Fronti Nula Fides

Fronti Nula Fides

Lavender stared intently at the couple.

"I honestly don't know what they see in each other. They have nothing in common!"

Ginny followed her gaze to Neville and Pansy, sitting at one of the library's tables, sharing a book.

"I think it's sweet. It's awfully romantic. That whole 'defying conventions for true love' thing." She sighed dreamily.

Lavender snorted.

"True love! With a Slytherin? And Neville isn't looking exactly 'in love' right now, is he?"

Ginny frowned.

"You're right. He looks... sad."

Hermione waved her hand impatiently at them. "Can't you two be quiet? This is a library. I come here to study and all I hear is the two of you commenting on Neville's love life! And of course he's sad! Haven't you heard? It seems his father is worse."

Lavender and Ginny were worried.

"Worse?" Lavender asked. "What do you mean worse?"

Hermione sighed in frustration.

"I don't know, Lavender! Just worse. Now, if you'll excuse me?"

Neville did seem down. Pansy was obviously trying to cheer him up.

Trevor was oblivious to all this, too busy inflating and deflating his chin pouch, lost in his little toad's world.

*

"Parvati!" Lavender ran after her friend. "Wait up!"

Weaving her way through one of Hogwarts' corridors she finally reached Parvati.

"Come on, Lavender! We're late for Divination!" Parvati admonished her, even though she didn't seem in too much of a hurry while staring at 7^th year Hufflepuff Julian Walsh.

Lavender smiled and pulled her friend towards the North Tower.

As they climbed the stairs, they couldn't help but regret for the umpteenth time that the Divination classroom was so high up. If it were any other class they probably wouldn't bother to go.

The trapdoor opened and they climbed the silver ladder into the classroom.

"We're so sorry we're late_" Parvati started.

"No need for excuses, my dear," Trelawney said, holding her hand up. "I already knew you'd be late. I had foreseen it. Please, take your seats." She gestured towards two poufs.

"Today," Trelawney declared in a mystical whisper, "we'll be studying cards."

"Wicked! I love Exploding Snap!" Dean Thomas exclaimed.

"No, dear," Trelawney shook her head. "We'll be studying tarot cards. As I already knew you'd be disappointed I had decided to choose you to go first," she smiled, "so as to cheer you up!"

"How's that supposed to cheer me up?" Dean mumbled under his breath, while shooting Seamus a dirty look, as he was trying to smother his laughter.

Trelawney, who hadn't heard a thing - or pretended so - went on. "Tarot reading is a very complex field of Divination, but we won't be going into much detail today. I want each of you to choose a card, tell the rest of class which card you got and then we'll all interpret its meaning."

Dean appeared bored.

Seamus, Harry and Ron were all huddling up together.

"I bet he'll get The Fool!" Ron winked at his friends. They all attempted to stop laughing.

Dean sighed and reached for a card out of Trelawney's deck.

He turned it to himself. Lavender and Parvati leaned forward, excited.

"The Tower," Dean said, relieved.

"Interesting, interesting," Trelawney said while stroking her chin. She turned to the rest of the students. "Why do you think he got that card?"

"Because he's in a tower?" Harry pointed out the obvious.

Parvati and Lavender looked at him, annoyed.

Lavender put her hand up. "Professor!"

"Yes, dear?"

"Is it because he's not enlightened in Divination?"

Trelawney's eyes sparkled behind its lenses. Or perhaps her specs had caught a reflection of crimson light.

"Very good!"

Lavender beamed.

"This card is symbolic of the jolt of actual understanding. You see the lightning is the opposite of an enlightened one. We can understand that Dean's conscious and subconscious are knocked from the top of the tower by the light of true knowledge!" Trelawney explained.

Lavender and Parvati nodded, marvelled.

Dean and his friends looked lost.

"What does that mean?" Dean asked. "That if I study too much I'll fall off a tower?"

"No danger of that happening!" Seamus laughed.

