Chapter 3: Neville
My name is Neville Longbottom.
I'm a teenage wizard currently in my seventh and final year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I've always loved Hogwarts. Though there's been plenty of bad days here, both caused by the usual jerks and the occasional disaster of one of Voldemort's plans, the school provided me with times I'll treasure for the rest of my life. I learned a lot here and finally got my forgetfulness issue dealt with. And I made the greatest friends you'll ever find. Friends who not only stood by me when I screwed everything up, which I used to do quite frequently, but helped me develop my confidence and my skills. Harry Potter and Hermione Granger were particularly determined to help me develop from a pathetic, spineless boy into the confident, talented man I've become, not that Ron, Ginny, Luna and occasionally a few others didn't do what they could for me along the way. Hogwarts brought me in touch with them, my first friends.
But the happy times at school were clearly over. Now it was dark, scary and lonely. The school seemed so empty with not only the Muggleborns gone, but Harry and Ron too, fugitives of the law thanks to the oppression the Dark Lord has descended upon us all. The feeling of safety Hogwarts had always provided was long gone with Dumbledore being killed within the grounds and the Death Eaters, Snape and the Carrow siblings, ruling the school. Within only a few weeks since returning, they'd made the place horrible. We were forced to take Muggle Studies where they tell us how horrible and inferior Muggles are to us and Defence Against the Dark Arts had been turned into a Dark Arts class, which was again compulsory. Anyone who defied the Carrows and their new oppressive rules was punished painfully and Madam Pomfrey was forbidden to treat any injuries dealt by them, no matter how painful. On top of that, no matter what state you were in afterward, you were expected to be at every meal and class on time without help or you would be punished again.
It was despicable. There was no way I could do nothing. Harry wouldn't. And I wasn't the only one to feel that way. Ginny and Luna felt the same way. Seamus, the only dorm mate I had left verbally abused the Carrows. He got some nasty blows for that, the torture curse and a blow to the face being the worst of it, but the next day, it was only Ginny telling him to take a deep breath and wait for the right moment that stopped him from doing it again.
We couldn't take them on alone, so we decided to do what Harry, Ron and Hermione did the last time we had an oppressor for a teacher; we took out our DA Galleons and called Dumbledore's Army to the Room of Requirement.
I guess I shouldn't have been, given the circumstances, but I was surprised by the immediate response of the other members. Apart from Zacharias Smith, a self centred coward, every DA member still in the school arrived at the first meeting. Sixteen of us in total. It was only about half of what our number had once been, but it was enough. We quickly got organised and set out to make things as difficult for Snape and the Carrows as we could. We snuck out at night and painted challenging slogans on the walls, we intervened in as many detentions as we could without getting caught, we even pulled childish pranks, like dousing them with water or filling their offices with Nifflers and rodents. Over the last four weeks, we've been a huge pain and they have no idea who the DA are, so we're still safe from near death punishments, but it's not enough. We're going to have to get more aggressive soon, take bigger risks, otherwise Hogwarts will never be safe again. The problem is, how do we do it without the Carrows killing us? Or worse, stopping them only to bring more Death Eaters to our door?
...
I was crouching low behind statue near the door to the dark arts classroom. I was ditching class, but I didn't really care. I was supposed to be in Charms at the moment and Flitwick would mark me present. He didn't approve of the students creating a rebellion, but he didn't stop us either. He, like most other teachers, knew we were the only ones that could without more Death Eater teachers joining the staff and it had to be done, so he helped us the only way he could and gave us an alibi whenever possible.
Ernie Macmillan was around the corner, ready to rush in the minute I gave the signal. We weren't letting Carrow go through with this today. A first year managed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and got detention. If it wasn't bad enough that an innocent and terrified kid got any kind of detention just for getting lost, Carrow decided that he could serve it as a target for a sixth year class to practice the Cruciatus Curse on. My blood boiled at the idea of doing something so atrocious and it only took a second for Ernie to demand that I let him help me stop it when he found out.
I held perfectly still as the class past by us, barely holding back a growl. The bulk of the students going in were Slytherins. Their faces held the smug, superior look they'd had since the beginning of the year. Of all four houses, theirs was the only on not to decline in numbers and seeing as they were either the children of Death Eaters, or like them anyway, they were quite pleased with the changes. They made me want to puke. They knew what they were doing today and they were eager to do it. If I could have, I would have blasted every one of them right there and then. But I had to do this delicately. We'd only get one shot at sparing the poor kid any pain and to do it, no one could know we were here until it was too late to stop us. Not to say that no one knew we were there. Ginny and Luna were in the class too, the former winking at me as she passed me. Luna came from the hallway Ernie was hiding in, her dreamy smile planted firmly on her face. No doubt she'd spoken to my partner and was up to date with the plan. I could just see the tip of her wand poking out from where she'd hidden it up her sleeve.
