Synopsis: What Neville's 'plan' was for the summer went quite well and he's settled into a life very much suited to his mental age, much to his wishes. Of course, disturbances of course come along in the form of people of his physical age. Draco was about to drag Harry and Neville both down the infamous Rose Lane.

Chapter 44 – Age.

Rose Lane, just off the end of Knockturn Alley, was a prime spot for crazy night outs. Young wizards went there for their stag nights, and witches for their hen nights. It was a place where hags, vampires and, sometimes even veelas, could be found loitering about in drunken laughter. For the life of debauchery and jadedness, this would be the place to go to inhale some of the mortal smoke that sins the wisest of men. It was not a red-light district as such, but it was the place to be depended upon for some play time.

That night, the front door of Club Innuendo burst open and from the blonde man's foot still in the air, it was kicked opened, rapaciously. The man looked the typical bad boy material, with his slick-back hair and silver long coat fanning around him as he swaggered in with a smirk on his face. He oozed confidence as if no one in the room would deny him anything, winking at the first pretty girl he laid his eyes on, heedless of the two friends following behind him.

On the right was the cute one, wearing a green bandana low on his forehead that accented his eyes. This one was not dressed as smart, donning a fully-buttoned shirt underneath a set of loose blue robes, but it brought out the sweetness in him as he ran a hand through his wind-swept black hair self-consciously.

The last of the trio was going to be a challenge just from the way he wrinkled his nose within his first breath of entering the establishment. He was also blonde, but his fringe was carelessly draped down one side, just letting hints of azure shine through from his hidden eye. He wore an alluring cloak in such a black that provided the answer to why black holes drew in anything close to it. The speed of his stride brushed aside the front of his cloak, revealing a set of navy Hoglake robes that were so popular these days, reinforcing the notion that he knew how to carry himself.

Like bee to honey, girls did not even wait until they reached the bar before flocking towards the trio, flitting their false eyelashes. As suspected from the girls with a keen eye, the one posing a challenging threw anyone who approached his friends and him a set of glares that froze all the girls in their tracks. After the initial wave of girls fruitlessly retreated, the trio got to the bar, where a flirtatious barmaid leaned right over and picked on the easier target.

" Three Torch-quilas babe." Draco smirked, satisfied, and quickly turned back to Neville laughing, " Did you see that? That barmaid was almost drooling on the counter!"

" You came, you saw, you conquered. Let's go." Neville did not have much patience for places like these, in his past life or this. He only came along because he had no idea what sort of troubles Draco would get Harry into if the two came alone – and Draco knew it as well.

" Are you kidding me? I might've conquered something if you hadn't scared the girls off the moment we came in!" Draco spotted the barmaid coming back and took the barmaid's hand while handing her a few coins for the drinks. " Thanks honey. Be nice and come back to check up on us often okay? I get lonely easily."

Neville and Harry both raised their eyebrows as they watched the barmaid giggle uncontrollably as she sauntered away. Neville could feel a suffocating unease creeping its way up his chest. Draco couldn't possibly have been… No… We're talking about the kid who sent Lavender a stone bust of himself last Christmas for crying out loud!

Draco did not reinforce Neville's wavering self-hypothesis by chugging down his Torch-quila without a wince. " You two, will get to know tonight, just exactly how the Malfoy charm works."

Neville took one of the glasses of yellow oily liquid, knowing he would definitely need more than one tonight.

Harry just rolled his eyes, " Not that it worked on Lavender."

" I repeat. Repeat. Lavender Brown did not reject me. She merely made a very bad decision." Draco said, knocking on the bar counter with his knuckles at the last sentence for emphasis. This brought the giggly barmaid back and Draco once again ordered a few more drinks.

Neville gave Harry a glance, who was coughing after he took the Torch-quila like the other two. " Harry, wizarding alcohol is a lot stronger than Muggle ones. I don't think it's a good idea –"

" Can't hold your drink Potter? Should've known." Draco was completely no help.

" Bring it on Malfoy!" After ruining Neville's plans with just a simple taunt, Neville had a feeling with the sum of Draco's obnoxiousness, Harry's stubbornness and his own feelings of frustration, they would really get head-over-heels plastered if they did not leave immediately.

" Guys, seriously, I can't be here. People recognise me from The Hoglake Shop and if someone underage was found here –" Neville's poor excuse was cut short by the Slytherin.

