Chapter Seventeen – The Minster of Magic

As much as Neville enjoyed the Winter break, he was glad to be back at Hogwarts. There was always a sense of home when he returned. He knew he would miss this place in five months when he crossed the line and graduated.

The day classes started for the term, Neville sat at the Gryffindor table with the rest of the group. With the exception of Luna, who was sitting at the Ravenclaw table with Draco.

Hermione poured a cup of coffee for herself when the mail came. She quickly paid the owl, looked at the headline and slammed it down for everyone to see. "I thought so!" she said triumphantly.

Neville looked at the headline eagerly, as did everyone else.

Minister of Magic Under Imperious Curse!

"I don't believe it," Ron said. "He's awful, but the Imperious Curse?"

"The Quibbler's said all this time that they thought that Fudge was giving the Death Eaters information. But they thought he was being bribed," Neville said.

Hermione picked the paper up again, and quickly started reading. "They say that Madam Bones is most likely to be Minister of Magic next," she said quietly.

"Fudge deserved it," Harry said bitterly. "He could have been fighting Voldemort all this time instead of ignoring the threat."

"He's not going to Azkaban, is he?" Ginny asked.

"No," Hermione said. "He's just being forced out of the job."

"Look at the teachers," Ron said. Neville glanced over and saw that they were all scanning the Daily Prophet and talking among themselves.

"I just hope Fudge didn't give away too much information," Hermione sighed.

Two days later, the paper announced what everyone knew: that Madam Bones was officially named the new Minister of Magic. She promised to fight the Death Eaters till the end. The general consensus was that she would be much better than Fudge.

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"You'd think the teachers would be nice after the break," Ron grumbled, throwing his quill down on the book in his lap. The common room was empty, except for Neville, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny. They were all trying to work on their homework.

"If you spent the same amount time working on your homework that you do complaining about your homework, you'd be done already," Hermione said seriously.

"But where's the fun in that?" Ron said. "I like-"

His next sentence was cut off by sharp knock on the window. "It's an owl," Harry said, walking over to the window. He took off the letter attached to the owl's leg. "It's for Ron and Ginny."

Ginny walked up to Harry and grabbed the letter from his hand. "It's Mum's handwriting," she told Ron. She sat down and quickly scanned the letter. Neville watched her face, trying to see if the letter contained bad news.

But Ginny's face was impassive. Without saying a word, she handed the letter to Ron, who read it. "I don't believe it," Ron whispered. "Do you think he's up to the task?"

"Of course he is," Ginny said defensively. "You know he's more than capable."

"What are you two talking about?" Hermione said exsaspertly.

Ron handed her the letter. When Hermione read it, she placed her hand over her mouth and said, "Oh my goodness."

"What?" Harry and Neville said in unison.

"Mister Weasley's been named the Assistant Minister of Magic," Hermione said happily. "This is wonderful!"

"I knew Mister Weasley had it in him," Harry said, slapping Ron on the back. "I better not mess with you now. You could have me arrested."

"This doesn't seem real," Ginny said. "Mum wrote that she wanted to tell us before we saw it in the paper tomorrow."

"Dad, Assistant Minister of Magic," Ron said, sounding slightly awed. "It doesn't quite sound right, does it?"

"That means someone from the Order is the second highest in command in the Ministry," Hermione said. "I bet they'll be taken much more seriously now."

"I wonder if there's a pay raise," Ron muttered under his breath.

"You dolt," Ginny said, punching her brother in the arm. "Of course there will be one. But who cares?"

"You know what this means," Neville said. "If Madam Bones retires, eventually your father could be the Minster of Magic."

"I feel like Mum," Ginny laughed. In a high pitched voice she added, "I'm all in a dither!"

Neville had a feeling that you had to know Mrs. Weasley to get the joke, because Ron, Ginny, Harry and Hermione couldn't stop laughing.

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Ron and Ginny both seemed to hold their heads a little higher after that night. Once the Daily Prophet was released, a number of students who had parents who worked in the Ministry went up to the two of them with congratulations.

