Disclaimer: Unfortunately, Harry Potter and the characters do not belong to me but to our dear J.K Rowling.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

IT IS OVER

At the Manor…

Harry had just finished up in the potions laboratory and was headed for his bedroom when he ran into his godfather.

"Hey pup! Where have you been all day?"

"Potion lab" he answered with a smile.

"Well, you've got a letter" Sirius said as he handed him an envelope.

"Oh!"

"Who is sending you a letter anyway…one of the girls from your school?" Sirius asked as he headed for the living room.

"No, it's from Neville" Harry replied with a roll of his eyes as he ripped open the envelope and read its contents.

"What does it say?" Sirius asked.

"Oh, he was just telling about how his first day back at school went…turns out that all the training and tutoring Lucas and I did with him, seems to be paying off" Harry replied, smiling with pride at his friend's letter as he carefully folded it up and put it back into the envelope.

"Oh, good for him. Moony will be pleased with his improvement "

"Speaking of school…"Harry began as he joined his godfather in the living room. "I want to visit Merlin School and just check up on things with the school. It's about time I got a little more involved, don't you think?"

"Oh, that's right. When do you plan to go visit?" Sirius asked.

"I will need to send the deputy headmistress a letter to alert her of my intentions to visit and as soon as I get a response, I'd go visit…is that alright?"

"Yes, of course pup" Sirius replied with a smile.

Harry bounded up the stairs, heading to his bedroom to write the deputy headmistress a letter. He knew it would be disrespectful to show up to the school unannounced even if he did own it. Sending that letter would also enable the deputy headmistress to provide him with a date to visit.

He was excited to be visiting as he would not only be interacting with people his age but also catching up with friends. He also had plans to oversee some of the school's operations. He rolled up the parchment after completing his letter and attached it to Hedwig.

"You know what to do, Hedwig" he said as he opened up his window to let the owl out.

After that, he decided to write a letter to Neville, as he had promised to write to him at least once a week.

He was just finishing up, when Sirius appeared at his doorway.

"Hey pup, are you done?"

"Oh yeah" he replied as put down his quill. "What's up?"

"I was just wondering if you wanted to go out to dinner with me and my girlfriend tonight" Sirius asked, as he ran a hand through his hair. He knew what the answer to his question would be but he was serious about the woman he was currently seeing and would like his son get along with her. He had plans to introduce her to Remus as soon he got back from Hogwarts.

As Harry made to decline, Sirius spoke "Before you say no, I just want to point out that I actually care about this woman and no, she is not the flavour of the month as you call all the girls I date. And I would very much like you to meet her"

How could he say no to that? Harry thought. Especially when Sirius was giving him sad puppy eyes.

With a sigh, he replied "Fine, I will go to dinner with you and your girlfriend"

"Awesome!" Sirius beamed. "We leave in about two hours, ok?"

"Wait, what?" Harry sputtered in surprise. "You meant today?"

"Of course!"

"Alright, fine!" Harry replied as he trudged to his closet to pick out clothes to wear.

Back at Hogwarts…

Neville was in the library studying when a book was slammed down hard on the table causing him to jump. He heard a chuckle and turned to glance at the source, when he found both of his friends.

"That was not funny" he said as he glared angrily at them.

"It was a little bit funny, mate" Ron replied, as he wiped a tear from his eye.

"Sorry, Nev…we were standing next to you for almost a minute and still you didn't notice. It was why I slammed the book" Hermione said, looking contrite.

"Yeah well, I was studying"

"We see that…" Hermione replied, frowning. "But…"

"But what?" Neville cut in.

"We always study together Nev" Ron said.

Neville narrowed his eyes at them. He knew that they suspected that something was up as he had been avoiding them for days now. He hadn't been hanging out with them and had even gone out of his way to sit with a different person in any of their mutual classes.

He was still very miffed about their lack of support at how much he had been improving. They, out of anyone else, knew how much of a struggle school had been for him since his first year at Hogwarts. He couldn't believe that they couldn't support him now that he was improving.

"Ron's right, Nev…what's going on?" Hermione asked with a worried frown. She would be have to be blind not to notice that their friend had been avoiding them for days now, but she couldn't understand why.

