Chapter 40: Neville Saves the Day
Neville slipped into the room of requirement a full hour before the lesson was to begin, wanting the time to review and calm his nerves. He'd become more accustomed to being in charge, and he certainly knew the spells that Hermione had placed on the lesson plan, but sometimes, like now, the old, insecure part of himself crept forward making him unbearably nervous. He'd led other sessions of the D.A. and often joined Harry, Hermione, and Luna as they inspected the others spell work and offered encouragements. Tonight, however, he'd be on his own. Harry and Hermione were still serving out their detentions and would not be attending that evenings meeting. Personally, he thought Dumbledore should have allowed them to attend, and had Professor Snape set the detention for another night since the two were supposed to be teaching the other students defense.
He sighed and set his knapsack down out of the way after tugging free his defense book and notes. He looked over each of the spells on the list and one by one made sure that he could still do each of them properly. With each successful spell his confidence grew, so that by the time Luna entered the room, he was feeling much better.
"Hello, Neville," she greeted with a smile.
"Hello, Luna," he replied returning her smile.
"What do you have planned for us tonight?"
"Hermione made a list of four spells that should help the groups get through Professor Black's Death Eater room."
"Any that I'm familiar with?" Luna continued twirling a piece of hair around her finger and moving to look at his notes. Neville watched as she examined each carefully reviewing the wand movement, but she didn't speak.
"Well," he prompted as the silence stretched out between them.
"Well, what?" She asked eyes wide as she turned away from the paper to look at him. Used to dealing with Luna's odd ways, he questioned her again, this time being more specific.
"Do you recognize any of the spells?"
"Oh, no, they're all new to me," she replied in a sing-song voice before crossing the room and sitting down in a large overstuffed chair. Within moments she held the latest issue of the Quibbler in front of her upside down as usual.
Shrugging his shoulders, Neville turned back to his notes and reviewed them once again in his mind. Dean, Ginny, and Seamus came in while he was still looking at his notes. They were soon followed by others from each of the houses, although only a couple of students from Slytherin showed up at these meetings. He recognized several of the usual Slytherins like Moira O'Riley, who had followed her sister, Nuala, a Ravenclaw, into the room of requirement, and Bethany Ellis, the Hogwart's quest teammate of Ron's who stood with Ron, Luna, and Susan Bones. Thanks to the quest there were also many new faces assembled with their teammates wondering if the DA meeting would really be helpful or not. As the room continued to fill and he realized that this would be one of the largest assemblages of the DA, Neville felt his nervousness returning. He really wished Luna had been more familiar with the spells. He could have asked her to help demonstrate them. He was debating slipping out of the room when a hand touched his shoulder. He looked down to find Luna standing just to his left looking alert and ready to begin the class.
"Shall we get started?" Neville swallowed hard before answering.
"Thank you." She smiled confidently at him and motioned for the others to be quiet. As conversations died down, Neville took a deep breathe and squared himself for the coming class.
"Hello, everyone, as I'm sure you've noticed Harry and Hermione are not with us this evening."
"Snogging in a closet again?" A voice called out from near the back of the room and others laughed. Neville smiled slightly at the remark knowing his friends would rather be doing that.
"No, they're serving a detention with Professor Snape." Several groans and words of sympathy passed through the crowd at this, but Neville continued. "Hermione left me a list of four new spells to show you all tonight. All four spells should help when engaged in a battle with death eaters, whether it's for the quest or in real life," he finished knowing it was true and not liking the fact that his friends and classmates would most likely end up fighting for their lives at some point in the current war. As the responsibility of his position settled on his shoulders he stood straighter. One day the life of one of these students could depend on their ability to do a spell he'd taught them.
