Chapter 25

Reyna

Making the swap while Dumbledore was distracted went off without a hitch given that Jennifer could grab us all and teleport to the top of the stairs outside the door to the Gryffindor Tower. Her teleportation was easier to deal with than apparation anyway, as we were just suddenly there. She could do it whenever she liked and to wherever she liked, her distance was unlimited compared to apparation, which we were still getting the hang of. Still this got us away while Annabeth, Percy and Nico became us with the help of Hazel warping the mist, and Jennifer was able to cast invisibility from the top of the stairs down three stories onto the folks below, including Rachel, who was at that time playing the extra Jennifer. After that we went into the Tower, across the common room, into the Leodis, and finally exited at Bob's, where Grandma Longbottom was able to apparate us to London as unlike Jennifer, she knew where we were going.

Getting into St Mungo's was more difficult than traveling there. We arrived at an ally way beside a rather large department store which appeared to be abandoned, but we couldn't wait in the ally as people were constantly popping in. We hurried to the front of the building which was on a relatively busy street and followed Grandma Longbottom as she approached what at first I thought was a door, but as it turned out was a pane window beside the door, and stepped through, rather like the platform entrance at Kings Cross 9 3/4.

Inside was not an abandoned store but rather a thoroughly modern hospital, spotless and clean. We were apparently entering through the ER and there were halls and elevators to various wards. It was clear from the names of the wards that this was a hospital for magical injuries. Sadly Neville knew his way around all too well. We went to the fourth floor to the "Janus Thickery" Ward and were almost past the nurses station when we were stopped.

"Neville, you know you can only visit two at a time" she said with a good deal of sympathy and kindness.

"Oh, thats alright, could you put down that Grandma and I will see Dad, and Reyna and Will will see Mom."

"But what about the other young lady?"

"Who?"

"The other young lady that was just here..."

"Oh, she must have been with someone else." Neville smiled and seemed so sincere he totally sold it. Jennifer had already popped into the ward.

Every one smiled at Neville and his grandmother. Their smiles had heartbreaking saddness behind them though as they had seen Neville and his grandmother make this trip every month since he was an infant, with no hope of recovery for his parents.

This time though Neville had brought his own healers, ones that he had already seen raise Percy from the dead. If they could do that then maybe, just maybe they could help his parents.

Frank and Alice shared a room and each had a chart at the end of their beds with the various spells and incantations prescribed by their healers on it. Will took a moment to review this and found a few spells he had learned that were beyond the regular programming in the Hecate wands, but there didn't seem to be any plan to actually make the Longbottoms better, only to keep them stable and nourished.

Jennifer sat first with Alice, then with Frank, holding their hands and touching their faces, a pained look on her face. She finally turned to us and said "Their minds, souls and bodies have become separated due to the torture they endured."

"Yes" Grandmother Longbottom spoke. "The doctors say it is unlikely that they will ever come around, that their minds aren't even there, but I know my Frank, he's a fighter. He's still there."

"Now Ms Longbottom, lets not get Neville's hopes up" said a new voice. "Augustus Pye, Healer. And who might you be?" He asked Jennifer.

"This is Dr Jennifer Oceans, of the Mayo Clinic for Magical Maladies in America. I'm her trainee, Will Solace." Will said without missing a beat in the routine he and Jennifer had written earlier in the day. "We're traveling on an exchange program with Hogwarts and Neville asked us to stop by."

"Pleased to meet you." Jennifer said.

"And you too doctor. But, well, I confess I'm not familiar with the Mayo Magical Clinic. I have heard of a Mayo Clinic in America, but its one of those muggle cutting rooms isn't it?"

"Sadly yes, the muggles still practice surgery, but they have such a fine, modern facility that is so huge and so easy to get lost in, well, we just built the Magical Clinic there by taking over a wing no one was using. We were at Johns Hopkins before the flood." Jennifer replied.

"So.. uh, what is your opinion on the Longbottoms?"

"Obviously your course of treatment is nearing its end. They have almost resynced the auras of their mind and soul, and then they can begin to reconnect with their bodies. Of course we could try to accelerate the healing with a session or two of transcendent orgonomic energy harmonization, if Neville and his grandmother would like us to try."

"What is that? Transcendent, orgo... whatever you said." Pye asked.

