3SM139
Disclaimer – It all belongs to JKR, I make no money, just having fun.
Warning – character death.
Chapter 139
Augusta frowned when Neville did not return the next day, that evening she firecalled Madame Zabini. Blaise and his mother had returned to their London apartment that day and they answered with what they hoped was sincere confusion.
"Neville? Why, we haven't seen him, he didn't come over here." Madame Zabini answered Augusta's questions, blinking as if in astonishment.
"I was sure he said he was going to visit Blaise last evening." Augusta was quite put out. Just like Neville, these days, causing constant worry.
"We weren't here last evening." Madame Zabini said quite sincerely. "Perhaps he went to another friend, since we were not at home."
Augusta thanked her absently and then firecalled everyone she could think of, even the Weasleys. No one admitted to having seen him. Augusta was beginning to worry by the time she went to bed, but she had no idea of how to mount a search without bringing in Aurors.
Augusta muttered to herself. If Neville wasn't home by morning she would call in the Aurors and Neville had better hope he had a good excuse for hiding in this manner.
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It was days before Theo could make his way to the kennel – cells and talk to Neville. The Death Eaters would come and tell him how important he could be to their cause. That he would be important, and become a well – respected member of their organization. They were sure of their impending success once they took Hogwarts and Albus and Potter were dead the light would collapse and Pius would become Minister of Magic.
They took turns, talking to him endlessly, rarely letting him sleep for more than an hour or two. Neville began to wonder if they were right. Maybe it would be better to truly join the Dark Lord, make something of himself. His grandmother would scream about what a disappointment he was, like she always did, and this time he would actually deserve it.
The muggles watched and listened to all of it with uncomprehending looks and fear. Usually the talks with the one they called Neville were followed with pain being inflicted on one or more of them. Several died but were replaced with others.
Finally Theo spotted his chance and slipped in and crouched next to Neville with just the bars separating them.
"I have a portkey that will take you to the Leakey Cauldron. Professor Snape gave it to me before he stopped being our Head of House. If I needed to escape from home quickly I could floo to his house from the Leakey and he would take me to a safehouse. I was going to do that before spring break. I wanted to spend a last Christmas with father." Theo shrugged. "You can use the portkey once you're outside of the house. I'll open the door. Wait until I'm gone and then make a run for it."
Neville nodded quickly, and then Theo cast an alohamora and slipped back out quickly. Neville eased out of the cage and made his way to the outside door. The muggles surged to the front of their own cages, yelling desperately for Neville to let them out as well. Hearing voices and footsteps coming their way, Neville did not stop, but ran through nearby bushes, hoping they would cover his escape and portkeyed away as soon as he felt that he had passed the wards.
He landed in a corner of the Leakey Cauldron and immediately went to the floo and went home. He was greeted by a hostile grandmother and two Aurors.
Augusta hadn't contacted the Aurors until that very day – two days before school was to restart. She had decided to search for Neville using friends. Unfortunately she had depended on Blaise and his friends, Herron, McClaggen and Trigg. The three older boys were all graduated and they promised to search carefully for Neville.
They had reported back to Augusta that they had 'seen him in Knockturn Alley at a very disreputable tavern, but he had had run off before they could catch him.' Then they 'were sure they saw him exiting a rather notorious madam's house'. More sightings of Neville here and there around Knockturn Alley and Trajan's Terrace in the company of 'seedy looking wizards' were reported to her over the next few days.
Augusta became more and more angry with Neville and finally she had called the Aurors, and gave them all the information she had. The Aurors were looking a bit amused at the tales of Neville's rather risqué exploits over the holidays, but were also a little surprised.
The Longbottoms were a very conservative bunch of purebloods and Frank was still talked of in terms of great respect among the Aurors that had worked with him. Not to mention Neville was only fifteen. Rather young to be getting served at even the lowest of the bars and most madams would turn him away as well. He had to have been scraping the bottom of the gutter to be getting drunk and carousing in this manner.