"With four spells to learn, we need to get started," Luna added when Neville fell silent. Count off into groups of four and Neville will show each of you a different spell, once you've got that one down, we'll let each group send people to the next group to show them the next spell. By the end of the night, everyone should have had a chance to practice each spell." The others began to follow her orders and Neville was grateful that she was there. He made his way to each of the groups giving them each a spell to work on and a timeframe for practicing it before he'd show them the next spell. Luna mastered them quickly and helped him guide the others correcting their wand movements or pronunciation when necessary. By the end of the night, Neville was pleased. Most of the students had down all four spells, though some needed more practice with them. He had a feeling the desire to win the treasure in the quest would insure that they all practiced until they had the spells down pat.
"Thank you, Luna, for everything," he stated appreciatively.
"Your welcome," she answered with a shrug of her shoulders.
"That was great, Nev, you're pretty good at this teaching thing," Ron complimented him as he came up to the two. He'd helped when he could offering words of encouragement to others and correcting wand movements. Although, as he'd told Neville earlier, he didn't consider himself a teacher and much preferred working within a group to help those members get better than trying to teach an entire group.
"Thanks, Ron."
"Ready to go, Luna," he asked turning from Neville to the pretty blonde beside him.
"Yes, Ronald."
"Good, bye Neville," Ron replied as he took her hand and he and Luna headed for the door.
"See you later, Neville," Luna added with a wave just before the two disappeared into the hall. Neville looked around at the nearly empty room, and went to retrieve his knapsack. He stuffed his book and notes back into the main pocket and hefted it onto his shoulder. He still had some work to do, so he left the room at a fast walk anxious to finish his transfiguration and herbology homework.
"Stop it," he heard a female voice cry out and sped up to try to see what was happening, maybe Peeves had one of the girls cornered. Most of the DA members had left in groups, but it still happened sometimes. He dropped his knapsack near a statue by the end of the hall and crept forward silently wanting to get a handle on the situation before letting his presence be known.
Blythe Zabini tried to jerk her arm free from Theodore Nott. She'd been returning from the D.A. meeting minding her own business when Nott, Avery, Crabbe, and Goyle stopped her in the hallway. She'd meant to leave with Bethany and some of the others, but got sidetracked talking to some of the others and missed when they'd left. She knew that several of the Slytherins mocked the DA and discouraged others from attending the meetings, but so far they had only harassed her verbally.
"Be nice, Blythe. Where have you been anyway?" Nott questioned tightening his grip on her arm and pushing her back against the wall. He thought the blonde haired fifth year was quite pretty, and as a pureblood, a good match. But she'd always ignored his advances, and Theodore Nott hated to be ignored.
"That's none of your business," she answered gritting her teeth against the pain in her arm.
"I'm making it my business. We wouldn't want a pretty little girl like you to get caught up with the wrong crowd," Nott replied leaning towards her until their lips were almost touching. He'd forced her to drop her wand earlier, and she'd never wanted it more in her life.
"Leave me alone," she insisted twisting slightly and trying to knee him in the groin. He countered her quickly and slammed her back against the wall harder and pain exploded in her head as it made contact with the old stone walls of the castle.
"I could always let Avery have you," he suggested and the other boy moved closer a wild, excited gleam in his eye. "He needs a girlfriend, and he won't care if you're willing or not."
"Let her go! Now!" Neville ordered from his position just down the hall.
"Longbottom?" Nott stated incredulous. "Go away, Longbottom, before you get hurt." The others snickered.
"I said, Let her go!" Goyle, Crabbe, and Avery spread out slightly away from where Nott had Blythe pinned ready to take his threat seriously, though none of them expected Longbottom to actually be a threat.
"Get him," Nott ordered and the others moved to obey. Neville stunned Goyle before he could even fire a spell. He jumped to the side as a purple bolt shot out from Avery. He returned it with another stunner that took out Crabbe. Blythe saw her moment and rammed her head forward into Nott's, who howled in pain and loosened his grip. Blythe slid down the wall slightly, hitting Nott had made her head hurt worse, but she did her best to ignore the pain as she threw herself to the left of the two Slytherins still standing. Hastily snatching her wand from the floor she used one of the new spells she'd learned that night at the D.A. meeting to take out Avery, who was so focused on Neville, he hadn't noticed her.
