Letter to Me

Neville Longbottom

Part 4 =)

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing!


"Mr Longbottom, the letter you asked about arrived today."

Neville looked up at his secretary, the distraction from his paperwork, "Oh thank you Lucy." He said politely as she handed over the letter and continued, "You have a meeting with the CEO of MalfoyCorp at 11am, you have lunch with the Head Teacher of Hogwarts at noon, the deputy prime minister is going to floo at 1.30pm, Mr. Malfoy requested you take the afternoon off for a surprise he's planned and here is your morning coffee and bagel."

Neville smiled at the enthusiastic young witch, "Thank you Lucy." He said, kindly but with a tone of dismissal at the same time. Lucy took notice and left Neville's office, he grabbed the bagel she'd brought him and took a bite as he opened the letter he was very interested to read.

A lot had changed in the time since Neville had written that letter in his 6th year.

Dear older Neville,

I think this task is sort of stupid. Sending ourselves a letter, but since we're being assessed and it's not difficult I could use all the extra credit I can get. I hope you get over this nervous awkward stage in your life, I hope you actually learn to talk to people. I hope you get through your 7th year, N.E.W.T's are my worst nightmare.

Professor Snape still scares me which is stupid but he isn't exactly a big fluffy bunny, it's probably the reason I do so badly at Potions. I might do something to do with Herbology in the future, or maybe I'll just work my way up the ladder and end up owning something huge and being rich and famous.

I hope you help Harry with the War, being in the DA really meant something, I want to be that person all the time, the one who can cast good spells and can fight, I want my parents to be proud of me, and to do that I need to fight this War because they lost their lives fighting in their War. I know Harry will probably try and be the Hero and go off by himself to fight You-Know-Who, but he needs to admit to himself that he needs all of our help.

I hope I'm luckier in love in the future than I am now, it's a common joke around Gryffindor tower, my love life. I mean there was Ginny who I went to the ball with and there was that crush I had on Hermione in 4th year but that's really been it. I know the reason why, but nobody else does and I'm quite keen on keeping it the way. The reason I have no luck with girls is because I'm interested in guys, Dean and Seamus would laugh their asses off if they knew…

It's not like it's a problem in this day and age, it's just when you're at school people can be mean and it's not like I don't attract enough unwanted attention from the Slytherins as it is, I don't need to give them another reason to mock me. I think Hermione and Ginny suspect, they've said a couple of odd little things to me that made me wonder, it wouldn't surprise me if they did, I mean they're girls, girls spot stuff like that better than guys do, at least I think they do.

So other than my sexuality, and my lack of decent grades, what is there to talk about? I like medicine, but I need to do better at potions to get a career in it, I've always dreamed of bringing my Herbology knowledge together with potions and finding new ways to cure things, but it's probably just a distant dream. I bet the main thing people will be talking about in these letters is the war, and if they are going to survive it or not. Ginny and I talked about starting the DA up again next year, we just have a feeling that Harry won't be coming back to school and if he doesn't come back I know for a fact Ron and Hermione won't either.

I think if I believe I'll survive the war then I will, but if I think I'm going to die I'll die, my mind is the best weapon that I have. The strangest thing did happen the other day though, Ginny and I thought we were being discreet when we talked about the restarting of the DA but Draco Malfoy had overheard us, he swore (on veritasrum!) that he wanted to turn to the light, said he'd seen too much suffering, Gin wasn't so sure but I recognised that haunted look in his eyes. We shook hands and it was a deal, he's going to spy and pass information for us, he doesn't want anyone else to die and I really respect that.

I think I'll leave this letter on the note that if I receive this: Well done for surviving the war, and also I hope you're happy with your life and what you've achieved (if anything), I hope you took your own advice and worked your ass off to get where you are!

Yours Sincerely,

Socially awkward 17 year old you.

Neville chuckled and the door opened, causing him to look up.

"Someone's in a good mood."

Neville grinned, "My letter to me just came, it's pretty amusing." He said.

Draco Malfoy smirked, taking the letter from him and reading it.

"You realise we're here to talk about sponsorship, right?" Neville asked, just as amused at the other mans interest in his letter.

Draco snorted, "This is much more interesting." He said, his eyes skimming the letter at top speed, "You were scared of Severus." Draco said, chuckling, "I remember that, he found it hilarious of course, he tortured you just to get a laugh out of it."

"I'm glad someone did." Neville muttered a little darkly, his school days hadn't been the best days of his life like everyone said, in fact they had been the worst days of his life.

"Rich and famous, well you got that right." Draco said in amusement, still reading the letter, "And hey, I got a mention!" He added, giving the old letter back to its owner.

"Yeah, I know." Neville said, his partner chuckled, "I mean you own half of the Wizarding world, and I own the other half, together we own the Wizarding world." Draco was saying.

"Okay now you're just using lines from the cheesy posters we print to get business." Neville teased, causing Draco to grin, "Longbottom and Malfoy, together we own the Wizarding world." He quoted, changing very quickly to business mode, "So, Mr. Longbottom, you wished to discuss sponsorship?"

Neville shook his head in amusement, "Yes, I did. I spoke to my finance guy and I thought about your proposition, we, the hospital that is, will sponsor your research into cures for magical terminal diseases, my team asked for a full list of the diseases you're trying to cure and wondered if later on in your research you'd like to run a clinical trial."