Neville flooed in just as the Aurors were reassuring Augusta that they would find her wayward grandson. She immediately lit into him, in spite of the audience, letting him know just what she thought of his behavior.
Auror Alderton was an older, experienced wizard and was showing the rookie, Adrian Kirke the ropes. Adrian had been Tom Riddle's roommate the one year he'd attended Hogwarts and he remembered Neville, just a bit. He found it hard to believe that Neville was running amok in this manner.
Neville was definitely looking the worse for wear. His clothing was disheveled and certainly looked – and smelled – like he hadn't changed them in a week. They looked over the boy's pale face, bloodshot eyes and how Neville looked ready to collapse. Both Aurors silently agreed that he matched the description of a young wizard who'd had far more of a good time than was healthy for him.
They said their goodbyes and gave reassurance they would look into the bars that had allegedly served Neville and the madam that was 'contributing to the delinquency of a minor'. Augusta never paused in her harangue and Neville just gave them a resigned look before they left.
Truthfully Neville was relieved that Augusta and others thought he'd just been partying with unnamed friends. At least they would not guess he'd been marked by Voldemort. He certainly hoped he wouldn't have to hide his left arm for the rest of his life, it just wasn't fair.
Augusta finally ran out of insults and complaints and Neville looked up at her. There had not been much in her speech that was new. He was already a disappointment, so nothing bad he did could really worsen what she thought of him. It was a little freeing, really, to realize that misbehavior really couldn't make him more of an outcast to his grandmother. He decided to tell her as much.
"Well, since I was already a substandard, worthless waste of magic, it is not like I could disappoint you all that much by my appalling conduct. So, it's not like it matters what I do." Neville walked by her and up to his room while she worked through what he had said.
Neville headed straight for the shower and scrubbed fruitlessly at the dark mark. It looked a little faded and didn't move. Maybe tricking him as they had done made the mark not as effective, he had a brief surge of hope that it would simply go away.
He dressed and sat on his bed, wondering what to do. He was marked, likely for life. He'd been held prisoner by Lord Voldemort for days, marked and no one knew thanks to Blaise's friend's firecalling with their lies. He was grateful to have his disgrace covered up, but at the same time it was frightening. It meant that they had a plan for him.
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The muggles yelled for Neville to help them for several minutes, until they were sure he was gone. By that time a bunch of Death Eaters had arrived and cursed them until they pleaded for mercy. Voldemort arrived when it was noticed that Neville was gone.
Some of the Death Eaters searched the grounds and found the trace of recent portkey activation.
Voldemort stalked over to stand in front of the muggle's cages. "Well, anyone care to enlighten me as to who helped Longbottom's escape?" He gave them a frightening smirk that promised pain if he wasn't answered.
Most of the people inched back and lowered their eyes. They had found that if they didn't meet the gaze of the wizards, they didn't have their thoughts invaded, which was rather painful. Voldemort glanced over the prisoners and found one of the newer additions. Another expensively dressed robber baron that was now looking rather tattered. When he had first been captured, he'd kept telling the Death Eaters that he 'was not concerned about their terrorist cell's agenda' and that he would pay them well if he was just released.
Voldemort chuckled. The muggle simply didn't understand that 'their agenda' involved eradicating rats like him. The muggle was struggling to not betray his alarm at having Voldemort's attention. He'd been here long enough to realize these people liked to inflict pain, but not long enough to start believing that they really could do things in unexplainable ways – 'just like magic'. He was still struggling to explain it all away. Worse, he insulted them on a regular basis by offering to buy their 'inventions' or whatever they were using to 'make these tricks happen' if he was let out.
Voldemort waved the cage open and the muggles parted hastily to leave a clear path towards the unlucky muggle. Voldemort stopped a few feet from the man. He didn't need to even use the legilimancy spell to read the man's surface thoughts. The opportunistic idiot was trying to figure out how to negotiate his release by betraying the traitor in their midst.
