DISCLAIMER: Based on characters and situations created and owned by J.K. Rowling.
The Neville Trilogy thunders towards its cataclysmic conclusion at breakneck pace
NEVILLE FALSUS
chapter seven
into the dark
The journey had been long and uneventful. Harry had moaned the entire journey about how bored he was, and they'd all gotten held up for four days when Hermione wanted to go shopping in Paris before eventually getting back together with Harry after a wonderful, romantic evening in the French moonlight, though Harry hadn't scored because Ron had been there too and Hermione had at least enough decency to think that actually shagging in front of Ron might melt the poor boy's brain. They spent most of the rest of the trip camping, so we'll skip that, because no one wants to read about camping for pages on end.
Neville had been relatively quiet throughout most of the journey. For one thing he didn't want to engage Ginny any more than was necessary, and he was trying desperately to come up with some sort of plan for getting into a heavily fortified Death Eater castle.
When he actually saw the castle he knew instantly that all of those long hours spent planning had been wasted. He had not anticipated that Voldemort's castle would be quite so big.
It was a massive black tower in the mountain range, with only one path leading up to it. The doors looked two big to open with any kind of normal magic, and Death Eaters constantly patrolled the battlements. Presumably, at night, they would be aided by the rest of Voldemort's minions.
"Shit," Harry muttered.
"Oh well, looks like we can't possibly get in," Malfoy said cheerfully. "Guess we'll just have to turn around and go home then. Let's go."
Malfoy turned to walk in the opposite direction, but Snape grabbed him and pulled him back.
"It's not so bad," Snape said, though judging by the look on his face he didn't believe a word of it. "If we each take twelve Death Eaters apiece, and then whoever kills their twelve first kills another forty-two, we'll just have Voldemort and the strongest Death Eaters in the Throne Room to worry about." Snape hung his head. "I can't believe I'm actually going to die like this," he muttered.
Harry apparently chose to ignore that last part.
"Excellent," he said, clapping his hands together. "Shall we go on three then? Or does anyone have to go to the bathroom first?"
"I have to go!" Ron exclaimed, waving his hand in the air.
"Right, you go to the toilet and we'll get ready for the assault," Harry said. Ron happily skipped out of their hiding place and into plain sight of the castle, but no one took any notice of him.
Neville was not feeling particularly good about this plan, and he wasn't the only one. Malfoy looked the worst of all of them. He was a pale looking boy at the best of times, but right now even the air around him seemed diminished.
Sirius and Lupin were taking a final moment to comfort each other and muttering things like, "We'll be with James and Lily soon." They had refrained from copious drinking before, but now had apparently decided to break out the Firewhiskey for one last, glorious piss up before they kicked it. Snape was happily marking a couple of student essays he had brought along with him. He laughed on several occasions. Lavender reapplied her make-up. If she was going to die then she was going to look good. Harry and Hermione were having a "tactics briefing" half-concealed behind a bush.
And Ginny just sat staring at Neville.
"Well, are we ready to go then?" Harry asked once he and Hermione emerged from bushes and failed to smooth out their hair (a fruitless effort on both counts).
"But Ron isn't back yet," Malfoy said, looking oddly pleased. "If Ron has managed to get himself killed out there, then we can't ever attack. Ever." Harry seemed to consider this for a moment.
"I think we're not really missing anything without Weasley," Snape said. "If we need someone to make a complete arse of themselves and possibly kill us all then Black and Lupin have had a good few to drink."
"It's settled then," Harry said. He took a step towards the castle but Malfoy suddenly shouted.
"There's another way into the castle!"
Everyone looked at him.
"There's a back way around the other side of the mountain," he clarified.
"How in Merlin's name could you know about a Secret Entrance when even I didn't?" Snape demanded. Malfoy seemed to need time to think about that one.
"Er, um, ah, well, the thing is." He took a deep breath. "Aha! My father – my father was a high ranking Death Eater. He told me all the secret ways in."
"All of them?" Hermione asked. "Are there more than one?"
"Of course not. The Dark Lord isn't stupid. He knows better than to have more than one poorly guarded entrance to his impregnable fortress."
Snape did not looked entirely convinced, but the prospect of a secret entrance had everyone else feeling a lot better about the whole thing (except for Sirius and Lupin, who were worried they might sober up in the time it took to travel the whole way around the mountain).
