Chapter 2 -- Below Hogwarts
“So,” Harry said, “They're after a wand.”
“That's what he said,” Neville answered, wincing. Upon arriving at Hogsmeade, he noticed his left middle finger missing. However, after an ingenious summoning charm from Harry, Madam Pomfrey was now in the process of reattaching it.
“But Ollivander's must have a million wands,” Harry retorted. “How would anyone know which to take, unless they knew where it was?
“I told you, Harry,” Neville said, frustrated. “After Ollivander was kidnapped, his shop was cleared out. And because they didn't find it last time, they're going to check again later tonight.”
“How much later?” Professor McGonagall said from behind him. Neville looked down to his right wrist.
“27 minutes from now,” he sighed.
“Well, then,” McGonagall said slowly. “I wonder if this really is something we should worry about.”
“Why not?” Harry asked immediately. McGonagall eyed him carefully as Madam Pomfrey made her way back to her desk.
“Well, Harry,” McGonagall began, soberly “what's the use of sending one or some of our allies to an empty shop, to look for something that might not even be there, which might even be nothing more then an ambush in the first place?” Harry said nothing.
“Well, they didn't see me,” Neville retorted. “So how could it be an ambush if they don't know we're coming? I mean, I get dragged out away from everything, I get chased by giants... Do you understand? They want something! Death Eaters want something that we have a chance to get first, and you won't let anyone go because it's too much of a risk? Then I'll go myself!”
“I'm sorry, Neville,” McGonagall said, “I truly am. You've been through enough today, and””
SLAM!
Neville's fist landed hard on his bedside table, startling Madam Pomfrey across the room. Feeling the sting creep up to his fingers, he opened his fist to drop his Merlin card upon the table.
“If it weren't for this damn card, I'd be in bed right now,” he said. “But if I know that they need something, that Death Eaters need something, I'm not going to let them get it.” He looked at the Evening Prophet lying on the sheets two beds away, Rufus Scrimgeour's picture across the front page. “Or I'm going to die trying.”
“Neville,” Harry said. Neville looked up. “Can you go as soon as possible?” McGonagall began to protest, but Neville stood.
“I can go now if you need me to,” he replied, bending the newly-attached finger on his left hand. He turned toward Professor McGonagall. “I'm sorry, Professor. I have to go.”
Neville took his cloak as Harry gave him his instructions upon his return. After that, he said his goodbyes and quickly walked toward the door. But before he could leave he heard his name being called out again.
“Neville,” McGonagall called. He turned to see her walking up to him. She put her hands on his shoulders, and in a maternal voice whispered, “Please don't go past the Leaky Cauldron.” After a moment, Neville nodded, and then continued onward.
Harry, still standing by Neville's bed wandered a few steps away toward the bed with the Evening Prophet. It was then that he saw the headline.
***
“Do not move,” a voice hissed from behind him. Neville felt a wand tip stuck into the back of his neck. “You'd do well to give me that, young man,” the voice said. “You have no idea what I've done to get it.”
“You have no idea what the hell I've been through,” Neville growled in response. “And you'd do well to lower your wand.”
“Not bloody likely,” the voice spat. “Now give it to me!”
He paused.
“Fine.
In a flash, he spun around and tossed the card toward his attacker. In his opponent's haste to catch it, Neville used his momentum to spin into an escape. The last thing Neville heard before he was shoved through the tight-fitting tube was a violent scream of frustration. That scream was quickly silenced, and before long, Neville found himself on his knees in the
“I am never going to get used to that,” he groaned.
Looking up, Neville found himself just outside the Hogwarts gates. Following Harry's instructions from earlier, he did not enter, but moved to the right along the stone wall bordering the grounds. After about fifty meters, Neville came to a large pile of rubble stacked along the wall, as if some Muggles had devised a poor plan to scale it. Moving in front of it, Neville recalled the incantation Harry told him before. He raised his wand.
“Attero!” he called out. Slowly, the rocks moved away to reveal a long tunnel that led straight into the wall. Taking a deep breath, Neville walked forward, the rocks moving back to their place once inside.
“Lumos!” he said quietly. He did not like small spaces. They always made him very nervous, and his chest would always tighten up as a result.
On the way down, he began to wonder why the Death Eaters would have wanted this wand. Sure, it was a founder's wand, so it had to have some magical power, but was there something more to it? Did it have special powers a normal wand wouldn't? Neville saw a light up ahead and canceled his lighting spell as he drew nearer.
“I hope he's alright,” he heard the voice of Hermione Granger say through a doorway at the top of a spiraling staircase. Slowly, he began to climb each stair as he listened intently. “You really think the wand might be a Horcrux, Harry?”
“It's the only lead we've got in a long time,” He heard the voice of Harry. “Not since the locket we found at headquarters.”
“Yeah, well I'll believe it when I see it,” he heard Ron Weasley say skeptically.
“But what if it is, Ron?”
“I know, Harry,” he heard Ron answer, “but what if it's just another trap, and you just sent Neville as... I dunno, bait.
“I think Harry deserves more credit than that,” Neville heard Hermione's voice say acidly. “And Neville, too.”
“You really think that Neville would stand a chance against two Death Eaters?” Ron retorted. Neville felt his chest burn.
