Chapter 13

Apology Not Accepted

Harry stumbled out of the green flames later that night, dusting soot from himself, "Just a second Nev," he said, waving to his house mate as he moved to the side of the fireplace. A moment later the flames flared green again and he reached out, catching Tonks before she could fall as she tumbled out of the fireplace with her usual grace. "Hey Neville," he said, turning and greeting his friend properly as Tonks began cleaning herself off, "how's your summer been?"

"Hey Harry, it's been great, what about you?"

"Started off on a rough note, but the last few weeks have been pretty good," he looked at Tonks, who had finished dusting herself off, "I'm not sure whether you two have been properly introduced, so Neville this is Nymphadora Tonks," she gave him a nasty look that he ignored, "though I suggest you don't call her by her first name, Tonks this is Neville Longbottom," they greeted one another as Remus and then Susan came out of the Floo. "Neville, you remember Remus and Susan," he said, guiding his friend to the others.

Neville nodded, "Hello Susan, Professor Lupin," he said, shaking their hands.

Remus smiled as they shook hands, "I'm not a professor any longer Neville, you can call me Remus."

"That might take some getting used to Pro- Remus. Come on, I'll show you all to the dining room," he said, before turning and leading the way.

Harry moved to follow, but stopped and slapped his hands over his bum, as he glared at Tonks. "That's for using the name," she said grinning as she passed by, twirling her wand through her fingers before returning it to it's holster. Harry grimaced and rubbed his bottom as Remus and Susan walked by him laughing quietly, before he followed behind them.

'As if I haven't already had enough stinging hexes to last a lifetime,' he thought to himself. After they had finished their lunch, Remus had decided the most important thing for him to learn was silent casting and that the best way to teach him, was to silence him, bind everything but his wand arm to the wall and throw stinging hexes at him until he could cast a shield. While it had been an effective teaching method, it had NOT been a pleasant one.

Harry followed the others into a beautiful dining room, as Neville led the way in towards his grandmother, "Gran, I'd like to introduce Susan Bones, Remus Lupin and Nym-" he cut off at the glare from Tonks, "er, Tonks. And you of course remember Harry."

The old woman moved towards them, "Nice to meet you Ms. Bones, Ms. Tonks, Mr. Lupin," she said, shaking each of their hands in turn, "and nice to see you again Mr. Potter. I've wanted to speak to you for a while now."

Harry looked at the formidable old witch, suddenly nervous. Looking at the stern witch had reminded him that he had almost gotten her grandson killed just a month ago and he wondered if he had been invited for dinner as an excuse for her to berate him, "Hello Mrs. Longbottom, it's nice to see you again." He opened his mouth to apologize for leading Neville into danger, but she cut him off.

"Come now, dinner is ready and we don't want it to get cold," she said, gesturing towards one end of the large oak table, now covered in food. Harry felt his mouth water as the aroma's hit him, his light lunch and long day of training finally catching up with him as he took a seat. He ended up sitting between Neville and his grandmother, who had taken the seat at the end of the table. Susan sat across from him, with Tonks and Remus sitting on her side of the table.

Dinner went smoothly and Harry quickly forgot his nervousness amid the pleasant conversation and food. Mrs. Longbottom was a fantastic host, her stern demeanor forgotten as she asked questions and generally made her guests comfortable. Neville too seemed different than Harry remembered, more calm, more confident. He soon found out one of the reasons why when Neville pulled out his new wand, "Cherry and unicorn hair," he said, showing it off, "I'm just disappointed that I haven't had a chance to use it yet. Just holding it I can feel the difference." Harry smiled at his friend, glad that he finally had a proper wand and not a poorly suited hand-me-down.

"Well Nev, you'll have to swing by sometime soon. Moony just finished setting up some wards around our training room that block the Trace."

"Seriously?" he asked, the excitement clear in his voice as he started talking about the potential for learning new spells before the term began to prepare for the DA. "You are bringing the DA back, right?"

Harry nodded, "I'm planning on it. Tonks and I have been meeting with McGonagall to try to convince her and plan out the details," he replied, causing Neville to grin widely.

Eventually everyone finished eating and the dishes and remnants of food disappeared with a series of small pops. "That was fantastic Mrs. Longbottom," said Remus, leaning back in his chair with a satisfied look across his face.

"Thank you Mr. Lupin," she replied, before drawing herself up, her stern look returning, "but now I believe it is time to get down to business. Mr. Potter, I asked you to come here so that we might discuss events at the Ministry last month."

Harry sighed, simultaneously relieved and terrified that the moment of reckoning had come, "Mrs. Longbottom, I just wanted to apologize for leading-"

"Apologize?" she asked with a raised brow, "Mr. Potter, I did not invite you here to get angry with you, though I'll admit, I was quite livid when I first heard what happened. No, my grandson explained the situation, that you tried to talk him out of going with you and as he came out with no permanent damage I bear you no ill will. The opposite in fact. You have helped him gain confidence in himself, something he has lacked for far too long and you helped him become a strong young wizard," she glanced over at Neville, who had sat up straighter at his grandmother's praise. "More importantly you helped me realize that Neville is not his father, and that while I may have lost my son, I have a wonderful grandson who I am very proud of."