" You never let the media publish your age or the fact that you used Ageing Potions. For those who made the connection by themselves or know about the fact that the most talked-about young entrepreneur these days is the Neville Longbottom still at Hogwarts, they won't care." Draco said so offhandedly it was as if he was swatting away a fly.

Neville growled, and seeing their drinks were here again, ignored the barmaid's wink and paid for this round without any skin contact with the woman. Now although Neville was no longer modest with his money because of the Hoglake business, he was nowhere near the infamous wealth that was the Malfoy name or the size of Harry Potter's trust fund. Nonetheless, that did not mean he would let himself bought drinks by others throughout the night.

Harry thought the same thing as he took another shot of Torch-quila. " Next round's mines."

" That's the spirit Potter!" Draco actually raised his glass to his arch-nemesis before turning back to Neville. " And what if it got out you used Ageing Potions to look old? I'm sure you've suspected it would come out the moment you're back at Hogwarts with that Skeeter woman in business. People would just get more astounded by how young you are and how much money you made – my dad never stops talking about you for that."

" I expected me to get found out eventually – but not while at Rose Lane, or charged for underage drinking!" Now even Neville felt like he was a dork for saying that.

" What's Fudge gonna do? Really," Draco chortled and ordered the third round of drinks already. " Throw you in Azkaban? He won't dare."

Slightly disturbed at how even a young boy like Draco could have so little reverence for the Minister, and wondering how Fudge really even got to that position, Neville shook his head. " Draco, seriously, what do you find fun about this place?"

" Fun? It's not a matter of fun Neville." Draco laughed, and for the first time, Neville felt he was the one being overseen by the younger boy. " It's the feeling of conquering a woman. Make them hang onto your every word, looking with starry eyes up at you like you're their sky and kiss you like their life depended on it like air. That's how we men work."

And within the first day of meeting Harry Potter again, I find out I've mucked someone else's life up once more. Draco's turned into a thorough womanizer and misogynist because of me… Oh God, don't tell me… Neville took a deep breath as he realised something terrible and almost brought him to tears. He put his hands on Draco's shoulder and asked in all seriousness, " Draco. I no longer care if those little adventurers you told me all through summer with Muggles women were true or not… But just one thing… Have you already… you know?"

" Already what?" Draco took the new round that arrived but only sipped half of his bourbon this time. Who ordered that last round? When did we start mixing drinks?

" Okay, to put it lightly. Did you go home with any of the Muggle women you claimed to have had your adventures with?"

" Oh, no. Funny how some of them kept asking me if I wanted to go back to their place though." Draco smirked as he checked out the girl with a very tight red dress over at the other side of the bar. " As if I would go sleep in a Muggle bed. Why would any wizard ever want to do that?"

Glad that at least the bottom-line for innocence was still intact but also feeling foolish for Draco, Neville just said as he took a sip from his Martini, " Fine. Great. I don't see why either."

" For sex of course!" Neville of course chocked and sprayed his drink all over Draco at Harry's outburst. Never had never faced such a shock, even while facing Riddle's diary last year, and he was just about to ask Harry how did he know when Harry elaborated, " Well you know my cousin. Dudley – that pig. He got stashes of porn mags and stuffs this summer. He even showed it off as if it was something to be proud of before my Aunt gave him a good talking to."

Neville crashed down onto a stool, supporting his body on the bar counter. " I… I – I don't know what to say anymore."

" As if that matters! Potter, why've you got lipstick on your cheek?" Draco pointed out after he turned his attention back from the red-dress girl and wiping his face dry. Once again Neville snapped his neck to stare at Harry.

Harry's face blushed feverously, but not red enough to blend in the smudged lipstick mark. " Well the barmaid came back with the drinks and she just gave me a peck on the cheek when I handed over the coins."

" I accept your challenge Potter! We're going to see who gets more lipstick on their cheek by the end of the night!" Draco banged his fist on the counter and almost jumped over it to call on the barmaid as if his drink was only half filled compared to Harry's.

Ginny's gonna kill me if she finds this out… Neville downed the rest of his drink and was about to order another one when someone tapped his shoulder from behind.

Neville turned round to find a random girl with short hair wearing a halter top. She winked and asked, " So what's your problem Mr Cranky?"

" Excuse me?" Neville wondered if this was the wizarding way of picking a bar fight.

