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Chapter Text

Hogwarts had never felt so dead, yet so unendingly loud in the 7 years that Neville Longbottom had been there.

One could argue that the castle had died with their previous Headmaster but that was also not completely true. Death Eaters had taken over - yes. But something also felt off about that, you'd expect them to be loud and boisterous, celebrating that they had control of the institution that shaped young minds but that had not happened.

Snape as Headmaster looked even worse than he had previous years as their often exasperated professor. Almost like he had died with Dumbledore on that tower.

The other Death Eaters in the castle were handing out Crucio's like they were candy but they also weren't actually enjoying it or did not seem to be.

They also were not indoctrinating the youth, they weren't even teaching them much that they had not learnt over the years. They had all, after all, had some of the worst teachers in the history of the school.

The Carrow siblings weren't any better.

All punishments went through the newly appointed deputy headmistress and -headmaster.

With Harry, Ron, and Hermione gone who knows where and doing who knows what-- and the dark having accomplished whatever it is that they wanted to accomplish with taking over Hogwarts --Neville just felt so damn frustrated.

They weren't doing ANYTHING of freaking substance with this massive opportunity they've been given. They've had shite teachers for YEARS, the bar was so low it was in the depths of Hades.

The Carrows could sneeze Honeydukes candies at them from their arseholes in class and the students would see them as the next coming of Merlin if they actually taught them anything on top of that!

Neville stood in the Gryffindor 7th year boy's bathroom, slowly hitting his head on the wall. He was still dripping wet from his morning shower and was going absolutely insane with the thoughts swirling in his head. He'd been up since 3AM, loudly moaning and monologuing to his curtains behind his silencing charm about the absolute state that the school was in and how the Death Eaters were apparently all shit at world domination.

Neville was going to do something about it, if it was the last damn thing he did. That hat did not relent and place him into this merlin forsaken tower with his other year mates and had him suffer through Ronald and Dean's cheese aroma feet for 7 years for nothing.

As far as he was concerned, Snape could also go fly a kite. The man was slinking around the castle like a depressed vampire out of the movies some of the muggleborns loved to quote on occasion. The man needed to pick a struggle. Either be off his rocker happy that Dumbledore is dead and his other Master was now in control of Hogwarts or fling himself off the tower if he felt so bad about the former.

Harsh but Neville's patience was as high as it could have possibly gone and now they will be playing by his rules.

He got dressed. Making sure to appear as neat as possible, his shirt tucked in and his dragon hide boots carefully polished and clean.

He had been about to pack his book bag and instead tipped it all out onto his bed, grabbing only his self-inking quill, his never-end notebook and his wand.

He had a lovely breakfast by himself, ignoring the stares of the people that had cowardly made him -- the one they've considered a coward all these years -- their de facto leader. All because he had royally pissed of Alecto Carrow by asking about her and her sibling's blood status.

He was down to his last bite, a square piece of buttered toast with the still intact yolk of a sunny side up egg on top of it, he popped the entire thing in his mouth and chewed through the eggy morsel slowly. He was craving coffee this morning, writing his question for the kitchen on a piece of scrap parchment from his notebook, he placed it on the middle of the table and watched it disappear.

A few moments later, a clear glass cup of steamed milk and a small amount of very strong coffee appeared in front of him.

He happily drank his facsimile of a muggle latte -- something Hermione had told him about once after she heard he liked the smell of coffee but not the taste.

Neville enjoyed his warm beverage, all the while making a list of questions and other general thoughts in his journal.

The teachers at the head table were the only ones still partially giving any attention to him and even then it was just to see what he would do next.

He gave Snape a small smile and then promptly hid it behind his milky coffee as he drained the rest of it and moved to his first class.

As luck would have it.. his first class was the compulsory muggle studies class with Alecto Carrow -- the deputy headmistress.

Class began slowly without incident. She was carrying on about muggles ending wizardkind again and Neville was frankly bored. They were wasting so much of their opportunity...

He hadn't realized he had lazily stuck his hand up until the Professor called on him.

"Yes.. Mr Longbottom, anything to add? Maybe another comment about my and my brother's parentage?" She sneered at him.

"Not at all Professor," Neville shook his head, sitting forward in his seat. Ignoring the hisses from the students around him.

"Oh?" She looked dubious and had a malicious glint in her eyes.

"Go ahead then."

"Thank you Professor. I was wondering, do you think the wards of Hogwarts would be able to stop an Atomic Bomb being dropped onto it? Shouldn't we be looking at creating shields that would be able to withstand both the explosive power of the bomb itself but also the effects that the radiation would have on the environment and us as Wix?"

Neville had been genuinely curious about this and had once posed the question to Hermione who had just told him that there were a lot of conventions and restrictions around the use of Atomic bombs but it had not given Neville a lot of comfort.

Especially with the sort of witch hunt scenarios that the Carrow sister had been telling them about. Would they really stick to those codes and rules if they truly saw Wix kind and other creatures as their enemies?

Cut off your nose to spite your own face sort of tactics swam in Neville's head personally when he thought about it.

Alecto's face though had looked positively confused and then morphed into vicious delight.

"Aahhhh Mr. Longbottom. You've been holding out on us. Can we add you to our cause?" She smiled widely, clearly not expecting an answer she continued,

"You are 100% correct. Our current warding technology is woefully behind the muggles. There are Wix and ward masters working on it all over the globe but none have been successful as of yet. It's not a very high priority on their lists. After all, we have statutes in place that protect and manage the discovery of our world. 10 points to Gryffindor. We also do not have concrete evidence yet of how radiation would affect Wix."

Neville nodded. "Thank you Professor. Also, as to your other question. Do you offer any good dental plans?"

Instead of the Crucio or detention like he expected, he only received a sharp laugh from the curse happy Professor and glares from his fellow students. Even the Slytherins had been staring at him as if he had huffed polyjuice that morning.

The rest of class was uneventful but they did manage to learn information that was worth more than useless propaganda after his question. Neville drew a neat line through the exact question in his notebook and proceeded to his next class.

Potions was much of the same. Slughorn played favorites and didn't actually teach much of anything. He did however bring up the topic of one of Neville's questions and he again could not resist sticking his hand up.

It was as if he had lit a beacon in the dreary dungeons, however, as all the eyes of his peers around him turned to him.

"Mr Longbottom?"

"Professor, on the topic of Felix Felicis.. It's said to give you one day of perfect luck right?"

The Professor nodded at him and waved at him to continue his line of questioning, ".. I was just wondering Professor, what would happen if for example, you drank the potion whilst meaning to kill yourself. Would it kill you immediately by turning into a poison itself or would it only allow you to kill yourself without any chance of failure or interruption when you attempted it in the viable period? Purely academic curiosity -- of course Professor." Neville smiled, enjoying the looks of horror around him.

"aaah.. uhhhh" Slughorn stood slack jawed in the middle of the class.

"I suppose I do not know Mr. Longbottom. I will have to consult Headmaster Snape as a fellow master of potions and let you know." Slughorn stammered uncomfortably.

"Thank you Professor."

Neville made a note in his journal and moved on with his day. Happy that they had gotten back on topic in class and had actually learnt how to properly process mandrake roots for their various uses in brews.

So far he was 2 for 2 in his classes and his questions. He felt quite good about himself.

He had a free block which he spent in the Library, looking up more things he had been curious about and even looked around the now fully open Restricted Section. The only ones who had been using it freely had been the Slytherin's, the other students had opted to avoid it out of a sense of silent protest. Which had no impact at all - Neville groused internally.

Stupid.. stupid.. ahhhhhhhhhhGH! He was still so damn frustrated.

He took a deep breath, taking the book on mind magic with him as it looked like a good read and then went to lunch.

Luna, oddly enough, joined him for the first time since school started.

"Hello Luna." Neville greeted politely but also a bit annoyed. He had been under the impression that they had been friends but she had avoided him as soon as the Carrows had targeted him upon commencement of the new school year a few weeks ago. Not that he blamed her entirely but still it had hurt.

"Hello Neville. I just wanted to say that you can talk to me. It's not worth going down that dark path just because it might seem easier."

Neville's hand almost froze when he was dishing a portion of scotch eggs for himself. "Good to know, Luna. Thank you."

He changed his mind. He was not going to share shit with her or anyone.
They weren't kids anymore, not this year. He was not a coward and he would make his own choices. If those choices were stupid ones that made him a simple minded follower of the same people that had practically killed his parents then so damn well be it.

She smiled airily at him and then proceeded to eat her own lunch.

Neville did as well, still fuming internally and as lunch wound down he looked up at the head table again.

Oh dear.. looks like Slughorn had just asked Snape his question in front of the entire school staff. Well with the way the rumor mill in this place worked they would have known before dinner anyways.

Neville hid a smile at the disturbed look that both Snape and the Carrows had shot him and nodded at them before leaving for his last class of the day. Double Defense.

Them renaming DADA to just Defense was a move that Neville agreed with, but again.. Amycus Carrow did absolute sweet blue shit all with the class. Neville got that you don’t want to train your adversaries but for fucks sakes — they had not learnt a thing in 7 years. What is it going to matter if they actually taught them how to duel or about different species of magical creatures and how to protect yourself?

What if you had to protect yourself against a muggle or non-death eater that wants to harm you? You might have magic but you’re still a sitting duck as soon as they pit two and two together and don’t get freaking 3.

Clearly Neville had a lot of issues with what was happening around him. Everyone else was content to just duck their damn heads down and pretend it wasn’t happening. Well he was sick of this shit controlling his life.

He took a seat in the front of class, not wanting to see any more shocked looks for the day with his third question. They would probably put him in with his parents if he was lucky.

Amycus Carrow started the class, completely ignoring Neville. Like the man had not had him under the Cruciatus curse a few times the past 2 weeks already.

They were going over werewolves and other were-creatures today. But like the other teachers, this Carrow also got distracted by his own voice and he too went on a tangent.

He reached the end of the one section and asked menacingly if there was any questions. Unlike his sister he was a very strict teacher. Preferring to not answer questions just like Snape would have done.

Neville stuck up his hand.

“Go ahead, Longbottom. If you waste my time then you’re heading towards detention right after this.” Neville nodded his agreement.

“Professor Carrow, you mentioned that were-folk often have offspring that turn out to be were as well because the curse or genes gets passed down, but it depended on the parents and if they had creature blood.”

Amycus leaned against his desk, giving Neville a considering look but gave a sharp nod in confirmation.

“Well.. Werewolves are classified as humanoid right? And so are house elves? Would offspring between a werewolf and house elf union be a were-elf? Would you essentially then get a fur covered elf? Would they also be bonded to the moon cycle? If they for example then bit someone, carrying over the disease.. would that person then become a werewolf or a house elf?”

The Professor’s eyebrow actually raised a few centimeters on his usually stony face.

“Think about house elves screwing werewolf a lot, Longbottom?” He eventually deadpanned.

Neville shrugged and hid his smile.

“To answer your question. Since you really want to know. You’d first have to get past the part where a house elf or a werewolf, carry a baby to term. They are both humanoid, yes. But you still need to get past the species gap before you can factor in the were-genetics and what they will eventually turn into. But whatever it is, they will still be beholden to the moon cycles in this case and whatever other criteria in other cases.”

Neville gave the professor a considering look and then decided to use some of his frustration to earn a detention to work more on his plan.

“A last one Professor, you’re a colleague of Fenrir Greyback correct? Would he be willing to be lab-wolf in this experiment? We could always use the muggle IVF methods of creating offspring if he would prefer?”

A small smile on the professor’s face was Neville’s only sign of victory.

“Detention, Longbottom. Let’s see if we can’t breed you with some or other creature too.” the Professor added sarcastically.

Neville accepted his detention and stayed quiet, making notes as they continued the class. Right back on topic again.. 3 for 3.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

His methods of asking random questions to actually get a good lesson out of their teachers had been paying off. Not only had they learnt more this year than any year previously - the torture detention sessions also seemed to have scaled down.

Some of his most notable questions he had asked (and which had a list of honour in his journal) was:

- If a ghost and a dementor kissed, would it count as cannibalism or would ghosts be classified as a food source for dementors? In that case, would it be classified the same way as a human and vampire relationship?

- Can Thestrals see each other?

- Would using a color change charm on your sleeping chamber to a soothing color have the same effect as actually buying items that were originally that color?

- Do dragons fart fire?

- If you sneeze mid-apparition, would you splinch your nose?

- What happens if you cast a spell backwards or in another language?

- Wouldn’t a gun be faster than a wand in a duel?

- Do you think we can make muggles join the world of the Wix by turning them (willingly) into magical creatures like vampires or werewolves?

- Could the goblin wars have been solved by arranging a marriage between the goblins and the Wix?

There were of course a few Dark side related ones that probably hadn't counted in his favor among the rest of the student body...

- Do you have to do paperwork after you torture or curse someone? Like if you Crucio someone without meaning to, or miss your target and get someone else instead, do you still have to fill out an incident report?

- Are all dark marks the same or is there a tattoo catalogue?

- Is there a uniform allowance? Or do you only get one robe and mask set when you join?

- If a Muggle saved your life, would you still hate them? or would they be an exception?

- Do you have any secret Muggle things at home, like rubber ducks or a microwave?

- If a Muggle dentist fixed your teeth, would that be treason?

- Are there protocols against work-place relationships among the Death Eaters like if someone from the inner circle for example dates someone from an outer circle? Also, do you have to be scary or all torture-y around each other?

- Is there team building exercises? Like do you have to complete group projects or trust fall exercises?

Neville's peers were now though completely convinced he had become a Death Eater, so much so that they had locked him and most of his belongings (besides his winter clothing and uniform, that was still in his wardrobe) out of the 7th year dormitories and have taken to changing the common room password almost daily. Sometimes twice a day.

He knew that there was some sort of "resistance"-radio broadcast that some of the students had setup and participated in but his invitation seems to have gotten misplaced. Neville's status was overall now almost worse than Snape's and the current Headmaster had actually killed their previous Headmaster..

It had been 3 weeks of progress but he was also utterly lonely. So lonely that he has started talking to the Carrow Professors in their detentions.

So much so that they had opted to place him either under a silencing spell for his detentions or a full-body bind. Both were comfortable options if you considered the alternative and he had a lot of days really found himself missing the torture alternative.

Neville had of course tried to not suffer in silence, he tried to reason with people he had once thought were friends, he had talked to the teachers that had been there before the Dark took over (barring Snape) and yet-- nothing.

Today was another day he would try, it was coming up to the end of Dinner time.

He was just giving Luna a chance to finish eating and then he would try and catch her for a chat as she left. She had after all, extended her hand to him 3 weeks ago.

Her offer should still be valid right? Neville did consider himself more neutral now than anything else and didn't see him going Dark completely. He just wanted to make the Dark that was inside the castle a bit more Neutral themselves.

The other students didn't see that the amount of Crucio's were now almost non-existent or almost just limited to Neville but Luna had always seen things differently, right?

Neville pushed his dinner plate away from him and stood up among the throng of other students leaving to catch up with the wispy blonde girl.

"Luna!"

She froze, turning around slowly, "Oh. Neville... How have you been." Luna seemed happy enough to see him but her smile was not reaching her eyes.

"I was wondering if you'd like to walk to the library or even the R-o-R with me?" Neville asked earnestly.

"Sorry Neville I promised to help Ginny with her charms." Luna smiled, already walking away.

He had reached forward, meaning to gently catch her arm when she flinched away and another voice entered the conversation. The purple light of a bat-bogey hex grazing his fingers.

"Back off Longbottom. Don't you have kids to torture." It was Ginny Weasley.. the first girl that he had made friends with. His first real friend ever, until she started dating other boys or mooning after Harry all the time.

"Get lost." He ignored her again, a painful stinging blooming in his chest, "Luna?"

"My name's Lovegood, Longbottom. I'm sorry but we can't be friends anymore. You've made your decision." Luna's voice was colder than he had ever thought possible.

The rapidly emptying hallway outside the great hall had now frozen around them, other students stopping to watch the exchange.

"What exactly have I done? I haven't done anything except try to at least get us a reasonable education in this shithole." Neville exclaimed, raising his voice for the first time in.. well.. ever.

"You know what you've done. You're supporting them in their disgusting cause. Helping them torture innocents students." Ginny spat, casting a leg-locker and then a cutting curse his way. Neville had to jump to evade it, almost falling on his backside from the surprise.

His mind went blank.

Still not reaching for his own wand as he began dodging curses from all directions. Eventually giving up, drawing his wand and casting a wordless protego barrier around himself, not bothering to parry and deflect any of the hits. If he did and someone got injured by their own spell that they had cast at him... it would just be another thing to blame him for.

He was tired, so tired all of a sudden.

Snape stepped into the hall and called a stop to the casting with a deafening bang sounding from his wand. Neville did not let him speak first however, but he did drop his shield. Not taking his eye off of his two, now ex, friends.

"In case you haven't noticed. Lovegood .. Weasley -- the only STUDENT getting crucio'd recently, has been me. Not that you'd believe me. Good night." Neville stated, voice and face void of any emotion as he looked them up and down and turned to walk away.

Luna called after him, unfortunately he could not resist turning around but as he did a cutting curse from the blonde's own wand struck him in the face. He was far enough away that it had only made a line across his nose and cheek, but that was enough for blood to flow freely.

He touched his hand to his face, probably looking every bit as betrayed as he had felt.

He had risked his own sanity-- partially to quiet the dissatisfaction in his own head --but he hadn't needed to pull all of the curse happy Professor's ire onto himself. He could have settled for just getting them and other teachers to actually teach in class.

Neville nodded and left, not seeing the pained glance that his old potions professor had shot at his retreating form.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Classes resumed as normal (The normal he had fostered at least) and the days had dragged on.

It was now mid-November; Neville numbly continued to ask his questions. Not getting any emotional reward out of it any longer and not noticing that his two Death Eater Professor's had also not been happy with his now half-hearted interactions in their classes.

He had earned a detention as usual in Alecto's class.

As the professor dismissed them, she kept Neville behind. He was still putting his journal in his still textbook-less bag.

The witch gave him a remarkably calm and considering look, indicating that he should take a seat. So much so that Neville thought she would be starting his detention (read torture) session early.

"Are you quite well, Longbottom?" She asked with her hands clasped behind her back.

He nodded.

"I expect you to bring up more inane theories and questions in our class tomorrow, then."

That was all, the Professor had dismissed a very confused Neville and he slunk off to get dinner in the kitchens. After which he made his way to an abandoned class to wait until he could go up to the Room of Requirement after curfew.

Students had been waiting for him there again the previous night and not for friendly reasons. They usually only caught him in corridors between classes or outside when he left the greenhouses but it seems they had heard he was removed from the Lion's den, and was subsequently upping their schedules to catch him.

As well as upping the spells they used. He was just glad they hadn't yet thought to use the marauders map... but it would probably not be long before they stole it back from Umbridge's old office.

He had out of desperation need to visit Snape, the damn Headmaster for crying out loud, for a pain potion just the previous day as Madame Pomfrey had unblinkingly and without a smidgen of pity, told him that she had none left in her stores for the likes of him.

The weather was turning colder and warming charms could only do so much. His Gran had not responded to any of his letters asking if she could send some of the warmer cloaks he had elected stupidly to leave behind.

He had tried to get someone to bring his winter things for him, but all that had resulted in, was lost galleons and a bag full of ashes with a few scraps of fabric. Delivered nonchalantly to him amidst the snickering of his table at breakfast.

That had been the last time he had eaten in the hall.

Sighing, as he heard the bell for curfew, he stood thinking that the walk up to the 7th floor would take longer than students would risk detention for by staying out of their common rooms past said curfew. Apparently, him taking the brunt or all of the fun detentions had made them complacent and cocky.

He turned the corner and spell-fire greeted him.

He swore, ducked back and made his way down the endless steps again. Not wanting to stay there and get caught. He ended up bunking in the classroom on the 3rd floor for the night. Ironically the exact room that he had learnt once held a Cerberus-class creature that had been named Fluffy of all things.

The next day he was cold and tired and his throat was starting to ache - probably a cold. It was still early morning, he put his robed on as he had used it as a pillow and ducked back to the other side of the castle to the kitchens. Getting a mini care package of meals that would last him the rest of the weekend.

Then, he disappeared up to the room. There was no one in sight and he activated it carefully, willing the room to make it appear as if no one was inside it.

He ended up being in what looked like the lost and found section.

He thought hard and then requested a hidden room that he could enter from within a trunk. One that would be out of the way from anyone looking for him or just wandering in the room.

The RoR was happy to comply apparently with his idea and Neville soon found himself ensconced in a dusty but warm bed. He sneezed a few times, not knowing if it was the brewing cold or the dust but smiled as he thought of Professor Amycus' response to his sneeze while apparating question.

The Professor had taken his question seriously, just like all of the other ones-- even the more rude ones he had asked --and had confirmed that if you lost focus mid-apparition even because of a sneeze then the chances were good you's splinch something, usually something minor like an eyebrow or a piece of hair or toenail but you'd still leave something of yourself behind.

Both the Death Eater Professors seemed to like questions even if they actively discouraged them with idle threats.

Neville, frankly, liked asking them. He liked having an adult pay attention to him and treat him like a normal student.. a normal wizard.. capable of magic and even with all their torture sessions, - someone that deserved to be in a school for magic.

If he got really morbid then his gran and uncle Algie had perfectly primed him to be the way he was currently. No regard for his own safety or happiness, not caring if the positive attention he got was overshadowed by negative attention. Neville found he couldn't even actually remember much of his childhood at home, like the memories of it all were fading faster and faster.

Thinking of all of this was just making him feel more tired. He settled in and kicked off his weekend of rest and relaxation. Drifting to sleep without having to worry about anyone finding him or lying in wait for him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

But like all good things, the weekend had now ended, which left him with another week of trying not to be the entire school's punching bag.

He had found decent looking old robes and a winter cloak in the room, ones that were not moth-eaten or in need of extra mending or cleaning. There had been other styles in better condition but nothing in the right colors or style for school.

The day wore on until dinner time. He had another public encounter with those he had thought his friends. This time it felt much worse however, as the Professors Carrow had broken the still one-sided argument up.

Neville had considered actually going dark for real, just like they had accused him of for a good minute before he just disappeared into the forgotten corners of the castle without having been able to stop at the kitchens for lunch or dinner.

That and all of the events so far since his choice, as well as a short piece of parchment from his grandmother, had culminated in him now standing on the astronomy tower. Neville did not feel particularly reckless or depressed or even suicidal but he had a fleeting thought that it would not be so bad to just let everything go.

Just a single step over the ledge and then another over the edge and he'd be free.

He could not leave Hogwarts - he now had officially nothing to his name-- wait that's not right, he didn't even have his name anymore, he thought looking at the parchment.

He was now just Neville.

No middle name, no last name, no family magics, no nothing.

Even his green thumb, his Herbology skill with plants was gone. He had tried to coax the plants he was looking after earlier in the day before into responding to him before feeding them -- just like any other feeding day and they had ignored him. Didn't respond to anything he did. Yet, they all had turned their heads when Professor Sprout had entered. She too had been friendly at first at the start of the year, but over time she had grown colder and colder.

Not banning him from the greenhouse but he knew she was keeping an eye on everything he did and grew.

It was probably already circulating the school that his "only" skill had now forsaken him.

Not making a choice and not-not making one.

Neville drifted up to the astronomy tower and removed his shoes. Then his borrowed socks from the room. And stood with his cold feet on the freezing stone.

Probably exactly where their previous Headmaster had stood.

He was staring down at the faraway grass and stone below him. Not really remembering why he even was up on the tower but it felt right, so he stayed.