Draco considered this for a moment, "I had thought about a clinical trial, and I'll get my people to owl that list to your people ASAP." He held out his hand, "We have a deal."

Neville shook Draco's hand and a few blue rings spun around their joint hands to seal the business deal, "So…" Neville began, the business taken care of, he stood up and walked around the desk, "What are you planning that requires me to take the afternoon off?"

Draco grinned, "It's your birthday, I'm preparing my present." He said, sounding way too innocent.

Neville narrowed his eyes at the blonde, "Which is?" He asked, trying to probe information out of him.

"A surprise." Draco answered with a smirk as he walked towards the door, "See you this afternoon Nev, I've got a busy morning and a lunch date with the minister for magic."

"You've got the minister! I've got a lunch date with Severus." Neville said, and Draco rolled his eyes at the other man, "And MalfoyCorp wins again!" He teased as he left, the office door swinging after him.


"Severus." Neville said with a smile as he sat down across from the man.

Snape only nodded, "Neville." He said back.

Neville and Severus ordered coffee and sandwiches and got down to business, "So…what business could Hogwarts want with the CEO of St. Mungo's hospital?"

"Hogwarts needs better medical services." Severus said coolly, "With Poppy gone we need a better permanent healer, the temp you provided us with can't even mend broken bones and we get at least 4 a day at Hogwarts. I request Ginevra Potter."

"You request her?" Neville asked in amusement, "She has to agree, I don't even know if she'd like to be a school Nurse, she works in the trauma centre at St. Mungo's, she's used to exciting and dramatic. I doubt she'd be happy mending Quidditch injuries."

"I hear she's the best, and Hogwarts deserves the best, convince her." Severus said, and Neville only rolled his eyes, "Right, anything else?"

"Yes, better facilities, the ones we have are incredibly outdated." Severus said, still in his cool drawl.

"The facilities are fine Severus." Neville argued, but Severus shook his head, "That's the deal, the Potter girl and better facilities."

"And what are you going to provide me with in return Severus?" Neville asked, despite what certain people may have believed, Neville Longbottom was a damn fine business man, something he'd learned in the 15 years he'd been dating Draco Malfoy who was possibly the best business man in the Wizarding world.

"If you meet my terms I shall provide you, in conjunction with MalfoyCorp a vaccination for spattergroit." Severus said, leaning back and watching Neville take in this news.

"A vaccination? Are you serious?" Neville asked quietly.

Severus produced a file full of papers, "My research papers, I'm sure you and Draco have more than enough knowledge to make sense of them, and this-" He held out a small vial, "Is the finished product, I've only tested on rats, cats and monkeys but it works, you'll need to run a clinical trial to see if it has the desired effect on humans."

Neville seemed to be considering all of this, "I'll need to talk to Draco before I give you a decision, but it's definitely worth thinking about." He said as he took the vial from Severus, "What are the possible side effects?" He asked.

Severus pointed at the file, "They are in there, along with ways it can be administered, how it is engineered, what age groups it is safe for, the possible benefits as well as side effects, who can't take it, people with underlying health problems, everything that you need to know is in that file."

"Alright, we'll talk about this tonight." Neville said, smiling at the man, "And I'll get back to you first thing tomorrow." He stood up to leave and Severus called after him, "Happy Birthday!"


"Neville it's your birthday, we are sitting in a fancy restaurant eating an expensive meal, drinking expensive wine and you want to talk business?" Draco asked in exasperation.

"Draco, we're multi-millionaires, we do this every night." Neville pointed out, "Plus, if you hear me out you'll find out why I'm so excited about this 'business' as you put it.

"Fine." Draco agreed, sighing and leaned back in his chair, "What have you got?"

Neville smirked as he pulled out the file and opened it, laying it down in front of Draco on the table, "Severus had discovered a vaccination for spattergroit, it needs a clinical trial before I can start using it, just for health and safety reasons, but it's there, it's not in the experimental phase, I really think he's got it nailed."

Draco was silent for a moment as he read the first page of the file, "Wow." He said quietly, "You're right, he's got the vaccination 99.9% perfect." He sounded amazed.

"The only thing I'm worried about are the side effects but they only occurred in one in the thousands chimps he experimented in." Neville pointed out.

Draco looked a little wary, "But we're talking babies here Neville, that's one child in every thousand whose going to get sicker and die rather than better."

"But think of the 999 babies that won't ever develop spattergroit, those babies won't die from the disease but the percentage of facial mutation is going to down because that occurs during the disease, the infant mortality rate is going to be significantly lower, it's the biggest killer in the magical community Draco, we've got to at least do the clinical trial." Neville said, practically begging him to agree, and with a sheepish sort of smile Draco said, "All right, I'm in. Happy birthday Nev."

In the following weeks the newspaper headlines all over the wizarding world were relating to the amazing discovery, every single day the headline was something amazing and Neville became even more well known around the world.

St. Mungo's owner Neville Longbottom runs a Spattergroit clinical trial, MalfoyCorp/Longbottom clinical trial more successful than ever!, 32 spattergroit babies saved by clinical trial, Severus Snape, inventor of the spattergroit vaccination becomes a multi-millionaire!, Spattergroit vaccination becomes available to all babies and children at St. Mungo's, Spattergroit cured!, MalfoyCorp/Longbottom clinical trial: history in the making!

Neville could only think how much it showed his bullies that he was worth so much more than that they'd at school, he'd proved to them he was worth it, but more than that, he'd proven to himself.

End of Part 4 =)