Chapter 1: Secrets
Rain sheeted down on an island on a deserted section of the North Sea. A portly figure appeared on the lonely piece of land, drenched in seconds from the tip of his lime-green bowler hat to the tips of his shiny black shoes. Cornelius Fudge set off at a brisk walk toward the solitary imposing outline of a brick prison. He felt a chill that went deep to his marrow as he reached the boundary of the walls, and saw tall, hooded cloaked beings floating around the perimeter.
"I am here on the orders of the Ministry of Magic to see prisoner #5459." Fudge told the dementor standing guard at the doorway that lead into the prison.
The dementor glided aside, gesturing with a rotted, scaly hand for him to proceed. Fudge shivered and entered the prison. Another dementor waited for him, leading him up to a higher floor. Many more dementors stood guard outside the cells on this floor, which held mumbling and ranting prisoners. The dementor glided to a stop outside a cell with one dementor outside. Inside the cell was a thin pale man with shoulder-length greasy black hair and a prominent hooked nose. "Snape." Cornelius greeted coldly, entering the cell.
The man looked up, his face hollowed out so that he appeared gaunt. "Cornelius Fudge, what do I have the pleasure of this meeting?" he asked, coolly.
"I am on a routine inspection of the prison and you were my first stop." Fudge reached into the pocket of his cloak and pulled out a parchment envelope. In curly writing was the word "Snape". "A letter from an old friend of mine. He wished that I pass it on when I saw you next."
Snape's Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed. "A letter? From whom?"
"I cannot say, there are too many ears listening. Wait until I am gone to open it." Fudge passed it to Snape and then backed away, saying to the dementor. "This cell is fine. Moving along."
As Fudge disappeared down the corridor, Snape hastily tore open the letter, dumping the contents of the envelope onto his cot. Out fell a letter, and a wand. "What is this for?" He wondered aloud. He picked up the letter, which was written hastily in the same curly handwriting.
"The time is now for us to act."
Snape leaned back against the wall of his cell and picked up the wand, a small smile playing on his lips as he twirled it in his hand. Now he must do what he had been awaiting the opportunity to do. Find his master again, at all cost. He gave a cackle of laughter as lightning forked across his window.
Neville Longbottom woke with a start, panting with the memory of the dream he was having. He hardly remembered it, the vision of it slipping away. "What the bloody hell was that?" he grumbled, rolling out over and sitting up.
"Neville Longbottom, are you going to sleep all day?" the voice of his grandmother shouted from the floor below. Neville jumped and hastily got dressed.
Augusta was stirring porridge in a pan over the stove with her wand as Neville entered the kitchen. "Hurry up and wash your hands, breakfast will be on the table shortly, and we have plans to go to Diagon Alley this afternoon." Augusta informed Neville and turned back to the stove. "Your Hogwarts letter has already arrived, it's on the table. I expect you'll be needing me to see it too."
"Why's that?" Neville asked, going to the sink to wash his hands.
"Just look at your letter, I don't want to spoil the surprise." Augusta smiled down at her grandson. "Your father was so excited to go when he was old enough. You have his sense of adventure, though you look like your mum."
"I know, you've told me that a hundred times." Neville sighed, drying his hands. He returned to the kitchen table and sat down, plucking a thick parchment envelope from the table. Noting that it was thicker than usual, he opened it, unfolding the contents. The first two pages were the usual notices about the new school year; however, the third piece was a permission form for-
"Hogsmeade?" Neville asked, incredulously. "Third-years get to visit Hogsmeade?"
"Yes, as long as you have my signature you are allowed to visit." Augusta chuckled. "I'll sign it before you take the train, promise."
Neville got up and hurried over to the stove, hugging the older woman around the waist. "Thank you, Grandmum."
"No problem, Neville. Just don't abuse it like your father did. He was already banned for the rest of the year by the end of the first visit." Augusta clucked her tongue. "But you're a good kid, I doubt you'd get into that much trouble. Now your friend Harry, though…"
Augusta's musings were interrupted by a tap on the window. A handsome grey owl stood on the window sill, a letter in its beak. "Neville, dear, would you mind getting that letter from it? Why James insists on sending his owl when they live just across the street, I'll never know."
