AN/

The passages quoted are from the American version of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", Chapter Twenty-three, Christmas on the Closed Ward, page 510-11, 512 & 514. Harry Potter books are the sole possession of J K Rowling and no copyright infringement was meant or implied by the use of this quoted passage.

Chapter 9 : Neville saves the day

The Healer pointed her wand at the door of the Janis Thickey ward and muttered 'Alohomora'. The door swung open and she led the way inside, keeping a firm grasp on Gilderoy's arm until she had settled him into an armchair beside his bed.

"This is our long-term resident ward," she informed Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny in a low voice. "For permanent spell damage, you know. Of course, with intensive remedial potions and charms and a bit of luck, we can produce some improvements . . . Gilderoy does seem to be getting back some sense of himself, and we've seen a real improvement in Mr. Bode, he seems to be regaining the power of speech very well, though he isn't speaking any language we recognize yet . . . well, I must finish giving out the Christmas presents, I'll leave you all to chat . . ."

Harry and Hermione exchanged looks while Ron was craning his neck to see if Neville and his Gran were down at the end of the ward, behind the privacy screen that they knew was blocking Neville's parents area from the rest of the ward. Ginny had been pulled down onto a chair next to Lockheart, as he reached for a pile of photos.

"You can put them in envelopes," he said to Ginny, throwing the signed pictures into her lap one by one as he finished them. "I am not forgotten, you know, no. I still receive a very great deal of fan mail . . . Gladys Gudgeon writes weekly . . . I just wish I knew why . . . "

Ron nudged Harry. "I can see Neville's Gran's hat bobbing up and down, so they're down there all right."

Harry nodded, then Hermione grabbed his arm, and pointed to a trolley, on which rested some wrapped Christmas presents and a rather ugly potted plant, it swaying tentacles moving slowly, looking rather innocent, with the Christmas bow tied around the pot. But they knew better and watched as the Healer took the plant over to Bode's bedside and left it on his night table, talking softly to him.

"It really doesn't look dangerous, does it," whispered Ron.

"But in a week, it'll have grown enough to kill Mr. Bode," Hermione reminded him.

Harry came over to them and whispered, "Here comes Neville and his Gran."

"And - oh, Mrs. Longbottom, are you leaving already?"

All four of the kids swiveled around to face the approaching witch and her grandson. They had to suppress a fit of the giggles, remembering how Neville's Boggart had been Severus, dressed as his Gran . . . and here she was in the flesh; green gown, fox fur, buzzard topped hat, red purse and all!

"Neville!" Ron called. "Who are you here to see? We're getting autographs from old Gilderoy," he finished, jerking his thumb over his shoulder.

"Neville, dear, you must introduce me to these friends of yours," Mrs. Longbottom instructed, as she bore down on them. Neville was too busy blushing and looking at the floor instead of at the group in front of him.

"Hello, Mrs. Longbottom," Harry said, extending his hand. "I'm Harry Potter."

Her shriveled, clawlike hand grasped his in a surprisingly warm, firm handshake. "AH, yes, I know who you are, Neville speaks highly of you, Mr. Potter. And you two are clearly part of Molly and Arthur Weasley's brood . . . I know your parents, not well, of course, but they are fine people."

"Thank you." Ron stuttered, while Ginny nodded, balancing the growing stack of photos on her lap.

Next, Mrs. Longbottom turned to Hermione. "And you must be Hermione Granger?"

"Yes, I'm very pleased to meet you," replied Hermione, as she shook hands, surprised that Neville's Gran knew her name.

"You've helped our Neville with a few sticky bits, I'm told . . . he's a good boy, but doesn't have his father's talent, I'm afraid." Mrs. Longbottom turned to cast a look at the two beds, just visible at the end of the ward.

"Are those your parents down at the end?" Ron asked, realizing how he was embarrassing Neville, but knowing it had to be done this way.

Mrs. Longbottom swung her gaze over to her grandson. "Neville, haven't you told your friends about your parents?"

Neville sighed and shook his head no.

"There's nothing shameful, Neville, if anything you should be proud!"

"I'm not ashamed, Gran," whispered Neville.

Mrs. Longbottom huffed, and then turned to address the others. "My son and daughter-in-law were tortured into insanity by followers of You-know-who." Ginny and Hermione put their hands over their mouths in shock. "They were well respected Aurors, very gifted, don't you know and . . . yes, Alice dear, what is it?"

