A/N: This chapter is in 1974, where Neville is. This is James, Sirius, Remus, Lily, Severus, and Peter's fourth year, and Alice's in my fic 7th year in Hogwarts. It's also Frank's 7th year, but he's not at Hogwarts.

Turning Your Time Around

Chapter 8: "A Piece of History"

Lily woke Neville up from his first meeting with Merlin & Ron & Snape.

Neville raised his head to see a girl sitting on his bed.

"Lily?"

The girl smiled and said, "That's my name, don't ware it out. Are you feeling better?"

As Neville tried to sit up, a pain shot through his back that made him groan and plop back down again.

Lily sighed and held out her hand to him.
"You need to get up, Neville."

"Why?" He asked with a touch of anger.

"Because if you don't get up, your back will get stiff and you won't be able to move at all. Madam Pomfrey is going to make you anyway, so you mind as well do it without her fussing."

Neville gave another tiny groan, which made him sound like a little child, and took Lily's hand. She helped him sit up, slowly. Little shots of pain went up his back and shoulder. It was as if his spine was being chipped apart bit by bit.

Lily got off the bed and helped him to his feet. Neville straightened up and heard his back crack loudly.

"Well, that didn't sound too good," Neville stated through clenched teeth, trying hard not to whimper or cry.

Lily gave him a sympathetic look and said, "Are you up for walking?"

Neville, still trying to hide how he was feeling, gasped out "I guess."

"Come on."

He followed Lily out of the hospital wing and to a flight of stairs going up. Neville turned slightly to her and saw that she was waiting for him to go first.

"Where are we going?" Neville asked her.

"We're going to try and cheer you up," she replied happily.

"I don't need cheering up, really."

Neville eyed the many stairs and tried to convince Lily that there was no need to go up them. The last thing he wanted was to go up stairs. But, he finally gave in and took the first few steps.

By the time they got up to the top, he was aching in more places. To top it all off, he was getting a headache. The headache eased a bit when he imagined Malfoy fighting for his life from attacking owls. That probably wasn't going to ever happen, but one can dream.

Lily led him down a brightly lit, dead-ended hall and stopped when she reached the only door. All they did for a moment was stand there, and Neville was beginning to wonder if this was what was supposed to 'cheer him up'. But, as Neville took a closer look at the door in front of them, he noticed that there were things popping out of it.

"Are those.." Neville gulped, "..hands?"

"Um, yes. But, don't get frightened Neville, they're just carvings," Lily replied in a soothing voice.

"R-right. Jus-just carvings. Okay."

'Don't get frightened', yeah right. What am I supposed to be!

A minute passed by in silence and all Neville could do was stand and stare at the supposed "carvings" of hands on the door. Lily cleared her throat loudly, trying to get his attention. Neville turned slightly to see her, but when he looked at Lily, he saw that she was turning something over in her hands. It seemed to be a small coin she was playing with.

"What's that?" Neville asked her, trying to keep his mind off the things on the door.

"I'll tell you later," Lily replied with a serious look on her face.

Neville, a little taken aback by her response did not press the question. He did, however, ask another.

"Where are we?"

Lily gave a small sigh and turned to face him. "I'm going to show you something and you have to promise not to tell anyone about this room - will you do that, can I trust you?"

"Always." was Neville's simple reply, though there was no doubt that he meant it.

Lily turned back to the door and knocked exactly seven times and then paused and said softly:

"T-R-A-I-T-O-R."

The door swung open with a sharp squeak to reveal a dimly lit Gryffindor-common-room-sized space. The only window that could be seen was a tiny, square-shaped one on the wall straight ahead. Neville looked around at the cluttered space in awe. It seemed as if no one had been here in centuries. Ten sheets of dust covered everything. Lily nudged Neville and they both walked in. Now, even more could be seen. There were books stacked from floor to ceiling, and five brown chairs were off to the left. There were no paintings, rugs, or color apart from Lily's hair shining bright in the light from the hall. There wasn't even that when, just then, Lily closed the door which gave another squeak.

Lily waited for him to say something, but when he didn't, she asked, "What do you think?"

Neville spoke with a shaky voice which made him sound like Ron when he saw a spider. "It-it's.. uh, very.. creepy actually."