"No, no, dear. Listen, why don't you go back to your seat and read about it until you understand?" Trelawney pushed him towards his chair.

"No way!" Dean shook his head vehemently. "I'm not going to study anything. I might be struck by the lightning of enlightenment," he declared, seriously.

Trelawney gave up. "Yes, yes, dear. Just go back to your seat, then."

She looked around the room. "I will let Fate give me a sign as to whom I should choose to go next."

Harry, Ron, Seamus and Dean collectively rolled their eyes.

Parvati leaned forward so much on the pouf that she fell.

"Ah!" Trelawney declared. "The Fates are hard at work today!"

Parvati quickly got up and practically ran over to the deck.

She pulled a card. Everyone waited for her to turn it around, but half a minute later she still hadn't done it.

"Dear?" Trealawney asked.

"I'm so nervous!" Parvati shook. "It's so scary to hold the future in your hands, to know it in advance!"

Trelawney nodded gravely. "Now you know how I feel every day."

Parvati looked at her with wonder and respect shining in her eyes.

"But," Trelawney went on, "it's a responsibility you, among all, will bear well. I have foreseen it!"

With this said, Parvati gained the courage she needed and turned the card over.

"The Star!" She announced as if it were something of great importance.

"Do you know what that mea_" Trelawney started to ask the rest of the students, but Parvati beat her to the explanation.

"The Star represents the gathering of knowledge. It means that all will be revealed if I search in the right places."

"Exactly!" Trelawney looked proud. "I already knew you'd know it!"

Parvati put the card back in the deck and went to her seat.

"I've come to know that Lavender will be next!" Trelawney announced, motioning for Lavender to come and pick a card, her bracelets rattling irritatingly.

Lavender quickly pulled a card out of the deck and turned it over to herself.

She gasped.

"I know, dear, I know." Trelawney comforted her while trying to peak at her card.

"I got The Star too!" Lavender said, wide eyed.

"It seems the two of you have a mission to seek the truth." Trelawney told her.

With this grave responsibility on her shoulders, Lavender made her way to the pouf next to Parvati's.

"Now, who will find his future next?" Trelawney asked. She then paused, astounded. "I said 'his'! I'm unconsciously choosing the next one!" She looked around the room. Ron, Harry and Seamus attempted to hide behind Dean, who was calm because he had already done it.

She finally noticed Neville, sitting in a lone pouf, for once away from his friends. He seemed down.

"It will be..." She paused dramatically. "Neville!"

Neville looked even sadder, if possible. He nonetheless made his way towards Trelawney.

"I know that your father is not too well, dear," she told him. Neville looked scared.

"Doesn't everyone know that?" Dean asked.

Trelawney ignored him. "Choose a card, dear. Maybe it'll give you some good news."

Neville fearfully reached for a card.

He turned it to himself and stuttered it to the rest of the students.

"Th_th_the Hanged M_ M_ Man."

Parvati and Lavender gasped in horror.

Neville looked positively green.

"Now, now, settle down." Trelawney gestured, her bracelets clashing against each other. "It is not a bad omen."

Lavender and Parvati sighed in relief.

Trelawney proceeded to explain. "The Hanged Man represents reversal of view. The significance of this card is that everything is not as it appears to be on the surface. The man is hanging but is in perfect control. He sees all the others with their problems and the error of their ways and yet they look at him as though he is upside down, when, in fact, he has perfect vision."

Neville didn't seem at all relieved.

"It's a most puzzling card, dear." Trelawney looked pensive.

Lavender elbowed Parvati.

"There's our mission!"

"What?" Parvati looked confused.

"Our mission!" Lavender insisted. "To unravel the truth!"

"You're right!" Parvati agreed.

"And next..." Trelawney went on with her class. "Harry Potter!"

Harry reached for a card.

He shook his head. "It figures."

Trelawney took it from his hands and showed it for all to see.

"Death!" she whispered ominously.

*

In the Great Hall Parvati and Lavender excitedly argued Divinations class and their 'mission'.

"But what will we do?" Parvati asked.