Neville's mother had come up behind Neville and was holding out her hand.

"Again?" said Mrs. Longbottom, sounding slightly weary. "very well, Alice dear, very well - Neville, take it, whatever it is . . ."

But Neville had already stretched out his hand, into which his mother dropped an empty Droobles Blowing Gum wrapper.

"Very nice, dear," said Neville's grandmother in a falsely cheery voice, patting his mother on the shoulder. But Neville said quietly, "Thanks Mum."

His mother tottered away, back up the ward, humming to herself. Neville looked around at the others, his expression defiant, as though daring then to laugh, but Harry did not think he'd ever found anything less funny in his life.

"Well, we'd better get back," sighed Mrs. Longbottom, drawing on long green gloves. "Very nice to have met you all. Neville, put that wrapper in the bin, she must have given you enough of them to paper your bedroom by now . . . "

Just as Neville was pocketing the gum wrapper and starting to follow his Gran, Hermione grabbed his sleeve and stopped him.

"Neville!' she hissed. "Do you know what plant that is over on that night table? I seem to remember seeing a picture of it, but can't remember it's name; it's so strange looking."

Neville cast a glance over to the bedside table and his eyes popped open as he gasped. He looked around and spotted the ward Healer fussing around the bed of a patient on the other side of the ward.

"Healer Strout!" he called, as he headed over to her, causing his Gran to stop and turn around.

"Neville?" She retraced her steps and stopped next to Harry. "What is going on, Mr. Potter?"

"Don't have a clue, Mrs. Longbottom," Harry answered, as they watched Neville talking to the Medi-witch and pointing in Bode's direction. Healer Strout's eyes got wide and she bustled over, with Neville on her heels to inspect the writhing plant.

"Oh, my stars! It IS Devil's Snare! This is a very dangerous plant, not something you give as a gift! What foolish person would do such a thing?" She sputtered. "I might never have noticed, if you hadn't said something, Mr. Longbottom! You may have saved Broderick's life!"

"Well spotted, Neville!" cheered Ron, patting his friend on his back.

"What is going on, Neville?" His grandmother inquired.

"Well . . . ah, Hermione . ." Neville stammered.

"I was just looking over at that plant and thought I might have seen a picture of it in our textbook, but couldn't remember it's name, so I asked Neville if he knew what it was. Neville's absolutely brilliant in Herbology, you know, Mrs. Longbottom, so, who better to ask?"

"Are you really good in Herbology, Neville dear," asked Gran, a quizzical look on her face.

"Oh, yes, he is," confirmed Harry. "He's even better than Hermione, and that's saying something!"

Neville was blushing beet red by this time, and he was positively gob-smacked when Ginny came over and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Just then, a security guard came through the door, having been called by Healer Strout, who pointed to the plant.

"Who brought this in here? One of you lot?" asked the guard, looking at the group standing there, but Healer Strout cut him off.

"Certainly not! This was brought up from the lobby on the cart with the rest of the gifts delivered this morning, long before our guests, here, arrived. Mrs. Longbottom and her grandson are regulars visitors and Mr. Potter and his friends were visiting Gilderoy, a former teacher of theirs at Hogwarts! No one else has been here today!"

At the mention of Harry's name, the guard spun and looked at him, checking out his scar. Then, he had the good grace to look slightly embarrassed at halfway accusing 'The boy who lived' of trying to kill someone with a Christmas gift plant.

"Instead of standing there gawking, might I suggest you remove that plant and try to track down who brought it . . . down in the lobby, perhaps," suggested Mrs. Longbottom, looking down her nose at the red faced guard.

"Yes, Mrs. Longbottom, I'll do that straightaway!" he exclaimed, as he hustled over to grab the potted plant and make his retreat as quickly as he could without actually running.

"Humph! Incompetent fools, letting something like this into St. Mungo's. The Board will hear about this from me!" Mrs. Longbottom said, righteous indignation written all over her face.

"Oh, dear, I'm in trouble, now," muttered Healer Strout.

"You most certainly are not!" replied Hermione. "You're the only one here, taking care of this ward, on Christmas, no less. And those presents, especially that plant, should have been checked before they were brought up. You have enough to do without taking on the duties of the security force . . . isn't that right, Mrs. Longbottom?" giving her a look that showed she wouldn't take no for an answer.