"Transcendent orgonomic energy harmonization." Its a new technique from Cedars Sinai that is really coming into being with these post trauma cases. I've just been trained on it. May I?" Jennifer asked and before Pye could answer she placed her hands to the side of his temples.

"See, you're in near perfect sync but lets see... yes, there!" She said as Pye leaned forward as if about to collapse.

"What did you do?" He demanded.

"Oh, there was a slight lag between your corporal self and you metaphysical identity. I just corrected it so it will flow a bit faster. Feels good doesn't it?"

"It is as though I am awake for the first time in years!" He exclaimed.

"So, may I try it on your parents?" She asked Neville, knowing what the answer would be. She had told Neville the day before that if she felt she couldn't help his parents she would not waste his time or theirs.

"Sure, if, well if you think it can help."

Jennifer placed her hands gently on either side of Alice's face and asked Will to chant a healing song. We could see Neville's mother react to whatever Jennifer was doing, and after a few minutes she stopped. Alice seemed to be asleep. She then turned to Neville's father and did the same. After fifteen minutes or so, Jennifer rose and motioned for us to follow her. Will continued to softly sing, and began applying some sort of liquid to their lips with a dropper.

"Will is applying a draught which will act as a fixative to their alignments. Right now, their minds, their souls and their bodies are back in sync. Once Will stops singing they should awaken. Neville, they may have no memories of being tortured, or anything that has happened since. They know you as an infant child, and your grandmother as she was 15 years ago. It is just as possible that they may have memories of laying here for 15 years. We will find out in a moment. Assuming I'm right and the treatment took, you owe Dr Pye here a big thanks, his years of work stabilizing and resyncing their psyches is paying off at last. Also, I would like to take them to Hogwarts so I can do post trauma rehab with them."

Augusta Pye looked at all of us and said "If they wake up, I'll help you get them to the door! I've never heard such a pile of poppycock in all my days."

"Well then, lets see if your treatment paid off, shall we Healer Pye?" Jennifer asked as she walked back over to the beds. "Will, if you are ready."

Will smiled and stopped singing. Throughout the ward it seemed as if there were one long sigh. We didn't notice though as Frank and Alice Longbottom woke up for the first time in fifteen years.

"Mother?" Frank said as he looked at his Grandma Longbottom.

"Yes my dear, you're back, after all these years."

"Alice! Is she..."

"She's right beside you."

"Frank?" Alice said.

"Yes, yes, its me, but..."

"You've been out for quite a while. Its going to take a few minutes to fully wake up. Take your time and ask questions as they occur to you." Jennifer said.

"Mom? Dad?" Neville weeped.

Both looked at him, trying to recognize him, then Alice said "Neville? You're grown... how long did we sleep?"

"A long time, you were tortured by death eaters, but you're safe now. You're safe and you're coming to stay with me for a while until you recover." Neville said. "Your long term healer, Pye, just said so. This is Jennifer Oceans and Will Solace, they are healers from the United States, they sped up your recovery, they are going to take care of you for a while until you get your strength back. But you're good now, I mean, you're all better, right Jennifer?"

"Show some respect Neville, Healer Oceans just saved your parents." Grandma Longbottom said.

"That's okay." Jennifer smiled, "I don't stand on formality or I would make everyone kneel" she giggled while Will and I almost choked. "And to answer your question, Frank, Alice, you were put through unimaginable torture. Your mind, body and soul became out of sync with each other. Normally they are like the tumblers on a lock, and your conscious life is like the key. The key turns the tumblers because it synchronizes them with the groves and peaks on the key. The torture moved the key and the tumblers floated free of each other. Your mind and soul were still in your body, but the three of them couldn't communicate with each other. Healer Pye has been working for years to get everything working right, and I know he never lost hope. All I did was speed the realignment process along. Healer Pye and his staff deserve all the credit, and I would be surprised if one of the magical medical journals doesn't come calling about the fantastic work he has done here. Now, we need to get you back to surroundings you know. I understand you both attended Hogwarts?"

"Happiest days of our lives... well, until our baby was bo... that's you! You're Neville!" Frank said as he sat up in bed and threw his arms around Neville.

With that we settled in for an afternoon of tears and joy.

