Chapter 14: All Good Things
It seemed like yesterday, but oh so long ago, that Lily had left for her first day at Hogwarts. Where does time go? Today was a monumental day in the family's life, the opening of yet another chapter. Lily was marrying a wizard she had dated for over two years. Thorodin was a tall, muscular blonde boy of Norse extraction. His family had a long history of sword and shield making but had transitioned to brooms as the need for weaponry of that type waned. He was moving into a position in his father's factory which made high-performance brooms and quidditch equipment. Lily was set to work at Gringott's in the department handling communications between the goblin and wizarding communities. It was a diplomatic job always in need of delicate tweaking.
All too soon, Alice and Francis had also graduated from Hogwarts. Alice was skilled in potions, like her mother. She wanted to start out working in the family business.
Francis had excelled at Ancient Runes. His intention was to make and sell them in a store shared with his intended wife, Willow. She was skilled at Arithmancy. They felt the trades were complimentary enough for a joint venture.
Lily gave birth to their first grandchild, Nouvella, the summer after Francis graduated. Then came another and another and another until they had a total of ten grandchildren from their children over the course of nine years, six girls and four boys. All of the grandchildren, like their parents, exhibited magical powers.
Nouvella left for Hogwarts shortly after her eleventh birthday, starting yet another chapter in their family's history as a new century was presenting itself. Business was good for all of them. The Longbottom family was becoming a well-respected name in the wizarding world.
All too soon, the grandchildren, starting with Nouvella, began graduating from Hogwarts and moving into their adult lives. Life was good. Neville had long ago forgotten about his childhood, the recorder office, anything other than his wonderful life with Kendra and his family.
The first great-grandchild was named Neville. He marked the beginning of yet another life chapter. Alice was running the family store while her mother spent much of her time perfecting new potions, unfettered with day-to-day shopkeeping chores. Neville worked with his plants and taught classes in Herbology at Hogwarts. Over forty years had passed since Neville and Kendra had met at the exhibition. The sun of their lives had passed the meridian and they were set to move comfortably into their later years.
Neville was tending to his plants in the Hogwarts greenhouse gardens. The sun was shining brightly, making many of the plants happy, while others, like his small patch of devil's snare, which muggles call jimsonweed or moonwort, was sulking, hoping for a cloud or two to end their uncomfortable day. School was almost ready to start for another year. He wanted the plants, especially the juvenile mandrakes, to be ready for instructional purposes.
Time like this was precious to Neville. There were no distractions. He could concentrate on getting everything right. He could collect the perfect leaves, flowers, seed, roots needed for Kendra's potions and general sales. He had a good arrangement with the school, splitting the proceeds from the plants. Both of them benefited greatly from the system.
Neville was in the middle of arranging a protective enclosure around the venomous tentacula plants when he heard the door open at the opposite end of the greenhouse. He suspected it might be the groundskeeper or one of the other professors. No students were at the school. As he turned to greet the visitor, he got a shock that nearly caused him to faint. He saw a ghost from his past, Zaman Bahar. He had a very serious, almost angry expression on his face.
"Z-Z-Zaman," gasped Neville. "What are you doing here?"
"I should ask you the same."
I live here," said Neville. "This is where I work."
"Oh, so it is. You took a trip, apparently your second or third, to the 1862 exhibition, and apparently, you found something that made you decide to just stay there and change the course of all future history. Tra-la-la. Is that about it?" said Zaman in a cross tone, his face wrinkled into a very angry frown.
"I didn't mean to. I didn't think it would matter that much. I didn't think the two of us would have that much effect on things, and we are very happy together. We had children and grandchildren."
Zaman walked up to Neville and pulled back his sleeve to expose his watch. The light was flashing red. "Where is your watch?" Isn't it flashing red, as well."
"I…uh…I haven't seen it in years. I hid it because it was out of place. I guess I should have looked at it."
"You guess you should have looked at it?" huffed Zaman in an exasperated tone. "Do you even have a clue what you have done?"
"Uh…no, I guess not. What is the matter? Am I in trouble?"
"That is an understatement. You have destroyed the main timeline. Do you remember the main timeline?" he growled.
"H-h-how did I do that?"
"You broke rule number one. You created a whole new reality, and not a good one."
"I'm…uh…I'm sorry. I didn't know. What do we do?"
"Well, let me tell you about my day," he started. "I woke up with a bright red light flashing on my watch and an emergency meeting symbol blinking. I headed straight off to the library to find I am the reason for the meeting because of what you have done. They told me to reel you in or I will be emptying waste bins for the rest of my time. You have no idea how serious this is."
"How did it go so wrong?"
"Do you have any idea who you married?" said Zaman incredulously.
"I married Kendra."
Yes, you married Kendra Smith. Seems pretty innocent, doesn't it?"
"Uh, yes."
"Did you ever notice a student named Percival Dumbledore? I think he was in the same Gryffindor house as both of you."
"Yes, I remember Percy. He was always bothering Kendra. He wanted to be her boyfriend. But we stayed together. He had to give up."
"Well, there you have it. Kendra was supposed to marry Percival. They were supposed to have two sons and a daughter. One of them should be familiar to you. Does the name Albus Dumbledore mean anything to you? Because of you, Albus Dumbledore never got born. Because of that, Voldemort, you do remember Voldemort, is going to eventually rise to take over the whole of the wizarding world. Because of that, many of your friends die fighting a losing war. That is what will happen in your new future because of what you have done.
Neville collapsed back against a table full of silverweed. He was the cause of the future destruction of the peaceful wizarding world. His happiness was going to cause a catastrophe of unimaginable consequence. He felt like he had the devil's snare wrapped around his chest.
"Wha-what do we do?" he gasped in a weak voice.
"We go to the library and see what they want to do. The decision is not ours to make. The council will make a decision and we will have to live with it. And I warn you, you may not like it, but you and I are not going to have any control over the final decision. Get ready for the potential of some really bad news. I fear there is no easy way to sort this out without a fair amount of pain being involved."
"O-o-okay," said Neville as he stood back up. "I guess I am ready."
Zaman walked over and took Neville's arm. A flash later he was in the library. He was stunned to see he had returned to his twelve-year-old self. They walked down the hall and into the room where Duroul and the others were waiting for them.