Beta's note: Neville is back, guys! Neville is the best. That is absolutely all you need to know is that it is particularly wonderful.

Chapter 10: Neville Quits

That was the thing Ron most hated about his best mate. For some totally unexplainable reason of daffy madness, Harry Potter had this astonishing ability of pulling off some half-witted, poorly conceived heroic act that completely changed his view of him. No one but him could go from a back-stabbing, more-trouble-than-he's-worth traitor to this incredible brave and thoughtful best friend. It didn't make sense. No matter how mad he was of Harry, he could always do this incredible and noble act that almost completely made you want to forget that you wanted to throttle him in the first place.

Still if Harry thinks that he's going home to 'do' his sister then he's howling mad.

Ron slipped out his wand and uttered, "Petrificus Totalus," and watched as Harry frozen body slipped off the bar stool to land beside Neville.

Earlier that day

"I… I… don't know what-" Narcissa Malfoy uncharacteristically stuttered to all of them.

"We've been searching for Rabastan Lestrange for well over six years now." Harry interrupted Mrs. Malfoy's unconvincing denial. "There have been no public sightings of him and not so much as a word as to where he's hiding. That could only mean one thing the Fidelius Charm. This means he would need a Secret-Keeper. Rabastan has no friends; he was only close with his brother and by extension of his sister-in-law – you."

Ron knew from experience that no one else living had a better understanding of Death Eaters. It was uncanny on the insight Harry had on each of them dead or alive. Truthfully, he often wondered if Harry's scar was indeed dormant like Harry claimed it was for only Voldemort would know as much.

Lucius frustrated at the turn of events retorted, "This was not our agreement with the Ministry. We had only to answer questions about Umbridge."

It was Percy that refuted that statement. "The agreement was for you to answer any and all reasonable questions from Magical Law Enforcement personnel. Any information on Mr. Lestrange current whereabouts are reasonable questions. Especially considering there is an old outstanding arrest warrant from the Wizengamot for Mr. Lestrange after escaping from Azkaban during the war. Mrs. Malfoy, his Secret-Keeper would be found guilty of harboring and concealing his escape."

Narcissa said nothing but as she lay silent her face was sweating in guilt.

"We should've figured this out a long time ago. Who better for him to trust than you?" Harry continued, "Everyone of course would suspect Lucius of being his Secret-Keeper."

Lucius Malfoy wasn't upset with the accusation, if anything he looked a bit troubled that Narcissa had been picked over him. That and it was obvious from Draco's astonished look at his mother that Narcissa had kept the secret from her own family.

"Plus, his reputation at the end of the war in Death Eater circles wasn't… uh."

The snarl from Lucius told Harry that he had better not finished that line of thought.

"Then there was Draco."

Draco looked from his mother to Harry a bit upset at being a part of the discussion especially in front of his new fiancée, Astoria Greengrass.

"He never had the courage to kill or do anything that Rabastan would view as being worthy of being a Death Eater. In fact with the Ministry hunting down all the remaining Death Eaters, then I certainly wouldn't choose one to be my Secret-Keeper."

"Not if you like staying out of Azkaban," added Ron.

"Which leaves you - Mrs. Malfoy; you're a pure blood, you're a sympathizer but not a Death Eater, and he would know from Bellatrix that you had the courage to take an Unbreakable Vow with Severus to protect Draco."

Mrs. Malfoy said nothing as she held her chin up in defiance.

Ron broke the deadlocked silence, "Looks like we don't have a deal."

He pushed the Ministry papers back over to Percy and stood up from the table. He reached under his robe and pulled out his Auror chains to arrest Narcissa.

The clatter noises of his now excited chains vibrated throughout the Dining room.

"How dare you!" Lucius Malfoy roared as he stood up and pulled out his wand from his cane.

"Narcissa Malfoy, I hereby place you under arrest for the charge of harboring and concealing Rabastan Lestrange."

"Over my dead body," Draco shouted in defense of his mother as he too stood up to fight.

"Wait!"