" Well you were the one who glared at those girls on your way in," She drawled.

" I was brushing dust off my friends and my coat. That was a metaphor by the way, in case you don't know." Neville was about to ignore the bimbo and try to convince Draco again but the boy was gone, talking to the previous girl he was checking out across the bar. Neville searched right and Harry was pretty much being swamped by the barmaid that served them and two of her other co-workers. Damn the pureblood's pretty genes to hell.

" As you can see, your friends are having fun. Now what about you Mr Cranky?" The girl leaned in and whispered in his ear.

Even without Occlumency shields, it was easy for Neville to mask his expressions after taking over the business – that had been one of his summer plan's core objectives. That was why it was easy for him to turn to the girl with a stony expression and utter with a monotone, " I'm more interested in the typical long haired, feminine type of girl so you can stop wasting your time."

" Oh, alright then." The girl took a step away and just as Neville was about to rescue Harry, the girl took out her wand. Neville armed himself immediately of course, but all the girl did was point the wand at her head and her brown hair flowed out as if she was just releasing it from a bun.

" Better?" The girl raised an eyebrow.

Neville was of course unimpressed, contrary to what the girl probably thought was a sure thing. Ever since he was determined to change his attitude, and carry out his summer plans, he was in every way prepared for any psychological disturbances such as these. Once upon a time, he would have been magnetised towards that long flowing hair, but he had recovered the mind frame where his mental age knew hair was just an artificial tool women used to distract men. It's only nature I guess. Plants have to look good by growing pretty appealing flowers or else bees will never land on them and help them spread. A strange, and perhaps bitter, path of thought.

" No actually. I appreciate your efforts but I suggest you find another target if you want your night to be even a bit worthwhile young lady." Neville even supplied the complimentary glare she mentioned as an opening.

" Man! You're beyond cranky! You're just a stupid jerk!" The girl stomped away and just as Neville turned back, he was confronted by a very red-faced Harry. If he's still such a lightweight by the time we defeat Voldemort, he won't even last a minute at the celebration party afterwards.

" What?" Neville asked, glancing at Harry's frowning face. Granted, it could just be the typical drunken confusion he has.

" Young – hic – lady?" Harry repeated Neville's words, though interrupted by the comical hiccup. " Seriously, how old do you think you are now?"

" Harry, you're drunk and –" Neville was very rudely cut off.

" Oh shut up!" Harry flapped his arms in front of Neville's face for emphasis, even if it made him stumble sideways.

Oh god, how did he just suddenly transform into the moody shouting Harry? It originally took five books before that happened!

" I wasn't going to mention this, but you've been acting like some, some… old fogy!" Harry screamed. " I mean, that girl who just left was years older than you actually are! Then, don't you remember calling even Draco by 'young man' this afternoon? I mean, ever since I met up with you again at that bar last night, you acted like a completely different person. I mean, even for lunch you went to some fancy restaurant and ordered these strange food! The worst thing was seeing you when you were at the shop! I mean, come on! You looked so fake!"

" That is what they call growing up Harry." Neville sighed, figuring he was simply wasting his breath on the young drunk. " I've been trying to do that since the start of summer. Getting back the feeling – I mean, shifting my mind frame into how grown men should feel and behave. I can't afford to just run around anymore and muck up any more things than I already did. You'll understand in a few years –"

" This is what you call growing up? Talking about investments and only finding snobby-looking things interesting?" Harry's words would have more impact if he was not trying to keep himself upright with his hands desperately clawing on the bar counter. To make it worst, the barmaid brought him another shot and he automatically downed it, gesturing for another one without looking. Neville was about to reprimand him but Harry swung his arm over Neville's shoulder and pointed at where Draco was, " You know how I see it? You're acting just like Malfoy! And you never want to be like Malfoy!"

" I'm not someone who can't get over myself." Neville flatly stated and shrugged off Harry's arm.

" I'm saying, Malfoy is trying to avoid facing Lavender's rejection by flirting and kissing and… what the heck is he even doing to that woman's ear?" Harry trailed off as Draco made the adventures that he told Neville through summer all the more believable.

" Just… don't matter Harry." Neville turned Harry round with their backs to Draco now – not to mention that moaning girl in a skimpy dress as well.

" Now where was I?" Harry shook his head, trying to clear some of his alcohol-induced dizziness futilely. " Oh yeah! You! I mean, just like Malfoy, who's trying to act like a ladies man, you're trying to act like such a 'grown-up' after what happened to Hermione last year!"

