Maybe I shouldn’t wait until the reunion to talk to Harry, or someone who knows something, thought Neville. He was starting to get a panicky. Breathe in, and then out, he kept telling himself.
“Luna!” he called, since she had just left the room to go eat breakfast.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” she called back.
He heard footsteps as she ran up the stairs.
“What’s wrong?” she repeated.
He then went into explaining his horrible thought. She listened attentively. Then she left the room, headed toward the closet in the hallway. She came back a second later with a large bulletin board. On it were so many newspaper articles that they hid the original black color of the board. One article read “Malfoy caught and jailed” another “Avery sent to Azkaban” and yet another read “Five Death Eaters sent to Azkaban after Thursdays trail”. These were all articles about captured or killed Death Eaters. Not one was about Bellatrix.
Then Luna turned the bulletin board around. That side was all about Bellatrix. “Bellitrix still out there” “No new information on Lestrange” and “Bellatrix Lestrange: The only Death Eater they can’t find” were some of the headlines.
Luna had been keeping note of everything, as Neville just then found out.
“Bellatrix is the only one still out there,” Luna said softly.
Sadly, that didn’t make Neville feel to much better.
“It’s ok, honey. The reunion is in a week and then we can talk to Harry and the others,” Luna said reassuringly.
Neville was still on edge. He decided he may as well just go to work today and see what he found out. He worked at the Misuse of Magical Plants office at the Ministry. He told Luna what he was going to do and with a sharp crack Apparated to the Ministry.
He reappeared at the Ministry Apparation station. Everyday when he came to work he was reminded of that night in the fifth year. The night of the prophecy. To this day he still didn’t know what the prophecy was about, though he knew it had to do with Harry and Voldemort. Everyone knew that, though.
As he headed for his office he noticed a difference in people. They didn’t seem so uptight… so twitchy……. so…. scared. They weren’t looking over their shoulders every two seconds to make sure nothing was looming over them with a wand at their throat. They seemed happy. People were talking to each other higher than a whisper. Life seemed normal. To them. Not to Neville.
He walked into the office he shared with another Misuse of Magical Plants employee named Willis Creevy. Willis was the cousin of the Creevy brothers at Hogwarts. He looked like them, he acted like them, and he talked like them. It was very obvious they were related. So, as soon as Neville entered the room, Willis started talking excitedly.
“Did you read the Daily Prophet? Did you hear about him? Didn’t you say you knew Harry Potter? Could you get me………,” Willis went on and on, seemingly without taking a breath.
“Yes, yes, yes, and no I cannot get you his autograph!” What was it with the Creevys and autographs?
“So…..have you heard anymore new news?” Neville inquired.
“Sorry, mate. I haven’t heard anything new about Bellatrix. You could go down to the Aurors office…” Willis’ voice trailed off.
“They get annoyed if a go down there to often. They don’t understand,” Neville said. No one understands, he thought.
For the rest of the day Neville focused all of his brain power on his work so he didn’t have to think about Bellatrix. It seemed like no one else in the entire Ministry was working besides him, but he didn’t care. He kept reading reports of misused magical plants that got into the hands of Muggles and then Apparating to go fix them. There was an instance where some gilly weed got mixed in with some of the herbs at a restaurant and were cooked into some grilled chicken. The man to whom the chicken was served developed a different mutation than if he had eaten the plant raw. He had gills form on his neck, but he could still breathe. Neville had to get the man rushed to St. Mungo’s, place a memory charm on the other customers and staff so they wouldn’t remember anything, and make sure there was no more gilly weed remaining at the restaurant. All in a days work. The gilly weed incident took most of the day to sort out, so by the time he was finished with it he could go home.
Instead of going strait home he decided to go to St. Mungo’s to visit his parents. When he saw them they didn’t recognize him. Even though he visited them at least once a week they still didn’t know who he was. After being tortured they couldn’t remember anything for more than a few minutes. Nonetheless he went up to them, said hello, and told them the news, leaving out the part about Bellatrix. After a while his mother fell asleep and he decided to go home.
He left with his mind full. I need to find Bellatrix, he thought, now filled with an anger and hatred he only felt after visiting his parents. I need to find her and get back at her for ruining my parents lives and the lives of so many others. For ruining my life! For stealing my parents from me! I need to kill Bellatrix!