Chapter 4: Neville Discovers Grimmauld Place
July 5 - 5:55pm - The Longbottom Home
"Gretchen, dear, would you please fetch Neville to the dinner table," Eleanor Longbottom ordered. Honestly, sometimes the boy drove her to distraction with his forgetfulness. He was probably locked away in his greenhouse again.
She had been surprised that he was one of the students to travel with Harry Potter to the Department of Mysteries and even more surprised that he had actually fought against Death Eaters and survived with nothing more than a broken nose.
She had hoped that his new found confidence and a new wand would curb his forgetfulness and clumsiness, but so far, it hadn't seemed to do so. She looked at her watch, impatiently. 'Where was that boy?'
Gretchen left the dining room quietly not wanting to wait around and risk the wrath of her godmother. Her parents had insisted that she stay with the Longbottoms while they went on a vacation for their anniversary.
She didn't mind staying with the Longbottoms. Her godmother was quite strict, but Neville always made the stays fun. She had just finished her third year at Hogwarts, but Neville didn't treat her like she was a little kid.
Instead, he had invited her to join him in his greenhouse anytime she wanted. He'd also snuck them both down to the kitchen for a late night snack of ice cream. Plus, he was friends with the boy-who-lived, and that never failed to impress her friends at school.
It only took her a few moments to reach Neville's greenhouse, which was inside the Longbottom's large manor home. She opened the door and entered the large glass room.
"Neville, dinner is ready," Gretchen called out as she saw Neville leaning over one of his many plants. He looked up as she entered his eyes still had a glazed, distracted look.
"Already," he mumbled then checked the clock on the wall. "How upset is Grams?"
"We should probably hurry," Gretchen answered feeling a bit sorry for the young man. His grandmother ruled with an iron fist, and although she was never outright mean to Neville, she sure liked to yell at him.
"Thanks, Gretchen, maybe we can grab some ice cream again later this evening," Neville called as he cleaned up at the sink to the left of the wall clock.
"Cool," Gretchen replied as the two walked quickly towards the dining room. Suddenly, an explosion tore through the house. Gretchen lost her balance and fell into Neville, who surprisingly managed to stay upright and keep Gretchen on her feet as well.
"What was that?" She asked as Neville withdrew his wand and crouched into a defensive position. Another explosion rocked through the house and debris rained down on them.
Neville grabbed Gretchen's hand and pulled her along towards the dining room. "Stay close, and have your wand at the ready."
The two were now moving at a near run towards the dining room. It was obvious that the brunt of the explosion had occurred near the dining room. Scared, Gretchen pulled her wand from her skirt pocket.
Neville slowed as he got close to the room. He motioned for Gretchen to stand close to the wall several paces back from the entrance to the dining room. He peered around the corner of the wall into what was left of the dining room.
"Stay here," he repeated before moving cautiously into the room. He immediately moved towards the head of the table where his Grams always sat. He saw her hand first.
Another explosion rocked through the house. This time it seemed to come from the opposite direction from before, more towards where his greenhouse was located. More debris rained down as he scanned the room again before kneeling on the floor by her hand. He struggled to remove the bits of debris from on top of her.
After what seemed an eternity, he managed to uncover her face. He knew then, that his Grams was gone. If the blast hadn't gotten her, the collapsed room had. He checked for a pulse anyway, but found none.
Biting his lip to keep the stinging tears he could feel at the corners of his eyes at bay, he moved to a crouch and carefully made his way back to the hall where he had left Gretchen.
They had to get out of there now. If it was just him he would have tried to drag his grandmother out with him, but he didn't know how much time he had to get away and he couldn't risk Gretchen's life like that.
He would focus exclusively on getting them to safety. After all, Gretchen was like a little sister to him, he had to hold it together until he could get them out of there. 'Now if I can just focus on that,' he thought.
He was almost to the entryway where he had left Gretchen when he saw the cloaked figure. Not waiting to see who it was, he shouted "Expelliarmus!"
Caught off guard the death eater flew back into the remnants of the wall from the dining room to the kitchen as his wand flew in another direction.
"Petrificus Totalis!" Neville shot again, and the stunned death eater found himself in a full body bind. Hurling himself through the entryway into the hall, Neville again grabbed Gretchen's hand.
"Where's Mrs. Longbottom?" Gretchen questioned. Neville didn't answer. Instead he said "We have to get out of here." He pulled her along the hall and through a secret panel in the wall.
"Where are we?" Gretchen asked the fear obvious in her voice.
"A secret exit, it should take us far enough away from the house to avoid any other death eaters so we can make our escape." Neville explained.
"Lumos." With the light from Neville's wand the two made their way down a short hallway. Neville lifted a small trapdoor, and then the two descended a stone staircase.
Another explosion rocked the house just as Neville was starting down the stairs. He kept his footing and pulled the trapdoor closed behind him. The stairs continued down for quite a ways before leveling out. The space was little bigger than a hall way, but the two were able to walk side by side. After nearly half an hour, they reached another set of stairs.
"There was a Death Eater in the dining room. I doubt he was the only one. This should take us well beyond site of the house, but be on the alert, alright?" Gretchen nodded.
"Good, let's go." The two started up the stairs which took another twenty minutes. Finally, they reached a landing with a door directly in front of them.
"Alohomora!" A lock disengaged. Slowly, Neville stepped in front of Gretchen and then opened the door. Neville slipped into the empty room on the other side of the door. It was a gate keeper's cottage.
"Come on." He called urging Gretchen to follow him. He moved towards the fireplace in the old unused cottage.