Arms caught him from behind just as he was about to step down and then Neville knew nothing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He woke up in a warm place, he was on something squishy but the material was too rough to be bed sheets.

It was a chaise lounge. The dark green one he thought had stood in their current Defence Professor's new office.

He saw the trademark snake stylized boots of said professor and then knew he was correct.

He sat up with some difficulty. Body more sore than it had been previously from his multiple hexings in the hallway that morning, now that he had gotten some sleep again.

“How many times," The Professor began, "have you been under my wand this year so far, Longbottom? Do you have a particular wish to end up like your dear parents?”

Neville was a bit confused, the man actually sounded concerned..

“Do you have a death wish, is what I am asking you!”

Neville took the strangely offered cup of tea with a small frown. “Not particularly Professor.” Why was the man yelling at him and then handing him cups of tea?

“Then what in the blazes were you doing up on the tower? Without socks or shoes this time of November! Also, Snape and the rest of us would also like to know what is with your incessant questions surrounding death, boy?” The man asked seriously, crossing one leg over the other as he still leant against his own office desk.

"Well? Answer me!"

“I am gathering knowledge Professor..” Neville's head felt funny, like he could not control his own thoughts or his tongue.

“Knowledge..?” the man drawled, not impressed with his answer.

Neville nodded.

The Professor was about to ask another question when Alecto Carrow and Snape entered.

She made a beeline for him and Neville was sure that he was going to feel that familiar curse. But he didn’t.

Instead, she seemingly cast diagnostics at him, Snape crossing his arms, standing by the fireplace with a scowl settling on his face.

This odd situation gave Neville time to consider the Carrow siblings first. They looked enough like each other to almost be twins. Both were strawberry blondes that preferred their hair long and braided and both were pretty or handsome in their own rights.

There was the fact that both had semi-crooked teeth but that was a common occurrence in the wix population. Both were well dressed and both were objectively good with their wands.

Neville wondered if they were being forced to use unforgiveables on children or if they simply wanted to do it themselves.

“There’s nothing wrong with him ‘Myc. At least not spell wise -- apart from a laundry list of injuries and a slight cold. I took the liberty of asking for some veritaserum from the Headmasters special stock. Did you administer it yet?” Alecto commented and then queried her brother.

“I’m not spelled or potioned and you can’t use truth serum on students?!” Neville balked.

“You’ll find Mr. Longbottom. That we already have.” Amycus commented, staring at his finger nails.

Great. Just great.

“Oh wow. A few days and weeks of actually wanting to learn and participate in class and all of a sudden truth serum is required.” Neville fully rolled his eyes.

And then it happened. That beautiful red and black spell hit him. Only for a few seconds and he cried out more from the loss of it being lifted again, than being hit with it at all. He pouted at Alecto. Snape staring at him in unconcealed horror.

Fine! maybe.. maybe he would admit to being a little bit more stir crazy this year but really. He felt fine, well, kind of.

Neville whimpered as his head was forced back and 3 drops of what tasted like a very strong headache potion was dropped on his tongue. "For your concussion idiot lion."

Ropes appeared out of nowhere and bound him to his chair. Snape stalked past to join the Carrows in front of him, really starting the questioning.

“State your name.”

“Neville--” he sighed, "Just Neville." He bit out eventually.

“Where did you grow up”

“In the smallest room of the Longbottom London Estate”

"Why the smallest?" Snape asked, beginning to pace.

"Because my uncle thought me a squib."

"It’s working - I believe?" Alecto asked the dour Professor.

He inclined his head sharply at her.

Amycus then took over.

"Are you suicidal, Neville?"

He struggled against the question, and received a sharp tap to his shoulder as distraction, "No I.. I don't think so, undecided but could be nice. I'm tired. Maybe my-- I mean LAdy Longbottom will-- No!!"

Snape stalked forward again, breaking the hypnotizing pacing that Neville had been watching across the office. Cool hands shot out grabbing his wrist, feeling for his pulse via the spot on his wrist and then keeping it there as he took a seat on the lounge next to him.

"Stop resisting. You're going to give yourself a coronary." Snape hissed at him.

He motioned to Amycus that he could continue.

"Are you planning to overthrow the current command of the school?"

"No"

"What do you think of the current command?"

"It’s shite.. well it was shit.. nope still shit."

"Why is it 'shite'" Alecto interjected.

"It can be so much better. Wasted potential."

"Do you want to join the dark cause?" She continued.

"Not really, if its so useless with a castle full of impressionable and malleable minds then, no I don't." Neville felt more than saw Snape wince bodily at that statement.

"What can we do to run the school better in tour opinion?" Alecto again.

"Actually teach us." Neville deadpanned.

Not even having to resist the floaty feeling this time he continued, "We’ve had shit teachers for years. Sorry Professor." he said nodding to Snape's direction, "Torture isn’t new to us - sorry you didn't get the inter-departmental memo. Do something that will actually shock or motivate us to behave."

Snape adjusted his fingers a bit but it felt more like he was telling Neville he had answered well. It made his skin tingle. He was so damn touch-starved that he felt like could shit bricks at how happy that little contact made him.

Woops, apparently veritaserum influenced his internal thoughts too..

"What torture," Snape asked this time, voice hoarse and low. The Carrows nodded along enthusiastically, also curious to know.

"Umbridge had a fucking blood quill."

And then the floodgates opened, Neville slumped in his seat. Any semblance of fight leaving him. Which is what Snape had been wanting apparently because the man hummed next to him and gave his pulse another little stroke with his index and middle finger.

"Moody or Crouch I don't know.. - cast unforgiveables at spiders in fourth year.
He also turned children into animals and bounced them around. Draco Malfoy was a ferret for a good 5 minutes before McGonagall deigned to do something about it. He even bounced him into Crabbe or Goyle's pants at one point. So there's two counts of sexual harassment too if you squint. Please squint."

Neville took a deep breath, and accepted the sip of tea that Amycus had pushed under his nose. Probably more serum too but it tasted nice..

"Lupin - a werewolf who is so against being a full wolf and is supposed to be used to a potion for a day a month - forgot and turned while on school grounds, in front of children and a professor.

The headmaster sent the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs to their dorms in the dungeons when there was a troll in the damn dungeons our first year!

He even advertised that there was danger on the third floor and hid Flamel's stone behind an obstacle course easy enough for a handful of first years to solve. Never mind your dark lord that had been possessing a teacher at the time.

There was a basilisk in the damn castle, petrifying students and animals - it was set loose by another possessed girl-- a first year again.

Trelawney predicts everyone's death at least once a month. I've apparently died 4 times this week alone and so far she's been wrong... undecided if it's unfortunately.

Lockhart vanished bones in more than one student. Obliviated them too.

Umbridge not teaching us shit and all her damn decrees.

Binns lectures on bullshit goblin wars."

"Enough," Snape stopped him, seeing that he was now going off on a tangent.

Amycus and Alecto had now both taken seats arms length away from them.

"What of the methods would we use to get good behavior without torture?" Amycus asked, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees.

"We-- were you real..ly ordered to torture?" Neville forced his own question out. Snape hissing at him to stop asking questions, he could wait until they were done with his dosage of serum to try and ask his own.

He rolled his eyes but slumped into the feeling again.

"Actually teach us. We'll be so shocked we'll think it’s a trick or some evil plot from that itself.

Make sure we study, stick to bed times, that we don't sneak into other gender's dorms.

Have Trelawney teach sex ed (Snape snorted.)

Personal point systems.
Varying meal plans
House points have an actual reward system or tangible rewards.
Field trips.
Single rooms with shared common rooms.
Open Head of House office hours / actually visiting common rooms, helping with homework, other issues."

"Pause, McGonagall does not do that last point with the Gryffindors?" Snape queried softly.

It was his turn to snort and mumbled his answer, "Nope, I bet she doesn't even know I got kicked out of my dorm and the house... and if she does she probably doesn't care."

"Continue," The man said with a sigh.

"Dances / events in general we had like one duel and one ball and a deadly tournament.
Treasure hunts
Group project competitions
Just fucking teach properly!
There's no spaces for children to study or play.
Need general life, wizarding and muggle knowledge.

Sex-ed was not a joke. Kids get pregnant every year. There's one in Hufflepuff right now I believe.

Stranger Danger.

Pretty sure Lockhart probably molested more than one kid as well.. with his penchant for memory charms before he wiped his own brain. There were rumors about people losing time after his classes or office hours.

Occlumency or other meditation exercises to make us be able to process emotions or think better.

Forgotten or removed classes
Removed books, banned books
Something to overcome house animosity, events or games or something.

Just pretend to fucking care and a whole generation will be eating out of your hands..." Neville sighed, feeling oddly relieved letting it all out.

"Is that what you want?" Alecto asked.

"Yes."

"What else do you want. Shite not specific enough.. " Amycus cursed at herself, forgetting the potion's rules to be specific momentarily.

"A hug"

"A hug? Just a hug?" Snape queried before he could seemingly help himself.

"Have never been hugged before. Not really, not for just being myself."

They looked devastated. Alecto ordered the antidote and Snape administered it quietly. Someone had refreshed the tea, it was now no longer potioned.

He was also handed a small plate of biscuits by someone.

When he finished those Snape being apparently satisfied as the man covered his wrist again with Neville's sleeve. The man himself sat back and drank his own tea. Apparently thinking.

Amycus was suddenly up on his feet and the big gruff man had Neville pulled up as well before Snape could protest about the man moving him. Amycus shot the headmaster a look and folded his arms around Neville, much to his shock. Neville was confused, was this what a hug was like?

It was so warm...

He couldn't believe it, not knowing how to be grateful that he had finally been hugged by someone that seemingly wanted to hug him or get stuck on a fact that a known and proven Death Eater had hugged him before anyone else he had known in his life up until then.

All thoughts soon left his mind when those arms encouraged him to return the hug and he was pulled even further into the cinnamon scented robes.

Neville broke. He didn't know where he was anymore or why but someone was holding him and it was so warm.

He was crying before he even realised it, or maybe he had been crying for a while? Weren't they still asking him questions?

He sniffled before noticing that Snape had vacated the lounge and had made space for both him and Amycus as well as Alecto who had taken the space behind his back. He was pressed into the man's arms, arms that had held the wand that had tortured him so many times over the past few months and that now seemed to not want any harm to come to him anymore. He cried harder.

Cried for being so ostracised, for losing his own family name, for being disowned, for losing his family magic. He just cried.

Not aware of the fact that not a dry eye remained as he cried in what was supposed to be his enemies arms, while the man's sister gently pet his upper back and hair, occasionally scraping his skin soothingly with her long nails.

When he came back to himself, he was slowly let go and was now sat between two of the people he had thought at the start of the year would hate him the most out of everyone in his life. Even more than Snape had when the man had still taught him potions.

"Why have you never been hugged?" Amycus enquired, his voice straining to stay soft and non-aggressive.

"Squibs don't deserve to be hugged sir." Neville responded, feeling much younger all of a sudden as he relived fading and blurry memories.

"What?" Alecto asked.

"What?" Neville was confused, he had just been hugged and now they were sitting on the couch, what were they asking him? what what?

"You just said squibs don't deserve to be hugged? That you've never been hugged?"
Snape slowly reiterated.

Neville felt confused.. what were they talking about? "Noo. . . I didn't?" He looked at the three professor's surrounding him in confusion, "Why are you looking at me like that?" Neville touched his face, did he have something on it?

"Neville," Alecto started slowly, "Severus wears thongs in the summer."

He does? Neville looked at his old potions professor who was now scowling angrily.

"Do you want another hug?" The gruff professor continued.

"Yes" Neville nodded, not going to deny himself the small comfort, no matter who it was from.

Amycus hugged him again, rubbing circles into his skin, careful to not trigger pain from any of his bruises. Neville teared up a bit and accepted the conjured handkerchief from Alecto when she offered it as Amycus pulled away a bit, had the man been holding him again?

"Neville.. what underwear does Professor Snape wear in summer?" Amycus asked conversationally.

Neville finished blowing his nose and looked at his Defence professor with wide eyes.

"I-- how should I know? I don't know.. briefs? None?"

"But Alecto just told you what he wears in the summer just before I asked if you wanted another H-u-g?" The professor stated, spelling out the word.

Neville looked at Snape and Alecto in bewilderment and they both nodded. Snape's much sharper than hers, he looked more than a bit peeved, and then it melted away into full blown concern.

"Let me take a look." He shifted a chair so that his knees was almost touching Neville's.

"May I use Legilimency on you Mr. Longbottom?" His professor asked quietly, hand already retrieving his ebony wand from his sleeve.

"Sure, go ahead Headmaster.. I'm not a Longbottom anymore though." He added softly.

Snape did not react visibly except to freeze for a moment and then cast the spell as he locked eyes with Neville.

Neville felt nothing, it was nothing like Harry had told his closest friends one night after a session he had apparently had with the potion's professor a few years ago.

The boy savior having had forgotten that Neville was sitting there with the other members of the Golden trio.

Snape leapt up the next moment and stalked down the stairs and into the classroom. The next moment loud crashing and the sound of wood splintering and glass breaking reached them.

Amycus and Alecto stared at each other over his head in open-mouthed shock.

Alecto scooted Neville closer to her, initiating holding him from the side, apparently that other H-word was causing problems with his head?

Amycus leapt up to go down to where Snape was wrecking the entire room from the sounds of the old dragon skeleton falling for the second time in Neville's seven years of schooling.

A few minutes later, Snape swept back into the office after Amycus, throwing up all sorts of wards and another muffliato, Neville guessed from the intensified buzzing in his ear.

"What is it?" he dared to ask softly.

"Memory block." The headmaster got out through gritted teeth as he swallowed a measure of the alcohol that Amycus had offered him. "Triggering a new wave of additional blocked memories with the use of a keyword. In this case the H-word. There's a veritable black hole inside of your memory Neville."

They retook their seats.

Waiting for Snape to elaborate further.

"As far as I can tell, it was caused by a larger portion of blocked and sealed memories. From the threads coming off the remnants, I'd say it was connected to your magical core too and must be affecting that as well. This can only evolve into triggered obliviations like your case currently, by verbal and magical repetitions of obliviates alonside the keyword. Meaning, someone must have held you or asked to h- hold you while obliviating you."

"Was.." Alecto paused her sentence.

"Was it caused by exposure to the cruciatus." She finished, holding him a bit tighter as he made to move away.

Snape shook his head, "It would not have helped but it was not the cause, like I stated. This looks to have been intentional or accidental. But you cannot obliviate someone accidentally, it doens't work like that." the dark professor explained.

"Either way, Neville, I apologize but there is nothing we can do to fix it. Your mind is imploding on itself. I would say from the size of the hole and the fuzziness of your memories, combined with not even feeling me in your mind and going past your natural shields..." Snape all of a sudden rested his head in his hands, he came back up and swallowed sharply, ".. you have less than a few months."

"A few months before I end up with the people that birthed me? That ward?" Neville asked quietly.

Snape nodded.

Thoughts were swirling, he felt like laughing. Alone in this world and now he was mentally dying on top of that.

"If this block had been noticed early enough and punctured to release your hidden memories and magic slowly -- then it would not have reached this level. Would not have progressed this far... This is the work of multiple obliviates Neville. Hundreds, thousands even." Snape explained.

"I'd say it started when you were very young. Maybe even at infant level." The dark man finished softly.

Alecto gasped, muffling a sob into her hand.

Neville didn't understand why that sound made him so sad. She was known for torturing him (and for a while other children too) and now he felt bad that she was upset for his sake.

Amycus must have noticed his confusion.

"It might not be right Neville, but the reason Alecto is so affected is she lost her baby and husband in the first war. We both ended up being a bit more than twisted after that, it's not an excuse for how we have behaved in this very castle up until a few weeks ago but it's a reason nonetheless."

Neville nodded. Understanding at least a little bit. He was dying, of course it was easy to understand now.

He looked to Snape, "Any idea who..?"

He shook his head in the negative. "The base layers are frayed so I can't be sure, could have been anyone. There's a few stronger layers that I believe had to have been someone at Dumbledore's magical calibre or mine even."

Great.. Neville thought to himself. Getting lost a bit.

A big hand waved slightly in front of his face, Amycus again. "Where'd you go Neville? You were silent for about 10 minutes. Snape went and called the kitchen for a more substantial late night snack than biscuits."

Neville gulped painfully, it had felt like a few seconds. He told Alecto and Amycus as such.

He was furiously wiping away tears again as Snape re-entered, small tray floating behind him. They made him eat something, threatening to not let him leave until he did.

Snape also handed him a few other potions to drink immediately and another weaker pain potion that he could drink as needed. And to not worry if he forgot that he had already drank it, it wasn't that strong and was non-addictive.

"So far.." Neville started uncertainly, drawing the attention from the three adults. Technically he was already an adult in the Wix world, having turned 17 that year. "So far.. it has to be my gran, my uncle Algie, maybe the- Dumbledore, maybe Hermione, maybe Crouch!Moody, and probably Lockhart. I can't think of anyone else."

Snape grimaced.

"Why Lockhart, Neville." He asked in a no-nonsense tone.

"I have gaps in my memory of going to bed in the year he taught here, I doubt it was Ginny and it was only a handful of times after defense. Never reoccurred after he left." Neville swallowed the wave of what now counted as his dinner, threatening to come back up.

Alecto and this time Amycus' hands were on his back and shoulder again. This was, he thought sadly, probably what it felt like to have parents.

He wasn't aware that his mind had now started to leak or broadcast what he was thinking, so much so that even they with their relatively little legilimency training were picking up on his thoughts every so often.

Amycus wiped a tear away and then reached under the collar of his shirt, shooting Alecto a look that was confusing to Neville.

She verbally agreed and did the same with shaking hands.

Snape was watching them with barely concealed interest.

Amycus took the necklace she had pulled off and over her head. Both edging forward in their seats to be able to reach each other better. The dripped blood from cuts they made on their hands on the individual necklaces and then held a hand out to Neville.

Woefully confused he stuck his hand out palm up.

Alecto made a small cut on the lifeline on his palm and then they let it well up a bit before dropping the pieces into his hand.

It was warm, like them when they had been h-- holding him earlier.

He and Snape gasped in unison as the necklace pieces shot towards each other in his blood and merged. It glowed softly and then he was left with one fully intact locket, with a soft and delicate silver chain.

They indicated that he should stand.

He did.

Amycus stood before him first, Snape still looking on silently.

He pulled Neville into his chest, whispered a few words in what he thought was Welsh in his ear. Then released him.

Alecto repeated the gesture but with slightly different words and then both Death Eater Professors surprised him by both kissing him on the cheek and h-- /holding\ him from both sides.

A soft magic glow started up at their feet and travelled upwards.

Finally, Amycus spoke, his voice coming out in a choked whisper.

"I believe, Neville, you very brave, confusing and oh so damn frustrating creature. I believe you were meant to have this. It's our family's hidden Legacy." The man gave a small grimace, pretending as if he was not wiping away a tear when he coughed. "You'll know when to use it and how. The family magic would not have accepted you if you weren't worthy of this. Welcome to the family son. We might not have asked verbally and you might not have agreed fully or even wanted to for that matter but you are now our son. And you forever will be. You'll always have a home and family. The Carrows never disown. We also never kick out squibs by the way. Our master needs a kick up the arse however, as do we ourselves."

Alecto sniffled and rolled her eyes, "You forgot the most important part shitehead,"

Neville could clearly see that even that insult was said with some modicum of something he could only describe as familial, he wiped away a traitorous tear of his own. He also noticed Snape now sitting slack jawed and confused, giving the man a questioning look that he received a sad but positive nod over.

"Neville Thaddeus Leander Carrow" She started, eyes flicking up to Amycus and over at Snape too for a second. "Thaddeus for Amycus, heart and courage. Leander for myself, the mythological hero that swam over the sea for love and what I would have named my second born if I ever had one."

"Not sticking to the A-names then?" Neville tried lightheartedly, getting an actual chuckle from Snape and varying levels of wet laughs from his new.. family.

"No, no A-names for you, that was our parent's thing, luckily. Now, I did adopt you as my second born son and Amycus adopted you as his first born but this does not mean we are anything remotely similar to the Black family. It's just that even before our life choices, we had both been born Asexual. Both of us held little interest in building our own families. I did jump when it was offered to me and we're both jumping at the chance to make you our heir now."

Neville nodded, understanding what was being said.

He wanted to tell them that it was all for nothing anyways but his damn Hufflepuff coded heart did not allow him to. He should have listened to the hat..

Snape looked up at him in surprise, Neville just gave him a small smile and turned back to his professors-turned-parents.

"Now, this heirloom is a bit odd... you'll know when and how to use it, like Amycus explained. This is not goodbye, come to us when you have any issues, if we're not around," She looked to Amycus who agreed silently, "Write to us. the pendant can also be used for a wax seal."

"Now, give us both one last hold and then you can take the room on the 3rd floor across from the flower field painting. I will have an elf move your belongings."

Neville sniffled a bit and greedily accepted the holds, pressing against them tightly because no matter what they said, this definitely felt like a goodbye.

He just didn't know if he was the one leaving or if they were.

Neville stood back when he was eventually released and then shot an almost cheeky look at Snape, "You know.. I'm not going to remember it in a few months time.. I won't tell anyone you also gave me a h--" Snape moved towards him so fast and slid his hand over Neville's mouth.

"Mr... Carrow. Cease that this instance. If it will stop you from saying that blasted trigger then so be it."

Next thing Snape had curled his arms around Neville and had firmly brought Neville's head into the heady scent of his severe teaching robes. He had them updated in design a bit, Neville noticed now that he was close enough to see the embossed fabric, but he still smelled like the much more pleasant end of a potions cupboard and maybe a bit of the forest as well.

It was nice. Snape's arms were also incredibly strong and his shoulders deceptively wide. He was a surprisingly good h-- "Neville!" good holder. Snape nodded against his hair.

"I apologize that I was not able to give you any better news, Neville. I can't help but think that this is partially my fault. I know, I know you blasted Gryffindor, don't look at me like that. It's only how I feel at this moment."

"Say goodnight to your.. parents. I will escort you to the room to make sure the elves had attended to it satisfactorily." Neville grinned as he let Snape go and bid his new family good night. They gave him dual smiles and a small wave.

"Neville?" Alecto called after him.

He stopped and turned back.. pulse stuttering.

"We're proud of you." She and Amycus spoke together.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Later that evening, high up in the Headmaster's tower, a tall and dark shadow was sat in a plush window seat overlooking the grounds.

He had a bottle of firewhiskey dangling loose in his hand over the edge of his chair.

At exactly 00:06 the magical signature that the wards had registered to now one Neville Thaddeus Leander Carrow, disappeared. Forever.

Severus Amias Snape -- sat with a single tear rolling down his face.

Somehow he knew that if he went down to go and check the third floor where he had last left the cheeky young man, he would find nothing.

Not the small jokes the previously despondent youth had made at both their expenses, not the light touches to his calloused hands as they had walked in step with one another.

Not even the small kiss on his cheek, with no other emotion other than new affection from a traumatic revelation and a little bit of respect. A kiss that the youth had planted on him on a whim as he had said goodnight. Which he now knew was actually goodbye.

The kiss had broken him from the familial curse his mother's side had doomed him to and had unlocked his new middle name -- Amias.

Loved.

That was the meaning and the name that signified that it had been lifted.

And now... now Severus was alone again in this world.

He could not save his possible would-be-beloved. He could not save his best friend and sister, and now it seemed he was not going to be able to save his heart-sister's only son either.

Severus stared into the whiskey and as it stared back at him he caught the glint of the sword on his desk. The least he could do now, was the best he can.

Hopefully one day..

One day he would meet his Leander again.

He had sent a note to the Carrows via an elf.

