The party was going full pelt in the banqueting hall of Longbottom Manor. Every single year, the Boy Who Lived's birthday was a bash with the decorations being extremely tasteful, although there were banners with Neville's moving face on them with the scar in prominence. The ball was filled with friends from school and their families with well-dressed Ministry representatives and the Heads of many families in the magical world, and there were a few well-dressed dignitaries from other countries who were looking for a photo opportunity with the Boy Who Lived, and there was press coverage from the Daily Prophet and other major outlets aside from the Quibbler, whom everyone believed was run by lunatics.
Neville was enjoying every single moment of it. He had been surrounded by the attention lauded on him by his peers since the time he could form an individual thought. It never occurred to the boy that many of these people were using him. He didn't care so long as he received a photo opportunity.
Flanking him like two pillars were his grandmother and Professor Dumbledore. Augusta Longbottom was resplendent in expensive-looking dress robes, fortunately sans her stuffed vulture's hat. Dumbledore was dressed in long wizard robes in red and gold, symbolising the occasion for Gryffindors the world over.
Meanwhile Sirius Black was eyeing up a few nubile waitresses whom he guessed were muggle-borns who were hired for this. He could see the expressions on their face and knew what was going through their minds; long ago their families were told they would have the chance of having wonderful careers only to be given this kind of degrading work.
Sirius didn't care either way. Deep down he was as bigoted as any other pureblood, and a part of him was pleased to see the muggle-born staff brought to this level. He had started seeing life through the same vision as his bastard parents after the betrayal of James, and he had started realising muggle-borns like Lily should never have too much power. Slowly it twisted Sirius's mind to the point where he began seeing muggle-borns as filthy creatures, who were fit for menial and degrading jobs. And as long as they kept the booze going, then all the better.
He was thinking of grabbing a girl, with the promise of 'helping' her. If the girl foolishly got herself pregnant, then he would deny it being his. And he would make sure the little bastard was kicked out of their world with the whore.
Standing far from the proceedings until they were almost invisible was another branch of the Longbottom family. They were deliberately keeping to themselves, staring at Neville and Augusta with varying levels of contempt and scorn. The Boy-Who-Lived's birthday parties were always lavish, increasingly expensive affairs that were taken to new heights each year with different forms of entertainment. When they were over, everyone went to the tables for the celebratory dinner before Neville blew out the candles on his enormous, sugar-laden cake.
After chunks of the cake were distributed around the various tables in the banqueting hall and the sugar levels of everyone attending the party were higher than a five-year-old who had been eating sweets and chocolate for an hour, the customary toast was made.
Augusta stood up holding out her goblet. Using a spoon, she gently tapped it, wandlessly augmenting her voice and the sound to make it carry. "Everyone, if you would please raise your goblets, to Neville Longbottom, the Boy Who Lived!"
"Neville Longbottom, the Boy Who Lived!" Everyone else chanted before they drank from their goblets. Nobody saw the sneers and grimaces on the few Longbottoms there, but those who did were left wondering why they were upset, even as they drank from their goblets.
Augusta Longbottom and Algernon Longbottom had just sipped from their goblets when suddenly two magical body shields surrounded them as their faces went slack and emotionless. When the shields snapped into place, several wizards and witches took their wands out of reflex.
"Gran!" Neville leapt to his feet in alarm, but Dumbledore held him back
"Neville, don't," the elderly wizard warned while he examined the shield with his eyes before he swept his gaze throughout the hall. The shields had snapped into place without a clear point of origin. They had just appeared.
Neville turned to him in panic. He was frightened about what was going to happen to his grandmother. "Professor Dumbledore, what's happening?" He demanded.
"I don't know, Neville. I really don't."
Any further speculation was thrown out when a voice boomed out.
"AUGUSTA LONGBOTTOM. ALGERNON LONGBOTTOM. YOU TWO HAVE ANSWERS TO MY QUESTIONS."
The voice was strange. It was loud, but it sounded like there were hundreds of voices layered into one.
"Who is this?" Dumbledore demanded.
"YOU ARE AUGUSTA AND ALGERNON LONGBOTTOM, ARE YOU NOT?" The voice went on while it ignored Dumbledore.
"Yes," the two elderly magicals replied.
"ALGERNON, WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS?"
