Chapter 4. The Neville Predicament
A/N- Hey everyone back with another chapter. Well this was still within my week grace period so I hope that the wait wasn't to long. Thanks for all the reviews and there is one that I would like to comment on. Brian1972 i have a few retorts to your review. " As if professional's can act like that." Well really in the Harry Potter Universe do any of the professionals act like it? Harry doesn't care what people think about him, he is second in command and can do pretty much as he pleases. And about your whole Hermione being better than Harry. Hermione has always been better with her spell pool but it is never said that she is a better duelist. Harry has always one up'd Hermione in defense. Harry was dueling on par with some of the best Death Eaters in the books and that was when he was 15. His lack of attention in class hardly mattered when he was battling the death eaters. In my story Harry knows that he didn't beat Voldmort by skill so he decided to prove to himself that he could. Harry's power level was on par with Voldemort's when he was only 14. He was able to beat Voldemort when they were locked in the Priori Icantatem which was what made the apparitions come out of the tip of his wand. Harry's skill was way off but power wise they were damn close. After four year's in the Unspeakables which train you to be better than Hit-Wizards imagine how better Harry would be. He has always been better than Hermione in defense and now he has the skill to use all of his power to his full potential. Sorry for the rant everyone else.
Neville Longbottom was sitting behind his desk, underneath some of the most power wards in the world when his floo came to life. If he were anywhere else then it wouldn't have been a problem but here it was a big deal. The wards that were in place kept anyone from flooing or apparating into or out of the complex for any reason whatsoever. There was one way in and one way out and that was a giant two foot thick titanium door which was goblin warden and ruin carved with enough protection magic to hold out a rampaging army of giants, troll, and pretty much anything else that could possible be thrown at it. They tested it multiple times and killing curses didn't faze it in the lightest and the most powerful blasting hexes fell against it like they were tickling charms.
Grabbing his wand he dashed over to the fire place and prepared for whoever it was to enter. As soon as they walked out of the flames he cast a powerful binding spell which to his surprise was reflected back at him. Despite his situation he calmed down dramatically when he saw who it was that came through the fireplace. Standing there in what Neville could only guess was the newest muggle fashion was none other than one of his closest companions Harry Potter. He was in a pair of very form fitting skinny jeans, a V-neck shirt, and the oddest shoes that he had ever seen.
" What the hell Neville have you forgotten everything that i've shown you? You should have started out with at least one if not more attacking spells and then the binds. More than likely they would have used a shield to block spells but did nothing against solid objects." Harry said hoisting the man up and into the chair that he had once been sitting in but leaving the ropes around him.
Huffing, Neville just looked up at the smug look on his friends face. " What force finally got you to come see the hideout. You refused outright to coming down here after YOU paid for everything. I can't imagine anything other than Voldemort coming back for the third time getting you down here."
" Don't even joke about that. He is dead and gone, and there is no way in hell that split his soul in more than seven parts. Actually I came to talk to you about one of the members. II know that most of the people that we had in the D.A were members here but I didn't know that you started recruiting more people." he said and Neville gave him a confused look.
" Harry all of the members of the Organization were members of the D.A. We haven't gotten any new members. We never trusted anyone enough to try and get more people involved. I mean we can if you want to but the twenty members that we have are more than enough to handle everything that we have too."
Walking around the table to a shelf on the wall Harry admired the wide variety of alcoholic beverages and picked one up before answering. " Neville how long has it been since you've gotten your head checked? There is no way that this girl was in the DA, trust me I could pick out the members of the DA in a heartbeat, she wasn't one of them."
" Look mate, im telling you that there isn't anyone in the group who wasn't in the DA. I dont know where you met this mystery girl but she must have been confused." Neville said finally freeing himself of the binds.
" Oh no she mentioned you by name. She threatened me with you actually, said that if I was you would wipe the floor with me, so she knows you well enough to know that your skill is extreme. That brings up another point, how in the hell do you know a Yank?" Harry questioned before taking a swig. Lowering the bottle at the lack of response Harry looked at him and could see that he had grown quite nervous at the question. " What's up Neville are you and Luna doing that weird open relationship thing again where you sleep with different people?"
