A/N/:
I do not own Harry Potter or any of its affiliates, nor do I profit from this body of work, because I did not write Harry Potter. I am simply a fan who likes to imagine what if I was the author, J K Rowling, if I was, it might have looked a lot like this….
At the Crossing of Roads
************************************September 1**************************************
Swimming up from unconsciousness, Neville was aware first of two sensations a slight pressure on his chest, and a moist scratchy sensation on his face near his cheek. Neville knew that sensation and where it came from. It was his new friend Leonid. When he had bought the ocelot, Gram had made him promise to take care of him completely by himself.
"He is your responsibly, you will feed him and care for him and clean up after him," she had so he had…
Leonid was an early riser and he wanted his food as early as possible. 'This is his way of telling me to wake up and feed him.' Neville thought and then he said aloud, "OK, OK, I'm up! I'm up! What a little rascal! You task master!"
Neville, coming up to another level of consciousness, realized another presence was in the room.
"Neville, Neville honey you must get up. There is so much to do today. Oh yes, today you will come to live with me in my home, at least for the better part of the year." A soft soothing voice, like the sound of a stream passing over stones, sounded in the room.
Neville knew that voice. It was the sound of a voice that had been his constant campaign for nearly 9 years. Neville's eyes flew open to see the light of early dawn and the face of his Magia.
"Good Morning Magia!" he said.
"Good Morning, young Neville. Hurry! We have a lot to do and say before we have to get ready to go." Magia said.
Neville looked into her face. As always, she wore her indigo robes, so purple they were almost black, the color of the night sky, complete with the shimmering stars. She was elfin-like in saturate, with a pleasant bone china white face, beautifully shaped red lips, and large, almond-shaped violet eyes, and waist length creamy blonde hair.
She was dainty, yet lithe, like a lioness on the prowl; you could tell she had real power behind her movements. Soft, yet strong, that was your first impression. But when she opened her mouth what you first noticed was tenderness gentleness and compassion, a gentle soul.
Neville knew her better than anyone else in his life, over the years she had become almost like she was a part of him. 'Wait a minute! Did she said her home?, that's right today is the day I go to see Hogwarts!' Neville thought.
Magia had long ago shared with him her secret, the secret no one knew save Dumbledore. The greatest secret of all: the place most witches and wizards called Hogwarts was none other than the home of Magia. Since ordinary wizards and warlocks, mages and muggle folk could not see Magia. They supposed that things just happened of their own accord, without any help from anything other than their own thought, or will. It was all very mysterious to them. Some of the most arrogant wizards assumed they were responsible for every feat magic they did; not knowing the truth that Neville knew.
Neville knew from his time spent with her, that Magia was actually sent out to do a wizard wishes. For wizards, warlocks, and mages, under the right conditions, with the help of certain enablement, could be able to communicate to Magia their desires, (much like a foreign speaking person could with a translator or a language dictionary, be able to communicate with someone in a foreign land) Because they were not proficient in the language (if you will) much was lost in translation. The result is a severe limit about how much Magia could help them with.
Neville ,however, was different. Unlike other witches and wizards, Neville could see, converse and feel Magia. He knew her as closely you would a best friend and communication was easy for him. Often he struggled to hide his responses to Magia's antics. She had a strange bend at times and often a mischievous Puck-like nature. She was eager to do anything Neville asked her to do. And Neville loved her to pieces.
He watched as she busily packed up all his things into nifty little boxes and packed the boxes into his trunk. She laid the clothes he would wear that day out on his bed. It was wonderful to have a friend so willing to help….
His thoughts were interrupted by the loud howler he received in person from his Gram and he looked in the direction of the door….
"Neville Longbottom, How many times have I told you not to use your magic for these simple chores. Laziness really, that's all it is…LAZINESS! Goodness knows, your FATHER was NOT a lazy boy when he was your age. I mean, he often did work by HAND even when he was ALLOWED to use magic. Now STOP this, this INSTANT." Agusta howled at Neville.
"But Gram, I did not even ask her to do it this time. She just did it all by herself." Neville defended himself.
"You know Neville; I am getting rather tired of you blaming everything on this Magia. I think it's all rather convenient that we cannot all see your friend Magia. I often wonder how often you tell me she is doing it when you are doing it. You forget my young man,that our Dumbledore is also a Midra and you do not see Magia doing everything for him without him putting a stop to it, do you?" his angry Gram accused.
Neville sat slack-jawed and hurt. "Gram I do not lie!" tears formed in his eyes, "especially not to you!"
Gram's face softened immediately, and you could see in her eyes she regretted her words. "Neville, let's not fight," She sighed "It's your last day for quite some time here at Longbottom Manor and I have had your favorite breakfast fixed by Castellani. Tell your friend Magia to stop packing and come down to breakfast. Then I will come up and help you pack. "She said.
