Chapter 10- Neville The Death Eater

"Its been stolen?" yelled Harry.

"Shh!" came a different voice. "You don't want her to come out again, do you?"

"Hermione?" asked Harry. "Are you here too?"

"Yeah, I've been waiting here ever since you came first in," she said. "Your Invisibility Cloak works very well."

"Well, there's no reason it shouldn't," said Harry, lowering his voice. "Anyway, how do you know it's gone?"

"I went upstairs to change before coming down to see you," explained Ron, "and I saw the drawer you put it in. It was opened up and the Stone wasn't inside."

"How did you know I put it in the drawer?" asked Harry.

"Oh, I heard you open and close it and then put the trap on it," said Ron. "I couldn't fall asleep, you know, with immortality just two beds away."

"But who took it?" demanded Harry.

"We don't know," sighed Hermione. "Ron didn't see the culprit."

"Who could it have been?" wondered Harry, thinking hard…. Then it hit him! Who else had been awake when he had put the Stone away? Neville! His breathing that night was not like a sleeping person's… much louder than usual. Why didn't he notice it before?

"Neville took it!" gasped Harry.

"Neville?"

"Yes," said Harry, jumping out of his bed, feeling perfectly fine all over. "And who knows what he could be doing with it."

"Probably giving it to Voldemort," said Hermione and Ron together, still invisible.

"My thought exactly," said Harry, pulling his bandages off. Underneath them, the skin was perfectly healed. "And we have to stop him as soon as possible."

"Right," they said, finally becoming visible again. Hermione lowered the hood of the cloak and Ron changed back into his human form.

"Let's go check if we can find someone who's seen him recently," said Ron.

The three of them snuck out of the Hospital Wing, trying to leave before Madam Pomfrey's returned. Once they escaped that room, the three of them burst into a full sprint all the way back to the Gryffindor Common Room, and then to Ron and Harry's dormitory.

"Harry! Ron! Hermione?" exclaimed Seamus and Dean together who were sitting on the floor, playing Wizard Duel. "You can't come in here Hermione!"

"Are you okay?" asked Dean. "You look like you're out of breath!"

"Have you seen Neville?" gasped Harry, ignoring their questions.

"Yeah, he just left a little while ago," said Seamus, still looking at Hermione, and wondering what was going on, and appearing to be a little confused. "He looked like he was in a big hurry."

"So it was him," said Ron.

"What did he do?" asked Dean. "Is Neville in trouble?"

"Did he say where he was going?" asked Ron, still ignoring their questions.

"No," said Seamus, shaking his head.

"Then we'd better hurry up and start looking for him," said Harry. The three of them turned around and ran out of the room.

"Wait! What's wrong with Neville?" they heard Dean yell from behind.

"What do we do now?" asked Hermione.

"We need to find out where Neville is," said Ron.

"Well duh. But how do we do that?" asked Hermione again.

"We need to find an Ingredient to the Immortal Potion," said Harry. "I can touch it with the Ring and then the map will come up. We can just look for the green dot, and that's where Neville is."

"But how can we do that?" asked Ron as they left the Common Room. "Remember? The Sorcerer's Stone is gone."

"We need another ingredient," said Harry. "And I know where to find it. It's in Dumbledore's office! He has the Legendary Watch there." They ran faster than they ever did in their entire lives to Dumbledore's Office, the entire world unknowingly counting on them to get the Ingredient back as soon as possible. It didn't take them very long to arrive, the three of them had been there more times than most professors.

"Monkey cakes," gasped Harry, out of breath when they reached the gargoyle. It moved aside, and they tiptoed up the stairs, trying to catch their breath as they went. When they arrived up in the office, Harry walked over to the desk, to the same drawer he had gone to before. He opened it up… and there was nothing inside!

"Where is it?" asked Ron, looking over.

"That's what I'd like to know," said Harry, feeling a little worried. He opened the drawer above it… nothing there. He opened the one on the other side, and the one below that, but there was no Watch in sight.

