Hermione was frantically trying to remove the shield Luna had erected when she saw Luna pull the amulet from her pocket. Time seemed to slow down as Hermione watched Luna's mouth move before Alice and Frank came back to life.

She wasn't sure which of the people around her said 'fuck' but she couldn't have agreed more. The shield finally dropped and Kingsley disarmed Luna before Harry placed a silencing charm on her and then the magic equivalent of handcuffs.

"What is going on? Alice? Is that you?" Frank's voice filled the room. "Sev— Severus? Severus Snape?" Frank had turned to look at their group and recognized his old classmate. "What happened? Why do you look so old?"

Alice was crying, trying to push Neville off of her. Hermione's heart wrenched as she realized Alice had no idea that it was her son holding her. Feeling like a first year all over again, she pointed her wand at Neville and hit him with a Petrificus Totalus. She hated to do it, but it was going to be hard enough explaining what was going on without Neville being able to talk. She would have stunned him, but with the body-bind he would still be able to hear what was going on around him and Hermione thought he had the right to know what had happened.

Kingsley waved his wand and Hermione felt his powerful magic swirl around them. He must have placed every ward he knew around the group of them. The door to the room slammed and the lock clicked loudly.

"Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom. I'm Kingsley Shackelbolt, the Minister for Magic."

Neville's parents stared at him as he explained everything that had happened to them twenty two years ago. He told them of their torture at the hands of Bellatrix and her companions and how they had lost their minds. The Longbottoms sat and listened to everything, holding hands, not talking, but with shock clearly written across their faces. He left out what Luna had done to heal them.

When Kingsley finished Alice spoke. "What happened to our son? Our Neville."

"Hello," Hermione answered, stepping forward. "I'm Hermione. I'm a friend of your son's; we went to Hogwarts together. I am sorry, but he is the one on the floor. I didn't want to hex him, but I knew this would be easier if you didn't know who he was first."

Both parents turned to look at their grown son as Hermione removed the charm.

"Mum? Dad?" Neville sobbed and rushed into his parent's arms as they nodded at them.

"Neville, mate," Harry spoke. "We'll give you privacy while we deal with Luna."

"Wait," Neville stopped them before they could leave the room. "Luna, why did you do it?"

Harry sighed but removed the silencing charm from Luna. Hermione assumed he was annoyed as she was at the blonde, but it was a question they were going to have to ask her anyway.

"Hi, Mr and Mrs Longbottom. I'm Neville's wife. Sorry I killed you. I knew I could heal your mind damage if you died and I brought you back with the amulet. Neville and I just found out I'm pregnant and I wanted my children to know their only living grandparents. Both of my parents are dead now, but you're still here. All I did was fix your brains." She turned to Harry, "I am not sure why you have me in restraints, it's not like I did anything wrong. They're still alive."

Silence filled the hospital room as everyone looked at the blonde. Hermione knew Luna was incredibly smart, genius level even, but was she serious? She couldn't understand what she had done wrong? Normally Luna's way of looking at things was helpful in their line of work, but this was out there, even for her.

"Well, Luna," Frank said, breaking the silence. "It is nice to meet you. I am sure we will speak again soon, but I think these nice people need to speak with you first."

They left the room and Kingsley turned to Hermione, pulling her and Severus aside. "Harry and I have to get her to the Ministry. Do you mind getting a hold of Draco and asking him to come check the Longbottoms over?" He gave a deep sigh. "We'll also have to figure out what to tell the public about them. We'll need a reason that, after more than twenty years, their minds have suddenly been healed."

Hermione leaned into Severus as the rest of the group left, Bill leaving to spend Saturday with Fleur's family that was visiting from France. He had taken the amulet and contoured a bag to carry it in, promising to put it back in the safe first. She didn't calm down until she felt her wards ping letting her know he had entered and left her office.

Hermione was still in shock over what Luna had done. She pulled out her wand to send her Patronus to Draco, but it wouldn't come. After the third failed attempt, Severus took pity on her.

"Would you like me to send it?"

"Yes, please." Hermione was frustrated. "It is the only piece of magic I have ever struggled with. Half the time I'm stressed I can't do it."

"You can't be perfect all the time," He said as he smiled down at her.

He let the feeling of waking up next to her that morning fill his mind as he waved his wand. He hadn't cast a patronus since coming back to life. He and Hermione had discussed it, but he had put it off. He wasn't sure which would be worse, if the doe remained, or if it had changed. There were so many nights when he would cast his patronus just to keep him company, and he worried that if it changed he would feel like he had lost an old friend.

A burst of white shot from his wand and hovered in the air before them. The wings made it easily identifiable as a bird, but it wasn't one he was familiar with.

"What kind of bird is that?"

"That, Severus," Hermione giggled, "is an African Grey Parrot."

"My inner animal is a parrot?"

Severus didn't know what to think. Who in the hell has an inner parrot?

"It is perfect for you." Hermione held her hand out and the patronus flew over to stand on it. "African Greys are the smartest of all parrots, possibly of all birds. And – this is why I think it fits you – they are known for their speech. They can learn hundreds of words. You have such a great voice, it is only natural your inner animal would be known for their voice as well."

"But it's a parrot."