“Yes, I do, Ronald.” Hermione spat
“Ron,” Harry said quickly, “when you take the Cruciatus Curse from Bellatrix LeStrange and are still standing to fight afterwards, then you can say who stands a chance against who.”
There was an awkward silence as the only sound Neville could have heard was the sound of his footsteps.
“I wish I didn't have to tell him,” He heard Harry break the silence. “You know, about his Gran.” Neville stopped in his tracks, his right foot a step higher than his left.
“Who else does he have?” He heard Hermione Granger ask. “He must have some other family around.”
“No, it was just his grandmother,” Harry said solemnly. Neville felt his stomach bottom out. Slowly, however, he found himself still moving up the stairs once more.
Neville was just outside the door now. He could see Hermione's back to him, her mane of bushy hair tied back in a barely controlled ponytail. In front of her, Neville saw as he entered the room, was Ron. His ears had turned a dark shade of red, and only grew redder as he saw Neville had returned.
“Neville!” He found himself tackled into an embrace from Hermione, before she swiftly pulled back to look at him. “Are you alright?”
“Yes, I'm fine,” he said.
“Did you get the wand?” Harry asked. Neville nodded, to which Harry asked him, “Do you know who's wand it is?
“You wouldn't believe me if I told you,” Neville replied. But seeing their anxious faces, replied, “Ravenclaw's.”
“Rowena Ravenclaw?” Hermione asked breathlessly before Harry asked to see it. Pulling the satchel from his robes, Neville slid the wand from it's containment and showed it to Harry
“I'll take that,” a voice said from behind them. With the rage boiling within him, Neville realized he knew that voice. It was the voice he heard in the pub earlier. The voice of the Death Eater who attacked the Leaky Cauldron. The voice of the... thing... that killed his Gran.
“Who are you?” Ron said defensively, stepping in front of Hermione.
“Well, I don't think it's in your business to know that,” Neville heard the other voice say. Neville slipped the wand back in it's satchel.
“All we want,” he said as Neville, standing as still as possible, withdrew his own wand, “ is the nice little wand you've got and we'll just leave you four to go about your business.”
“Not bloody likely,” Ron said, raising his wand as Neville turned to face the two Death Eaters. “It's four against two, so I don't think you're in the right spot to be telling us what to do.”
“Oh, I beg to differ,” The man on the right said. He had a long scar along the side of his face, and the closer eye was whited over. “I was under the impression it was two against three.” he then took advantage of their fleeting confusion.
“Avada Kedavra!” he yelled, his wand directed a Ron. Instantly, a jet of green light flew from the tip of his wand hit him square in the chest. With a look of frightened surprise, Ron's last sight was of a horrified Hermione before he fell to a crumpled heap on the floor.
“RON!” Hermione shrieked before falling to his side, sobbing. Without thinking, Neville took his wand and raised it at Ron's killer.
“Reducto!” he screamed. The curse hit the man in the face, and flew out the door and over the railing of the stairs, a trail of blood streaming from his face. Neville heard his yell suddenly silence as a sickening thud was heard.
But before anyone had a chance to react, the other Death Eater had pulled Hermione to her feet, his arm around her throat, his wand at her temple.
“Are you going to give me the wand, or do you want another friend to die?” The blonde Death Eater said. Neville matched the voice. It was the one he heard earlier. The one who attacked Diagon Alley.
Suddenly, Hermione bit the Death Eater's hand, and slipped from his grip.
“Stupefy!” Harry screamed.
“Protego!” Harry's spell bounced off lightly before he made a long slashing movement. Before he could react, a long purple flame entered Harry's body and he fell to the floor.
“Harry!” Neville yelled.
“Expelliarmus!” The satchel flew from Neville's hand and the Death Eater caught it in midair. Neville threw a stunning spell at him, but hit the doorway, blowing a chunk of the wall to pieces.
Neville let a stream of curses escape his mouth. Without thinking, Neville ran from the room, taking the stairs three at a time, and jumping the last five. He saw the one he had cursed from the room laying still on the bloodstained ground beside the stairs before sprinting after his grandmother's killer.
Slowly, he managed to pick up the sound of running footsteps as he drew nearer to his foe. It was another ten seconds, though, before he caught sight of him in the long tunnel.
“Stupefy!” He yelled, but he cast the spell off-balance and it hit the wall next to him. Looking back through the dust, his opponent found Neville alone, and turned to fight.
“Aw,” he said, “Did I hurt your little friends?”
“Petrificus to””
“Protego!” he blocked the spell easily. “Word of advice, lad. Use shorter spells!”
“Stupefy!” he yelled in retort, but his opponent blocked the shot again and drew nearer. Without a word, he swung his wand upward. Instantly, Neville was thrown from his feet and with a painful crunch landed on his ankle.
“It's a shame,” he said as Neville tried desperately to pull himself away. “Bellatrix wanted to be the one to finish you off. But I suppose,” he pointed his wand at his heart, “she'll have to settle for some other brat. Perhaps she can take that girl that was up there with you.”
“STUPEFY!” Neville screamed, but his voice was not the only one. With the power of the second stunning spell, the Death Eater's protective spell was broken, and he was thrown to the ground, unconscious.
Lifting himself to his elbows, Neville looked back and saw Hermione, her wand aloft, her eyes tear-streaked and bloodshot.