wmipart11 The Werewolves' Magic Institute
By Admiral Albia

In which Neville shows his true colours, Harry gets ill and there's a full moon too-oo-niiiight! Ahem.

Disclaimer; I own nothing except the plot and any characters you don't recognize from the books. It's very simple. Jiggy McCue (and the other Musketeers) belong to the great god Michael Lawrence, the rest belongs to the great goddess J.K. Rowling. All lines from the musical Anything Goes belong to whoever owns Anything Goes.

My heartfelt gratitude to Caitlin Black. A better beta-reader I could not ask for.

Chapter 11; The Knight Bus
"Oh, this is typical. Just typical. I'm stuck in the Dark Lord's house with, no offense, a celebrity, a bitch and a dingbat. Typical."
"We haven't even seen You-Know-Who yet," Neville said. "I mean, you'd think he'd come and kill Harry, wouldn't you?"
"Thanks, Neville," Harry said sourly. His headache was now worse than ever, and wasn't showing signs of going away.
"Well, I'm sorry, but it's true. And he's useless." Neville nodded to Wormtail, who was curled up on a mattress in the corner of the room, fast asleep.
"Yeah... our fake Moody'd have had a word or two to yell at him," Harry said.
"I'll say. Hmm..."
"Neville? You look... odd."
"I just had an idea."
"That'd explain it," Mona muttered.
"Shall we?" And with that, Neville tilted his head gently towards the slumbering Wormtail.
"No. We can't."
"We can. And we will. Come on."
"You do it."
"OK." Neville crept slowly up to Wormtail, leant over so that his mouth was right next to the man's ear, took a deep breath and yelled, "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" Wormtail jerked awake, screamed and attempted to run out of the room, causing even Harry to laugh.
"Wormtail! what are you doing?" A high, cold voice asked from the other side of the door.
"M-my lord..."
"Well?"
"Um... nightmares, my lord..." Realising that Neville was still standing in the middle of the room, Harry crept towards him and pulled him down so that he was sitting on one of the beds with the rest of them, just seconds before Voldemort walked into the room.
"Good evening, children, and welcome to the Riddle House. I am your host, Lord Voldemort, and Wormtail here will cater to your bare necessities. There is a bathrom through this door here. Kindly refrain from terrorizing my minions too much, they are difficult to find. Not to mention difficult to keep."
"Maybe that's because you're so stupid," Neville said. Loudly. Harry, Paul and Anna all stared at him.
"I beg your pardon?"
"I mean, only an idiot would send people out to kill Muggle-borns. And it takes an even smaller IQ than that to work out that if you kill people you get Aurors after you. And everyone knows that Aurors send you to Azkaban. And people like you a lot more if you don't terrify them out of their wits..."
"Neville," Harry said softly.
"I mean, what exactly is so scary about you?"
"Neville." A bit louder this time.
"You show me one scary ting about your body - aside from the red contact lenses - and I'll show you a flying pig."
"NEVILLE!"
"What? Don't tell me you're scared of him, Harry..."
"As a matter of fact, I am. Know why? BECAUSE HE WANTS TO KILL ME!"
"For once, I agree with Harry," Voldemort said. "You are a waste of time, and I don't like wastes of time."
"You kill him, you'll have to kill me as well," Harry said.
"Gladly."
"And me!" Mona and Paul said, getting into the spirit of the thing.
"Ah. That reminds me. Wolfsbane potion, Wormtail?"
"Here, my lord."
"Eww, no thanks," Mona said. "You could've put anything in it! We'll drink our own." So saying, she produced two flasks, gave one to Paul and downed the contents of the other. "Now, someone open the shutters."
"Ah-ah." Voldemort waggled a finger in a way that he could only have picked up at the Muggle orphanage. "Wait until the sun goes down."

/\/\/\
"Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for the stranded witch or wizard. Just stick out your wand hand, step on board and we can take you anywhere you want to go. My name is Stan Shunpike, and I will be your conductor this evening."
"Hi," Ron said. "Um, I understand the bus was booked for this evening."
"S'right," Stan said.
"Well, we're the first part of the party. Can we come on?"
"Sure. Long as you give the password."
"Password?" Ron said blankly.
"Yeah. So we knows you're `oo you say you are. So. Wassa password?"
"Um. Excuse me." The four teenagers retreated into a huddle.
"Well, what's it likely to be?" Hermione whispered - Stan was watching them with interest.
"I dunno, do I?"
"The Marauders set it up," Anna said, "And they always use the same password. But I can't remember what it is..." There was a pause. Then;
"I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good?" Ron and Hermione said together.
"That's it!"
"I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good," Ron said to Stan.
"All right. I guess the other part's payin'?"
"Yep."
"Right. `Op on, then." They `opped on.
/\/\/\
"Lily's medicine bag?"
"Check."
"Where?"
"Up my sleeve, you dope."
"Oh, right. Chocolate?"
"Ch-*munch*-*gulp*-eck."
"Uneaten chocolate?"
"Ah. No check. I'll go and get some..."
"Distractions. Happy Little Sailor?"
"Check."
"Whatever Sirius, Emilily and Mike want to do?"
"Check."
"Check."
"Check."
"Girls! Things in case anything starts? I've got mine."
"Check."
"No check, mine finished yesterday."
"Boys! Girl-talk translators?"
"Not switched on, I didn't understand a word of that."
"Ditto."
"Same again. Ah, here's the uneaten chocolate!"
"In that case, we're all ready to go." James stuck his wand hand out, and jumped backwards sharpish.
"Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for the-"
"Yeah, whatever. We're the party who booked. Password; I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good."
"Come on! That's firteen Galleons, please! No... that's not right..."
"It will be once we've got the people we're going to pick up," James said as he paid.
"Ah, right."
/\/\/\
"Neville, what on earth did you think you were doing?" Harry yelled once Voldemort had gone. Neville shrugged.
"I dunno... it's just that when it came to it, I wasn't scared any more." He paused. "What exactly is all the hype over that guy, anyway?"
"Oh, he's only the greatest Dark wizard since God knows when," Mona said sarcastically. "Nothing to worry about. After all, he's never killed anybody or anything..."
"It's his fault that your parents are insane, Neville," Harry pointed out quietly. Neville jumped.
"What gave you that idea?"
"Dumbledore. Sorry, I... got a bit nosy last term."
"Um, Harry." Paul sighed. "We heard that. Werewolf hearing's better than human hearing."
"Oh."
"It doesn't matter," Neville said consolingly. "At least you tried to keep it a secret..." Harry just keeled over.
"What...Harry? Harry!"
/\/\/\
"Sorry, mate, this is as far as we go."
"That's Ok," James said. "Just wait here for us. And if we're not back in twenty-four hours, get the Ministry in."
"Right."
"And one more thing." Lily drew Stan as close as possible without offending James, and whispered, "Keep a bed ready. I'm expecting."
"That close, huh?" Remus asked.
"Will-you-stop-doing-that!"
"I can't help it if I can hear you, can I?"
/\/\/
A/n; *sighs* Rescue mission next time, peeps! And... oh my, Lily *is* close...but will the bed be necessary? Or will baby dear hold on? And what about Harry? Is it too late?
Review, please! =)
|
V