Dear Wizarding Britain

Disclaimer: I own nothing. If I did, I probably wouldn't be playing around on fanfiction.

A/N: If you're receiving a notification, it is due to my fixing Blaise's last name from Zambini to Zabini, as was pointed out to me by a reviewer.

Now that Neville had been returned to his sanity, he still had to endure his body's weakness from being bedridden for several months. Not only did he have troubles with his body being weak from laying in bed for so many months, he still had a bit of the after effects from the long exposure to the Cruciatus curse. And while he was eternally grateful to Harry for finding him within his mind and bringing him back to his sanity, there were many days where he longed to just go back, because he was getting frustrated with himself and his inability to just make simple movements without struggle. His hands were shaky, when he tried to feed himself. He could not even walk from the bed to the loo without assistance.

Due to his current disabilities, a room had been magically added into the first floor, so that he would not get injured further in an attempt to use the stairs; however, he never left his room without assistance. And he even resorted to using a bedpan and just vanishing the contents, rather than calling someone to help him to the loo all the time.

While his friends did make sure he had a wheelchair available, should he want to get out and about the rest of the house, he spent most of his time feeling sorry for himself and refused to use it, as it would require someone to help put him in the chair and push him around, as he didn't have the strength to push the wheels by himself, and he refused to let Hermione waste her time enchanting the thing to work on its own, when he had no intentions of using it.

After weeks of feeling sorry for himself and refusing to ask for help to bathe, Luna, who was usually such an easygoing and happy person, was the one that finally made him start asking for help with washing up. "Neville, you're starting to smell worse than a troll, and if you don't start asking Harry, George, or Fred to help you get a bath, I'm going to levitate you in there and do it for you myself," Luna had said.

And since Neville had no intention of allowing Luna see him in that manner, at least not until after he had regained his strength and mobility, he caved and promised to call Harry for help. The confrontation with Luna had been about three week ago, while his return to sanity had been about six weeks. And Neville still felt less than useless, but at least the shaking in his hands had lessened enough to where he could at least eat soup with only a small amount of shaking, so he was able to keep most of the soup in the spoon.

It was just about the second week of August. Neville and Harry's birthdays came and went with a small celebration. On Neville's birthday, they forced him into his wheelchair, and then secured him with a sticking charm before levitating him out to the beach. He had so much fun that day that he nearly forgot that he was in a wheelchair, until he attempted to jump up to run around the beach and was prevented by the sticking charm, which he was thankful for, otherwise, he would have found himself with a face full of sand.

They had spent that day having fun and enjoying the fact that they were no longer in Magical Britain. They had attempted to stay on lighter topics, but it occasionally strayed to home and the story that kept repeating in The Daily Prophet.

Neville noticed that Harry's reaction seemed a little off when it was brought up, so he helped to change the subject, and later asked Dobby to bring him copies of The Daily Prophet so he could see what might have caused the reaction that he saw in Harry.

The news reports tended to vary and a few had mentioned the disappearance of Luna and himself, along with their link to Harry, most of the news articles seemed more focused on the Greengrass family.

"The Greengrass Heiress, Daphne Greengrass, did not return to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry after the winter break."

"Search for Daphne Greengrass is still ongoing."

"Investigations into the disappearance of Daphne Greengrass have uncovered that she left on her own free will and may be traveling with classmate, Heir Blaise Zabini, who also failed to return to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

"Hunt for Daphne Greengrass and Blaise Zabini continue. So far there has been no information on possible sightings."

"It has been discovered that Daphne Greengrass was chosen to enter into a betrothal contract with the Ancient and Noble House of Nott, but instead feigned sickness, seemingly aided by her mother, and allowed to escape into the night."

"Arrest on Sight Warrants have been issued for Heiress Greengrass and Heir Zabini. Countries outside Britain refuse to uphold the warrants."

"Greengrass family stripped of titles and privileges for allowing the eldest daughter to walk away from betrothal to Heir Nott and leave with Heir Zabini."

"Mr. Greengrass, formally Lord Greengrass, was forced to disown his eldest daughter on orders of the Dark Lord."

