Beware of the Fat Muggle In Love

     Beware of the fat Muggle in love, part 12, "Tragedy"

Neville hadn't run that fast in years.

He rounded the corner that lead into the corridor that had the entrance to the Astronomy Tower at the very end of it.

"What the hell are you doing?!?" Neville had run right into Professor Snape and knocked him down.

Neville looked behind at him and wasn't the least bit frightened of him anymore.

Instead he saw a pathetic, bitter man who needed to shower more often.

"You mind your own bloody buisness, for once!!" Neville shouted back at him angrily.

Snape suddenly suffered a great loss for words as he sat there on the floor.

Neville raised his hands at the door to the Tower and just as he was about to grab the handle and open it, it flung open by itself!

Must be spontaneous magic, Neville thought as he climbed the staircase three steps at a time.

He threw open the trapdoor and saw Dudley standing at the edge of the wall, looking down.

His scarf and his open robes were blowinging madly in the strong, cold, nightwind.

"Dudley!!Wait!!"

Dudley jumped off the edge at the exact same time as Neville called for him.

Neville's stomach sank like it had been filled with a ton of led.

He hurried up to the edge and took out his wand at the same time.

"ACCIO!!!" he screamed at the top of his voice and pointed his wand over the edge.

He saw, with tears in his eyes, that Dudley had stopped in mid air and was looking back up at him with an unreadable expression on his face.

He slowly started to rise in the air and started picking up speed after a few feet untill he landed, with a loud thud, on top of Neville, knocking him down.

Neville hugged him tightly and cried into his robes.

"Why did you stop me?" Dudley whispered while his own tears trickled onto Neville's forehead.

"Isn't that obvious, you git?" Neville sobbed.

"I guess it's out of pity," Dudley said and sat up next to Neville, who got a hold of himself and eyed him angrily.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!? Don't you see that I'm just as in love with you as you are with me?!?"

Dudley froze.

He had no idea what to say.

Neville sat up and moved closer to him.

"Promise me that you'll never try anyhting like that again." he said.

Dudley still didn't move.

"I...I...I love you. More than I love myself. I'm sorry for hurting you," Dudley said and hugged Neville, crying.

"What is this? Is the two biggest homos in Hogwarts having it off on the Tower roof?"

Snape had followed Neville and had just stepped out onto the cold stone roof.

"What?" Neville eyed him angrily.

"What a disgusting pair you make. Longbottom. That's twenty points from Gryffindor for being promiscuous. And Dursley, that's twenty from Slytherin. For bad taste in lovers," Snape continued.

He didn't have a chance to even raise his wand before both Neville and Dudley had raised theirs and pointed them at him, both more pissed than a giant on the rag.

"You will shut up and leave us now!! Do I make myself clear?" Dudley said, eyes black with fury.

"How dare you?!? I'm a teacher and you can not threaten me!!" Snape exclaimed. He had not expected this happening.

"LEAVE!! Or I swear you will be coughing up bats for a year!!" Neville screamed at his former horror.

It seemed that just being near Dudley gave him enough strength to overcome his shortcomings and fears.

"You won't hear the last of this! I will have you expelled, mark my words!" Snape said as he reluctantly removed himself from the Tower roof and made his way down the spiraling staircase.

"We've really done it now," Neville said lowly and crept closer to Dudley.

"I don't care what that dickhead does to us, as long as I'll be with you," Dudley said and held Neville in his arms, wrapping his big robes around them both.

"What should we do? We can't stay here, can we?" Neville asked.

"Why not?"

Dudley waved his wand in a wide circle around them and an orange pale glow grew into a dome around them, engulfing them in a warm breeze instead of the cold.

Neville rose his head up to Dudley's and kissed him softly.

Dudley returned the kiss and lay himself down next to him and the outside world was soon forgotten as they fell asleep in eachothers arms.

Neville and Dudley didn't hear a word about what had happened the previous evening from either Snape or any other teacher they passed next morning, strangely enough.

They didn't care, to be honest. They were happy and were actually walking hand in hand down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

They entered and saw that a large number of eyes were fixed on them.

"We'll eat at our own tables and explain to the rest, right? We don't have to say what happened yesterday," Neville said to Dudley.

He nodded.

"What do I tell Draco?"

"The truth about us and why you suddenly have a scar on your nose. Sorry about that, by the way," Neville said.

