Note: I don't own 'the Longbottom files' I got the name from my Harry Potter Soundtrack.

Chapter 3: The Longbottom Files

Neville Longbottom was not you average child by any standard imaginable. First off he was a wizard. But even in the wizarding community Neville was a bit of an odd one. His parents had been two of the most powerful wizards of their time until they had been cursed so badly that they lost their minds. But Neville was an average, no, below average wizard. And he was constantly forgetting things.

In fact it was thought that Neville had no magical talent but he got his application to Hogwarts and he did indeed have, if minimal, magical abilities. But Neville could sometimes sense a power within him that he couldn't quite reach. He knew it. He knew that he had started to uncover it but he needed it now.

Ever since the end of fourth year and Neville had told his parents that Voldemort was back his mother gave him a Trident gum wrapper. At first Neville told himself that his mother wanted to give him something but had nothing to give him so she gave him gum wrappers. But after the fourth or fifth wrapper he became aware of the fact that his mother was trying to tell him something but couldn't say it since she had lost most of her mind.

This did Neville good in more than one way. It told him that even though his parents had lost their minds they still loved him and they where trying to tell him something important. At first Neville wanted to tell his grandmother of his suspicions that his parents wanted to tell him something but he knew that she would overreact or under react so he kept this to himself.

He had searched his house, which had belonged to him and his parents to no avail. He could find no sign of gum anywhere. Until one day he decided to think outside the box. Although it had never occurred to him before, now that he thought of it, it seemed so obvious that he couldn't believe that he'd missed it. The brand of gum. Trident. It was so simple now that he knew the answer.

As a child, he had been told, that he had always liked playing with an action figure of Poseidon, who carried with him at all times, a trident. So his father had made a replica of the figure out of wood and placed in it's own little niche in the wall in the main hall of the house.

Neville approached it soundlessly, not wishing to draw his grandmother's attention to himself. He felt his back pocket and found that his wand was at hand should he need it. One of the things that the toy could do was that it would ask for a password whenever you pulled on its trident. Neville did this now.

"Password," said the stature in a mechanical sounding voice. Now Neville was at a loss. He had no idea what the password had been when he was one year old, now he was nearly 17! He thought, it would have to be something that he could guess. And then it came to him.

"Gum." He said simply.

The statue nodded its head. It sunk into a hole in the niche and then a doorknob came out in its place and door lines appeared where Neville had been sure that there had been none. He reached out and turned the ancient doorknob. The door opened without a creak and he stepped into the dark staircase.

The staircase went down for quite some time. Perhaps it was because Neville was going slowly because of the dark or perhaps it was just his imagination. Nevertheless it took Neville a good fifteen minutes to reach the bottom. When he did he found a room with lit torches. They where obviously spelled otherwise how would they have been burning after the 15 or so years that his parents had been in St.Mungo's.

He looked to his right and found an unlit torch in the wall and he took advantage of this fact. He took the torch out of its holder and lit it from the flame of another torch. He took a look about the room then. What he saw was not all that exciting. A square room with two torches. But upon closer inspection of the room he realized that the floor had tiles in it that spelled something out. He walked along the message holding his torch close to the floor, he read: 'none save a true Longbottom shall pass.'

'Great,' he thought, more puzzles. But first off, where was he supposed to pass? Perhaps if he worked out what the words really meant. Well, he was a true Longbottom. Now he just had to pass. There was the way he had come in and there was the opposite wall and the two to the left and right. He supposed that he was supposed to go to the far wall. 'None save a true Longbottom shall pass'.

Then it was obvious. There was no secret; all he had to do was walk through the wall! He was a true Longbottom so he should be able to pass. He stepped up to the wall and touched it. Or rather, didn't touch it. His hand went straight through the wall and onto the other side. So he took a breath and stepped through the wall.

Upon reaching the other side of the wall he found that there was another room filled with books. On a table there where five books, the rest where on shelves. He looked around the room and quickly discovered that all of the books bore the same title; "The Longbottom Files".

Neville had no idea what these 'files' where but it had him puzzled. He decided to go take a look at the books on the table. On the table was a note. It read:

Congratulations on finding the room that houses the Longbottom files but before you start your celebration you must pick the one true copy or you will never know its secrets. When you see it you'll know that it's the right one.