The note was undelivered and the elf.. understandably a mix between distraught and happy returned to him with the news.

The castle had already been safer the past few weeks thanks to the boy.. but they were now without the Carrow family in its entirety. Both having seemingly passed peacefully in their sleep.

Both having a single rolled up sock and one shoe each of the same pair of dragon hide boots next to their respective beds.

Chapter Text

Everything was cold and wet as he regained consciousness.

Neville tried to breath but only managed to sputter and swallow more water. It was all around him. He was just starting to see black spots in his vision again, combining with the low burn spreading in his chest. He coughed a bit before he could stop himself and felt how waterlogged lungs had gotten when he was suddenly pulled out of wherever he was.

There was a sharp whack to his chest and the next moment he was heaving and throwing up water on soft muddy ground. The Longbottom estate pond coming into view. And the legs of his Gran and his Uncle Algie.

The whack must have been his uncle's cane, he still felt a bit more than dazed. He heard voices but could not make out anything that had been said, he was alive.. somehow.

The Carrow pendant still lay warm against his chest, comforting him. He could only hope that it was invisible or that his audience were not able to see it.

A few moments later when Neville managed to sit up and look at his too small hands, a house elf popped into view. He was transported into his en suite bathroom, and his wet and muddy clothes were removed. He raspily thanked his old elf, who just nodded strictly and then left him to his own devices. He shivered a bit.

The elf had been in the Longbottom family for a long time, many years before even his grandmother’s time. He had been assigned to Neville in his second year and did not talk much.

Neville stared forlornly down at the water for a few seconds, it was not only his hands that were small. It was like he had drank a de-aging potion and was now back to his old short and chubby self. He finished washing every inch of himself, scrubbing his hair to get the pond water and mud that had gotten stuck in it out. He leant back without thinking of it to rinse his head off and sputtered as he felt the same drowning panic build up again when the water level went over his ears.

Once done he quickly toweled off and shrugged on his old? New? Robe. He remembered faintly that he had gotten it for Yule in his 2nd year. He called Brimm (short for Brimstone) back to him as he entered his room. It had been the smallest of the heir rooms in Longbottom manor but Neville did not care about that any longer.

The elf raised an imperious hairless eyebrow at him in question.

“What.. what’s the date Brimm?”

He looked at him oddly and popped a copy of the daily prophet into his still slightly wet hands with a snap of his gnarled fingers. Brimm was apparently more concerned about him than usual that morning and even uncharacteristically dried his hair with elf magic before he left again.

The date on the paper shocked Neville. It was his 13th birthday. He dropped down onto his bed, head in his hands. Why had he been in the pond? The last time, his original 13th birthday, had been spent hiding in the greenhouse all day after his Gran had disagreed with his uncle about testing his magic one last time by throwing him into the deep end of said family pond.

This was not supposed to have happened.. did that mean that he had managed to go back-- Come back to his 13 year old self?

He painfully gripped the fabric over his chest. That meant he had time, he could get the mess in his head sorted out. But that brought other problems.

The Carrows did not know him yet, they.. they weren’t annoyed at him or even tentatively fond of him either. They probably didn’t even know he existed. The pendant warmed up again.

He.. he supposed he could write them? They knew of the pendant.. they said that it was a wax seal.. and if Neville concentrated really hard then he could feel the tiny tendrils of their family magic still. It wasn’t as all consuming as it had been— in the past-future. But they were still there. His gran and uncle could kick him out today and he would technically have a family. He didn’t want them to be strangers.

But no. To make a move now.. if he got disowned early by Augusta and Algie then he'd be drawing too much attention to himself. He felt the ache in his heart to write to them but swallowed it down. He could do this, it wasn't as if he wasn't used to being alone. Now with his social invisibility returned it would be much better than his past past-year.

That's what he decided on as he climbed into his bed, adding a few of the extra and too small blankets he had on top of it too.

He’d have to wait until school started to get Snape’s help.

Oh god.

His damn Gryffindor side had come out full force with the immense sadness and then the adoption ritual and he had actually been h- No! Don't think of it. Held by the strict Professor. He had liked it so much that he had kept teasing and talking to the man as he had escorted him back.

Neville released a groan and rolled around a bit, flailing his limbs everywhere. His dumb courageous arse had even kissed him. On the cheek!! but still!

He kissed his most hated professor and he had liked it.

He had enjoyed the look of shock that had graced the pale man’s face. Coming back up into a sitting position, Neville made up his mind.

He’d find a way to mute or block the dreaded H-word in his head or his ears first. Whatever he had to do. Well.. he didn’t exactly want to stick sharpened quills into his ears but that was the last resort if he didn’t find anything.

He’d forget about writing to his.. new family for now. It would be no use to write them and even tell them about the pendant at this point. He needed a way to slowly get to know them first.

He’d get help puncturing or patching? Whatever solution Snape had mentioned it was too late for the growing black hole in his head. Meaning he would need to try to get to Snape as soon as possible.

He had four years.. maybe. Perhaps he could also slowly get closer to the dark and short-fused Potions Master again. This thought felt more like a pipe dream to Neville but he wanted to try. He now had 4 years extra to live. He was going to make the most out of it. His stomach clenched painfully, not knowing if it was hunger, the fact that he was only 13 years old again or because he was where he had wished he would be, anonymously alone.

Thinking of Hogwarts and everyone in it made his stomach hurt even more. There was a ball of dread next to the pained feeling. How did he go back knowing that they would all turn on him as soon as he eventually showed he wasn’t his quiet and nervous self anymore..

Shaking himself physically, Neville got out of the now much warmer bed, dressed and set out to find the old family Library. His gran and uncle were according to Brimm, at St.Mungos. That means they would most likely be getting drunk on the other side of the house once they returned. They would not seek him out or bother him for a few days if he was unlucky and the week if he was lucky.

Using the search spell he had learnt a few weeks ago. He snorted. Wow that would take some getting used to.. Neville looked for censoring spells or runes or just about anything that would help him.

And what a search it had been.

He had washed more cobwebs out of his hair this week than anything else and the dust he washed off of his hands and arms every evening colored the water intensely. He was glad he wasn't panicking as much anymore but bodies of water, large or small would never again be a comfort for him. The older parts of the library had been so neglected that he needed to sort through and arrange the books first. He scoffed internally as he thought about his gran boasting to people how great their family library was but in reality the hidden stacks were a fucking joke.

It took him another week to get through all of the books that he had found on the topic he was intending to research. But he finally found a solution, it would take a visit to Gringotts and a few Galleons unfortunately but the goblins or their wardmasters would be able to to place a block on his person. He would be able to replace the H word with the word held or just leave it blank. Like the person had not said anything. It was considered a risky option because the word would be lost to himself until the block was removed.

He did not want to be able to hear it.. never mind think it. It had been hard enough to censor himself these past few weeks.

He waited for a day where his uncle and gran were decidedly busy, he had received his Hogwarts letter that morning and wanted to get to Diagon without being monitored by them. They were getting ready to go to St. Mungos again -- usually past-Neville would beg to be allowed to tag along with them. They seemed to derive great amusement from him doing so but he'd been making sure to keep it to a minimum. Only asking enough to not make them suspicious of him and making sure to look extra disappointed every time they said no.

But back to the Diagon plan.. his Gran had refused to let him go at first but his uncle surprisingly had convinced her otherwise. He was old enough after all and the man seemed to still be a bit pleased with the pond experiment as he kept referencing it as.

They grudgingly gave him his heir key — not that they could use it but they could still see every Galleon that left it and as such they kept it in their possession. He was given a quite generous budget, compared to other years, to get out from under their feet and so with his nicest cloak on, Neville floo’d to enact the first part of his plan.

He arrived in a cloud of ash, not inhaling it, using a trick he had learnt in his 6th year. But unfortunately he had bumped into a very tall man and ended up inhaling anyways. Said man had turned around looking very annoyed and then stopped slightly as he waited for him to recover from the unexpected coughing fit.

The stranger held out his hand for Neville. Who gingerly took it before letting go again. Neville wiped the sooty tears from under his eyes for a few seconds before thanking the stranger when all the ash and dust was siphoned off of his robes.

“Where are your parents, young man?”

Neville froze. That.. that voice was familiar..

He looked up at the tall stranger, his eyes starting to burn at the back of his skull a bit. This time not from soot or ash.

“They’re in the hospital sir. My grandmother decided that I could come to the Alley today by myself. I.. uhm I got my shopping list for my third year.”

Amycus Carrow hummed gruffly.

“They let you out alone, today of all days, did they?”

Neville nodded, tilting his head a bit in confusion, this caused his pendant to move a bit under his sweater. It was now much warmer with the presence of Amycus right in front of him, like it was as happy as Neville to see the not-yet curse happy Professor.

“Well come along. I will accompany you. Sirius Black escaped Azkaban yesterday, so I cannot in good conscience allow you to wander the alley without some sort of supervision. Unlike your.. relatives.” Neville smiled internally and outwardly nodded to him and thanked him with big eyes. Not able to tell the man that Black was not follower or murderer but also wondering why the man was sticking with him when he should know that… Maybe it’s because Pettigrew is still a literal pet rat.

Neville swallowed the bile rising in his throat, he’d have to sleep with that pervert rolling around on Ronald and the boy’s bedsheets a just few meters away from him.

He shook his head at the curious glance Amycus was giving him. “Sorry sir. I, uhh I need to visit Gringotts first. But also it's okay I don't have much things to get so I will be fast. I don't want to inconvenience you.”

The man nodded and led the way, "Alright, if you are so insistent, but allow me to accompany you till the bank, I have business there myself.

He seemed to have shortened his paces so that Neville could walk next to him. No one gave them a second glance. Probably because Amycus and Alecto both were not known Death Eaters until well after the events of the Tri-wizard tournament which would only happen next year.

Neville felt very warm walking next to the dangerous man, he still felt secure in the knowledge that he shouldn't yet write the man or his sister but he thought about it almost daily.

They went up the steps, nodding to the Goblin guards and then Neville veered left, towards the office reception of Gringotts. Amycus bidding him a good day as he went towards the offices on the right.

Relieved and slightly sad to see the man leave, Neville rushed to a teller as it cleared and the cranky goblin waved him over.

"Uhh.. Good Morning. I was hoping to speak to one of your establishments wardmasters if that's okay? And, oh, here I need to visit my vault today as well." He rushed out quickly to not upset the goblin worker any more and even handed him the small key.

The goblin verified the key without a word and then pointed the hand and his key to the back of the bank lobby.

"Follow Snarl."

Neville nodded and thanked him as he rushed to follow the new goblin after getting his key back.

They took the mine carts but instead of going down into the earth it seemed they were going up slightly. Neville had never known the tracks went up any further..

The were let out on a platform with a only a big metal door. It was open a crack and he could see the chaos of many different humans and goblins working inside of a very large room. His staring was interrupted by a growl and he followed Snarl past the cacophony of parchment and flying wands or swords.

They stopped to the back of the room next to a neater arranged desk.

Snarl grunted which ended up getting the attention of an older wizard behind a desk, his assistant or partner was also drowning in parchment and reference books but it seemed more organized than the rest of the room.

"Ahh Snarl. How's the kids?" The wizard greeted cheerfully.

Snarl just snarled? at the man and left again. Neville watched him leave and saw he was waiting at the cart on the outside.

"Lovely chap, that Snarl! Now how can I be of assistance?" The man asked genially and caught a small square of parchment as it popped into existence in front of his nose.

"I... uhh. I wanted help with a silentium ritual please sir." Neville got out after taking a breath.

His stomach was still doing flip-flops from the quick ride up to the offices and from meeting Amycus again so soon.

The Wizard and the other younger man's attention was fully on him.

The wizard narrowed his eyes slightly and leant his elbows onto his desk, studying Neville.

“I have a memory block. I will be getting assistance to sort it out soon but I need to mute the trigger word. Whenever someone says it or I think it, I lose whatever I heard, said, learnt or thought just before the word.”
He got out, feeling like he needed to quickly explain himself.

"Are 'ya able te give us the word sonny?" A voice barged into the conversation from behind Neville, he spun around a bit and saw a new goblin.

Neville nodded, no longer trusting his voice. He felt ashamed even though none of this was his fault.

"Well?" The goblin bit out, teeth showing as he curled a lip back.

He wrapped his arms around himself, preparing. "It's hug sir."

Neville looked around, apparently he was already in the chaotic room he and Snarl had came to just a few moments ago.

"Sonny?" A goblin to his right who definitely was not Snarl queried.

"Sorry sir. Is this the Wardmasters offices? I need help with an issue I have." Neville spoke with a small nod.

"You're in the offices already. You just asked me for assistance with performing a silentium ritual.." A big wizard with a desk piled high with neat stacks of scrolls chipped in.

Neville looked over and saw the older man with a seemingly shocked younger man next to him.

"I did..? Sorry sir but yes that's the ritual I need help with please."

Neville swallowed, he was able to feel that he was tampered with now especially if the faces of the 3 around him was anything to go off of. He must have told them the trigger word. He rubbed his upper arms with the palms of his hands. He also could not remember when he had folded them over himself like this. He closed his eyes, his breathing was starting to come out in quick, small puffs.

"Sit down, Sonny. We'll get you sorted. Just need to ensure we have the wording down for the ritual. We'll start as soon as it's ready."

Neville nodded, taking the offered seat.

It took a few minutes and in that time the trio looked as busy as he could see the rest of the room was. He caught a glance of Snarl standing in front of the mine cart outside the doors.

He was brought back to his immediate surroundings as a wash of magic swept over him. The younger wizard and goblin had pried his hands and arms off of himself and were painting tiny runes on the exposed skin of his palms and fingers.

Once they were done the older wizard started chanting and without much fanfare the runes melded into one and formed a bracelet on his wrist which then seemed to melt away but he could feel it settle under his skin. He reached out to touch the skin just above his pulse point. He could swear that he felt the little band of metal but it was well hidden.

"That will stay there until it's removed sonny. You should now no longer have any issues with the word ___ and also you will not be able to think it either but something tells me that's what you had in mind."

Neville nodded.

"Alright-y then -- We have deducted vault 247 for the procedure--"

Neville interrupted him with a squeak, "247? What do you mean 247? My trust vault is 511?"

The goblin next to them looked confused, "You arrived at Gringotts with Amycus Carrow correct?"

he nodded and the goblin continued, "The innate and ancient magic of our vaults would not have accepted the transaction if you were not related to the Carrow family in some way."

Neville shook his head, tears were now welling up again.

"Please Mr Goblin. They can't know yet. I will tell them eventually but I really really need to pay for this myself." Neville looked to the wardmaster that was starting to protest, "I also know that I need to visit someone with the ability to traverse minds and read them. I have someone lined up to help me. I'm aware of the issues. But please -- don't take the money from that vault. Take it from mine."

The goblin looked pessimistic but nodded, sending off a piece of parchment that he stamped with the back of the knife he had in his pocket.

"Alright sonny. But the procedure is 4000 Galleons. Your trust vault value is insufficient. We'll accept and remove a down-payment of 200 Galleons for now. And as this is the error of our esteemed establishment we'll give you a period of 5 years to pay back the rest of the outstanding amount without any interest charges."

"Bogrod?! You cannot be serious!" The older wardmaster interjected.

"This is the best I can do Matthius." The goblin said and held out the small piece of returned correspondence.

The older wizard grumbled into his beard and rubbed his temples with both hands.

"My apologies, kiddo. This is my fault as well. Your situation was dire and we had received confirmation that the transaction was a go. We shouldn't have skipped the paperwork. I am not allowed to help you pay off the debt.. however.. ahhh yes here it is." the man rummaged around in a low desk drawer. He handed Neville a small knife, hilt first.

He took it and looked at the small black switch blade, blinking a bit he slowly thanked the man.

The younger man scoffed, "Honestly."

"That's a detection blade. If you tap it on something it will tell you the curses or spells attached to that item and the more you use it, the more information it will give you about things like the item condition or what is needed to repair it etc. -- It's a blade most of us use here, I'm assuming that's my seniors old one. Not that the age makes any difference to how well it works."

Neville nodded, closing the blade carefully and slipping it into his inner pocket, it would definitely be helpful, detection charms is one thing he missed out on as they would have covered it in the topics in the second half of his seventh year.

He was now once more on the steps outside the bank.

He had 50 galleons left for school shopping. It was not much at all. He would need to cut a few corners and edges.

Deciding to skip getting new robes or shoes, he slipped into an older bookshop bordering the dark alleys.

The owner was not the friendliest wix but the books were readable even if they looked suspect. He got the required ones. He had decided to adjust the electives he selected and had even owled his head of house with the changes. It was why his list had been delayed to this morning instead of arriving on his birthday week.

He was tempted to add a few more that looked interesting but if he did he would not be able to afford his potions supplies and it would not help his plan to somehow get closer to his at present most feared professor.

He asked the shop owner who had been manning the pay point if there was a shop other than Mr. Mulpepper's Apothecary, one that was maybe not as expensive. They looked unimpressed, "Out here, turn right, then right again. Look for Moon Brewery."

"Alright, thank you ma'am."

"Careful. Bad eggs all 'round in that alley."

Neville nodded and hid his gulp. Yep she was steering him into Knocturn... but needs must. He couldn't get more money out of his gran and uncle.

He kept his head down and quickly rushed to the seemingly forbidden alley. He ignored the jeers and sneers as he walked past all sorts of characters and beings.

He was just taking his second right when something odd happened. Instead of revealing an equally grimy street it was instead one with comparatively minimal grime. The people in this alley was still extremely unfriendly but they ignored him, going about their own business and keeping to their own conversations.

There were a few shops here, some sold curio items like the Borgin place he had scurried past after a particular nasty comment. There was a furniture shop, Jestles Vessels. A trunk shop and broom shop merged into one, Locked Flights. And then the Moon Brewery.

There were a few other shops and establishments scattered between those, but he did not have much interest in reading their signs at this point.

He stepped into the shop and walked over to the counter. It was not a self-serve store like the other main apothecary in Diagon. He shakily held out his list to the one-eyed man, an impressive scar running down the entirety of the left side of his face.

He could hear the man quietly talking to himself as he collected the required ingredients.

"20 Galleons." Came the eventual prompt

It was still an eye watering price but it was much better than the other place. He now had 5 Galleons left.

Before he stepped out, he tried his luck again. Asking if there was a quiet place where he could get lunch without getting himself into any sort of trouble. Stating that he did not have enough money for a meal in the main alley.

The man pointed him to the small shop at the end of the street where he was standing now.

It was almost like a mix between a pub and a cafe. It was not very busy inside but it was clean and no one was paying him any mind.

He took a seat at the one counter, off to the side.

"What will it be doll face?" An older lady who was cleaning goblets ask him.

"Is there anything you recommend ma'am? I only have a few coins left."

The lady nodded and waved a hand, a plate of warm food and a small goblet of what looked like milk appeared next to his plate.

"1 galleon 30 sickles. "

Neville paid and dug into his food as soon as he knew no one was paying attention to him.

He finished quickly, and sat back enjoying the dark whispers around him. They were kind of soothing.

He left the Black Horse after thanking the kind lady. He even accidentally told her as much and got a pinch on his cheek with her long nailed hands instead. She patted him on the head and tucked a small candy into his outer robe pocket.

He wasn't used to being touched but she had made no indication of having seen how badly he had flinched at her seemingly friendly contact.

He got a few odds and ends from a store called Odd's and End's ironically enough. He would be a bit short on parchment and ink but he would work something out. Maybe eating out had not been the best option but he instinctively knew that the elves at home would have been tasked to not feed him until the next day.

He after all had a full 250 Galleons to spend as he pleased. Never mind that he had to use 200 of it immediately to fix the wrongs that his gran and uncle were no doubt complicit in.

He wondered if he could ransack the room on the 7th floor of the castle and see what was in good enough condition to maybe sell to the shops in this part of the alley. Neville dipped into the furniture shop, Jestles Vessels and asked the old couple that ran it exactly that.

Their eyes had lit up marginally and they confirmed they would take any unbroken pieces that he offered to them.

He left there with a tiny shrunken box and another book. This one was free in anticipation of the spoils he would sell to them. It was a guide for spells to fix minor damage on wood and upholstery. He hadn't thought of fixing up any of the pieces but this was even better. He now had something else to focus on this year.

It felt like he was making progress and school was only set to start in a few days. He felt that same gnawing feeling about contacting his new family but shoved it down.

All that was left now.. was Snape.

The last few days passed, his gran and uncle treating him like a ghost again. He managed to convince Brimm to pack him a lunch for the train ride and he now had the cloth wrapped bundle in an old satchel he found in his closet.

He knew his gran and uncle weren't pleased that he had neglected the greenhouse for the second half of his summer but it had hurt too much to even look at the old glass building. He'd have to check it next summer lest he made them too angry.

He found a quiet compartment, hefted his trunk up into its place and took a seat to study the rest of the bustling platform in the early morning light. The families out there looked like they were all so close to one another. Families were greeting their kids with hands on their shoulders, heads and lots of h-- holdings. It looked nice.

Even the families that were dark or pureblood seemed to put their colder personalities to the side to greet their progeny. He watched the Malfoys in particular, he had sat through enough of Ronald's rants on the family but had never seen them interacted before until now. They looked just as close.

The younger Malfoy was seemingly happy to be clutched close to an older but still young looking woman with half white, half black hair. She was beautiful. He saw the Lord Malfoy move closer to his wife and their son as well, holding both of them lightly and not at all obviously unless you looked at them. He thought he saw the man dip down to quickly place a kiss on the crown of the blond head of hair of his son. The Malfoy matriarch squeezing her son one last time until the Yule holidays.

Neville imagined them telling Draco to write to them often but that's where his imagination stopped. What else did families say when they greeted one another like this?

He sniffed a bit and shifted his attention away from them to give them some privacy.

The door had at some point opened to his compartment and he was graced with not only the presence of an already sleeping Professor R.J. Lupin (he had read it from his case incase someone asked but he wouldn’t forget the wolf as one of their more competent teachers.. but he didn’t know if it was just the generally low bar). Taking seats after the sudden arrival was the younger Malfoy and his two not-so twin cronies.

Well this was a change. Didn't Ronald complain in his past-future that they had been sitting with the Professor on the train ride in their own 3rd year incident with the Dementors?

Oh Fudgesicles.

Dementors.

He nodded quietly to Malfoy who had seemingly realized then that he was there too. He got a more confused sneer than usual but Crabbe and Goyle both nodded at him in turn.

They ignored him and continued their discussion, the Professor who was breathing deeply was either really sleeping or just ignoring them all too.

He shrugged and after the trolley had left halfway through the journey he had slowly eaten the sandwich he had in his satchel. It wasn't bad and the old elf had added enough condiments and toppings to make it quite enjoyable.

Another hour later a chocolate frog jumped into his lap and startled him from his swirling thoughts. He caught it, now better trained after catching Trevor for years (and because his muscle memory had apparently travelled back with him) he held it out to Crabbe(?) but got a shake of the head.

"Keep it." Came the soft mumble.

He nodded his thanks and bit the limbs off first. The frog was still struggling but he didn't mind it -- it would not be going anywhere now. He finished it slowly, not paying attention to anything but the passing scenery and then it all of a sudden grew impossibly dark.

The train shifted to an abrupt stop.

The Professor was up and muttering about checking with the conductor but Neville grabbed his sleeve without thinking of it. He could have sworn the professor's eyes flashed a bit, "What?"

Neville shook his head, "Dementors."

The man's amber eyes widened and he immediately shot off a patronus.

Malfoy was panicking quite loudly but also insisted the professor check the rest of the train, making Neville drop his grip on the wolf.

