While Lily was rehoning her magical skills in the Room of Requirement, Neville and Sally were sitting in a Muggle Studies class.
Neither of them had previously taken the subject, but with Voldemort now ultimately controlling things, Muggle Studies was now a comp usury class for all students.
Alecto Carrow was now their teacher and at this nanosecond she had the seventh years in her classroom.
Up to this point in the semester, she had merely spent these lessons imparting her views about why magical things and inventions were superior to muggle things and inventions and things like that. A lot of it had simple stuff such as why Quidditch was such a better sport than muggle sports such as baseball, football, basketball, hockey, and soccer. Or why Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans were superior to Jelly Belly or why Honeydukes chocolate was superior to Hershey's chocolate or Reese's chocolate.
But, today, Alecto Carrow took her lesson down a darker road.
She was going to tell the entire class exactly how she felt about muggles and their place in the world.
"Now," called Alecto, "I hope that you are paying attention."
Every student nodded his or her head, and Alecto felt reassured that all of her students were listening to her.
"Today," said Alecto fiercely, "We are going to be talking about muggles themselves. Now, the first thing you have to understand about wizards, witches, and muggles is that wizards and witches are intrinsically superior to muggles."
Several students with muggleborn friends felt their insides squeam but knew not to say anything.
In particular, Seamus, Tracey, and Daphne all felt their hearts getting particularly strong jolts as they knew how Alecto would continue her speech.
"The removal of mudbloods from Hogwarts starting with the fall 1997 semester is a very strong positive step in the right direction," continued Alecto passionately, "They've never been brought up to know our ways. Most of them have never even heard of Hogwarts until they get their letters. They infect our culture with the canker of their muggle backgrounds and make our world a worse place."
Seamus, Tracey, and Daphne all felt fires in their bellies now. It cut them deeply to hear people they were close friends with being talked about like this because of something they have no control over.
"Muggles are filthy animals, deserving of nothing but death," declared Alecto with a blazing look in her eyes, "The great is that the Dark Lord has not only risen again, but is now in full power. He will allow us to trim the canker that infests our family trees until those of the purest blood remain. Muggles should be classified as beasts by the Ministry of magic and given an XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX rating."
"Alecto Carrow," beamed Draco, "You are EXACTLY RIGHT! Of course, mudbloods and blood traitors aren't that much better than muggles. But muggles are the worst. Thankfully, the Dark Lord understands this."
"Atta boy, Draco," said Alecto glowingly, "Seven hundred points to Slytherin."
Draco smirked.
"Magic is Might," continued Alecto passionately, "Ridding our world of mudblood, blood traitor, and especially muggle filth is for the world's Greater Good."
Those familiar with Grindelwald had uneasy feelings seep into them.
Grindelwald was no longer alive. He had been murdered in his cell in Nurmengard in their fourth year by Macnair, who had hoped to gain favor with Lord Voldemort upon what he saw as Voldemort's inevitable return by knocking off Grindelwald and making Voldemort the last standing of the darkest Dark Lords."
"Now," fretted Alecto bitterly, "It is going to take some time to cleanse our world of the infestation of muggles, mudbloods, and blood traitors. I can't expect muggles to go the way of dinosaurs overnight. Steps can be taken, such as making sure that witches and wizards only marry and reproduce with each other and never with muggles. "
"How much muggle blood have you and your brother got in you?" spat Neville, standing up.
Next nanosecond Alecto retrieved her wand from her right hand pocket with her right hand and pointed it directly at Neville's right cheek.
Alecto performed a few powerful nonverbal spells on Neville's right cheek, resulting in the occurrence of a large and painful gash.
"Let that serve as a lesson to all of you," Alecto hissed to her students, "Disrespect to myself, my brother, the Dark Lord, or pureblood will not be tolerated and will punished severely. And seven hundred points from Gryffindor for Longbottom's cheek."
...
Later that night at 11 P.M. Hogwarts time, Neville, Ginny. Luna, and Sally met up in the Room of Requirement where Lily was now practicing her Disarming Charm via a dummy with a fake wand.
"It's good to see you working so hard, Lily," said Neville approvingly, "What did you practice today?"
"The Levitation Charm, the Simple Color Change Charm, Stunning, and Disarming. The Room of Requirement provided me with the dummies to practice the last two."