Severus couldn't get over the fact that his patronus was a bird. A goddamn talking, pirate shoulder sitting, bird.

"Parrots are smart, birds of prey, and have great voices. Just be happy it isn't a pretty little female deer anyone."

Severus thought about what she said, then held his hand out. His patronus hopped from Hermione's hand into his. They stared each other down for a moment before Severus decided he liked the parrot.

"Go tell Draco we need him at the Janis Thickey Ward," he said and he watched as his bird flew down the corridor and through the door.


"What now?" Draco pushed open the double doors at the end of the corridor a few minutes later and made his way to them. "Don't tell me someone else is back."

"Well," Hermione started. "Yes, and no."

"Explain."

Hermione launched into the story about Luna stealing the amulet, killing Neville's parents, then bringing them right back to life. Draco just stared at her with his mouth open as he listened. When she finished he made no indication that he had been listening until he shook his head, disbelief clear on his face.

"Shitting Salazar on a scone," Draco said, still shaking his head in disbelief. "What was Loony thinking?"

"Nice language, Draco. We are in the presence of a lady." Severus glared at his godson's choice of language and pointed to Hermione.

"No we're not. We're in the presence of Granger. She grew up with the Weasel. He is the most foul-mouthed person in Britain. Nothing I say will be any worse than what he has been saying since the first train ride to Hogwarts."

"You're not wrong there," Hermione agreed. "Ron has quite the mouth."

Hermione continued telling Draco about Luna and why she had decided to murder then resurrect her in-laws. She was pretty sure his brains would fall out of his head if he kept shaking it like that.

"I guess I should go check on Longbottom's parents." He paused before he walked through the door to their ward. "By the way, nice parrot, Uncle. Going to get a peg leg like Moody now?"

Draco slipped through the door, shutting it before Severus could respond or hex him but Hermione heard him mutter, 'fucking wankstain' from beside her.


After Draco had given the Longbottoms a clean bill of health and left, Kingsley and Harry returned. The Minister pulled everyone that was still there into the Longbottom's room. Neville immediately asked after Luna. He had whispered to Hermione when they first walked in that he was nervous they were going to send her to Azkaban and didn't know how that would impact her pregnancy.

"Luna should be arrested and tried for murder," Kingsley said, "but since not a lot of people do, or can, know about the amulet, we can't take her to court. We would have to tell them how Luna was able to kill two people, but have them still be alive and healthier than ever. And that would cause more problems than we need. There would be panic if information on the amulet got out."

"So what will happen to her?" Neville pressed for more details.

"She has been fired from the Ministry effective immediately. She will never be able to work for us again but we will not block her from any other jobs outside of the Ministry. Her boss will write her a letter of recommendation to give to prospective employers." He paused, looking at Neville. "We're not giving her any severance pay. I'm sorry, but it was just too big of an infraction."

"I understand," Neville said while nodding. "I'm just happy that she's not going to end up in Azkaban."

After Kingsley finished telling them about Luna, he explained everything about the amulet to the three Longbottom's. To say they were shocked is an understatement. Like everyone else who had been told about the amulet, Kingsley required an Unbreakable Vow. Hermione couldn't help the tears running down her cheeks as she watched the joy on Frank's face when Neville handed him his old wand to complete the Vow. She silently wondered if Neville would return it to his father or if Frank would get a new one.

"We have to come up with something to tell the public about how you recovered. Any ideas?" Kingsley asked, looking at the group.

"Legilimency," Snape spoke. "I've been thinking about it since we came in here. We could say that Neville asked me to perform legilimency on them. Then we can tell everyone that Bellatrix had placed a curse on them that mimicked the insanity caused from the cruciatus curse. We'll say I went into their minds and found the only way to undo the curse was from the inside. That should stop people from asking me to help others with memory charms since they're normally not caused by curses."

"Will anyone actually believe that?" Harry asked, looking between Snape and Neville. "Anyone that knows the two of you would never think that Neville would talk to you, let alone ask you to help him."

"There is nothing I wouldn't do for my parents," Neville said. "Even when I was at Hogwarts I would have asked Snape to help me if I thought it would have cured them. Some things are more important than your fears."

"Why would people think you wouldn't talk to Snape, son? It sounds like he was your professor." Frank asked. He looked between Neville and Severus.

"Frank, I was a very angry man for a very long time," Severus explained. "While Neville has other talents, he was abysmal in potions. I am not proud of how I acted towards him. I constantly ridiculed and put him down." He turned to Neville. "I apologise for how I treated you, Neville. I've seen the work you've done to the gardens at Hermione's. I've never seen a potion's garden that was so well done. The plants are some of the best quality I've ever seen, and that includes things Professor Sprout grew for me."

Neville turned a bright shade of pink but didn't drop his eyes from his once hated professor.

"Thank you, sir. Your approval means a lot to me."

The group stayed a little longer before they decided to let the Longbottoms work on getting discharged from St. Mungo's. As they were walking towards the door, Hermione overheard Harry talking to Neville.

"We need to find a boggart and see if it's changed. After Snape was nice to you, I bet it's someone else wearing your grandma's hat."


A/N: Happy Tuesday! I loved all your reviews on the last chapter - Thank you so much! Each one makes my day. Let me know what you think about Luna and Neville. And Snape's parrot :D