for you right now."

"Why is that?"

"Well, with a gazillion Weasley grandchildren in Hogwarts or on their way there, life must be hard for you. So many troublemakers, so little time. And the worse is only to come, James Potter and Fred Weasley are already starting to pack their luggage full of pranks to pull."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that. I've had fairly good practice."

"Oh?"

"Well, I didn't survive six years of being Ted Lupin's head of house for nothing."

"Well, I am sure that at least Miss Victoire Weasley is a perfectly well behaved young lady...did you just snort, Nev?"

"Definitely not. Anyway, Lee, you do remember that we are here to talk about the DA, don't you?"

"Of course, I do. But a little banter never killed anyone."

"I'm not so sure about that."

"Whatever. Anyway, so Dumbledore's Army, we have already touched upon this topic in out first show with Grendel Ganser, who had a bit to tell about the second DA and I have mentioned my own adventures with the first one. But you happen to be one of the few people who had the privilege to star as a part of both DAs and you are a veteran of battles that only a select few of the DA took part in. So would you care to introduce the concept of both the DAs to us, Neville?"

"Of course. As has previouslly been mentioned, the DA started as a group of students from different houses, who were taking Defense against the Dark Arts lessons from Harry Potter. This was a time when the most unpleasant woman alive, Dolores Umbridge, was imposed on us as the DADA teacher and all our regular lessons were relagted to reading a silly book. As this was a time when Voldemort was already back, we believed that we needed to learn how to defnd ourselves. And who could be a better teacher than someone who had already faced Voldemort and similar threats long before? We would meet every week or so, we had this method of communication, galleons that were charmed by Hermione Granger, so Harry could let us know when the next meeting was."

"And Hermione did this charm in her fifth year, the smartest witch alive for sure."

"Well, little Rose Weasley might come to challenge her in the next few years."

"Oh I dunno. She did inherit one half of her genes from Ickle Ronniekins after all, that poor thing."

"Anyway, the DA continued it's activities until we were discovered by Umbridge..."

"It sucks when your secret organisation has a sneak in their ranks."

"Yes, it sure does."

"But your adventures in your fifth year didn't end with the DA being disbanded, did it?"

"No, together with a few more members of the DA we fought in the Battle of the Deparment of Mysteries, the one in which Sirius Black died."

"And even though the DA didn't continue it's activities, you ended up finding yourself in yet another battle."

"Yes, even though the DA seemed to be done for, I kept checking my coin. Me and Luna Lovegood did and that's how we both ended up fighting in the Battle of the Astronomy Tower."

"So, why was it that Luna, who by the way isn't as crazy as you think, but who is even crazier than that, but in a good way and I am saying it with as much affection as I can muster, and you in particular ended up checking he coin?"

"Well, for four years at Hogwarts, herbology had been my only refuge and suddenly here I was at the DA, where I finally had a bunch of friends and had a way to make my parents proud."

"Now, I'd like to move on to the part of the history of the DA, about which I'm the most intrigued as I didn't have the privilege to be a part of it. The DA that was much less extra lessons with Potter and much more like an army under your very command according to Grendel Ganser."

"Well, that might be stretching a bit too far."

"So, how did this second DA arise?"

"Well, the Hogwarts I came back to in my seventh year was very different than from the one you knew. With Snape as headmaster, and even though he ended up being on our side he was playing his part of being under Voldemort's control a bit too well and with the Carrows handing out the punishments it had turned to hell for most of us. Of course, there were plenty of students that didn't even get to return for those years, the muggle borns on the run or Harry, Ron and Hermione on a mission of their own. So together with Luna and Ginny Weasley and some other original members we started our own rebellion. We tried to attract as much attention as possible to ourselves, so the younger students wouldn't come in harm's way. We also did quite a lot of protest graffity. And we also continued with the DADA lessons."

"But the Carrows didn't let such rebellion go unpunished, did they?"

"Of course not. Most of us got our own experience with the Cruciatus and Mr. Filch got to enjoy some detention techniques that were long forbidden before that. Also things got kinda hard as we lost Luna and Ginny during the year. And in the end they tried to get me too. Even went after my Gran. Of course they didn't realise that they chose the wrong old lady to pick a bone with. But even though she escaped, I couldn't continue to live at Hogwarts openly, so I hid myself in he Room of Requirement. Another few people joined me right the next day. And by the end all of us were living there. Until the day that Harry came back to Hogwarts."

"The day of the Battle of Hogwarts."

"Yes."

"And all of the DA fought in the Battle?"

"Well, all of us who were seventeen were allowed to stay and fight alongside the teachers and the Order of the Phoenix. The younger ones were supposed to be evacuated to Hogsmeade. But some of them did come back."

"You still seem bitter about this."

"Well...I will never be able to delete the images of Colin Creevey's dead eyes staring back at me or of the broken body of Lace Gosworth from my memory."

"Neither will I, mate. But your heroism didn't end with the first battle. Even when Harry Potter was thought to be dead, you still stood up to Voldemort. And you killed he snake."

"Yes, I killed his snake. Nagini."

"Why?"

"Because Harry gave me the order."

"Before he went to die?"

"Yes."

"Do you know why he wanted you to kill the snake?"

"Yes, and I can say that it was important in order for Voldemort to fall. But this is another story that can only be told by Harry in its whole."

"So, why do you know it?"

"Because Harry told me...he thought I deserved to know."

"Why?"

"That's a question you'll have to ask him."

"You're being most mysterious, mate. But alright, it seems we have exhausted the time for our show once again. Thank you very much, Neville and have another great year at Hogwarts. I'm sure that the official Professor Neville Longbottom fanclub has grown in its numbers over the course of today's edition of Footprints of War."

"Stop it."

"Oh, don't be so shy, Neville. Anyway, my dear listeners, do not despair, Footprints of War will be back together with your favourite host and the most illuminating of guests at some currently undefined point in the future. Signing off, Lee Jordan."