Giving a fake laugh Neville quickly retorted. " NO. . im mean yes, but this is nothing like that. Where did you meet this girl at?"
" I met her at work. I had to show her the ropes, but then she threatened me when I brought up the Organization so I left and came here."
" I highly doubt that you met this girl at your business office Harry." Neville said nervously.
Harry sighed. " No I didn't. Neville I guess that if anyone could be trusted with this then it would be you. Im not the head of a transportation business ok, its a cover. I work down in the DoM as one of the Unspeakables that deals with everything and anything that they need me to. Im probably the only one that does a little bit of everything. You should know me very well by now since im the one that took the case into looking into the Organisation." Harry laughed at the look on his face before swallowing another gulp of the wine.
" You of all people are an Unspeakable. It had to be you of all people." Neville said tensing up putting his hand under his desk.
" What do you mean by that? Whats wrong with me being an Unspeakable." Harry said looking at Neville and seeing that he had his wand pointed towards him. " Oh you have got to be shiting me right now."
" I not going to attack you, this is for my protection." Neville stated understanding what it must have looked like to Harry.
Harry observed the half empty bottle and with a quick thought he finished it. " Im not going to attack you, but you better have a good reason for pointing your wand at me."
" Now you have to promise that you are going to listen to everything that I have to say before you do something that we both regret."
This had Harry's interest peeked so he decided to go along with it. " Sure whatever you say."
" I want you to know that I never was ok with keeping this from you it was only because she made me promise not to." he started.
" Neville what the hell are you talking about." Harry said hoping that he wasn't about to hear what he knew he was.
" Please understand, I found her a few years back when we were chasing that upcoming dark lord in America. She was a hit wizard there and a damn good one at that. She was after the same guy that we were and I just happened to run into her when I was doing a sweep. I couldn't believe it at first but it was really her. She made me swear not to tell anyone that I had even seen her. I told her that I wouldn't and then I inducted her into the Organization so she could help us if anything broke out across the pond. Nobody else knows she exists in the organization, they just know that we have a source of information in America. We've been in contact ever since and im really sorry. I never wanted to you to have to know about it like this." He pleaded hoping that Harry would understand.
Harry got a very dangerous look in his eyes that made Neville hold his wand even tighter than before. " What are you trying to say?"
" Harry, that was Hermione." Neville said with sympathetic voice.
To say that Harry was shocked was a huge understatement. Neville, one of his closest friends had kept this from him when he knew how much pain that he had gone through after her disappearance. Never knowing if she was ok, or how she was doing, always wishing that he could have gone back and talked with her instead of rushing out into the storm and letting her go without a goodbye. He knew deep down that it was for the best that someone knew she was ok but now the pain, confusion, and betrayal were clouding his mind. Neville almost didn't have time to counter the first spell as Harry summoned his wand and shot the spell so fast Neville hardly saw it coming. Not taking time to figure out what the spell was Neville shot it back towards Harry who flicked it into the ceiling. When the dust from the ceiling finished falling Neville saw that Harry was tying his long hair back in a ponytail.
" Please Harry can we just talk about this? I know that you're pissed but what was I supposed to do?" He asked.
Harry had a deadly crack to his voice. " Neville this is going to hurt."
Neville jumped to the side and threw three curses at Harry as the ground where he was standing just moments before was blown apart. Harry deflected all three with ease and continued his assault. Two more spells shot just shy of Neville and it was now that he was so thankful for the training that Harry had given him. This was nothing compared to what he used to go through everyday when Harry would train him to be the leader of his Organization. Planting his feet firmly on the ground he threw up a powerful shield charm that absorbed the next volley of spells that Harry sent his way. This time he was ready and started to fire off some spells of his own. Most of them were powerful binding charms, but he threw in some others to keep Harry distracted. Deep down he knew that he had as much chance of binding Harry as he did a dragon but he didn't want to take the chance to either hurt Harry or anger him more than he already was.
The fact that this was a real duel happened when first blood was drawn. It wasn't much but a cut opened on Neville's face as a cutting hex barely missed him. Neville fired two piercing charms, a blasting charm and a stunner all back to back. The two piercing charms hit Harry's shield in the same spot creating a large crack and the blasting charm finished the job. The stunner passed through the space where the shield used to be and Neville couldn't believe that he had gotten that lucky. That was until Harry dodged a the very last second and shot towards Neville like a rocket. Harry lunged forward and aimed a kick right towards his head but Neville brought up a shield. Kicking off of it, Harry flipped into the air and slashed his wand in a powerful arch bringing the shield crashing down.