"Mr. Greengrass was forced to watch while his wife, the former Lady Greengrass, was stripped naked and publicly whipped by Lord Nott, as punishment for not alerting the proper authorities of his now disowned daughter's disappearance and attempting to cover up her disappearance."

"Lord Nott has been granted custody of the remaining Greengrass daughter, Astoria, who has been betrothed to Heir Nott in her elder sister's stead."

Neville was quite curious if Harry's reaction had to do with the Greengrass family specifically, or if it was the content in general that he had found disturbing. He was brought out of his thoughts when he heard a knock on his door.

Glancing around to make sure that none of the newspapers were in view, he announced wearily, "Come in."

Harry popped his head in, "Hey, mate, how're you feeling?"

Neville rolled his eyes and said with a sigh, "Like a useless flobberworm."

Harry shook his head as he came all the way into the room, carrying some metal contraption with him.

"What's that?" Neville asked curiously.

Harry looked down at the thing he was holding and said, "Oh, this? This is what muggles call a Zimmer frame, though I've heard that American muggles simply call it a walker. Walker tends to run off the tongue easier in my opinion, but you're welcome to call it whatever you wish."

Neville looked at Harry and the metal device curiously, as Harry seemed to expand the metal into a larger contraption, causing it to no longer appear to be a jumbled clump of metal. Neville was still not able to make any sense of what its actual purpose was.

Harry looked up at Neville with a grin, after he finally figured out how to lock the walker in place and asked, "Well, whatcha think?"

"I dunno. It might help me decide what I thought, if I knew what it actually did." Neville responded, looking at the muggle walking thing in curiosity.

"It's a walking aid, Neville," Harry tried to explain. "It's meant to be more stable than using a cane to help you walk."

When Neville just returned his stare, Harry positioned himself within the walker and put a hand on each handle and proceeded to show Neville how it worked. "You see, Neville? It's designed to help you remain steady as you're walking, so you don't have to rely on one of us for help all the time," Harry told Neville excitedly. "This one doesn't have any wheels on it, because I figured it would be steadier for you to start out with. But I also bought one that has wheels with a little seat that can be used outside, should you wish to go for a walk on the beach."

Neville blinked in surprise at Harry's enthusiasm, as he was used to Harry being much more serious, and focused his attention on how Harry was actually using the muggle device.

"Do you want to try it?" Harry asked enthusiastically.

Not wanting to disappoint his friend, Neville nodded his head, though he eyed the walker with a bit of trepidation. He tried to sit up in the bed and faltered. "Can you help me, Harry?" Neville asked with a small voice.

Harry beamed at him and said, "Of course, mate." Then Harry walked over to Neville's bedside and helped him untangle his legs from the sheets, before then gripping Neville's hand to help him sit up and swing his legs down to the side of the bed. Next, Harry placed the walker directly in front of Neville and showed him where to place his hands and waited to see if Neville would need any help to lever himself up to a standing position. After a few shaky moments, Neville was able to stand for a bit and made an attempt to take a step, his leg gave out, but he was able to catch himself with the walker.

"Can you help me to sit back down again, Harry?" Harry didn't respond verbally, but immediately helped him to sit back down.

Neville looked despondent and whispered, "I don't feel as if I'll ever truly be able to walk again."

Harry shook his head and said, "Don't give up, Neville. The magical world might not have very many options for helping you to return to mobility, other than that wheelchair over there, but I've learned that the muggles have something called physiotherapy where the healers can teach you how to do exercises that can help build your muscles back up and help you develop strength back into your limbs and teach you how to walk again.

Neville looked skeptical at Harry and said, "Not that I think the magical world has all the answers, but how can the muggles have figured something like that out that the magical world hasn't done?"

"Well, Hermione's theory is that that's because most injured magicals are able to be healed in a matter of hours or days by a qualified healer," Harry explained, "but we didn't take you to a healer, because if St. Mungo's hasn't been able to cure your parents after all this time, what hope did we have they would have been able to help you? And that's besides the fact that we're all 'wanted' witches and wizards that reside here and we only leave the island when thoroughly disguised and with the proper escape methods in the event that we're somehow recognized. We didn't want you to somehow get recognized in whatever magical hospital we took you to, so we took our chances with helping you and looking for a cure ourselves." Harry frowned, "In hindsight, we should have looked into keeping your arms and legs worked out, so that you wouldn't be struggling to return to your normal strength now."