Magia stopped packing and looked at Neville with an apologetic look that spoke volumes. Neville pushed Leonid from his chest and stood to rise and eat the hearty breakfast.
Poor Castellani, his life was hard. Though he appeared when he chose to, he was often invisible to most. Castellani was a house elf the Longbottom's had inherited when a distant family line ceased to have any witches and wizards. This did happen from time to time as a wizards line intermarried enough into muggle born families. Sometimes all the magic in a line simply became squibs and when that happened they had no choice but to relinquish their House elves to the nearest magical family. Castellani's family, who were from the American Plantations, was just such a family.
Over the years, Castellani had endured much. He was considered Neville's personal elf charged with keeping Neville's unruliness at a minimum. It was his sole job to keep this very powerful, emotional child from doing something he could never take back. During Neville's twos and threes the elf had often had to transport Neville instantly to The Longbottom Vault to allow the goblins to drain off his magical powers.
Neville knew now that when one hangs around Magia for too long, her power seeps into your very pores, making you capable of great feats of magic even when she is not close by. Because Magia liked Midra, she hung around them.(Especially when they were children. She dearly loves being around children because of their ability to believe, and belief is what feeds her power.)
So Midras need every once in a while to have their magic drained, because too much magic causes one to accidentally do magic, and accidental magic can be a very dangerous thing, especially for Midra. The only place Magic can be stored is in crystals. Crystals endued with magic are what goblin-kind use to make their swords and other magical devises. So, for a fee, the goblins offer to help drain a Midras power and store it in crystals.
Neville went to the breakfast table, and ate heartily, then he and Gram finished packing his stuff and they went to the King's Crossing.
As Neville traveled quickly down the platform between 9 and 10 at King's Crossing Station he ranted to himself yet again. "Why is it she always assumes we will be late?" The clock above the 9th platform read 10:00AM. His Gram had fussed and fussed about checking and re-checking the list. Then Leonid was missing and they had searched and searched, but it was all to no avail. Finally, in desperation, Neville had sent Magia after him. Sure enough, the rascal had been found and was safely placed into his carrier. Just this once, Gram had not berated him for asking Magia for help and instead smiled when the cat settled into the carrier.
Neville was pushing the cart down the platform ahead of Gram. Folks were staring as Gram followed huffing and puffing trying hard to keep up.
Coming up to the wall between the 9th and 10th platform, Neville turned and placed his back against the wall. Asking Castellani to hop aboard when Magi said "Go!" Neville leaned into the wall and just as the clock changed to 10:15 AM and a crowd of people came by, when he was sure no one was looking, he pulled the cart and he slipped like butter through the barrier. Shortly after that Gram followed.
Neville stood on the platform blinking in the sunlight, allowing his eyes to take it all in. There was a scarlet red steam engine hissing on the tracks next to the platform. People were there on the platform but it certainly was not by any means packed. Several children of various ages waited with their parents, who had come here to see them off. Above their heads was a sign that said, "Hogwarts Express: 11:00 AM". Turning to see Gram, he noticed that the Barrier had been replaced by a wrought iron archway that read 9 and ¾.
" Gram, we have at least 45 minutes," he complained, " I told you we were never in any danger of being late. Searching around in his mind to find something to do to pass the time he sat at a bench and opened his chest and found the book "One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi" and then unlatched the latch to Leonid's cage. Then he settled down and leaned back against the wall, and began to read, while Leonid climbed up into his lap and began one of his many luxurious sunbathe.
Suddenly he heard a sound of someone clearing their throat. Looking up from his books and into the brown eyes of young Hermione, she had a wide smile and her teeth were perfect. How are you today? What is it you are reading Neville?... O I see, Yes that is a helpful book indeed…. I am looking forward to potions How about you?... Have you managed to have read them all yet? I did, I took your advice and read them all… thank You by the way really good advice you know… and I just loved Hogwarts: A History; I picked that one up while we were at Flourish and Blotts you know. O and did you know I have always wanted to own a Cat? Mom and dad said I should wait though at least one more year, maybe two and see if I could keep up with my studies." Hermione said all in one breath which Neville considered quite a feat. When she finally slowed down long enough to pause Neville jumped in quickly to increase his chance that he might actually be able to say something.
"Hello Hermione, Let's see… I am doing very well, and Yes I am reading One thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi…Myself I too am looking forward to potions I hope the professor is nice….No I have not read all our books yet….I am glad you read them ,but I am sorry I made you feel bad enough to remember to read them all…I have not read Hogwarts: A History, in fact I was so busy getting my books on my list I actually did not pay attention to any of the other books….No I did not know you wanted a cat, and my Gram only barely gave me permission to bring Leonid with me this year... let's see does that cover everything?" he finished in a rush and sucked a lungful of air, he was quite out of breath.