It was less than 3 minutes later when the door to their compartment opened silently once more and the next moment, Neville, Malfoy and the other two were falling over themselves to press their backs against the window.

They were done for.

Forget asking Snape to help with his blocks.

Forget meeting his parents in this life.

He also could not cast the patronus himself. Not just because it would draw attention to him but because he had no happy memories anymore. All of them had been spoilt or soiled somehow.

He apologised silently to Malfoy has he gripped the blondes hand in his right and the shoulder of the other boy pressed back against his chest with his left.

Then a great big wolf galloped in and charged the skeletal arm that was reaching out to the four of them. The dementor fled through the gap in the opened train window above their heads.

Neville didn't know if he felt worse or better with the knowledge that they could fit through gaps as small as that.

He was still looking up at it when their compartment opened.

The Professor was back with them. He situated them all back onto the seats of the compartment, this time the four of them was sitting shoulder to shoulder on the small seat. The Professor handed them each some chocolate, checking that they were okay before he did another sweep of the train.

Eventually the train started moving, he heard Malfoy sigh a bit.

Neville cleared his throat, drawing the boy’s attention.

"Sorry.. Malfoy."

He looked at him in more confusion but didn't say anything. Just accepting his strange apology with a nod.

No one spoke for the rest of the trip and no one asked Neville any questions anyways after he had gotten off of the carriages that dropped them in front of the entrance to the Castle and the Great Hall.

He had thought he heard the signature line from Malfoy about his father whispered to Crabbe or Goyle but he ignored it. He would actually want to see what the elder Lord Malfoy would do about the dementor situation now that his own son had been a few centimeters away from being harmed.

Besides he no longer had any issue with the younger Malfoy. As much as he had enjoyed the chaos surrounding Neville in the past-future and some of his more inane questions, the blonde had not participated and even came to his defense sort of with jibes and comments shot towards Neville's attackers.

Stepping into the hall and glad to be out of the main corridor that made him shudder with a variety of memories he took a seat near the front of the Gryffindor tables. The spaces no one ever really wanted to sit, as it was almost on top of the teacher's table.

He was right, people only reluctantly joined him after the conclusion of the sorting when the other years had to make spaces for the new first years.

Neville had no clue how they had housed the Beauxbatons academy students or the Durmstrang ones if the hall was this cramped this year. Which was odd... there were probably upwards of a hundred empty classrooms and the teachers all taught all of the 7 years of students - there was no teacher only for lower years or upper years to split the groups.

He ate his dinner mechanically before he restarted his thoughts from the past-future.

Brain problems first. Other problems later.

He wondered if Snape would be in his office after the dinner.

He tuned out Dumbledore, studying the wood grain of the table until they were dismissed.

He ended up not being able to get down to Snape's office for a week. Not for lack of trying.

Prefects didn't care who he was but they always seem to herd him back to the common room once they spotted his red and yellow tie -- regardless of his protests.

He had not had the heart to blow up any cauldrons in this mornings double class and also didn't have the excuse of having earned a detention. The prefects would know he was lying anyways as they had a parchment that updated automatically if someone did earn a detention in the castle.

He slipped out the common room with his satchel, thinking of saying he was going to the library if he ran into anyone and he left the blasted beacon of a tie in his trunk.

He walked past the library and instead went down to the dungeons staircase.

He reached Snape's office without issue but the man was not there. Neville wanted to yank out his hair, the urge kept getting stronger and stronger and he had just grasped hands full of the strawberry blonde strands when someone walked into his back.

He looked around with an internal sigh, shoving his hands into his pockets. Then noted with some surprise it was Malfoy.

The boy seemed to be just as surprised to see him.

"Longbottom." He nodded to him in greeting.

Neville greeted him back.

"You also here to speak to my head of house?" Neville felt the same confusion he had seen on the train ride a week ago build inside him.. Malfoy was making small talk? with him??

He cleared his throat, he hadn't spoke much except to complain every now and again when the prefects rounded them up to go back to the common room. Like there was a whole big fuck off castle and it was no where near curfew when they began rounding them up. He understood the whole damn issue with Black but for f---

"Yeah.. I wanted to ask him something." Neville spoke instead, calming himself internally with the seemingly accepting presence of the Slytherin boy.

"ahh cool. I actually just want to check something but I can do that later. Oh! by the way, I spoke to my father about the whole train incident. He got those creeps moved away at least another 150 meters from any student in the school."

They heard the sounds of shuffling books and papers in the office they were standing outside of, Neville looked back at Malfoy. "Thanks Malfoy. I.. uhh I know you didn't do it for me but I appreciate it."

The blonde boy gave him a smirk but seemed to let go of whatever he was thinking of.

The Slytherin knocked on the door for him and when Snape responded he was gently pushed inside of the opening door.

"See you around, Longbottom."

The door closed again before Neville could respond.

"Mr. Longbottom.." Snape started, eyes not leaving the scroll he was painting red at that moment, "To what do I owe the.. pleasure."

Neville coughed to clear his throat, "Evening Professor."

The man looked up and gave him a dry and impassive look.

Neville could feel the panic start to build up inside of him. He was so damn nervous and the man in front of him had no clue that he was holding his whole bloody life in his hands. Well not yet but not the point. The only thing that gave him the push he needed was the look of guilt on his past-future Professor's face. he closed his eyes at the memory.

He was no doubt making the current professor incredibly annoyed and impatient but so be it.

"I.. ahh.. I need your help Professor."

The black clad man shifted and folded his arms over his chest, leaning back from his work on his desk.

"Continue." Came the sharp bite.

"Could you please ward your office?" Neville all but begged, stepping forward with confidence he sure as hell was not feeling under the scrutiny and perched on the edge of the stool in front of the big desk.

A wave of the Professor's wand came later and he gulped around his words again.

He focussed on the numerous buttons of the professor's teaching robes, the billowing cloak he always wore was settled on a hook behind the Professor.

"I have a.. shit." Another raised eyebrow, Neville rubbed his face with both hands and clenched them in his lap. "Ihaveamemoryblock."

"Enunciate clearly Longbottom!"

Come on Neville, you're freaking older than you look. Act like it for merlin's sake.
Where's the courage you had before you came back?? You bloody well know you need this, you're running out of time!!!

"Memory Block!" he squeaked out, "I have a memory block." he finished, less panicked than when he started his sentence.

The black obsidian eyes of his professor seemed to grow impossibly wide and Neville thought that they were multiplying and flashing in numerous places around his slowly blurring vision. The next moment air was forcefully entering his cramping lungs and he fought the urge to gag over the edge of his knees and onto his shoes.. and Snape's?

The Professor was standing over him, a shuttered look on his face.

"Breath boy, I may be allowing you to darken my doorstep but I will not chauffeur you to the hospital wing as well."

Neville tried a few times to breath by himself until he got it under control again.

"Explain, this time without the need for my intervention." Snape demanded.

"I found out I have a memory block. One that is triggered by a specific word, the trigger causes lapses in memory and lost time. I have sorted that part out but the wardmasters of Gringotts were not able to help me with the blocked portions. I am here to please request your assistance sir." Neville finished, looking up at the dark man, hoping his eyes were not completely as pleading as he felt in that moment.

He luckily did not flinch as Snape once more flicked his wand out of his sleeve and he sat as still as possible as he heard the whispered spell.

Legilimens

He felt the Professor faintly move around in his head, deciding not to join him internally - he was not able to see the blocks when he meditated anyways but he knew they were there, hiding from his view.

After a few minutes a few short and sharp pains lanced through his head and down to his toes. He had no control this time as he heaved dryly, bent over himself and staring at his and Snape's boots.

A vial was held under his nose, it cleared up the nausea he felt as he breathed in the fumes emanating from the little bottle.

He came back up and a hot trail of blood dripped down his nose and into his still slightly open mouth.
The feeling of it rolling down made him shudder involuntarily, he hated nosebleeds.

A small square of fabric was deposited into his hand next.

It was a dark handkerchief. He mumbled a thank you and pressed it under his nose, still not looking directly at his professor.

"Well Longbottom. Every day you seem to surprise me even more. Will you be spectacularly exploding any cauldrons tomorrow?"

Tired and in a lot of pain it was a struggle to keep his responding comments to himself and from the shifting of the Professor he realised that he let through one of his thoughts, "Would you like me to Professor? Not sure if the blocks has anything to do with my ability to brew improperly."

"Light Pain potion, a swallow before bed and after waking in the mornings. I expect you to loiter in the hallway of my office again once you start running out or if this is ineffective." Neville took the deceptively small vial. It almost looked like the past future one he had gotten from that professor at some point.

"Thank you sir. Will.. is the block gone?" Neville asked almost feeling hopeful. That light and airy feeling solidified and immediately dropped next to his stomach when the professor answered in the negative.

"No, not gone. For such a.. lasting barrier I had to make strategic holes. There's a chance of some of the memories that were added to it on purpose or from your.. condition might return -- but prepare yourself for the chance that they might not." The usually cold professor explained for him.

"Thank you anyways Professor." Neville said, shaking his head. He didn't care about those memories, they're all likely to not be nice ones. As long as he wasn't actively dying then that was fine, he looked up to the professor again, "uhm.. I.. ah did we catch the blocks in time?" Neville asked hesitantly, not sure how to word it exactly.

Something in the professor's face changed but then disappeared just as fast, and the man seemed to answer reluctantly, "Yes.. it was caught in time. You will live long - not withstanding how hazardous your brewing skills remain in my class."

Neville nodded and hopped off of the stool once he was summarily dismissed, catching himself on the professor's desk when he moved too quickly.

He was in good spirits when he stopped at the library to copy a passage of a book he needed, sending a silent thought to the pendant you hear that past-future Professor? We, you caught it in time.

Neville slipped into the common room, he wanted to sit in front of the warm fire and do his homework. To his dismay there was no open seats, oh hold there was one.

He moved to go to it but then he saw the red headed girl in the seat next to it, glance over at him and quickly moved her own satchel and school books onto it while starting a loud discussion with her brother Ronald and his friends, Harry and Hermione.

Neville showed no outward reaction to the slight, no disappointment. He hiked his book bag up higher on his shoulder and moved past to the dorms up the stair case.

He nodded to the Weasley twins as he walked past their open door, they were animatedly telling something to their friend Lee Jordan. They each gave him the mirrored version of a salute. He hadn't yet grown close to the twins this time but at least the inciting incident of them excluding him from their pranks and products had already happened.

He would never forget their faces when his nose didn't stop bleeding after the required amount of time had passed. They had immediately rushed him to the medical wing of the castle. You'd have thought that they would have gotten revenge on him for their dual punishments after that but instead they had left him alone.

Neville supposed the fear of almost killing a fellow student had been an eye opener for them. They now worked on refining their processes as much as possible and opted to test on themselves first before involving anyone else. They weren't friends with him but they were always friendly.

He couldn't help but think if it would have been different had they been there in the castle for his seventh year. Would they have stood by him or their sister and the blonde girl who he refuses to even think of still.
He hadn't noticed that he had paused in his steps in front of their door, his eyes lowered and deep in thought until two identical pairs of mismatched socked feet entered his vision.

"Neville?"

"You okay? Did you need something?" One of the twins asked him almost gently.

Snapping out of his thoughts and the emotions that were building up he looked up and waved them off, "No, sorry I was thinking of something. Sorry for bothering you."

He was off and in his own dorm room before they could ask him anything else.

Neville focused on getting all of his assignments out of the way, it took a long time and none of the others had paid him any mind as they all turned in for bed. Leaving him to working by the candle on his desk. He had the darkest corner in the tower, away from the windows. He sighed silently and leaned back, cracking his back a bit. He was caught up as much as possible now, only thing remaining was the readings he needed to do before each days classes.

He had drawn up a small schedule for himself, he didn't want to fall behind on his studies while he started to sort out the room on the seventh floor. It would just draw attention to him and his goings on. As long as he kept his tie off after classes then it should not be an issue, he supposed he could also dip into his more informal wardrobe.. if the purebloods in the other houses could dress down after classes and not just on weekends then he could too.. right?

He completed his short nightly routine and took a swallow of the potion. He wondered where he should place the vial, he didn't want the possibility of his room mates finding it if he just left it out or in his trunk.

He also couldn't keep it in his book bag, the student body's favorite spell to use on one another was the one that made your satchel or bag unravel all of its stitches. He was still sitting in his bed with the curtains drawn when he got an idea, the pendant on his chest had slowly been warming up -- as if it was trying to get his attention.

He held the vial in front of it and it disappeared. His first instinct was to panic but then he felt the little scratch at the back of his mind, somehow he knew where the vial was floating around in the space inside of the pendant. He held his hand in front of it and thought of returning it. It worked!

He had forgotten about this ability of the pendant -- barring the other one that was a one time use to deliver you in the past. This was an equally brilliant piece of his magic in his opinion. Smaller than time travel but no less useful.

He excitedly rushed to the edge of his bed where his trunk was and pulled out the little rectangular box and book he had gotten from the Jestle furniture shop. Neville added them into his pendant, this way he could go to the room whenever he had a gap, he needn't travel to the tour for these object when he needed them.

Neville drifted to sleep with a ghost of a smile, he had accomplished his first feat today. If his mind healed then he would be seeing his graduation from this castle at least.

Chapter Text

Neville thought he had gotten adequate practice with cleaning spells and removing dust and anything else that clung to him from the sorting of his current family's library. How wrong he had been.

His wand, which was still the heirloom from his father, was resisting him more and more. He had even just one day broken down in the room as he was trying to levitate a box of books over to him to check over and place with the others he had found so far. The thing stopped channeling his magic when it had almost reached it and it dropped the box right on his head. When he had came to under the mountain of books he had threatened the piece of shitty wood high and low that he would be snapping it and incinerating it and feeding the ashes to the plants in the greenhouse if it did that again.

He retrieved the vial once he was sitting upright, wand discarded somewhere between all the junk as he had thrown it as far away as possible from him in a fit of outrage. Neville had not felt this angry since his past-future and shuddered as the icy thought, that his mind might not be healing as well as it should be, travelled down his spine.

He went to take a swallow and found it empty.

It had been a few weeks since he had darkened the professor's doorstep (his words) and decided it was probably still early enough to do so once more. Maybe he could even get some wand help from the professor. though... Ollivander wasn't exactly cheap and he knew from a letter he had received that the 250 Galleons had been meant to be used on his Hogsmeade trips for the year too. His gran having deigned to sign and send the slip of paper to him earlier in the week. He was sure she and Algie had seen the statements from the goblins on the withdrawals and had done it to mock him.

But wait.. did he have to ask Snape or McGonagall for help with that? This was a lost and found style room right? Were there any lost wands, besides the piece of shite that almost murdered him of course.

He had barely finished his thoughts when a small mountain of wands materialised in front of his feet.

Neville began sorting through them, inspecting the wood, trying a spell or two. It was going horrendously, how did one pick a wand in the first place? He had heard the discussions on it a few times in the common room, apparently you just kept holding them until you found the right one but that was tedious.

His pendant warmed.

Huh... would it?

He unhooked it from around his neck and lowered the pendant by the chain like he was fishing in the pile of wands, the next moment he was conscious of the fact that a few wands now sat in the pocket dimension. He replaced the chain around his neck and brought them out one by one, they were all duds until the last one.

It was still not perfect but the wand sent comforting waves up his wrist and arm. He had no clue what type of wood or core it had but that wasn't important, it felt a hell of a lot better than the other one. "You won't try to kill me if I borrow you from your resting place to help me with school work and sorting through this room, will you?"

He felt very dumb speaking to this wand as well -- he really needed that check-up, maybe he was going actually insane or something.

He laughed to his own horror when the wand warmed in a similar way to the pendant. Neville rubbed his face, smearing dust and cobwebs into his skin.

Well that's something, he would not be able to get out of the common room if he went and showered now, he hoped the Professor wouldn't mind.

The trek down into the dungeons was faster than usual and he knocked politely after catching his breath a bit. Twisting the little vial in his pocket as he waited.

He saw the tell tale light that indicated the Professor was in his office but assumed that he was busy with someone else. A half an hour later and he was proven right, a head of bright blonde hair was the first thing that caught his eyes as the door opened.

Malfoy stayed in the frame of the door not letting Neville enter it.

"Merlin Longbottom, what the hell happened to you? Lost a fight with your friend's pet rat or something?"

Neville scowled at that, thanks for the freaking reminder of that pedophile, Malfoy.... Ignorance has been bliss and now he couldn't stop thinking of the rat rolling around Ronald in the evenings. Specifically when he himself had reminded himself of it as a blue glow surrounded the rat when he was practicing the Homonum Revelio spell for his self-studies.

He must have looked a bit green because he was pulled into the office.

"Ahh. Longbottom. Here to decorate my office floor once more?"

He just groaned as he was pushed into a chair he had seen pushed to the side of the one wall the last time, someone else dragging the stool closer and the swish of fabric next to him.

"I didn't do this Sev. You saw me leave your office just now."

"Hmmm."

Neville held out the little vial in a partial explanation. The professor seemed to understand what he was getting at. Merlin it felt like Lockhart's blasted pixies and the dragon skeleton were jumping on his already pounding skull.

A pain potion and a few others he didn't pay attention to were slipped past his lips as his head was tilted. Forcing him to swallow.

He did and the black and white world around him regained color.

"Longbottom?" Came the inquiry.

He must have still felt a bit out of it as he started with the wrong thing, "Ronald sleeping with a blasted pedophile every night. My father's wand tried to murder me and my pain potion is finished. I'm not sure my mind is healing as it should Professor. I'm talking to inanimate objects these days."

He heard a very un-snapelike snort.

"I.. see."

"Explain what you mean pedo, Neville.." Malfoy commented from his seat in the peanut gallery, aka the round stool.

"Yes. Do elaborate." Snape was still wearing his cloak and folded it with his arms across his chest, peering down at him, eyes sharp.

"The rat he has is an animagus. I was practicing some extra spells for my class readings last night." Neville's stomach rolled painfully. He wasn't sure if he was feeling sick from the memory or hunger.

"Well, the bloody thing lit up out of the corner of my eye. I thought it was just a fluke, that it had picked up Ronald's presence as well but well the book in the library says otherwise."

Snape nodded once, deep in thought.

"And you said this is Weasley's pet rat?"

Neville answered the question in the affirmative, "He's been in their family for ages, Percy had it before it became Ronald's this year. He's been rolling around with it in his bed every night since school started."

Neville was glad to see Snape and Malfoy looking just as green as he felt at the memories.

"I want you to think hard on the memory of you practicing the spell, and then one or two of you seeing the younger Weasley.. frolicking.. with the rat as well."

He did as requested and felt the tip of the Professor's wand gently touch his right temple. A silvery blue string followed the wand and it felt kind of like a hair being gently pulled out from the creases in his brain.

The strand broke off and was deposited into a vial that the Professor slipped into his pocket.

He went over to his desk, wrote something on it and then threw it into the flames of his office.

Moments later a pot of tea, 3 cups and a small tray filled with plates of food materialized on the Professor's busy desk. The dark man set about preparing tea for all of them, handing cups to himself and Malfoy before walking around the desk to take a seat himself in his own chair.

He waved at them with a softly barked order of eating the provided dinner, opting to seemingly not eat himself.

Neville had been in the room since after the last class and had skipped lunch before that as well. He ate the plate that Malfoy passed to him, the two boys sitting in peace, waiting for the verdict of the Professor.

He returned to his cup of tea as the empty plate vanished, he felt a bit better.

The Professor had in the mean time stuck his head a few times more into the now green flames in the hearth in his office. Then the next moment, a variety of people stepped through, including McGonagall.

The old professor's eyebrows shot into her hairline as Lord Malfoy, Madame Bones and two rigid unknown individuals stepped through the fire after her.

"Severus, I'm sure whatever Mr. Malfoy or Mr. Longbottom had done now wasn't this serious to need the auror department and the Head of the Governors."

Neville sputtered. Where the hell did she get off on assuming that it was either him or Draco Malfoy that had done anything. Did she think Snape just let them in that case if they were guilty of anything eat dinner and drink tea.. in his office of all merlin's places.

"Neither Malfoy, or I have done anything Professor. Malfoy caught me as I got sick and almost fainted - that's why he's here." Neville bit out. The older professor ignored him.

He could see that Lord Malfoy and the rest of the room had definitely heard him though, if the miniscule nod that he had gotten from the man had been seen correctly by him.

"Longbottom is a witness Minerva." Snape bit out, "I called for you as Albus is out at an ICW Conference and you are after all deputy headmistress and current head of the house of lions."

The man seemed to pierce her with that dark gaze.

Neville felt a bit better already, he didn't need Snape to stick up for him and he didn't but his words still made him feel a lot better.

"Would you please be so kind as to accompany the aurors and Madame Bones to the tower and grant them entry to the 3rd year boys dorms. They are aware of why I called them and will return here once they have done the necessary." She scoffed again but did as was asked from her.

She led the small group out of the office.

Leaving only Lord Malfoy and the original occupants of the office.

Neville internally wondered if Snape would have acted so fast if he knew that he would be indirectly helping Sirius Black and Harry Potter... seeing the look on the Professor's face and Lord Malfoy's as the Professor was filling the man in on the events and probably Neville's memories too he decided that yes. These men would not let anyone stay in a dorm filled with children, disguised as a pet no less, even if they were the children of their worst enemy.

Lord Malfoy conjured a seat next to Neville's after some time, making him notice that he must have zoned out again. He tried to not startle as a pot of tea was called to the Malfoy Lord and said man began filling both his and mini-Malfoy's cups again.

The man did not make any note or comment about his flinch, but he stayed close to the both of them. Offering comfort in a silent way.

The contingent that had returned from the tower left through the fireplace. From how quick they left he assumed they had gotten what they had came for. McGonagall also left through the flames, pulling one sleep addled Weasley behind her and being followed by Ginerva and even the two twins who both looked grim but shot Neville a small salute before stepping through themselves.

Madame Bones hadn't apparently followed the aurors and was instead softly speaking to Snape and Lord Malfoy who had gotten up to join them at the hearth. Neville kind of missed the man's presence. He didn't understand if it was his accident earlier with the books or the fact that he remembered the rat running all over them last year when Ronald had borrowed him from Percy for the weekend.

And he really meant all over them.

"Professor, Long-- Neville doesn't look so good." Mini-foy's voice sounded very far away.

Neville felt his head being tilted upwards by cool hands, the three adults were crowding around him, Draco peering at him as well around his father's side.

He needed to tell them. But he felt like he would throw up the moment he opened his mouth.
He felt his face twitch a bit with indecision and the emotions and possibly vomit bubbling up inside his chest. His professor softly intoned a spell and a cool feeling settled in his stomach.

"Anti-emetic." The man said in explanation to him and the other onlookers.

"I--" Neville gasped for breath. He couldn't do this, he didn't want this memory! His eyes were starting to swim in their sockets.

"I--" No sound came out again.

A shock of blonde hair entered his vision. Lord Malfoy was kneeling in front of his chair. "You need to breathe Neville. Is it alright if I call you Neville?"

He nodded.

"Alright, there we go. Just breathe, we're in no rush just focus on drawing air into your lungs and then holding it there. Now release that. Breath in again. That's it son." He felt delirious giggles build in his head, they left the instant he felt a hand on his knee.

The horror must have shown on his face as the man held his hands up in a motion of surrender, the smooth black snaked cane grasped to the man's palm with his thumb.

"My apologies, Neville. I will not touch you. Could you tell me what's the matter?" The man continued, keeping his voice low and even.

"I.. I-- Professor Snape helped me with a memory block a while ago. I had sorted out a trigger word with the help of a silentium ward.. from Gringotts." Neville added quickly at the look of shock on the Lord's face.