"I don't blame you, Harry, you're not the only one that didn't consider the need for it. I'm still grateful to all of you for taking care of me through this, even though I've been feeling a bit sorry for myself," Neville said with a thoughtful frown. "That does remind me, though, that I need to check in with Gran."

"If you want to write her a letter, I'll get Dobby or Winky to deliver it, but we have been giving her frequent updates. Though, I'm sure she would appreciate hearing from you directly. Now that your hands are a bit less shaky, you shouldn't have as much problems with trying to hold onto a quill and write," Harry responded.

When Harry appeared as if he was getting ready to head out of the room, Neville commented, "Hey, Harry, you know, if you ever want to talk about what's bothering you about the Greengrass situation, I'm here."

Harry looked surprised for a moment, then his lip lifted up slightly, as if he wanted to smile, but just couldn't quite do so, "Thanks, mate. It's something I want to work out for myself at the moment, but I'll definitely come talk to you about it, if I can't work it out and need a sounding board."

Neville nodded and gave a yawn, so Harry walked towards the door to leave Neville to his rest, but said before he left, "Let me know what you decide about the possibility of that muggle treatment I mentioned. If you want to do it, I'll find the best place and get you registered and take you back and forth to your appointments. I'll even set up an exercise room identical to what they have, so that you can work on your exercises here as well."

"Thanks, mate," Neville said, "Let me think about it, and I'll let you know."

After Harry left Neville to rest, he decided to go take a run out on the beach to clear his head. He'd been trying not to think about the feelings that the news of the Greengrasses had stirred in him.

Daphne Greengrass had intrigued him in the past, she was both smart and beautiful, and she had also not been part of the Slytherins that had constantly tried to harass him with Malfoy's group, but he had never allowed himself to think anything about her beyond those few facts. She was a Slytherin and he was a Gryffindor, it would have been frowned upon to have tried to pursue a relationship with her at school, so he never approached her and admired her from afar, and then he set his sights on Cho, which turned into an absolute disaster.

Now, when he thought about Daphne Greengrass, he felt anxious for her safety and wanted to go out there and search for her. Yet, he had to take into consideration the possibility that The Daily Prophet was actually accurate and she was in the company of Zabini and quite possibly in a relationship with him. She probably wouldn't want anything to do with Harry anyway, and she probably only ran away because she wanted Zabini instead of Nott.

Harry started jogging faster. As he ran, he considered everything he knew or had observed about Zabini and couldn't come up with much. Beyond the fact that he never tried to antagonize Harry and his friends and he had stayed in the background, he barely knew anything about him. Harry could only assume the other boy was neutral in all the pureblood mantra, as he had never made his leanings known for either side.

By the time Harry had finished his run along the beach, he had to apparate back to the house, because he had ended up several miles away on the opposite side of the island. As he made his way into the house and headed towards his shower, he still had not come to a decision about Daphne. In the end, what mattered most to him was that she was happy. If she was happy with Zabini, he wouldn't try to steal her away — if in the event he found her, that is.

Now that Neville was at least back to sanity, his need to leave the island searching for a cure or treatment had gone away, so it wouldn't be difficult to continue his normal routine to try to look for signs of Daphne around the surrounding wizarding settlements. Though, he wasn't too enthusiastic about masquerading as his female alternates in the event that he did find her, but at the same time, he felt that it would be suicidal to travel around using his natural appearance, even if he had gotten his scar removed.

By the time he had finished his shower and headed back downstairs to see what the elves had made for supper, he still had not reached a complete decision, but he did know that he had the desire to find Daphne and help her if she needed it, so he was going to have to figure something out.

A/N: I was interrupted quite a bit while writing this chapter. I hope it makes sense and that I haven't left too many holes in the story so far. I'm still trying to figure out in my mind how to bring Daphne and Blaise into the fold with Harry and the others at the island, and also where I'm going to take the rest of the story, but I wanted to get a bit of Neville's progress written and posted, while I'm trying to figure it out.