Summary: Tikvah Ariel's challenge, given to me upon my acceptance. Requirements: The two main characters must be Tonks and Neville. Has to be post-Hogwarts and has to involve the order of the phoenix. Other requirements include; A new moon, a graveyard, two very minor characters with first names starting with 'a' and already mentioned in a HP book. You also musts have on normal, and one mythical animal, as well as be decapitated (you know, head cut off). Anyone else can participate if they wish!
Author's Note- The mere thought of writing a bizarre story like this for one of Tev's challenges gives me chills. The good kind. Hopefully, this should pass the oddness test and meet the standards of the challenge's creator.
"Come on, Longbottom," she coaxed. "It's not at all frightening, and you said you would!"
"I don't know," Neville replied. Only those who knew him at Hogwarts still called him Neville. To everyone else, he was Longbottom. The last of the Longbottoms, and he intended to do that name proud. Perhaps it was this thought that gave him the courage to say, "Actually, Tonks? I do know. Come on."
Nymphadora Tonks grinned nervously back at him, her teeth sparkling white. Being a Metamorphmagus, today she had made her hair ebony black to blend in. Her eyes, too, had turned the color of the night sky, and everyone knew that it was not only for her mission with Longbottom, but for Sirius.
For ten years ago this day, Sirius Black had been lost.
No one ever said he was dead. No, no. The Department of Mysteries was still true to its name. They didn't know what had happened to Sirius. They merely said he was lost, and laughed at his most glorious times…celebrating his life rather than mourning its loss.
"What about Harry?" Neville asked before they left the pub.
"No," said Tonks. "He's not to know. Dumbledore wanted us to do this for the Order of the Phoenix. We may not be fighting You-Know-Who anymore but we've got his supporters to deal with. Only one person can deal with them, and we're going to find him. We. No one else."
The two silently exited The Leaky Cauldron, the door creaking slightly behind them. Neither Tonks nor Neville spoke for the entire walk to the graveyard. It was a warm night, but an eerie and foreboding calm had crept into it. There was not light, for the moon was new and left no shadows and shapes in the pavement. Neville shivered, and Tonks glanced around shiftily from time to time. At last they reached the graveyard.
No sooner had they touched the gate when a Scottish voice called out, "Oy there! You two! What're you doing?"
Tonks whirled around and so did Neville, both their hands diving into their pockets and gripping their wands tightly. The beam of a wand appeared from nowhere, causing them to both bring their free hands to their faces. Neville squinted through his at the owner of the wand.
"Arnold?!" He asked incredulously. "Arnold Peasegood? Is this where you work now?"
The wandlight seemed to fade a little and slowly the beam was lowered.
"Who are you?" the man asked.
"It's me, Neville! Neville Longbottom! Don't you remember? We met when you had to Obliviate all those Muggles after You-Know-Who attacked Nottingham!"
At this point the wandlight disappeared completely. Tonks and Neville could hear footsteps approaching, but from which direction was impossible to tell. Then, suddenly, the light appeared again at the tip of the wand. The man was standing inches from Neville's face, his wand below his chin casting a sinister shadow.
"Longbottom," he murmured. "So it's true. Dumbledore said you'd be coming here to do this. I never believed you would."
"I had to," whispered Neville. "For the Order. For Harry. For Sirius."
Arnold nodded and smiled encouragingly. "It'll work, lad," he said in a gruff voice. "You best be sure it'll work."
He then unlocked the gate with a gigantic blue key. It was glowing as if there were thousands of tiny light bulbs lining the inside of it, flickering.
"How is it the Muggles don't come here, Arnold?" asked Tonks. He squinted at her.
"Nymphadora Tonks?" he said suspiciously.
"Yes," she replied. "I'm a Metamorphmagus."
Arnold glanced at Neville to verify this then turned back to Tonks. "Aye. When Muggles come near here all they see is a great big landfill. Loads of rubbish piled for miles. No one bothered creating more security than that because the fake smell drove 'em mad in itself."
Tonks laughed nervously and followed Neville through the gate. Arnold locked it again and spoke to them through the bars.
"You've got an hour," he said quietly. "Dumbledore said that if it didn't work after that, you should go back."
They nodded and turned to face the graveyard. Hundreds of headstones lay before them, glowing eerily from the magic of those they were dedicated to.
"It's over here," Neville said, shivering again. He led Tonks through the field of stones to the very center of it, a hundred feet from the gate and halfway into the graveyard. The words carved into it were:
Sirius Black
Beloved friend and godfather
Fell through veil in Department of Mysteries when hit by spell from Bellatrix Lestrange
1950-1995
Tonks swallowed as the tears came to her eyes. So many had died in the battle against Voldemort, and here were all their relics, their memories, the tributes to their effort.