Neville never thought the drunken Harry, all his politeness subtracted, could ram into people like this. Damn him for being the charismatic hero! And I can't just walk away from him either – he'd get eaten up here if left him alone! " I don't know what you're talking about."

" Oh come on! You haven't even tried to mention Hermione since I met you! You're definitely blaming yourself for not finding the diary before she was taken down to the Chamber!" At least Harry thought that was the whole of it… " Well you know what? Hermione won't care about that! You don't have to blame yourself for it! Even Dumbledore didn't know anything about it and he's probably the wisest man ever!"

" That old fox?" Neville was warned with a glare from Harry and he allowed the protagonist to go on with his rant. Harry telling me not to blame myself for something gone wrong? If only he knew how he felt after book five now!

" As I was saying, Hermione – no, everyone that knows you – won't want you to change into – into – into a prick of a businessman just so you can make the 'safe' and 'best' decisions for us! We make our own bloody decisions and won't let you do it for us!"

Completely overwhelmed at Harry's foul language and the fact that he threw another Galleon onto the bar for more drinks, Neville could not even stop him from inhaling the glasses of burning liquid. By now though, the drunk probably would not be able to distinguish alcohol from lighter fluid.

" Who knows if you'll really grow up to be whatever it is that you were today, with all your classy restaurants or smarmy social politics, but don't force yourself to do it right now just because you think it's the best for someone else. Plus, who says grown ups make better decision? Just look at my uncle! People make their own decisions because of who they really are and what they really think deep inside! I don't need you to change, Hermione don't need it, and Ron don't need it. We've always liked you the way you are!" Harry banged his fist on the bar counter and ordered the barmaid to hurry with his next round. " Ron and I actually had a talk last year – after the Chamber of Secrets thing while you were still in the Hospital Wing. We all think you're already far too ahead of us already. We don't just want to learn Stupefy or Impedimenta or something like that from you – we want to get good enough to fight beside you. You don't know how it felt for us to be the ones lying there at the bottom of Chamber of Secrets, tied up by Voldemort, and not being able to do anything for you! If you don't slow down, we'll have to start dragging you back!"

" You Harry Potter… you…" Neville was at a loss for words, trying to blink his eyes clear before any embarrassing light reflected off them. Neville settled with, " You are a bad drunk Harry Potter."

" I know!" Harry took two shots of Torch-quila and handed one out for Neville. " Here, what's this called again? Tortilla?"

" Torch-quila. Wizard Tequila," Neville corrected.

" Whatever," Harry raised his glass to Neville. " And this is for growing up and not growing up, in our own time!"

" You probably won't have a clue how mucked up my time is – but whatever. If you ever have to battle a dragon for her golden egg in the future – don't blame me for it then." Neville clinked his glass and they both downed the shot.

" Hey Potter! I got ten full-on snogs already! What about you?" Draco chose that moment to return, his lips and cheeks in several different shades of red.

" Shut your trap!" Harry drawled, ignoring Draco and shouting at the bar, " Bring me the whole bottle of Tortilla!"

" Oh? Lost this one and think you can best me at something else huh? You! Bring me a full bottle of Fire-whiskey!" Draco hammered on the bar counter beside Harry.

Neville sighed, knowing there was no way they could escape the disaster that would be tonight. 'Growing up' in my own time huh? After all, like Harry said, who says that acting my mental age would make the best decisions? As long as I do the right thing at the right time… that's fine right?

" Hey bar keep! Count me in for a bottle of Flame-vodka!" Neville shouted, clamping his arm over the shoulders of his two friends.

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" So yes, a Grim is some sort of mythical imagery gimmick those hocus pocus fortune tellers made up. Not even as real as a mirage." Neville summarised for Harry as the two of them were having a late lunch at Florean Fortescue's Ice-Cream Parlour. It had been their favourite hangout spot through the holidays when Neville stole away from work, and Harry could mostly be found there doing his summer homework.

" You know, from the way you went on all summer, I really regret taking Divination now…" Harry mumbled. " Between the teacher being an alcoholic and real prophecies only happens once in a blue moon..."

" You'll know the deal once you start that class." Neville sneakily added as a final note, " You're a wizard and know magic now. You know better than to believe in baseless superstitions. If you believe in everything a so-called Seer says, you might as well say seeing a black cat is unlucky. McGonagall, for one, won't be very pleased with you I'm sure."

