The Dogfather

Will closed her book with a sight, as she feared, there were a lot of general and historical information, but she supposed it was too much to ask for a step-by-step guide to ‘reclaim your newly discovered title and saving your falsely accused godfather’. But she was running out of time. Sirius needed help and she didn’t have the slightest idea of what to do.

Will was taken out of her gloomy thoughts by the strident voice of Madam Pince, who announced that the library was about to close. She looked at the window with surprise, she had not seen the afternoon pass. She felt a little guilty of monopolizing Fred and George all day, so she told them to leave ahead while she put away the books they had taken out. She saw hesitation in their eyes, until she suggested they send Dobby with a letter to Bill to arrange the trip to Gringotts for the next day. She would have to sneak out of Hogwarts, but it wasn’t the first time and probably wouldn’t be the last.

Feeling slightly re-motivated, she went to put the books back on the shelves, when a voice called to her. “Will?” she turned to Neville’s surprised face, a surprise which quickly turned into worry. “Are you alright? I heard you’ve been attacked by a werewolf, should you already be out of the infirmary?” he asked inspecting her from head to toe, as if searching for injuries.

Will couldn’t hold a fond smile, despite not being as close to him as Ron and Hermione or even the twins, she’d like to think she managed to develop a solid friendship with the shy boy.

She had approach Neville at the end of their first year to apologize for leaving him petrified for who knows how long. She hadn’t really said anything at the time because they were running on a tight schedule to protect the philosopher stone; plus being concerned about the possible return from the dead of her parent’s murderer. But when she woke up in the infirmary, she had felt really bad about it. He had graciously accepted the apology and they had become friends.

However, she had noticed he wasn’t particularly comfortable being the center of the attention and honestly, she understood. Will really didn’t like it either, but with her being…well her she didn’t have much of a say in it; the whole castle was always watching her every move. That was not even to mention all the crazy and dangerous things that always seemed to happen to her every year; if she could, she wanted to at least let him stay out of danger. So much for being in the safest place in the world…

“I’m fine Nev, you’re not getting rid of me just yet” she joked to put his mind at ease, but judging by his frown, it didn’t work. “I’m really fine, I promise” Will said squeezing his hand in reassurance.

Neville sighed “I’m…I’m glad you’re okay.” was all he said until he saw the books in her hands “‘History of Nobles Houses’? I didn’t know you were interested in politics?”

“Ah, er…it’s nothing I just…” she paused when she remembered something she just read “Wait a minute! Neville you’re from a Noble House too, right ?!” she asked excitedly.

He was startled by her sudden burst, before giving her a strange look she didn’t understand and nodding hesitantly. Not undermined by his half-hearted response, the young witch quickly finished organizing the books before dragging him along with her in the hallways to the Twins lab, making sure to lock the door behind them with the spells the boys had taught her. She might have been a little too abrupt as she saw Neville staggering and leaning against the nearest table. She apologized shamefully, made sure he was okay. Then she went to look into the boys' things for some paper, writing a quick note before calling Dobby.

"What can Dobby do for Will Potter?" asked her little friend, always so enthusiastic about helping.

"Could you please give this to Fred and George? Also, if you don’t mind, would you go and get something to eat for Neville?"

Dobby looked briefly at the still confused boy before nodding excitedly “Yes Dobby will go get dinner for Will Potter and her friend” and he disappeared with his characteristic loud pop.

She turned back to Neville, who was now looking curiously around him “What is this place exactly?” he seemed fascinated by all the experiments the pranksters were working on.

“It’s an unoccupied classroom that Fred and George turn into a lab, I needed privacy for this conversation…”. Will paused a moment, trying to organize her thoughts. “Okay Nev, here’s the thing…”. She was only briefly interrupted in her telling of the events by Dobby bringing them diner.

Contrarily to how the Twins reacted, Neville had a stoic face all along, listening intently to what she said, which surprised her considering how scared he had been about all year of the whole ‘Sirius Black situation’. The only reaction she saw on his face was when she mentions discovering about her family’s status as a Noble House and when she mention her godfather lack of trial, he seemed outrage for a second before he retrieved his composure. “And so, Fred, George, and I, tried to find a way for me to reclaim the power of the House Potter to save my godfather. I remembered seeing the Longbottom name in this book about the Noble Houses, and I thought you could maybe help us…”

For a moment after she finished, he mumbled for himself while pacing, she could only understand fragment of sentences “does explain…how come…a noble heir, no two…Gran will be furious…”.

Will let him the time to digest everything, it was a surprise to see him getting all worked up, she had though he would be more scared or at least doubtful of her story, but his concern seemed to be completely elsewhere. Finally, he turned back to her looking at her tiredly “Only you Will, I swear, you’re the only one who could end up in the kind of situation”.

“Yeah…I know” was all she managed to say, because they both knew he was right in his statement.

“Right so let me make sure I get all of this straight. The man we all thought had escape Azkaban to kill you is in fact innocent and your godfather; I spend the last three year sleeping in the same room as your family’s real traitor, a Death Eater who was disguised as Ron’s pet rat; and now you need my help to prove the innocence of the forementioned falsely accused mass murder to the whole Wizengamot. Did I forget something?” He asked, looking at Will as if he desperately wanted her to tell him it was all a joke.

“Er…No. You got it all right.”

“Bloody Hell!” He whispered as he dropped on his chair, running a stressed hand in his hair.

Will was shocked to hear Sweet Neville curse; she didn’t think she would live to see the day; but she supposed it was a lot for him. She hadn’t at all considered the fact that Neville and the other boys of her year had also been sharing a dormitory with Pettigrew. Before she could think further about her lack of consideration, Neville resumed his questions.

“And you tell me you had absolutely no idea about you family’s status, like really no idea?”

“No nothing, I just found out earlier today” The girl could clearly see the anger on his face this time, but he took a deep breath before continuing.

“Alright, first of all, you have to know it’ strange that you don’t know about your family. Dumbledore, as your guardian, should have taught you these things, so you could claim your title once you’re seventeen.  Also…” Will had to intervene at that point.

“My guardian? What are you talking about Nev, you know that my aunt’s my guardian; and she’s a Muggle, how would she know about that.” She asked, lost.

“No, I meant your magical guardian.”

“Magical guardian?” She was really confused, why would she need a magical guardian, if she already was under her aunt responsibility.

“Wait, you don’t know?” He said completely flabbergasted.

“I feel like there’s some misunderstanding here. Nev, I grew up in the non-magical world, I never had any kind of contact with it until my eleventh birthday when Hagrid came to take me to Diagonally. I didn’t even know I was a witch.”

“Oh…Oh!” Strangely enough, he seemed a bit relieved for a second, before shock took over again. “That’s so much worse than I thought. It’s bad, Will, it’s really bad!” He started pacing again.

“What do you mean?” She asked in a small timid voice.

“Your godfather’s lack of trial, you, being left completely in the dark about your heritage, it can’t be a simple coincidence. It’s not just a case of negligence, someone is clearly trying to interfere in your two family’s affairs. It’s a very serious matter.”

Will knew he wasn’t going to like the next bit of information but if he was to accept to help her, he was bound to hear it sooner or later. And since there were no real way to announce it gently, she just went for it “Er… you know…there is a good chance Dumbledore planned it all.”

Thinking back, Will couldn’t help but think she probably should have expected him to faint at some point.