Algernon opened his mouth. "I'm trying to find a way of disposing of my sister and Neville."
Everyone in the banqueting hall gasped and chattered furiously, some people looked angry and furious as they glared at the old man who was threatening their precious hero. Very few were observant enough to notice the worried looks on their faces as they listened to the interrogation of Algernon Longbottom.
"WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO KILL YOUR OWN RELATIVES?" The voice asked.
Algernon visibly tried to fight against the potion, but it was too strong.
"WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO KILL YOUR OWN RELATIVES?" The voice repeated.
Algernon lost the fight. "I wanted my line to flourish. For so long, the main branch of the Longbottom family has reined supreme and for what? To take the credit for every single business venture my branch has been responsible for. When the Dark Lord was seeking out Frank and Alice, I saw the opportunity for my children to become the primary branch of the family."
"WHAT DID YOU DO?" The voice asked the same question on everybody else's mind.
"I discovered Frank, Alice, and their brat Neville were hiding underneath a Fidellius Charm. Finding James Potter, who knew the secret was extremely easy. The fool had no knowledge of the mind-arts and it was easy for me to take their secret address. I sent the Dark Lord a message containing the address, and from there the Dark Lord murdered Frank and Alice."
Everyone in the banqueting hall was horrified by the revelation that the true betrayer of the Longbottom family was there, the whole time, hidden in plain sight. But some of the more intelligent members of the banqueters realised that Algernon Longbottom had framed an innocent man who had been given the Dementors kiss when he had been caught only a few months ago, and some of them even more logical and intelligent people realised they could have prevented that miscarriage of justice by giving him truth serum, but at the time it had been deemed unnecessary, and many remembered what happened afterwards.
"AND WHEN NEVILLE SURVIVED, THAT MUST HAVE DRIVEN YOU MAD?"
"It did."
"WHAT ABOUT AUGUSTA, WHAT WERE GOING TO DO TO HER?"
"Nothing," Algernon said simply. "She was old and her ability to bear children was long past. She would have no choice but to move into the shadows while my branch of the family moved on and flourished."
"DID YOU PROFIT FROM NEVILLE BECOMING THE BOY WHO LIVED, OR DID YOU HAVE PLANS TO KILL HIM LATER?" The voice asked.
Algernon's expression was not meant to change, but even so many were sure he was grimacing bitterly. "Neville's name was enough to open doors for me and my family, while I moved us on. I didn't plan to kill him. I had made the mistake of trying to rely on others to kill him, so I wasn't going to make the same mistake, so I came up with a different plan instead; as the Boy Who Lived, Neville's name and influence have furthered the wealth of the families' businesses. I realised I couldn't kill him and not take the risk of losing all of that, it would be too short-sighted if I made that mistake. I decided instead to dose him up on a potion to totally destroy his reproductive organs."
"AH, NOW I AM BEGINNING TO UNDERSTAND. BUT YOU FRAMED JAMES POTTER FOR THIS, WHAT ELSE DID YOU GET FROM THIS?"
"The Longbottoms received a large chunk of the Potter family fortune. With that, I was able to build more businesses and conduct further deals."
"YOU FRAMED AN INNOCENT MAN FOR YOUR FAMILY TO SHINE. DO YOU REGRET IT?"
"No."
"ALGERNON, IF YOU HAD TO DO THIS AGAIN, WOULD YOU?"
"Yes," the old wizard replied without hesitation.
"AUGUSTA LONGBOTTOM, YOU HAVE HEARD YOUR BROTHER'S CONFESSION. DID YOU CARRY OUT ANY CRIMINAL ACTIVITY FOLLOWING YOUR SON AND DAUGHTER-IN-LAW'S DEATHS, AND YOUR GRANDSON'S RISE TO STARDOM?" There was sheer disgust even in the layered voice of the Voice.
The truth potion used on the elder Longbottoms was powerful, but it had been nearly five minutes since the voice had questioned Algernon, and so the potion's effects were not as strong on Augusta anymore, but it was still effective on the old witch regardless although it would soon wear out. Augusta opened her mouth to answer the question while everyone listened with baited and horrified breaths, wondering what Augusta was going to admit.
