Neville was happy!
It was such a strange feeling, still.
He had his parents back!
Harry was his best friend.
He had good friends in Hermione, Luna, and Dean.
He had a wand that worked.
He was in contact with one of the most renowned herbalists and a world-class gardener.
His talent was being recognized.
His Grandmother and Uncle Algie were out of his life.
He had an amazing mind healer, who helped him find his confidence.
The healer, who had helped him first was also still in his life and would meet his parents tomorrow.
He had many adults that looked out for him.
School got better by the day. Next Monday they would get a new Potions teacher, for example.
Even his sleep was better, since the loudest snorer, on the whole island, was sleeping in another dorm!
And now, it was Friday noon, and Harry’s Healer G and he were on their way, to a weekend with his parents in Cornwall. Even if it rained the whole time, it would be amazing! Harry and Healer Rafael were coming tomorrow, as well!
Gerhard grinned down to the boy, who was actually skipping next to him, as they were on their way to the apparition point outside of the wards. The weather was rainy, but that didn’t seem to dampen Neville’s enthusiasm.
They were soon over the ward line and Gerhard held out his arm, which Neville took. This boy knew exactly what to expect.
Within seconds they arrived at the new apparition place, Severus had installed, and Neville flew to his parents, who stood in the doorway, getting hugs from both. He then turned around and said, “May I introduce Harry’s Healer G. And these are my parents.”
They told each other their first names and as it was drizzling here too, they went in to meet Heddy, who was alone right now, because her nephew had an appointment, somewhere. Neville was shown his room, to freshen up and then Heddy’s elves had readied lunch.
Afterward, the Longbottoms went for a long walk and Neville learned that rain and the sea together were amazing. (As long as he wasn’t dropped off a pier.) He just enjoyed time with his parents, and they, with him.
Gerhard stayed with Heddy, to relax, he had said.
When they came back, they found everyone in the kitchen together with Heddy’s nephew Tiberius Prince, a handsome, aristocratic-looking man with dark eyes and short-cropped dark hair., who had just come back, as well.
While they were eating dinner, Neville was looking at Tiberius strangely once in a while, and after they had finished, Tiberius said in his deep voice, “Do not question your senses. We have met before. Before I was cleansed of mind-altering potions and body-changing curses.”
“Prof… Professor Snape?” Neville’s mouth hung open.
“That was my name, before the second of September, this year. I changed it to Tiberius Severus Prince, now.”
“That is why Harry asked, what my thoughts were, about meeting a cleansed Professor Snape! He knew!”
“Yes, he did, he recognized me as well. But I asked him, not to tell anybody. But when your parents asked, if you all could come, I didn’t want to decline and have Harry keep this quiet any longer. As I understand you are best friends now, and that your minds and feelings are your own, just like mine are.”
“Thank you for telling me! Wow, but you have changed! May I ask if you were spelled or potioned to be mean to us?”
“Neville!”
“Please, Alice. When someone has the right to know, then it is your son. - Yes, I was. Spelled and potioned to be angry and mean. I am still meditating and am organizing my mind with occlumency daily, to actually find myself. I was so twisted around inside and out. - And even though my mind healer tells me, my behaviour was not under my control, I still feel guilty, about how reprehensible I behaved. Especially towards you, Mr. Longbottom. And I would like to tell you, how sorry I am, and beg your forgiveness.”
The rest of the group had fallen silent, noticing, that an important conversation was taking place.
Neville nodded earnestly, “Thank you, Mr. Prince. I think your mind healer is right, you might have been the face of it, but the master was someone else. Fortunately, your face is different now and you are not sneering or looming. So, it is not hard to differentiate between Professor Snape and Tiberius Prince. Ahm…, you have my forgiveness, even if you personally didn’t do anything, that needs it.”
Neville swallowed but sat straight and looked earnestly at Tiberius Prince, who swallowed as well and said just as formally, “I thank you. Would it be all right with you, to call me Severus?”
“Sure!” The 14-year-old boy was back. “If you call me Neville!” He grinned.
Severus smiled relieved, and said, “Whenever my presence is too much, please do tell me. I always can go to the library in Prince manor. It is amazing! You actually would enjoy the herbology part of it, I am sure! I spent the last days there reading up on ingredients preparation, after all.”
“Huh? Why would you do that?”
“Oh, to differentiate myself from Severus Snape, I took some additional OWLs yesterday and today at Gringotts. One of the available OWLs was Ingredient Preparation. Well, it was no question, that I would take that one. – Actually Heddy, I passed my NEWTs in three of the subjects as well. The examiner decided after my first practical tests, that it was unnecessary to test my OWL-level knowledge. Only Magical Theory was before that, so I will sit the NEWTs in it next week.”
