Blaise's POV:
They all stood outside, a crying Hagrid holding a limp Harry in his arms. It can't be what he thinks.
Voldemort, he finally agrees to call him, was staring at them all amongst his followers. He stood with Luna and held her hand which was softly shaking.
"Harry Potter is dead!" Voldemort shouts. His followers cheer and laugh, and so does he.
Blaise's breath catches in his throat. No, this can't be true. Luna squeezes his hand and he squeezes it back.
"From this day forward... your faith will be had in me." Voldemort says with a smirk, his pointy fingernail gesturing towards himself. "Step forward... come join me. Or die." He threatens, awaiting those to step forward.
"Draco... come." Draco's father urges. He looks back and notices Draco standing amongst the crowd. He almost missed him. He watches as Draco's eyes dart around the crowd. Blaise saw a hint of something on his face, perhaps sadness? Dissappointment? Regardless, he didn't care. Draco betrayed him and all of Hogwarts. "Come!" His father urges again and Draco quickly moves from his spot and towards the crowd.
"Well done, Draco!" Voldemort says with a smile. Draco goes over to his parents and stands there, staring at the ground.
No one else moves, at least not for a few seconds. Until he watches Neville limp forward and Blaise rushes toward him, only to be pulled back by Luna. He shakes his head in disbelief. Not Neville, please no.
Voldemort and his followers have a laugh. "I honestly expected better... but we'll take it." He says.
He glares at them and clenches his hand into a fist.
"Say... what is your name, dear boy?" Voldemort asks.
"Neville Longbottom." Neville says, earning laughs from Voldemort and his cult. If it weren't for Luna, Blaise would be storming towards them and hitting every single one of them with a hex right about now.
"Well, Neville, I'm sure we can find a place for you here." Voldemort says.
"I'd like to say something!" Neville announces.
"Well, I'm sure we'd all love to hear what you have to say." Voldemort replies.
"It doesn't matter that Harry's gone-"
"Stand down, Neville!" Seamus says.
"People die every day!" Neville shouts, "Friends... family... And yeah... We lost Harry tonight. He may not be here, but he's still with us... in here," Neville says pointing at his chest. "Just like Fred, Remus, Tonks, Dumbledore... But you know what... They didn't die in vain!" He turns to Voldemort, "But you will, because you're wrong! Harry's heart did beat for us, for all of us! It's not over!" He shouts, reaching into the Sorting Hat and pulling out a sword. At the same time Harry drops from Hagrid's arms and onto the ground.
"Potter!" Draco shouts, throwing a wand Harry's way. He grabs it with one hand and throws a spell at Voldemort's snake, but Voldemort blocks it for him.
They stood there and watched as Voldemort threw spells left and right at Harry, only to have them be missed. Slowly, the cowardly death eaters began to file out.
They all make their way into the castle and Harry goes to them.
"Get everyone inside! We have to kill the snake!" Harry says to them.
Neville holds up the sword, ready to strike, only to be thrown backwards by a spell Voldemort threw at him.
"Neville!" Blaise shouts, running to him.
"I'm fine. I'm fine." Neville says, breathing heavily.
"I'll help you up. Take my hand." Blaise says. Neville complies and grabs onto Blaise's hand and he pulls him up to his feet. "Come on, let's get you somewhere safe."
"No! We have to kill the snake." says Neville.
"Nev, I really-"
"There!" He shouts, grabbing the sword and running as quickly as he can towards the staircase where he watches Hermione and Ron running away from the snake. Ron throws a spell, but it's no use. Blaise runs towards Neville, only to be stopped dead in his tracks.
Neville, with one quick elegant swipe, slices the snake to dust. Blaise stares in awe. The dust erupts in dark smoke.
Neville drops the sword on the ground and drops his arms to his side. He softly laughs and stares up at the blue sky. He clenches his fist and holds it up high in the air.
Hermione, with tears streaming down her eyes rushes to Neville and hugs him tight, sobbing into his shoulder.
"Merlin, thank you!" She sobs.
He looks over at Blaise and smiles victoriously. Blaise, for the first time this week, allows his lips to curl up into a smile.
Ron looks at Blaise as well and walks towards him.
"Hey... uh, I heard you protected by sister back there." Ron says with a smile. "Thank you."
"I was simply doing what's right... No need to thank me." Blaise says.
"But... I must ask... Why did you join us? Weren't you Malfoy's friend?" Ron asks.
Blaise stares at his shoes and rubs the back of his neck. "Oh uh,"
"Ah! It's for Luna. I get it." Ron chuckles.
"No! Absolutely not." Blaise says.
"Well, then who?" Ron asks.
"Can't I just do it to be a good person?!" Blaise responds.
They all notice Harry walking towards them. "Harry, mate! Are you alright?" Ron asks.
"Yeah, yeah. Voldemort is dead." Harry says. Ron smiles and so does everyone else around, except Harry.
"Harry, you'll never guess who killed the last Horcrux." Ron says and Harry simply gives him a look of confusion.
Neville is staring at the ground and twirling a piece of hair on his finger.
"Neville did it!" Ron exclaims.
Harry gives a small smile. "Thank you, Neville." He says.
Neville gives a crooked smile and looks back over to Blaise. Blaise looks back and gives him a smirk.
"Good job, Neville." Blaise says to him.
Neville stares back at the ground, "Th-thank you." He mutters.
"You should probably get your wounds checked out, Neville." Hermione says.
"Yeah... probably." Neville replies. He turns on his heels, grabs the sword and limps into the castle. Blaise looks at the trio awkwardly before slowly following Neville.
He goes into the Great Hall and watches Neville sit on the steps. Blaise sits beside him and they sit in silence for a while.
"So... we... we have the same p-patronus." Neville says. "Wha-what does that mean?"
Blaise gives him a sideways glance. "I'm sorry if this makes things weird..."
"What do you mean?" Neville asks, "I'm the one who made it weird. I didn't mean for us to have the same patronus... I just... I don't know. I didn't think I felt anything that serious."
Blaise jerks his head in Neville's direction, "Huh?"
"I'll just..." Neville gestures to the outside of the Great Hall and stands up.
"Neville, sit down!" Blaise demands. Neville obeys almost instantly and stares at the floor. He has that same look he had when Snape would shout at him. "I'm sorry... I didn't mean to sound so aggressive. Look, I need to tell you many, many things. But first, I need to know what you meant."
"Uh... by my feelings? Well... I don't wanna say. It's weird and you'll think I'm some creep." Neville says.
"Never." Blaise says, grabbing his arm and giving him a warm smile.
Neville stares down at the hand on his arm and sighs, "I... Well, let me start at the beginning. There was this guy who sent me a Christmas gift, right? And it was really nice and he sent me all these great things. But, I didn't know who he was. We had great talks through letters, but I still had no idea, even with hints! Then he had a problem and I told Luna to go help and she was headed towards either the basement or dungeon. So, I kept thinking, well if it isn't a Hufflepuff then it has to be a Slytherin. But the only Slytherin with a Z in his name was you. But then, all these weird thoughts came to mind about me and you and I kind of wanted it to be you in some weird way. Gosh, I should shut up now." Neville blurts out.
Blaise stares down at Neville's arm as well, but not out of anxiety but rather debating whether or not he should hold his hand. But, why was it such a big deal? He held onto Luna's hand and it was no big deal. Why does this have to be a big deal?!
Was the boy he was talking about in the letters him?
"Neville, I-"
"Come on, Mister Longbottom, let's get you checked out." Madame Pomfrey says, helping Neville to his feet and moving him over to a hospital bed.