"It's a word that's like hold or held but not. I mean it is but it's much nicer--" he was hyperventilating again. He felt himself detaching from the situation and his panic a bit as the Lord went through the same calming steps as earlier.

"Professor Snape got my memories earlier but as the aurors left... it's like I remembered another one. I think it's one of the ones that the block swallowed. It.. it's bad? I'm not sure how to explain without thinking of it again."

Snape and Madame Bones seemed to shift behind the Malfoy Lord, but he refused to look at them. Instead he kept his eyes on the soothing light blue ones of the man still sitting in front of him. How long was he planning on kneeling like this.. Neville wasn't even his own child. In fact he was the grandchild of his probably most painful or annoying opposition in the Wizengamot.

The adults whispered amongst themselves again, not letting him or Draco hear anything.

"Could I ask you to think of that memory again?" Malfoy asked gently.

Neville shook his head, tears now rolling freely. He kept shaking his head as he spoke, "Can you not.. can you completely remove it? I don't want to think of it again. Please I don't want it."

The Malfoy Lord had a pained expression on his face.

A pale hand came and rested on the man's shoulder just as he was going to respond to him. Lord Malfoy looked up at Snape.

"In normal circumstances Lucius it is not recommended, however.. I fear we will set back his mental recovery if we let this specific on remain. I should be able to safely retrieve it and any others like it even if they are still behind the block."

"Don't we need his Guardian for that sort of thing Master Snape?" Madame Bones interjected.

Lucius shook his head, "Normally yes, Madame. However considering the circumstances the both of us, in our capacity of the Wizengamot, the ministry, as parents and guardians of students currently in the school -- we can give permission for the procedure. We just need to document it properly and have an impartial witness." With this he indicated to her and she nodded, walking over to the hearth to call another person.

A dark skinned man in tasteful royal purple robes stepped out, as well as another man who was cloaked in shades of charcoal and royal blue.

"Ahh Kingsley, Amycus. Thank you for responding so quickly--" Neville tuned her out as she explained what was going on and what they wanted to do.

He wanted to look at his adoptive father but instead forced himself to study the soft and straight blonde hair that the Malfoy Lord shared with Draco.

The other boy looked partially as lost as Neville felt. The chair he was in was suddenly enlarged and Mini Malfoy joined him on the right and to his surprise Professor Snape settled on his left.

"Longbottom. Neville.. Do you give me permission to enter your mind and retrieve the offending memories? You are aware that this will be permanent, I will not be returning them to you."

Neville nodded, hands clutched around the empty tea cup so hard he was sure it would splinter soon.
The Malfoy Lord must have seen this as he interrupted Snape and replaced the cup with his own hands instead after getting the go ahead from Neville.

"Now think lightly of the memory, just enough to bring it to the front, no need to think of it any further."

Neville was slightly startled and gripped the smooth hands in between his to anchor himself as the Professor all of a sudden covered his eyes with his own larger hand.

He didn't want to know what was happening, instead he focused on what he was feeling outside of himself, he could smell the rest of the office around him, a rustle told him that Lord Malfoy had shifted a bit below him and he also felt mini-Malfoy move next to him as well. Their arms now touching. He had the vague inkling that the boy was sitting next to him to comfort him. He wondered if he would do the same if their roles were reversed. Many years back he would have said no but the mini-Malfoy wasn't actually that bad once you were off of the snipe list.

Neville caught a glimpse of a memory in his head and let out a whimper, he wanted to curl in on himself. He didn't want to know anything about this. He didn't even care if the Professor needed to collect some past-future memories at this point. He'd rather explain that whole debacle to the whole Wixen world than dive further into that memory.

Hands flexing in between his own distracted him, brought him back out.

"Breathe Neville. You need to calm, childe. Do you need Madame Bones to fetch Dowager Longbottom?"

He felt a flinch of the hand still over his eyes.

But he was floating above himself again - not paying anymore attention.

He could see them all and himself but not hear them. He could see the Professor speaking to Lord Malfoy and Madame Bones. He felt like he was going to float away, his body's eyes were slightly glassed over and unfocused. Huh he never knew how he looked to others.

He hooked a finger into the robe sleeve of the Malfoy Lord so he wouldn't disappear without managing to return to his body. This action seemed to have drawn the attention of the Lord as he turned to Neville, blue eyes going wide. He seemed to be saying something to the other adults as he kept him in his line of sight.

The floaty him and not the one still sitting next to Neville on the coach.

He saw from the corner of his eye that the Professor and Madame Bones were carefully dripping a potion into coach Neville's mouth and then all of a sudden he was sucked back through a very thin pipe. His now cold hands were gripped into the larger one of Lord Malfoy, the other hand was resting on his forehead, all of them checking him over.

"My apologies, Neville. I didn't realise you had left momentarily." Neville nodded to the blonde man, still not sure what had happened.

"Draconis, do you mind holding onto Neville's hands for me for a few seconds?" The Malfoy Lord asked mini-foy warmly, but with an edge of concern. Neville wondered at the differences in the man's emotion as soon as he shifted his attention to his son.

Draco seemed to agree and soon the big warm hand was replaced with two smaller but equally warm ones.

Mini-foy seemed to understand something Neville didn't and the boy began to talk about anything and everything he apparently could think of.

"You should have seen the stand off between Flint and Wood again last week Neville. I thought that the professor's would have to step in if they started to swing at each other with their brooms. They had both gotten the practice times messed up again. It was so damn embarrassing -- turns out it was the Puffs that had the field booked for practice. I'm just glad a minimal amount of people saw or heard anything. Those two are an embarrassment to both of our houses when they get focussed on training and quidditch."

Neville nodded, he hadn't heard whispers about the incident so it was definitely being kept under wraps.

"By the way, we've spoken a few times now. I already call you Neville. It's time you call me Draco. Just not Draconis," The small blonde pointed out, ears going a bit red, "Only mother and father insist on calling me that. Don't worry, I will still call you Longbottom when we're around others, I have a feeling the rest of your house won't leave you alone if I start referring to you as Neville, never mind Nev!"

He felt his mouth smile without his permission. He still wasn't able to work his mouth but the boy seemed to understand without him having to mime anything. Not that he could with his hands in the two little vice grips. He tried to wiggle his hands free, thinking it must be too uncomfortable for the Slytherin to keep holding him like this.

He was distracted by the vaguely muffled chaos behind him but Draco, as he had been asked to call him, drew his attention back and shook his head. "You need to focus on me Neville. No removing your hands either, I'm perfectly fine staying like this. Just wait for my father to sort something out alright?"

He nodded again, not able to do much else.

"Hey did you get your Hogsmeade letter signed? The first weekend is the week after next!" Another nod.

"Brilliant! Do you want to meet up with me and a few of the other Slytherins? We're going to have lunch at Madame Puddifoot's. Don't look at me like that Neville. I am aware it's a date spot that the years older than us use often but they also sell the healthiest and best quality meals out of all the vendors in the village. Not to mention their hot chocolate is legendary."

Neville wiggled his head between yes and no, not sure how to communicate his growing consternation.

"Crabbe, Goyle and Pansy have already invited a person or two to join us. They'll make fun of me for not bringing another friend to the gathering -- you'll be doing me a favor. Otherwise I'll for sure be stuck asking Greengrass and both of them have been weird since seeing some archaic reference to a marriage contract with them and the Malfoy's for Salazar's sake. Not like mother or father for that matter would allow something like that.. " Mini-foy-- Draco ended with a mumble.

Neville nodded.

The blonde's bright smile gave him an uncomfortably warm feeling that was almost instantly overshadowed with sadness. When last had someone looked as happy like that when they talked to him. Was it in the past-future?

He was still trying to find the instance when the adults returned to them. Lord Malfoy looked much more windswept that he had been moments ago -- almost like he had been running somewhere?

"Neville?" Madame Bones spoke, he looked over to her and waited, "Lord Malfoy mentioned that he recognized the symptoms that you are showing." He shifted his gaze to the older Malfoy Lord and then Snape at that who also just nodded at him. Huh when did Kingsley and Amycus leave? He felt a bit hollow thinking of his previously adopted father now.. Snape’s mouth pressed into a line but he didn't look angry at Neville.

"Son, Neville. Did you have a lot of instances of using accidental magicks as a child?" The blonde Lord asked, taking the place next to him that Snape had long since vacated.

Neville shook his head.

"Not often then?" Neville nodded once but then shook his head wildly again.

"Even less?" Same response, he was getting a bit frustrated now. His mouth wouldn't move, he bit the inside of his cheek, hard.

"Not at all?" Was the next query, this time from Snape.

Neville looked at the professor and then back to Lord Malfoy, nodding quickly. The already pale man seemed to lose even the colour he had gained from him rushing somewhere or back..

"Alright, thank you Neville. Now.. this will be a bit uncomfortable but it shouldn't hurt. This is usually done by the parents of small wix in cases like yours but I have known a few obliviators and aurors to successfully perform it in place of anyone with blood relation to a child before. This is a talisman that has been passed through my family for some generations, Draco had also received one when he was but a babe."

Neville's eyes went a bit wider and his mind a bit blanker at that.

"May I roll up your right sleeve and place it on the crook of your elbow? The magic should stabilize you enough that you won't need any other intervention. It will also remove itself and change into a ring as you turn 18. However, and not to scare you into accepting Neville, but if we leave this it's possible you or your magical core will become dislodged from your body."

Neville looked at Draco who nodded and then he wiggled his one hand out of the blonde's grip.

Lord Malfoy gently unbuttoned his dust and cobweb stained sleeve - here he blushed a bit, remembering he must still look like the image of the muggle chimney sweeps he had seen in one of the library books. The Malfoy Lord did not seem to mind and didn't comment on it either. Sleeve now rolled as much as possible, the man set his arm down and warmed something between his hands. Then a small piece of metal was placed just under the crook of his elbow and it grew cold before sinking into his skin.

The effect was immediate all the sensations he didn't know he had lost rushed back to him. He blinked fast.

"That's the second thing I am now carrying under my skin.." Neville croaked, "I'm going to run out of real estate at this point."

The adults and Draco laughed.

"Why ask about accidental magic?" Neville asked when Madame Bones disappeared through the floo. Leaving only the four of them. True to what he had told Snape he didn't want to know what they had found or what they did with whatever the Professor pulled from his head.

"Occasionally, magical children with high, or in your case low or non-existent magical outbursts become untethered. They end up floating away. The ministry has an alert for dire cases and the children's spirits or cores are eventually found -- especially if it happens with those who are muggleborns -- but it's just a phenomena that comes up. The unspeakables in many countries have released reports from their studies many years ago and to this day about the phenomena. It's to do with how a child's magic develops and integrates with them." Snape explained before Lord Malfoy could.

Neville nodded, accepting another cup of tea, this time one the Malfoy Lord made. He thanked the man and couldn't help but think he would be up at all hours later the night to go between his bed and the bathroom.

"Could.." Neville sighed and looked down at the upholstery, "Would it happen to children who are forced to use heritage wands?" He thought that was the correct term for it.

"Are you using an heirloom wand?" The Lord corrected gently, keeping his face neutral at this for some reason.

He nodded, still keeping his head down.

"Do you need assistance in replacing it?" Lord Malfoy queried.

He looked up, "No.. thank you. I kind of already got rid of it earlier today." Neville waved his still free hand over himself, "It's why I look like this."

"I was in the lost and found room..." he looked uncertainly to the two adults, but both of them only nodded, knowing what he was talking about and not looking angry he went there, he decided to keep his extra-curricular activities to himself for now though, "I.. I wanted to see if there was maybe another wand I could use. But I had to levitate a box of books out of the way in my search and well my wand stopped working just as I got it in the air to move. I ended up arguing with the wand and well it landed somewhere else in the room. But when I turned there was a small mountain of what looked like sticks but were actually wands. I had to go through them and see if I couldn't find anything. I did eventually," He finished, fishing the dark wand out of his other sleeve, Draco holding his tea cup for him.

Lord Malfoy strangely held his hand out and Neville placed it on his palm, taking his tea cup back as well from Draco, warming both hands on it.

"Well, this is certainly an excellent wand Neville. Oak wood with a dittany stalk core and ahh.. 9 1/10 inches."

"You can read wands Lord Malfoy?" Neville asked astonished, he had in his trek down into the dungeons thought it would take him ages to identify the wand.

"We had quite a few wandmakers that were Malfoys originally." Draco piped up.

"Draconis is correct. There has been a few in the very distant past; I inherited the so called wand-sense but none of the patience or talent actually needed to craft them." Lord Malfoy confirmed with a fond glance to his son.

"As enlightening as this all is.." Snape drawled from his seat behind his desk.

"Come, I will walk you both to your common rooms. Before Master Snape removes us unwillingly from his domain."

Neville smothered a smile, though he had a feeling Snape already knew it was there.

Now outside the office with the two Malfoy family members, Neville half expected them to return to being ice cold and emotionless. Well not really Draco.. but his father at the very least.

The man then surprised him, he removed the dark blue cloak he had been wearing and wrapped him in it.

"There. You look like you're going to keel over at any second little lion."

Draco nodded along with his father.

They first walked to the Slytherin entrance, as it was closer. Neville tuned out the conversation they were having. Mostly out of how exhausted he was but also a little bit out of the respect he had gained for both of them this night.

He watched as they parted, it was a smaller encounter than the one he had seen on the platform at the start of the school year. Then they started the journey up to the tower.

In front of the portrait of the Fat Lady the Malfoy Lord greeted her amicably -- apparently the portraits seemed to all know and like Lord Malfoy if her flustered reaction was any indication.

Neville made to remove the borrowed warmth to give it back to him. The man, who he would not have classed as kind in any of his lives, shook his head. "You keep it Neville. The talisman will continue to work but as I am leaving the castle soon, it might be best to have something extra that is imbued with my magic on your person. We had a special pillow made for Draco when he left for Hogwarts, I will see to it that you get a similar one. It will help your magic settle and stay untethered. Now you had a big reaction to my request to call your grandmother. Let me finish--" Lord Malfoy stopped the alarms in his head as soon as they started sounding, "I will continue to keep this from her and Amelia-- ahh Madame Bones, has agreed to do the same. From your reaction and my own personal opinion of her not withstanding, I doubt she will do this.. adequately for you."

Neville nodded, the Lord definitely wasn't wrong about that... then his now working mouth went ahead and decided since they could speak again, he'd go an extra meter or two.

"No.. you're right. She and Uncle Algie would not care about me floating away. They'd just stick me next to my parents and forget about me."

He didn't see the Malfoy Lord's reaction to that but he did snuggle in further to the cloak.

"Then it is sorted. Keep the cloak, it's soft enough that you should be able to wrap it round your current pillow for tonight. Hmmm but actually... Misprit?" The man called all of a sudden.

"Yes, Master Lucius has requested Misprit's attendance." The elf was nothing like the one Neville had seen that Harry had supposedly freed last year and then tried to kill Harry over. Was that actually what happened? He somehow couldn't see the man currently in front of him doing something like that and this elf looked perfectly normal. Not as stern as Brimm but still?

Could elves even travel to others who are not their master unless requested of them?

He hadn't realized he had asked the question out loud as both the elf and wix lord turned to him with shocked expressions.

Neville held his hands that was still buried in the swatch of blue fabric up in front of him, "I-- I meant n-no disrespect... it's ahh just I.. I heard what happened to Dobby last year and.. well I was wondering how true it had all been. E- uhmm E-especially after tonight and even now.. Mr. Malfoy."

The blonde man's expression softened and morphed into one that Neville couldn't place.

The little elf stole the show however, she was standing with her hands on her hips. The uniform she was wearing moving a bit as her elf magic seemed to start swirling.

"Little heir is to not be mentioning that elf's name around us Malfoy elves. He be making himself sick. Rejecting our family."

"Calm.. Misprit. He meant no offense. Also he was most likely talking about my own lapse in judgement and sanity last year. I apologize Neville, I should be apologizing to Mr. Potter as well but I have not been able to get hold of him. All of my letters have been sent back as well. I do not have an excuse for how I acted, just the unwilling breaking of the bond between the elf in question and my family had left me quite unstable for a moment as my family magic did not understand what was happening all of a sudden. I'm unsure of House Longbottom, however, House Malfoy have specific rituals for adopting or disowning elves. It's not the standard method of just giving them clothes and off they go."

Neville nodded.

His family did not have an instance like that but he did see a book on the topic in their Library during the summer when he had sorted through it.

"Now.. where were we. Misprit, could you please go to my wife as discussed and then return here?"

"I's will be going to Mistress now, Master Malfoy."

They stood there for a while longer, he was surprised that no one had come in or out of the portrait but he supposed that it was probably late and he didn't know what time it was currently.
He wobbled a bit on his own feet as he started to drift to sleep.

Hands came up to his shoulders and steadied him, he sort of recalled flinching but he stood against the warm pillar like that until a pop woke him up completely.

"--Master Malfoy."

"Thank you Misprit. Please tell Cissa I will be home shortly."

Pop

"Neville? Wake up son."

He rubbed his eyes and yawned a bit, now fully coherent again.

"Sorry.. Mr. Malfoy."

"It's of no concern. Now, until we get the custom pillow to you, why don't you use this one, and this blanket. You can keep the cloak wrapped around you." Neville gingerly took the offered items, the blanket was a dark green almost black color and wouldn't stand out too much on his bed in the dorm he noted.

The pillow had a charcoal grey covering and was quite a bit bigger than his own one even at home. He could see the faint embroidered Malfoy monogram of the same charcoal grey on the one corner inside the covering.

"Is it really alright if I take this?"

"Even if it was not my own pillow little lion, it would still be fine for you to accept it. Cissa, Draco's mother will be over the moon. She has been looking for a reason to re-decorate our bedroom and a missing pillow is exactly the excuse she needs. I won't be surprised if she sends you a token of thanks through Draconis." Lord Malfoy stated, a fond look washing quickly over eyes.

Neville's eyes went wide.

"Now. No arguments. You need these items for the magic that lingers on them and I will hear no further argument on the matter." The Lord seemed to revert back to his public countenance but Neville could now spot the actual man beneath it.

He nodded. Secretly very happy with his items. This was something he never knew he would need but that the Malfoy Lord and his family wanted to help him with it, he was incredibly grateful. His heart ached for the Carrows but deep down he understood that even if they did find out about everything and eventually he hoped they would.. They wouldn't be the same as in his past-future. For now he wouldn't resist the help that was given to him however. Not in a happening as scary as this.

He could fully feel the horror of the experience now that he was back to all of his faculties.

"Of you go, maybe consider washing up before bed; but don't drown yourself in the showers please." The Malfoy Lord joked lightly even with his pureblood mask back on.

Neville wheezed. Oh jeez.

He tried to play it off but he knew he had already been caught with his reaction. Somehow the magic around him in the soft items he was holding made him want to spill everything to the Malfoy Lord.. but that would keep them both from more sleep. So instead he took a breath and looked up unsurely into the light blue eyes that were now once again studying him.

"Uncle Algie and Gran dropped me in the deepest part of the Longbottom pond this summer."

The Malfoy Lord closed his eyes and raised both of his eyebrows. He asked questions, still with his eyes closed.

"Am I correct in thinking that you almost drowned for real in the encounter and that you did not want to be dropped in this pond?"

"Yes.. sir. I don't really remember what happened before they fished me out of the pond but I swallowed a lot of water and I can't swim. They mentioned.. they said they wanted to test my magic one last time, as heir of the Longbottom family."

The Malfoy Lord still with closed eyes nodded and took a deep breath.

Neville shifted from foot to foot but was then sent off to his dorm with a squeeze to his shoulder and a much calmer look in the blue eyes following him through the entrance.

He showered quickly as he was instructed and then dove onto his bed, drawing the curtains quickly and twisting himself into both the cloak and the incredibly soft and plush blanket. He had placed his old pillow under the bed and buried his nose into the new one too.

He went to sleep with the same scent of the cloak surrounding him and a hint of a more floral one on the pillow itself. Maybe he'd look back at this moment and wonder how sanitary this actually was.. essentially stealing a Lord's pillow straight from his bed but current Neville did not care in the slightest. The magic was humming around him lowly and that was all he needed.

Chapter Text

The next morning in the Gryffindor tower was a bit of a mess.

Apparently, McGonagall had escorted the Weasley family members back sometime in the early hours of the morning. Neville didn't quite understand why they didn't just sleep at home and return the next day or even the day after.

He also didn't know why he was rudely woken up by a very not-so-nice-smelling pillow landing painfully on the place where his head had been under his blanket. Said blanket and cloak had been ripped off of him the next second and Neville barely had chance to cover his face before more hits from the same lumpy pillow started raining down on him.

"Why. Would you--

hit

--snitch. On me--

hit

--were you. That JEALOUS. That I had a rat and you--

hit

--just had ONE. stupid bloody--

hit

TOAD?!"

"oi! Ron! Get off of him!"

The hits had changed from being made by a pillow to something much smaller and harder than it. Neville heard a scuffle but he kept himself buried in the cloak and blanket that he had retrieved quickly.

Neville didn't know who had pulled the boy away from him but he appreciated it anyhow.

He was listening to Ronald arguing with more and more people that entered their room -- if the amount of new footsteps walking or shifting around was any indication. After one particularly egregious insult about jealousy and Trevor again, Neville could no longer hide away in his bedding. Keeping a low profile be damned. Weasley would not be attacking him in his own freaking bed again.

He shoved the blankets off of him, keeping a firm grip on them as he twisted his hands into the fabric. He took a breath and shakingly de-tangled himself. Once he was off of the bed he moved over to the commotion, much slower than he had intended and he internally cursed his short legs.

He could see Harry and the rest of the Gryffindor boys trying to calm down the redhead. The twins had no such intentions however, as Neville saw them hover by the door.

The movement of Neville stalking towards them had caught everyone's attention through the chaos.

He must have looked more angry than he had intended because everyone except Ronald fell silent for a few seconds. He took the opportunity and stepped into Weasley's space, uncaring that Wood and a few of the other Quidditch players were trying to separate them.

He didn't shout. He didn't even sneer.

Neville kept his face blank as he watched the emotions fly over the pale freckled face.

"If you.." He took a steadying breath, threading his hand into his hair, "You might have been fine sleeping with a blasted CREEP inside of your bed every night but I had no such intentions of sleeping even a few meters from the bloody rat. Especially not when I knew it was actually a fucking human. Never you mind an adult most likely."

Neville's voice had gone ice cold towards the end.

The other boys had varying levels of disgust blossoming on their faces, a few also shifting their grips on Ronald's shirt.

Weasley did not respond, his mouth opening and closing like a fish as his face grew redder and redder.

Neville turned around and made to move back to his bed but then he changed his mind again and spun back around. Lee Jordan was closest to him and gently stuck an arm in front of his torso without touching him. Ready to catch him or Ronald at any point.

He felt himself calm at the gesture. He remembered how furious Lee had been with the twins in the hospital wing after the Nosebleed Nougat incident. The teen wouldn't hurt him on purpose or touch him without prior permission.

"And Ronald? You mention that the rat had been 'in your family for years'" Neville stated, turning his tone of voice to mimic the one the boy had earlier in his ranting, "I wouldn't brag about the fact that your brother was also a victim of your rat best friend."

The boy's face went a variety of colours but any response he had to Neville was cut off by the other boys in the room bodily removing him, most likely taking him to McGongall. As if she would do anything of substance, Neville groused darkly inside his head.

He grabbed his clothing for the day and changed behind his curtains before leaving the tower. Avoiding everyone.

Neville had skipped breakfast too and made his way after walking around aimlessly to his first class of the day. He had his satchel with him but had neglected to actually gather any of his textbooks

Transfiguration progressed much like it had at one point in his past-future. McGonagall was completely ignoring him and any of the practical work he was doing. Even the Slytherins seemed to be perplexed about the whole situation.

