The Lion and the Eagle |Neville Longbottom|

23. Sidelined at St. Mungo's

(Neville's POV)

Though St. Mungo's was one of the finest Wizarding hospitals, I did not like being back here.

If it hadn't been for Jenelle's Patronus, I wouldn't have lived to see another day. I thought I had been hallucinating Ron's arrival, and Harry's. I'd been slipping away after Jenelle had been taken.

I was getting better by the day, it was going on almost a week since the Death Eaters stole Jenelle. Though I didn't like to get angry, I couldn't shake the feeling. After all I had done to keep her safe, and it was all for naught. She fell into their hands anyway. Though it wasn't my assignment to keep her safe, I treated it as such.

To say that I failed her was an understatement.

My body still ached, I heard the roaring waters in my dreams. I could see her panicked face so clearly I thought I had time-traveled back to the moment before I lost her.

I kept my mind full of positive images of Jenelle. Somehow, if she were gone, I would know. My gut would tell me.

I exhaled deeply. The other Aurors were pitching in, as now there were growing reports of Death Eater sightings and missing person's reports spiking. The public was very wary of the growing situation, the Aurors were trying all that they could to stop mass panic.

If it got out of hand, there would be more to deal with than Death Eaters.

Flowers were the first thing I saw out of the corner of my eye. They obscured the bringer's face, but once they were lowered, I relaxed. Katie Herren and Hermione had come to visit, as they had every day since I had been admitted.

"Figured I'd come replace the old ones," said Hermione rather cheerfully. She went right to the vase to switch out the flowers. She always picked the nicest arrangements.

Katie took the seat at my bedside. "How do you feel today?"

"Like I'm ready to bolt out of here," I said. "I need to get back out into the field and into the swing of things."

"Aurors are working double-time, Neville, I don't know what more you want." Katie leaned back in the chair, her red hair falling naturally down past her shoulders. "I should be getting back, but with everything that's been reported, I didn't want Hermione going alone."

"And Ron wouldn't let me come by myself," Hermione added. "Honestly, it's like he's forgotten that I can handle my own."

"He's scared," said Katie. "I don't blame him. All the wizards that have gone missing are mostly Muggleborns, but there are half-bloods in the mix. They're not discriminating against age or gender either. He has reason to worry."

"We'll need to do a group meeting with everyone so all are on the same page," I told Katie.

"You know," said Hermione carefully, "rather than speculating...perhaps you ought to consider trapping a Death Eater for interrogation."

Katie and I looked at her.

"Think about it: if the same faces are cropping up in a lot of places, they have to know something."

"Sure, we can interrogate them once we get them into custody, but if they don't break...We shouldn't be using torture methods to extract information. That's extreme, even by Auror standards," said Katie.

"Then you keep it off the books, off the record."

"Since when does Hermione Granger have a dark side?" Katie's tone was not teasing.

"Death Eaters are still causing trouble even after Voldemort's death. The group's disbanding needs to be permanent. Maybe it's time—"

"We need to avoid stooping to their level. We can bring it up at the next gathering, but we should keep it off the table unless...unless we have no other options left. These spare Death Eaters are really stupid, nabbing people like they are. We just can't understand where they're taking them or what they're doing with them."

I didn't want to know what they were doing with their captives. My mind could only go to Jenelle. If they were torturing her for fun...It sounded like a Death Eater thing to do. If they felt powerful because so many feared them, why would they feel they needed a reason to do anything? They could just do it.

"We'll get to the bottom of this," Katie said to me. "We'll put a stop to them, permanently. We'll save her and any others they've got."

I wasn't worried about the "if" so much as "when" we would get that chance. I wasn't sure if I could wait that long.

**I think in the original book Neville had a few small chapters to himself. It's staying that way too in this rewrite! We have to have some perspective on the other side of things!**