All characters are property of JK Rowling and I do not make a profit from this story.
Beta: Roman's Sundial
Chapter Twenty-Three: Into the Crypt
Harry Potter – Present Day
January 1, 2000
"Ginny!" Harry grabbed his girlfriend and hugged her tightly as she walked through the door of Number 12 Grimmauld Place.
"I'm okay, Harry," she said, returning his hug.
"Ginny!" came a loud squeal from the end of the hall. A teary-eyed Molly Weasley was running towards her only daughter. "Oh, my baby is okay!" she cried.
"Mum, I'm fine!" she said, but she returned her mother's hug nevertheless.
"So wonderful to see you, Ginny," said Arthur, taking his turn to hug his daughter.
"What took you so long?" Harry asked her.
"Grindelwald kept my wand," she said bitterly, "so I had to take the muggle way."
"Never mind, we will get you another wand," said Molly, trying but failing to hug her daughter again.
"Temporarily," Ginny growled, "I'm getting my wand back."
"A-Arthur," stammered Harry, still not used to calling the Weasley parents by their first names. "Can you contact the Order members and inform them that Ginny is okay? I'll call a meeting once we know what happened. I assume there's another letter for me?" Harry asked, turning to Ginny. She nodded in response. "Then let me read it and try to communicate it to you guys before we get everyone in here."
"Good idea," said Arthur, walking towards the kitchen to start contacting everyone who wasn't currently at headquarters.
"Here's the letter, Harry," Ginny said, handing him another folded piece of parchment. Just like the last time, Harry was unable to open it in front of them.
"I'll be right back, then," he said, heading to his new room at Grimmauld Place. He walked into the room, closed the door, sat on the edge of the bed, and began to read:
Harry Potter,
Although I can appreciate a business man, you are not in a position to bargain. I have returned Gloria to you even though she did not follow through with the agreement she had made to me. Allow that to be my sign of good faith. I demand that the cloak be presented to me, the resurrection stone, and the name of the Elder Wand owner. Only then, will I be kind enough to return the favor and answer your questions. You have three days, Harry Potter. The cloak, the stone, the name, and Gloria. She will be released with her wand if she follows through. Do not think I am playing, Harry Potter. If Gloria does not return to me in three day's time, I will kill her, I will kill your girlfriend Ginny, I will kill the entire Weasley family, and I will kill you, Harry Potter. Three days.
Harry only had to read the letter once to take it all in. He returned downstairs hastily, where he found Ginny, Molly, Arthur, Ron, and Hermione gathered in the living room. "Well?" asked Hermione, impatiently.
"He's angry," Harry was able to say.
"Because you didn't do as he asked?" questioned Ron.
"Because I didn't bring the cloak?" wondered Ginny.
"Because you asked for something in return?" Tried Hermione.
Since the spell made it difficult to answer those questions, Harry instead asked some questions of his own.
"Ginny, where is he staying?"
"Behind the big hill," she told him. "He actually has a full mansion there, but it's hidden by the Fidelius Charm."
"Lifted for you, I guess?" asked Hermione.
"Yeah," said Ginny. "We can always guard it if we needed to though, at least like that he is forced to stay in there unless he wants to get captured."
"And he thinks Ginny and Gloria are two different people?" asked Harry.
Ginny laughed. "Yup, he thinks I'm Gloria, a relative to the Weasley's, and he thinks you're dating a different Weasley named Ginny."
Harry thought for a long while. There was no way he was going to give Grindelwald what he wanted, but three days was not a long time to prepare for a new war. "Arthur," Harry said, turning to him. "Can you summon the Order please? Looks like we are going to have another battle on our hands."
Neville Longbottom – Present Day
January 1, 2000
Neville had panicked when he saw Jessica in the stairwell, and he turned and ran the other way before she could say a word to him. What was she doing at St. Mungo's? Jessica had been a muggle, he was positive of that fact. He currently sat on his four-poster bed at Hogwarts, thinking about his run in yesterday and wondering what it could have meant. Something hot in his pocket forced him out of his thoughts.
Are you ready?
The message he had just read on his galleon was from Luna. He had completely forgotten that they had arrangements for today. Fumbling slightly, he sent her a "ready" reply, and headed towards Hogwarts main gates.
"Hello, Luna," he said, as he watched her dance towards him.
"How are you, Neville?" she said, smiling.
"Nervous," he said. "But ready." He pushed the thoughts of Jessica from his mind, for now, and grabbed Luna's hand as they prepared for side-along apparition. They arrived at the graveyard together, and Luna lead them towards the Lupin crypt. "Should we wait for dark?" Neville asked Luna.
"It will be dark inside the crypt, so nobody will see us." Luna raised her wand in front of the entry way. "Alohomora!" she said, and the door to the crypt unlocked.
"I guess this is it," said Neville nervously. He pushed the door and it eerily swung open. Inside were about a dozen stone basins, each with a heavy stone lid, and probably covering the final remains of deceased Lupins. "How do we know which ones are Remus and Tonks?" asked Neville, frightened that he might disturb the wrong person laid to rest.