Neville had been, some might even say very cruelly, brainwashing Harry into thinking there was no such thing as 'a sign of death'. As far as Neville remembered, for the whole of the third book, Harry had been bothered by the Grim, who was actually just Sirius Black. The closest danger this year was not even Black, but the Dementors – not to mention this year was the safest year, relatively, for him in the series.

That's one stress factor down for Harry – all I have to do is continue to point out the suspicious and sloppy legal process that took place to put Black in Azkaban. It had been great to discuss the case objectively so far this holiday, as Harry had still to know Black as anything more than an old Death Eater. I'll let him find out for himself that he was supposedly Black's target and Black's relations to the Potters. I guess it's best this way…

" With all the magical theory you taught me this summer, I don't think I can even look at a mouse the same way again," Harry groaned. Harry had generously allowed Neville to look at Lilly's old research notes together and they had been working on understanding it through the holidays.

From where Lily's experiments left off, they deducted that the easiest immaterial entity to transfigure were shadows. Of course, this point stumped Neville quite badly since from his past life, he had the concept that shadows were just a lack of light from physics classes. Harry was younger and a lot more open and flexible to arbitrary ways of thinking and probably created a much better concept of his mother's theories, as long as he was supplied with Neville's constant source of technical expertise. They were nearing a bottleneck though since they determined they would need a source of great magic capacity fused with a shadow in order to have a chance of a successful transfiguration. It would take a lot more work to figure how to fuse a unicorn horn, for example, into the shadow and then transfiguring them into something useful.

" How did you like your food Harry, Neville?" Florean Fortescue asked, sparing a few moments coming up to the children at their table. The nice old man really was very knowledgeable in medieval history and had helped Neville with the ammo to impress Professor Binns when they returned to Hogwarts. Not to mention the man makes the best ice-cream ever.

" Great as always Mr Fortescue," Neville was just about to ask him about the battle they talked about last time when a familiar voice called out to Fortescue.

" Fortescue! This is actually the first time I've visited this ice-cream stand of yours!" Neville's mouth gapped opened when he saw the source of the voice.

" John Richmond! I can't believe you really took a step off of Mull!" Before Fortescue could greet who was supposedly his old friend, Neville jumped up from his seat and almost hit his head on the sun umbrella.

" Jennifer!" Neville bumped old man Richmond aside and bounded up to the pretty home nurse he had not seen since last summer. " How've you been? You're still as pretty as ever I see!"

" It's nice to meet you here as well Neville! How've you been?" Jennifer replied back with a grin and Neville rewarded her with one of his George Clooney smiles. If only I'd taken my Ageing Potion today!

" Ahem!" Richmond cleared his throat at the side. " I see you haven't changed one bit you little brat."

" Richmond, nice to see you here. Listened to my advice and came out to find a second wife?" Neville's question made Fortescue howl with laughter and Richmond tremble with a flush.

" For you information, I just thought I'd drop by to give Hannah a visit before she went back to Hogwarts," Richmond growled. " How is that Hoglake business of yours? I assume it is you taking care of it since I can't think of another possible Longbottom while reading about it in the Prophet."

" Of course! The galleons are just rushing in. Come by so you can leave me some galleons too, my shop's just down the road," Neville laughed.

" Is he your friend Mr Fortescue?" Harry asked quietly, a little out of the loop.

" Oh yes, sorry about that Harry. It seems Neville somehow got to know Mr Richmond from before." Fortescue introduced the two, " John, this is Harry Potter. Harry, this is John Richmond, an old friend of mines back in the day."

" Nice to meet you Mr Potter," Neville picked up the well-disguised profound glance at Harry's scar as Richmond shook hands with the Boy-Who-Lived. Harry was the only person to survive the Killing Curse after all... Richmond still hasn't given up on reviving his granddaughter huh?

" I guess we'll leave you oldies to catch up," Neville said. " Come to my shop later and I might even give you a discount. Have you even played Hoglake before old man?"

" No but I'm quite sure I can beat a little brat like you even at your own game." From Richmond's reply though, Neville was quite sure the manor on Mull was probably looking a lot better now compared to when the Council stayed there last summer. Keeping correspondence with Hannah must have been some help as well… That girl does have a soothing effect outside Herbology class.