"It's all right. Come here, let's give them a show!" Dudley said and pulled Neville to him and kissed him deeply, leaving him slightly woozy.

The Great Hall was dead silent.

The two boys went to their respective tables and sat down; Dudley next to Malfoy and Crabbe, Neville next to Ginny and Ron.

The Great Hall was soon filled with people talking again and Dudley told the story.

"So...You've actually got him? For real?" Malfoy asked, looking doubtful.

"Yes. Didn't you see us entering?"

"And you've shagged him?" Crabbe said in his usual deep voice, smiling at Dudley while looking over at Neville.

"Not that it's any of your buisness, but yes. And why are you staring at him?"

"Cuz he thinks he's hot, too!" Goyle said and laughed.

Crabbe shot a look of death at him that made him shut up instantly.

Over at the Gryffindor table things weren't so crude as at the Slytherins table.

"So you actually love him? Not just as a crush?" Hermione asked, looking teareyed.

"Yes. And we spent the night sleeping on top of the Astronomy Tower," Neville said.

"Oh, that's so romantic!" Ginny said and wiped the corner of her eye.

Harry had a smile that said 'I'm happy it worked out', but Ron was frowning.

"You told of and threatened Snape and he still hasn't done anything to get back at you? This must be the greatest day in your life, Nev!" he smiled with his entire face and patted him on the back.

"And we're off to Hogsmeade later today too!" Neville added, smiling.

He looked over at Dudley, who was busy putting a hex on Goyle to shut him up, and he wondered what he ever saw in him that was so bad.

It must have been Malfoy's influence, he thought.

I still don't like that arch-bastard any more than before.

"Students! The carriges that will take you to Hogsmeade will be here in one hour, so I think it's time you all got ready for the trip," Professor McGonagall said from her place at the teachers table.

"Also, there is one thing you might want to know in addition to this. This year there will be another Yule ball for students in fourth year and up, so If you don't have the proper clothes you would want to either owl your parents and ask them to send them to you, or you can buy new ones in Hogsmeade today as the next trip won't be until a week before Easter," she continued.

Everyone got very excited about this and started chatting about it.

Ron looked deflated however, remembering the womans-dress looking piece of shit he'd worn the last time.

"You can borrow money from me to get a new one," Harry offered, but Ron turned him down.

"Oh, get of it! What are you gonna do? Wear that old thing again? I think not! I'm buying you a new one and that's final!" Harry said and just as Ron was about to protest, Harry put a silencing charm on him.

"Don't worry, it wears off after an hour or so," Hermione said and kissed Ron, briefly, on the lips.

A large stream of students rose and made their way towards their common rooms to get changed and ready for a fun day.

"You are doing what?" Malfoy exclaimed as he was about to light a cigarette with his wand, but broke it in half when he heard what Dudley had said.

"You are spending the first trip to Hogsmeade with...a bunch of Gryffindors?!?"

"No. I'm spending it with my new boyfriend and I can't help that his friends will be there along with him," Dudley answered as if Malfoy was of lesser intelligence.

"And if you were more of a normal individual, you might just have been able to come along, but I guess that's completely out of the question," he continued and looked at his Smartwatch for the time.

He was meeting Neville outside Gryffindor Tower in twenty minutes and considering the distance between the two houses locations, he really should get going.

"A normal individual?? Are you saying I'm not normal?" Malfoy looked miffed beyond the words meaning.

"Someone who steals candy from first-year Hufflepuffs really should get on with it and grow up!" Dudley said, shouting the last two words.

Malfoy was stunned.

"I have to go now. See you later," Dudley said and walked away.

Malfoy didn't move in at least five minutes.

Just as Dudley came around the corner to the marble staircase that led up to the portrait of the Lady in pink, Neville walked out of the common room, followed by Ron, Harry and Hermione.

Neville was wearing a button down shirt in pale green and sand yellow colors in stripes with a pair of deep blue jeans.

Harry was dressed all in black, matching his hair, while Ron wore a V-necked, bright green, t-shirt resulting in a sharp contrast to his red hair and brown jeans.

Hermione on the other hand was not so keen on going out in the light clothing as the boys were.

She wore a pink button down shirt and a leather jacket, white jeans and her Gryffindor scarf.

"It is november, after all," she said.