"Everyone, gather around. Push those desks back, come on, hurry up!" A deep voice ordered harshly as I heard a door swing open and slam shut from the other side of the room. "The sooner we begin this lesson the better."
I bit my lip so as not to scream in rage and tip Amycus Carrow off as the squeaking and groaning of desks moving across the stone floor hit my ears. Slowly coming out of my hiding spot, I leaned on the wall beside the door just as Ernie came around the corner, wand already drawn and staring at me intently. Motioning him to wait, I peeked through the open door, which Carrow liked to leave open so everyone around could hear the victim's screams, and watched as everyone inside formed a semi circle at the front of the room, all eyes either on Carrow or the kid he was holding roughly by his hair.
"Now class, we are practicing the art of torture today." Carrow smirked, pulling harder at the kid's hair, eliciting a scream. "One by one, you will cast the Cruciatus curse on this little rule breaker. You will each hold it for twenty seconds before passing him on to the next student. Pan, you're first." He stated pushing the kid into the open space between him and the class. Pan, a Slytherin girl, grinned evilly, terrifying the kid even more as she pulled out her wand.
That was it. Turning to Ernie, I mouthed the word now, raised my wand and pointed it into the room at the same moment as Ernie gave his a flick.
"Steady your hand and- AAHH!" Carrow cried. A chair had shot into the air to his right and flown on a direct course to his head. He barely had time to duck. Beside him, Pan ignored the boy as she dived out of the way as the chair moved on to her.
"Accio boy!" I whispered, taking advantage of the resounding bang as the chair hit a table to hide my voice.
"WHOA!" Wide eyed, the boy screamed as he was ripped off his feet and soared, coming right at me.
"What the STOP HIM- ARGH!" Carrow cried furiously, running towards the door as he noticed the boy flying away, his wand drawn. However, before he could do anything, his foot became stuck to the ground, resulting in a face plant. I grinned at Ginny under my hood as she subtly put her wand away.
Catching the boy as he made it past the door, I quickly set him down firmly on his feet and pushed him down the corridor.
"Run." I whispered as Carrow got back on his feet, angrier than ever. "Get out of here as fast as you can." The kid didn't need to be told twice and raced down the corridor faster than I ever thought first years could move.
"Protego Maxima!" Ernie shouted as Carrow fired a curse our way, putting up a shield right in the doorway and effectively blocking the spell. "Let's go, that won't last long!"
"Long enough." I responded, but I took off after him anyway, running down the hall. Turning the corner at the far end of the corridor, the telltale sound of the shield blowing up met our ears, but any tension we got from it immediately disappeared as the echoing bang of the door slamming shut quickly followed, along with what sounded like someone body slamming it.
"And to think I told Luna that closing a door wouldn't do anything." Ernie laughed as we kept going, pulling up a hand to stop his hood from falling down. "The git had to have just ran into it. He might even have a broken nose now."
"Let's laugh about when we know we're safe." I responded a little breathlessly as we reached the stairway. I wasn't in the best shape and how many wizards bother to become marathon runners anyway? "We're not out of the woods yet."
Unfortunately, I was right. Just as we made it to the next floor, a spell collided with the wall beside me, blowing a part of it up and throwing a dust cloud in my face.
"Get back here you BRATS!" Carrow roared, his voice resounding off the walls as he approached. Coughing and spluttering, I turned back and just managed to see Carrow levitating himself up the staircase through my watery eyes. Not caring that I was half blind at the moment, I picked up my speed and prayed I didn't run into anything as another spell flew past me, this one causing my robes to flutter as it pasted not an inch away from my hip.
"You just had to jinx us!" Ernie cried exasperatedly, ducking as Carrow threw another shot, this time aiming for Ernie's head. Growling, Ernie whipped around and raised his wand right at Carrow as I passed him. "Stupefy!"
"Grrr." Carrow grunted, waving his wand and blocking the red energy ball his way. However, though it didn't solve our problem, Carrow did have to stop in place to block the spell, giving us the chance to put more distance between him and us. We could still run, if slower than usual, while firing offensive spells, but Carrow's defensive ones would require him to stay relatively still. Something I was very keen to take advantage of.
"Petrificus totalus!" I shouted, spinning around as Ernie passed me. Again Carrow stopped to throw up a shield spell as I turned and picked up my pace, grinning cheekily as I did.