Voldemort sneered. The muggle was going to betray a wizard. Vermin on the same level of rats and cockroaches daring to pull down a wizard with treachery. Voldemort would be less disgusted if the muggle at least tried to keep the information to himself. But no, he was eager to hand over the one who had freed Longbottom even if he was handing them over to die.
"Well, I imagine that you know who freed the boy?" Voldemort asked mockingly. Sure enough the muggle immediately became coy and started his 'negotiations'.
"… and then after you free me, when you decide to patent all the equipment you do your tricks with, I want to be the one to market it." The muggle finished his lengthy demands and gave Voldemort a chummy grin.
Voldemort lifted one eyebrow and pretended to consider it. "Well, if you give me the name I want I promise to release you and then we'll see about 'marketing' a few things."
The muggle all but rubbed his hands together, a greedy gleam coming into his eyes. Voldemort was amused to see that most of the other muggles were eyeing their comrade with a mingling of disgust and alarm. Few of them seemed to think the man was actually going to be freed if their surface thoughts were any indication. Perhaps they were capable of learning.
"The boy's name was Theo. I recall seeing him here with his father, last name of Nott." The muggle smirked triumphantly. He could hardly wait to market some of the things he'd seen. It would likely revolutionize the weapons industry. Not to mention that torture … um, interrogation techniques were about to become more interesting.
Voldemort grimaced angrily. The elder Nott was one of his most trusted. He was fanatical, as only someone who had lost the most important thing on the world to them can be. Once Nott's wife had died the only thing Nott cared about was 'the cause' with his son coming in a not very close second.
"Well" Voldemort said coldly to the muggle. "Let's see about your leaving." He raised his wand and the muggle slowly started losing his smile. Voldemort cast a cutting curse at him, slicing the man's throat. Voldemort turned and left, not bothering to watch the man's last moments and paid no attention to the screams of the other muggles. "McNair, our guest wishes to leave. Please assist him."
Voldemort waved at the angry looking Nott and they left, followed by the other Death Eaters that were there. They soon entered the ballroom that was now Voldemort's 'court'. There was a time when he'd have killed Theo without a thought, and his father as well to teach his followers a lesson in child-rearing.
However, at present he couldn't afford to lose an experienced and very loyal fighter like Nott. He glanced over at a terrified Theo who was being dragged in. No, some leniency must be shown.
"Nott, your son has proved a disappointment, though that is obviously not your fault. The Malfoy brat and Harry Potter have clearly been heavily influencing him." Voldemort looked at the elder Nott with sympathy. "I know that both of us had high expectations for him. He is clever and would have been a great asset. Even now I believe that he is smart enough to be persuaded that joining us and standing at your side in the highest circles of my Death Eaters is the best choice."
Voldemort watched as the older Nott mulled this over. His cared about his son Theo, just not as much as he cared about Voldemort's 'cause'. Theo could be a part of what he loved most, stand beside him as the Dark Lord took power.
Theo watched with a sinking heart while his father nodded at the Dark Lord. "Give me until the day that Hogwarts reopens. He'll either take the mark and help us or die, my Lord."
Voldemort nodded graciously, impressing the watching Death Eaters with his mercy toward Nott and his wayward son.
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Lucius smiled as he took a seat in the enormous solarium and opened a new mystery story that he'd gotten for Christmas from Dudley. Some Patterson fellow had written them. Dudley had acquired a stack of 'crime novels' by Patterson about someone named Alex and he was now a few chapters in on the first book of the series.
The reading would be quicker if he didn't have to repeatedly ask Dudley or Petunia to explain things. He was, however learning a great deal about detective work in the muggle world and the muggle world in general. Crimes were essentially the same … the muggle perpetrators simply used a somewhat different means to achieve the same ends – pain and death.
The next day Dudley and Draco would be going back to Hogwarts, but Lucius smiled smugly as he thought about the coming term. Remus intended to once again prove he was the best DADA teacher in years and show up Umbridge at the same time.
Lockhart was also eager to spend more time at Hogwarts. He felt he'd gotten as much publicity as he was likely to by living at the werewolf colony. Unfortunately, for him at least, Hugo's plan for having Gilderoy live with the werewolves and write all about it had indeed made the general public feel that maybe werewolves weren't so very hazardous to live around, if precautions were taken.