Neville did not know Hannah had come back from America and the two kids went to the Leaky Cauldron to say hi, but they surprisingly found her along with two other familiar faces in the dinning area.

" Harry! Neville!" Ron jumped from his chair and opened his arms for his two friends. Why can't this guy be shorter, huh? Why? " I've missed you guys! I heard from dad you've been staying here Harry – and everyone's been hearing about you Neville!"

" Harry!" Hermione followed Ron and gave Harry a hug, " How was your summer? I hope you two didn't get into any trouble being practically on your own all summer!"

Harry lowered his face in a blush as he was probably remembering how him, Draco and Neville had woken up in the same dumpster the next morning after Rose Lane.

At this point, Neville would have picked up on how Hermione had no intentions of giving him a hug, and went on a rant about how Ron was her love interest, Harry was her little brother, and he was only her friend, but this was the moment of truth to determine the result of his summer's plans.

Neville scrutinized Hermione from head to toe: a nest of brown hair, a murky sort of tan, galaxies of new freckles from the holiday sun, the still ever-bulging front teeth, and the baggy mismatched Muggle clothes that definitely was not her colour. Most importantly, not sure if regular intake of Ageing Potion had really helped with his height, he was looking down at a girl he could truly feel to be a thirteen years old nerd.

Harsh as that was, Neville realised then his summer plans were fulfilled. Being around all those high-classed purebloods, being in contact with the likes of Ms Rosier, and living a life that was suitable for his own mental age – though Harry had hammer a slight dent in it – Neville could behave every bit as calmly as ever in front of a thirteen year-old Hermione again. This achievement sounded better in my head…

" It is nice to see you again Hermione." Neville ruffled the shorter girl's hair.

" Once again, you don't owl me often enough through the holidays!" Hermione smiled at that moment, and Neville withdrew his hand, and shrugged. She rolled her eyes and shook her head, " I guess you're really that busy with your business then?"

" Yeah, ask Harry. This is the last day of summer though so I'm practically off the hook now, or else I should be in the shop at this time." Neville turned towards the other girl, who was standing a step behind the other two. " So busy in fact I didn't know Hannah's back.

" Hannah, how was America? I only knew you came back because I ran into Richmond." Neville greeted the pig-tailed girl, who returned a timid smile.

" It was really fun. We looked at all these native American ruin sites and they showed us a lot of different magic from the ones taught at Hogwarts." Hannah said, " I've got a souvenir for you but it's up in my room."

" I bet it's food," Hermione interjected and from Hannah trying to keep from laughing, she guessed right. " I got him some sweets as well. That's probably the best gift for Neville on any occasion."

" Don't speak as if I'm not here," Neville complained.

" Isn't your family with you too?" Harry asked Ron.

" Yeah, they just finished their lunch before us and are already in Diagon Alley. We met Hannah and stayed a while." Ron went on to tell Harry that they were staying at the Leaky Cauldron like in the book while something caught Neville's attention. On the table they were sitting in before laid pieces of yellow coloured puzzles that reminded him of little jigsaw Legos. These pieces somehow look strangely familiar.

Neville picked up an L-shaped puzzle block and asked as he rolled if over between his hands. " Ron? Did you get this from Egypt?"

" Oh yeah! I did!" Ron lifted up a partially finished section with a few puzzle blocks joined together in three dimensions. He said with a frown, " I picked it up at some strange second-hand vendor by the street. It just came in a dusty pouch and I wonder if it's missing a piece cause I can never complete it right. You're welcome to give it a try sometime Neville."

Neville's eyes quadrupled in size at the section Ron had completed. One of the blocks was a golden Egyptian eye… and from that suggestion of a pyramidal shape… The Millennium Puzzle! Don't tell me it's Yugi's Millennium Puzzle!

" What is it supposed to join into anyway?" Harry picked up two pieces and clipped them onto each other easily. They were probably the wrong pieces to fit together though.

" I don't know," Ron sat back down on his chair as he scratched his head, turning his partially-made model in his hand over and over. " It didn't come with an instruction booklet, picture, or anything. It was real cheap…"

" Whatever you do! Don't complete the last piece without me!" Neville screamed, earning him a few strange looks from the surrounding crowd. I don't want an old Egyptian King taking over part of Ron and besting everyone one at every game possible!

