'I will come back…I love you…I will come back…I love you…'

"Neville…Neville, are you all right?"

Neville's heart was pounding as he finally perked up. Aurors and friends were staring at him with confused expressions. He quickly nodded, pushing back his hair.

"I'm fine…what were you saying?"

"I was reminding everybody how important it is to stay in our groups. We are stronger together then we are apart. Take care of--."

Neville jumped slightly when Ginny Weasley gently touched his shoulder.

"You seem distracted, are you all right?" She asked quietly as the head auror of their group continued to talk.

"I can't concentrate, I can't stop thinking about Noel…it's been almost a year and I haven't heard anything from her." He shook his head as a vein in his temple began to throb. "I don't even know if she's still alive."

"Of course Noel's still alive." Ginny gently insisted. "Vampires don't die."

"Yes they do, you just have to know how to kill them."

"Ginny! Neville! Pay attention! What we're talking about could save your lives!" The two shrunk slightly in their seats as the whole group stared at them. Even though hundreds of people were milling around the room and even more were rushing down the halls, it seemed like a completely silent moment.

The group seemed to simultaneously jump when people started excitedly cheering for a large group of people that had just come to the castle. The auror in their group smiled widely.

"Wonderful, our backups from Italy have arrived. We'll talk later, everybody rest and keep yourself hydrated." He rushed off to meet with other aurors who were eagerly awaiting the arrival of these Italian wizards.

"Hey Neville." Ginny followed after Neville as he sulked away with a water bottle clutched in his hand.

"Yeah?"

"Isn't Noel from Italy?" Neville instantly knew what she was suggesting.

"It's impossible, he would never let her go." He sunk onto his squeaking cot while Ginny just shrugged her shoulders.

"Who knows? Maybe she managed to escape." Neville smirked as he took a long drink from his water bottle.

"He's probably got her tied to a stick out in the yard. You don't know this guy, he'll do anything to keep her." Ginny hesitantly sat down next to him.

"Isn't that the guy that tried to kill you?" Neville stared down at the floor, slowly swirling around his water. He had tried to forget that night a dozen different times, not because of the near death experience, but because that was the night that Noel had been taken away. He wanted to forget because part of him knew that he was never going to see Noel again.

"Yeah, he strangled me and then beat me up, welcome to the story of my life." He chugged the rest of his water before shakily standing up. "I'm gonna walk around, I'll see you later."

It had been a bad year for Neville. Not a moment went by that he didn't think about Noel being led away while he bled on the floor. They had found him a few minutes later and rushed him to the hospital wing where he was treated for severe bruising and internal bleeding. The summer hadn't been any better. During a heat wave in August, his gram had passed away. The heat and her age had done her in, but nothing to despair about. She had lived an extremely long life. Neville was lucky in the end. His gram had left him her house, which was completely paid off, and his parents had a huge bank account that could keep him secure until he graduated and found a job. School hadn't been any easier. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were gone and he felt alienated the entire time. He would have given anything to have at least one good friend to talk to. And he was surprised that he had gotten so close to Ginny. Yes he had taken her to the Yule Ball, but they hadn't talked much since then. She had given him the support that he desperately needed, and he was grateful for that.

Neville's feet carried him around the great hall, weaving him through hundreds of cots. Hogwarts had been turned into a sort of command center for the good side of the battle between them and Voldermort. Neville knew that he should have been nervous or scared, but the threat of death didn't exactly freak him out. He had been around death constantly the past year with Noel and he had even encouraged it every time that subject came up. Things could have been so much easier if Noel had just turned him at the beginning of the year.

Then there wouldn't be any problems.

A crowd had gathered around the large doors as the reinforcements from Italy arrived in the room. Neville stalked back to his cot and he was surprised to see that Ginny was still sitting there. She had a worried look on her face that concerned Neville, but she didn't say a word when she sat down next to her. He sat in the awkward silence for a moment before posing the obvious question.

"Is everything all right?"

"I'm very worried about those three…I mean, duh I'm worried about Ron and Hermione because they're family, but Harry…" Neville smirked.