Ron was about to joyously release his Auror chains and had to tug them back as they were eagerly fighting to be released from his grasp in order to perform a much overdue arrest. He looked over to see who shouted "Wait," and was embolden to observe his brother Percy was standing beside him with his wand out for dueling. What he had not expected to see was Harry standing up not with his own Auror chains or his wand out but with both his hands stretched signaling for them to stop.

"Mrs. Malfoy - hear me out."

That appeared to him to be an odd thing for Harry to say as she wasn't the one standing up to fight. In fact, he was talking only to her as the rest of them looked on.

"You protect your family at all cost. I've seen it for myself."

Mrs. Malfoy nodded in agreement as if awakening from a trance.

"This is your family sitting right here at the table. The Malfoys- not Rabastan Lestrange. If you don't give him up to us you'll never have your vaults released and Draco will never get his wedding."

Ron finally caught on to what Harry was saying as were the rest of the people at the table. What followed next was an even bigger surprise. Percy saved the day.

"Mrs. Malfoy, my father told me after Victoire's birth, my niece, that he thought being a parent was the best thing he's ever done. That was until he became a Grandparent."

Mrs. Malfoy turned her head to stare at a silent and nervous spectator, Astoria. And after a comforting touch from Lucius, her husband, she started writing on a parchment.

"My family knew nothing of this." Mrs. Malfoy asserted as she slid the parchment over for them to read.

It was Harry once again saving the Malfoys from Azkaban, the git.

"Mrs. Malfoy, if this information is correct - then I don't believe it would look good for us to be arresting a Mother before her son's wedding. Consider this our wedding gift for your family."

Mrs. Malfoy acknowledge Harry's illegal- and stupid- wedding offering with a small smile in appreciation. The whole thing made Ron want to throw up all over their expensive table and expensive shiny silverware and their stupid dishes-

"Ron."

-And their stupid chandelier.

"RON!"

"WHAT?" Ron barked in response of Harry gaining his attention.

He pointed at the Ministry paperwork that Percy was sliding across the table for him to sign.

Merlin, he hated his best friend. That was all he could think of as he tapped his wand on the Ministry forms releasing the Malfoy's and Lestrange vaults to Lucius Malfoy and his family. As expected Lucius Malfoy instantly looked embolden and superior to everyone else in the room. He flicked his wand and the Ministry paperwork went magically flying across the table to his greedy little hands.

"Draco, would you please show your friends to the gates."

"Don't bother – we know how to escape from here." Ron griped as he magically returned his disappointed Auror chains back to his robes.

He gave Harry a "we're-going-to-regret-this" stare before looking down at the parchment to read:

452 Keswick Road

Blackpool, UK

"Percy update the Minister and Ron - let's get Neville." Harry ordered completely ignoring the sane wisdom that he was trying to offer him.

They finally managed to track down Neville in Diagon Alley outside of the Twilfit & Tattings store. He looked saddened as he stared through the store window.

"Neville, Neville we have something," spoke Harry as they raced over to where he was standing.

"Oh, hey Harry… Ron." Neville responded gloomily.

"Neville we know where Rabastan Lestrange is." Harry excitedly told him.

Immediately alertness sprouted up in him as he questioned Harry. "Really, do we know it's him?"

Ron responded before Harry could. "Yeah it's him. Harry gave Narcissa a pass for being his Secret-Keeper." He decidedly gave Harry a loathing look as he said that.

Harry didn't respond as he grabbed Neville and dragged him to a safe place for them to Apparate from. As they were doing that Ron took notice of what Neville was looking at through the store window. They were very expensive magical engagement rings. Several of the diamond's colors in the engagement rings would magically change from clear to various colors of the rainbow. Not that was what Neville was looking at. If he had any guess the golden looking diamond engagement ring in the center of the store window display was the one Neville was wanting. The color totally matched Hannah's hair.

It always seemed to irk him that the guy who couldn't win a single game of Wizard's Chess or strategize his way out of a wet paper bag was the one that always came up with the plans.

"I've called for back-up and I'm going to make sure that they completely have the flat surrounded before we enter. Neville, I want you to be in charge out here while Ron and I go in there to arrest him."

