-1Chapter 4
He caught up with the rest of the Gryffindors a few minutes after being let out of the Muggle Studies classroom. Their next lesson was Defence Against the Dark Arts, although on their timetable it just said Dark Arts. Parviti, Lavender and Seamus were talking hurriedly amongst themselves, when they noticed Neville looking troubled. They walked together in silence for a few seconds, then Seamus spoke.
"What did she say mate?" he asked. Neville shrugged.
"Vague threats about nothing really," he said, his tone thoughtful. The girls gave each other ominous glances, and Seamus looked concerned again as they came to the Dark Arts classroom. Steeling himself, and taking a deep breath, he entered the room. He took in the room. It was worse than he could have imagined.
On the black walls were moving pictures of people being tortured under the Cruciatus curse. But these weren't the same artists impressions as they had been during Snape's short reign as DADA teacher. These were actual photos of real people that he remembered from some of his parents pictures of the Order of the Phoenix. And with a sudden revolted feeling he noticed two people who were very familiar. A photo of his parents being tortured by Bellatrix Lestrange hung near the window that looked onto the lake. There was a painting of Voldemort stuck at the head of the class, the figure not moving, but watching them with its red eyes. At the back of the classroom, was a poster with a number of vicious looking figures on it, under the title 'Undesirables'. He was mildly shocked, but not too surprised, to see Harry in pride of place, followed by Hermione and Kingsley Shacklebolt.
"Sit down and shut up," came the shout from the front of the class. Amycus Carrow had obviously walked in without anyone noticing. He was taller than his sister, but lumpy looking and with an unpleasant leer across his face.
"You've had some scum for this subject before, haven't yah," he declared, striding up and down the room "Cowards. Mad-men. Half-breeds,"
"Lupin was the best teacher we've ever had," Seamus shouted from his seat. There were murmurs of agreement from the class. Carrow flicked his wand, and all sound stopped.
"You'll shut yer mouths when I'm talkin', see?" he said, glaring around at the class "let me assure you, this will be the year when you finally learn something worth knowing from this class,"
The entire room looked at Carrow mutinously as he paraded around the classroom. Neville stopped listening to what he was saying, and was instead trying to work out what was going to happen next in the class. His thoughts were interrupted when Carrow pointed to him and shouted "Longbottom, stand,"
Neville stood, looking defiantly at Carrow. With a flick of the Death Eaters wand, the silencing charm was lifted. There was still a hush from Neville's classmates.
"You were late to my sister's lesson, weren't ya?" he said, moving closer to him.
"Yes," he said bluntly.
"Yes sir," Carrow said, narrowing his eyes. Briefly, Neville had a vision of the same exchange happening between Harry and Snape the year before.
"There's no need to call me sir," Neville said, a small smile playing about his features. There were gasps from the class, except for Seamus who smiled manically.
"Oooh, you think you're a big man Longbottom?" Carrow asked, smiling "Get to the front of the class,"
Neville slowly walked to the front of the classroom, where there was a large space next to Carrow's desk. Amycus followed, holding his wand up at arm level.
"Crucio," he said simply. Pain immediately coursed through Neville's body, every nerve ending was on fire. He cried aloud, clutching at his sides. He fell to the ground, the pain wouldn't end. It felt like his bones were being pushed apart from the inside. He toppled sideways, cracking his head on the side of Carrow's desk. Everything went black.
And suddenly everything came back into focus. He was sat bolt upright on the floor of the classroom, with Carrow lecturing the class on the proper form of the Cruciatus Curse. He turned around as Neville stood up and leered at him.
"Looks like you need to toughen up Longbottom," he said, chuckling to himself "Class dismissed,"
The class, who all looked very pale, gathered up their books and all but ran for the door. Neville tried to take a step forwards, but stumbled slightly. Luckily, Seamus was already there to put an arm around him and carry him from the corridor. Neville gasped and leant against the wall.
"That was worse than Lestrange," he whispered. A few people exchanged worried glances before hurrying off to the hall. Seamus and Neville struggled after them, finally getting there ten minutes after lunch started. They sat down on the nearest seat at the Gryffindor table, Neville as good as collapsing. A few minutes later they were joined by Ginny, whose hair was looking slightly dishevelled and had a long scratch across her cheek.