Neville hurried over to the window and opened it. The owl hooted and held out the leg the scroll was tied to. Neville unrolled the scroll and read through the message quickly. "James says that Marie got her Hogwarts letter today!" He told his grandmother.
"That's great! Would you send over that basket of biscuits I made?" Augusta pointed her wand at a basket on the counter which zoomed over to Neville. He caught it. "Tell them I said congrats too."
"I can do that." Neville carried the basket across the street and knocked on the door.
Harry answered it, grinning broadly. "Hey, Neville. Did you bring biscuits?"
"Yeah, Grandmum got the letter and wanted me to bring it over to say congrats." Neville offered the basket, which Harry took.
"Come on in, Marie and Mum are being annoying about the whole thing. As if getting into Hogwarts is the biggest deal in the world." Harry rolled his eyes as he led Neville inside.
James was lounging on the couch, playing with Autumn, who was almost two years old. He looked up as they entered the room, pushing his glasses up his nose. "Hey, boys. Did you hear about Marie? She's been going on about it all morning, ever since she got her letter."
"It's an exciting thing to happen to a young witch or wizard." Lily reprimanded as she entered the room. She rapped James lightly on his unruly hair with a wooden spoon. "You should be happy for her. She's been talking of nothing else since Harry got his letter."
"You're right, Lil." James grinned as he took a biscuit from the basket Neville was holding. "We'll have to go get her things soon, though. And Harry's."
"My gran said we were going this afternoon, I'm sure she'd be okay with you joining us." Neville volunteered.
"If it's okay with Lily." James looked up at Lily.
"Of course, the more the merrier." Lily smiled, before heading back to the kitchen with a stack of plates.
There was a knock on the door and James groaned as he got to his feet. "Harry, would you watch your brother while I answer the door?" He asked his oldest son.
"Sure, Dad." Harry nodded, sitting next to his brother. Neville sat beside him.
James answered the door, talking quietly to the people at the door. He stepped into the room, revealing Sirius and a short, balding man with a rat-like face they both recognized as Peter Pettigrew. "We should talk in my office so we won't be disturbed." James advised, leading them to a back room.
"Wonder what they're talking about." Harry muttered, looking in the direction of the door.
"Dunno, I-what are you doing, Harry?" Neville asked, as Harry got up from the couch.
"Shh, I'm going to try to listen on it." Harry waved him down.
"I suppose if I'm keeping an eye on your brother, I could eavesdrop." Neville muttered, picking Autumn up. He went over to the door where Harry stood, listening. He pressed his ear to the door.
"What is the latest on the jail break?" James was heard saying, the sound of shuffling heard at the end of the sentence.
"He had a visit from Fudge and he disappeared that very night." Sirius answered, a note of uncharacteristic seriousness in his voice.
"We don't know what he's after, and if he's after the boy, we need to protect him." James responded at once, accompanied by a thud.
"True, the other boys will be at risk if we don't protect them. And I can't imagine looking any of their families in the eye if something happened, especially Lily." Sirius answered.
"I could protect them, you know how easily I can hide. No one would suspect I was there." Peter's squeaky voice piped up.
"True, that plan would work. I'll talk to the others and see if we can find a way to insert you at Hogwarts this year. No one outside this room can know, especially not Harry." James answered, the sounds of footsteps moving closer to where Harry and Neville stood.
Harry and Neville hurried back to the couch as the office door opened. James, Sirius, and Peter exited, looking grim, as Lily came in, smiling as she spotted James's old friends. "I thought I heard voices out here, can I interest you three in something to eat?"
"Thanks, Lil. I'm starving." Sirius grinned, heading for the kitchen. James and Peter followed.
"Those two could eat me out of house and home." Lily shook her head, following the men into the kitchen.
Harry looked at Neville as if to say, What was that all about? Neville shrugged.