"Harry, I want to go in." Neville demanded as Ron knew he would.

"You can't, Neville, it's under a Fidelius Charm. You wouldn't be able to see anything even if we showed you. Only Ron and I were given the Secret from the Secret-Keeper." Harry explained to a dejected Neville who seemed to be waiting his entire Auror career to arrest the last remaining member that tortured his parents.

"Don't worry, Neville, you'll be with us when we take him back to Azkaban." Ron offered as was the usual duty for them to do when they captured a Death Eater.

Neville shook his head in agreement but he wasn't exactly happy with it.

After twenty minutes of organizing numerous Aurors, Hit Wizards, Magical Law Enforcement squads and about half the bloody Ministry did Harry finally signal for Ron that they could begin.

As they stealthily made their way to the front door of an old white plaster flat he whispered over at Harry. "Did you remember to get the brass band in the back alley?"

"Shut up, Ron," whispered Harry not wanting to argue over how inviting so many Ministry personnel was bound to draw attention, especially if Rabastan was looking out a window.

Ron performed the Anti-Disapparition Jinx while Harry was about to perform an unlocking spell on the front door. He stopped him before he did with a whispering warning. "Harry, who in the world locks the door with a Fidelius Charm on it? It's probably got a jinx or even a ward on the door lock if you tried to magically unlock it."

"Who made you smart," sniped Harry as he twisted the front door knob to open.

"Sniff, sniff." Ron smelled a bit too loudly as Harry hit him in the leg to be quiet.

The flat reeked of old tobacco smell as if it hadn't been aired out in years. As Ron slowly entered the flat behind Harry he could tell that someone was definitely living there. That someone was somebody who didn't value the need to clean up behind themself. He looked about the living room to see a dimly lit fireplace, dirty clothes thrown about, full ash trays on the end tables, and dusty worn out furniture. The place was a mess and for him to say that spoke volumes.

"Squeak."

Ron suddenly looked up toward the top of a wooden staircase to see an unshaved Rabastan Lestrange pointing his wand directly at him.

"Ron," shouted Harry as he shoved him behind the couch onto the floor.

The living room lit up in a green flashing light that meant only one thing, the Killing Curse. Anger swelled over him as he shot back a few Stunning spells up the staircase. The living room once again lit up with flashing green lights as Rabastan was determined to fight to the death.

"On the count of three," directed Harry beside him behind the couch. "One, two…"

The room once again lit up in Green lights as Ron returned the favor by shoving Harry back down behind the couch.

"He can count, Harry." Ron snapped at how foolish it was for him to say aloud on when they were going to attack.

"Aaaggghhh!" Rabastan screamed from up the staircase like he was sat on by a Dragon.

Experience from numerous arrests had taught Ron that when the perps were unexplainably screaming like that; it was because they had splinched themselves. No doubt Rabastan was trying to Apparate to safety and found out the hard way that Ron had already performed an Anti-Disapparition Jinx on the entire flat. Hopefully, all his body parts were still reasonably close by one another for them to salvage. The last one that had tried to escape had left splinched body parts all over a huge roof. He had the unpleasant duty of finding brains, liver and intestines on one end and bones, hair, eye-balls, and an empty full body skin on the other end of the roof. He still to this day had no idea where the missing blood went.

Harry yelled up the stairs no doubt remembering the last time someone splinched. "Rabastan, are you still alive?"

He was answered with a white flash of light and another howling scream of pain from up the staircase. No doubt he was healing himself in an equaling painful healing spell for splincing. However, the next sound he heard was a new one.

"Crash."

It was the unmistakable sound of window glass breaking.

"Blast," Ron spat out as he leaped on his feet and raced up the staircase after a fleeing Rabastan.

By the time Harry and he got to the broken second floor window and looked outside toward the street below; he saw a furious Neville with his wand pointed at a shocked Rabastan Lestrange wearing Neville's Auror chains on his wrists.

"NOOOO!" Rabastan screamed into the night.

As Ron took his usual seat at the bar in the Leaky Cauldron, he couldn't help but notice the lack of celebration from a victorious Neville. Even a hero's kiss from Hannah Abbott hadn't broken him from his melancholy.