So much so that Goyle opted to sit with him later the day in History of Magic and quietly slid a note over to him. Asking what had happened.

Neville shook his head at the boy. He could kind of tell that there was genuine concern in the note and the looks he kept getting but he did not want to discuss it.

The rest of the day dragged on. He ate in the kitchens, the Hogwarts elves, unlike the ones at his childhood home always seemed happy to see him. They tried stuffing sandwiches or sneaking small wrapped treats into his pockets and satchel as he eventually left to not be late for potions.

He relented and stowed a few of them carefully into his bag, much to the delight of the handful of elves that had all but accosted him.

He huffed and continued deeper into the dungeons.

He could hear Weasley's whiny squawks down the corridor of the classroom and opted to hang back a bit. He'd approach one the professor granted them entry.

As luck would have it, he reached the class just as the Professor made to close the heavy door. He got a twitch of an eyebrow for his almost tardiness but was let in without any comment.

There was no seats left on the Gryffindor side of the room. He sighed.. looks like the opinions had shifted faster to Ronald and his complaints than he thought they would.

He didn't understand how kids could be so stupid-- no wait.. he could and he was one of them currently.

He groaned internally and took an open seat at the front of the class, not even wanting to head in further. He realized halfway through brewing that he had picked Blaise Zabini to sit next to but as the boy did not seem to care, he also did not mention anything.

They continued to work in silence, Neville paying extra attention to not waste any of his ingredients. He had gone through the class scope that the professor usually posted in the library for curious students and if he worked out all of his ingredients correctly then he would have enough if he didn't blow up any of his brews.

The professor or the school did provide some of the more difficult to find ingredients but they still had a set few that they needed to contribute themselves.

He wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead as he successfully finished his potion.

The consistency was a bit off but it was the right shade of pearl.

He quickly bottled the potion, not wanting anything to happen to it and then dropped it off at Snape's desk. Not wanting to wait until the class was dismissed.

The professor eyed the vial he placed onto the desk and dismissed him to return to his station.

Neville nodded, and started to clean his space.

He was still hyper aware, the memories from his past-future not helping him any. He was therefore extraordinarily jumpy for the rest of the day.

So much so, that when the owl's entered the Great Hall later that day during dinner for the evening deliveries, he upset the entire goblet of juice that had been standing next to his plate. The culprit that had set off his full body startle had been a very regal and pitch black owl. The mess disappeared by itself and a new empty goblet popped into existence next to his plate.

He breathed deeply and frowned at the owl until he shook himself, it wasn't the little creature's fault. No use in being upset with it.

He held out a tentative hand and was graced with a letter the bird untied from its leg by itself. He was a bit shocked at that but nodded slowly, not moving his eyes from the fluffy bird.

It seemed like a plain envelope but he could feel the embossing that had been done all over on the outside. Not many families still used stationary like this, it took a lot of time to prepare rather than just folding your missive into an envelope itself with a spell.

He had a feeling he should not open it in the middle of the hall so he held an arm out to the owl who seemed to be waiting for a response and left dinner early. He had not eaten much but he still had the snacks the elves had pestered him with.

He walked to the library, settling down in one of the lesser used tables that he had discovered in his 5th year. His teeth clenched as he remembered that it had been during one of his study sessions with Luna and later on Ginny as well.

He needed to get over them and the whole situation but he just didn't see how.

The owl perched on the back of his chair and tugged lightly on a strand of his hair.

"Alright, alright give me a minute."

He used the knife he had gotten from Gringotts to check the envelope and then once he had opened it, the folded parchment inside. Both came back clean except for a waterproofing charm on them both.

Dear Heir Longbottom,

Firstly I must offer my sincere thanks in the boon you have granted me - even if indirectly.

I hope you do not mind as my husband and close confidant has informed me of your predicament. I am pleased to hear that he was able to assist and guide you through the events that had transpired yesterday evening.

I am writing you to extend my own hand in counsel and support as recompense for above mentioned boon. The first of which will be the small but fiery creation that has delivered you this missive. He is a Boreal Owl and has been looking for a suitable companion for some time. I do so look forward to the two of you accepting one another.

But returning to my primary rational for writing you, I found myself wanting to properly explain the happening that had occurred yesterday. As I myself had suffered from the same as a young child and my husband assures me you are also aware of our Draconis' ailment too.

Neville, if I may be so bold as to refer to you in this way, this phenomenon exists with no input or causality from yourself. In simple terms dear, you are not responsible for the detachment of either your soul or core. It would not do to dwell on futilities such as thinking if only you did less or more accidental magic as a childe.

These occurrences are a quirk that we of magical descent and even muggle descent all share and suffer from on occasion. Childhood by itself is a very turbulent time in anyone's life, however combing that with the magic of us wix and you have, please excuse my analogy - it has stuck with me from my days as a student in muggle studies, a ticking time bomb. It may go off at any point or in most cases it might not.

Nothing you could have done or not done would have prevented this.

More importantly, I am honoured that my family is able to guide a bright young soul as yourself through this time. Draconis has mentioned you fondly in his missives home, my darling Lucius has also given you high praise for how you carried yourself.

He indicated that I should not mention your relatives, however I would be lax in my mentorship if I did not. Dear one, if anything ever happens or if you simply need a safe space, please memorize the below floo address. It will always be open to you.

Both my husband and myself are but an owl or fire call away.

I look forward to your missive if you decide to continue our correspondence.

Give Draconis my love if you see him, and please do reach out to me or Lucius if you find your current items are no longer effectual.

With deepest regard,
Lady Narcissa Malfoy

Neville sat back in his chair in shock, he had sort of been forewarned from the Malfoy Lord that the Lady Malfoy would reach out to him through Draco but he had not expected to personally receive a letter like this from her, never he mind the gift of an actual owl.

Said owl nipped his ear a little, okay that was just plain adorable. He never really saw the draw to the creatures but he had to admit that this little bird perched next to him looked more like a cat with wings and a beak than an owl. He wasn't sure if it was the colouring but he was already growing fond of it.

He needed to write back to Draco's mom... he rooted around his bag for a quill and roll of parchment but the only one he had was the one containing his assignment and homework notes. Neville groaned, before the book incident he had also meant to scour the room for any lost scraps and scrolls he could adequately spell clean to re-use.

He felt so shamed with the whole situation - he really needed to get started on paying off the debt to the Goblins and getting a bit of pocket money for himself. Preferably before the upcoming Hogsmeade weekend...

He fetched the book he had found for parchment clearing and hoped he could do it semi-decently. He apologized mentally to Lady Malfoy, he had wanted to keep her letter as both the words and handwriting had been soothing to read and look at but he also couldn't afford to not write back to her.

Neville left the envelope unspelled, he would be keeping it and the book did say that embossing charms would interfere. With the letter neatly cleared, he uncapped his bottle of ink and started writing.

He kept it short and simple:

Dear Lady Malfoy,

Thank you kindly for your immensely kind letter. I apologize if my own is not at the calibre you are used to receiving. I do not have much experience in sending missives.

Thank you also again to Lord Malfoy and your own assistance. I really appreciate the gestures. I had a very restful sleep which was only interrupted this morning by the Weasley I share a dorm with. Ostensibly, my class mate is most upset with me as he liked sharing his bed with who is possibly a louse of an adult.

I made it clear to him that while he was comfortable with it, I was not and that he shouldn't brag that he and his older brother had owned the rat for years.

I'm sorry for getting so heated Lady Malfoy, the whole situation still makes me feel more than a little unwell. And even more so because Ronald had laid his hands on my new items while he was trying to wake me up.

Draco has been nice to me this year since we shared a compartment on the train. I still think I should apologize to him for judging him previous years on the words of others, instead of trying to be amicable to him and finding out myself.

I also realize I have not apologized to Lord Malfoy last night for my rude questioning regarding the previous elf of your household. Could I please ask you to convey them to him? And my apologies to you as well, Madame.

Thank you for the owl, I have decided to name him Void. He's currently inspecting my hair, I'm not sure what he thinks of it though and when I ask him he just nips at my cheek or ear.

Many thanks,
Heir Neville Longbottom

He used the spell to turn the letter itself into an envelope and handed it to Void. The little owl seemed ecstatic to do his first delivery and leapt out of the big library windows, hooting through the envelope delicately clutched in his beak.

Neville sighed a bit, hoping the little owl wouldn't drop it as he hadn't let him actually tie it to his leg.

He removed his tie and made his way up to the 7th floor, intending to send off a few of the better condition furniture items in the little box he had been carrying in his pendant.

He bypassed a few prefects on his trip, none of them noticing him without his tie. He idly wondered if the tie itself was the culprit and not the colouring...

Neville entered the room and sighed at the small mountain of books a few paces from the entrance, he had barely made a dent the previous day.

He moved over to a stack of good looking chairs, he dutifully tapped all of them with the little switch blade and then started to thoroughly inspect each one for any stray cracks or damage.

Finding nothing structural he set about using some of the charms in his restoration text.

It was hard work and he thought that even his magic was aching by the time he floated the last chair into the box. Casting a Tempus with his still new wand he noted that he was very close to curfew for the evening.

He quickly closed the lid of the box, He had 10 chairs in total, a bedside table and a low coffee table that were all in good condition. he tapped the pattern on the side of the little wood panel and pushed some of his magic into it. There was a pop sound and he knew that the contents had been delivered to the partner vessel in the Jestle shop.

Depending on how fast Mr Jestle inspected each piece, he might get a few galleons before the weekend.

Looking at the tie sticking out of his shirt pocket he got an idea. He was tired but for some reason he really wanted to test out his theory regarding the tie. The thought had not left him even through the laborious tasks he had just finished performing.

He focused really hard on what he wanted and used a charm they had learnt from Flitwick a few months ago in his past-future. When he blinked a bit and looked at the tie again it was now a nice Dark forest green with silver embellishments.

He looped the tie around his neck and made sure it was visible even if he didn't fix it properly. He left the room and wandered down to the hall that he knew the prefects usually patrolled.

It didn't take long and the next thing he knew he was being herded to the Slytherin common room by a Ravenclaw prefect. He tried to protest but they fell on deaf ears.

The Prefect knocked on the door that the stone wall shifted into and waited. Professor Snape was the one who opened the door but if he was confused at the situation he did not mention anything.

"Found one of you snakes out after curfew Professor. Good night."

The prefect spun around, completely oblivious of Neville's floundering and the silent gaze of their Potions Professor following the older boy.

Neville turned back and gave his professor the best sheepish look he could manage.

"..."

"You may as well come in, Longbottom. If a 7th year prefect doesn't possess a functional pair of eyes or brain then what are we to do."

Neville sighed internally, "It's my fault Professor, I wanted to test if my tie is the problem or the colour of it."

The man didn't respond as they stepped into the Slytherin common room.

"I haven't a clue what you mean, Longbottom." Snape mentioned, shaking his head, "No matter. I was in the process of finishing my nightly checks with my snakes. You may as well join, do you have any of your essays that are due in that satchel of yours?" The professor finally sighed.

Neville tried to ignore the curious glances of more than a few Slytherins in the room around them as he followed the professor.

He sat gratefully on a spot that Malfoy patted besides him on the rug and noted that the sharp glares in his direction seemed to instantly soften. He pulled his bag onto his lap and rummaged through it, he found a few of the essays that he had already tied shut to submit in the coming week and handed the little stack to the Professor.

Neville didn't know if he looked as confused as he felt because Pansy Parkinson leaned closer to them, "Chin up Longbottom. Our head of house is just checking that our work is finished suitably and for the lower years, that we didn't need help that we didn't ask him for. I'm sure McGonagall does the same for you guys, right?"

Neville made a small noise of consternation.

He had no clue that Snape or any of the other head's of houses did this for their charges. It did make a lot of sense now. All three of the other heads of houses, besides his, always made comments or remarks about the essays they received from them.

And as much as Snape usually painted their essays red, there was the occasional corrective comment or textbook name written in the margins of the scrolls they got back.

He must have been quiet for too long as the feeling of an elbow lightly bumping into his ribs and the clearing of a throat above him got his attention.

He flinched a bit without meaning too and got a quickly mumbled apology from Draco. He smiled a bit at the blonde.

"Your work is satisfactory Mr. Longbottom." Snape drawled, "However, regarding the defense essay, you can find a more concrete answer regarding the topic in Delaying the Abyss" The professor finished, handing back the small stack of scrolls, once again tied as neatly as they had been given to him.

Neville nodded very slowly, still not sure what was happening even if Parkinson had explained it to him.

The Professor stood up from his chair an glanced at the rest of the still assembled house. "Now, you're all aware of your personal curfews. I bid you goodnight. You know how to reach me or the prefects in case of any issues." The students nodded and various responses of goodnight or greetings reached the Professor.

The dour man nodded, accepting them and then turned from where he had stood up to look at Neville.

Merlin the height difference from his seat on the carpet up to the professor was staggering. "Mr. Longbottom, as you are already here and because the word of your... legendary... argument has even drifted down to us dungeon dwellers." Snape smirked a bit, "Considering the late hour, you may choose to stay here for the evening."

"Note, that the bedtime curfew for the 3rd years is 10 o'clock."

Neville did not know how to respond.

Draco chipped in for him, "He can share with me Professor! I, in any case needed to give him something that mother and father sent."

Snape inclined his head but continued again before moving away, "The castle will provide a second bed in your room, Mr. Malfoy. Good evening to you all."

They all greeted him, even Neville found his mouth moving on its own. He was then practically frogmarched into the one tunnel leading off of the huge common room.

It let out into a smaller sitting room with a few seating options and a few doors around the circular room. The colours were surprisingly not green and silver but shades of dark grey and blues.

"Here Neville, this is our year's common area. And through here is my.. well, our room for tonight." Draco explained, still not seeing the state of shock that Neville's brain was circling around.

"Draco.. is it really okay for me to stay here? Won't the other Slytherins be upset with me?" Neville got out shakily.

Draco pulled him into the room, and steered him to an identical bed made of dark wood that had a green quilt covered bed. The blonde made a snort of what sounded like amusement. "They won't dare." was all he got in explanation.

A few pieces of fabric hit him in the chest from where the blonde was stood in front of a chest of drawers. "You can borrow those, I think they should fit you.. I forgot them at Hogwarts as they had gotten a bit short for me but I think they'll work for you."

Neville squeaked out a thanks and then a second one as the blonde just pointed out the bathroom to him.

What looked like his own toothbrush appeared as he entered, and he set about brushing his teeth and changing into what he now saw was soft pajamas.

Draco had been right, they did fit him. Even if the arms and legs were a bit long. He supposed he was a bit shorter than the Slytherin still at their current age of 13.

He walked back out and was pointed to a package on the second bed before the blonde strolled into the bathroom as he exited.

Neville took a seat on the quilt, tucking his one leg under him and stretching the other out next to the neatly wrapped package.

He didn't realize that he had zoned out looking at the slowly shifting pattern on the square shaped box until Draco tapped him on the shoulder again.

"Do you zone out often Neville?"

He blushed and nodded a bit in answer.

Draco made a humming sound, almost like the one Snape makes some times. "Well, it should start to get better a bit. I know it did for me once my magic started to settle physically. Or, that's how mother explained it to me.."

Neville swallowed and pulled the box to him. It was bigger on the inside than it had looked.

He pulled out another pillow, blanket and most surprisingly an alligator or was it a crocodile plush toy?

It was very squishy and was almost round in places with the amount of stuffing inside of it.

Draco made a satisfied sound next to him and walked away to climb into his own bed.

He moved the now empty box to the floor next to the bed and settled in as well. He didn't even climb under the covers, just adjusted the pillow and then dragged the croc and blanket to him.

Draco extinguished the candles and Neville fell asleep almost instantly. He didn't even care that it was by Gryffindor standards too early to sleep already - used to the chaos and scurrying that happened each night in the common room and dorms until at least 11:30 at night.

True to Draco's words, even now a few days after the night he had ended up in the Slytherin dorms, no one had mentioned it or even looked at him funny.

There had even been an instance where he had left the room one evening, almost right on curfew as well and a Slytherin and Hufflepuff prefect had taken him back to the Gryffindor tower.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was Friday, the day before their first trip outside of the castle. Ronald unlike the Slytherins had been incessant in his whining and rants. Neville was sure the rest of Gryffindor house was just starting to agree with him because he wouldn't shut up about it and because as the rat was at the ministry now -- people forgot how big of a situation it had actually been.

Neville had gotten precious little sleep, even with his sleeping aids courtesy of the Malfoy family. (A note from Narcissa that had arrived the day after his Slytherin sleep-over had explained that the crocodile could shift forms to appear as a normal pillow to others) This was something he had appreciated immensely even if he could just technically have his Pendant eat it and spit it out each night.

Classes had been horrific with Ronald as well. Neville understood Harry and even Hermione's choice to stay out of any and all altercations but it didn't help that he felt a bit bitter every time it happened. Of course Harry wasn't really friends with him so why should Neville have expected him to intervene anyways. McGongall was also still ignoring him for some reason and when she did look at him she got a scowl that disappeared after a few seconds.

Like for Merlin's sake he's supposed to be the child in this whole situation. How the hell was he acting more mature for his age than a bloody teacher.

Neville was getting the same frustrated surges in his emotions that he had gotten in his previous life. Alecto and Amycus back then were absolute degenerates but they at least listened to you or paid attention to you before they cursed you.

He was having a hard time reeling in his emotions mentally still come dinner that evening. As far as he could tell no one could visually tell something was wrong with him but he was once more proven wrong when the Slytherin Head of House caught him as he was leaving dinner early -- attempting to skip the crowd of sleepy and very excited students.

He was steered down to the dungeons and once in the open common room area, deposited onto one of the big couches in front of an even bigger fire.

There was a few whispered words and a pop and the next moment he was being tucked into the couch with what he recognized as a blue robe around his shoulders, the new blanket that he had left on his pillow and the now no longer decoy crocodile pillow but the actual green and grey plush animal.

None of the Slytherins around the common room paid him any mind. In fact a few of the upper years took the seats around him and he listened to their debates regarding their school work as he stared into the fire.

One in particular topic that had came up when he had felt a lot calmer was the vanishing charm. The older snakes were in a stand still as neither side wanted to relent and give in to the arguments and points of the other.

"..."

"You just won't admit that you have an inadequate understanding of the charm Rowle!"

"As if Boyle.." Hissed the one older girl with light brown hair, "You practically snog Goshhawk's chocolate frog card each night that you lay in bed. But she's wrong about this!"

Neville coughed a bit, all of the different coloured eyes of the small group of upperclassmen around him turned to his fluffy prison in between them.

"Oh sorry kiddo, this idiot and I didn't mean to bother you."

The girl with the brown hair huffed again but seemed to keep any of her own insults under her breath.

"... I.. You're both wrong..." Neville got out quietly.

He got a few raised eyebrows from the group.

And a look from the two main arguers that said to go on.

"The vanishing charm essentially turns whatever it vanished into a state of nothing. Meaning that when you bring it back, it actually just goes from nothing to something again.."

The group stared at him in shock and a little bit of horror.

The debate started up again, continuing just as snidely and fiery as it had been a few moments earlier. A sound from behind Neville, calmed them very quickly however.

"As much as I am going to regret stating this. Mr. Longbottom is correct. You can reference The Achievements in the Charms I believe, in the library if you want to confirm it. 2 points to Gryffindor, Longbottom." Snape closed his eyes for a few moments then, "I don't believe anyone has ever managed to unite Boyle and Rowle like this." The professor commented when the two upper years seemed to have dashed out of the common room, to the library.

A few of the other Slytherins snickered and more than a handful had actually patted him on the shoulder in congratulations as they continued on with their evenings.

The professor perched on the arm of the chair he was sitting closest to, "I trust you are feeling more like yourself?"

Neville nodded, feeling a blush start to creep up the sides of his neck.

"Sorry Professor. I haven't been sleeping.."

"That much has been so obvious, that even Crabbe and Goyle had brought it to my attention this afternoon." The Professor deadpanned.

Neville shuffled a bit in his cocoon. Not knowing how to answer that either.

"You can borrow Mr. Malfoy's room again this evening. Do you wish for me to move you there early? I believe their group is still working through some notes for their own Charms homework in the library this evening. So they'll join you later."

Neville nodded, getting ready to unfurl himself and follow the professor - he couldn't actually remember what tunnel it was that he was supposed to go through.

He had to swallow what would have been a very high squawk when the Professor instead levitated him a bit from the chair and then physically carried him to the 3rd year's dorms.

Oh Jeez.

By the time Neville was sure his brain was boiling in his head like an egg, he was set down and then to add to his consternation he was tucked into the quilted bed.

The Professor seemed unfazed however and used spells that would swap out his clothing for the same ones he borrowed last time and even another charm that brushed his teeth for him.

He did squeak this time and closed his eyes in mortification as the Professor bade him goodnight, dimming the candle light in the room as he left.

Neville was for once incredibly glad that he was only 13 years old and had not gone through puberty yet. He didn't know if he would still be alive right now if he had been the same age as his old self.

He was woken early the next morning by another sight he had never thought he would see.

A very hyperactive Draco was practically bouncing around the room and off of the walls.

"Neville! Nev.. come on wakeup. it's our first weekend out. Come o-on." The blonde whined to him.

He wanted to just roll over and bury his face back into the plush stomach of the croc.

He made his way to breakfast with bleary eyes, not realizing he was sat between the two upper year Slytherins from the previous night or that Draco was grinning from the spot across from him.

He came to a bit as the scent of the English breakfast tea grounded him and then took in all of the things around him.

Firstly he was dressed kind of like Draco - which made sense cause he was sure the corduroy trousers he was wearing did not belong to him. Thanking small mercies as he found his hair was not jelled back and then cursing them again as Boyle and Rowle made it their mission that morning to make sure he ate.

He had shot a pleading look to the Slytherin head of house who seemed to be attempting to drown himself in coffee, than to engage Professor Sinistra and Sprout in their one-sided conversation with him that morning.

The man's eyes held an amused glint for exactly a second that told Neville he would be of no help either.

It was there as he drank his second cup of tea that he noted that none of the Gryffindors were looking in his direction and it also did not seem as if anyone on that side had been missing him.

Neville's eyes scanned the table and out of an old habit they landed on the wispy blonde at the Ravenclaw table.

She gave him and unfocused look and a small smile but he just sighed and looked away.

He didn't notice then that the only Gryffindor that had seen him sitting where he was at that point had been Ginerva Weasley. He also didn't see the gleam of some strange emotion that flashed in her eyes.

The Hogsmeade day had been quite enjoyable.

Draco had drug him to a variety of shops and sights before they met up with the larger group in the very pink restaurant.

It was more frilly than he had remembered but with the other Slytherins in attendance and the relaxed and jubilant atmosphere of their group he cheered up enough to engage a few people in small conversations.

When the time came to leave, Draco asked him to hang back a bit and so they stayed in the now once again empty and pristine private room.

The door opened and two sets of elegant footwear walked in; Neville looked up and realized that attached to those limbs were the Malfoy Lord and Lady.

Before he could greet them in the proper way that his brain was a bit scrambled to recall - he was enveloped in a soft holding.

He heard Lord Malfoy sighing out loud and Draco snickering a bit but didn't pay them much mind and he felt the Lady's magic hold him too.

After what felt like a few minutes he was unceremoniously passed to another person who repeated the process. A Bit more stiff and awkward than the former but still really warm and comforting. Especially, when a hand came up and patted him on the head.

Neville was sure he had swapped out his cheeks for two hot coals as he was now once more standing next to Draco.