Neville stared at the headstone. He could still remember the day when he, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and so many others from the Order had come to bury the things that best represented Sirius. Harry had been in charge of it, and he was silent the whole time, burying a photo of James Potter, Remus Lupin, and Sirius amongst the dirt. He then buried two mirrors, one of which was cracked, a piece of parchment with a paw print on it, and a letter. No one read the letter, as it had been from Harry to Sirius. Each headstone in the graveyard had somewhere beneath it a letter, from the one who had buried the possessions and the one who the stone was dedicated to.
Neville shook his head to clear his mind. "C'mon, Tonks," he said, getting down on his knees, and he muttered a spell. The tip of his wand instantly glowed with a flame; Neville created a ring of fire around the 'grave' with it. He then closed his eyes and with his hands made a motion as if he was pulling something. Clods of dirt began lifting off of the ground in front of the headstone; soon the representations of Sirius were visible beneath it.
"Right. Where's the basilisk venom?" asked Tonks, fishing through her pockets. Neville pointed at the black bag slung over her shoulder. "Oh."
Tonks poured precisely three drops of the venom over the photo of James, Sirius, and Remus. Then she grabbed Neville's hand and they closed their eyes, muttering the incantation:
"O gallant warrior, true and brave,
Hear this now our call.
Rise up from your settled grave,
Reveal yourself to all."
They opened their eyes and went back to their mission.
"I really hope this works," said Neville. "It's the most amazing advance in magic for a long time…it could change the world."
"Maybe someday, Neville," said Tonks with a sigh. "But now, it'll take all our energy for a long time to do it this once. It could be ages before this becomes an everyday sort of spell, and it's really only for those who died in the war effort, anyway." She smiled wryly and handed him a bag of Floo powder. Together they sprinkled it over the headstone and the other possessions. This was followed by one cup of water from the creek near Sirius's house. They held hands again.
"O gallant warrior, true and brave,
Hear this now our call.
Come, rekindle your life's flame,
Reveal yourself to all."
Tonks pulled out a knife and made a small cut in her wrist. She turned it and let the blood drip into the grave. Neville reached for the weathered photograph of Sirius's grandmother and let one drop fall on it to connect them. He dropped it in.
"O gallant warrior, true and brave,
Hear this now our call.
You were lost, but shall be saved,
Reveal yourself to all."
"Now what?" asked Neville.
"We wait," said Tonks. She shuffled the dirt around with her feet a little and was just about to sit down when they heard a cracking noise behind them. Neville whipped out his wand.
"Who's there?" he called shakily. Tonks hit him in the arm; there was no better way of telling the intruder where they were than calling out. It was one skill Neville had never truly mastered.
A jet of light shot between their heads and hit a tree behind Sirius's headstone. The tree broke in half and nearly fell into the 'grave'; instead the top part fell backwards onto the ground.
"Stupefy!" Tonks cried, shooting a beam of red at the spot where the last one had come from. It was impossible to tell if anything had happened.
"It's okay, just five more minutes," said Neville. "Whoever it is might be Stunned, you never know."
Tonks nodded, but never sat down. She paced around the front of the flames, glancing at the spot where the intruder had been. Then she spoke.
"It's time."
Neville stood up and walked to the right side of the grave, Tonks positioning herself on the left. They raised their wands.
"Revilia" they shouted at the same time. Immediately, two beams of electric blue light shot out of their wands and met in the air. A loud ringing noise filled the graveyard, creeping into every fiber of the air. The blue light seemed to be trying to escape the line it had formed; ropy tendrils of it were shooting out of the sides. The ringing got louder.
"Tonks!" shouted Neville. "Is it supposed to get louder?"
"What?" she called back.
"IS IT SUPPOSED TO GET LOUDER?"
"YES, OF COURSE, THE BEAMS OF OUR WANDS ARE FEEDING IT POWER! SEE HOW THE ARCHED BEAM IS MOVING, THOUGH? WHEN IT'S PERPENDICULAR TO MY BLOOD ON THE PHOTO IT SHOULD CREATE A FIELD OF MAGICAL ENERGY AROUND HERE…A BUBBLE!"
Neville nodded in understanding, gripping the wand tighter. The ringing filled the air more and more, and a fierce wind was blowing all around them. Finally, the blue connection between the wands was directly above the blood in the 'grave'.
"O GALLANT WARRIOR, TRUE AND BRAVE,
HEAR THIS NOW OUR CALL!
YOU LIVE TO SEE ANOTHER DAY,
REVEAL YOURSELF TO ALL!"