"Blimey Ginny, what happened to you?" Neville said, rubbing his head and picking idly at a baked potato.
"Alecto Carrow," she growled. All men in the vicinity involuntarily winced; Ginny Weasley's rage was infamous amongst the boys of Gryffindor.
"Just had Muggle Studies, eh?" Seamus said.
"I refuse to even call that Muggle Studies," she spat. Neville and Seamus shared a look.
"Okay then," Neville said slowly, raising his hands slightly. Ginny suddenly looked up.
"What happened to you?" she asked, cocking her head slightly.
"We just had Muggle Studies followed by Dark Arts," he groaned, putting a piece of baked potato into his mouth.
"What did they do to you?" she asked.
"Crucio," he mumbled. A few younger years gasped, but Ginny merely looked angry.
"I thought so," she said through gritted teeth.
"Why, is it obvious?" he asked.
"Neville, you're pale and sweating," she said, giving a bitter smile "Not as bad as Luna is though,"
There was a loud clatter as Neville dropped his cutlery. People from other tables looked around as Neville stood up.
"What's happened to her?" he said, darkly, seriously. Even Ginny looked mildly surprised at Neville's attitude.
"Carrow really didn't like her. Something about tainted blood," she said quietly.
"What did she do," he breathed.
"Every time anyone spoke out of turn, she cruciated her," Ginny mumbled.
"What?!" he shouted. By now people from the staff table were looking down at him.
"We couldn't do anything. Just sat there and tried not to talk," she said, sounding slightly ashamed now.
"Why aren't you with her? Where is she?" Neville shouted.
"I took her down to the Hospital Wing. Pomfrey says she'll be fine with a little rest," Ginny said, shrugging.
"Mr. Longbottom," came a shrill voice that Neville knew too well.
"Sorry Professor," he said quickly, before stumbling from the hall. He could've sworn that he heard giggling from the staff table as he left. His legs were weak, he knew that he should just have sit down and eaten as much as possible. But he still needed to see Luna, check she was alright. Ginny seemed a little blasé about everything, but he guessed she was just angry at Harry and Ron. Still, concern towards one of her best friends would've been nice, he thought to himself.
When he reached the Hospital Wing, Madam Pomfrey was bustling around as usual. He walked over to her, but she immediately grabbed him by the shoulders and started inspecting his pallid face.
"Err, is it okay if I see Luna Lovegood? Ginny Weasley brought her in a few minutes ago," he mumbled.
"You've been cruciated as well," she declared "though not quite as extensively as Miss Lovegood. Come with me,"
He followed her along to the bed that sat next to Luna, who was sitting up looking quite cheerful.
"Oooh, hullo Neville," she said brightly as he walked over and took a seat.
"Hi Luna," he said, his words almost catching in his throat "How're you feeling?"
"Better than I was thanks," she said, smiling wildly. It pained him to see her so pale, much paler than normal, even though this accentuated her piercing blue eyes.
"That's…erm…good," he muttered.
"I think so," she grinned.
"So…what did you do to annoy Carrow, Luna?" he asked.
"Oh, I just kept talking about the life-cycle of a Crumple Horned Snorkack. It seemed to really irritate her. Then she started cursing me," she explained energetically.
"Right…I don't think you should've done that, Luna," he said hesitantly.
"Probably not. Oh well," she said, then a look of concern passed over her face "Something happened to you as well,"
"Yeah…I annoyed the other Carrow," he mumbled.
"What happened?" she asked curiously.
"Oh…I said a few things…and then he cruciated me and I passed out," he muttered.
"Really? Amycus must be nastier than Alecto," she said absently.
"Yeah…or I'm not as strong as you," he said, blushing slightly.
"Oh I think you are," Luna beamed.
"Erm…okay then," he said.
"Can you check on Ginny for me? I don't think she's very happy," she said, a doleful look passing her eyes. That was Luna for you, caring for others more than herself.
"Err…alright," he said, standing up.
"Thanks for visiting me Neville. I think it made my day," she said. And there was the unerring honesty again.
"That's okay. Hopefully you'll be better by this evening. I wanna have a talk with a few people," he muttered.
"About what?" she asked mildly.
"Dumbledore's Army,"