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This chapter is split in two again for easier reading.

Lestrange Manor

Neville's work at 's went really well the next day. Eric Crabbe seemed to have survived the contact with the curse without any lasting damage. Neville was going to keep him for a week to be safe but it looked really good.

Two of the Hogwarts students injured in the school fight could leave the hospital and the third was finally able to get up from bed. Neville was really glad that they hadn't suffered any lasting damage.

He left the hospital with a very content feeling that lasted until he reached the Lestranges' door. They were living in the middle of a fen. The treacherous ground always made Neville uncomfortable. Bellatrix had heavily implied that unwelcome visitors were in danger of being swallowed by it.

"My name is Neville Longbottom and I've been invited here by Rodolphus Lestrange," he spoke, his wand raised.

The ground did not swallow him. Instead, an iron gate with a falcon crest materialised in front of him, seemingly disconnected from any fence or building. Upon seeing this, Neville remembered yesterday's memories about the Auror called Cordelia Savage. Her Patronus had taken on the shape of a falcon.

Neville rang the bell.

A few moments later, the gate was opened by the little girl he had seen on Deborah's photo the day before.

"Hello Neville," Roxana said, beaming. "Come in."

Neville did. The gate wasn't standing in the fen on its own anymore. It led into a beautiful garden that no one would have expected to be there. There were a vast number of plants both exotic ones and seemingly mundane species such as nettles. Most of them weren't growing in neat patches but wildly mixed. Neville couldn't deny that it was interesting for anyone who cared about plants; he didn't think it was very practical though.

A path with white gravel led up to the house. Medea's Leaf vines were creeping up the house walls.

"Didn't Debbie want to come?" Roxana asked.

"I'm coming directly from work," Neville told her.

"Ah, okay. Well, maybe another time. Maybe she'll change her mind and stays over night."

Neville suppressed a sigh. He didn't want to start this discussion again.

Rodolphus Lestrange was meeting them at the door. "Roxana, you know you're not supposed to answer the door on your own."

"I knew it was Neville."

"You can never know for sure," her father said before turning to Neville. "Good evening. Sorry for that but she needs to remember this."

"No problem," Neville said, wondering whom Lestrange was expecting to come for his daughter.

They walked into the house. A hallway was leading through it; the walls were adorned with various portraits of family members from past days. They were whispering about the guest.

"I'd never have expected him to invite a Longbottom," one of the wizards on the portraits said. "Don't know if that's a good idea."

"I'm married to a Longbottom," the man on the portrait next to him said in indignation. Neville knew that their daughter Ricarda had been a highly respected Minister of Magic.

Still, Neville felt quite uncomfortable under their stares. Many pureblood families were known for an interest in the Dark Arts but not a single one of them that given birth to more people infamous fo their use of the Cruciatus curse. Some of them had been guarding Azkaban in the past; the idea to use Dementors for this purpose came from a Lestrange.

They were walking into the living-room, where Roderic was sitting, his nose behind a book about magical plants.

"Roderic, I'm going to discuss something with Neville. It can take a while, please don't disturb us. That goes for you too, Roxy."

"Oh, how boring," Roxy said. "I thought we'd eat now."

"We have to wait for your mother."

"Do you play with me?" Roxy asked her brother.

Roderic sighed and put his book away. "Okay."

"Bellatrix would like you to stay for dinner, by the way," Lestrange told Neville.

Neville wasn't exactly keen on that but it would be rude to decline and his family knew that he might come home later. "Thank you," he said.

"We're going to have a vegetarian meal," Lestrange said with a smile.

"Oh no," Roxy said. "Not that cabbage again, is it?" Roderic was grinning.

Neville avoided looking at them. During his previous visits, he had refused to touch any of the meat offered to him. He didn't really belief in the rumour that the name "Death Eaters" was derived from a tendency to serve the flesh of murdered Muggle children for meal but he couldn't quite get it out of his head either.

"Why don't you want Debbie to stay with us?" Roxana suddenly asked.

Neville was startled. He had almost forgotten about that. It was hard to keep track of the things people he was dealing with did or didn't know. What had Roxana been told?

"I think she's too young to stay away overnight. There's enough time for that when she's older."

"I don't understand that. Debbie's older than me," Roxana said.

"We really have to go now," Lestrange said. "Otherwise, we won't be finished when your mother comes back. Come on, Neville."