"Sectumsempra," Nott stated coldly. Blythe scrambled backwards to get out of the path of the spell, but she wasn't fast enough to avoid it completely. Neville used Nott's distraction with Blythe to send a petrificus totalis at Nott, who fell over hard. Blythe closed her eyes as Neville walked up to her thankful he'd come along when he did.
"Blythe, right, it's going to be alright. I'll get you to Madam Pomfrey," Neville reassured her. He recognized her as one of the Slytherins who regularly attended the DA meetings, and quickly set to work staunching the flow of blood from a cut along her side and arm. He wasn't able to stop it completely, a fact that worried him a lot. He sent a silver message to Pomfrey and Dumbledore, then conjured a stretcher and hovered her onto it, before heading towards the infirmary as fast as he could.
"Madam Pomfrey," Neville called loudly as he slammed into the infirmary. The mediwitch, having already received his message had been waiting just inside the door. She had then levitate her over to a bed, then ordered him away as she set to work on the young woman. Neville sank into a nearby chair.
"What happened?" Pomfrey after stopping the bleeding and doing all she could for the moment.
"Sectumsempra," Neville replied quietly.
"Are you hurt?" Pomfrey questioned to be sure, now that the more seriously injured student had been dealt with and was sleeping easily.
"No."
"We'll need to tell the Headmaster, and her head of house," Pomfrey informed him just as Albus Dumbledore swept into the room. Professor Snape followed only a moment later and both took in Neville's blood covered robes and another student lying on the bed.
"Have trouble in your first DA meeting without Potter and Granger?" Snape snapped when he saw it was Longbottom in the infirmary. Dumbledore signaled to Snape to be quiet.
"Who was injured, Poppy?"
"Mr. Longbottom brought in Ms. Zabini, who was hit with a type of cutting curse. It was a nasty curse and one where it was difficult to stop the bleeding, but I managed it. I gave her some blood replenishing potion, a dreamless sleep, and mended the muscle back together. She's got some bruises forming on her arm from someone gripping it too tightly and she's hit both the back of her head and the front, but they don't appear to be serious head injuries. I'll keep her here overnight, but probably release her tomorrow with a warning to take it easy for a couple of days."
"How did these injuries happen, Mr. Longbottom?" Headmaster Dumbledore questioned looking to the Gryffindor student.
"I was on my way back to Gryffindor tower after the D.A. meeting when I heard a girl's voice pleading with someone to let her go. I rounded the next corner and saw Nott, Avery, Crabbe and Goyle, surrounding Blythe Zabini. Nott had her pinned against the wall. I ordered them to let her go, and they refused. Nott ordered the others to attack me, but I was able to stun both Goyle and Crabbe relatively quickly. Blythe got away from Nott somehow and took out Avery. Nott then hit her with 'sectumsempra' before I could incapacitate him as well. I stopped the flow of blood the best I could, and rushed her here." He repeated the story calmly trying to include all the necessary facts.
"Where are the others now?"
"I suppose they're still on the seventh floor about a corridor away from the room of requirement," Neville answered calmly.
"Professor Snape, I should like to be in on deciding what punishment to award to the four young men on the seventh floor, but I would like to hear Ms. Zabini's story first."
"Of course, headmaster," Professor Snape replied tight-lipped. He was not happy about the behavior of his students, especially if they had attacked one of their own. "I'll speak to them immediately. Perhaps, Longbottom misunderstood the situation." Neville glared at this most hated professor, but didn't speak.
"Yes, well, that's why we shall talk to Ms. Zabini first thing in the morning and find out what she says. For now, I think Mr. Longbottom should be getting to his room."
"It was only after he'd left the infirmary that Neville remembered he'd left his knapsack around the corner from where he'd confronted the others. Sighing heavily, he trudged back in that direction to retrieve his bag before heading to the common room. He wondered why the boys had attacked the Slytherin girl, and pondered this as he traversed the halls he knew so well. Nearly twenty minutes later as he neared the tower, he decided he'd visit the Slytherin girl the next morning in the hospital to make sure she was alright.