The Adventure Continued
Chapter 21: Tall and Long Tales
A/N: Ok, this is definitely my longest chapter by far and I did it for you! I hope this explains a lot. If my writing seems to go down the drain by the end, it's because I'm utterly exhausted. I had to really think and think and think. I hope you all enjoy it! I'm now going to crash going to bed (if you wonder why Neville is so tired, it's because I am, too!)
"You really shouldn't be out in this weather in your condition, Gin," Hermione advised to her friend, while both girls were following Harry across the school grounds. "Your cut might be healed, but at this temperature, it's capable of catching-"
"Thanks for the information, Hermione," Ginny interrupted sharply. "Personally, I don't care what I'm subjected to. I have been subjected to so many things, that even Professor Trelawney couldn't have predicted my escape."
"I was only saying," said Hermione in a hurt tone, turning her attention away from Ginny's wounds and onto Harry's back in front of her. "Now, for the last time Harry: are you going to tell me what's going on? First, I'm sitting in the lounge at St. Mungos, and the next minute, I get an urgent message from Ron saying that Hogwarts was attacked. No warning, no threat, no forewarning! And on top of that, you were fired from the Ministry!"
Harry cast a dark look over his shoulder that instantly silenced her. "We're going to find Neville," Harry said quietly. "Even if I don't work for the Ministry, I can still work for a friend."
"What about the school, Harry?" Hermione questioned. "What about your job? What's going to happen?"
"The school has been temporarily closed," Harry announced, leading the two girls past the front gates and into the town of Hogsmeade where he paused in front of the train station. "McGonagall told me in the hospital wing. All the students have been immediately sent home until 'due time when the school is safe to open again.'"
"But what about what happened? Why did it happen? How did it happen?" Hermione persisted. "How did the Ministry know? How can people just be invisible without using cloaks?"
"Hermione!" Harry yelled in frustration. "I don't know! That's why we're going to find Neville! So we can figure this out!"
Hermione looked impatiently at Harry. "Ok, fine. Where is Neville?"
"Take my hand," Harry commanded, holding a palm out for each girl.
"What? Why?" Hermione asked, startled by the unusual request.
Ginny rolled her eyes. "Hermione, be quiet and do what he says."
Hermione sighed, taking Harry's hand and in that minute, the three had disappeared from the grounds. The next thing they knew, Harry, Hermione, and Ginny were standing in the living room of Number 12 Grimmauld Place.
"What?" The two girls gasped. "What are we doing here?" Ginny stood shocked.
Harry smiled, pulling out his wand. "This old house might creak, but I have a feeling it has been more than loose boards." Harry led the way up the three flights of stairs and to the door of the attic. With a hand on the door knob, Harry signaled the other two to remain silent. In a split second, Harry kicked open the door and shouted. "STUPIFY!"
THUD!
"Good job, Harry!" Ginny congratulated. "You have successfully caught a portrait! Poor man! That must have been quite a fall. Wait…Sirius?" The three crowded around the portrait lying on the ground and there was Sirius, frozen in the frame.
"Sirius?" Harry asked surprised. "What are you doing up here? I thought your portrait was in your mother's old room. Oh, sorry, I forgot: ennervate."
Sirius blinked in his portrait and looked up at the three. "Harry!" he beamed. "It's good to see you once again! I have been…er…quite busy. You know, looking after your things and all."
"Where is he, Sirius?" Harry questioned.
"Where is who?" Sirius replied with another question, looking a bit clueless.
"You know who I'm talking about! He's been here this entire time!" Harry shouted angrily, almost forgetting that he was talking to a portrait after all.
"You can stop yelling, Harry," a voice came from the corner of the attic and Neville appeared from the shadows. "I'm here and you're right, I've been here the entire time."
Harry, Hermione, and Ginny gaped at Neville's pale face. There standing before them was the a bit older version of the friend they believed to have died three years before. Although he looked quite the same, there was a different air about him: his face had a grave look and his voice was strong and confident.
"I'm not dead," he announced to their astonished looks.
"What are you doing here, Neville?" Ginny asked uncertainly, wondering if Neville was instead a figment of her imagination.
"I'm looking after Harry," he answered brightly, but his expression quickly turned into one of concern. "You don't know what you're up against, Harry! There's more to this that neither you nor I can fully understand. I had to come here. You had told me once in our seventh year how protected this place was. I knew you wouldn't mind my using it as a refuge."
Harry smiled and put a hand on Neville's shoulder. "I'm just glad it served that purpose! What I want to know is what is going on. Did you break into their meetings? How did you know to come to Hogwarts today in time to save us?"
