Chapter 16

Back to St. Mungo's

Before they knew it, the holidays had snuck up on Hogwarts. It was Monday: five days until the long-awaited Christmas break. Five days before Harry knew that he would go with Neville to visit his parents. The Christmas spirit filled the entire castle—Dumbledore had Christmas trees put up and decorated in the Great Hall, sprigs of mistletoe lining doorframes (Professor McGonagall was caught by Professor Flitwick one morning before breakfast in the entrance to the Hall, which resulted in a very flushed Transfiguration teacher), tinsel draped over the stairwells, and Christmas music seemed to fill the air wherever one went in the castle. Peeves the poltergeist had taken to haphazardly draping tinsel around himself and donning a party hat with a rubber chicken and numerous pompoms stuck to it. If you weren't careful, you could find yourself swinging through the air on the end of Peeves' tinsel. This happened to a poor second year girl the first day decorations were hung and Peeves wouldn't let her down until the entire school came out of the Great Hall and Dumbledore demanded he put her down or else Peeves would never see his party hat again.

As the crowd dispersed, Harry saw Filch talking to Dumbledore just in front of him. "Headmaster, this is finally our chance! Peeves is—and has been for quite some time I can assure you—been a menace and a danger to the student body. We must evict him at once."

To Harry's surprise, Dumbledore laughed. "I'm sorry Argus, but I must disagree with you. Peeves is actually quite harmless. I must say I quite enjoy his spectacles; the amusement they produce is something this castle needs."

"But what he did to that girl just now! Surely that proves to you he's a menace!"

"It was all in the idea of good clean fun, Argus. And I do believe she is quite all right, aren't you, my dear?" He directed the conversation to his left where the girl who had just been swinging from a ten-foot long rope of tinsel was standing next to him. She looked quite green.

"Ye—ye—yes, s—sir," she sputtered out.

"See, Argus? Now, we must get on with lunch or else these students will have no time to get to their classes…"

Filch went off in the other direction, Mrs. Norris at his heels, muttering, "That rogue…swinging students now, are we? We'll get him, my sweet, don't doubt me on that…"

Ron and Harry laughed as they walked back into the Hall, but Hermione huffed as she scuffed along behind them. "Not something to laugh at, if I'm not mistaken," she said, disgruntled.

"Oh, give it a rest, Hermione. She was all right in the end, wasn't she?"

"Yes, but something dangerous could have happened. She could have been injured or worse, killed."

Ron waved it off as the bowls in front of them magically filled with heaping piles of goulash. "Come on, if you follow the rules all the time, where would there be time for fun?" She was about to retort, but Ron had become much more interested in the food in front of him rather than their conversation.

"Hi, Mum, Dad," Neville said cheerfully as Harry and him entered the ward where Frank and Alice Longbottom resided. "Doing well?" Neville went over to kiss his mother on the forehead and pat his father on the back gently.

Harry cringed as the unrecognizable Longbottoms stared straight ahead, eyes glazed over. He felt out of place…why had he offered to come in the first place? He stood rather awkwardly as Neville conversed with his parents. "And there's someone I've brought with me today. You both probably know Harry Potter?"

Harry smiled as best as he could. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom," he said, pulling up chairs for himself and Neville. He didn't feel so awkward as he saw both Frank and Alice's heads nod a bit in rocognition.

"You'll never guess what happened at school this year!" Neville said, clearly excited to disclose his news. "I made the Gryffindor Quidditch team! I practiced as hard as I could this summer and it paid off. Harry here is Captain of course. That was a given from the start. So I'm a Chaser now…"

Harry smiled at Neville as he watched him tell his parents all that had happened over the course of the past months. He gave them play-by-plays of his games: his favorite shots, how he had managed to get nine goals in one game, what practices were like. "But I really have Harry to thank for actually giving me a chance," Neville finished off.

"No, I shouldn't get any credit for what you've accomplished, Neville," Harry said quickly.

All Neville did was smile. "You're being modest, Harry."