But the days went quickly. The teachers were giving the seventh years a huge amount of homework. With all of the homework they had, on top of Neville having to meet with Snape three times a week, for research and for Occlumency practice, Neville found himself getting very little sleep.

Having his memories broken into twice a week was really beginning to lower Neville's mental defenses. He as much said that to Snape, who briskly told him that "one had to make sacrifices in war."

Luckily, in the middle of January, Snape decided that it was time for Neville to practice Legilimency. This made Neville fairly excited, having watched Harry and Snape use Legilimency so often.

Snape decided that Neville wouldn't practice with Harry yet. Which meant that Neville had to try to break into Snape's mind. And considering how surly Snape had been acting lately, breaking into Snape's mind certainly didn't sound like a good idea.

"Are you ready?" the professor snapped.

"Yes, sir," Neville answered timidly. He lifted his wand and made eye contact with Snape. "Legilimens!"

Neville felt his mind touching Snape's, but then he was thrown to the floor. Shaking his head, Neville said, "How am I supposed to learn if you're going to be blocking me right away?"

"Sir," Snape said angrily.

"Blocking me, sir," Neville said, brushing himself off. "You've been using Occlumency for a long time, sir. There's no way I can break into your mind."

"That was just a taste, Longbottom. I'll let you actually try this time," Snape practically growled. Neville shook his head. He hadn't seen the professor in this bad of a mood in a while

"Legilimens!" Neville said, concentrating as hard as he could. He closed his eyes, and a few pictures flashed before him. They were very faint, so Neville couldn't even tell what they were.

Neville felt Snape force him out of him mind. Neville was panting slightly from the excursion, while Professor Snape hadn't even broken a sweat.

"What did you see?" Snape asked.

"I saw snapshots," Neville said honestly. "I couldn't make out any forms or people."

Professor Snape glared at him.

"Sir," Neville added wearily.

"Very good," Snape said. "Try it again."

They worked for another hour, and Snape finally let Neville leave the dungeon. He still couldn't make out any images, but he thought he might have seen something that looked suspiciously like a child-sized version of Snape.

Later that same day, Neville spent the evening with Luna in the library. She was getting weaker every day, since she was nearing time for a treatment.

"I'm moving up the treatment date," Luna told him sadly that night.

"Why?" Neville asked. He was writing an essay for History of Magic, but Luna was simply playing with her butterbeer cap necklace, which was laying on the library desk.

"I'm too tired," Luna said softly. "I can't wait another three weeks."

"When are you going to St. Mungo's," Neville asked quietly, hoping none of the other students would overhear.

"Next weekend," Luna answered. "I wanted to go this weekend, but they won't have the blood ready in time."

"But that's a Hogsmeade weekend," Neville said. "You don't want to miss that, do you?"

"Of course not," Luna said. "But I wouldn't be much fun in Hogsmeade right now. I'm too tired."

Neville bit his lip. They rarely talked openly about her disease. She mainly pretended that she was fine when they were together. "Will you be okay until then?" he asked, taking her hand.

Luna nodded, and then they both tried to concentrate on the homework in front of them.

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In Hogsmeade, Neville was glad that he was such good friends with his group that they didn't make him feel like a third wheel. Or fifth wheel, in this case.

It was a crisp day, much warmer than a normal late January day. They walked around, spending most of their time in Honeydukes until lunch, when they went over to the Three Broomsticks.

Hermione choose a quite corner in the crowded bar. Well, as quiet as it could be. "Where's Luna?" she asked casually.

Neville shrugged. "You know Luna," he said. "She just decided she didn't want to come to Hogsmeade today."

"Is she a werewolf?" Hermione asked seriously.

"Hermione!" Ron and Harry said in unison.

Neville shook his head. "No, she's not a werewolf. Where in the world would you get that idea?"

"She keeps disappearing for a weekend every so often," Hermione said apologetically. "It's a full moon tonight, and I just assumed…"

"Look, I can't say why she's not here," Neville said. "Please don't ask me."

"Fair enough," Hermione said. Then more softly, "I'm sorry if I offended you."

"Not at all," Neville said. "Wasn't Professor Lupin a werewolf? He was the best Defense against the Dark Arts teacher we've had a Hogwarts."