The other boy did not seem to be upset that his parents had practically greeted Neville first and in fact he looked very happy.

"Oh Neville, it's good to meet you finally!" Lady Malfoy exclaimed.

He nodded a bit stutteringly. He quickly realized that she looked even prettier from up close than she had that day on the platform.

"Cissa.. we seem to be overwhelming the little lion." Lord Malfoy interjected.

She rounded on her husband, black and white blonde semi-curled hair bouncing a bit from the movement, "Nonsense Luc!"

She turned back to them, "Now, I hope that the two of you had a very nice day outside of the castle."

Neville could just nod and was transfixed by her smile as Draco excitedly told her everything they had gotten up to or talked about during the day.

He wondered if he had parents that were around, if they would smile at him like that too..

Or if they'd travel like this and break the unofficial Hogsmeade weekend rules to meet him.

He sort of wished that his mind would drift more like it had done the past few days as he didn't want to intrude on the time that Draco was spending with his mother.

As such he also noticed that Lord Malfoy was stepping towards him to now stand close next to him, also looking at the other pair.

"Hello Neville."

"H-hi Mr. Malfoy."

The man gave him a small smile.

"None of that, you're allowed to call me Lucius. I'm sure Draco or even Severus would have explained that Cissa and I have almost practically turned you into a Malfoy with the talisman you hold from us."

Neville nodded again, he did recall something like that.

They stood and watched Lady Malfoy and Draco conversing some more when Lucius spoke again.

"Has the Weasley offspring been giving you any more trouble?"

Neville was sure the man had seen the grimace his mouth pulled into at the question.

"He's been kind of insufferable. I'm sure the rest of the Gryffindors are now only agreeing with him because he hasn't shut up about how unfair it is that his pet was removed from his ownership without his say-so."

The Malfoy Lord looked as disturbed as Neville felt regarding it all. Not even minding everything Neville had just unpacked on him. The man pinched the bridge of his nose for a few seconds and then conjured a bench for the two of them to share.

He slid onto it next to Lucius and sighed.

"..." "My apologies Neville. The whole situation still catches me a bit off guard if I'm speaking frankly. Also, I do not believe you will need to worry about it for much longer. I'm sure in a week's time the boy will be singing another tune."

Neville looked up at the man quizzically.

The Lord gave a smirk as he caught the look, taking Lady Malfoy's hand as she and Draco came to stand in front of them, their conversation finished for now.

"I heard a little bird say that The Prophet will have quite a lot of ground to cover in the coming few days. Some of it... will be most enlightening." The man's grin turned almost shark like and then promptly softened as Lady Malfoy gently reprimanded the Lord, reminding him that they were technically still in public.

He apologized by dropping a kiss onto the back of her hand with a low bow and then helped Neville stand as well.

"That is one of the reasons why we are here, dear. Some of the information that is going to come out from this debacle will no doubt be extremely upsetting to you as well." Lady Malfoy looked like she was debating whether it would be worth it to kidnap Neville and bundle him up. He hadn't seen an adult look like that at him.. not even Alecto and Amycus in his past-future had. Not that they had the chance to but still.

Her face also softened and she leaned closer to him, "I know that you chose to not remember specific memories but if at any point you feel like you need assistance then please reach out to Severus. He will be able to get hold of us in almost no time."

She brushed a piece of his fringe away that had moved into his eye, "Now. We'd best let you two be off. No doubt you will be missed in the castle if you stayed any longer."

The two adults greeted them warmly and the two boys walked back on the winding path towards the school.

They were in the section of the forest just before the school when Draco gently bumped him with his shoulder. "Don't look so down Neville. You'll see them on every Slytherin Quidditch match." The blonde remarked, grinning a bit at the startled look on his face.

"Sorry Draco.. I-- I don't mean to take your parents time away from you." Neville mumbled.

The blonde stopped abruptly.

"You're right Nev. You are stealing time from them but honestly I can tell how happy they are to help you. Without going into details, people always look to them to lead the trends or to throw money at problems but rarely do they ever want to or try to look past the pureblood expressions they wear. Besides, with you there, they have someone else to worry about as well."

Neville laughed a bit, "I knew it... you just want me to distract them from whatever antics you're planning on getting up to before we graduate."

Draco laughed and they continued their walk. Reaching the carriages at the Hogwarts gates not long after.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Neville had re-adopted his sneaking habits before he knew it.

The Malfoy's had been right. The papers did come out with the truth.

Sirius Black had received a full pardon and apology from the Ministry.

Peter Pettigrew was charged with a variety of criminal offenses and he was exposed as being a Rat animagus that had lived in an unnamed boys dormitory of the Hogwarts school.
(Obviously most of the students had heard the rants about Ronald's rat and had put 1 and 1 together quite quickly.)

It was thanks to that fact that the rest of the school was now firmly on Neville's side but the rest of the Gryffindors had made a move so stupid that he hadn't even considered it.

They had labeled him a baby Death Eater.

One that had been in cahoots with the rat-bastard.

The first time someone, read: Ronald, called him that he had laughed so hard he had to excuse himself from Care of Magical creatures to rush back to the castle as he had almost wet himself from the endless chuckles spilling from his mouth.

He had fully run into Professor Snape at that point just as he turned the corner towards the Great Hall.

Not even the man's best glare or Finite spells could shake the laughing fit from him.

Neville continued to laugh so hard that he had started to cry. Uncontrollably.

The Professor, thanks to his further quick thinking, had gotten a calming draught into his system and had led him down to his office.

Neville was still stuck between weak fits of mirth and light sobs when the two people he hadn't wanted to bother with something like this stepped through the fireplace.

They took up seats next to him, offering his probably very insane looking self silent comfort until he calmed down enough to sip a cup of tea.

"Neville?"

Lady Malfoy handed him a handkerchief which he took with a small thanks and another little snicker that slipped through.

"Sorry.. Madame.. Sirs.. I didn't want Professor to call you. Didn't want to bother you with this."

Lucius was the first so sigh and placed a big and warm hand on his back.

"This is why we wanted to have him call us in the first place little lion. With big emotional upheavals like this, you would need more grounding magic than usual. It's only temporary mind you -- in a year or so you'll need less and less magic."

The rest of what he wanted to say was cut off by Professor Snape.

"Actually.. Lucius. With Mr. Longbottom's other memory block issues it might be longer. I believe he is using more of the family magic than others would, not only for the anchoring but to combat the damage that his mind has been through in his life up until now."

Neville felt Lady Malfoy gasp next to him and the swish of her robes as she turned to face him and in doing so, Lucius as well.

She pressed Neville to herself, holding him securely.

He was going to ask something else but then he felt something surrounding his head, was this a bubble head charm? He poked at it and confirmed that it was. He blinked a bit at the hazy vision of his Potions Professor but then just settled in to wait.

He didn't think she had done it to keep him in the dark.. he had a guess that she was likely interrogating Lucius and did not want him to hear or think she was angry with him.

The thought made him tear up.

He didn't understand how he sometimes retained his 7th year emotions or lucid thoughts and then other times he felt so much younger that he actually was mentally and physically.

Was it because of the mental damage?

Was it the fact that he needed magical anchoring?

He felt so confused.

The Malfoys came out of their conversation as the bubble dropped and he was physically pulled more into Lady Malfoy's side, he noted that Draco was animatedly talking to their professor about something. He didn't know when he had joined them.

"Dear?"

He didn't think that she had been talking to him so he didn't lift his head.

"Nev?"

Draco was now on Lady Malfoy's other side, "Mother's been trying to get your attention for a few minutes now. You okay?"

Neville picked up his head from her shoulder with a frown. He was sure he hadn't zoned out then.. had he?

His hands were starting to shake. He hated feeling this weak. He looked over to his professor.

"P-Profess-ssor.. could you please check my blocks again? Is something wrong? Am I losing time again? Would the--" He was cut off with a gentle hand on his mouth and another on his arm.

"Breathe darling." Lady Malfoy ordered sternly but still softly.

She was really different than Lucius, he caught his breath faster.

Professor Snape had stepped forward and with a nod from him he entered his mindscape.

The man was not busy for long, Neville could feel his attention turning more inwards with each instance of the mind magic from the Professor. But it was still nothing like what had been described to him, no flashing memories or anything.

"Mr. Longbottom, You are healing adequately. The block is slowly disintegrating. It had made even more progress that I thought possible -- which is to say that I was correct about the Malfoy magicks being busy with an extra task."

The professor sighed and took a sip of tea before he continued, crossing one leg over the other as he settled into his office chair, "You are under immense strain without the nonsense going on currently in the castle. You need to give yourself the grace to heal."

Neville nodded. He still felt incredibly guilty - about a variety of things but he could see the truth in the Professor's words. His younger feeling side did not like it however.

"Is.. is it normal that I feel younger than I actually am at some points?" He asked, swirling his left over tea and the little leaves in the cup around.

Lucius answered, "I am unsure if it is common in anchorage but I would surmise that because the blocks in your mind are unraveling that you could possibly be affected from it."

Neville sighed and took a deep breath. He didn't want to be this scattered forever.

The group pulled him into different discussions in an effort to distract him. The dour potions professor also going back to his own marking but adding a comment here or there.

It was nice.

Before the Malfoys left to return to their own home, they stopped him and Draco.

"We were hoping you'd join us for Yule and the rest of the school holiday, Neville? That is to say if Dowager Longbottom would not want you to rather celebrate at home?"

Neville's eyes widened drastically. They wanted him to spend the holiday with them? He bit the inside of his cheek, thinking a bit. He was going to stay at the castle this year. Mind made up he looked up at them, "Sure... I'd love to join you if it's alright. I just need to write gran. I was planning on staying at the castle."

"We would not have asked if we were not certain." Lucius assured him.

"Okay.. then yeah, let me find out. Thank you." He finished softly, ignoring the shit eating grin that Draco was shooting at him out of sight of all of the adults.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Somehow..

Somehow Neville knew he should have gone down to the Slytherin common room instead.

He had barely stepped foot in his own common room when a voice startled him.

"Well. Well. Well. The prodigal snake returns."

It was bloody Weasley! He had managed to dodge and duck most of the Lion house outside of classes for weeks now. It was a day away from the Yule holidays and it seems he had let his guard down.

His shoulders were screaming from the heavy lifting spells he was performing in the Room. He had found a bunch of intricate bookcases that were in slight disrepair a few nights ago. Since then he had been meticulously cleaning them or fixing them up when he had gotten a chance.

The room had even been providing him meals on the occasion that he stayed there too long.

Tonight however, he was tired, sore and just wanted to take a shower and curl up with his crocodile plush. He should have rather gone down and joined Draco and the other Slytherins in their year for a mini exploding snap bracket.

"Wow. Prodigal. Did you snog a dictionary too, Weasley?" Neville drawled.

He didn't feel old enough for this shit. Fully aware he was slipping into the brattier side of his personality.

The emotions flicked from one to the other on the freckled face and he was going a few different shades of colour as well. He probably had a few seconds before the boy exploded, but he was just so tired.. his muscles didn't want to move much at all.

"Why you little...! What the bloody hell do you mean with too??"

The red head's wand was out before Neville could even reach for his own. Or maybe it had already been in Ronald's hand. Maybe he shouldn't have antagonized him while he was feeling like this. . .

The rest of the rant and possible spells was cut off with the arrival of the twins between them.

"Ickle Ronniekins.."--

"If you're this upset about your little bed-rat leaving you then--

we can help you replace it?--

What about a nice fuzzy spider?

"You two! Shut up and stay out of this. You're just jealous Percy didn't want to give the rat to you to be tortured."

"you thinking what I'm thinking Gred?"

"Of course Forge.

We thinks our mother will be very interested to hear just how much little Ronnie actually did with his little ratty.

You wouldn't dare?!

"Oh we wouldn't?--

--Well little Ronnie--

What's that phrase again Greddy?--

--you shouldn't throw stones--

--when you live in a muggle glass house Ronnie.."

Neville wasn't able to keep up with the conversation. He had no clue what they were talking about and on second thought he wasn't sure he wanted to figure it out.

He shook his head physically, hoping that his thoughts would stop where they were.

Ronald stalked off, leaving Neville with the twins.

"Sorry Neville.. we should have done that sooner."

"Yeah, it's not guarantee it will help for long but the holidays starts soon. Mother requested we all come home this year, so he'll hopefully be better in the new year."

Neville shook his head, wondering if they intentionally spoke in shorted sentences when they were trying to frustrate someone.

"It's fine, Gred, Forge. Your brother..." Neville sighed, not knowing what he was going to say anymore. He just shrugged his shoulders.

The twins snorted and both clapped him on the shoulder, escorting him to the dorms with dual looks of commiseration and then mischief.

He didn't want to know, so he quickly showered and then spelled his bed curtains close.

It was almost 4 o'clock the next morning when he heard a particularly high scream of panic. He snorted, spelled his curtains to not let sound through and then rolled over onto his other side, nose buried into his bedding. The soothing floral and ocean breeze scents pulling him back into sleep.

The next morning there was no sign of what had woken Neville up but he put it from his mins in favor of making sure his trunk was packed and ready.

He opted to join the Slytherin table for breakfast as it was still early and was having a pretty amicable conversation with some of Boyle and Rowle's friends and year mates.

Professor Snape gave them a curt nod as he took his own seat at the head table. Neville snickered in his head at the blank look he gave the overly animated headmaster.

On second thought.. it was a bit odd to see the headmaster like that. Did he have a sugar rush this early in the morning?

Draco looked around to see what was distracting Neville on his arrival and groaned when he spotted it. "Neville it's too early to even try to analyze that. Now, tea me please."

Neville snorted.

"Yes sir. Your highness, sir!" Neville gave him a mock salute and poured some tea for the blonde. He also got one of the upper years to pass a few of the blueberry muffins to him from the other end of the table.

Draco had gotten him hooked on them the few times he had eat breakfast at their table these past few months and he knew the other boy liked them too.

He still had no clue if the Malfoys or Snape would like his Yule gifts but he would have to wait and see.

They weren't even very far into the school term and technically Neville had the upper hand in terms of the workload but he just felt so tired.

A winter holiday at Malfoy Manor might just be exactly what he needed. His Pendant warmed, agreeing with him.

A thought hit him later as they later stared at the scenery rushing past the train.

With Pettigrew in prison..

.. and on the way to being kissed..

Who was going to find and resurrect the Dark Lord? And if he did need to be resurrected... Was it even possible to restore his sanity? Had the man been sane at all previously?

Oh Merlin. . .

"Hey, Nev? Tell Pansy that the Ballycastle Bats will never lose to the Chudley Cannons."
Draco pleaded with him.

Neville laughed and turned his attention to the rest of his friends. The thought made him incredibly warm. He was still wary but for now... this was nice.

"Miss Parkinson, Draconis wants me to relay the message to you that the Chudley Cannons will not win against the Ballycastle Bats. Would you like to return the message to the sender?"

"Oi!"

The rest of the compartment laughed.

Chapter Text

Stepping out onto the platform spirits were running high, kids and teens alike were rushing to meet their families.

Neville could tell that Draco was trying not to bodily drag him over to where the two Malfoy adults were waiting for them. They had their usual cold countenances in place however that seemed to melt away almost instantly as their gazes caught his and Draco’s.

Neville felt himself getting a bit hot. He was still unreasonably nervous but no matter how many times he scolded himself internally or how he tried to calm himself down — he still wondered if they would not just tell him that they had changed their minds about the holiday and that he would have to return to his Gran and Uncle.

That would be an utter disaster. Neville had their more than civil response clutched in his left hand as he approached the couple.

He gulped and nervously greeted them, handing over the now slightly crinkled parchment with his permission to stay with them for the holiday.

Neville wanted to tell them that this was basically blanket permission to the end of perpetuity but he kept his mouth closed, focusing instead to bite a piece of dead skin on his bottom lip while they read the note.

Draco distracted him momentarily and pointed out the group of red heads still on the platform.

Neville winced internally as he saw Luna with them.

He was still thinking of her even now. Was it because her betrayal had hurt the most?

He heard a hum from in front of them and turned his attention back, his hand rubbing his cheek and nose where he still felt the phantom pain of the cutting curse. Maybe it was the internal pain making it feel so much worse?

He also wasn’t sure how the pendant magic exactly worked. Did it de-age him and drop him in place of his old self? Or did it just mentally remove him from his past-future body and then stick him alongside his younger self? The side issues from his mental block did not make identifying the best fitting scenario any easier.

“-ev?”

A hand waved in front of his face.

“We’re ready to leave Neville?”

His thoughts and head dropped at that.

“Oh… okay I guess I will see you in the new year then?” He mumbled, wringing his hands a bit. He had hoped that this wouldn’t happen. He felt like such an idiot.

Lord Malfoy crouched in front of him. Breaking probably every pureblood etiquette rule there was in public. The older man took both of his hands into his own and forced his fingers to uncurl from where he was gripping himself.

“Calm, son.” The man demanded softly.

Neville’s breath hitched. Oh no. Not now. He couldn’t remember last time he had cried, why now? Wait.. no he did remember it was right after he found out that his mind was imploding in on itself.

He tried to breath normally but his chest was stuttering and he let out a small hiccup.

“You’re coming home with us. You got the needed permissions, though from the tone of the letter I’m not sure you had needed to bother with it. But nonetheless, for all points and purposes you are our charge for this holiday.” Lord Malfoy impressed upon him.

Neville nodded, sure his face was showing everything he was feeling. Even with hanging out with Draco and the others for a few months had not made him any better at hiding his expressions.

Blaise and Theodore "Call me Theo or Nott" Nott had joked that he had a face that displayed his inner comments.

Lady Malfoy and Draco moved closer to them, essentially hiding the shorter boy from view of the rest of the platform.

“He’s right Nev. I have so many things to show you this holiday and I promised Pansy that I’ll teach you to fly properly. No remembrall's or broken wrists this time, remember I already promised you?” Draco added quickly as his mother gave him a searching look.

Neville’s attention was turned back to the Malfoy Lord who was still kneeling next to him. He gently pulled on the larger hands, wanting the man to stand again.

He did and to his credit he didn’t even wince a bit when his knees gave two soft pops. Neville bit his cheek again, not wanting to offend the man after he went out of his way to bring his head out of his arse once again.

Draco and Narcissa also did not say anything but both shared looks of mirth with each other.

Lucius sighed and shook his head, “Come on, son. We’d best get home before those two start cracking unbecoming jokes about my age.”

Neville smothered a snicker of his own when he heard the matching snorts now behind him as Lucius led him to the fireplaces on the side of the platform.

He wasn’t handed a pinch of the green powder but instead he was pulled closer to Lucius. “Sorry Neville, I need to add you to our wards so it’s not recommended for you to floo alone yet, well not if it isn’t an emergency in any case.” He nodded and tentatively wrapped his arms around the man as well.

They stepped in and he closed his eyes at the spinning feeling.

This was by far the worst fire travel experience he had ever had in his life. And that was including the one out from the Ministry of Magic back across the country to Hogwarts at the end of their 5th year.

He was heaving by the time they stepped onto the smooth white marble floor tiles of the Malfoy Manor fire reception room.

He bent over and was trying to get rid of the ashy taste in his mouth, noting that Lucius was patting his back lightly. Neville straightened as two more fires flared and tried to breath through his nose as the man was instructing him to.

“That— that was awful.” Neville groaned.

“My apologies Neville. On second recollection perhaps apparating to the front gates would have been a better alternative.”

Neville shook his head, he’d be fine in a few.

Misprit popped into place next to him and thrust a glass of water to him.

“Little lion be drinking that. Then Misprit will show him to his room.”

The elf’s tone held no room for any argument and from the look in her overly large eyes, Neville knew that she was also still holding a bit of a grudge to his offense a few weeks ago.

He finished the glass which she promptly sent away and nodded at his stuttered hello.

Draco laughed as he joined them and the small group started the walk with their trunks floating behind them.

Neville looked back uncertainly to the older Malfoys but they just encouraged him to follow the grouchy elf and then laughed lightly when she started almost leading Neville away with his school tie.

Neville’s room was a mirror image of Draco’s, just in shades that ranged from sage green to beige and white. It had surprised him so much he was still standing in the doorway when Draco joined him after stopping in his own room.

“You can change the colours of anything, y’know. Mother loves interior design and decorating — even the muggle kind — so this is kind of what she thought you would like I imagine.” Draco commented, nodding approvingly at the choices his mother had made.

“Isn’t it too much? I can take a smaller room if needed.” Neville commented quickly, eyes still roving over every detail he could see.

Draco’s room had also been very unexpected, it was done in a variety of blues and greys. Making the room look calming but also light and airy. Like you were flying out of a thunderstorm and into sunshine. Not that Neville had any experience with that. But the blonde had looked please when he had shared the description of that with him.

“Well go on.. You don’t know when Misprit will return.” The boy prodded.

Neville looked at him in horror and then rushed to get himself and his trunk into the room, the Slytherin laughing silently with his shoulders shaking.

They heard a pop in the hallway and Neville dragged Draco into the room as well when both of their eyes went wide. Looks like as much as the boy was teasing him he was also still incredibly careful of the little elf.

They giggled against the now closed door, blood still rushing past their ears from the fright.

Draco showed him around the room and the attached bathroom and closet.

The bed was huge, Neville thought he might get lost on it if he rolled the wrong way while sleeping. It was also covered in all sorts of textured blankets and throws and even a few new decoy-pillows that he could spot by how puffy they were.

He didn't have a desk but there were low bookshelves under the window seat that the blonde indicated was identical to his. Apparently he had written his mother and had asked if it was possible to replicate it in Neville’s room as well.

He really appreciated the amount of effort (and most likely Galleons) that they all had exerted on him and mentioned as much at dinner that evening when his stomach was sufficiently full.

Not even the sore soles of his feet from the rest of the grand tour of the estate could bother him any longer after such a good meal.

The couple had beamed at him but had waved off his thanks.

Dessert was another experience.

They had been served little bowls of coffee jelly with a cheesecake like cream that had been layered atop of the little cubes.

He had enjoyed it, he had never been one for overly sweet desserts so it had suited his tastes. It was also another form of coffee that he could enjoy both the taste and the scent of.

He had asked why Lucius had looked at his little bowl in unconcealed dismay and had gotten a soft laugh from Narcissa in response.

“The elves have been learning and trying different recipes lately - having gotten their hands on a few new cookbooks while they were looking for something for me in stores." She laughed a bit more behind her napkin, looking at Lucius with a teasing half smile. "This marks the 5th night in a row where the dessert doesn’t agree with my dear husband.”

“It’s not that it doesn’t agree with me Cissa..” Lucius began.

“Of course not, dear; it just doesn’t agree with your overly large sweet tooth.”

The blonde man groaned and continued to lightly complain about her bringing up in his words 'such sensitive information'.

Neville and Draco had both enjoyed the exchange, laughing at the light jabs the adults shot at each-other over the dining table and then later in the warm family room.

He and Draco had opted to play another game of exploding snap. It was pretty much the only game Neville actually knew the rules of and as they didn’t want to spend the whole night with him learning new rules and Draco teaching said rules, they settled on the slightly noisy game.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

True to his word, the morning before Yule saw Draco teaching Neville to safely operate a broom. It turns out that because of his anchorage, his magic wasn’t making the broom controls highly sensitive any longer and he was actually quite decent at flying.

Though decent didn't mean he suddenly loved or Salazar (Draco's exclamation of choice), even liked it at all.

He and Draco kept themselves in the air for most of the sunny winter's day, only landing and coming into the Manor looking utterly windswept. Their cheeks were flushed and not even the rapidly cooling afternoon air had put them off of their fun.