"When James Potter was thrown into Azkaban, and his little mudblood bitch of a wife was killed, there was only their brat left. I wanted the little bitch to be given the Dementor's Kiss or to be thrown through the Veil of Death to make sure Potter's betraying taint didn't contaminate her, but I knew it was too extreme. In the end, I decided I was going to find a way of using Dumbledore's guardianship of Holly Potter, the last of her family, and kill her before finding a legal loophole to take what she has left," Augusta condemned herself as her brother had before her; the idea of anyone killing an innocent child was horrific. "I was one of the first people to take the money from not only the Potters, but from other Death Eater families who lost everything and I made sure their urchins were thrown out into the muggle world, where the disease that permeated their families would not infect them. I also found a way to poison a few of them and steal what was left of their fortunes, with the aid of a corrupt goblin, who is working with me."
"WHY WOULD YOU STEAL FROM CHILDREN, THEY WERE NO THREAT TO YOU?"
"They were not a threat, but I have discovered a gleeful pleasure in taking what was theirs. Their fortunes swelled the coffers of the Longbottom family, and made sure we were at the top for the last ten years," Augusta wore a triumphant smile on her face while many of the Longbottom's friends listened in horror. Neville was staring at his grandmother like he didn't even recognise her anymore, and Dumbledore was mortified by what she was saying.
X
Thanks to the listening spell her House Elves had placed within the Longbottom Banqueting Hall, the furious Holly could hear the sounds of outrage after hearing the confessions of Augusta and Algernon Longbottom. She turned to the House Elf next to her, only just holding onto her rage. She had been sitting on the beach of one of the Potter's beachfront properties abroad, and her magic had been crackling in the air as her fury had grown as she'd listened to what the elder Longbottoms had said.
"Go to Longbottom manor and shut off the shields protecting them, and then come back here. Make sure you are not seen or heard," she ordered.
The elf popped away at one, leaving Holly to her thoughts. Holly pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her chin on top, thinking as she pushed her rage away. She knew she had scared the House Elf with her temper, but she hadn't meant to. It was just the scale of the conspiracy Algernon had come up with that had horrified her, but what horrified her, even more, was how the bastard's sister had decided to take things that far…
The Dementors Kiss…
What kind of psychotic bitch would decide to use that on a child? Holly decided she was going to get even with the Longbottoms at some point, but she needed to find a way of doing it when she was calm and she wasn't going on anger alone. Irrationality was not going to help her, not in this case.
She had been suspicious of her father's guilt from the moment she had learnt what happened all those years ago, but it wasn't until she had met James before he kissed himself that she had a lead on what happened and gave her something to investigate. James might have been kissed by the Dementors following his escape from Azkaban, but he hadn't escaped killing Longbottom. He had escaped to find her and take care of her, but he hadn't been in any position to. Thinking of her father made Holly close her eyes in sorrow and she silently cried at the scale of the injustice. They had only spent an hour together but while she was angry with him still, she still loved him, and then he was taken from her.
But James had given her the lead on Algernon; James had been stunned by Algernon but then his memory was blanked, and not long afterwards he was thrown into prison with the knowledge his family was destroyed, and everything the Potters had worked for so long was taken as well. It was a small tidbit, but Holly had decided to get answers about Algernon herself and discover where it had gone, but she didn't expect this although she had suspected some of it since the person who did betray the Longbottoms would be the one who had the most to gain.
Holly looked up when the House Elves returned. They were her family, all she had left of the Potter family beside one or two properties like this one. She had left Britain to just get away from the fucked up mess that was her home country, but mostly to escape the pain she felt at James's kissing.
"Did you make sure nobody could track you down?" She whispered, although right now Holly didn't care if anyone found out what she'd done.
"We did, Mistress," one of the elves squeaked.
Holly nodded. "I'm going for a swim. Keep watch and if anyone comes on the off chance, bring me back to the beach."
As she stood up and walked to the sea, she threw herself into the water and began to swim slowly. Unable to help herself, Holly couldn't do anything but reflect on her final command to the House Elves. There was no doubt in her mind the Longbottoms were going to be dosed up on a truth potion to fully understand their crimes, but Holly didn't know what was going to happen next and truthfully she didn't really care. It wasn't a Slytherin attitude to have, but right now….
Holly didn't know what was going to happen when she returned to Hogwarts. But she had the rest of the summer to come up with something.