Ron took his sweet time getting back.
"What kept you?" Harry demanded when he returned.
"I got a bit lost," Ron replied. "That castle is really big on the inside." The members of the group took a moment to process this.
"You actually went to the castle to use the bathroom?" Snape shrieked, losing his composure first. "Couldn't you have just gone behind a bush?"
"Mum would kill me if she caught me doing that," Ron explained as though he were talking to a two-year-old.
"So the Death Eaters let you into the castle?" Harry asked, looking thoughtful.
"They're not stupid enough to fall for it twice," Malfoy said, obviously reading Harry's thoughts correctly. "Even Crabbe and Goyle would get suspicious if all of us wanted to use the bathroom."
"We could say that Ron's a bit nervous and needs all of us there to support him," Harry said.
"That's true, I do take a long time to get comfortable enough to go," Ron beamed. "If I had some encouragement it would definitely be a lot easier."
"Let's just go to the secret entrance," Neville said, taking charge of this disaster. Ginny enthusiastically agreed with this suggestion, bouncing up and down in a way she'd obviously learned from watching Hermione. Neville took a moment to swallow before telling Malfoy to lead on.
It took a full day to get around to the other side of the mountain. There was a small wooden door; exactly were Malfoy had said it would be. It was only guarded by four Death Eaters. Ron managed to distract them by asking what they thought about the Chudley Cannons's chances for the season. When the four had been stunned Ron revived one of them to carry on the argument.
"No, you fool, Heskey is a useless Seeker," the Death Eater insisted as Harry stunned him for the second time. Ron had his wand at the ready to revive the Death Eater once more, but Neville and Malfoy fought to restrain him.
"Ron, we need to get going," Neville pleaded.
"I want to wake him up so I can beat some sense into him," Ron snapped. "I shall not sit back and allow the great Heskey to be insulted in this way!"
They eventually got Ron through the door. They were standing in a long corridor that wasn't lit at all. With the aid of a Lumos spell Snape was able to light the way in front of them a bit more. He led the group down the corridor, followed by Hermione clinging to Harry, Ginny clinging similarly to Neville, Ron attempting to hold an unwilling Malfoy's hand, Lavender on her own, and Sirius and Remus stumbling along.
Eventually they hit a snag in the plan. The corridor branched off into five different equally dull looking corridors. Snape called them to a stop and turned around to look expectantly at Malfoy. Everyone else did likewise (although Ron had to glance around a bit before he realised what everyone was looking at).
"I don't know," Malfoy said. "But I'm fairly sure at least one of them leads to the castle."
"Let's split up gang," Harry said, happily clapping his hands together. "We'll go in groups of twos."
"I pick Lavender!" Neville exclaimed. He wiggled free of the grip of a disappointed Ginny to stand beside a perplexed looking Lavender.
"Fine!" Ginny snapped. "I'll just go with, er... um... Harry!"
"He's with me," Hermione said cheerfully, bouncing up and down.
"With Sirius," Ginny said then.
"I'm with..." Sirius looked at the face of his oldest friend for a long time as if hoping to remember something.
"My name is Remus."
"Aye, that one," Sirius said happily, before collapsing to the ground as Remus ceased to support him. Unfortunately their relationship of support went both ways, and Remus likewise slumped down to the ground.
"You and me will be together then, sir?" Malfoy asked his beloved professor. Snape glared at him.
"Absolutely not," he snapped. "I'm going nowhere with a traitor to the noble Slytherin House. Who else is there?"
Ron made a goofy grin. Snape sighed.
"Oh, is there no one else?"
"There's me," Ginny shouted. She bounced up and down, which drew Neville's eyes to a part of her that continued to bounce up and down for a brief (yet wonderful) moment after she had stopped. Snape did not look pleased, but he weighed up his options.
"Looks like it's you and me again, Malfoy," Ron said. "Alone at last."
Malfoy looked positively mortified.
"Remember, if you want to talk to the other groups then the charm is Walkus Talkus," Hermione told them. "Everyone pick a tunnel."
The five groups each took a tunnel. Snape made sure to stop Malfoy from trying to take the way back out again before he took his own tunnel with Ginny.
"You're kind of cute in a greasy way," Ginny told him once they were alone. "Do you want to try and make Neville jealous?"
Snape sighed and wished he had picked the other Weasley.