GOF - After the party in the Gryffendor common room, talking about the egg.

"Auntie Lory?" A quiet voice accompanied the slightest of taps on my office doorframe.

There are only 2 of the students here at Hogwarts who call me 'Auntie' on occasion, ironically in the same class. But it was Neville who'd come out. It was unusual to see him in the broom barn when he wasn't in lessons.

"Can I help you, Neville?" I gestured him to take a seat and cleared the class notes I was working on off my desk. He took after his mother in so many ways it was sometimes difficult to see his father in him. I noticed he was trembling and looked rather ashen. He still hadn't moved towards my desk. Changing my mind, I stood and steered him towards the sitting area of my office and conjured up some peppermint tea and biscotti for us.

From long experience with him, I remained silent while he gathered his courage and words before speaking. This had been a challenging year for him- any year starting with seeing the Cruciatius curse performed was bound to traumatize him. Now fourteen, raised by his Grandmother, whom I still feel is trying to use Neville to replace Frank. Frank was an ideal child most of the time, but he had his faults. I still feel that not allowing Neville to at least acquire his own wand is undermining his self-confidence in ways that border on unhealthy.

A new wand would have played to his remaining strengths, when it became apparent he was blocking the flow of any magic his parents had used extensively. He once confessed to me he'd rather be underestimated and overlooked, then be another Harry Potter. As I said to Dumbledore, I'm thankful the mark Voldemort left on Neville was indirect and unseen.

"I remembered something today."

I clenched my hand on my cup. The memory charms that his Grandmother placed on him weakened sometimes when he was at School, she brought him home every holiday to be sure she could renew them. Neville was unaware that he was an ongoing research subject at Mungo's about the long-lasting effects of childhood memory charms. But this year Neville hadn't gone home- he'd stayed and attended the Yule ball. She wanted me to renew the charms if he started to remember anything and it didn't seem like he could deal with what he remembered.

However, in my heart, I'm not sure I can- which I'm certain is why she left the decision to me. She still wants to protect the small child she was handed to raise. He's fourteen, and needs to know the truth. After the incident with the Boggart, he admitted to me he's terrified of Professor Snape because his grandmother mentioned once he used to be a death eater and it was former death-eaters that landed his parents in Mungo's.

"Harry Potter opened the golden egg, a horrible screaming came out. I could hear the sound at first, as if from a woman screaming in moral terror, and felt like I being carried by strong arms. Then a door outlined in a soft blue light. Then I remembered a crack of red light, lighting a room full of smiling faces like seen with lightning, and I heard horrible screaming from a man this time. They called me a prat when I suggested it- but I need to know. Will Harry have to face the pain curse as the second task? Was I there when what happened to my parents..." The look in his eye decided me.

He really did want to know and was ready to hear the truth. Better more information now then not enough down the road. As Moody would say, full disclosure- takes longer, but better then trying to get the rest of the story from a corpse a week later.

"No, Harry will not be subjected to Crucio for the second task. And yes, Neville, you were there." He took a deep breath to steady himself.

"Go on."

"This is what we've put together from the evidence, what your father had told us in his brief moments of lucidity, what you told us in the beginning- You mother answered a knock at the back door and they never really expected an enemy to actually knock. She had the door forced away from her, and had the pain curse pushed on her immediately. Your father, hearing that- grabbed you out of your highchair, ran you up to the nursery, locked you in, and released the family owl with a magical message for help. The whole time, your mother was screaming. They kept on your mother to try to get information out of your father. When she collapsed, they reversed tactics and started in on him in frustration. I was among the first to arrive on the scene and start stunning everyone in sight. But not before one of them cast the dark mark above your house to let the magical world, know the death-eaters were still out there. It hadn't even begun to fade when I carried you out of there to your grandparents."

"Why us? Why the Potters? Was it because our parents were dark-wizard catchers?"

"Yes, and no. This is difficult." I take a drink of tea to help steady the words around my own grief. "Frank and Nancy were working friends of mine. We were all Aurors together." Neville looked surprised. I continued. "We think there were two reasons. First the family connections among our pure-blood lines, Voldemort swore a rather binding oath to utterly destroy the line of Gryffendor. The Potter family was only the most recent and last branch he had a chance to obliterate. One more child, and the Longbottoms would have been the final branch to go after." Neville looked positively stunned.

"I'm surprised your Grandmother never told you or showed you her book of wizarding family trees. She's tracked both the dark and light wizards for generations. She works with my Grams as a consultant for inter-family marriages. Sometime when you have a few days free, you should ask her to show you the collection. She'd love that." Frank never wanted to know about wizarding history, felt it would bias his judgements about people. Neville still looked interested.

"The Longbottoms are the last remaining collateral branch of Gryffendor's family line by a marriage of one of his Great-great-great-granddaughters to a someone on your Father's side of the family. You'll really need to ask your Grams for the details. But even more then that, I think the Death eaters went after your family because right before you were born, there was a prophesy made about a magical boy born in July who would bring down Voldemort. This child would be permanently marked by him so he would know his adversary." As well as create his adversary, but that was unnecessary information.

His eyes widened in recognition. "Harry."

"But also you, Neville. It's generally accepted by those who know the prophecy it was Harry who was marked. But it could easily have been you. Your parents were working almost around the clock to bring down the remaining death-eaters, find out if Voldemort was truly gone or where he'd gone into hiding, and keep you protected. I think they were targeted for their knowledge about the prophecy as well as to send a message to all aurors that oppose Voldemort and the remaining death-eaters."

"Lory, Do you think they'll ever get better?" There was still a child's naïve hope in his eyes. May his Grandmother forgive me for what I'm about to tell him.

"Neville, I'm not an expert- but you're old enough to know the extent of the damage. You're mother's heart was stopped for a prolonged time, causing some brain damage from the lack of oxygen. Later that first year, she had an aneurysm that nearly killed her. She may never be fully well again. What snapped your father was being forced to participate in what happened to your mother, and being unable to stop the attackers. He knows you're safe and cared for, and this helps him everyday. And his periods of lucidity are more frequent. He may yet make a relatively full recovery someday."

"Why didn't anyone tell me these things sooner?" He was openly weeping now, something he did on the rarest of occasions. For all that he was quiet and awkward, he possessed the courage that truly marked him as on of Gryffendore's own.

"We, yes- I've been involved with this as well, decided it was best to wait until you asked. It was the only way for us to be certain you were ready to hear and protect the information. You can never let on that you know these things, Neville. You'd be placing yourself needlessly in harms way, something I know you work at avoiding by choosing your confrontations carefully. Your Grandmother will not be renewing the memory charms after this, so you don't have to worry about forgetting again. You may find yourself remembering other things, so don't hesitate to come talk to me like you did today." He looked at me, a new question forming by the look on his face.

"Do you think you-know-who will be coming back?" No expression or expectation in his expression.

"Yes, I do. And I only hope we will all be prepared for when that day arrives."

He nodded, and drank the rest of his tea in silence.