Lavender considered her question. "We will follow him around!"

Parvati clapped at her ingenious friend.

She then stopped abruptly. "How is that going to help?"

Lavender shrugged. "Well, it's all I can think of."

Parvati shrugged too and they started eating, occasionally arguing with Seamus and Dean who were making fun of the day's Divination class.

"And then," Seamus said between laughs, "she told Nicole that it meant that when she met true light, the dark clouds would clear off her heart!"

Dean picked up where his friend left. "And then Chris, her boyfriend, got up," he paused to laugh breathlessly, "and yelled, 'Are you calling me a cloud?'"

The whole Gryffindor table laughed.

Lavender got up and pulled her friend to her feet. "Let's go, Parvati! We don't need to be near these unenlightened ones!"

Parvati haughtily agreed and both made their way out of the Great Hall.

Padma saw her sister getting up and joined her.

"What is going on?"

Parvati shook her head importantly. "I wish I could tell you, Padma, but this burden is mine and Lavender's to bear!" They went out of the great Hall with Lavender in tow, leaving a befuddled Padma behind.

Suddenly Lavender gasped.

Parvati looked around wildly. "What? What?"

"Shhh!" Lavender ordered her. She then pointed at Neville and Pansy making their way to the Slytherin Common Room.

Parvati silently agreed with Lavender and they both started following the couple.

Neville and Pansy reached a blank stonewall in the Dungeons and stopped.

"Oh, no!" Lavender muttered. "I hope they're not going to start snogging now!"

Parvati looked on uncomprehendingly. "How could he even think of snogging after pulling such a card out of the deck?"

Lavender shrugged. "Boys."

To their amazement they did not, as they feared, start snogging. Pansy turned to face the wall.

"Sit pro ratione voluntas," she said. A hidden door opened itself.

"So this is where it is!" Parvati whispered to Lavender.

"Sit pro ratione voluntas! 'Let my will take the place of reason.' How Slytherin!" Lavender whispered back.

"Tonight, too?" Pansy asked him.

"Yes," he answered. There was something different about Neville. He seemed more confident.

"If I hear something else, how will I tell you?"

Neville brushed her cheek with the back of his fingers.

He smiled. "Then you'll wait until everyone's asleep and go tell me in Gryffindor Tower."

"What's the password?" Pansy asked.

"Ad Gloriam."

"'For glory?'" she smirked. "How Gryffindor!"

"Hey!" Lavender whispered angrily. "She stole my line!"

"Shhh!" Parvati warned her. "They'll hear us!"

"Goodnight, dearest." Neville kissed Pansy.

"Ooh! Smooth!" Parvati and Lavender cooed.

"Goodnight, Neville," Pansy smiled.

As soon as they broke apart Parvati began to follow Neville only to be violently pulled back by Lavender.

"Have you gone bonkers?" Lavender asked her. "We know he'll be going to our Common Room. Give him a bit of an advance!"

"You're right, you're right." Parvati nodded.

After a few minutes, they both ran quickly to Gryffindor Tower.

They breathlessly told the password to the Fat Lady and entered the Common Room, searching for Neville.

He wasn't there!

Lavender signalled for Parvati to wait.

She went to Dean, who was playing Exploding Snap with Seamus.

Lavender cleared her throat. "Dean?"

He didn't even look up from the game. "Yeah?"

"Have you seen Neville?"

Seamus interrupted, suspicious, "Why are you asking for Neville?"

"Oh," she giggled, "no reason!"

Dean and Seamus stopped their game and looked at her disbelievingly.

"I cannot believe this!" Dean said, disgusted.

"What?" Lavender was getting nervous.

Seamus shared a look with Dean. "Figures. It's always the same."

By now Lavender was getting really nervous. "What?"

Dean put down his cards. "This is our 6^th year, Lavender. In the whole time I've known you, not even once did you seem interested in Neville."

"So?" She was getting annoyed.

"This is so typical!" Seamus shook his head. "I'm telling you, Dean, I really don't get it."