Women and publishers weren't hanging on his every word or panting eagerly for his next book, now. He needed a new adventure to sell. Lucius had known that the invitation from Hogwarts to 'oversee the DADA class' along with Lupin would be considered a godsend by Lockhart. The Chamber of Secrets adventure had cemented Gilderoy's reputation; he just needed a little something to renew public interest.
Lucius frowned at the book and tried to recall what was meant by a 'perp walk' when he heard Tori and Beth come into the solarium, closely followed by Dobby who tended to shadow either Tori or Petunia most of the day. Lucius encouraged it, feeling that the added protection could only be a good thing.
It was a 'pony riding lessons' day. Tinker would apparate the pony, Jinxy, and Beth to Malfoy Manor and then back to Dragonsrest after the riding lesson and visit, as Beth often stayed for lunch and a visit those days. Sometimes the girls played with the ponies a bit more, or baked cookies with Petunia. However, quite often the girls played in the solarium since Tori and Beth were allowed to grow whatever plants they liked there.
The solarium had become a bit deserted over the last few years and most of the plants were moved to the greenhouses. Now, with Tori and Petunia reopening this part of the house, the plants were slowly being reintroduced.
Petunia and the girls picked out the flowers and Tori and Beth learned how to group them and once again the room turned into a beautiful oasis. Lucius was only half listening to the girls chatter when he suddenly heard an unhappy squawk next to him.
"Dad!" Tori's aggravated voice brought him out from behind his book. "Have you been yelling at our plants again?" Tori pointed to the huge, nearby urns filled with azaleas and trillium. They did look a bit droopy and withered.
"Uh, no … of course not." Lucius answered defensively. Tori was glaring at him skeptically and Beth was giving him a sadly disappointed look. Lucius was feeling a lot more intimidated than back when he'd been questioned by Aurors. This felt a lot like when they were doing their 'good Auror / bad Auror' routine.
Tori looked at the wilting plants significantly and back at Lucius, raising one eyebrow and Lucius felt a trickle of sweat form on his forehead. Dobby peeked around the azalea urn and shook his head in disapproval at the accused plant – killer. Seti appeared from somewhere along with Freya and they added their cool feline censure.
"I may have yelled a bit while I was in here discussing Umbridge, but I wasn't yelling at the plants." Lucius answered with a bit of desperation. "Those azaleas are just too sensitive and the trilliums droop over everything." Lucius started wondering if he needed an exit strategy to escape.
"Maybe we should move the azaleas and trillium away from the sitting area and put something else here." Beth offered, saving Lucius from the situation and making Lucius wonder if he owed her a life-debt.
Tori nodded, "Yes we can bring over some Calla lilies and Yellow flag." Tori sniffed a bit haughtily at her father, who was hiding behind his book again. "Neither of those flowers will care what he says."
Lucius soon had planters full of coolly aloof lilies and defiant yellow flag sitting next to his favorite reading chair. Lucius hoped this was the end of the skirmish. Out of the corner of his eye, Lucius could see Seti give him a look of disgust before curling up in a patch of sun with his back to Lucius. Lucius hunched down a bit further, Seti always could make him feel like he should have a Hufflepuff badge on his cloak.
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Dolores arrived at Hogwarts the night before the students were due to arrive back. She dreaded the lessons, knowing that he options for retaliating against the expected attacks on her lesson plans were very limited. She would simply have to bide her time. Once Lord Voldemort attacked Hogwarts and killed Dumbledore and Harry Potter along with their band of half-breed followers the Ministry would fall quickly as well as the school.
She smiled happily at the thought of her revenge. She was to be the new Headmistress. She would soon have all this nonsense of muggleborns and half-breed students sorted out. The people that she knew were going to be tormenting her over the next few days would pay dearly.