"Yeah, but the sun is shining and there is no wind and even if there was we could just put a weather-shield-spell on us," Ron said.

She looked at him and was about to say something evil, Harry reckoned, but Ron kissed her quickly to shut her up.

The ride in to town was a bumpless one and they soon stepped out in front of the library.

The sun was indeed shining and it was very hard to think it was November and not the end of August, really.

The only wind there was was a slight breese and it wasn't strong enough for either of the boys to put their coats on.

They waited for Cho Chang and Brian Batteler to arrive and when they did, Hermione was surpsised to see that they came in the same carrige and seemed to get along quite nicely.

She knew that the both knew that Harry was seeing both of them and had automatically thought that they would hate eachother.

But she had no idea of the shameless proposition Cho had made about them having a threesome.

"Right, shall we say we'll meet up at the pub in about an hour?" Harry asked.

Everyone nodded.

Ron and Hermione went towards the infamous Bridge of Kisses, where more than one pair of lovers had been caught snogging away madly.

This amused the rest of the gang a great deal.

Harry, Cho and Brian walked off towards the Quidditch shop and Neville and Dudley walked towards the Shrieking Shack as Dudley had heard alot about this place and wanted to see it.

Once they got there it wasn't really much to look at, so Neville told the story about how Remus Lupin had used it when he went to school and was still using it every fullmoon.

Dudley smiled at Nevilles way of telling the story, the way he stuttered a little now and then.

"What are you smiling at?" Neville asked him in mid-sentance.

"You."

"Oh."

Dudley moved closer to him and held his arms around Neville.

Neville put his arms around Dudleys shoulders and kissed him.

Neville laughed softly.

"Now you made me laugh," he said and kissed Dudley again.

"Get a room, you horny toads!"

It was Malfoy, coming down the road towards them.

Crabbe and Goyle followed behind him, holding hands.

"We would if we had the money," Dudley said and laughed.

"I guess the Astronomy Tower have to do for now," Malfoy replied and smirked.

"Tell me, is it cold up there?" he continued as he sat down on the grass next to them. Crabbe and Goyle did the same.

"Like you wouldn't know! I've heard that you have the record for the number of snogs up there," Neville said.

"True, Longbottom. Very true, indeed," Malfoy said and smiled as if he was very satisfied with himself.

"You haven't told me about that," Dudley said.

"How many?"

"Two hundred and fortysix snogs during last year, with about thirty different girls," Malfoy said and polished his fingernails on his white, longsleeved, silk shirt.

"That is incredible! I haven't even had that many people in my erotic fantasies!" Neville exclaimed.

Malfoy looked disturbed.

"Oh, pleas don't tell me about your fantasies, Longbottom! I'm still feeling a bit sick from that kipper this morning," he said.

Crabbe and Goyle laughed, but started kissing instead.

"Oh, no! Not you too!" Malfoy said when he saw them.

They ignored him and fell backwards, getting a bit too raunchy as Crabbes hand went down Goyles pants and it seemed as if Goyle was trying to get Crabbes shirt off.

Dudley and Neville were shocked.

"Oh, look! There's Filch," Malfoy said.

Crabbe and Goyle sat up incredibly fast and looked around in fear of getting caught a second time.

Filch was no where to be seen.

The other boys laughed hard.

"What are you two doing for detention anyway?" Dudley asked them.

They both looked away and turned red in their faces.

"We..Um...We have to help Filch do something every night," Crabbe said.

"What exactly do you have to help him with?" Neville asked.

"We...pluck his hair. The intimate ones," Goyle said.

Dudley, Neville and Malfoy looked completely abhored.

"Erh, that's a bit rich for me. Consider me gone from here," Dudley said.

"Yeah, me too. Like a fart in the wind," Neville added and they were on their way towards the pub.

The pub was filled with people, mostly students, all walking from the bar with orders to their friends or on their way to the bathrooms or walking back to the bar with more orders.

Neville and Dudley found Harry, Cho and Brian sitting around on of the tables in the back, talking about Quidditch.

They sat down and almost immediately they had a Butterbeer in each hand.

They told Harry, Brian and Cho about Crabbe and Goyles detention and completely grossed them out.

Soon Ron and Hermione entered the pub and found their way to the others.

"You'll never guess who we saw under the Bridge of Kisses!" Ron said.

"Who?" Harry said.

"Dennis Creevey and Ernie Macmillan!" Ron almost shouted.