"Nothing is going on, Hermione…I just wanted to study alone" Neville replied as he rose from his seat and began to gather his books together.

"There is definitely something going, Nev. You've been avoiding Hermione and I, and we want to know why" Ron said as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Look, all I wanted to do today, was get some homework done and study a little" Neville glared at his friends as he slung his backpack over his shoulder. "I didn't realise that that is a crime, if we aren't doing it together"

With that, he turned on his heels and left the library leaving his friends stunned at his abrupt departure.

With a sigh, Hermione said "Yeah, he is definitely avoiding us"

As Neville entered the Gryffindor's common room, he grumbled to himself angrily about not having any privacy as he settled in a couch in front of the fireplace. He pulled out a piece of parchment and a quill.

He was just finishing up his letter when a shadow fell over his parchment.

"Nev, what going on? Are you mad at us…is that why you have been avoiding us"? Hermione asked as she took a seat next to him.

She put up a hand to stop him as he made to deny the claim.

"No, don't deny that you haven't been avoiding us. It is so blatantly obvious that you are"

"Yeah…what's going on? We are your best mates!" Ron chimed in with a frown.

"Best mates? Really?" Neville said, trying to not to raise his voice. He couldn't believe how bloody obtuse they were being.

"If you lot are my best mates like you claim to be, why is it that you have not been supportive?"

As both of his friends attempted to respond, he put his hand up to stop them.

"Oh please! Don't try to deny it and don't act like you don't know exactly what I am talking about"

"Nev, I can honestly say that I really do not understand what you are talking about" Hermione said, frowning in confusion.

"Oh, you don't…huh? Alright I will tell you" Neville replied, still struggling to keep a leash on his anger. He got up and began to pace as he had begun to feel restless.

"You two out of anyone else know how much I have been struggling with school since our first year. You know how much I despised school because of how much I struggled"

"Of course, we do Nev, but I don't…" Hermione began, before Neville cut her off.

"I am not done speaking" he said before turning to face the fireplace. Looking at them, only fuelled his anger. "Suddenly, this year I began to improve a lot in all of the classes I am taking. This is due to a lot of practice and studying"

He turned back to face them, as he continued speaking "As my friends…no best friends, I expected you to be happy for me, to be glad that with my improvement, I am no longer being verbally bullied by Snape or being given detention because I keep messing up in class or constantly asking you to explain things to me, Hermione, because I wasn't grasping what was being taught. But alas, I was woefully disappointed. Not only are you not happy that I have improved, you also haven't been exactly supportive about it. In fact, you both had seemed disappointed. Now I ask, am I right to be mad at you both? Is your lack of support the right reaction to my improvement?"

Both of his friends had remained speechless even after he had finished talking. They both sat and stared at him in shock. Not once had Neville ever yelled or told them off in this manner. And as he stared them down, they knew that they had messed up.

With a sigh, Neville turned on his heel and walked up to his dorm.

"He is right, Ron" Hermione said with a sigh. "We really haven't been very good friends to Nev lately and not saying anything tonight confirmed that"

"Neville!" Professor Lupin called him as he began to leave the classroom after private training one evening.

"Yes, Professor?" he answered, as he stepped back into the room.

"I have noticed that for the last couple of months now, you haven't been in very good terms with your friends. Now I generally don't go about getting involved in my students' business but for you, I seem to be making a lot of exceptions" the professor said, before pining him with a look. "What's going on with you and your best friends?"

"Nothing, Professor…" he paused as he rooted for the right words. "I just don't trust them anymore and they haven't been very good friends to me lately. So I'm keeping them at arm's length"

"Smart, but I do want you to remember that they have been your best friends for almost five years now. Try to talk it out with them and…"

"I did!" Neville interrupted, as he blinked hard to keep the tears of frustrations at bay. He had tried to talk to his friends but they hadn't responded. Not one of them had tried to even apologise. The day after he had confronted them in the Gryffindor's common room, they had sat next to him at breakfast in the Great hall, trying to act like they hadn't had a conversation the night before. Hermione had literally just started talking about their next Hogsmeade trip and the sorts of candy she was going to buy. While Ron had begun to yammer on about who the fittest girls in their year were. None of them had made mention of their conversation the night before.

