Chapter Twenty-Five – The Protectors of Hogwarts

Neville was nervously pacing in the Room of Requirements. After his nap, he practically ran to the Great Hall to talk to someone, anyone from the group. Luckily, Luna and Draco were just leaving as Neville entered the room. Luna seemed to sense that something had happened even before Neville opened his mouth.

"Neville?" she asked, putting her hand on his arm.

"Get everyone," Neville said quickly. "We need to talk in the Room of Requirements now."

Luna nodded once and she and Draco went right back into the Great Hall.

Neville went to wait in the Room of Requirements. He didn't have to wait long. A few minutes after he got there, the door opened slowly.

"Neville?" Harry asked. "Luna said something happened."

He waited until the door was closed before he said anything. All eight of them were here. Neville sat down in one of the chairs. "I remembered something today," he said hoarsely.

"Good for you," Ron said hesitantly.

"I remembered how to defeat Voldemort," Neville said softly.

The silence following his remark was maddening.

"Neville, are you feeling all right?" Ginny asked gently.

Taking his Remembrall out of his pocket, he showed it to the group. It still wasn't red, but clear.

"Your Remembrall…" Hermione said. "You have remembered something, haven't you?"

"I can't explain it," Neville said. "I took a nap, holding this, and when I woke up…"

"You knew how to defeat you-know-who?" Nata asked.

Neville nodded.

"Well?" Ron said. "Don't leave us hanging, mate. What do we need to do?"

"We've got it all wrong," Neville said. "Dumbledore is wrong about 'The Power the Dark Lord knows not.'"

"It's not love?" Harry asked sharply.

"No," Neville said shaking his head. "It's not love. It's the power of forgiveness."

"Forgive Voldemort?" Harry practically spat. "Tell me you're joking."

"I'm not," Neville said quietly.

"How can you be so sure?" Hermione asked.

Neville stood up again and turned his back to the group. "I think it was another memory charm," he told them. "My parents…I think they knew that Death Eaters were coming after them.

"I wish I could explain this," Neville said adamantly. "I really do. Somehow I know that my parents figured out that the only way to defeat Voldemort was by forgiveness. And somehow, almost seventeen years after the fact, I know that very same thing."

Hermione stood up and took the Rememberall out of his hands. "May I look at this for a moment?" she asked gently.

"Sure," Neville stammered. This was going better than he expected. He half expected that they would all laugh at him. "It was my mother's Rememberall."

"Your mother's?" Hermione asked. She took her wand out and sat down on the ground. For more that five minutes, she stared at the Rememberall and poked it with her wand, saying a few spells. Then, out of nowhere came a bright flash of light.

"Mind not blinding us, Granger?" Draco said, rolling his eyes.

Hermione jumped up excitedly and handed Neville back the Rememberall. She beamed at him. "I don't know which of your parents put a spell on this, but who ever did was brilliant," she said.

"Really?" Neville asked.

"From what I can tell there's some sort of Fidelius charm on the Rememberall. But a modified one, since it's an object being a secret-keeper and not a person," Hermione said.

"The Rememberall is a secret-keeper?" Nata asked.

"Exactly," Hermione said. "What I don't know is how it was set to release to the secret. Whether it was supposed to be after a certain number of years, or when Neville was ready, or possibly when the spell caster was dead."

"Let's get back to what we're supposed to do," Harry said. "We're actually supposed to forgive one of the darkest wizards of all time."

"No," Neville said seriously.

"Good," Harry said. "Because if you think any one could actually-"

"You have to forgive him," Neville said, cutting Harry off. "Right now, if you are the One, you have to forgive Voldemort."

"No," Harry said angrily. "I can't forgive him."

"If you want to destroy him, you will," Neville said.

"How?" Harry practically yelled. "He killed my parents! Because of him, Sirius is dead! Your parents are dead! Malfoy's parents are dead! How do you forgive him?"

An uneasy silence settled over the group. Neville and Harry stared at each other. Harry was obviously challenging Neville. But Neville wouldn't back down. He knew that this was the answer.

Then Neville was given yet another reason why he was so glad that Ginny Weasley was his friend. She went up to Harry and took his hand. "Harry, might I remind you that our choices for the power are forgiveness or love. Which would you rather do? Forgive him? Or love him? I say forgive him cause I really don't fancy losing my boyfriend to Voldemort."

Harry pulled Ginny to him and held her tightly. Neville could feel Harry struggling with himself.

It's the only way…

I know…

Harry let Ginny go and looked at the group. "Right then. Where do we start?"

"What do you mean?" Nata asked. She had been so quiet that Neville had forgotten she was there.

"If we know what to do, we need to figure out how we're going to do it," Harry said.

"And when," Neville added.

"No more waiting for him to come to us," Harry started.

"We need to bring the fight to him," Neville finished.

"When?" Hermione asked, almost fearfully.

"As soon as possible," Harry said determinedly.

"We need to think about this," Hermione said. "Do realize how much planning we would need to do? We don't even know how to find him!"

"I think I can help you there," Draco said casually.

"If we do this," Harry said. "There's no turning back. We pledge tonight that we're going to defeat him."

"You all know I'm in," Draco said.

"Me too," Ron said.

"And me," Ginny added.

"Don't forget me," Nata chirped.

"I'm not getting left out," Ron said.

"You really don't think we should go to Dumbledore?" Hermione said hesitantly.

"No," Harry said darkly. "This is our fight, Hermione. Think of us like the Order of the Phoenix. They worked in secret from the Ministry of Magic. Now we're working in secret from the Order of Phoenix."

"Exactly," Ginny said. "We're the Protectors of Hogwarts."

Hermione seemed to be struggling with herself. After a moment, she sighed and said, "All right. I'm in."

