Chapter 2: Revelation
Ginny stared wide-eyed at the boy kneeling on the ground. The blade in his hand, the window in the common room flashing the light of the full moon onto the walls.
"Ginny.. Ginny.. help me.." His voice was pitiful. She wanted to help him, she really did, but as she looked over the destruction she turned her head away.
"Neville.." she choked back a sob, and fell to her knees. "How could you..?" She managed.
"I.. I.." He overlooked the scene. It didn't seem real. None of it could be. The twenty five bodies laying there, first years, second years, third years. All victims of his breaking point.
Guess I'm not much of a Squib anymore, he thought wretchedly. His hand brushed away hair plastered to his face with sweat and tears. Ginny looked at him with pity in her tear-darkened eyes.
"Neville.. You're working for.. you-know-who?" She looked him straight in the eyes, then looked away. She couldn't pity him after this.
"He said he'd give me power if I.. if I helped him with.. with.."
"Harry?" she finished the sentence weakly. He nodded.
"Neville," Ginny shook her head. "How could you, Neville? You.. you're not like this."
"You don't know me," he said bitterly. "You don't know who I am, Ginny. No one does. No one except them."
"I thought I knew you, Neville," she said. "But I guess I was wrong." She stifled a sob and ran out of the common room, slamming the portrait behind her.
"No!" he yelled. He slammed a fist into the ground. "No, no, no!"
Malfoy had gone too far. One tease too many.
He had mentioned St. Mungo's.
Neville knew he needed power, he needed something, something to make himself worthy to himself, to the others, someone or something to stand behind to make himself more than something for them to pity.
He made a deal with the devil. He went and he agreed and he told him how he could catch Harry. He set up the trap. Harry went missing. No one knew anything. He had went into the Forest and.. nothing.
Ron approached Neville in the common room. Grabbed him by the front of the robes and threatened him. He knew, he must've known. "You're a rat," Ron seethed. "A rat."
"It's better than being a doormat, Ron," he spat into Ron's face. He recoiled and slammed Neville against the wall. "You.. you.." His face twisted in hatred while he thought of something to say to Neville.
He elbowed out of Ron's grip and pulled out his wand. He turned the wand on the common room and..
That was how it had happened. Most of the Gryffindor house dead, at his hands. Just because he was weak. Because they had preyed on him. Because he had preyed on him.
Now he would be punished for the sins of them. Just because he couldn't take it anymore. They had pushed him to his breaking point.
He sat among the many dead in the once happy common room and put the blade to his wrist, as the joyful flames danced shadows on the walls.