The entire table were completely surprised.

"I guess you guys started a trend," Ron said to Dudley and Neville.

"Now, we can't be sure they were there to snog. They were just sitting there and not even close together," Hermione said with a stern voice.

Dudley looked down in his lap, feeling the guilt for Colin rise again.

"What's wrong Dudley?" Hermione asked.

"Have I told you about when I went to Madame Pomfrey when I got bitten last Care of Magical Creatures class?"

They all shook their heads.

Dudley told them first about how he and Malfoy had tricked Harry into coming into the Forbidden Forrest, taking Colin hostage and how he'd been bitten by a Vampire.

Ron and Hermione had no idea that that was why Colin had been in the hospital wing for so long.

Cho and Brian started cursing Malfoy and they all understood that it was of course Malfoy who had tricked Dudley into doing such a thing.

Then Dudley told them what he'd seen in the infirmary.

"Are you serious?" Harry asked, shocked. Cho was holding her mouth and Hermione started crying silently.

"Yes. But the really strange part is that he seemed to enjoy the transformation. He said that his senses were sharper and he moved with superhuman speed right infront of my eyes," Dudley said.

"Shit. I know all about Werewolves and how they cope with it, but how the hell can you even start to come to grips of being a Vampire?" Ron said, holding Hermione in his arms.

"I know," Brian said. They all looked at him.

"My uncle Rogan was turned into a Halfblooded Vampire when he and my mother were out hiking in the Highlands in Scotland. They were attacked and only my uncle got away, but he was bitten in the thigh, so he turned into one," he continued.

"He sleeps most of the day but he can go out in the sun because of his human part, but most of his powers doesn't work then."

"What powers does he have?" Hermione asked.

"At night he can fly, his senses are sharper than a dogs, he is really strong and he can transform into several different animals and once he even turned into mist! Oh, and he can't be injured by anything except fire, rosewood and crucifixes," he said as if it was something he was used to and that it happened every day.

"But during the day he can only fly and is his strength is only on halfpower," Brian continued.

Hermione looked at him.

"It must be difficult to have a Vampire for an uncle," she said.

He shook his head.

"Acctually, no. As long as he isn't starving for blood, he is the same as always. And he feeds from a Bloodbag so he doesn't go out and kill people."

"That's what Madame Pomfrey gave Colin to suck on!" Dudley exclaimed.

"But does this mean that Colin will just be the same as before?" Neville asked.

"I don't know. It depends on how well he handles the transformation which can take up to three months to finish," Brain said.

They all were very worried about Colin and hoped he'd be ok.

Neville rose his hand in the air to order another Butterbeer when he suddenly froze.

There, at the table nearest to the toilets, were a little second-year Slytherin eating a piece of apple pie.

Neville regognised him as Joey Jackson, but he didn't know him. His name was the least of his concern right now as the more pressing matter was the black 'X' on the boys forehead.

This was his target! The target that Lucius Malfoy had ordered him to kill on sight!

What was he going to do?

"Neville? Are you ok?" Hermione asked.

"It's him!" Neville said.

"Who?"

"The second-year Slytherin over there. Joey Jackson."

"What about him?" Dudley asked.

"He's the target!"

Ron, Harry and Hermiones faces went as white as Nearly Headless Nick's.

"Are you sure?" Hermione asked.

"Yes. He's got the 'X'."

"Hey! Do you feel that?" Cho said suddenly.

"What?" Harry asked her.

"That vibrating feel in the air," she said.

"Vibrating? Yes, I feel it now! It feels like....EVERYONE GET DOWN!!!" Hermione screamed as she grabbed Ron and Neville and pushed them to the floor and dove over the table trying to knock the others down too.

She hadn't even hit the floor before a large explosion shook the pub!

A large wooden pillar was blown to bits, followed by a second and a third explosion.

People started screaming in panic and tried to get out through the front door.

The next explosion came off right next to the front door, sending seven people through the nearest wall and four people caught on fire.

Two first-year Ravenclaws that stood nearest to the blast, got blown to pieces, blood showering several yards around them.

"We have to get out of here!!" Neville screamed. He turned his head and saw Hermione standing by the nearest wall with her wand out.

"DISPARTO CONCRETUSIA!!" she shouted and blasted through the wall, creating an exit for them.