"What's wrong, Neville?"

"Nothing," answered Neville who was always a bit tough to opened up on what was really bothering him.

"Neville, you just caught the bloody git that attacked your parents. The three of us transported his sorry arse to Azkaban. And then you, my dear sir, personally dropped kick him in to his bloody cell next to Fenrir Greyback. Speaking of, we really need to give him another doggy bath. Werewolves can really smell up a place. So I ask you Neville – what's with the long face?"

Neville smirked a little no doubt remembering how he captured Rabastan after he jumped out of the second story window and revealed himself for all to see from the safety of the Fidelius Charm.

"I'm going to quit."

"What, what you mean quit?"

"I got a letter this morning from Professor Sprout. She's planning on retiring at the end of the school term and she wanted to recommend me for her job."

He beamed at his friend's good fortune and slapped him on the back in congratulations. "This is great; you've wanted that job for years. Lucky git."

Neville smirked a bit bigger as he agreed with Ron's assessment.

"I wasn't going to take it-"

"Take what?" Harry inquired as he finally joined them at the bar after doing a personal errant in Diagon Alley.

"The job. I.. I didn't want to take it until-"

Ron jumped in with what Neville was timidly trying to say. "You captured Rabastan. You can check that one off your To-do list."

He lifted his pint of Ogden Firewhisky and tapped Neville's pint in triumph.

Neville finally cracked a smile before finishing, "I couldn't have done it without you, both of you. I mean that. I owe both of you everything."

Harry slipped between Neville and Ron before agreeing with Neville. "You do owe me a lot."

"What," said Ron at how smugly and uncharacteristically Harry was acting.

Harry said nothing as he reached into his robe and pulled out a jewelry box. Ron looked over at the jewelry box and noticed it had "Twilfit & Tattings" magically engraved on it.

"Harry, I couldn't." Neville responded in shock at Harry's generosity.

Harry boldly replied back. "I'm sorry are you waiting for a better day to ask her?"

Neville a bit stunned at all that had transpired in one day looked from a smiling Harry to him nodding in agreement and then back down at the jewelry box. His hand was shaking a bit as he reached out to hold and open the jewelry box. Neville opened it to reveal the very same golden color diamond engagement ring that Ron was sure that Neville had wanted to get.

Neville looked over his shoulder to see Hannah serving drinks to a table of old men. She was still beaming in pride after hearing of Neville arresting Rabastan. She also happened to look over at them and smiled directly at Neville at that very moment. Ron was pretty sure that last smile from Hannah had chased whatever fears Neville still had left.

"Excuse me." Neville softly said as he walked over to Hannah with the jewelry box in his hand.

Neville slowly reached out and softly grabbed Hannah's hand before going down on a knee. It was at this time that the Chosen One had roared a, "Everyone be quiet," command to the entire pub. And when the Chosen One says be quiet to a noisy and busy pub, you can hear a quill drop from the dead silence.

"Hannah, you mean so much to me that I'm a fool for not asking you this a long time ago."

Ron smirk a little as Hannah finally realized what Neville was doing.

"Will you marry me, Hannah?" Neville proposed with the jewelry box opened for Hannah to see.

Maybe it was Ron's hearing or maybe it was the fact that Hannah never really answered. Instead, she tackled poor Neville on to the floor and swiftly kissed him like he never had been kissed before.

He quipped her answer, "I think that's a yes."

"Hurray," shouted the entire bar in reaction as they watched Hannah rather shamelessly embrace Neville on the floor.

He whispered over toward Harry, "this is probably the first time someone fell to the floor and they weren't pissed."

Harry nodded in agreement as he couldn't take his eyes off Neville and Hannah lustily going at it on the floor.

Harry finally responded, "I need to go home. Ginny is there… eh waiting for me. I can't wait to see Ginny."

Ron slipped out his wand and uttered, "Petrificus Totalus," and watched as Harry frozen body slipped off the bar stool to land beside Neville on the floor.

"That would make him the second person." Ron assessed as he slowly finished his pint.

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