"Check over there," said Harry forcefully, pointing to a shelf of books. "It has to be around here somewhere and we're going to find it!"

Within ten minutes, Dumbledore's office was torn apart. Papers, books, pens, ink bottles and more was all over the floor, but there was still no Watch in sight. Every shelf, drawer and surface was cleared and searched thoroughly, but nothing was found. Harry felt a little guilty for tearing the place apart like this, but it was for the good of the universe. After only a few more minutes of tireless searching, the three of them magically fixed the room, with the only witnesses to their crimes being Fawkes and the pictures of the previous headmasters on the wall who were mostly all asleep.

"I can't believe we didn't find it," said Harry to himself. "Voldemort is probably making Elixirs of Life already! I can't believe we didn't find it!" Harry banged his fist down hard on the desk, nearly breaking it in half.

"Harry!" called Hermione, putting her hand over his. "Calm down. It'll be-"

Suddenly, both of them were distracted by the same thing. Harry's Ring shone a bright yellow, as did Hermione's bracelet. Harry's finger burned for a second and the map appeared before them again, just as it did when he touched the Sorcerer's Stone.

"Hermione…" said Harry slowly. "Your bracelet is… an Ingredient!"

"Ron?" she gasped. "Did you know that?" Ron's eyes were wide and glued to the magnificent Bracelet.

"No," he said, not looking away. As much as Harry would have liked to continue this little interrogation, there were much more pressing matters currently at hand. He looked over at the map… the green dot was in England, that much was for sure. But where was it exactly?

"There has to be a way to zoom in," said Harry, looking for some sort of button on his Ring. He shrugged and touched the right, red eye on the skull. To his surprise, the map zoomed in on the green dot, making it fill the entire screen, and the zoomed-in map

was revealed. According to the chart, the green dot was in a massive forest, and it was moving all around.

"Harry!" yelled Ron. "That's the Forbidden Forest!"

"How do you know?" asked Hermione.

"Because Hogwarts is right there!" he said, pointing to the lower right corner of the map. Indeed, there was a big castle there, complete with a Quidditch field, lake, and railroad tracks coming out of it. What other place could it be?

"Okay, so he's in the Forbidden Forest," said Harry, realizing that he was still holding onto Hermione's hand. He quickly let go, and the map disappeared. "Let's go find him!" Not knowing how much time they had left, they quickly left the office, doing a quick last minute check that everything was in its place.

"Well at least he's still on the grounds, and not with Voldemort yet," said Harry.

"Yeah…" said Hermione, sounding as if something was on her mind. "Ron? If you knew the Bracelet was a Legendary Ingredient, would you still have given it to me?"

"Err- um… sure," he said. "Of course I would have… maybe."

They reached the front doors of Hogwarts and opened them up, revealing the massive Hogwarts grounds. They ran towards the forest and got ready to go in… as they did almost every year.

"I think we should start a petition to change the name 'Forbidden' Forest, to just Regular 'Forest'," said Hermione, catching her breath before they went in. "We go in it every year… but why? Why do all the bad guys have to go in there?"

"Dunno… the rhinoceros told them to?" suggested Ron.

"Yeah, that must be it," said Harry. "Ready to go?"

"Yeah," sighed Ron and Hermione together, stepping inside with Harry. It was like a completely different world inside the Forbidden Forest. Unlike the nice, clear, and quiet Hogwart's grounds, the forest was filled with bushes, trees and other plants that seemed as though they would eat you if you stepped on them. Animals, and probably other things Harry didn't want to think about, were constantly making noise, some okay and nice, others not nearly as much.

"How are we going to find Neville if we keep walking in random directions like this?" asked Hermione, pushing a large tentacle-like plant that was hanging off a tree out of her way.

"Enh, we usually find whatever we're looking for this way," said Ron, pushing the same thing out of his way.