Neville knew he shouldn't be, but he was fairly pleased that Hermione asked that. It meant that they noticed when Luna wasn't there; that she just as much part of the group as he was.

After lunch, Hermione and Ginny announced that they wanted to go clothes shopping, leaving Neville, Harry and Ron on their own.

"You don't even like clothes," Ron grumbled.

"I do today," Hermione said, waving, as she walked off with Ginny.

"Quidditch Shoppe?" Harry asked the moment the girls left.

"Yeah, okay," Ron said after a beat. And they were off to the store. Just as they were going inside, Trevor, who Neville brought along for some fresh air, jumped out of his robe pocket and started hopping away.

"Trevor!" Neville yelled, and went after him. He heard Harry and Ron following him. Trevor managed to hop all the way to the edge of Hogsmeade before Neville caught up with him.

"Does your toad even like you?" Ron asked, holding his side. "If my pet kept running away from me, I'd take that as a bad sign."

"I'm sure Trevor just wanted some exercise," Neville said defensively.

They turned around, and saw a fourth or fifth year Hufflepuff walking by herself. This itself was not a big deal, but the fact that the girl had light blue hair was interesting.

"Do you know who she is?" Neville asked.

"Not a clue," Harry answered honestly.

Shrugging, they turned around and started back towards the village. But then Neville heard a loud scream behind them. Turning around, Neville saw two Death Eaters on broomsticks, struggling with the girl with blue hair.

She screamed again, and then one of them cast a spell. Neville, Harry and Ron started running towards the scene, their wands out, but the girl had already slumped over and was being thrown over a broomstick. A moment later, the brooms were on their way, moving far too fast for any of them to try a spell to stop them.

Without a word, the trio ran as quickly as they could back towards the village wanting to inform a teacher that a student had just been kidnapped by Death Eaters.

"There's Tonks!" Ron said, pointing to the Auror. They started running towards her.

"Tonks!" Harry cried. "There were Death Eaters! They grabbed a student and disappeared."

Tonks quietly muttered under her breath. Neville thought she looked like she was expecting the news. "I'll take care of this," she said quickly, running off.

"Why in the world would the Death Eaters want her?" Ron asked. "You were right there. They could have tried to take you!"

"I don't understand it," Harry said.

"I just wish we could have stopped them," Neville said. "I wonder what they're doing to her."

A silence fell over the three men, none of them even wanting to think of what was in store for the young Hufflepuff.

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There was no news of the kidnapping in the Daily Prophet, which Neville slightly expected. But at the same time, he was disappointed. He had hoped that as the Minister of Magic, Madam Bones would let the truth be heard in the newspaper. That is, if the kidnapping was even reported.

The next morning, when classes started again, Luna was back, feeling much better. Hermione didn't ask where she went, which pleased Neville.

Two days later, Harry noticed the girl who was kidnapped was back, sitting by herself at the Hufflepuff table.

"She's staring at me," Harry said softly.

"Which one?" Ginny asked. Neville pointed the girl out, who had light brown hair at the moment.

"I think her name is Nata," Ginny said quietly. "There's a rumor that she's a metamorph."

"Like Tonks?" Neville asked.

"She wouldn't be nearly as powerful as Tonks if she was," Hermione said. "Metamorphs generally don't discover their powers until puberty. And then it takes a while for them to be able to do anything with them."

"If I were Voldemort, I'd want a metamorph on my side, even a young one," Harry said bitterly. "I wonder if he's ever gone after Tonks."

"Tonks isn't here," Hermione said, looking at the back of the Great Hall where there was a circular table set up for the Aurors who guard Hogwarts to sit. "She usually sits there during breakfast."

Neville glanced towards the Auror table. There were actually three tables now. Since the kidnapping, which Professor Dumbledore spoke about the night it happened, he also announced that security was going to be even tighter. They more than tripled the number of Aurors that patrolled the castle.

Even though there were more Aurors, at least it wasn't as bad as second year, when they had to be escorted to every single class by a teacher. They were still allowed to wander off a bit on their own. But even so, Neville couldn't quite shake off the feeling that he was under house-arrest.