Disclaimer: Harry Potter is from the creative genius that is J.K. Rowling. We are not her. This is merely a fan fiction to tide us over until book 6.
Neville, Alaire, and Ginny quickly joined their classmates in the Gryffindor common room. Ron was standing in the middle of the room holding a list and surrounded by clamoring students. "Hold on! I'll get everyone signed in! You know the routine!"
He continued to shout as a 5th year prefect that Alaire didn't recognize tried to get everyone in some sort of que. They gave him a quick wave and he checked off their names. The fear and anxiety radiating from her fellow students threatened to break down Alaire's emotional barriers. She quickly walked to an alcove away from everyone and sat down closing her eyes.
"Are you okay?" Neville's always considerate voice broke into her reverie.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I just need a moment to adjust. That's all."
Alaire leaned her head back against the castle wall and concentrated on just holding Neville's hand and feeling his love instead of the waves of fear, anxiety and stress around her. She had almost blocked everyone out when she felt a very strong fear nearby.
She looked up at Neville but he was staring off into space with concern and anxiety written on his face. He was more worried about her than afraid of anything. Who was it then? Ginny was arguing with Harry so she was fine. Ron was angry with the students. Hermione wasn't here. She was probably rounding up errant students. Who was it?
She looked around the students then finally saw a pair of feet behind a nearby tapestry. She stood up and carefully pulled back the material. She found a small first year girl quivering in fear. Her eyes were closed and tears stained her face. Her fists were balled up in nervousness.
"Hi," Alaire gave the girl a smile. When she didn't answer, Alaire continued, "I'm Alaire. I'm a 7th year. What's your name?"
The girl sniffled.
"Allessandra Carstairs. I'm just a fir-first year."
Alaire smiled at her encouragingly. The girl was small for her age and perhaps had turned 11 more recently than the other students. "Want to come sit with me while we wait? I've found a nice, quiet spot where no one can see us."
Glancing around to make sure none of her classmates could see her, Allesandra nodded and took Alaire's hand. They quickly walked back to the alcove where Neville gave her a questioning look.
"Neville, this is Allesandra Carstairs. She's a first year. I told her she could sit with us while we wait for news." Neville gave the girl a small smile which caused the girl to burst into tears.
"What did I do!"
Alaire quickly wrapped her arms around the girl and tried to calm her down. "She's really scared, Neville, more than anyone else." She pulled back from the girl a bit.
"Honey, what's wrong? I know you're scared but there's something else. You can tell me."
Alessandra nodded and whispered, "He looks like my brother that lives in Hogsmeade." She began to gulp air as she tried to quit crying. "I don't know if he's alive."
The tears won and began spilling over her cheeks again.
"Oh, honey, I'm sure he's OK. Look, come sit here beside us and tell us about him. Then, Neville can go and make sure that McGonagall brings us any news about him."
She looked over Allesandra's head and smiled at Neville willing him to catch on.
"Oh-Oh, yeah. Can you describe him?" Neville asked uncomfortably.
The girl took a deep breath.
"He-He looks like you." She gazed up at Neville. "He's tall, got dark hair, brown eyes, but he has an earring in one of his ears. He wears a little broom on his shirt. His name is Max and he plays Quidditch for Puddlemere."
"I'm sure he's fine, Allesandra," Neville told her in a quiet voice. "You have to be in good shape to play Quidditch. How old is your brother?"
"He's twenty-four."
"Oh, yeah! He'll be fine."
"But if Deatheaters come, he'll have to fight them and he-he-he m-might die!" Allesandra broke down again. "He's too young to fight bad guys! He's not an Auror."
It had become quite clear to Alaire that Allesandra worshipped her brother. She was trying to think of another way to comfort her when Neville began to speak.
"You're never too young to fight Deatheaters, Allesandra. I did it when I was just fifteen and several times after that."
"Really! What happened?" The girl was agog at this revelation.
"I'll tell you if you promise not to say anything to anyone. It's kind of a secret."
She nodded and Alaire found herself concentrating on Neville's every word.
"When I was a baby, some Deatheaters came to my house and attacked my family. They hurt my parents so bad that they never got out of the hospital. I was a baby so they left me alone. But I found out who the bad person was and I vowed I'd get revenge some day.
"I practiced Defense every day when I came to Hogwarts just like your brother did. But I wasn't very good at it until my fifth year when me and some other guys formed this secret club so we could practice dueling.
"At the end of that fifth year, a relative of a friend of mine was in very bad trouble. He had been kidnapped by Deatheaters and we found out about it. We tried to find some teachers to help us but no one was around at the end of the year so me and five other students went to rescue him ourselves."
Allesandra had quit crying and was staring at Neville open mouthed and so was Alaire. She knew that Neville was referring to the time when he, Harry, and others had gone to the Ministry and found the prophecy. And, she knew that Neville had fought some Deatheaters there because her parents told her at Christmas. But she had never heard the details.
"When we got to the building where they were keeping him, we walked right in. But the area where they were keeping him in was filled with all kinds of dark magic. We had to figure out puzzles and find our way through a maze to get to him. But when we finally got there, we found out we had been tricked! It was an ambush! Suddenly there were Deatheaters surrounding us!"
"What did you do?" Allesandra asked breathlessly.
"We couldn't attack because there were too many of them so we knocked over some shelves and ran for it! They split up and tried to find us. We started to fight them because we could take on two at a time. One was hit with a strong muting spell that we thought wouldn't make him able to cast spells and the other fell into this time warp and it turned his head into a baby!"
"Did you find the person who had attacked you family?"
Neville nodded, his face darkening slightly. "She found me."
"She! It was a girl?"
"Not a girl. A woman. An evil, evil woman. And she attacked me when she realized who I was. I fought back though and she ended up back in Azkaban where she belonged!"
"Wow! And you were only fifteen? My brother's a lot older than that! I bet he could fight twenty Deatheaters!"
"I bet he could but if he's smart, he'll get help from his friends to fight them," he said encouragingly to her.
"Oh, yeah! He has loads of friends from Quidditch and from the pub where he goes sometimes."
"Then he's probably Okay then."
Allesandra reached over and hugged Neville tightly. He patted her back awkwardly at first then with true warmth.
"If you don't mind, I think I'll go sit with my friends now," she said smiling lightly. "I'm feeling better about my brother."
"Okay but remember your promise."
"Oh, I won't tell anyone, I promise a wizard's promise," she proclaimed solemnly. "My brother says fame is really hard to deal with so I'll keep you low-key."
A smile tugged at Neville's mouth. "I'll remember that."
Allesandra turned and hugged Alaire, gave Neville a beaming smile before blushing slightly and giving him a peck on the cheek and running over to a table of first years who welcomed her with smiles of encouragement.
"I think you have a new fan," Alaire said as she scooted next to Neville and snuggled under his arm. After a few moments, she added, "I've never heard the whole story of what happened that night."
Neville closed his eyes and sighed. "That's the one night I've never been able to forget. Passwords, potions, charms gone in an instant but I see that woman almost every day."
"I'm sorry, Neville." Alaire pulled him into embrace. "That was a noble thing you did tonight. You calmed her down so much. I just hope her brother is Okay."
"Me, too."
"And Neville?"
"Yeah?"
"When you're ready to tell me the WHOLE story, I'll be here for you." He smiled down at her.
"Thanks. Someday, someday, you'll know everything."
In the back of her mind, Alaire was adding, "And you'll know all my secrets, too."