Harry looked over at his friend, who was beaming, "I'm really not sure how much I had to do with it," Harry said, slightly embarrassed.

"Nonsense, Neville believes you did, therefore so do I. However, while I wanted to thank you for helping my grandson, that is not the reason I asked you here tonight. The reason I asked you here tonight Mr. Potter, has to do with your friends at the Ministry that day. Would I be wrong to assume that they are a group dedicated to fighting You-Know-Who?" Harry shook his head, wondering what she was getting at, "Well, Mr. Potter, I asked you here in the hope that you could introduce me to these friends of yours. I have decided that I will not sit back any longer and let those bigots have their way. I may not be as young as I once was, but I can still give any of those Death Eaters a run for their money."

Harry opened his mouth in surprise, "You want to join the fight against Voldemort?" he asked, happy to see only a small frown at the name.

Mrs. Longbottom nodded at him, "Yes, Mr. Potter. Much like the Potter's, the Longbottom's have always fought against any Dark Lord wanting to rule through terror and fear. I cannot bear the thought of those animals roaming free, especially the bitch that took my son and daughter-in-law from me. I intend to do everything I can to ensure they end up Kissed or in the ground," she said, a glimmer of anger in her eye as she spoke of Lestrange.

Harry studied the woman in front of him for a moment before looking at Remus, who nodded subtly at him. "Well, technically Dumbledore is in charge, but I'm sure he'd be more than happy for you to join us. In fact, we have a meeting tomorrow night, I could get him to give you the location then. I would tell you now, but I can't."

"No worries Harry," Tonks said, looking through her pockets before pulling out a folded sheet of paper and handing it to the older woman, "I came prepared."

"Fidelius?" Mrs. Longbottom asked as she read the paper before handing it back. Tonks nodded as she handed it to Neville, who read it several times, committing it to memory before handing it back to Tonks, who promptly torched it.

"The meetings usually start around eight o'clock," said Tonks, letting her know what to expect, "You're free to come along too Neville. You won't be allowed into the meeting itself, but Ron, Ginny and the twins usually come and Susan has been staying with us, so she'll be there too," Neville nodded with a smile, glad to be included.

Remus looked at his watch before he stood up, "Well, it's getting late, we should be going as we have an early morning tomorrow. It was nice meeting you Augusta and nice seeing you again Neville." The rest of the group bid their goodbyes and Neville led them to the fireplace. Remus immediately walked in, calling out Grimmauld Place, before spinning away in a rush of green flames.

Harry turned to Neville, as Susan walked into the fireplace, "Well mate, it was nice to see you. Come by a little early tomorrow and we can hang out a little bit before the meeting."

"Sure Harry, but there's actually something else I wanted to talk to you about," Neville said, who seemed oddly nervous after having been so confident all night.

"What is it Nev?" he asked as Tonks turned and waited for him.

Neville looked down at his feet for a moment drawing up his courage, "Well, our birthdays are coming up in a couple weeks, I was thinking about having a party and seeing as your birthday is the day after mine, I thought maybe you'd want to have them together."

"Really?" he asked in shock. He hadn't even realized his birthday was coming up. Not that it was unusual, being stuck with the Dursleys' during the summer, he had never celebrated his birthday before.

Neville looked disappointed and backtracked, "It's alright if you don't want to, I'm sure you have other plans already."

"No, Nev, I'm sorry, you just caught me by surprise," he said, trying to reassure his friend "I sort of forgot that it was coming up.."

"Really?" Neville asked skeptically.

"I've never really celebrated my birthday before," Harry admitted, somewhat embarrassed. "I've always been stuck at the Dursleys' during the summer and well, I think I've mentioned how well I got along with them. I think celebrating together is a great idea."

"I'm sorry Harry, I didn't know. Are you sure?"

"Of course, how could I pass up the chance to have a good time with my best mates?" Harry replied, giving him a slap on the back to cheer him up.

Neville grinned at him, his cheerfulness from before returning in full force, " Alright, well if you tell Ron, Ginny, Susan and Hermione, I'll let the rest of our house-mates and Luna know. Feel free to invite anyone else as well, the more the merrier and all that."

"I think it would be best if you didn't tell anyone Harry would be attending," said Tonks, who had been standing quietly to the side, waiting for them to finish their conversation.

"Yeah, now that I think of it, that's probably a good idea," Harry said, nodding in agreement.

Neville looked confused for a moment before nodding, "Sure Harry, mum's the word. I'll see you tomorrow night," he said, waving goodbye.

"See you tomorrow Nev," Harry replied, before turning and walking into the fireplace with a big grin on his face. For the first time since he was a child, he was actually looking forward to his birthday.