"I think it's these two," said Luna, pointing to the two closest ones to where they were standing. "The last Lupin to go was Remus' dad, right? But that would have been when Remus was still in school. These two are the cleanest and the rest are very dusty. It has to be these two."
"And if it's not?"
"Then we keep looking," she said cheerfully.
"Luna, I don't know about this anymore."
"We have to do this, Neville. You saw the look on Andromeda's face; she wouldn't have the strength to do it herself, and I don't think many others could do it either. We knew Remus and Tonks, but not like the rest of the members did. If they aren't under the Abracadabra spell, it would be too devastating for their loved ones to see the way that they look now."
"I don't want to see the way that they look now," Neville grumbled.
"We need to do this, for the good of the Order."
"Shouldn't we have told someone first?"
"No, I don't think so," replied Luna. "It would bring unnecessary pain for others to even think about it. Come on, let's start with this one." Together, they lifted the incredibly heavy lid that covered the first tomb. "Oh, I think this one must be Remus," said Luna casually. "Hold onto the lid, Neville, I'm going to remove the cloth."
"Quickly, Luna!" Neville panted, struggling with the weight of the lid.
"Are you a wizard or not, Neville Longbottom?!"
"Oh yeah! Wingardium Leviosa!"
"Oh, Neville, look!" Luna finally exclaimed.
"I would much rather not," he answered.
"No, it's okay! Remus is only asleep!"
"What?" Neville peered into the tomb and sure enough, there lay Remus Lupin, totally intact and fast asleep. "Merlin's beard, Luna, he's under the spell! That means they are under the Abracadabra spell!"
"Let's hope Tonks is too, come on!" Luna turned and faced the tomb nearest to Remus and waited for Neville to lower Remus' lid and come help her. "Ready?" she asked him.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" Neville maintained his concentration on the spell while Luna peered inside.
"She's under it too, Neville!"
"This is fantastic! We need to get them back to the Order!" All of a sudden, both of them felt something hot grow in their pocket. Luna pulled her galleon out first, while Neville set the lid down gently. "What is it?" he asked her.
"There's an Order meeting," she said, reading the message on the galleon.
"Let's close this up then, and go, I can't wait to tell them!"
"No, Neville, we can't just leave them here! They are alive, and because of that, we can't leave them undefended."
"But they are in their graves right now, nobody is going to hurt them."
"Whoever casted the spell on them knew it wouldn't have killed them. We don't know why they saved them, but what if they come back?"
Neville furrowed his brows. "So what do we do?"
"Tell the Order we will be late, then we can sneak them upstairs and put them with George and Magdalena."
"Why don't we just tell them?"
"We will, but it is going to come as a shock and right now everyone is focused on Ginny and Grindelwald; we shouldn't distract them."
"Okay," Neville agreed. "Well, send the message and then let's go, this cemetery is giving me the creeps."
Ron Weasley – Present Day
January 1, 2000
Ron watched Harry face the Order and begin to try and explain what the new letter from Grindelwald said. "So, he's mad," Harry started, clearly struggling with how he can relay the details of the letter successfully around the spell. "He's going to fight," he said plainly. "I can't tell you why, but you can hopefully guess."
"Because you didn't do what he had requested in the first letter?" Ginny offered.
"Correct, but I couldn't do as he asked because it would risk lives and-"
"You don't need to explain your actions, son," said Arthur. "We know you would do the right thing." There were murmurs of agreement around the room.
"Thanks," he said, appreciatively. "So, he's given us a timeline…" Harry trailed off, allowing the room to guess.
"A month?"
"A week?"
"Two weeks?"
"Ten days?"
Harry pointed at Angelina, who had guessed ten days. "No, but keep going with days," he told her. The room erupted with numbers.
"Six?"
"Five?"
"Thirty?"
"Three?" tried Ron.
"Yes, Ron!" Harry exclaimed.
"Three days?" Ron repeated. "So what do we do? How do we stop it?"
"We need to beat him. We need to protect everything that he is going to attack. Bill, is the Fidelius Charm still over Shell Cottage?"
"No, I removed it after the war."
"Put it back up, today." Bill nodded, but did not ask questions. "Arthur," Harry continued, turning to Ron's dad. "Put one up on the Burrow today as well." Not waiting for replies, Harry turned to the rest of the Weasleys. "As of right now, you can only go to the Burrow, Shell Cottage, or here, Grimmauld Place. You must stay within the boundaries of the Fidelius charms, and only travel from place to place by floo powder, that way you are never outside of the boundaries to apparate."
"Harry, were we targeted?" asked Charlie Weasley.
Harry nodded. "Specifically by Grindelwald."
"There is no question then," said Professor McGonagall. "Arthur, Molly, Bill, Charlie, Percy, Ron, and Ginny, do as Potter says; safety first."
Molly agreed. "Of course, but what about the children's education?"
"We can have work sent to them and any lessons required can be done here except for the ones with Professor's who aren't in the Order, of course."
"We can work it out," said Harry. "But that also means no work for awhile," he said, looking towards Arthur, Charlie, Bill, Percy, and even Ron.