Neville got up and grabbed Harry and Cho and got throught the wall, together with Hermione and five other students and Professor Sprout and Professor Sinistra.

Neville looked behind him and saw that Ron was about to go through the wall when there was another explosion.

A large splinter from a table shot through the air and pierced Ron's shoulder.

He fell to the ground, screaming in pain.

Hermione rushed over to him and got him out of the way.

Dudley was still inside the pub, throwing speed charms on the falling debris, slowing them down to not even half of their original speed so people could escape.

A sixth explosion erupted behind the bar behind him and sent a torch at him, scaulding his back.

He ran out and collapsed on the ground next to Ron.

Neville put a pain relieving charm on him.

More explosions were heard but although most of the people were outside, there were still five people missing.

"Where's Brian?" Harry asked to no-one in particular and looked towards the pub.

Ginny Weasley and Dennis Creevey came out, both bleeding from the head and limping.

"He's still in there!" Harry screamed and ran back into the burning inferno.

He first went to where they'd all been sitting and found only rubbles of the table. He tried to see through the smoke and fire and heard some one moaning in the other end of the room.

He quickly dashed over to the person and saw that it was none other than Professor Trelawney!

There was a large splinter coming out of the center of her chest.

"Professor!!" Harry exclaimed.

"Harry? Help me...I..." she started saying but suddenly started convulsing violently.

Harry tried to hold her still but as soon as he touched her she stopped.

Her eyes were rolled back in her head.

"The Forgetful and the Male female will work in unison with the Scarred and the Dragon. There will be blood and fire and tears and fur, when the Snake will die in it's own lair," she said in one final breath.

Then she died.

Harry was both confused and torn up.

He knew there was nothing he could do for her now so he continued searching for Brian.

He saw the burnt body of a sixth-year Hufflepuff still burning on the floor.

He put out the fire with his wand and moved towards the other end of the room.

Then he saw a pair of legs without a body behind the bar and almost threw up.

The smell in there was horrible and Harry tried to cover his nose but to no good.

"Harry. I'm here."

Harry spun around and saw Brian lying on the toilet floor, bleeding heavily.

"Brian!!" Harry ran to him. He tore his clothes off and put a binding spell on the huge gash in his stomach.

"It'll be all right!" he said.

"No...A binding spell is to no good...if there is no blood...left in the body," Brian said.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm dying, Harry. But..." Brian started saying, but went still in Harry's arms.

"Brian?" Harry said and shook him.

But he was already dead.

In the disarray that followed with teachers and other people helping the injured, Neville overheard two, of the seven, Aurors talking about what had happened when the other Aurors were looking over the pub in search of evidence or clues of who had done this.

"This has Death Eater written all over it, hasn't it Argyle?" one of them said. He was short and slim and his Auror uniform was well groomed and seemed to not have been in that much action, Neville thought.

The other one, Argyle, was tall and muscular and had a long red beard tied up in two knots. His uniform however, was well worn and the leather was cracked in several places.

He must be an experienced Auror, Neville thought.

"Indeed. But was it on Lucius Malfoy's orders or was it on Pettigrew's?" Argyle replied.

Neville was shocked! They knew that Peter Pettigrew was still alive!!

Then they must know that Sirius Black had nothing to do with the murder of Lily and James Potter, don't they?

So why hasn't Sirius been cleared yet?

I have to tell the others about this, Neville thought.

He looked around and saw Ron lying on his stomach getting the splinter removed from his shoulder.

Hermione was sitting by his side, stroking his hand, crying.

Harry was sitting next to Cho with soot all over him, talking to an Auror.

Neville himself was still tending to Dudleys burned back, waiting for Madame Pomfrey to finish with Ron's shoulder.

Then he remembered Joey Jackson, the target.

He couldn't see him anywhere.

Neville got up and walked around the wounded looking for him.

He saw another Slytherin, a girl he recognised as Joey's friend.

"Where is Joey?" Neville asked her, without introduction.

She looked at him from top to bottom.

She'd been crying.

"He was trying to get out through the front door when it exploded. He's dead," she said and started crying again.

Neville held her and tried to comfort her.

He's dead, he thought. Then I don't have to kill him and that's good.

He just heard himself think that and felt awful that he was glad over such a thing.

Someone will pay, he thought.

Someone will pay.

----to be continued in part 13 "Conspiracy Theory"-----