"Neville!" Someone cried from the doorway and the split second laps in concentration was all that Harry needed. A powerful banishing curse threw Neville across the room and he slid to a halt at the person's feet. To make matters worse it was none other than the person he had left standing in the DoM not twenty minutes ago.
" What the hell is going on here, are you alright Neville?" She asked crouching down beside him but never taking her now drawn wand off Harry.
" I was bloody alright before your distraction. You really shouldn't be here right now, its not the best time." He said.
Scoffing she replied. " Well it looks like you might be right about that. Who the hell is that? He was holding his own against you better than anyone that ive ever seen you duel. Why was he attacking you?"
" You do know that im right here you know?" Harry bit venomously. Walking towards them he didn't faze as Hermione started throwing spells at him. He would just deflect them without his wand and little hesitation. " It seems that you were right Neville, she did start fresh. She can't even recognize who I am anymore so it looks like she got what she wanted all along."
" Come on now Harry that's not fair." He started but Harry wasn't paying attention.
Hermione was the next one to speak. " What do you mean not recognizing you?"
She was getting frustrated because he just kept coming so she started to fire off some of her more powerful curses. As the Darker curses started coming Harry flicked his wand into his had but kept deflecting them at the same rate. " Neville, you have gotten soft since I stopped your training. You let someone yelling your name distract you in a duel with a more powerful opponent. If you want to stay in charge then you are going back to lessons every other day until I think that you are back to where you were."
To say Neville looked pale was an understatement. " You can't be serious. This is just to punish me for not telling you about her!"
" Sue me, my organization my rules. And you might want to stock up on healing potions, for some reason I think that you might need them." He said looking at Hermione who had stopped casting spells and was looking at him in totally shock. Giving her a gaze that would have sent a shiver up Severus Snapes spine he turned on his heels and started to walk back towards the fireplace.
When Hermione made the realization about who it was she was at a complete loss. This was not how they were supposed to meet, her casting lethal curses at him trying to keep him from maiming Neville. " Harry! Harry please wait I want to talk with you."
" Im sorry Miss Granger, there is nothing that I would like to discuss with you." He said back towards her.
She walked a few feet after him and called him again. " I didn't want to meet you like this you know. I was planning on telling you and Ron together."
" And you and Neville would have just played the part of friends meeting for the first time in years, if I wouldn't have found out. You should be very proud of yourselves." He said quiet enough that Hermione could barely hear what he had said.
Looking at his receding figure Hermione still couldn't put it all together. Harry had been here attacking Neville because he already knew that she was here but that shouldn't have been possible. She had only been in Britain for two days now and the only person that she had informed was Neville. He knew about her plans to go to Ron and Harry after she got the job so he wouldn't have told Harry before hand. She was racking her brain to fit the puzzle together before he left and then it clicked. That Unspeakable said that he was the one that taught Neville everything that he knew and now Harry was forcing him into lessons. Not only that but Harry said that it was 'his' organization and the Unspeakable she had talked with said that he gave Neville the idea. "Unspeakable Umbra" she yelled. She had hope when he stopped for a moment when she called out his name and turned to face her.
" Well you are the brightest witch of our generation aren't you Miss Granger?" Were the last words out of his mouth before he vanished into the green flames.
" Im not so sure anymore." She whispered before turning to help Neville up. She could see that he was pretty bruised and battered, plus the cut was worse than he first thought that it would be. Letting him put most of his weight on her she helped him to the infirmary where she was able to get him the potions and salves that he needed to heal quickly. She couldn't bring herself to look into his eyes and it was so quiet that she jumped when he finally whispered to her.
" Hermione what did we do?" were the the words that echoed in her head.
" I don't know Neville, I was doing what I thought was right at the time. I needed to leave, at least at the time I thought that I did. I did what I set out to do but some how it doesn't feel like I thought it would. I mean I don't regret leaving, but sometimes I wonder if it was worth losing as much as I did.?" Neville got up and wrapped an arm around her.
