The Boy Who Really Lived
Co-Written by Randomly Various and Saturn's Candlesticks
Disclaimer: 1. FANfiction. 2. No money.
Chapter 1
"Hurry, Neville, or you'll miss the train!" exclaimed an old woman with a strange, tall hat, upon which a stuffed vulture was mounted. Her big, red handbag swung around in her hand impatiently.
"Coming, Gran!" a small, round-faced boy with black hair called back. "I've just lost Trevor...again!" he hastily added.
"Oh, Neville," the old woman sighed, helping her grandson search around the train platform. She spotted the toad lurking around under the sign that boldly proclaimed: Platform Nine and Three-Quarters.
She handed her grandson the toad. He smiled sheepishly up at her and gave her an awkward good-bye hug before hopping onto the train. No sooner had he gotten on, then the train whistle sounded loudly and they pulled away from the station. That was a close one.
Neville looked nervously around and dragged his heavy trunk up to the nearest compartment. He slid open the door and found a girl inside. She was all alone with her nose buried in a book.
Neville cleared his throat, feeling butterflies in his stomach. "Er..."
She looked up at him suddenly and gave him a questioning, half-smile.
"Um... is this seat taken?"
She shook her head and he dragged his trunk inside. He tried to lift it up onto the rack, but found that he couldn't. The girl got up and helped him push in on. Forget butterflies, these were lions.
"Thanks."
"You're welcome. I'm Hermione Granger... who are you?"
"Neville Longbottom," he replied, shaking her hand.
Her eyes widened, "Really? You mean the Neville Longbottom? As in, Neville Longbottom from 'Modern Magical History' and 'The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts' and 'Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century'? That Neville Longbottom?"
Neville sighed; he supposed he should have seen this coming... Gran had warned him about it, too... He slowly nodded.
She gaped at him momentarily. Then she shook herself and broke out into a smile. "Do you know what House you're going to be in?"
Neville was slightly taken aback by the suddenness in which she had changed the subject. "Er... well, my dad was in Gryffindor, but my mum was in Ravenclaw... so, I dunno..."
"I've asked around a bit," Hermione said, "Gryffindor sounds, by far, the best. But I suppose Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff are nice, too... I've heard Slytherin isn't where I would want to be, though... do you know why that is?" She truly looked confused.
"It's because that's the House all of the Dark witches and wizards were in," Neville replied, looking out the window. He reached down on the seat next to him to hold Trevor, but the toad was gone again. "Ugh, I've lost my toad...again!"
"He probably got out of the compartment," Hermione concluded, peering through the open door. "Let's go look."
Neville nodded and got up. They went compartment to compartment looking for Trevor. Neville got a few funny looks, but no one really said anything to him. Finally, they'd reached the last compartment and Neville was none too hopeful.
Hermione slid the door open. Two boys, who were both laughing, occupied the compartment. One was tall and gangly with bright red hair and the other was smaller with messy, jet-black hair and bright green eyes.
"Have you seen Neville's toad? He's lost it," Hermione explained to the boys.
The one with black hair squinted at Neville through his thick glasses and said, "Hey, wait a second... what's your last name?"
"Longbottom," Neville replied, sullenly. He felt a bit unsurprised at this point that the boy was asking him this.
"Whoa!" the red-haired boy exclaimed. "Have you really got... you know...?" He motioned to Neville's forehead.
Neville sighed resignedly and pulled away his hair, which had been purposefully covering his lightning bolt-shaped scar. His Gran had been cutting his hair to cover the scar ever since he had moved in with her when he was a little over one. Ever since his parents had died...
"So that's where You-Know-Who...?" the black-haired boy prompted, gawking at him.
Neville nodded.
"I'm Ron Weasley," the redhead said.
"Harry Potter," said the other boy.
Hermione looked annoyed. "Have you seen his toad, or not?"
Both boys turned to look at her, as though seeing her for the first time. Both shook their heads.
"We'll keep an eye out for it," Harry promised as Ron stuffed a Chocolate Frog into his mouth. Ron nodded through his mouthful.
Hermione pulled Neville from the compartment where Ron and Harry were pigging out on candy to their own, quiet part of the train. Once they were there, she sat down, opened her book and said, "I'm sorry about your toad... but he'll turn up eventually, I'm sure." Then she was lost within the pages of ink.
Neville looked out the window. His great-uncle Algie had given him Trevor when he'd gotten his acceptance letter to Hogwarts. But Trevor was always getting lost and he'd never not turned up so far...
He watched the cows and sheep go by as the train sped past them. He was lost in his own thoughts for awhile, thinking about how lucky those cows and sheep were that they didn't have to deal with losing their pets, or going to school, or pleasing their Gran; he was jealous.
But it didn't matter, because a half-an-hour later, Neville had been lulled to sleep by the gentle movements of the train.