Neville's Triumph by hufflepuffgal
Chapter Notes: Please review! I'd love to get feedback!
A chilling laugh echoed all around him. Anger and hatred had possessed him. He wanted to scream but nothing came out. He couldn’t take it anymore! He couldn’t handle the pain for any longer. Not again………not again…....
Neville woke up soaking with a cold sweat. His heart was racing and he was breathing rapidly. It took him a second to realize where he was and for the reality to set in. It was just a dream, just another terrible nightmare. The sight of his wife, Luna, sleeping peacefully beside him calmed him down a little. A little, but not enough.
This was not uncommon. Neville had nightmares like this often. He dreamt of Bellatrix torturing his parents to insanity, and then of her coming back and delivering the same gruesome fate to him. During the day he could keep these awful thoughts out of his mind, but at night they slipped in to haunt him.
Neville, now as calm as he could possibly be (that is, a nervous wreck), looked over at the clock on his bed stand. It was five a.m. exactly. He’d have to get up in an hour anyway, and considering how unlikely it was for him to fall back asleep, he decided to wake up now.
He crawled out of bed quietly, so not to wake Luna, and headed downstairs toward the kitchen. He started to brew two cups of coffee. He looked out the window. One good thing about waking up early was that he got to see the sun rise and shine light over all the beautiful plants. Plants, Neville’s natural talent, his area of expertise. He also got to see his owl fly in carrying the newspapers, the Daily Prophet, the Quibbler, and the Scribbler, the newspaper Luna founded, edited, and wrote for.
As his owl, Peppercorn, flew into view he seemed excited. And the closer he got the more excited he seemed. Why is Peppercorn so happy, thought Neville, I’ve never seen him like this before.
Peppercorn flew in the window and as soon as he put down the newspapers he knew exactly what the excitement was about. The headline of the daily prophet read:
“He who must not be named silenced forever.”
Neville’s heart literally skipped a beat, maybe even two. He could not believe his eyes, finally the day had come when people could finally sleep easy, not worrying about who would be dead when they woke up the next morning. They wouldn’t have to obsess over everything that had to do with their safety. He and Luna could go on the honeymoon they never had because they were to afraid to travel. Life could finally return to normal, whatever that was.
Neville read the article that went along with the headline:
“Yesterday evening, at Godrics Hollow a life-changing battle happened. It was one on one between Harry Potter and You Know Who. No others were there, but we have gathered accurate information by use of charms and spells. We have come to the find out miraculous news: Harry Potter has killed Voldemort! The most evil wizard of all time is dead!”
On the top of the paper Neville saw “In tomorrow’s issue: An interview with Harry Potter, by Rita Skeeter.” It somewhat surprised Neville that Harry was already giving interviews, actually it surprised him he was going to give interviews at all. This seemed a little different than the Harry he knew.
After he finished reading he looked up and was surprised to see another owl headed toward the window. When it got there he detached a letter which read:
You are cordially invited back to Hogwart for your five year class reunion.
Day: July 17th
Time: 4 pm to 12 pm
Where: the Great Hall, Hogwarts
Please circle one of the following and send this part of the form back to Hogwarts with the owl that brought it. Sincerely, Professor McGonagall, headmistress
Yes I will be attending
Yes I will be attending with my spouse/fiancé (that wasn’t in my year at Hogwarts)
No I will not be attending
Wow, Neville thought, this is a lot of information for one day. He then circled ‘Yes I will be attending with my spouse/fiancé (that wasn’t in my year at Hogwarts)’ attached it to the owl’s claw and watched it fly away into the horizon. Then he went upstairs to wake Luna and tell her all the good news.
When he got up there it was only 5:45. Luna could be grumpy in the morning, but he decided it was worth it to wake her up.
“Good morning, sleepy head,” he said.
“What time is it,” she answered sleepily.
“Uh…. Guess what?” Neville replied trying to change the subject. “Read this!”
She read it as Neville watched her. Her jaw started to drop and as she neared the end of the article her eyes lit up
“This is great! This is amazing! This calls for a celebration! We should call in and take today off work! Now we can take our belated honeymoon! You know what else! I should interview Harry for the Scribbler!”
“Honey…. It says right here that there’s going to be an interview in the Daily Prophet tomorrow,” he said.
“That’s fine. There can be interviews in more than one news- wait a sec. Harry’s already giving interviews! He never seemed like one who loved publicity to me! The only times he gave interviews was when he was forced or when it was absolutely necessary! And Rita Skeeter is writing it! What is Harry thinking?” Luna was almost yelling by now.
“I don’t know, but you can ask him at the reunion,” Neville answered and then went on to explain more about it.
They kept talking for a while. Luna agreed that the reunion would be a good time to talk to Harry about the interview. Neville was about to Apparate to work and ask for the day off when a horrible thought struck him. What happened to the Death Eaters, the ones that are not locked up in Azkaban? Are they still out there? Where is Bellatrix?