Hey guys, what's up?? It's Butterlover328 here and I'm sorry for not updating earlier this weekend, it's been absolutely hectic. But that's over for now, and I'm happy to say that after this week, I will be done with school so I will be able to update more without having you guys to wait as long as the people on Quotev did for chapters. Hopefully I'll be able to finish the Philosopher's Stone story arc by the end of June and get started with the Lightning Thief. Hope you enjoy the chapter!! Bye!!
~Butterlover328
Neville waved at his friends as the Hogwarts Express pulled out of the station. He stayed there until the train was no longer in sight before heading back to the castle, realizing that for the first time since he arrived at the school he would be alone, without any of his friends. The Weasleys didn't exactly count as friends, especially Ron with his bratty behavior. Harry probably would've spent the holidays with him if Percy hadn't invited him to his apartment, as the boy did not want to return to his relatives until absolutely necessary, or so Harry had told them. Hermione missed her parents and had always been with her parents for Christmas, so he didn't blame her, and Draco was being forced to go home after he received a stern letter from his father, and Neville was glad he was not in the same position. But his grandmother was glad that he had friends and had supported his decision to stay protected in Hogwarts with Dumbledore. Neville didn't feel as safe knowing that a priceless artifact and Voldemort were in the castle as well, but he felt like he had to stay for some reason. His gut told him to stay, and he had learned long ago to trust his gut instinct, as it had saved his life a few times. Neville just hoped that whatever had kept him at Hogwarts during the holidays didn't try to kill or maim him, as he wasn't sure he would survive in one piece, especially with his dad's wand that didn't work that well for him.
As soon as Hagrid walked him back to the castle, Neville went into the library to pick up a novel to read. However, he was distracted and on the way there was knocked into the ground. When he looked up to face the person he had crashed up to his eyes met the sneering face of the youngest Weasley with his wand out. Neville instinctively rolled to the side, and was astonished to barely miss a bone-breaker curse that would've connected with his ribs. He quickly stood up and also drew his wand, sending a body-bind curse towards Weasley. It connected, and Neville took satisfaction in being able to defend himself that he didn't notice Professor Snape coming around the corner before he spoke.
"Ten points from both of you for using magic in the halls, Misters Longbottom and Weasley. However, I will allow just this once for someone to explain what prompted you to do so in the first place??"
"Weasley tried to use the bone-breaking curse on me, Professor, so I sent a full body-bind at him." Neville said, glaring at the redhead. Snape snapped his head towards the boy and did the same.
"Give me your wand, Mr. Weasley." The professor commanded, stretching his arm out towards the boy.
"No!! There's no way I'm letting a greasy git like you have my wand!!" Weasley gripped the wand in question tightly. A vein bulged on Snape's head, before he pulled out his own wand, disarmed Weasley, and checked his wand for the curse. When it showed, Snape asked for Neville's wand, and accepted the two Gryffindor's story. He deducted twenty more points from Weasley and gave back the points he had taken from Neville before walking down the hall, his robes billowing out from behind him. Weasley turned back onto Neville.
"You may have won this time Longbottom, but you better watch your back. The next time you're alone, you're gonna regret it."
"I handled you easily before Snape even got here. Now leave me alone, some of us actually want to get something accomplished this break." Neville walked off before Weasley could reply, and sighed in relief once he turned the corner.
"Wait until they hear about this. Not even five minutes into break and Weasley's already gotten Gryffindor into trouble. This will be a long break." Neville muttered as he reached the library doors.
Neville spent the next week getting to know the Weasley Twins better, as he knew they would be good friends and were smarter then they looked. They were also the only two Gryffindor boys staying for the holidays that weren't pompous prats. He found out that he could utilise his talent for Herbology in pranks, and the three boys had been planning a huge "Welcome Back" prank for the majority of the holidays.
On Christmas Day, he woke up at around 4 in the morning due to his excitement and had spent an hour getting ready and planning a prank to wake up the Weasleys. He decided to use a fanged geranium to wake up Ron, a Bubotuber for Prefect Percy (as he had taken to calling Percy Weasley so he didn't get the two mixed up), and a sprig of sneezewort each for the twins. When the Weasley clan woke up in pandemonium, Neville had made sure to pour a non-lethal potion on himself so that he wouldn't be discovered as the prankster. The twins came up to him once they had finally stopped sneezing and held up two thumbs each when the other two weren't looking. Neville grinned back and cleaned his hair with a spell that Harry and Percy had taught him before going down to the common room to open his presents.
Neville ended up getting a Herbology book from Hermione, a wand holster from Draco that would attach itself to his arm so he could he a better reaction time, a batch of blue chocolate chip cookies from Percy and finally, an owl from Harry. However, he also noticed two presents for Harry underneath the tree and used a detection spell he had discovered in the library the day previously. When he used it, he discovered the presents were laced in compulsion and loyalty charms and were an invisibility cloak and a sweater. He was barely able to break the charms, but when he did curiosity overwhelmed him and he tried on the invisibility cloak, pleased to see that it worked. He felt guilty that he was using Harry's present, but he knew he would return it before Harry came back.
The week flew by in a flash and Neville had decided to do some investigating that Saturday night and test out the cloak. He slipped out of the common room before the Fat Lady could notice, and was heading to the library when he felt a surge of power from the blank wall in front of him. It was trying to convince him to go away and he realized it was a notice-me-not charm that was placed on the door. He felt along the wall to find the doorknob and opened it slightly, sighing in relief when there was no three-headed dog or anything dangerous in the room. In fact, the room was completely empty save for a mirror in the middle. Neville turned to go back, until his instinct told him to look closer at the mirror. He scanned the inscription on the top, not making sense of it and gazed into the mirror.