"We'll floo to Hogwarts from here. It's the only place I can think of that will be safe." He pulled a small bag of floo powder from his pocket. "You go first."
Gretchen took a pinch of the powder and walked into the fireplace before throwing it down and saying
"Hogwarts." Neville followed a moment later.
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July 5 - 6:25pm - Grimmauld Place
Hermione, Tonks, Arthur, and Kingsley arrived first. Hermione was crying into Tonks shoulder. Tonks searched through her pockets and pulled forth a small potions vial.
"Hermione, take this, it will counter the effects of the cruciatus," Tonks ordered pulling back from the sobbing young woman.
Hermione merely stared at her at first, then seemed to comprehend what Tonks wanted her to do. She took the vial and downed it quickly. Her trembling subsided slowly, but not completely and Tonks pulled her closer holding her as she continued to cry.
Seeing that Hermione was taken care of for the moment, Arthur sent an owl to Dumbledore telling him briefly what had happened at the Granger's and about the loss of the new Order recruit who'd been on guard duty at the Grangers.
Meanwhile, Kingsley went to the living room to floo the Ministry to alert them to pick up the bodies of both the Granger's and their Order guard Violent Dunn whose body Kingsley and Arthur had discovered in the Granger's yard. He also alerted them about the three captured death eaters awaiting their pick-up and escort to Azkaban.
After several moments, Hermione pulled back from Tonks. "Where's my father?"
Tonks stared at the girl in front of her uncertain of how to say what she needed to say. Apparently her silence was enough as Hermione begun to shake uncontrollably. "How could this happen?"
Tonks didn't answer. There really wasn't an answer. Death eaters wrought death and destruction. She did what she could and let Hermione cry in her arms.
Tonks wasn't sure how long they'd been standing there when Molly, Bill, Charlie, Ginny and Ron appeared in the kitchen just to the left of where the two stood. Hermione looked up at the noise only to see the too pale face and closed eyes of Ron. "Merlin!"
"Get Poppy!" Molly shouted immediately. Arthur moved to his family. Kingsley, who had just returned from the living room, bolted from the room shouting for Poppy. She appeared almost instantly.
"It's Ron, he's been hurt badly. The house collapsed around him."
"I'll take care of him, Molly," Poppy reassured her checking Ron's vitals. She did a quick charm to make the piece of wood disappear from his leg and staunch the flow of blood. She then levitated him to a nearby room which she had set up as a makeshift hospital.
Severus Snape lay on one bed. Before he could stir and protest she had given him the potion to counter the effects of the cruciatus and a sleeping potion to insure that he rested.
She placed Ron on another bed in the small room. His vitals had been weak and he had lost a lot of blood, but he was young. Poppy set to work using all her considerable talents to heal the badly injured boy.
Hermione had stopped crying. It was as if the shock of seeing Ron had pushed her over an edge. "Where's Harry?" For a moment, everyone just stared at her.
"Hermione," Ginny started to protest. Hermione held up her hand.
"If Death Eaters attacked at the Burrow and my…parents," the girl's voice broke, but she continued, "Then they probably attacked Harry as well."
"Remus and Moody went to check on Harry, and Diggle was already standing guard. I'm sure one of them will report back soon."
"I'll check on things," Kingsley volunteered. He apparated out before anyone could protest. Everyone moved to sit at the large kitchen table.
Ginny told them all what had happened at the Burrow. Arthur held Molly tightly. Hermione had not spoken about what had happened to her parents.
"I'll start dinner." Tonks finally announced. Bill had written down a brief recounting of what happened at the Burrow and sent it to Dumbledore and flooed the Ministry to alert them as to the captured death eaters at the Burrow.
Charlie moved to help Tonks who kept dropping things and knocking over items as she attempted to put together a meal.
"Careful," Charlie stated as he cast a quick spell to prevent a hot pot from toppling off the stove and onto Tonks. After preventing her from breaking two bowls and nearly stabbing herself with a knife, Charlie steered Tonks to a seat at the table and finished the meal himself.
"Ginny could you set the table," Charlie asked. Ginny looked startled at first that someone had spoken to her, but stood and grabbed some silverware. Hermione had tensed at the words, and barely managed to suppress a sob. Part of her wanted to jump up from the table and run to her room upstairs. But she couldn't until she knew how Ron and Harry were. She couldn't stand the thought of losing them as well. She willed herself to hold it together.
The group looked up as someone arrived by floo. Expecting Kingsley or Dumbledore, they were surprised to see Neville Longbottom and a young girl that no one recognized.
"Neville," Ginny managed surprised. She put down the last of the silverware, but didn't move towards him.
"Death Eaters attacked at my grandmother's." He couldn't find the words to add that his Grams was dead. Saying it would just make it too real. "We flooed to Hogwarts first. I didn't know where else to go. Professor Flitwick called for the headmaster and he sent us here."
"Oh, Neville," Ginny was the first to recover and she went to him and put her arms around him.
"Dumbledore, said to tell someone here to send a search party to check on the Lovegoods." Arthur Weasley got quickly to his feet. "I'll go to Stoatshead. Charlie, come with me. Bill, Tonks, check on Minerva. She went to the Longbottoms alone." The four disappeared with distinct pops.
"I'm going to check on Ron," Molly said rising to her feet. She left the room quickly. Neville introduced Hermione and Ginny to Gretchen. They all nodded politely.
Nobody moved to get any food. Ginny briefly told Neville that Death Eaters had attacked at Hermione's and the
Burrow and that Ron was hurt. After that, the four sat in silence each lost in their own personal nightmares.
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