" Lets go back to the Office, I think that we both need a stiff drink." He said and she agreed.
Neither of them spoke a word as they were making their way back to his main office. Both of them were thinking thoughts that neither wanted to voice, and they both knew that they were in quite a predicament. From the anger that Harry was showing Neville knew that each and every lesson that he was being forced to take were going to be hell. They were hell before Harry had a reason to make them hell so in other words he was fucked. Hermione was in the opposite position. Neville was going to be seeing a lot of Harry but it seemed that he didn't want to be seeing her period, let alone trying to talk with her. She might have had a chance before but now that her secret was out, that she still had contact with someone from this life, she didn't know what she would do. What would he do? She just knew that as soon as he could find Ron he was going to tell him all about what had happened. Harry was taking it terribly and she could only imagine what his reaction would be.
Neville walked over to the shelf and grabbed a bottle of whiskey that had a bit of dust on it. Popping the top off of it he got a whiff of it and his eyes watered. Harry was the one who gave him this bottle for christmas last year, apparently it was a 80 year old whiskey and one of only 3 bottles that were ever put on the market. Harry would never tell him how much he bought it for. The best idea that Neville had was when Harry asked him how much he spent on the cottage that Neville had built for Luna. When he told him around 320,000 galleons Harry just laughed and that was something that really worried him. Pouring himself and Hermione a nice helping he saw that she had the same reaction when she brought the glass up to her lips. Looking over she saw the empty bottle lying on the table and gave Neville a questioning look.
" Harry finished it right before he started attacking me." Neville explained.
Hermione was again shocked. " You mean he dueled like that drunk? You should have seen him drinking before he showed me around the DoM, he was downing scotch like it was water. Then he came here and drank some more?"
" Hermione." Neville started sadly. " You've been gone a long time, things have changed a lot. None of us took it first at well, but I dont think anyone took it quite as bad as Harry did. I mean me and Luna had each other and Ron, he had Lavender, the twins were working like crazy so they didn't have much time to think about much else. But Harry, he was alone. You know that he ended it with Ginny before he went looking for the Horcruxes, by the time that everything was over with she was seeing someone else. Harry coped with the bottle, for a while it was really bad. Then one day no one saw him by the time we got passed the wards on his flat we found him so close to death that even the med witches didn't think that they would be able to help him. It took pumping seven bottles of sobering potions into his bloodstream the Muggle way to even put him in the red-zone. After that we tried to talk to him about it but he wouldn't say anything about it. Since that day, he still drinks as much as ever if not more but it doesn't affect him as it should. Two days ago I watched him put down an entire thing of Firewhiskey and half a bottle of Goblin Ale and yet he walk out of the bar like he had taken one drink. I don't know why but he is always drinking Hermione he has been for the past five years."
Hermione was shedding tears by the end of the his backstory. To think that Harry had tried to kill himself was something that she couldn't comprehend. He was the strongest person that she knew, he had been through everything that someone could and he always came out swinging and on top. She knew that he was upset when she left but how could he be so far gone? She had lost the most important person in her life that night and it had been hard for a while but each day it got a little better, it seemed like the exact opposite happened to Harry.
" Neville where is Harry's flat at?" she asked him.
" Oh no! Im already in for a world of pain, there is no way that im going to dig myself a deeper hole!" Neville said sipping his drink.
Hermione looked at him with a pleading expression on her face. " Please, I really have to talk to him. I know its asking a lot of you but I don't really have any other choice. I dont know if I can save what little bit of a connection that I have to him."
Neville sighed as he swallowed his drink down. Giving a shudder at the power he looked back at up her. " I can't believe that im about to tell you this. He isn't going to be at home, ok? He only ever is at his flat when he is sleeping or eating he never spends any real time there. Im going to guess he is probably at the White Wyvern pub in Knockturn Alley. That's usually where he goes for a drink when he doesn't want to be bothered."
With a huge smile on her face she gave Neville a peck on the cheek and downed her drink before running over to the floo. Calling out the name of her apartment she disappeared leaving and emotionally distraught Neville pouring himself another glass.
A/N- Hope that you liked it. Review and tell me what you think.