But, she really had no choice. Her orders were to organize the students who were loyal to the Dark Lord – or at least had families who were and who had no choice but to help her. They were to find a way for the Death Eaters to enter Hogwarts undetected and they best had get it done as soon as possible.
Dolores' pride would have to take a back seat to her Lord's agenda. Whenever she got angry with these blood traitors and half-beasts she would just imagine the revenge she would take once Voldemort had triumphed.
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Gregory Goyle hunched down in the seat on the Hogwarts Express. His father had dropped him off rather early with a glare to remind him that his father was displeased. Goyle Senior had caught Greg trying to sneak in to where Theo was being kept. Greg had hoped to help Theo somehow, though he hadn't been sure exactly how he would achieve that.
Greg's father had immediately taken him home to give him a thrashing and then set some house elves on him to 'keep him out of mischief' until school restarted.
Greg was unhappily aware that Theo might be dead, now. He would only show up on the train if he had caved to the torture and took the Dark Mark. Greg hunched down in misery. Theo had been determined to never follow Voldemort, Greg could only hope that the end would be quick, but he had doubts about it. Nott Sr. had been determined to get Theo on board with the Death Eaters.
A twitchy looking Blaise and an oblivious Crabbe came in and sat. Greg refused to look at either of them. Silence reigned for a time and the train slowly filled up.
Neville slunk on board and hid among some frightened first years who were still too intimidated by upperclassmen to even speak to him. Dudley and Ron got a compartment and were soon joined by Harry, Draco, Luna and Mafalda, which meant the Hermione, Dean and Seamus soon followed. Then Padma and Pavarti and everyone else of their acquaintance milled around. They soon had four compartments full and most of them wandered between them, gossiping and greeting one another.
"Anyone seen Theo?" Draco asked.
There was some discussion and soon it was obvious that no one had seen Theo. Pansy frowned unhappily. "My family has gone into one of the safehouses the Mr Malfoy and Professor Snape set up. Theo said he was going to enter one as well, by the end of the year. He said he wouldn't be safe at home after the Christmas break. Maybe he went to one during the break?" She looked hopefully at Draco and Harry.
Draco hated to shoot down the hope in Pansy's eyes. "If he had, dad would have told me, like he told me about your family."
Harry was unwilling to give up hope, though, himself. "If he went to the safehouses today, instead of the train, we wouldn't know about it as yet, though."
Dudley listened quietly. He had a bad feeling about all of this. He exchanged a look of dread with Ron and Ginny. Ron's parents had been talking about some of the horrors they had seen in the last war, not realizing that the kids had been listening. None of the Weasleys were very hopeful that Theo was safe.
It was pretty plain to the students surrounding Harry Potter that the lines between those that supported Voldemort and those that didn't were becoming much more defined. The fence-sitters were choosing what side they were going to back or they were taking 'extended vacations' to unnamed parts of the world.
Most students greeted Harry and the others as they went by. Some looked too stressed or worried to smile, likely due to the articles about Igor Karkaroff's death and the new 'suggestions' from the ministry on staying safe.
Others had calculating looks or even a bit of hostility. It did not necessarily mean they were future Death Eaters, of course, but they were unlikely to support Harry Potter in the conflict that was already started. It was disheartening to see that the hostile students came from every house, even the Hufflepuffs. Of course Zacharias Smith and his friends glared at Harry Potter because he was 'obviously dabbling in dark arts' and getting away with it.
The train ride was, nevertheless, uneventful since there were a high number of teachers patrolling and the prefects were unusually attentive, not to mention Severus wandered the aisles with his wand drawn.
The students rode the carriages through the gates and were disembarking from them and stomping around in the snow to get the circulation flowing again when cracks of apparition were heard outside the gates. Hagrid and his crossbow were immediately in front of the gates and the teachers quickly got between the students and the Death Eaters that were appearing outside the gates.
Minerva sent off a patronus to summon Albus while Severus faced off with the Death Eater in the lead of the pack of about a dozen. Severus stood in the gateway where the warding ended, wondering what the pack intended to accomplish. The leader was carrying something wrapped in a cloak and Severus' heart dropped when he could see a pair of boots poking out the bottom. A person, then.