"What?" She kicked the floor in frustration.

Dean sighed. "You've never even cared if Neville was alive or dead until he started going out with that pug-faced Slytherin." He returned to Seamus: "I swear, they always do this. Even if they don't know the bloke. I think they can smell it."

"Look, Dean," Lavender crossed her arms, "I really don't know what you're getting at!"

"It's simple, love, the moment a bloke is spoken for, all the other girls suddenly realize he's the one for them."

Lavender was appalled. "How dare you, Dean Thomas?!" Her cheeks were splotched red. She was so angry she just went straight to the girl's dormitories.

Parvati just stared perplexedly.

Seeing as things hadn't gone well with Dean she decided to ask Seamus.

"Look, Seamus, have you seen Neville?"

Dean threw his cards down to the table again. "See? What did I tell you?"

Parvati gave up and followed her friend.

Lavender was sitting on her bed.

Thankfully Hermione wasn't there. She must be out with Harry and Ron. Again.

Nicole was probably arguing with "Cloudy" as everyone now called him and Alegra was most certainly snogging her Ravenclaw boyfriend.

"What was that about?" Parvati stupidly asked.

"That was about Dean being a complete idiot!" Lavender punched a pillow.

Parvati chose to be silent.

"If I didn't fancy him, I swear_" Lavender kept punching the poor pillow.

Parvati patted her shoulder.

Suddenly Lavender stood upright.

"Wasn't Neville acting strange?"

Parvati, glad for the change of subject, was quick to agree. "Very. I mean, he was all smooth and... and... confident... and_"

"Not like Neville at all," Lavender finished for her.

They thought about it for a few moments.

"Well," Lavender admitted, "I guess she is good for him."

"Yeah."

They both shrugged.

"Ah, let's go to bed! I'm tired!" Parvati complained.

They got into bed but kept the lights on. It was still early.

"It's just...why did she have to be a Slytherin?" Lavender asked.

Parvati laughed. "I think we're both proof of how hard it is to get Gryffindors to know that we fancy them!"

They started talking about Dean and Seamus, completely forgetting about Neville and Pansy.

*

"Lavender! Parvati!" Alegra shook them roughly.

"What? What?" That was not the way to wake up someone, they thought.

"There has been an attack in Hogsmeade!" Alegra told them.

"What?!" they repeated.

"During the night! Death Eaters. That's what everyone is saying."

They got dressed and exited to the Common Room.

Harry was arguing with Hermione and Ron.

"No! You don't understand! I heard him! Snape said he knew nothing of it!"

Ron shrugged impatiently. "That's because the disgusting git is probably lying!"

"Or maybe," Hermione chimed in, "they've found out who he is! I mean it's the fifth time that he doesn't_"

"What did Snape know?" Lavender asked them.

The three of them jumped, startled.

"Nothing! Mind your own business!" Ron started pushing Hermione and Harry towards the portrait.

Ginny, who was sitting in a squishy armchair, looked very nervous. Colin and Dennis were at her side.

Parvati asked them first. "What happened?"

Colin, who looked a bit nervous himself, answered, "Death Eaters. They attacked in Hogsmeade. Again. It's the fifth attack. Now they even attack wizards."

Dennis piped in with, "Kevin Whitby, from Hufflepuff, is talking with Sprout now. His parents were murdered. They had a shop in Hogsmeade."

Parvati's hands covered her mouth to smother a horrified scream. Lavender's hands flew to her heart.

Ginny was silently crying.

"That is awful!" Lavender cried. She shook her head, trying to understand what had happened. She suddenly noticed something. "Where's Neville?"

Ginny wiped her tears. "He's visiting his father," she said between sobs, "he's worse."

Parvati and Lavender looked at each other.

*

At breakfast the atmosphere was far from cheerful.

Remembering Harry's words, Lavender looked at Snape. He was currently arguing with Dumbledore. Weird.