At a few minutes before four, Jennifer and Will recovered two wheel chairs for the still weak Frank and Alice and without fanfare we began to leave the hospital. No one stopped us, though at the first nurses station there were plenty of stares. By this point Frank and Alice were full of life and vigor and wanted to walk, but Jennifer and Will convinced them to ride. Once we got to the lobby Frank asked where we were going.

"Well at first we need to stop by and pick up a few old friends, then we're going to Hogwarts." I said.

We scanned out the windows and saw nothing untoward, but Neville suddenly stopped and said "Those two guys on the bench over there, weren't they there when we came in?"

"Yes. Sort of a long time to sit on a park bench don't you think?" I said, proud of my boyfriend's eye in catching them.

"Indeed it is." Jennifer said.

Then they disappeared.

"Where did they go?" Frank asked.

"Westminster Abby" Jennifer replied as she folded up her map and tucked it back into her bag. "Now, we should leave."

As soon as we stepped outside we took each other's hands and Grandma Longbottom apparated us to Grimmauld Place. Frank and Alice immediately recognized it as the home of their friend Sirius Black, but immediately wanted to leave as it was their belief that Black had killed Peter Pettigrew, another friend and member of the Order of the Phoenix.

Neville straightened them out on that, telling them that they would talk more about the details later, but that Pettigrew had gone to the dark side and Sirius was now known to be innocent, at least by his friends and the Order.

Grandma Longbottom had apparently visited here before as she raised her wand into the air and tapped it three times as though there were a door where she was tapping.

The buildings shifted to reveal a otherwise hidden brownstone house in the middle of the block, and the muggles seemed to just ignore it. As we approached the step the door opened and an odd collection of people exited. All were dressed like steam punks, like most of the witches and wizards I had met. There were six of them, plus a rather large black dog, all on the steps staring at us with their wands out.

"And who might you be?" Said a rather large man with a staff, the most visible obviously thing about him being a false eye that seemed to aim itself in as many different directions as it could.

"Professor Moody, its me, Neville Longbottom, you taught me last year."

"If you go to Hogwarts you would know by now I didn't teach anyone last year boy."

"Alice? Frank?" a thin, pale man with ashy blonde hair asked.

"Remus? Remus Lupin?" Frank replied, then they rushed forward to hug each other.

"My god! How many years has it been? When did you get out of St Mungos?"

"About five minutes ago." Frank smiled.

"You are the folks Dumbledore sent then" Lupin said while looking around. "Come we must hurry and get off the streets. These are dangerous times."

We all held hands and were about to apparate when Jennifer said "Stop!"

She walked up the steps to the to the stoop where the dog was entering the house and said "Come. You will be safe where we are going, and you won't have to hide" as she extended her hand.

Jennifer closed the door and the dog slowly came down and joined us as all the steam punks nodded, and extended its paw to Jennifer, who then said, "Okay Grandma Longbottom, we're ready."

Once the world had stopped dissolving and reforming, we were at Bob's.

"You can be yourself here, no one will try to hurt you." Jennifer said to the dog.

The dog rose up and transformed into a man.

"How did you know?"

"Know what? That you were not really a dog or that you were in hiding?"

"Both I suppose."

"Well as to not really being a dog, I see through the mist, which in your parlance means things disguised magically appear as they normally would to me."

"I see. And as to the hiding?"

"Because you were pretending to be a dog."

"Touche'. Sirius Black, at your service Miss. Is this your home?" He said, extending his hand.

"Jennifer Oceans. No, this is my grandfather's home. Its a safe stopping point on the way to Hogwarts, we can apparate in and out of here." Jennifer said, shaking Sirius's hand.

"And you don't worry about the death eaters following us here?"

"No, my grandfather would kill them." She replied matter of factly.

"Greetings guests. I would love nothing more than for you to stay so that I could meet all of you, however Professor Dumbledore asked that I hurry you along. If you would follow Neville and Reyna they can lead you to Leo and Jennifer's home, I think everyone is waiting for you there." Bob said.

We led them through the doorway that entered into the study, room, then out to the practice area where Leo and the aerials had build a large gazebo with an enormous round table in it. As predicted by Bob everyone was there.

"Sirius!" Harry shouted and came running, diving into the embrace of the fellow Jennifer had convinced to come and not be a dog.

"That's his godfather" Neville whispered to me. I realized he was holding my hand, and I think had been since the hospital. I suspect Neville had never been happier, his parents restored to him, and, well, me.

I could not recall having been happier myself.