"You like him?" Ginny nervously fidgeted and glanced down to play with her fingers.

"I've more then liked him since I was like nine." He laughed.

"I understand." He gently patted her shoulder. "Sorry to say, the waiting doesn't get any easier."

~*~

Noel wanted to shrink into her skin…or at least hide behind Peter.

"Why couldn't you let me change?" She asked as they were welcomed into the great hall. The smells in here had completely changed. There was fear and sorrow floating around every single person in the room. Needless to say, none of the vampires were hungry.

"I liked watching you run…has anybody told you that your breasts are amazing?" Noel slowly nodded.

"Yeah, he did." Peter let out a low whistle.

"I swear I saw your nipple, and it was the best moment of my life." Noel grimaced as her eyes scanned over the crowd. Her nostrils flared as she soaked in all of the smells around her.

"Why can't I smell him?" She asked, starting to get nervous. Peter rolled his eyes as a few aurors led them to a large section of empty cots. They all laughed among themselves, knowing that they would never use them properly.

"There's a lot of people in here, and you're probably still adjusting to the new smells." She pursed her lips together as her eyes scanned over the crowd. Dear Lord, what was wrong with her? Was she losing her touch? Fuck, William had really screwed her over.

"He has to be here." She stated as Peter handed her a large blanket. Noel wrapped up in an attempt to cover up the giant red dress. No such luck…

"And he probably is here, but there are hundreds of people here. Look around, I'm sure that you'll find him on one of these cots." Noel nodded and started to wander with Peter watching her closely. He had taken a huge risk in agreeing to bring her with them. Not only had he taken her, he had managed to wrangle over half of his meticulously chosen Family and had taken them away. It had only occurred to him halfway through France that he had led a revolt, yes, but he had also in a way started his own Family. He would have to change the name of course and the political balance and structure, but he couldn't help but grin when he thought about his new position of power. He would be a better leader then William had ever been. Now Peter could only pray that by the end of this battle, William would be dead.

Noel wandered the room like a homeless person wrapped in her itchy blanket. She was sniffing and desperately trying to find Neville. There was such overwhelming despair in the room. People had died, there was no mistake about that and most were in mourning. She couldn't help but notice that they were happy to pull back from their sorrow to stare at her. Great, as if she didn't enjoy making a spectacle of herself a year ago. She just loved revisiting old memories.

"Noel?" She looked over to see a gangly girl that had smudges on her face and neck. She didn't recognize her, but the girl seemed to recognize her. "It's Cho Chang, from Ravenclaw, remember?"

Oh yeah, now she remember. She was part of that gang of girls that took such joy in teasing her. Bitch, why was she being so friendly?

"Yes, what do you want?" She asked, pulling the blanket tighter around her. The girl hesitantly approached her, nervously playing with her fingers.

"I just…it's nice to see a familiar face, you know?" Noel shrugged her shoulders.

"I guess."

"Yeah, last I heard you ditched Neville and went to Italy." Noel narrowed her eyes.

"I did not ditch Neville, I was taken against my will. Would you like to open up anymore old wounds or are you done for the day?" Cho sunk back with her eyes wide.

"No, it's fine." She squeaked out. Noel ran a hand through her hair, letting out a heavy sigh. She needed to keep herself from threatening or intimidating any humans. They were already skating on thin ice, no sense in making it worse.

"By any chance do you know where Neville is?" She was taking the easy way out, but she didn't care. She just wanted to find Neville; she wanted to make sure that he was safe.

"Last I saw, he was sitting on his cot." She quickly said, pointing behind her to some random location. Noel nodded, rushing off where she had pointed. "Hey Noel?" The tone in her voice made her stop and turn, surprised to see that Cho was looking quite sad. "I'm sorry that I said such nasty things about you. You've really come through for everybody and I'm sorry that I misjudged you. You're a really great person." Noel was taken back by her sudden wave of kindness. Where the fuck had that come from?

"I appreciate that." She said. "If you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go find Neville." Cho nodded, giving her a slight wave.

"All right, see you around."