But Lily suddenly caught sight of Neville's cheek.
"What happened to your cheek, Neville?" asked Lily in a worried voice.
"He decided to get a bit too cheeky with Alecto," said a shocked sounding Sally, "Durning today's Muggle Studies lesson, Neville literally asked Alecto how much muggle blood she and her brother have."
"Blimy, Neville," said Lily shaking her head, "There's a time and place for getting a smart mouth."
"Alecto was going on and on about how muggles and muggleborns are filthy animals and how the world will be better by ridding itself of them. The thing is, it helps when people stand up to them. It gives people hope. I noticed when Harry used to do it, like when he stood up to Umbitch in our first lesson in fifth year."
"You need to consider your own well-being though," said Lily warningly.
"It doesn't matter," said Neville doggedly, "They don't want to spill too much pure blood. They'll torture us a bit if we're mouthy but we're not in actual danger."
"Neville, you are talking way too causally about this," seethed Sally, "Torture is never okay."
"But that's why we have to fight," pointed out Neville, "Because of people like the Carrows and their attitudes combined with the threat they pose."
"Exactly," said Ginny, who added bitterly, "Things might never have gotten this bad if Fudge had actually done his job when Lord Voldemort first rose again instead of denying his return and insisting everything was lovely.
"It's also worth adding," said Luna bluntly, "That from an academic standpoint, the Carrows classes are just as worthless and Lockhart's and Umbitch's were."
"That's another reason we needed to reform the D.A., " piped up Ginny, "Though of course, this time around our main mission is focused on being prepared to defeat Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters."
"Neville," said Lily in a businesslike voice, "Look, I am very proud of you for standing up to Alecto and I'm sure Ginny, Luna, and Sally are as well."
"We are!" chorused Ginny, Luna, and Sally.
"But don't provoke her again," warned Lily, "I understand why you did what you did, but you are more valuable to the cause if your body is not physically destroyed. "
Neville got the hint and realized, "I see what you mean, I need to not put myself in the position of being tortured because I am more valuable to us whole and if I keep it up, I'll get a lot worse than a gash on my cheek even if the Carrows won't actually kill me. I will choose my battles wisely going forward."
"I know it's hard," said Lily gently, "This year is hard on all of us. None of us are who we were before. But I will say that you have proven yourself to be a true Gryffindor."
"I asked the Sorting Hat to place in Hufflepuff," Neville confided in Ginny, Luna, Sally, and Lily, "But the Sorting Hat told me that I wanted to be in Hufflepuff for the wrong reasons and the Hufflepuff was the easy way out for me. I wanted to avoid Gryffindor because of that house's reputation for bravery and felt I could settle into being one of many great witches or wizards in Hufflepuff. But the Sorting Hat told me that Gryffindor would lead down a path of bravery and heroism that would lead to me becoming one of the most celebrated wizards of all time. The Sorting Hat promised that my loyalty would show itself in time but that I would reach my greatest potential in Gryffindor. Despite my pleas for Hufflepuff, the Sorting Hat placed me into Gryffindor."
"I'm a proud Hufflepuff myself," said Sally proudly, puffing out her chest, "But the Sorting Hat was right. If your primary motivation for wanting Hufflepuff had been wanting to make loyal friends or prove your own loyalty, it would have been different. You ARE very loyal and highly value loyalty, but you wanted Hufflepuff because you thought it would easiest for you. In your case, the Sorting Hat did the right thing in sending you down an alternate route of being a Gryffindor."
"I'm now very proud to be a Gryffindor," acknowledged Neville, "I am very brave boy, but at the time of my sorting, I didn't appreciate or even see that in myself."
"That's why we don't self-sort," said Luna wisely.
"I will fight for us!" declared Neville, "We are going to win in the end, it's just going a hard road to get there."
Without thinking about it much, Ginny, Luna, Sally, and Lily all walked up to Neville and gave him handshakes.
They were all very proud of the type of person and leader he was, and they were also very proud of his bravery, and they wanted him to know that and feel it.
Neville beamed as he had his right hand shaken by the right hands of Ginny, Luna, Sally, and Lily in turn.
There was no doubt that Neville Longbottom was a true Gryffindor.
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