Neville smiled wanly back at Harry. "Lucky, I guess. Well, now that you figured it out, do you mind if we take this downstairs- hopefully, the kitchen? I have been starving these last couple months!"
"There was no need to," Harry muttered. "I wouldn't have noticed if food was gone. I really don't cook at all, actually, thanks to Dobby and Mrs. Weasley…oh, and you, too, Gin." Harry laughed at Ginny's glare.
An hour later, Harry, Hermione, Ginny, and Neville sat at the kitchen table, with three empty plates surrounding the latter of the four. Despite the burning questions in their minds, no one dared to question Neville until he was done eating and finally, they felt like they actually reached that point.
"Alright, Neville," Harry began, looking his friend in the eye, "tell me what happened from beginning to end and don't leave out anything!"
"Where do I start?" Neville asked.
"Where you disappeared," Ginny broke in. "We thought you had died! Where did you go?"
Neville looked up at the ceiling as if searching for a painful memory. Once he had gotten it, he closed his eyes and didn't look up again for a few minutes. "I don't remember what happened," Neville finally proclaimed. "I don't remember much of the battle. I remember seeing Harry and Ron and going with them somewhere. I think you were out cold, Hermione, and Ginny had agreed to stay behind with you." Neville paused again.
"I think I was out cold for a while, too," Neville finally admitted. "I remember waking up and looking around. It was dark and everyone was gone except the people who were lying on the ground dead or unconscious. Then, she came. She was standing so close to me that I could touch her. I remember her telling someone else that I was bound to die. It didn't take much to convince her that I was dead, either. I was so numb that I couldn't have moved a muscle if I tried, let alone breath. For a few moments, I really thought I was dead. Everything just seemed to stop.
"She made the mistake of stepping on me when she apparated, and side-apparated me to wherever she was going," Neville continued. "I don't think she realized her mistake because she never did anything about it. I was left hidden in a grassy area while she spilled out loads of information to whomever she was talking to. I thought she was talking to…You-Know-Who, but now that I think about it, he must have been gone by then."
"What did you overhear?" Hermione asked eagerly, almost getting out of her seat.
"Loads!" Neville boasted. "More than what I can tell you. Bella thought obviously thought that she was You-Know-Who's closest supporter. She had devised this plan to kill Harry in hopes that if Harry dies, You-Know-Who will magically come back to life."
"But it doesn't work that way!" Harry exclaimed angrily. "I killed Voldemort and no one that he killed came back."
Neville nodded his head in agreement. "I know, but she thinks she has found some sort of magic that can bring back the dead or something like that. It's really complicated to understand and I don't understand it, either. What I did find out at the time was that she was going to hide out at the Malfoy's Estate in London since her dear sister and family were dead.
"So that's how I found out about her whereabouts. My only problem was I had almost no life left. The strength that it was taking to keep me alive was dwindling down until I thought I was taking my last breath. Then, someone picked me up and I went unconscious. The next thing I know, I'm lying in a Muggle Hospital in Southern Italy.
"I remember one of the doctors telling me what a difficult case I was. He claimed that no matter how hard he tried, my body just seemed to want to kill me," Neville laughed. "It must have been the result of all the complex jinxes, but I don't remember what hit me. He said I was lucky to be alive, and after a few weeks, the jinxes wore off and I was able to go home.
"My only problem," Neville declared, "was what would happen if Bella found out that I knew what she said. At first, I was dead scared. I didn't want to go back home to be killed. So, I hid out in Rome for a couple of years, working for a bakery. It was one of the best jobs I have ever taken up and I still miss it, especially when I'm stuck in an attic," Neville added dreamily.
Harry cleared his throat to wake Neville out of his daydream. "So, why did you come back, Neville?"
"Oh, right," Neville blinked. "It was the article in the Daily Prophet. I found it on the ground one day outside of the shop. I think it was dropped by accident, but it had a big article about you, Harry. I was really glad to hear that you were still alive, not having seen you for a few years, but you also joined the Ministry as an Auror just like you always wanted! What disturbed me was that you were being assigned to teach at Hogwarts. I knew that after the castle had been destroyed, that many of the enchantments were broken and Hogwarts isn't as safe as it once was. It's almost like someone had planned for you to be there. If Bella had any opportunity to attack you, it wasn't going to be at the Ministry or your home: it was going to be somewhere where magic wasn't protecting you.
"That's when I decided that I needed to step in," Neville announced, banging his fist onto the table. "I knew she was getting closer to her goal and Harry didn't kill You-Know-Who just so he could be killed by one of his supporters!"