They left the children in the living-room and walked towards Lestrange's study. The room was lined with shelves holding numerous books and files. Neville looked at them curiously. Maybe, some of them contained information that could help Ginny. If only he got a chance to take a look without Lestrange watching him.

"Roxana's right. Deborah's age really shouldn't be a reason. She's going to Hogwarts in only three years," Lestrange said.

Maybe, Neville thought. "I didn't want to mention it in front of the children but Deborah isn't exactly an easy child. I don't want to burden you with her."

He asked himself why he was trying to make excuses. Lestrange surely knew that he didn't trust them enough to leave his daughter with them. They were responsible for most if not all of her problems. The third generation.

Still, it wasn't a lie. Neville really didn't like the idea of Deborah being alone in this house with her nightmares. He was also worried about Roderic's behaviour towards her.

"It's not always easy with our own children either," Lestrange said. "Do think about it again. Roxana has so much magic, spending time with her might trigger Deborah's as well."

"I'm surprised that you want your daughter to play with a child who might be a Squib," Neville said.

He wasn't quite sure were these words had come from.

"I don't think that she's a Squib," Lestrange said. "You know you could easily find this out, don't you? Your gift to see another person's magic works on young children as well."

Neville sighed. It had occurred to him of course. His grandmother had always refused to let the Healers at 's do this with him. Probably, she had been scared of the result. Now, Neville was feeling just the same.

"You're afraid of what you could find out?"

Neville nodded. There was no point denying this. It couldn't really be used against him. Or so he hoped.

"I can understand that. Still, if she does have magic but there's something wrong with it you could help her that way."

Neville would have liked to tell him that it was none of his business. He was here to discuss the Memory Potion. Why this sudden interest in his daughter anyway? Neville didn't like that at all. What could be wrong with Deborah's magic anyway? And why? Nothing bad had ever happened to her.

He hated how he couldn't trust Rodolphus Lestrange but was still dependent on his knowledge in so many matters.

He looked at the clock on the wall.

To his surprise, Lestrange caught the hint. "We really should start with our business now."

He showed Neville the notes he had made about the Memory Potion and explained in detail how it was browed and what the different ingredients were supposed to do. As Neville had suspected, Medea's Leaf was one of the key ingredients.

Afterwards, Lestrange told him about the potential side effects. "It should be reasonably safe. We've tried small doses on small Memory Charms and there was barely anything. Slightly higher temperature and a headache. If the dose is larger, I expect fever and maybe nausea as well. Not the most pleasant thing, but a reasonable price for regaining your memories I daresay."

Neville agreed.

"Depending on the nature of the Charm and the kind of memory it's been hiding, worse effects are possible of course. Especially, if the patient turns his magic against the potion for some reason. Like all new treatments, careful monitoring is in order. The effects shouldn't last long though, a few hours at most. You-"

A girl's scream kept Lestrange from finishing his sentence. "Please excuse me for a moment," he said, walking out of the room. For a moment, Neville wondered if he should follow and check on Roxana but Lestrange was perfectly capable of dealing with any potential injury on his own.

Neville however finally had a chance to take a look at the things in his shelves. Lestrange owned a large number of books. Many of them were about various dark or otherwise dangerous spells, the Cruciatus curse prominent among them. Lestrange had filled many rolls of parchment with his own writings about that curse. Neville also spotted a submission for the International Society of Healing Magic. He asked himself if Lestrange intended to hand this in, when he noticed the date on the file. It was 26 years old. He must have written it during his first time at 's.

To Neville's surprise, some of the books on his shelves had been written by Muggles. They were about the treatment of tortured people and victims of child abuse, probably directed at Muggle Healers. Neville would never have believed that a Death Eater would look to Muggles for knowledge but Lestrange had probably felt differently about these matters in the past.

Finally, Neville found what he was looking for. The old patient files. They were sorted in an alphabetical order and the one for Cordelia Savage was there. Neville listened carefully; Lestrange didn't seem to be coming back yet. Neville took the file out of the shelf and opened it. It was written in Lestrange's usual, dispassionate style. He described his various fruitless attempts to help Savage. According to him, the patient's own magic kept the cure from working because it confused the effects thereof with the curse. This was a very common problem with Cruciatus curse patients; Neville had experienced it as well. Lestrange hadn't been able to remove the destructive magic permanently from her body, the same problem Neville was facing with Ginny.

He had first tried to mix a higher dose of the memory stimulant into the potion but this hadn't helped. Then he had realised that the effects of the two parts of the potion were cancelling each other out in Cordelia Savage's case. As a result, Lestrange had given the two separate potions.

