"Hannah?" Hermione checked her flight and walked up to the witch, who was holding a letter in her hand. "Hannah? Where is Neville?"
Wordlessly Hannah passed over the parchment. It was written in a small, cramped hand that used many different mixes of ink – a sign, they realised later, of him stopping then restarting each time the pain got too bad.
"How long ago did he leave, Hannah?" Severus's voice was uncharacteristically gentle and seemed to penetrate her misery.
"He went through the floo at ten, and I found the letter shortly after." The clock on the mantle struck half-past and Hermione turned to Severus.
"We might still be in time to stop him if we go now. " She grabbed his hand again as if to drag him into the floo, but he held his ground and handed her the letter.
"We can't stop him, Hermione. He will have gone now, back the the final battle. He'll be giving his younger self the antidote, and telling him about the sword, then coming to save me. And then …"
"And then returning to the current day , to die within minutes. And there is no antidote, no cure, no way to stop this." Hermione looked at Hannah. "But if he hadn't, the final battle would have probably been lost."
"I don't care – I'm going to find him." Hannah grabbed a cloak off a peg behind her. She went to the fireplace, took a handful of floo powder from the box on the top, then turned back to look at the Professors. "Coming?" And she threw the powder in and said in a clear, strong voice "Hogwarts – Neville Longbottom's room."
The three reassembled in Neville's room scant seconds later. The fire was blazing merrily, and Daisy stood wringing her hands, pleased that her Mistress had returned in time. A scorched outline on the fireside rug showed where he would return – if he did.
"If you please, Mistress, Professor Longbottom said to tell you the exact moment that he left, which was fourteen past ten, and that you is not to wait for him." She bent her head, fighting the usual compulsion of house-elves to follow orders, then looked up again with tears in her eyes. "Daisy is thinking, Mistress, that the Professor was not telling the truth. Daisy thinks that the Professor would be very glad of having someone here when he gets back."
"And we will, Daisy. Would you please fetch the Headmistress and Madam Pomfrey urgently?" Daisy left in a *pop* of disapparation, glad to be doing something, and Hermione looked at the clock. "If my calculations last week were correct, we have seventeen minutes to wait." She went to rub her eyes and realised she was still holding the letter in her hand. Holding it close to see the tiny writing, she read it out aloud.
Dearest Hannah,
The last twenty-one years have been the most wonderful years of my life, and I owe them all to you. But you've seen the amount of pain I'm in, and it's only getting worse. I have worked out how to go back, but it will be the last thing I ever do. So I've waited until I was sure there was no cure, sure there was no other way. It hurts me more than I can say to leave you and our child, but if I don't go, none of this would have happened.
Please give my love to Hermione, my thanks for the last few years of pain relief to Severus, and as a last favour, if you truly love me, please do not name our child after me. It will have enough to deal with in its life without having to live with the name Neville.
I love you. I adore you. I will always be with you.
Your loving husband
Neville Longbottom.
Hannah was weeping silently, and Severus was staring intently at a picture of the couple on the mantelpiece. Madam Pomfrey and Minerva, who had come in in the middle of the letter, looked at Hermione.
"The Chronologous Charm."
"Sweet Merlin, no." Minerva sank into a chair.
"He was dying anyway." Severus spoke up. "He was hiding the after-effects of Nagini's poison, and I had been giving him pain potions for what I thought were headaches. But I realise now that he probably didn't have long to live – maybe not even until Christmas. And nothing would have stopped that. But I never thought he would do such a foolish thing."
"Nor such a wise one." Hannah dried her eyes. "I've watched him fade in front of me, and it's almost killed me not to be able to do anything. But Christmas? So soon? So he never would have seen …" She shook her head, walked over to Severus and took his hand. "But thank you for what you've been doing for him. And if he has to go, I'm glad he's gone on his own time."
"Not quite yet", Minerva warned. "Move away from the rug – I think he's coming back."
There was a crack, like that which accompanied an Apparition spell, but somehow echoing through their souls. A bright blue crackling glow filled the outline by the fire, and coalesced into a shape barely recognisable as Neville. Severus held Hermione to him as Hannah dropped to her knees beside her husband, Madam Pomfrey on the other side to try and do something – anything – to halt the final withering.
Neville's skin was flaking off and his eyes dimming, but he looked at Hannah as if to cement the last glimpse of her.
"All done?" Hannah asked softly.
"All done" he replied through cracked lips, and she leaned over and kissed him softly, gently.
"Go then, my love. Go in peace."
"I love you too." And his eyes fixed and they all felt the sighing of his soul as it left his collapsing body. Madam Pomfrey looked up at Minerva in despair, but Minerva took a blanket from the bed and laid it over Neville's body, now literally falling apart. She muttered a low spell over it as she tucked the edges in, then looked at Hannah who had laid the drying bones and skin that was his arm back over his chest.
"Stasis spell. Just to hold things together."
"Thank you, Minerva." Hannah kissed the blanket over the head one more time, and whispered to it "Go, my love. I'll never forget you. And I'll not hurry after you, but I'll follow you just the same."
She rose and faced them all. Hermione walked over and hugged her hard.
"Stay the night here, Hannah. Go back in the morning."
Hannah kissed her friend on the cheek. "No, but thank you. I need to go back, be at home. I'll be back tomorrow to pick up his things."
"And I'll be here when you need help."
"Thank you, my friend. Dinner tomorrow night?"
"This time I'll bring the food." Hermione hugged her again, and Hannah took the floo powder and headed out.
Madam Pomfrey gathered them all up and usered them out the door. "Leave the rest to me. I'll give him the care he needs now."
Severus, Hermione and Minerva stood in the corridor, Hermione not sure what she should do.
"A sad night, Hermione." Minerva was weeping, all the mourning she had held back for Hannah's sake now tumbling out.
"But not a wasted one. And it mustn't be." Severus scowled. "No more silence. If he had spoken up about what was really wrong with him, I might have helped. Or given him a but longer before he went back to save me. And I didn't get a chance to thank him."
Minerva looked at both of them. "But it's not the time nor the place to discuss this. Bed, both of you." She shooed them off then walked back into Neville's room, shoulders bowed under the sorrow of the night.
Hermione and Severus turned as one, then looked at each other.
"We need to talk", said Severus.
"Tomorrow. Tonight we need to sleep on it. Together, if you'd like."
"I'd like that very much", he replied. ""Tonight I don't want to be alone."
"And neither do I."
And together they walked back to her room, taking advantage of the empty corridors and quietly discussing how in Merlin's name they would manage from here. But such mundane things could really wait until tomorrow. Tonight there would be warmth and comfort and someone to keep away the darkness.