Harry sat in shocked silence. Although he had always known that someone would be out there looking for him after Voldemort was gone, it sounded different coming from a person who knew that it was going to happen.
"So, you have been living at Number 12 since you came back?" Hermione questioned.
Neville shrugged his shoulders. "No, I was actually living in some Muggles' attic. They thought I was a ghost or something; I scared the daylights out of them whenever I moved. I'm still a bit clumsy. They ended up moving to another neighborhood where I don't think the ghost will get them. But the house I was in was really close to the Malfoys and I wanted to monitor what was going on. That's when I got in touch with you, Harry.
"I told you a little bit about what was going on. I didn't connect the pieces quite yet, but I knew something was going to happen. When I did sneak into their meeting, I only learned what I suspected: that they were going to attack you at Hogwarts, Harry. I think that Bella worried most about you leaving your post there. Somehow, she arranged your dismissal from the Ministry so that you would stay at the school. I really don't think that the Auror Office would really get rid of one of their best Aurors for no reason," Neville praised Harry who looked glum.
"It sure looked like it," Harry commented.
"But how did you know about the battle today?" Ginny asked, quickly changing the subject before Harry could get into a negative mood.
Neville yawned. "Bella practically announced it and I just had to follow her. Of course, I didn't completely go unnoticed at the meeting; I was found out in the end. I would have gotten away with it if some other people weren't as clumsy as I am and stepped on my cloak. They thought I was a new recruit, but now they know who I really am. Bella was angry that I was alive, but knew I couldn't do anything because everyone believed I was dead. I disapparated quick enough for them not to catch me and ran for it. That's when I came to Grimmauld Place. I knew neither Bella nor her supporters could get me here and all I had to do was wait. It was pretty easy, now that I think about it."
"Why was she invisible? Why were they all invisible?" Harry asked eagerly. "How did you get rid of them?"
"That is a mystery!" Neville laughed. "I don't know why they are invisible. Like I said, Bella has gotten herself involved in some complex magic. I did pick up a few spells while I was in Italy, though! 'Bandire' is an Italian word, 'to banish.' At first, I was just using it to clean up the kitchens. I know people always use 'scourgify,' but it is so easy just to make things completely disappear! But Italian magic is very different from English. There is just some powerful stuff in it and I was amazed when I accidentally made a car and a vespa both disappear with one shot. I knew I could get rid of Bella with this magic because it was the last thing she expected. She might have been invisible, but that didn't mean that she wasn't real!"
Neville sank back into his chair and yawned again. "I think I've said enough."
Harry, Hermione, and Ginny laughed nervously. It was good to have their friend back, but the news he brought still didn't compensate for it. It seemed almost too soon that something would be threatening their lives once again.
"What are we going to do now?" Ginny asked, looking into Harry's eyes.
Harry shrugged. "What else are we going to do? The school is closed, I'm being hunted down like a rare deer, and my predators have magic I don't even understand. What else can we do but meet them head on?"
"Harry!" Hermione gasped.
"We did it once, Hermione," Harry answered her, "and we can do it again. I'm tired of being hunted. We need to put a stop to this now. Do you agree, Neville?"
Neville opened his drooping eyes and nodded before falling face-down onto the table. "Well, that settles it for Neville!" Ginny laughed. "Alright, what's our first move?"
"We're going back to Hogwarts," Harry announced gravely, standing up. "Hermione, I need you to get as many people as you can that we knew from school. Try to get anyone who is still alive from the DA. Ginny, you need to alert members of your family. I'm sure your brothers will be willing to help." Ginny nodded solemnly.
"What about you, Harry?" said Hermione. "What are you going to do?"
Harry smiled wanly. "What can I do but watch Neville? Don't worry, I have plenty to do. I might visit the Ministry, but I promise I won't do anything dangerous without you guys and Ron. I'll let you all know when to come back. Agreed?"
"Agreed!" Hermione and Ginny said together, jumping out of their seats and throwing floo powder into the fireplace.
"Agreed?" Neville said groggily, once the girls had disappeared. "What am I agreeing to?"
"How about a nice bed and warm blankets?" Harry suggested.
"Yeah, that will do," Neville approved, following Harry up to one of the guest rooms and falling unconscious onto the bed.
Harry stood in the room only long enough to watch Neville fall asleep and then walked back into the living room. He looked around the room for a few minutes before grabbing some floo powder. With a face screwed up in anxiousness, he threw the powder into the fireplace and cried, "Hogwarts!"