"Well, we may need a bit more than luck to help us this time," said Harry. "We have to find Neville fast, and chance may not be quick enough. Hermione! Give me your bracelet." She took it off her arm, and handed it to Harry, lighting up the forest with its intense light upon touching the Ring. Harry slipped it on his arm, and his Ring lit up. It hurt a little, indicating that they were close to another Ingredient, but not too close. "I'll just follow the pain in my finger. The more there is, the closer we are."

Harry stuck his hand out in front of him, as if his finger were the guide. He followed the burning sensation in his Ring as if her were someone following the beeps on a metal detector.

"I think we're getting close," said Harry, the pain growing so much that his finger was beginning to shake involuntarily. "We're getting real close now! Only a few- whoa!" Suddenly, Harry felt as though he had just entered Weasley's Wizard Wheezes

again. He did a somersault in the air and his feet floated up in the sky, as if held by a large and invisible person.

"Ron! Hermione! Help!" yelled Harry, stuck upside down in midair.

"You know Harry," said Ron. "We would, if were weren't having the same problem as you!" Harry turned his head around ( the rest of his body felt frozen all over) and saw that it was true. The two of them were stuck just like he was, upside down and a few feet above the ground.

"Hey," said Ron, sounding cheerful. "We're in the Forbidden Forest, upside down and frozen, hungry and cold, and surrounded by millions of demons of every size and shape that probably wouldn't think twice about ripping the skin off of our bones, and then slurping it up like spaghetti. Well, look on the bright side. At least it couldn't get any worse."

"Wrong!" yelled Neville, suddenly jumping out of a nearby bush, taking them all by surprise. The Sorcerer's Stone was nowhere in sight.

"NEVILLE!" yelled Harry, Ron and Hermione together. "Give back the Stone!" Neville laughed hard, throwing his head back.

"I don't really think you're in any position to tell me what to do," he said, pushing Harry on the nose with a single finger. He swung back and forth in midair as if his feet were on hinges to the sky.

"What are you doing here anyway, Neville," demanded Harry, finally coming to a stop. "How did you get the Stone? Shouldn't you be with Voldemort right now, giving it to him.?"

Neville stifled a laugh.

"Harry," he said, "you are the worst trap-maker in the world. I was awake that night, and heard you say the password. All I had to do was wait for the right moment…. As for being with my master now, there are things more powerful than the Sorcerer's Stone. That is what my master desires."

"He didn't tell you what it was he wanted?" asked Harry, wanting to kick himself for being so stupid and not realizing Neville was still awake that night he set the trap. He was happy, though, that they at least knew something Neville didn't… the Immortal Potion. He may have known that Voldemort wanted something more powerful than the Stone, but he didn't know what it was.

"That is unnecessary information," he said. "All he told me to do was to set a trap here for you three. He said that you would somehow follow me here by using a ring that could sense the Stone."

"He knows about the Ring!" whispered Ron angrily to Harry. How could he have known that? Harry didn't even know what it was until just a few days ago! Why was Voldemort always a step ahead of them?

"So what's going to happen now?" asked Harry, trying to stall for some time. "Is he going to come here and take us away to his palace of darkness or what?"

"I don't know," said Neville, checking his watch. "My master did not give me further instructions beyond what I have already done. He just told me to wait."

"How can you respect a master like that?" asked Harry, still trying to figure a way out of the trap. But his whole body, except for his face, was entirely numb and then frozen solid. There was no way out. "I mean, he doesn't even tell you what he's planning on doing. How can you possibly be with him?"

Neville walked up to Harry's face, looking more serious than he had ever seen him.

"Harry," he hissed softly. "Voldemort has done more for me than your Dumbledore has ever or will ever do. Dumbledore could have performed the same spells Voldemort did on me to make me how I am now, but he didn't. He let me fail, knowing that he could have helped."