"But Neville's one of the best Chasers I think Gryffindor has seen for a while, Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom. He's extremely dedicated, devoted, and always comes to practice enthusiastically. You should be very proud." He looked at the witch and wizard in front of him in turn. They were just about the same age that his parents would have been; yet they looked almost double that. Alice's hair was extremely thin, gray, and wispy; her face had become full of wrinkles and she both sat and stood in a rather hunched manner. Frank looked like he had started balding ten years too early, and his frame was frail as he hunched over in his chair even more so than his wife. Harry looked Frank Longbottom in the eye and almost cringed at what he saw in those steely blue depths: a faint, almost nonexistent life managed to surface, but otherwise Harry saw nothing behind them. Harry broke the gaze and turned to Neville. "Shall I get some tea?"

"Yes, I think that would be lovely," Neville said pleasantly. "Would you like some, Mum?" She silently nodded her head. "Dad?" He did the same.

"Four teas got it." Harry stood up and left the room. He shut the door behind him, leaning up against the wall and closing his eyes. What he saw behind Frank Longbottom's eyes…or rather, what he didn't see… It was so unfair how Neville had to deal with such pain and suffering and still handle the pressures of schoolwork and just life in general.

Voldemort.

The whole reason behind this family split apart was Voldemort. Harry clenched his teeth. Never had he wanted to fulfill the prophecy so badly. Sighing, he walked in the general direction of the coffee shop to collect drinks for them all.

"Harry, we were starting to worry about you," Neville said as he entered the room again.

"No need, just got lost is all. Found my way all right in the end." Harry put down the tray bearing the teacups on a side table, offering them to the Longbottoms before taking one himself.

"We were just reminiscing about the D.A. from fifth year. Remember that, Harry?"

"How could I forget? It was such a pleasure to do something so wrong right under Umbridge's nose." Harry smirked to himself. "I mean, it was wrong in Umbridge's eyes…really, we weren't doing anything bad."

"They know all about it; I told them in fifth year," Neville said proudly.

Of course. When Neville was finally starting to get good at something he would want to tell his parents. The conversation topic switched to N.E.W.T. courses and what Neville and Harry were planning on doing after their final days at Hogwarts. "I think I want to become an Auror," Neville announced proudly. "I know I'm not taking enough courses now to fulfill the requirements, but I'm sure that I could through the Ministry later on. They'd let me on, I'm sure of it."

"Especially with this Auror shortage," Harry added, sipping his tea.

"Exactly. I want to be just like you, Mum and Dad." The fierce pride that emerged from behind Neville's eyes actually made Harry shudder. "How about you, Harry? What are you going to do?"

"Well, I could take the test and actually become an Auror just weeks after graduation if I wanted to, but I really think I'll take up Adrian Berkley's offer and I'll probably end up playing Quidditch for England."

"Did you hear that, Dad? Berkley actually came to Hogwarts and watched Harry in practice and in our Ravenclaw game." Neville turned to Harry and explained. "He was actually in the same situation as you are now, although he chose the Auror route. Took three years of training, but it paid off for him in the end." Harry nodded and glanced outside at the sun, which was beginning to set.

"Neville, I hate to cut this short, but we have to get going if we're to get back on time."

"Right you are, Harry. I'll probably see you again in just a few days," he told his parents as he hugged them both. "Gran actually doesn't know I'm here at the moment, but I'm sure you won't tell her, will you? Bye."

"Goodbye, Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom," Harry said, waving his hand as he walked out of the room with Neville at his heels. They were silent as they walked down the stairs and towards the exit. Right when they walked out the door, Neville collapsed against the walls of St. Mungo's and put his head in his hands. Harry turned in alarm. "You OK, Neville?"

"Yeah," came a shaky reply. "It's just…it was so nice of you to come and…and help me. I often wonder what it would be like to have them back again as they were so long ago." Harry saw silent tears flowing down Neville's cheeks. He sat down next to his friend and patted him on the shoulder.

"It really wasn't a problem, Neville."

"I…I guess I know that. I just wanted to tell you…to tell you thanks for being such a great friend. It means a lot to me." His smile was genuine and made Neville look mature.

Harry didn't know what to do but smile back. Who would ever be able to tell that this was the exact same clumsy Neville who kept on losing his toad on the Hogwarts Express in his first year?