Minerva looked as upset as all the staff members. Professor Sprout was nowhere to be seen. She was probably still talking to Whitby.

"Can you imagine what poor Kevin must be going through?" Parvati commented while she nibbled her toast.

"No." Lavender paused to think. "Parvati, what do you think Pansy meant when she told Neville about hearing something else?"

"I don't know," Parvati answered with her mouth full, "probably talking about the Slytherins making fun of her, for being with him."

"I guess," Lavender agreed.

The Slytherin table was uncommonly glum for what was to be expected after a Death Eater attack. Draco Malfoy looked frustrated. He kept repeating, "My father always tells me!" over and over again, while he argued with the other Slytherins.

Pansy kept looking at Dumbledore and Snape. Definitely weird.

Neville came back during Ancient Runes class. He looked even sadder.

"Oi! Neville!" Dean whispered loudly.

Neville turned sideways to look at him. "What?"

"How are your parents?"

"My mum's... the same. But my dad's worse."

"What do you mean worse?" Seamus asked him.

Neville turned right in his seat. "Just worse."

Parvati poked Lavender. "We'll follow him today too."

Lavender nodded her agreement.

Neville was harder to follow than they thought. Before, when they didn't care where he was, they seemed to find him everywhere they went. He and that pug-faced girlfriend of his seemed to disappear in thin air.

"Well I guess now we know one of the advantages of dating a Slytherin!" Lavender huffed in frustration.

"Yeah," Parvati leaned against the wall, "there's no way Neville could disappear so well on his own."

"We're just not looking in the right places!" Lavender started pacing. "I know!"

"What?"

"Let's go to Professor Trelawney for advice!" Lavender exclaimed.

"Brilliant!" Parvati clapped.

*

"Terrible! Terrible!" Trelawney said while pouring them some tea. "I had warned Albus that it wouldn't stop at the first one, but did he listen?"

Lavender and Parvati both looked equally appalled.

"It must be such a burden, professor!" Lavender couldn't help saying. "You must feel like Cassandra felt!"

"Worse, my dear! Worse!" Trelawney waved her hand, bracelets rattling. "Because here all know that I'm a Seer. And they still disregard my warnings!"

"How awful!" Parvati said, between sipping her tea.

"Indeed." Trelawney placed her hand on her forehead, above her enormous specs.

"Oh! How horrid!" Parvati yelled, staring at the bottom of her teacup.

"Let me see dear!" Trelawney urgently reached for the cup.

"Oh, this is not good!" Trelawney looked into the cup.

"What is it?" Lavender asked.

"It's a dagger!" Trelawney declared. "See here, dear?" She motioned for Parvati to get closer. "There's a difference in the hilt between a knife and a dagger. A dagger warns us of hidden danger. It tells us to beware of what seems to be too good to be true."

Parvati gasped. "What a terrible omen!"

Lavender was trying to drink her tea as quickly as possible. Trelawney didn't even give her time to look herself. She took the cup from her hands right away.

Trelawney yelled in fright and disbelief.

"It can't be! It can't be! Look, my dear, look!"

Lavender took the cup from her and was so scared that she dropped it and broke it.

"What was it?" Parvati asked, scared.

"It was a... Cap." Lavender whispered, terrified.

Trelawney was nervously looking at her own cup. Seemingly afraid to drink it.

"As we all know," she said, " a Cap means a calamity will occur." She finally gained courage and drank her tea. She looked at the bottom of the cup and half choked a scream.

"A knife! It means broken ties! I will lose a dear friendship!"

She stood up. "If you'll excuse me, dears, you know how I abhor setting foot out of my tower but - this is too grave! I'll have to go and speak with Albus!"

Lavender and Parvati were horror-struck.

"Will he take it to heart?" Parvati managed to ask.

Trelawney paused. "Not likely. But you understand, dear, it is my duty to warn, even if no one takes heed to my warnings."

*

At dinner, the horrid predictions were all Parvati and Lavender could talk about.

"For Merlin's sake!" Seamus told them. "It's bad enough that we have to go there during class! Why would you go when you don't have to?"