"You're certainly correct, Miss Granger," Gran replied, after a moment's pause. "Healer Sprout is an excellent Medi-witch and I wouldn't want anyone but her watching over Frank and Alice," she added, patting Healer Sprout on the arm. "Neville and I know they are safe and well cared for with her on duty, and I'll make sure the Board knows that, too."

"Thank you, Mrs. Longbottom," whispered healer Sprout, as Hermione beamed.

"Excuse me, Mrs. Longbottom, may I have a word?" Harry asked, as he took her elbow and guided her away from the others.

"What can I do for you, Mr. Potter?" she asked, when they were alone.

"Nothing for me, Mrs. Longbottom," Harry said, making sure Neville couldn't hear him. "It's for Neville . . . you see, I know you don't think Neville's a very skilled Wizard, as compared to his Dad but, I also understand he's using your son's wand."

"Yes, yes he is. I thought it would be a good way for him to stay connected with his father; very talented, my Frank."

"Well, that's what I'm trying to say, without insulting you, I mean." Harry looked up at the foreboding witch in front of him, and then plowed on. "I was told, by Mr. Ollivander, that the wand chooses the Wizard and using someone else's wand won't work as well. So, maybe it's not that Neville doesn't have his Dad's talent, it's that he doesn't have his own wand, the right wand for him. Maybe, as a surprise Christmas present, you could take him to Ollivander's and get Neville a brand new wand, his own wand. Also, as a reward for saving Mr. Bode's life?" Harry finished in a rush and then waited for Mrs. Longbottom to reply.

A long moment passed before Mrs. Longbottom drew herself up to her full height, having made up her mind about what Harry had said.

"Out of the mouths of babes," she muttered and then looked at Harry and smiled. "Mr. Potter, I want to thank you for pointing out a grave, selfish error on my part. I must let Neville be the Wizard he was meant to be, not try and mold him into a copy of his father. I've been a foolish old woman." She waved her hand as Harry opened his mouth to protest. "No, you are quite right and I will take Neville to Diagon Alley, straightaway!"

Harry smiled and nodded. "Neville really is a great Wizard, I can see it in little ways, so this will be excellent for his self-confidence, Mrs. Longbottom. Thank you so much for listening to my suggestion."

"Thank you for having the courage to speak up, Harry. I hope you don't mind my calling you Harry?"

"No, not at all." Harry smiled.

"I do have a bit of a reputation as an old battle-axe, which I encourage, by the way," she whispered, with a twinkle in her eye. "Oh, and you may call me Gran, from now on, I insist!"

"Very well, Gran," replied Harry, offering her his arm, as they returned to the others. Gilderoy was busy tying a blue ribbon around the pile of pictures, which he handed to Ginny.

"Well that about does it! Come back anytime if you need more!" He grinned at all of them.

"We'll be sure and do that, Professor," acknowledged Hermione, as they all headed for the door, waving goodbye to Professor Lockheart and Healer Sprout as they left the ward.

"Neville, my lad, we are going to Diagon Alley while we're here in London, so come along. I'm going to stop and have a word with the Head Healer before we leave. It was a pleasure meeting all of you." Mrs. Longbottom waved, as she headed for the stairs.

"Happy Christmas, everyone!," Neville said, as he started after his Gran. "See you on the Express!"

"Bye, Neville!" "See 'ya, mate!" "Bye!" "Happy Christmas, Neville!"

After Neville and his Gran disappeared through the door of the stairwell, the four looked at each other and grinned.

"We did it!" "It worked!" 'This is great!" "Now what?"

"Let's get back downstairs . . . no wait, we never got to the Tea Room!" exclaimed Ron.

"Then it's onward and upward!" proclaimed Harry, pointing to the stairs. "Shall we?"

"Let's!" replied Ginny and Hermione together, which started them all laughing, as they made their way down the hall and up the stairs.

X X X

Sirius was sitting, absolutely mesmerized by what he was seeing on the TV, the four watching him with indulgent smiles. As the segment ended, he sat back and shook his head.

"You Muggles are really amazingly resourceful, coming up with ways to make Magic look real, like you do . . . I'm properly gob-smacked."

"And you haven't seen the bit about me doing the underwater scenes," Dan informed him. "There's no such thing as 'Gillyweed' in our world. I was in that bloody tank for months, practicing holding my breath and then filming the scenes."

"Months?" asked Sirius, aghast.

"Months!"

"Merlin's baggy knickers!" Sirius exclaimed, setting off a fit of roaring laughter from the rest.