Ernie must have caught on to what I was planning pretty quickly because we quickly fell into a pattern. Every time Carrow would throw a curse our way, the one ahead would retaliate with one of our own, forcing Carrow to protect himself while the other one of us would pass by the attacker. It worked out well for a while. The problem was that we had to make it to the other side of the castle to get to the Charms corridor and we were tiring out. To make it worse, we'd expose ourselves to him if we led him to our class.
"Damn it, why is he still chasing us?" Ernie puffed, starting to trail behind me as opposed to being ahead where he should have been with our current strategy. "Doesn't he still have a class to terrorise?"
"No, we've irritated him too much." I huffed back, wincing as a stitch started growing quickly in my side. "But we have to get rid of him now. I can't run much longer." I groaned as Carrow turned the last corner after us, only causing me to groan louder. The corridor we were in was wide and empty. We were easy targets here. At least until we made it to where the next corner and the stairs opened up to the side.
"I have an idea." Ernie mumbled, digging his free hand through his pockets as he thrust his wand over his shoulder. "Just keep quiet and turn down the corridor. Camaflet Vaporis!"
My jaw dropped in amazement as a thick fog exploded from his wand, quickly filling the entire hallway.
"You didn't think to do that earlier?" I hissed softly, a little annoyed as Carrow screamed bloody murder behind us. I imagine that if I'd seen his face it would have been as red as red gets. "We could have lost him ages ago."
"Yeah well, sorry, it's hard to think when spells are being aimed at your head." Ernie retorted, putting extra effort into running and motioning me to do the same. Just as we met the t section, Ernie slowed down just enough to let the fog start covering him and tossed a few black balls down the stairs before grabbing my robes and tugging me into the corridor opposite it, just missing a purple flame thrower Carrow shot randomly through the fog with a scream. Gasping down as much air as he could without making any sound, Ernie pulled me to a stop and we leaned against the wall, Ernie's wand still creating more fog to hide the stairs and the corridor from view.
"You think a little smoke screen will stop me?" Carrow screamed as bright flashes of light that all reeked of dark magic flew dully through the fog, one of them forcing us to duck as it angled just well enough to make it around the corridor corner. "I've dealt with mist plenty of times in my life. I don't have to see you, I'll still find you."
I was getting a little worried now. He was close, real close. It sounded like he was only a few feet away and if he managed to find us we were sunk. My whole body was appalled by the very thought of more running and I could tell that Ernie wasn't any better without seeing him. With my hand on his shoulder, seeing as I'd lose him in the mist without the physical contact, I could feeling his body rising and falling heavily, trying to suck in as much air as possible. We couldn't run away anymore and if we fought him head on, he'd discover who we are and that would only make things much worse for us later even if we did win.
My heart beat as loud as a drum as I heard his stomping feet reach the corner. Praying that he didn't hear it, I placed my hand over my mouth and held my breath, feeling Ernie move to do the same. If Carrow heard the slightest peep, we were done for. My eyes widened as his boot appeared out of the fog and I sunk down as low as I could, preying to whoever was listening that he wouldn't see us.
Fortunately, a bunch of small explosions decided that that moment was the perfect time to go off. Bang after bang ploughed into my ears, making me cringe in pain as they echoed and mixed, creating a long, constant, thunderous noise. I almost screamed, it was so painful, but I just bit my lip and pressed my hands to my ears.
"Uh-huh! You think damaging the school will save you? I'll have you writhing in agony before this day is done!" Carrow screamed as his boot disappeared. Soon after, the explosions finally died down and all I could hear was the distant and fading thumps of Carrow's boots stomping down the stairs.
"Aww, I was hoping he'd fall and tumble down a few floors." Ernie sighed, pouting as he finally cancelled his fog spell.
"Well, if we were that lucky, Hogwarts would never of had to deal with him and his bloody sister in the first place." I responded, sighing in relief as we got slowly back onto our feet. "Personally, I'd say getting away unscathed after what we did would have us classed as legendary around here these days. And I'm not trying to brag either."
"Sounds too easy to become legendary. If only it was." Ernie nodded as we headed down the hallway, much more sluggishly then before, and returned our house crests and ties to their proper places. We'd taken them off for secrecy purposes, but if Carrow came to our Charms class at the end of the hall and they were missing, then we may as well have left them on to begin with. Reaching the door, we pulled our hoods down as we entered, getting more than a few stares as I closed the door behind us.
"I see the two of you are back from the bathroom." Professor Flitwick said casually, though the look he was giving us was much more intense. "Well, what are you waiting for? Hop along back to your seats. We're practicing transporting food from the kitchen today."
Finally getting my breathing under control, I nodded with an appreciative smile and sat down next to Seamus as Ernie flopped next to Hannah.