"The spells that Voldemort used on you were probably Dark Magic," said Harry. "Even if it would save someone's life, Dumbledore would never condone the use of it. So your little reason of being a bit more superior is not good enough, Neville. Just because Voldemort gave you a bigger brain, head of hair and arms doesn't mean you should switch your allegiance as if it were a bathroom light."

Neville walked so close to Harry that their noses were practically touching.

"Eventually," he spoke softly, "Voldemort will win. He will rule the world that he has will ablaze as an eternal king, and no one will be able to stop him, especially you, Mr. Potter. All that matters now is whether or not, when that time comes, are you going to be on his good side?"

"Wouldn't it be better to die than to live a good life in a Hell?" asked Harry. "Because that's just what the world would be if Voldemort ruled it."

"For some… I suppose," said Neville, backing up. "I, however, am not among that group… fortunately."

There was a moment of an awkward silence.

"So what's this spell you have us under here Neville?" asked Harry, still looking desperately in vain for a way out. "I've never seen a more secure spell than this."

"This is one of my master's new inventions," he said, kicking some dirt into the air. "Beautiful… isn't it?"

"What exactly does it do?"

"Well," said Neville, checking his watch again, "I suppose we have a little while. This is the Flipped and Frozen Trap Spell. You set it to grab a specific person when they come close to its proximity. Then, when the person walks close, it sucks them in, flips them upside down, and turns the muscles and bones in the body below their head into jelly, for lack of a better word. But, the best part about the spell is that the person who set the traps can control the people who stepped into them."

Neville smiled and took out his wand. He pointed it at Harry and Harry followed the wand perfectly. Neville put his wand up, Harry went up and hit the trees. He threw it down, and Harry's head banged on the ground. It was ten times as painful, not being able to cover where he was hit with his hands. Harry yelled out. Neville happily continued moving him through the air as if he were some sort of toy.

But, just like any other child with his toys, Neville quickly got bored with moving Harry all over the place, and fixed him back where he was. Even though Harry's head was spinning, his little talk with Neville had given him an idea.

"So Neville," gasped Harry, still feeling a little queasy. "These traps can only be set for a single person. What does it do? Detect their DNA or something?"

"Yeah, that's it," said Neville, sounding a little annoyed that he had to wait so long.

"But what if the person in the trap were to change his DNA?" asked Harry, smiling. Ron and Hermione nodded too, they had caught on.

"I suppose the trap would let them go, but that's imp- oh no…"

Neville realized what Harry, Ron and Hermione were going to do a second too late. Harry transformed into a Gryffin instantly and jumped out right onto Neville, knocking him to the ground. When he heard Ron and Hermione fall to the ground in their animal forms, Harry decided to show Neville never to try and get them again. He extended his claws out of his paw so they were almost three inches long. He brought it up, right above Neville's head, saw the look of fear and panic in his eyes, and then brought the claw down, right on his face, leaving three massive, bloody gashes.

But, that one slash wasn't enough to take down Neville. He let out a scream, and Harry ripped across his face again with his other paw, making another bloody mark. That last blow subdued Neville and he collapsed to the ground, almost unconscious. At least it hurt enough not to scream. Harry turned back into a human, still looming over Neville.

"Where is the Stone!" yelled Harry, shaking Neville's shoulders.

"I'll never tell," said Neville, drooling blood all over the ground, his eyes rolling back into his head. Harry pushed him to the ground, finally knocking him out. He stood up, brushed himself off, and looked at Ron and Hermione. They transformed back too, and walked over around Neville as well.

"Look at him," said Hermione, shaking her head.

"Pathetic," spat Ron.

"All it took was little surprise, and he was taken down," said Hermione. "All of Voldemort's followers must share his faults."

"But how are we going to find the Stone now?" asked Ron, waving his arm at the bloody Neville. "The only person who knew where it was is currently… unavailable."

"Well, we can just use my-" said Harry, before the most surprising thing he could have ever imagined happened. Right before them, Neville Longbottom burst into flames.