"Good. It's settled then," Harry said. He looked at Draco. "Now you know where his Headquarters are, don't you?"

"You know where they are, too," Draco said.

"The Riddle House?" Harry said. "He's still there? I would have thought that the Aurors would have gone after him there."

"It's unplottable and has a zillion different spells on it to make it untraceable," Draco said. "Though you can apparate in the field outside the house."

"Well, that does us no good," Neville said. "Luna, Ginny and Nata aren't licensed."

"I'm not either," Draco said. "They stopped giving lessons in Azkaban. Can't imagine why."

"Threstals?" Harry asked. "Like the Ministry of Magic?"

"They wouldn't be able to find a house that's unplottable," Hermione said.

"Broomsticks, then," Neville said. "We can go two on a broom."

"But how would we find it?" Ron said. "Anyways, Hermione's terrified of flying. Let's use a portkey"

"Ron!" Hermione said.

"What?" Ron said innocently.

"You're scared of flying?" Ginny asked Hermione.

Hermione buried her head in her hands.

"How can you be a witch and be scared of flying?" Draco asked.

By then, Ron had realized he said something that he wasn't supposed to have said. "Sorry," he mumbled under his breath.

"Thank you, Ron," Hermione said, shaking her head. "None of you were supposed to know that."

"Why didn't you say something when we used the Threstals?" Harry asked.

"Would you have listened?" Hermione asked seriously. "I knew you were going whether I got on a Threstal or not. And I wanted to be by your side."

Harry looked touched that Hermione was willing to confront her fears on his behalf. "Thank you," Harry said.

"You're welcome," Hermione said. "Broomsticks are the best way. It's just a matter of finding out when and where to go."

"Leave that to me," Draco said darkly.

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And time went faster than Neville thought possible. The worst was having to meet with Snape weekly and practice Occlumency and Legilimency. Neville just knew Professor Snape realized that something was being planned. But Neville was just as sure that Snape didn't know what it was.

Two weeks after his parent's funeral, the self-proclaimed Protectors of Hogwarts met in the Room of Requirements. Both Draco and Hermione were late, which bothered Neville a bit. He was worried something might have happened.

But then the door flew open and Draco and Hermione burst in. Draco leaned over and placed his hands on his knees. "I owe you one, Granger."

Hermione was holding her side, as if she had just stopped running. "Don't worry about, Malfoy," she said, panting.

Ron was at Hermione's side in an instant. "What's happened?" he asked, casting a long look at Draco.

"Bit of a misstep with Crabbe and Goyle," Draco said. "Nothing to worry about."

"Nothing to worry about?" Hermione asked. "Draco, if I hadn't come along, they might have killed you!"

"I would have gotten out of it," Draco mumbled.

"Of course you would have," Hermione said testily. "Did you find anything out?"

"A bit," Draco said. "Crabbe and Goyle are horrible Death Eaters, let me tell you that. Part of the honor of being a Death Eater is that no one else is supposed to know."

Draco seemed to realize that he said something wrong. "I mean, if you consider being a Death Eater an honor," Draco realized that everyone was still giving him a suspicious look. "Oh, sod off, all of you. Do you want to know what I learned or not?"

"We know you didn't mean anything by that, Draco," Luna said dreamily. "It's hard to slip out of old habits."

"Thanks," Draco said to Luna. Then to the rest of the group, "The meetings are supposed to be help randomly. That way no one can figure out a pattern. But Goyle let it slip that the Inner Circle still meets every other Thursday night. The next being in two days."

"We won't be ready in two days," Neville said realistically. "The next one?"

"It would make a lot more sense to go there with out zillions Death Eaters swarming around," Ron said. "It will be much easier to find him. And he won't be as protected."

"Draco, is there anything more you can tell us where the Riddle House is located?" Harry asked.

"I've only flooed there or used a portkey," Draco said.

Hermione cleared her throat. "I know where it is," she said, almost like she was afraid to reveal the secret.

"How in the world did you find it?" Ginny asked. "I thought it was unplottable."

"It wasn't fifty years ago," Hermione said. She took out what looked like to be thin sheets of parchment out of her robe. There were was a brightly colored map on the paper. "I asked my mum to Google the Riddle family. Once she found the address, she sent me directions from the nearest muggle town."

"Google?" Luna asked interestedly.

"Do any of you besides Harry know about the Internet?" Hermione asked.

"What's that?" Neville asked.

"It's a muggle way to find information using a computer," Hermione said. "Hardly any wizards know about it, so they aren't able to control any of the information in it. I told my mum I needed it for a project."

Harry gave her a huge grin. "Have I told you today that you're brilliant? I didn't even think to simply look in a phone book!" he said excitedly.

Hermione blushed slightly at the compliment. "We had to figure out something, didn't we?"

"So we know when. We know where. Now it's just a little of how," Ginny said. "I understand that it's forgiveness. But does Harry walk up to Voldemort and say, 'I forgive you. Now go play nice with others?"

"It would probably help if he's unconscious," Luna said.

"Got that right," Harry muttered.

"We'll think a plan," Ron said confidently.

"If we're doing this in two weeks, we need to think of a really good plan," Hermione said. "And soon."

"It won't be too hard," Draco said. "I've been all over the house. I'll make map for everyone. It will be a matter of making sure Potter and you-know-who meet up somewhere. The rest of us will have to make sure they're alone."

"And me making sure I stay alive long enough to actually forgive him," Harry said.

"You did once," Draco said. "The odds are that you can do it again."

"A few times, actually," Ginny said.

"But who's counting?" Draco said, rolling his eyes.

They stayed in the Room of Requirements a little longer, talking strategy. A fierce determination seemed to radiate around the room. Sixteen days to go…