"Page four hundred and twelve." Seamus muttered as he handed me my book bag. Nodding my thanks, I opened it up and quickly pulled out everything I needed. "You're lucky that there aren't any Slytherins in this class. They'd tattle on you in an instant."
"That's why Terry didn't come with us." I replied with a shrug, flipping to the page. "Now how do you do this?"
...
Carrow did end up barging into the classroom about halfway through the lesson looking like he was about to explode and demanding that Flitwick tell him who had come in late, but as expected, the Charms Professor told him that the only student that wasn't there on time was Susan Bones, who was currently in the Hospital Wing due to an illness. I had to smile as Carrow stormed out of the room, almost breaking the door as he slammed it shut. He wasn't even slightly interested in the first year anymore. Now he just wanted me and Ernie and he didn't have a clue who we were. Score one for us.
Though I made sure that I was on time for my other classes. Excluding Charms and what passes for the mandatory Muggle Studies these days, there was at least one Slytherin in all of my other classes. I just sat there and focused on my work in Transfiguration and tried desperately to keep myself from laughing at Carrow's rant to his pain of a sister during lunch. Herbology was quite relaxing, despite how dangerously poisonous the plants we were replanting were. It was my favourite subject after all and I had good company there with Hannah Abbott and Anthony Goldstein sharing a table with me. I have to admit, I was a little jealous of Ernie and Susan. Outside DA stuff, Hannah was the thing on my mind most of the time these days. I'm just glad that she hasn't realised why I sometimes stutter or go red when I'm talking to her.
It wasn't until dinner time that something else out of the ordinary occurred. I was starving by the end of classes and filled my plate as soon as the food appeared.
"I wish she'd stop it." Seamus muttered awkwardly just as I filled my mouth. Looking up, I found him frowning at his food, picking at it uncomfortably, his eyes darting subtly down the table only to shoot back down as he let out an irritated sigh.
"What's wrong Shay? Normally you've eaten half a plate of food by now." I asked, keeping my tone light and teasing, trying to get him to lighten up.
"It's Lavender." He answered. He was speaking so quietly that I had to lean in a little to hear him. "She's developed a bit of a crush on me again and she's been very obvious about wanting me. And she's not taking the hint that I don't want to go out again."
I could only nod sympathetically at that. I remembered when Seamus dated her. It was in our fourth year. Seamus had a crush on her and took her to the Yule Ball and they had a few dates after, but Lavender turned out to be too intense for Seamus, not giving him any space. She was basically his shadow. So he broke it off. It seemed she hadn't gotten any better with her love life since then either if last year was anything to go by. When she dated Ron, it was all about kissing and physical contact in addition to being his shadow. Sneaking a glance at her, I caught her batting her eyelashes seductively at the brunette Irishman quite openly. I could see why he was uncomfortable.
"Just ignore her methods and if she asks you out, tell her you're not interested." I said, pushing his plate a little closer to him. "Now eat."
Seamus still didn't look like his usual self, but he put food to his mouth and that was enough for me right now. I wish I could've helped him more, but getting involved with a one sided crush scenario was never a good idea. Seamus had to deal with it himself. Deciding not to worry about it, I returned to my own meal.
"So I assume you got away safely." Ginny whispered as she took the spare seat beside me and started grabbing a decent serving of mashed potatoes and chicken wings. "How about the kid?"
"He's fine." I answered between mouthfuls. "He ran in the opposite direction we did and I assure you that Carrow was chasing us. I've never had to run so far in my life."
"Well, you'll have to run more often." Ginny responded lightly, giving me a grin. "You're turning into Harry after all. Running off with little to no help and risking your life to save someone else. You're going to be chased a lot."
"I am not turning into Harry." I stated, though I had definitely felt a little flattered. Harry had been my idol throughout my time in school as much as anyone else's after all. He was courageous, talented, kind and self-sacrificing. A true Gryffindor. "Harry refuses all help whenever possible and isn't happy unless he's rushing recklessly into a battle situation alone. I on the other hand, was quite happy that Ernie wanted to help me do it and felt relief at the idea that you and Luna would be there to back us up if something went wrong. And it was Ernie who saved us today, not me. I have got to find out where he found that fog spell, it could really come in handy."
"True, but you rushed in and risked your neck, leading the mission, and you're the leader of the DA." Seamus butted in, smiling proudly. "You've filled Harry's place in our little rebellion quite nicely. Trust me, when this is all over, the entire world will be callin you a war hero too."
"I highly doubt that. I'm just disrupting the enemy in the school, not doing anything that will have a major effect on the war." I muttered, turning back to my food.