"Yeah!" Dean agreed. "And, honestly, when was the last time she made a correct prediction?"

Lavender and Parvati were so scared that they didn't even bother to argue with them.

Even when everyone went to bed they both stayed in the Common Room, arguing all the possible ways the predictions would take form in the physical world.

"Not even Harry gets such ill-fated predictions!" Lavender insisted. "We truly are in trouble. Oh, I hate to be here in the dark! Why can't we have some light?"

"Don't be a chicken! We're Gryffindors! Don't tell me you're afraid of the dark! What you need to concern yourself with is-" Parvati repeated what she had been saying since they'd left Trelawney- "that we don't even know how it will happen!"

Suddenly they heard the door to Dean and Seamus' room open.

"It's probably Harry and Ron, preparing to join Hermione to save the wizarding world - again." Parvati rolled her eyes.

"But what if it's Dean or Seamus?" Lavender asked. "I don't want to have to hear them making fun of such serious things!"

"You're right," Parvati seemed to consider her friend's words. "I know! Let's hide behind the larger armchair. Whoever it is won't know we're here, and will leave us alone again."

Lavender was about to congratulate her on her brilliance but didn't get to do it because she had to dive behind the armchair to avoid being seen.

In the darkness of the Common Room they could barely make out Neville's silhouette as he left through the portrait hole.

As soon as he left, Parvati turned to Lavender. "Where could he be going?"

Lavender smiled for the first time since their tea. "You know what we should do?"

"What?"

"We should follow him again!"

Parvati giggled. "Are you mad? In the middle of the night?"

"Now who's afraid of the dark?" Lavender asked while she playfully made spooky hand gestures not unlike those Trelawney used in class.

Parvati was serious again. "I don't know. With all we have to worry about, it seems stupid to be following Neville to one of his snog sessions with the Slytherin."

"Exactly!" Lavender exclaimed. "The disgust we'll feel will certainly take our minds off of the predictions!"

Parvati thought her friend was right and both the girls made their way out of the portrait, attempting to guess which way Neville had gone.

They went down the stairs to the sixth floor. There was light in one of the rooms.

They hid behind a suit of armour at the door.

They peaked inside. Neville was just getting in.

"Ah! Here he is! My boy!"

It was Frank Longbottom!

Lavender and Parvati, surprised, leaned a little too heavily on the suit of armour decorating the entrance. It made noise, but did not fall.

Dumbledore reached the door.

"Ms. Patil and Ms. Brown! I have to say I'm surprised. Please, why don't you join us too?"

Parvati and Lavender were too afraid to speak. So this was the calamity! They'd both be expelled! Professor Trelawney would lose a friendship because both of them would be leaving!

"Decided to bring an audience to your final, Dumbledore?" Frank Longbottom asked.

Dumbledore smiled amicably. One would think they were long time friends if it weren't for the wands Frank and Neville Longbottom were pointing at him.

"I thought they were with you, Frank. After all I wouldn't find it strange after such... unexpected revelations," he said, looking at Neville.

Parvati looked at the corner of the room, where Neville's mother stared vacantly. Unlike Frank, she didn't seem to have been miraculously cured.

"Ah, let them watch! What difference does it make anyway?" Frank asked.

"Neville?" Lavender asked him. "What's happening?"

"Shut up, Brown!" he answered her.

Frank Longbottom started circling Dumbledore, his wand unwavering. "Albus, Albus, Albus. What it cost me to get here! All those years pretending I was nutters!"

"Your wife pretends very well," Dumbledore commented casually.

"Anne?" Frank asked, moving closer to his wife. "Neville, my boy, close the door, will you? Be a good lad. Anne here," he put a hand over his wife's shoulder, "is not pretending. I had to have a good cover. What was I going to do, huh?"

"So you let them turn her insane?" Dumbledore asked him.