The effects of that were described in the next part of the file. Lestrange gave a short description of the side effects and the measures taken by him. Savage's own disintegrated magic had started to work against her and Lestrange which caused various dangerous situations. The onset of the memories had also made her relive the curse she had suffered from as if it were used on her again. It had been possible to counter this effect but it didn't sound easy.

Even written down in Lestrange's factual style it became very clear what kind of ordeal Cordelia Savage had endured.

Neville couldn't imagine putting Ginny through this. He didn't think he would be capable of watching her suffer like that and still react swiftly to do what was necessary to avoid worse effects. Neville also doubted that he could handle these resurgences of the curse by combining the dark magic with his own.

In the end, her Auror training and her sense of duty were the things Cordelia Savage had been clinging to so she could find her way back. Ginny had none of these things. She hadn't even been seventeen when she was arrested.

"Your patients don't need your pity," Lestrange had told him right at the beginning. "They need you to do what is necessary."

"Neville?"

The file fell to the floor. Neville hadn't realised that Lestrange had returned.

"Be careful with that. The copies at 's are gone for whatever reason, I need this."

"I'm sorry," Neville muttered, picking the file up and giving it back to him. He felt as if he had returned to Hogwarts, sneaking around the castle as part of some rebellious plan which would result in nothing but a new punishment.

"You can have a look at anything in this room whenever you like," Lestrange said. "I'd prefer you to ask me though. Wanting to put the waiting time to a useful purpose is understandable however."

Neville remembered the reason for Lestrange' absence. "Are the children alright?"

"Yes, quite. They only decided to go somewhere where they aren't supposed to go and got into a bit of trouble. Nothing to worry about."

"Good," Neville said.

"You are interested in the case of Cordelia Savage?"

Neville tried to remain calm. "Yes, I've heard of her and wanted to know what had happened."

This wasn't a lie. His voice did sound quite calm. He had gained experience in this matter.

"Could you satisfy your curiosity?"

"Yes, sort of."

Neville didn't dare to go into the subject more deeply. More detailed information about Savage's recovery would have been helpful of course, but he couldn't ask for it without raising suspicion. It was bad enough that he had caught him looking for the information.

"There are still some questions left, aren't there?" the Death Eater asked.

Neville sighed. If he refused to speak, it would seem as if he was hiding something. "I was just surprised about the two separate potions," he said. "I thought it was too dangerous to use the memory stimulant without the other ingredients."

"You're quite right. It was dangerous. In her case there wasn't any choice however. She probably wouldn't have lived for long if I hadn't done it. The damage to her magic was too great."

"Because the Dark Lord was the one who did it?" Neville asked.

"Did your mother tell you that?"

Neville nodded wondering why he was askingt.

"Yes, the Dark Lord himself has been one of Cordelia Savage's torturers. His skills in dark magic are far beyond anything an ordinary witch or wizard can achieve. This was true of the damage caused by his curses as well."

Neville remembered the Auror Savage who had come to their aid with her falcon Patronus. She hadn't been more affected by Dementors than other people. Neville absolutely couldn't imagine his mother dealing with these creatures as calmly as she had.

"But you could cure her completely," he said aloud. It had been an impressive feat indeed.

"That was only possible because she was so determined. She took every little chance to remember and to fight against the curse. She wasn't afraid of remembering. Some people acted as if I were some sort of hero back then. In fact, the only one who's been a hero was her. She didn't betray a single thing by the way. Even though she was facing the Dark Lord himself."

Neville swallowed. Was his mother not able to do what this other Auror had done? Why not? Was there something about Lestrange's own curse or Bellatrix' which caused more lasting damage than what Voldemort himself had done? But why?

It was impossible to ask this question of course. Even if he could bring himself to do so, Lestrange would probably not be interested in informing him about his special torturing skills.

So Neville listened to him talk about Cordelia Savage instead.

"She's probably the bravest woman I ever knew. It's a shame she's left but probably not surprising. The German Aurors are quite glad to have her in their team now I've heard."

Cordelia Savage's decision to leave Great Britain after Voldemort's victory really wasn't surprising Neville thought. She had been tortured by the new master of the Wizarding world after all. How could she accept his rule and work for him?

Neville would never have believed that Lestrange would speak about an enemy of Voldemort with so much respect. Could memories like these awaken his old self?