However, before I could even take one bite, the main entrance was opened so forcefully that it sounded like a bomb went off, making me jump and drop my fork. Tensing, the whole student body shut up instantly as what sounded like heavy metal scraping the floor loudly and constantly came from the entrance hall. A few seconds later, we found the source to be none other than a wounded, blood covered, furious looking Hagrid.
"What are you horrid Death Eaters bringin to da castle now?" He demanded, gritting his teeth. "As if Dementors weren't bad enough, now you wanna bring in dark beasts that eat everything they see?"
"What are you on about, you blithering buffoon?" Alecto Carrow snarled, raising a disgusted eyebrow. "No creatures have been brought to Hogwarts other than Dementors. Between them and our new security team coming in tonight, we have no need for other creatures."
"And I assure you, the security team coming in is very human." Snape added coldly, his face void of emotion as he stared at Hagrid.
"Well, sorry for the accusations." Hagrid snapped sarcastically, his hand tightening around the rope in his hand. "But last I checked, only your type would want anythin ter do with somethin like this." With that he pulled on the rope and the painful groans of metal rubbing against stone occurred again as he pulled a large, metal cage through the doorway.
Gasps filled the hall as the creature within came into view. My eyes widened and I felt my jaw go slack as I stared. I had never seen anything like it, even in Hagrid's classes.
It looked a lot like a hideous, giant yellow worm or centipede, taller than any human. It had dozens of dull orange limbs on either side of its body, the back half legs and the front half pincers. A large, circular mouth took up half the size of its head was filled with razor sharp teeth. Circling it were four large, jelly-like red eyes.
And you know it had to be bad if dragon craving Hagrid hated them.
"I haven' got a clue what it is, but it's hunger's insatiable and it eats everythin." Hagrid boomed, hitting the cage in his anger. "I caught four o these blighters in the forest, just by the edges, eating everythin. And when I say everythin, I mean plants, animals and everythin else. Hell, they were even eating right through tree trunks and stone before they saw me and attacked. Only got out of that alive because they started eating each other once I'd got em bleedin. The only thing they don't consume is metal and that's not from a lack of tryin."
"As interesting as this is." Snape started slowly, staring at the creature. At that moment, I could have sworn that I saw a flicker of dislike and concern pass through his eyes as it stared back at him. "I assure you that it is not here under my approval and I would thank you to remove it from the castle before it finds a way to break free and eats a student."
"Then kill it." Hagrid snapped, glaring heatedly at the greasy haired git. "We can't have somethin like this runnin around Hogwarts now can we?"
"I'm surprised that you don't want to keep it as a pet." Snape retorted coolly, though he got to his feet and pulled out his wand anyway. "The Cerberus of yours is far more dangerous than this thing. Or is that the problem? It's not dangerous enough for your tastes." Hagrid growled as Snape approached, clenching his fists at his side. I had to bite my lip to hold back my own anger at Snape, Ginny tensing beside me. Hagrid was a good guy. Yes, he had a fascination for dangerous creatures, but that didn't give Snape the right to publically attack him over it.
"He hasn't put a collar on you yet, slimy git." Seamus muttered under his breath. I wasn't able to hold back my snort at that. "You're a dark and dangerous creature."
"Twenty points from Gryffindor for Finnegan's little remark." Snape snapped, turning an icy look to Seamus for a second before turning back to the worm thing, raising his wand. "Avada Kedavra!" I flinched at the green beam flying from Snape's wand as it struck the creature. Whatever it was, it wasn't all that magic resistant as it was flung forcefully back against the opposite side of the cage and dropped straight down without making anything more than a squeak, dead.
"There." Snape said calmly, not even batting an eyelash as he lowered his wand. "It is no longer a threat. Now Hagrid, please make sure that there are no more of these creatures in the area so we may ensure the safety of our staff and students."
"Very well, Professor." Hagrid responded, spitting the last word venomously as he shoved the cage back out into the entrance hall before heading towards the teacher's table. "First thing tomorrow. A bit foolish to go out there at night when it's hard to see. Specially since we don't know what they can do."
I turned my attention away from them after that, ignoring their banter. I didn't know why, but something about that creature worried me more than it should. I was sure that I could blow them away with one or two spells, so fighting them would be no more dangerous than most other creatures in the forest. Hell, with all the usual creatures' resistance to wizard magic, they'd probably be a lot easier to handle. It was something else. Maybe the fact that they were new to the area and judging from all the confused whispers around the Great Hall, no one had a clue what they could be. I'm not exactly sure why they made feel so uneasy, but for whatever reason, I couldn't shake the feeling that they were a bad omen. It felt like something was coming. And whatever it was, it wasn't good.