The ground gave a jolt, and a blinding dome of white light shot out from the blue beam. The ground shook still more, domes of white flying out of the connection faster and faster. The wind blew through the graveyard with all its might, threatening each second to knock Tonks and Neville off their feet. But then, as quickly as it had all started, it stopped. The white light evaporated into the sky and the connecting blue beam vanished. Even the flames surrounding the 'grave' were extinguished, and the wind disappeared.
Panting, Tonks and Neville walked cautiously toward the hole in front of the headstone. But before they could take another step a voice bellowed, "AVADA KEDAVRA!"
Neville seized Tonks's arm and they ducked the jet of green light that soared over their heads, grazing the top of the headstone. Tonks raised her head just enough to see the intruder walking towards them.
"Rookwood," she muttered. Neville gave her a questioning look.
"Augustus Rookwood," she explained. "Death Eater. Stealth." Neville's expression turned into one of understanding and he nodded, reaching for his wand. He stood up as fast as he could and yelled into the night, "STUPEFY!"
Rookwood froze where he was and fell over, Stunned. Tonks got up and bound him with ropes from he wand.
"That's what you get for interfering with the Order of the Phoenix," she said to the immobilized Death Eater.
"Tonks," Neville whispered.
"What?"
He pointed to where Rookwood had come from, his eyes wide with fright. For there, emerging from the trees was none other than a chimaera.
It was a terrifying sight. The head of a lion atop the body of a goat bared its ferocious teeth at them, and the creature's dragon tail swished back and forth menacingly.
"Merlin's beard," breathed Tonks. "Don't move Neville." She said out of the corner of her mouth. "And don't Stun it. It's immune to that. I'll distract it, and you get it from behind. Don't try to kill it; only Bellephon did that and his glory was short-lived. On my count, all right? One…two…three!"
Tonks darted away from Sirius's headstone and at the chimaera. It pounced toward her immediately.
"Protego!" Tonks cried, pointing her wand over her shoulder. "Reducto!"
The spells were effective, no matter how little. Neville followed the chimaera as it chased Tonks, and when the Reductor Curse slowed it down, he seized his chance.
"Bladeshio" he said, and his wand turned into a gleaming sword…he squinted at the chimaera and calculated…it was now or never…
Whack!
Tonks screamed. The chimaera hadn't attacked her, oh no, its head had fallen on top of hers. The body had fallen behind, and Neville had trod on it accidentally as he approached her.
"Ugh," he muttered. "That can't smell good."
"It doesn't," Tonks muttered. "That was brilliant, by the way. Now there've been two successful slayings of chimaeras."
They grinned at each other. "C'mon, let's check on Sirius," said Neville, pulling her to her feet. They walked slowly to the 'grave' and peered in. Tonks gasped.
Inside was a large, shaggy, bear like black dog. It was wagging its tail and looking up at them in delight. Neville heard a sob and looked up. Tonks was crying, but she was smiling at the dog.
"Congratulations, Longbottom," she whispered. "We did it. Come on, Sirius!"
The dog morphed into a man with long hair and a gaunt but smiling face. He looked just the same as he had ten years ago, but happier, more energetic.
"Good job," he said. "I…I can't thank you two enough for this. Ever. Now, let's get out of this place."
He pulled a wand out of the pocket of his robes and conjured…three broomsticks.
"Hmm…apparently I've still got it," he said with a grin. They each climbed on, Tonks and Neville in a soporific daze; they'd lost a lot of energy reviving Sirius. The three of them flew back to London, but this time to number twelve Grimmauld Place instead of The Leaky Cauldron. Tonks and Neville managed to wake up a bit more during the flight, and Tonks insisted that Sirius stay outside until his cue.
"Attention, everyone!" Tonks called cheerfully as she entered the kitchen full of Order members. Harry had held parties celebrating Sirius's life every year this day since he left Hogwarts. "Longbottom and I brought a very special present for Harry this year. Take a look!"
Sirius walked through the door, and the room fell deathly silent. There was a thud from the other side of the room; Mundungus Fletcher had fallen out of his chair.
"Hello, everyone," said Sirius. "I'm back."
And then everyone cheered. They clapped and screamed…fell upon Sirius hugging him and shaking his hand as he made his way across the room to Harry.
"What took you so long," he muttered, and embraced Sirius like a brother. Or perhaps a father. No one could decide, and no one would. They wouldn't ask what had happened or where he had gone…for he had never truly gone anywhere. They would merely continue the night, as they had, celebrating his life.
Author's Note- An exhausting day of typing resulted in this fic. I'm downright proud of it, and hopefully you all like it too! Review please!