" Right… Anyway! We've still to go shopping for our school stuffs! Let's go!" Hermione said and then turned to Hannah, " Come with us too Hannah, you've still to get your school stuffs right?"

" Ah… yes, okay," Hannah joined the Gryffindors out of the Leaky Cauldron and was pulled into a discussion of foreign magic with the Modern Magic taught at Hogwarts by Hermione. The boys were leading up the rear as Ron basically repeated what Harry had said at Club Innuendo that night, after Harry told Ron about their work on immaterial transfiguration.

" There's no way I can ask mum to teach me any magic I can use in a fight," Ron moaned. " My dad though, picked up one of the strangest Muggle things one day and I've been training to it. I think they called it a VCR?"

" VCR? Don't they have LDs or VCDs yet by this time?" Neville asked out loud and the two boys just looked blankly back at him. " Never mind…"

" How do you know so much about Muggle things anyway? Aren't you from a pureblood wizard family?" Harry asked. " You never seem to have a problem understanding the Muggle things I say either."

" You know Neville, he probably reads almost as much as Hermione." Ron stopped and shook his head, " No, no one can possibly read as much as her. Anyway, I've been learning how to box from this VCR thing!"

" Boxing?" Neville did not personally have a liking for that sport really. Unlike Thai-boxing and the other variants, proper boxing looked pretty 'sporty'. A little like wizard duelling now and the fencing in his past life – all the rules and regulations had taken away an edge to proper boxing. Of course, a professional boxer could still probably knock anyone out with a simple jab and it is a respectable sport.

" Yeah! I've even seen the Rocky compilation a million times over!" Ron did a quick left jab at the air before him, then as if remembering something, his ears reddened " I've still got a lot to learn though – and I haven't really been practicing after my trip to Egypt. Got a little sidetracked."

You're learning from Rocky movies? Good as they are, you should've just continued with the Jujitsu…

" Sidetracked by what?" Harry asked, looking interested. He had obviously heard about boxing from his Muggle background, and of course Rocky, and would have probably taken up a martial arts too through summer if he had not been at the Dursleys and been information poor.

Ron recounted from his Egyptian vacation. " Well, Bill's got a colleague that's also a Curse Breaker and we got into talking about him playing underground Quidditch for a while. He taught me some stuffs…"

" Underground Quidditch? What?" Neville heard about underground boxing before but not Quidditch. Maybe Ron got the two mixed up?

" You know, no rules Quidditch." Ron glanced at the two clueless boys beside him and explained patiently, " For the legal type of betting, the Ministry has a strict rule on them from The Department of Magical Games and Sports. Underground Quidditch is no-bars betting while the organisers sometimes cover the Bludgers with spikes and – well you get the idea. My mum didn't like Bill's co-worker very much."

Neville grimly listened as Harry asked a bit more of about underground Quidditch. If there's one thing about the wizarding world I've learnt this summer, it is that there are a lot more dirt behind it than the rose-tainted words printed in the books. I'm sure the people I networked with probably knew about underground Quidditch as well – it just wasn't something discussed up above the table… Underground Quidditch, Underground Duelling, Underground Owl-fighting – I'm pretty sure anything can be bet upon much like in the basements of the Muggle world.

" Did you see the pyramids in Egypt?" Neville interposed, subtly stirring the subject away back into the light-side.

" Oh of course! Bill took us all into one of the pyramids and you should've seen the face on my mum when Fred and George tried to smuggle out one of those tomb beetles!" Ron and Harry were nice and jumpy again at the mention of the twin's misbehaviour and Neville took a deep breath internally.

He wondered if he had hurried the books' characters along their times a little too quickly…

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A/N: Not sure about how to spell fire-whiskey. Is it one word? Heck, just for spellchecker and my own memory, I'm gonna keep these names hyphenated.

Florean Fortescue, to me, is an old man, not that sure if he was even described in the books.

Man, this was a mega chapter – and it's been a while since I've had an insertion thing since Sudowood and Alan Harper…

Either way, just because there was some sort of 'revelation' moment with Harry at the bar, I hope you've spotted from comparing between that first and second section of the chapter that Neville is still to come in terms with last year and the future. There is a so-called 'turning point' in literature, I know, but this is a story and I believe personalities and outlooks should be changed gradually. At least in this case. Neville's inner personality will get unravelled more through this year, I feel.

Tell me what you think about this year so far – or take my new poll – or both!