Frank laughed heartily. "Well, everything comes with a price, like I always say to my son." He looked fondly at Neville. "Although it gets a tad hard to pass on this paternal wisdom with my mother always around and me having to pretend to be mad."

"Fiona is quite a perceptive woman," Dumbledore agreed.

"Yes," Frank nodded. "My mother is quite sharp. Not sharp enough to find out, it seems. But I am good. After all, one doesn't work for The Dark Lord otherwise."

Parvati and Lavender gasped in fright.

Frank went on. "I just didn't think it would take so long, you know, Albus? Among the nutters, hearing their demented screams every night, trying to make up a pattern in their misery, searching for clues. One thing I could always be sure, madmen do not lie. And the Dark Lord accepts no competition, especially from a has-been like you, Albus. Or should I say Grindelwald?"

Parvati and Lavender stared, gaping at Frank. He was mad after all!

"Nice trick that was, Albus, nice trick. 'Oh, the great me! I defeated the Dark Wizard Grindelwald all by myself!'" Frank laughed, truly delighted. "Exactly! All by yourself. No witnesses! And why? Because you were Grindelwald. Times were getting rough, so what best then to lay low for a while, gain some power by other means, wait for better days. I bet my Master, the true Dark Lord kind of spoiled your plans a bit, didn't he?"

Dumbledore smiled too.

"And here am I, according to my story, freshly cured. I suddenly realized the danger I was under and took my dear wife from St. Mungos and fled through the night. Where to? To Hogwarts, of course, where I came to tell you that Grindelwald was not actually dead."

Frank paused to let the audience enjoy the moment.

"That's when the unimaginable happened. You revealed who you truly were and killed my beloved wife. AVADA KEDAVRA!" He pointed the wand at Anne Longbottom. A bright green light filled the room and Anne fell dead.

Neville didn't even blink.

Parvati and Lavender were too scared to make a sound.

Dumbledore clapped. "Bravo, Frank! Bravo!"

Frank did a little mock of a bow. "Leaving me with no other choice but to kill you."

He lifted his wand a bit and pointed in Dumbledore's direction.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

Frank fell to the ground.

Even Dumbledore was amazed at the turn of events.

Neville looked quite pleased with himself. Redirecting his wand from his father to Dumbledore again, he picked up the story where his father left.

"Unfortunately you were too quick," he said, voice firm, staring at Dumbledore. "My poor father had spent many years locked up in St. Mungo's. His duelling abilities weren't what they used to be. I his son, beside myself with rage, avenged my parents' deaths. AVADA KEDAVRA!"

Dumbledore swiftly joined Anne and Frank Longbottom on the floor.

Neville turned to Parvati and Lavender, who cowered in fear.

"To my great sadness I arrived too late to prevent him from killing my two good Gryffindor friends, who just happened to be passing by - AVADA KEDAVRA!"

A sickly flash of green and Lavender was no more.

Neville paused, clearly amused at Parvati's vacant expression. The girl was in shock.

"Come to think of it, I heroically managed to save one, even though she had already been cruelly tortured.

"CRUCIO!"

*

The wizarding world was in mourning. Such horrible tragedy could not have been fathomed.

"Where is Padma?" Hermione asked Lisa Turpin, between sobs.

"She's in St. Mungo's with her parents. It seems Parvati is there to stay," Lisa answered, wiping away tears.

Dean and Seamus were nowhere to be seen. Apparently, McGonagall had sent them home to their parents. In a time like this it would be best for them to be close to their families.

"Is Neville still in the Hospital Wing?" Ginny sobbed in Ron's arms.

"Yes," Ron answered, "Parkinson is there with him."

"Good," Ginny whispered reassuringly, between tears, "he should be with someone he loves."

*

Neville was lying in the Hospital bed, Pansy snuggled at his side.

"Am I correct to assume that all went as planned?" Pansy lazily asked him.

"Of course, my love. Of course," Neville told her. "Now we only have to get rid of Voldemort."

"That will be easy!" Pansy giggled in his arms.

"Without a doubt, my love!"

He smiled at her.