They were still grinning and talking animatedly as they joined the rest of the household for an early dinner on one of the second floor terraces. They also watched the sunset and Neville had a nice time studying some of the creatures that the family had living on the grounds below them.

He thought he saw a few woodland creatures and ferrets and pointed it out to the family. They indulged him in his excitement and it wasn’t long after dinner than Neville felt himself being moved physically.

Apparently he had fallen asleep before the dessert course. He mumbled as much to whoever was carrying him. He was jostled a bit by a rumbly laugh against his side and a comment that sound almost like Lucius saying that he didn’t miss much.

He was graced with more chuckles as he sleepily nodded sagely and shared his suspicion that the elves were making desserts that weren’t as sweet on purpose.

Soon after he was placed onto what felt like a cloud and sighed contently as he felt his arms wrap around Wally (the name he had ended up giving the crocodile) and one of the new penguins. He cursed himself a bit again too as he was once again feeling much younger.

It wasn't affecting him much but the thought that his mind was still not what it should be always served to make him feel annoyed and hopeless. Adding on to that the feeling of not being 13 or even 17 years old and you had a bit of a mess.

He calmed slowly as he felt a nice feeling on his forehead and hair.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Neville was awoken by an earthquake that made him roll off of the cloud he had been sleeping on. Cracking an eye open he was confronted with the reality of what had actually happened. Draco was standing on top of his sage green bedspread, an almost manic look in his eyes.

He groaned and fell back onto the wood floor next to the bed, willing his crocodile to turn back into a pillow and then weakly pelted it at the smirking blonde. Whatever this was, it was too early for it.

He tried to curl into a ball with more of the blanket that he pulled off of the bed, but instead was spun almost like a turtle who had gotten stuck on his shell as Draco forced him to relinquish his hold on that too.

“Draaaacooooo” Neville whined. Probably the first time he had ever sounded as put out as this.

“Neeeevilllllleeee” The blonde mimicked. “Come on! It’s Yule. We have presents to open!!”

The boy pulled Neville. He then wrapped the blanket he had stolen across Neville's shoulders and bounded them both all the way downstairs and to the family room.

Usually they met up in the one parlor for breakfast and Draco must have felt his confusion as he piped up excitedly, “We eat breakfast here on special days. And then we open presents.”

Neville rubbed an eye sleepily but still nodded quickly to look alert before the blonde shook him awake again. Maybe he could ask the elves for some coffee. . .

He took a seat on one of the floor cushions next to Draco and then finally tried to properly open his eyes and look around.

The usually bright and tastefully decorated room was now filled with all sorts of decorations. From snow flakes to little crystal figurines and other decorations made from part of nature, like branches, pine cones, an assortment of leaves and even some vines. It looked beautiful.

Near the fireplace there was a yule log and then in the one corner stood a small fir tree. Just big enough to stand out and Neville could see that it was planted temporarily in a pot as well.

He wasn’t up to date with some of the older ways but he had a good idea that the tree would be planted somewhere on the grounds after the yule ceremony.

It was not long after another elf stuffed a big mug of spiced hot chocolate into his hands that the two adults joined them. Both in matching robes and wearing slippers too.

You’d think having lived and re-living with a dorm full of boys his own age he’d be used to seeing people in various states of dress and undress but it was still semi-startling to him.

Draco snickered at his expression and handed him a small wrapped gift. He opened it with one hand, sipping from the warm chocolate drink. Hoping it would make him feel more awake.

It was a pair of fuzzy socks - almost like you failed to transfigure a candy cane into socks. He looked up and saw the rest of the Malfoys all holding their own version of the same socks but in different colours. Draco just grinned at them all and motioned for them to put them on.

The moment they did, all of them felt a tiny rush of magic and then the Slytherin 3rd year was rolling on the ground, holding his stomach to try and suppress his laughing fit.

Neville spotted a pair of white rounded fluffy ears on Draco’s head and snorted into his mug, the chocolate staining his upper lip and going a bit up his nose.

He sputtered a bit and at the questioning look from his friend he pointed to his own head, but in doing so his face dropped in horror as he felt the protrusions sticking out from his own head.

His was long enough to pull into view in front of his face and he and Draco both leapt up from the ground to rush towards the nearest mirror that was on the other side of the room.

Standing there Neville groaned and all but wrapped his new long bunny ears around his face. They were the same strawberry blonde colour of his hair, maybe a shade or two lighter and he heard the belly shaking giggles from the Slytherin next to him.

“Dracoooooo” Neville started, “Where in Merlin and Morgana’s green earth did you find these socks!!”

The blonde could barely breathe as he tried to stop laughing but each time he caught a glimpse of himself and Neville in the mirror he started again.

Neville sighed and moved back to where they had been sitting in front of the fire and then had to promptly bite back his own innapropriate giggle.

Draco must have heard him as the boy came to stand next to him still shaking a bit.

They ended up both howling and holding eachother when each of the older Malfoy’s raised a single mirrored eyebrow at them.

Lucius had sprouted two very fuzzy and very white antlers that delicately poked through his hair and with tiny white ears to the side of them.

Narcissa had ears almost like Draco’s but they were one white and one black with very pointed tips that had tufts of hair.

They stood laughing like that until a short cough from behind them startled them out of it. Draco didn’t seem as surprised as Neville felt and it wasn’t like their Potions Professor hadn’t seen him in pajamas before but combined with his new appendages he felt incredibly self-conscious.

“Mr…. Longbottom. Draconis.” Snape greeted with a nod, an amused glint in his eyes.

Draco excitedly welcomed his Godfather, something that Neville had known or learnt at some point in his past-future but couldn't wrap his head around until now.

The man then looked past them and meant to greet his old friends as well but then his face went impossibly blank and he hurriedly left the room, making a strained excuse as he did.

The boys looked over to the other adults who looked exasperatedly amused and then they also rushed to the door, both of them stuck their heads around the door and spotted their Professor holding the wall with one hand and his mouth with the other.

They were concerned that he wasn’t feeling well for a few seconds until Neville noticed he was shaking with repressed laughter and not because he was ill. He nudged Draco who was starting to panic and indicated he should look closer.

They both made snorts of their own as he and Draco caught each other’s eyes.

He felt and heard the two older Malfoy’s come to stand behind them, also peeking around the door. This caused the dark eyes to shift to them and it was then the normally strict Professor fully lost the battle against wills and himself.

Neville was struck with how nice he sounded when he was laughing and also how odd it was to see him not hold himself so severely.

Their professor recovered after a short time and did end up properly greeting his hosts as he joined them on a plush single seat in the room.

It was then that he also noticed that the man was not in his teaching robes either. His jumper and slacks were still black in colour but he wasn’t wearing a million buttons or the thick over-robe and cloak he usually did at school.

They had lit the Yule log a few minutes earlier as Lucius led the customary ceremony.

Thank Lady Magic for allowing them to gather as a family for another year.

It was all very strange but enchanting to Neville. The whole scene and the fact that he could also light a few leaves on the log before it had been placed in the fireplace made him feel very warm inside.

He could also identify and feel more of the family magic that was swirling around him and the crook of his elbow where the talisman was still under his skin.

Draco jumped up all of a sudden in the middle of their brunch meal and bounded to the tree before returning and standing in front of their professor.

He was holding the same sort of package as the group had opened earlier.

The Professor gave them a considering look, which Draco returned with his best pleading expression.

“Please uncle Severus? Just this once…”

Lucius sighed and Narcissa chuckled at the blatant blackmail her son was attempting on the school’s most feared Professor.

Neville turned his attention back to his plate before he was relinquished of it and made to stand next to his friend. He was still protesting when the blonde shot the same sad look at him.

Neville began stuttering, dammit. Nothing in the past few months or his past-future had prepared him to deal with freaking puppy dog eyes from Draco Malfoy.

He moaned internally and faced their professor as well, he had lost that battle so fast it was embarrassing…

The man continued to hold out until Neville swore he saw tears well up in the corners of Draco’s eyes and then he seemed to give up as well.

The man put on the solid black socks and raised an eyebrow at them both as if to ask if they were happy now.

Draco grinned and then drug them back to where they had been sitting, intending to get started on the rest of their gifts under the small tree.
Neville was not able to remove his eyes from the professor however and had to quickly hide his smile.

Sensing the distraction, Draco also turned around and snickered into his sleeve.

Snape had sprouted antlers as well but they were pitch black and he had the same style of ears as Lucius, just in the same dark colour. Neville was momentarily sad that they weren’t bunny ears like him but then nodded to himself, deciding the wilder looking antlers suited the spiky professor.

The man looked at him questioningly but didn’t actually seem to expect Neville to explain his odd reaction.

Damn. Where's Creevey when you actually needed him to capture history in the making?

They set about opening their gifts then as Misprit popped into the room to refill their drinks and to set out a plate of assorted biscuits as she removed the traces from their breakfast.

Neville was a bit nervous and also instantly relieved that he had after all decided to get the professor a gift as well.

He waited until Narcissa and Lucius both were opening the gifts from him before even thinking of touching his own pile that had floated towards him. He was starting to feel sick until he saw the look of utter delight gracing the Malfoy Lord’s face, he had given the man the ancient looking chess set he had found in the room. It had taken him more than a few days of searching and numerous other chess set pieces to sort through to make sure everything was there that needed to be.

If Neville ever saw another approximation of a horse or bishop figure it would be too soon…

But the delight and soft look in the man’s face made it all the more worth it.

“Neville…” The rest of the room also joined Neville in looking at the man.

“This is amazing, how on earth..” the man trailed off, now all the eyes were switching to Neville and he was already starting to feel his cheeks go bright red.

“Uhmm well being as old as the castle is.. there’s quite a sizeable lost and found section. I, of course uhmm checked that everything wasn't spelled or cursed but.." Neville started nervously.

Seeing he still had the full attention of everyone around him he took a shaky sip of his hot drink and continued, "I.. I also needed to fix a few pieces. Compared to the other chess sets and pieces I discovered the stone in this one had a few cracks. I restored the major ones but there were a few of the cracks that looked quite nice with the mossy look on the old stone and.. and wouldn't make the piece break if it was played with."

Neville stopped to breathe and noted that no one was angry or upset with him.

He wasn't used to things going as well as this when giving gifts -- woops that's his younger self again coming through.

"I really like it Neville. Thank you. I look forward to putting it in my study." the Malfoy Lord remarked with a smile.

The rest of his gifts were all received well too. He had been worried about the reactions to the knowledge that he didn't actually buy anyone anything but when he explained how he had personalized each item or restored it specifically for each person, he could see in their faces that they liked it.

Narcissa had received a bouquet of pretty dried and preserved flowers he had made himself and also an intricate clam shell pocket mirror that he had to restore almost completely by himself.

He mentioned that he used some bits and pieces from other items to re-decorate the shell and then that he permanently vanished the mirrors on the inside (for safety reasons as well) and had used a transfiguration spell to make new ones that fit perfectly

He had given the shelves he had found to the Potions Master instead, shakily explaining to him that he thought they could be nice potion shelves too if he didn't want to use them for books.

The man had looked a bit taken aback but Narcissa had winked at Neville and had later that evening assured him that the dark Professor had been more than happy with his gift and to trust her.

Neville had also given the man a book he had discovered in the room too, but had mentioned that it wasn't intended to be one of the gifts. Only that it seemed to have been a potions book but over the years someone had made a lot of corrections in the margins.

The Professor had thanked him for it and that he would go through the corrections and keep it in his quarters.

Draco had really liked the mini figurines Neville had found as well in his search for chess pieces. The blonde had shown him the little community he had been building for them in a nook on his bookshelf.

It was little woodland creatures and birds that were carved out of either stone and wood. Neville was glad he liked it or at the very least pretended to.

But Neville saw the truth in his words as the blonde opened gift after gift from some of the people he knew in Slytherin and his friend group to find only books and the occasional confectionery item.

Neville had also sent and received a few books himself; but had chosen other odds and ends to send to the people he had gotten to know this year.

He had included a gift for Harry as well, even though he knew they were more like acquaintances than friends. But he knew the other boy was essentially alone in the castle from Gryffindor for the holidays and would likely want something to do other than exploring or flying.

He had sent him a sort of introduction book to Wix culture and then a variety of wizarding games and puzzles that you don't really needed to have more than one person to enjoy them.

He did include a figurine for him as well, it was a little snake and a dog. Neville had momentarily forgotten that he might not know his Godfather's animagus yet but he thought he could play it off as the two's coloring kind of made it seem like they were from a matching set.

The snake was also to pretty much say that he didn't care that the other was a parselmouth.

Neville had sent the customary formal letter to his Gran and uncle, but had forgone adding anything else to gift to them. They would only find a way to get rid of it in front of him in the future.

He included a short letter to his parents as well, knowing that his gran wouldn't likely read it to them but he felt like he needed to.

Mr Jestle also got a nice but slightly wonky chest that he had found and he even sent a few other figurines with it, asking the man if he could deliver it to the Black Horse and the Potions shop for him.

Neither Draco or Neville had officially gotten any gift from their Professor but they hadn't really been expecting one -- or at least he hadn't -- Draco had also not looked upset about it so Neville hadn't brought it up.

But looking at his bed he noticed an odd stack of parchment that he hadn't placed there, intent on moving it to the shelves under the window seat he stopped and noted the spiky scrawl of the handwriting on it.

He slapped a hand over his mouth and darted out of his door and into the one across from his without even stopping to knock.

Draco was stood next to his bed, already in his nightwear and holding the same packet that he did.

The boys launched into gasping giggles again as they held out the packets to one another.

Draco's read: "Potions for overachieving Godsons"

While his own read: "Potions for not-so-dunderheaded beings"

Neville had thus concluded his first Yule back in the past as a success.

If they were still bursting out in random bouts of laughter throughout the next day then no one mentioned anything of it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few days after Yule and before they needed to be back at Hogwarts, the Malfoy family and Neville in tow visited Diagon Alley.

Draco had mentioned needing a few things before they returned and it would be at least a month before their next Hogsmeade visit. And so the group found themselves in an alley that wasn't as busy as usual.

Neville had actually that evening after Yule, decided to send a gift to the 3 Gringotts personnel as well. And had indicated to them that he profusely apologized if it was against the institutions rules. He also, under the guise of getting money from his trust vault, had made his first payment towards his debt for another 300 Galleons.

He had sold quite a few things to the Jestle shop and even a few other places in the alley that the older man had assisted him in doing. As such his debt was now down to 3500 Galleons.

The goblin at the teller had been surprisingly not as nasty to him when he had made his payment but he chalked it up to it being because he technically owed the bank money still.

He had rushed back to the Malfoy's and with his remaining 50 Galleons he bought extra parchment, which had luckily for him been on sale. And then a few normal quills, plus a few you could refill magically with ink so they'd technically be self-inking but weren't as expensive.

He had found more ink pots so far in his short search of the lost and found room to last him a life time. A few of them even still contained usable ink.

Neville had been unable to refuse the offer of Narcissa and Lucius buying him a few pairs of slacks and shirts but had stopped them after a few. He was happy enough to spend the holiday with them, he didn't want them to spend anything extra on him. No matter Draco's comments of their vaults practically going stagnant as they weren't able to spend it fast enough.

The cheeky comment had gotten him an eye roll from both of his parents and Neville had distracted the pouting ponce of a brat that had grown on him by pointing to the ice cream shop instead.

This was the first instance where Neville had actually gotten to witness the sweet tooth of the Malfoy Lord. He had ordered one of the smaller but no less sweet monstrosities that Fortesque had on the menu.

Neville was sure he mirrored the faint disgust that he spotted on Narcissa's delicate features. He didn't want to know what all the flavors was the man had gotten or what the toppings was. To Neville the dessert (if you could call it that) had stepped right out the pages of some Lovecraftian cook book.

The Lord had feigned mock disappointment when Neville had pointed that exact fact out to the man. Draco snickering into his own abominable creation on the side. Though Neville could at least spot choc chips and what looked like caramel, nougat and honeycomb on his.

He had stuck with a simple Cherry Sherbet and triple chocolate bowl and Narcissa had preferred the lemon cheesecake with yuzu pieces.

Their perfect day out had after that, gone slightly to shite.

They were stepping out of the side alley where the older and more affordable shops were, as Neville had wanted to visit the Jestle's and show them to Draco too, when they literally ran into a group of redheads.

The older Malfoy's were somewhere in another end of the alley, closer to Ollivander's store and as such they were not with them or even close by when this happened.

Not that Neville actually wanted to see a repeat of the fight that Lucius had with Arthur Weasley in Flourish and Blotts the previous year.

He had always heard that the Weasley patriarch was one of the nicer wix out there. What, with his obsession with how muggle artifacts functioned and also how Harry had once described the man to him in the past-future.

However, seeing the sharp and unconcealed look of something, not very positive but that he couldn't name on the man's face, as he glanced at Draco.

Sorry to say but Neville felt his hackles and hair raise like it had never done before.

Draco wasn't some cockroach that needed to be squished before it procreated and took over your whole house.

He was his friend.

A friend that adored his parents, got excited over small things and always made sure Neville ate enough or wasn't spending too much time lost in thought.

He could see quite a few mouths move in front of his face, most of them surrounded by light skin and the occasional freckle. The rest of the sounds and scents in the alley all disappeared too.

Neville could no longer smell the smokiness of the one chimney nearby or the cherry ice cream that he had eaten - the scent having been almost burned into his brain. He couldn't even hear the distant hecklers at the entrance of Knockturn Alley or some of the other wix walking and talking around them. But he could see them.

He didn't understand what was going on.

One moment he had been so angry and now he felt absolutely nothing. Not even when some of muscles in the other's faces were gradually becoming more and more pinched. Kind of like they were angry, like they had started to shout at them now. But he couldn't hear shit.

Draco nudged him and Neville was confused why he was suddenly tipping to the side.

He looked around and then moved before he thought of it. He stood slightly in front of Draco, making sure the blonde was partially behind his shoulder and Neville's face was void of any of the emotions he felt for once.

He greeted the twins, not knowing if he had spoken loud enough -- not being able to hear himself was definitely a pain.

Said twins seemed excited to see both of the third years even if they kept throwing wary glances at their family.

Then with his senses still acting up, and knowing how rude it would be to just leave the conversation. Neville grabbed Draco's sleeve checking with his eyes that he had actually gotten hold of it and beelined into Gringotts which had been a few meters from them.

Ignoring the gradual sound now returning to him, twins voices sounding in the distance as they were starting to argue with someone.

He apologized to the blonde, stating that he had gotten a bad feeling and just reacted. Not wanting to go into the terror he felt with all senses but his sight disappearing.

Draco shook his head, his face pale.

Neville didn't really know why but he was sure it had to do with the parts he wasn't able to hear just now.

He walked over to the teller, blinking rapidly as his ears popped, "Mr Goblin, is there a possibility that we can fire travel home from within Gringotts?"

The teller considered him, "2 Galleons."

Neville handed the coins to him, thinking internally that it was a bit exorbitant but followed the goblin to a room he had never seen before.

Another goblin with a more intricate outfit entered and then handed him and Draco a slip of parchment. Neville thought it was just a receipt and it was sort of but it turns out he had just bought a firepass to travel to and from the bank branches, anytime, for a year.

He thanked them politely and then he and his still shocked friend travelled home.

Draco called Misprit to inform his parents of what had happened and that they were safely home again.

The other Malfoys had arrived not long after them. Lucius looked incensed but at least it didn't seem like he had gotten into fisticuffs -- or if he did he might have already straightened himself out again.

Narcissa held both of them as Draco launched into how rude the Weasleys had been. According to him it had mainly been the parents and the two youngest children.

Neville was aware they had moved into a different room, not the family one from Yule but he was not paying attention.

He heard the other boy use the words Death Eater, Dark Magic, good for nothing, dark wizard, evil.

A headache was forming behind his eyes, shooting up to his temples.

Someone came and sat next to him, pulling him in close to them. He sat there trying to breath in the ocean scent but if he was able to smell it then it wasn't registering. He sighed and pinched his eyes shut, opening them to stare at the soft jumper Draco's father was wearing until he felt more like himself.

"So much for keeping you away from stressful situations or conflict.. My apologies Neville." Lucius breathed into his hair above him.

"It's okay L-Lucius." Neville was now starting to feel a bit cold, "I don't think I even heard most of it.. I'm sorry that Draco kind of had to endure it alone before I made us leave."

The man shook his head, his chin brushing through Neville's hair. "Neither of you should have been subjected to that.. such diatribe in the first place."

Neville hadn't heard the elder Malfoy this angry in a long time, like past-future long almost.

He coughed, deciding that even though it was early into his association with them, he could at least tell him his true feelings.

"Actually.. I am aware that the Malfoy's really did follow and probably would follow You-Know-Who again, Lucius. I don't care however! I am aware that not everything is black and white. I do not agree with everything but..." Neville paused.

Taking a breath, finally getting his sense of smell back too, "But I also know that dark magic or even following him does not automatically make you a bad person. Just like not following him doesn't just make someone a good person."

He heard low gasps and then he was gently pulled deeper into the man's side and arms.

"You don't have to say anything. I--" Neville stopped before continuing,"after everything you and your family have done for me. I just wanted to let you know what I thought."

Lucius thanked him softly, not giving him any other answer for now.

Neville could feel the gentle touch of Narcissa's hand in his hair as well.

Neville knew full well that if anyone else ever found out about the anchorage that it would be used against them. People would convince themselves that they were up to no good and nothing that he could say would dissuade the public from it. Not when one of the biggest naysayers would be the current Headmaster.

He was aware they weren't always angels but no one could convince him that the Malfoys he had come to know, were anything but caring towards him. Telling them his thoughts now was the least he could do.

He felt like he could have shared the fact that their Lord was most likely floating around somewhere still right now too.

But something told him that he should go about that plate of potatoes in a different way. Maybe he could figure out something by himself.

After all the less people that knew, the better...

He would need to learn some occlumency too -- at the moment he knew from a previous check from Snape that he couldn't actually be read with the unraveling blocks but that it would get more and more possible as his mind healed.

Deciding he would check out the book on the topic that he seen on a shelf in the library and the one he knew was in the lost and found room at the school too.

He opened his eyes eventually when he heard the elves announce dinner. It didn't seem anyone wanted to move from where they were sat. Though it seems that had been expected as well, when a few plates with easy to eat foods appeared on the low table.

Draco was sat between Lucius and Narcissa on the other side he noted. Neville sighed internally, he would need to send a note to their Professor about the symptoms he had experienced in the alley.

It could have just been because it was a stressful reaction but Neville hadn't even heard the start of the supposed argument before his brain had all but shutdown.

Later that evening, he was ensconced in his own room after he and Draco had spent some time playing a few games. He had mainly agreed to distract the Slytherin. Feeling guilty that he had technically not experienced the same upset as his closest friend.

He moved to the pretty wooden desk that Narcissa had the elves move into the room for him to do his homework on, when he and Draco weren't spreading all of their books and scrolls out in the family's library.

He pulled a new sheaf of flat parchment towards him and began to write. He was surprised when Void joined him by sitting on the arm of his chair just as he was writing his sign off.

"Hi Void-y -- how come you always know when I need you, hmm?"

The little black owl chirped to him as if they were answering and rubbed his head against Neville's side like he was a cat. Shaking his own head he retrieved an owl treat for the little guy and then insisted on attaching the letter properly to his leg, before giving him another treat.

The little owl scowled at him but accepted it.

"To Professor Snape, Void-y if you please."

The Prophet headline that marked the end of the holidays a few days later came to no surprise to some and a very big surprise to others:

"Sirius Black. Lord Black -- FREE From All Charges! Wrongfully imprisoned!"

Well - there's another Yule gift for Harry, Neville thought with a smile. He idly wondered what their esteemed Headmaster thought of the developments.