"I shall send letters to your work places, indicating that you are doing special services for the Ministry as per the request of the Minister himself," said Kingsley.
"Thank you, Kingsley," said Charlie. "Looks like I'll be hanging around for awhile, Mum."
"Wonderful!" Molly beamed.
"Sorry we are late," came Neville's voice, as he entered the room along with Luna. The pair had been briefed quickly, and then the meeting continued.
"Kingsley," Harry started. "We need a statement to be released before he acts," Harry said, defeated.
"This is the only way?" questioned Kingsley.
"I am afraid so. He's going to act; we need to ensure that we protect as many as we can."
"The rest of the Order needs to stay vigilant," Kingsley said, looking around the room. "We will have to assign patrol schedules and set up defenses."
"Hogwarts," Harry started to list. "St. Mungo's, the Ministry, and anything that contains muggles."
"He's after the muggles?" asked Ron, thinking of Jessica.
Harry nodded. "Luna and Hermione, can you go to Hogwarts to start?"
"On it," said Hermione.
"Dedalus and Helen, can you patrol the Ministry?" Both agreed to do so. "Essa and Neville, can you handle St. Mungo's?"
"Can I trade with Hermione?"
"Sure… Hermione?"
"No problem!" she smiled at Neville.
"Okay, Aberforth, can you handle Hogsmeade?" he nodded in response. Harry continued to create patrol routes until he thought that the most crucial areas were guarded. "We will inform you by galleon when it's time to rotate. Okay, thanks everyone, stay alert! Kingsley, let's go work on your speech; I'll try and tell you as much as I can."
"Harry, wait!" said Luna. "Neville and I have something to say first."
"Uh, okay, what is it?" asked Harry.
Luna stood on top of the nearest chair and smiled. "We didn't want any of you to suffer, especially you, Andromeda," she said, looking at Andromeda and grinning. "So we went to the Lupin crypt and checked to see their current conditions."
"What?" Andromeda grabbed her chest and nearly fell over, but she wasn't the only one.
"No, no, it's okay everyone! We confirmed that they are under the spell!"
"Remus? He's alive?" Harry said, in barely more than a whisper.
"Yeah," said Neville, also smiling. "And so is Tonks; they are under the Abracadabra curse."
"Nymphadora is alive?" It took several wizards around Andromeda to help calm her down. "Harry, please, we must go get them!"
"No need," said Luna, laughing this time. "They are both right upstairs with George and Magdalena. Come, I'll show you."
Neville Longbottom – The Past
June 27, 1997
"Where am I?" Neville stammered, rubbing a painful bump on his head as he tried to sit up.
"Easy, lie back," came the voice of a girl that Neville did not recognize. "You're in my tent. You've been passed out for nearly 24 hours, I almost called a paramedic."
"A paramedic? What's that?" Neville grumbled.
"How hard did you hit your head?" the girl asked. "A paramedic; you know, kind of like a doctor?"
"A doctor?" then it hit Neville; she was a muggle. "Oh yeah, right, a doctor."
"Are you okay? What happened to you? You look pretty beat up."
"I was at the wrong place at the wrong time. A group of drunk men swarmed me and tried to mug me but I eventually got away," Neville lied.
"Barely," she said, brushing hair off of his forehead. "That's a pretty nasty cut; it will take awhile to heal."
"Thanks for helping me, uh?"
The girl smiled. "My name is Jessica, and you?"
"Ne- Nigel." Neville decided to lie about his identity. He did not know who this girl was and he did not know if those death eater supporters would come looking. The only way to keep her safe was if she had no idea who he was. Well that, and perhaps some protective charms. "I'll be right back, uh, need to pee," he said, exiting the tent and ensuring that she did not follow. Once he was confident that nobody was around and that Jessica could not see, he withdrew his wand and started to place protective charms around the area. When he entered the very small tent again, he saw Jessica gathering some pots and pans from a bag.
"Hungry?" she asked him.
"Starved," he said, smiling.
Author's Notes: Okay, so JK Rowling took many wonderful characters from us that we can never get back (such as Fred, Dobby, etc) and since I vowed to stay true to what was already written by her, I could not change any of that. However, anything that I can manipulate, I am! For instance, we know Lupin and Tonks died but there is not much detail about it, so I was able to stay true to her story by stating that everyone believed them to be dead, but I was able to use my own story's inventions (the Abracadabra spell) and bring them back! I am very excited to bring back those two, now if only they can figure out how to wake them up...
To reply to a review: As stated above, I stay true to what Rowling wrote. I made Neville's life (in the flashback) be in danger during Voldemort's reign, but I never said why or how he was in danger. It is true in my story as well as Rowling's that the Longbottom's and the Death Eaters did not know about the prophecy, but that doesn't mean that Neville couldn't be in other danger... And yes, you will find out what that is eventually! Thanks for the feedback!
Also, I just wanted to add if there is anything that was not answered in Rowling's story that you would like an answer to (such as how the Triwizard portkey worked at anytime as opposed to being on a timer like most), feel free to ask and I will definitely incorporate the answer in my story for you!
The next chapter is pretty straight forward. It does open up a new plot hole, so enjoy, and as always, thanks!