He had been so angry at how they had disregarded his feelings on the topic and how they had tried to gloss it over like it hadn't happened, that he simply gotten up and walked out of the hall.

They had attempted to talk to him numerous times after that but he just wasn't having it. He had come to realise that they really did think of him as inferior to them and him beginning to excel at what they had thought they had over him, had bothered them and still did. He just couldn't trust them any longer.

Remus watched the boy struggle to control his emotions. He did not know what had been going on with the boy and his friends but he could tell that whatever it was, really bothered him.

"I did try to talk to them, Professor, but they couldn't care less about my feelings. I realised then, that they weren't my friends because they completely disregarded my feelings" Neville said, almost in a whisper before looking up to stare defiantly at his professor. "James and Lucas are people I consider friends. Within the short period of time that I have gotten to know them, I realised that they have been better friends to me than my actual so called best friends. So, yes I have been avoiding Ron and Hermione because I longer want to remain friends with them"

Back at the Manor…

Harry gripped the floo powder in his hand as he stared at the fireplace. He was getting ready to go and visit his alma mater and he had to admit that he was simultaneously excited and nervous at the same time. Just as he was about to throw the powder in, his phone began to ring.

"Hello?" he asked.

"Hey, pup!"

"Oh hey Padfoot" he smiled as he greeted his godfather. "What's up?"

"I just wanted to know if you had gone yet"

"No, not yet…you caught me just in the nick of time"

"Oh good, I just wanted to let you know that I will be staying over at Vanessa's tonight, ok?"

"Ok sure…no worries" Harry replied with a smile. He actually liked Vanessa, Sirius's new girlfriend who was actually a witch from America. She had recently moved to England when she ran into Sirius at the Ministry of Magic. She seemed to be good for Sirius and Harry was well stoked for him.

"Give my regards to her"

"I will…and Harry…be careful, ok?" Sirius said, a note of worry seeping into his voice.

"I will, Padfoot…see you tomorrow" Harry replied before disconnecting the call.

Yelling out the deputy headmistress office, he threw the powder into the fireplace before stepping in.

A couple of minutes later, he stepped out and into a spacious office belonging to the deputy headmistress, who seemed to have been waiting for his arrival.

"Hello, Harry" she greeted with a smile.

"Hi, deputy headmistress" he replied with a slight bow.

"You can call me Gwyneth, Harry" she replied, still smiling.

"Ok, Gwyneth"

"Good…so I have set up a meeting for you to officially meet all of the teachers. Most of them, you are already familiar with but you will be meeting them in the capacity of owner of the school. So, don't be intimidated"

"Oh, I'm not"

With that said, they headed out of the office and towards the staff room.

Meanwhile, Lucas was looking around anxiously as he knew that his best friend was coming to visit the school. As he made his way towards the great hall for lunch, he continued to look around.

"Hey Lucas…are you ok?" he heard someone say to him.

Turning around, he found his girlfriend looking at him in concern.

"Oh no, I'm ok" he replied with a smile as he slung an arm around her shoulder and drew her closer to him snugly. "Harry is supposed to be visiting today and I'm just looking around for him"

"I haven't seen anywhere, maybe he hasn't arrived yet" she replied as she also began to look around for Harry.

"Oh I'm sure he has arrived…come on let's go in for lunch. I'm sure he will find me"

Meanwhile, Harry was stuck in the meeting with the teachers who despite seem to have come to terms with him being the headmaster of the school, aren't quite happy with some of the ideas he was suggesting.

As he listened to their arguments, he rolled his eyes in exasperation. The deputy headmistress caught his eyes and smiled in return. She was the only one that seemed to be in support of his ideas.

"Please, calm down. These ideas are not being suggested to attack you or your skills as teachers but merely to improve on the fine work that you already do" Harry said as he stood up. He had let them speak their minds but at the end of the day, it was his decision to make.

"I believe it's lunch time, so why don't we go and get some lunch, think things over and then reconvene" he finished and watched as the teachers made their way out of the room.

"You did well, Harry. Just give them time to get used to the idea of you being in charge" the deputy headmistress said with a smile.

"Thank you, Gwyneth" he replied as he smiled in return.

With that, they headed towards the great hall for lunch as they discussed the school's operations.