Neville looked at the five books on the table and the hundreds more on the shelves. Well he obviously didn't know which one was the right one so he hadn't seen it. So he looked at every book in the room individually. He started with the books on the shelves and worked his way from left to right. When he had finally looked at all of the books on the shelf he returned to the table and looked at the five books there again.

He hadn't seen one that looked remotely different than the others. 'When you see it.' Well. He had seen every one at least once now. 'Then you'll know that it's the right one.' The right one. Well he had no idea which one was the right one. Neville had never been very logical and at the moment he was wishing that he were.

The right one. The right one. He tried wording it differently to see if it made any sense. The one that is right. The correct one. The one that is on the right. The one more right than others.

Neville suddenly looked to the last book on the table. Could it be that one? It had to be. It was the book that was the furthest to the right in the room and on the table. He reached for it and picked it up.

No sooner had he done so than all the other books in the room vanished and the bookcases swung around to reveal a table with a crystal-like semi-circle resting on it. Then with a flash of light it came to life. An image of a younger Frank Longbottom strode into view.

"Nice work Neville." He said.

"Dad?" asked Neville excitedly.

"If you are seeing this then more likely than not, your mother and I are dead. You have found the chamber where your mother and I worked on the Order of the Phoenix's documentation known as 'The Longbottom Files'. It contains information on the strategy that the Dark Lord uses in his assaults and his Death Eaters fighting techniques," replied his father, who obviously couldn't hear Neville.

"Also your mother and I before going into hiding sealed your powers away and we planned on releasing them after the demise of the Dark Lord. Unfortunately we never got the chance so I will tell you now how to unlock your true potential. Contained in the back of 'The Longbottom Files' is a stick of Trident Gum. You need to chew it for three days straight. We wanted to make sure that nobody else could waste it. After three days your powers will return to you. And I assure you that you are a very powerful wizard, even for your age Neville."

Neville flipped to the back page and found the stick of gum and popped it into his mouth and started chewing. He looked at his watch so that he knew when to stop in three days time. 11:30! His grandmother was probably worried sick about him! But he had to hear what his father had to say.

"So I hope that you will give these documents to the Order and allow them to use their contents. And that is all I can think of to say. Farewell my son, if it be that I die. You will be a fine man some day…" and with Frank Longbottom disappeared.

Neville took the book and started the long climb back to his house pondering the entire time. His 'potential' his father had said as he thought about the gum that he chewed. It didn't feel any different than any normal gum but he would trust his father with his life if he had full control over his mind, which he did at the time that he had recorded the message.

Fifteen minutes later he reentered his house's main floor hall. He walked down the hall to his kitchen where he found his grandmother drinking what was judging by the number of cups around her, her seventh cup of coffee. Upon seeing her grand son she stood up quickly and went to hug him but stopped short.

"Where have you been?" she asked.

"Uh," said Neville, "I was, uh, at a f-f-friends house."

"You have to tell me before you go anywhere Neville, you know that!"

"I'm sorry, it won't happen again."

So Neville talked with his grandmother for a minute or two before going to bed. He chewed his gum the following day and the next. His grandmother commented on his taking a sudden liking to gum but he didn't care. That night it was supposed to happen. He was supposed to gain his powers agiain. And just in time for school too. He tried to stay up until 11:30 but couldn't manage it.

And 11:30 sharp he awoke to a pain in his whole body. He felt as if he was being filled up with air and was about ready to pop. He got out of bed and saw that he was glowing faintly and increasingly brighter. Until all of a sudden the pain seared all over his body and he saw the light around him burst outwards. Then it subdued to a dim shimmer of light. He found that he felt somehow more, aware than he had before and that he could sense more.

Exhausted he fell asleep quite quickly.

His grandmother shook him awake the next morning.

"Hurry up Neville, you don't want to miss the train."

The train? Of course, the Hogwarts Express. He jumped out of bed and ate a hasty breakfast and gathered up his things. He was ready ages before the Weasley would ever dream of being ready for. His grandmother gave him a pinch of floo powder as they did not know of bloo power and he was off to another, exciting year at Hogwarts.

Author's Note: Well, there's the start of the story, tell me what you think. Should I continue on with it or is it not worth it? Anything anyone has to say would be appreciated. Short chapter I know but I wanted to give Neville a chapter of his own. I'll post as often as I can. I can't make any guarantees but I'd like to post one chapter a week. But don't quote me on it.