Hermione looked a bit sheepish, "I'm sorry Neville I know I am speaking quickly, but I am nervous and excited and I tend to talk fast and ask too many questions when I am nervous." Hermione apologized.
Neville smiled and told her, "That's quite alright!"
The two of them continued to talk until 10:55 and then Hermione left to say her Goodbyes to her parents and Neville tucked his book away and rose say Goodbye to Gram.
As he said his goodbyes he noticed cats of every color winding their way around their owners legs and remembered that he had not seen Leonid in quite some time. Alarmed he began searching with his eyes in the crowd for him without letting Gram know what he was doing. Nervously he scanned the crowd for every owl cage, as the owls hooted in a very disgruntled sort of way. Ears peeled he heard every scraping of heavy trunks. He could hear the babble of people talking. He noticed that smoke, from the engine hung over everyone's heads but still there was no sign of Leonid. Looking at the first few carriages Neville noticed that they were filling quickly. Neville was trying hard not to panic. He would hate to not have Leonid with him at Hogwarts and if Gram knew that he had lost him, so quickly after promising to take good care of him, she would surely make him leave the cat behind once she found him. One thing was for sure, Neville would never be allowed to get Magia to retrieve Leonid for him this time, and Gram would never allow it with all the people around.
Desperate, when Neville was sure it was too late, he finally confessed " Gran, I've lost Leonid again."
"Oh, Neville!" Gran sighed,
In front of him was a short, slim boy with very messy hair, and green almond-shaped eyes, that were framed by thick broken eyeglasses that had been taped on the bridge of the nose. Neville noticed that his clothes were horrid. He seemed to have with the opposite problem her had with clothes. Neville always seemed to wear clothes that were too small, and too short. But these clothes were too big and too long for the boy. As he watched he saw the boy pushing his heavy load all by himself.
"Where are his parents" Neville wondered, "was he here all alone, didn't anyone care for him. As the boy passed by Neville had felt the sensation of familiarity about the boy, an impossible familiarity. Magia was there suddenly speaking to him, but he had no time to fully pay attention to her before Gran, grabbed him and clutched on to him and began to do the fussing she regularly did when she was trying not to cry.
When the hug was through he heard a children shriek and yell and turned to see what this was all about. He turned just in time to see turned to see. There was a boy with the dreadlocks, who was just allow the lid of the box in his arms to fall back down. Neville was not sure had he really seen that long hairy leg before the lid dropped.
The Boy he had seen earlier went back to a back compartment and tried to lift his trunk into it and twice it he had dropped it on his foot. Neville picked up his pace trying to close the distance to help the boy. But before he had reached him, a ginger haired boy who had a twin who looked exactly like him got there first and helped him out. As he watched the second twin joined in and helped them. After they got the trunk up into the compartment the two twins started rudely pointing at his forehead. The boy was clearly embarrassed, for he turned a bright shade of red. This irritated Neville. He hated rude people, especially ones that made fun of other people. Then their mother, judging by the same shade of ginger hair, stood at the door to the compartment. Whatever she said the boys hopped off the train. Neville noticed the boy watching the ginger-haired family with a look he understood. It was a look of longing, a look that spoke volumes. Harry, like him had somehow lost his parents. Neville made a note to himself to make friends with him as some as he could. Suddenly, their Mother became very cross with the twins judging by what Neville was seeing now. Neville tore his eyes away as his Gran used her magic to lift the trunks and began to walk into a compartment on the train. Neville could hear Hermione talking to Gran now.
"I've saved him this seat her in this compartment." She was saying. As he clambered on board the whistle blew and Gram rushed by hugging him once more.
"Be good and send me an owl once you get there, and remember your promise. No telling anyone" she said the last in a whisper only he could hear.
Then without even looking back she exited the train. The seat Hermione saved was the window seat and as he looked out the window he noticed Gran, she was standing on the platform unaware that he was watching she had not bothered to hide her tears, and this made him sad.
Then a second thought crossed his mind in all the fuss and in noticing that one boy he had wasted his last few precious moments at King's Crossing when he could have looked for Leonid. His face fell. The idea of spending this first year without Leonid was disheartening. He knew Gran would Acio him as soon as she stopped crying, but he also knew she would not send Leonid to him either.
A/N:
SO MANY QUESTIONS!
SO FEW ANSWERS!
ALL WILL BE REVEALED!
While you read, think on these questions.
1. Why is it no one can see Magia, but Neville?
2. Does Castellani's dark skin have anything to do with the fact that he comes from America?
3. Why does Neville seem to have the propensity for losing his pets, regardless of the timeline?
was Magia trying to say to Neville when he saw Harry, and interrupted by Gram?
Answer these questions in the comments and we will try our best to respond.
Watch with us as we travel with Neville to Platform 9 and ¾ and see how Neville and Hermione spend the day in their own compartment.