To his shock the leader whipped off his mask, to reveal Nott Sr. His face was a mix of fury and grief. He threw the bundle at Severus' feet and the cloak unrolled to reveal the battered body of Theo Nott. He had not died easily, it was clear.
"This is your fault, Snape." Nott screamed at Severus. "You corrupted my son! He rejected his family's ideals and turned his back on our Lord. I'll kill you and that whelp of James Potter's you protect."
Severus barely heard Nott's vitriol as he stared at the boy at his feet. Theo had tried so hard to leave the dark family he'd been born into. His only fault being that he'd wanted one last Christmas with his father. He'd been so very close to escaping safely.
The Death Eaters watched Severus eagerly, hoping that Snape would cross the wards to avenge his student, as they intended. Severus started to step forward to do exactly that when Fawkes flamed himself and Albus in right next to Severus, while Tom in his dragon form dove in from above to aim a jet of fire at the Death Eaters. Albus grabbed Severus' shoulder, stopping him.
All but Nott immediately apparated away at the sight of the dragon. Nott stay long enough to scream at Severus, "Theo's death is on your head, Snape. You turned him into a blood traitor."
Severus unclenched his jaw long enough to lock eyes with Nott and hiss, "No, you murdered him all on your own, Nott."
Nott flinched and then snarled and apparated away just as his cloak caught flame.
With the Death Eaters gone, Tom transformed back and strode through the gates to stand over Severus as Theo's old Head of House knelt next to him. Severus brushed the blood-encrusted hair off Theo's face and closed his eyes for him.
The younger students were herded to the castle by the older students and some of the teachers, but most of the fifth years were gathered around Theo, many of them crying. Severus would have carried Theo to the castle himself, but he could see that Theo's friends needed to do something for their fallen friend.
Harry, Draco, Dudley and Ron gathered around him and were soon joined by Ernie McMillan, Seamus, Dean and Martin Prewitt. They carefully picked Theo up and carried him between them. The group was silent except for the weeping. Pansy was clearly hysterical and Hermione, Lavender and the Patil twins were trying to comfort her through their own tears.
Theo was laid on a bed in the infirmary and the screens were made rather impervious to keep the students out until Aurors could be summoned.
The disruption rather fractured the usual welcome back feast. Even after dozens of vials of calming draughts were passed around the weeping continued and no one was in the mood to celebrate returning after the winter break. The feast went mostly untouched and the students left for their dorms long before the usual hour.
Neville had skipped the feast entirely and huddled in the room that Theo had been in with Greg Goyle. He absolutely would no longer share with Blaise and Vincent. He didn't count on Greg's violent response to finding Neville sitting on Theo's bed.
Greg grabbed Neville by the collar and dragged him toward the common room, bellowing about all that had happened. "Theo helped you escape, he gave you his portkey and you said nothing to anyone once you got clear of the Death Eaters. His friends would have been looking for him if they'd known what had happened. Professor Snape would have realized Theo might be caught out. He might've found a way to save him. You didn't give him a second thought once your own hide was safe, and now he's dead."
The common room was silent as the occupants watched. Harry and Draco were slowly realizing that Theo's death had more to it than just his father trying to turn him.
Neville looked around desperately, not seeing help from any of the rather hostile faces. Blaise and Crabbe just walked away, going toward their dorm room.
Greg suddenly grabbed Neville's left arm and Neville started to struggle, grasping the fact the Greg intended to tear the sleeve off and show everyone his dark mark. Luckily for him, Professor Sinistra arrived and demanded order. She grabbed Greg and Neville and dragged them to her office. She really wasn't in the mood to deal with anyone at present, but she couldn't have fighting in the common room.
"Just what is the meaning of this?" She asked.
Greg took Neville's moment of inattention as he tried to think of an answer and with one forceful yank, revealed the dark mark on Neville's left arm.
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A/N – sorry for the delays, but I had a lot of difficulty killing off Theo.