Neville tried to find something good about the room, but there didn't seem to anything in the whole place that made him think of "nice" or "bloody brilliant" (as Ron would say), and that wasn't including the wood hands on the door.

"It's called the Toss Room," Lily told him.

"Why's it called the Toss Room?" Neville asked her, though he could barely see where she was in the dark room.

"Because, back years and years ago, when wizards and witches were preparing to fight, they'd come in here and 'toss around' plans of action. All very strange, I know, but isn't it amazing? People who used to be in this school actually came in here and it's been undisturbed for years. It's a piece of history!"

Heh, maybe it should have been you who went back in time - not me! You'd certainly enjoy it more than I am.

Lily seemed so fascinated in the room, she almost forgot Neville was standing there. But, when she heard Neville's tiny laugh she turned to him.

"What? Is this funny to you?" Lily asked in a defensive tone.

"No!" Neville replied quickly. "It's just something I thought of, really! This place is very.. interesting. I wasn't laughing at you."

"Okay." was all Lily said, or, at least, that's all Neville heard before a strange tingling overcame his whole body.

Without even realizing what he was doing, Neville walked over to one of the chairs and sat down in it. The tingling was more like a vibration now, and Neville's headache was getting worse every second. Neville tried to sit up, but it was as if he was glued to the dirty chair. He opened his mouth to speak, but the voice that came out of it was not like his own. It was a low, dangerous growling that seemed even more threatening than Professor Snape's.

"Down a gravely path..." Neville spoke and then paused. He scanned the room, and his eyes came to rest on Lily. The only thing that was shown in Neville's eyes was hatred, but not for Lily.. for someone else.

"Past the Broken Wall of Blodwyn..." he continued in the dark voice. "Through the iron gates..."

"Neville?" Lily asked cautiously. "What's wrong?"

She started to move over to him, but Neville's hand shot up to stop her in her tracks.

All of a sudden, Neville's body went limp in the chair and he laid back his head and closed his eyes.

"Neville!" Lily ran up to him and placed a hand on the shoulder that wasn't hurt and shook him gently. Nothing happened. She shook him a little harder. When he did not respond, she gave his hurt shoulder a hard poke. Lily let out a breath of relief when Neville gave a soft groan. "Neville, can you hear me?"

Neville gave a short "Yes." but nothing more. He didn't even open his eyes. For a moment, Lily thought he was asleep, but just then he started to mumble things that made no sense.

"Animals... rain... too fast... purple... hands...punishment..."

Lily poked him again in the same spot. Again he gave a groan, but that was it.

"Neville, please wake up," Lily pleaded. "What in the name of Merlin is going on!" she added under her breath.

Neville cringed, just like when "Voldemort" is said, when Lily spoke the name "Merlin". Neville started to breath faster, just as if he were running. But, in an instant, he stopped and straightened. His eyes fluttered open and he could see Lily in front of him.

Oh geez, oh geez...Breath.. Breath you idiot Neville!

One big breath, and then another came from Neville and he slowly relaxed a bit. Without saying a word, he pushed Lily away gently and stood up. His back was hurting more now, but he just ignored the pain. Looking around the room, Neville pulled out his wand. He pointed it at the window and said: "Newpondera."

Bright, white light engulfed the entire room, and both Neville and Lily shielded their eyes from it. When the light was gone, the Toss Room was totally different, accept for the window. The five chairs had turned to dark red, green, blue, purple, and one gray. The books were on bookshelves, and the dust was gone. The walls were light blue, and on each one there was a painting of a sun setting in different parts of the world.

"Wow," Lily breathed, looking at the new surroundings. "What did you just do?"

Neville, who also was taking in the change, didn't answer. All he could do was hold up his wand hand and look at his wand in disbelief, as if he'd never done a spell in his life.

"I-I... I don't know..I gotta get out of here." Neville said in a frightened voice.

Neville glanced around once more and then dropped his wand from his hand and ran to the door. As he opened the door, he took one last look at Lily who was staring at him and ran out.

For a few moments, Lily just stood there, not moving the slightest bit. But soon the silence got to her and she picked up Neville's wand from the floor and left, muttering "T-R-I-A-T-O-R" to lock the door.

A/N#2: What did you think of that? We're getting closer and closer to Neville's little personality change. Oh, did I say that? Oops...