What he saw made him burst into silent tears. His father and step-mum on either side of him, healthy and completely sane by his sides, smiling at him like they were proud of him. He also saw that a woman was smiling down at him from above, with midnight black hair and identical warm brown eyes staring at each other as Neville somehow knew this woman was his mother. His hand touched the cool glass as he tried to touch her, only for the tears to increase when the glass shook him out of his trance. He reeled back, knowing that the mirror was playing tricks on him and they were an illusion, no matter how much he wanted it to be real. It was at this point that Neville had realized that the cloak had fallen off of him, and hastily put it back on and left the room in a hurry, racing back to the common room as quick as he could.
He wrote a letter to Harry, letting the guilt he felt from taking his cloak overtake him in his misery and explained the situation with the mirror, before using the new owl he got that day. He climbed into bed exhausted and cried himself to sleep, thinking about the parents he never got to know.
He was happy when his friends returned from holiday, and the morning after they returned Neville had showed Harry and Percy how the cloak worked while the rest of the boys in their dorm were sleeping. The boys exchanged a glance at each other and turned back to Neville with their eyes widened.
"Neville, did the cloak have a message on it or something??" Harry inquired. Neville nodded and handed him a small notecard, which Harry read out loud.
"Your father left this in my possession before he died. It is time it was returned to you. Use it well."
"I didn't read the note, but I cast a detection charm on the cloak and a sweater and found multiple illegal charms on it that I was mostly able to get rid of." Neville blushed as the two boys praised him for his advanced spell work as they walked to the Great Hall. The three stopped as they saw Hermione and Draco walked over to them, so when the five were reunited they were surprised to find the charm Neville had pointed out.
Harry and Percy had decided to investigate, despite Neville's protests, so Hermione, Draco and Neville followed the two into the room. When they came across the mirror, Neville glared at the glass for several minutes while they worked out the saying.
"I've got it!! The inscription is backwards, like a mirror is. If we reflect the message, we should be able to read the message!!" Percy theorized. Draco pulled out a mini mirror and handed it to Percy, gaining odd looks from the other three.
"What?? I have to keep up my reputation." He scoffed.
"Look!! I was right!! I show not your face but your heart's desire." Percy exclaimed.
"You mean that this mirror will show us what we want the most??" Hermione asked.
"Apparently. What did it show you Neville??" Harry asked, causing Neville's gaze to fall to the floor.
"It showed my parents, both of them as well as my step-mum, alive and well. They were proud of me." Neville had tears shining in his eyes again, and Hermione hugged him comfortingly. Neville blushed while Draco glared at him, until Harry placed a hand on his shoulder and gave him a pointed look.
"Thank you 'Mione, I needed that."
"You're welcome Nev, after all, that's what friends are for, right??" She smiled reassuringly, making Draco relax at the word "friends".
"Should we look in the mirror?? It might not be safe for us, depending on what we desire the most." Draco said, looking suspiciously at the enchanted object in front of him.
"What's the worst that can happen??" Percy said, as he and Harry looked at it simultaneously. They balked at seeing their mother, James Potter, Sally, and a man with Percy's eyes. The two assumed that the man was their birth father, and stared in wonder, memorizing every inch of their birth parent's faces. Their friends were in the background too, smiling and laughing and all in all having a great time. A girl materialized out of nowhere holding a baseball cap and kissed Percy on the cheek, making him touch the spot to see if it was real. A small, pale boy appeared next to Harry and did the same before the two strangers disappeared. Harry and Percy shook their heads to clear them, staring in wonder at each other and the mirror.
"What did you two see??" Hermione asked. The twins glanced at each other.
'Should we tell them the truth or tell them about making Head Boy or some rubbish like that??' Harry silently asked his brother. They had been working on their telepathy over the holidays, and were pleased to see it greatly improved.
'I'm not sure. I think we've led them on long enough, but what if Dumbledore or a Death Eater finds out about us and uses one of us to bait the other into turning themselves in or something like that. I want to trust them, but until they learn occlumency we can't tell them.' Percy's expression was thoughtful, which the others except for his brother were shocked to see.
"I saw my parents." Harry said quietly, acting subdued. Something flashed in Draco's eyes but it left before Percy could discern it. Neville and Hermione rushed over to hug Harry and he hesitantly smiled until the three broke apart.
"What did you see Percy??" Draco asked.
"I saw my dad and my mom happy together. I think there was a wedding ring on my mom's finger." Neville and Hermione faced Percy.
"I don't think you've ever mentioned your father before Percy." Neville said.
"He became lost at sea before I was born. I've never met him." With that, the subject was dropped. Draco refused to look in the mirror, while her burning curiosity showed Hermione that her greatest desire was a certain platinum blonde 11-year old boy and a woman with two different animals and mist swirling around her as well as her parents.
When the five returned to their dorms that night, the ones who saw their desire felt a burning desire to see their loved ones once more, but decided it would be better to wait a few days so no one would get suspicious. They soon became too busy to visit the mirror and by the time they revisited the room, the mirror had moved locations. Draco thought it was good that the mirror had moved so that more students wouldn't find it, but the other four couldn't help but think about seeing their loved ones again, but they eventually forgot about the mirror as school started up in full force once again.
Hey guys!! I hope you liked the chapter, even though it was short. The chapters will get much longer soon, and you'll also be caught up with the people on Quotev by then most likely. Now I know this chapter showed what Draco's, Neville's and Hermione's godly parents are in the mirror. (Congrats to those who figured them out!!) However, since It was decided that they'll either be legacies or normal people this chapter will be reposted once I do the full story edit I'll do after I finish the arc. Alright, I gotta go, so I'll see you guys next week with a new chaper. Bye!!
~Butterlover328