“Congratulations, Severus! Do you know your grades already?”
“Only for the practical. I was told they were all O-level.”
Everyone congratulated Severus, who shrugged. He didn’t see it as an accomplishment, really.
Neville looked interested, “So which subjects were so simple for you? Ingredient Preparation, Magical Theory, and?”
“Oh dear, the other two were Duelling, practical only, and Dark Magic, theory and practical.”
“Wow, Dark Magic is an OWL subject?”
“Apparently it is everywhere in the world, other than in our part.”
“Huh. Dumbledore?”
“Indeed.”
After that conversation, Neville told them what was happening at Hogwarts, the mind healers, the tests for knowledge, and so on. He kept Harry’s theory about muggle-born people to himself, as they were still writing the proposal, and it was Harry’s show anyway.
Later they were roped into playing muggle board games. Severus tried to beg off, but Heddy found some for six players, so he couldn’t escape. It was fun. Even for Severus.
Harry arrived with Healer Rafael the next morning, shortly after 10. They had a second breakfast, which the elves had insisted on. The elves really seemed to adore Harry, who was his cheerful self and thought them to be great.
Luckily, the sun had come out, so Harry was voting strongly for the beach in front of the house. No one was opposed to it anyway, and so the whole group of now eight people soon sat on blankets or played in the shallow waters of the sea.
Neville brought plants to Severus once in a while and soon Severus, and strangely Rafael, joined them in the water, looking for ingredients, or playing in Harry’s case. Severus and Rafael really seemed to hit it off. They smiled at each other often and then looked away again. Very strange behaviour, Neville and Harry thought so, at least.
The rest of the adults were greatly amused, by the sparks that flew between the men since the arrival of the last two visitors. The two really tried to be discreet with their attraction, but it was fairly obvious. Severus noticed as well that they were fooling no one. Well, they fooled the oblivious boys, but the rest was on to them. He was just thankful, that no one was prone to teasing Rafael or him.
Lunch was eaten, naps were taken and Bocca was played, never with Heddy and Harry in one team, Severus and Gerhard made sure of that, much to Harry’s dismay. Overall, it was a very enjoyable day!
The only hiccup was, when Heddy said, how sorry she was, that the water was too cold to swim for the boys.
Neville said gloomily, “Since Uncle Algie nearly drowned me, to ‘scare the magic out of me’, I don’t like to swim, anyway. Being at the edge of the swallow water is all right but going deeper kind of scars me. Sorry.”
And Harry added, “I know, what you mean! Dudders pushed me under the water at swimming lessons, so I never learned anyway, and I hated the feeling, of not getting any air!”
Neville nodded and all the adults tried not to scream in frustration about all the people, who had failed their boys.
“That is ok, Harry, it is a useful skill to know, as one learns how to navigate in that strange environment, but we will tackle that topic next summer, all right?” Gerhard asked.
“Sure,” Harry said. “Maybe Neville and I could take some lessons then, without other kids?”
“Good idea!”
The next morning, Severus showed Prince manor to all of them. Harry was mightily impressed! It was a fortress! His imagination was running wild in this environment. Soon Neville and he were playing being chivalrous knights, who had to defend their castle, from the evil… ahm, unicorns? No, the evil dragon! The unicorns were a defence as well! Gerhard was roped into the role of the dragon and Frank became the seneschal, while Neville was crowned king, by Harry, who took the role of general of their huge army.
All four had so much fun. Harry’s imagination and ideas were amazing. Gerhard tried not to think about why that was and tried to enjoy it. He did. A lot. Laughter and yells were heard all over the castle. It was so much fun. Even the elves and unicorns joined in, somehow. The dragon was soundly defeated after an epic battle and soon the four went to look for the rest and food.
It had been, like the boys could play at last. And have someone to play with! Harry and Neville both knew that they would never have played like that with anyone else, except… “Let’s take Luna with us, next time, we need a fair maiden!” Harry said.
Neville nodded, “She would love this.”
“Yeah, right?”
“Let’s not tell the others though, they would find it childish, I think. But I always wished to have the chance to play like that!”
“Me, too! So, I don’t care if others think it is childish. I bet they would all play as well. Healer G and Frank had fun, I think. But if you want to keep it between us and Luna, that is ok with me.”
Gerhard and Frank, who walked in front of the boys to show them the library, winced at some points in the conversation behind the boys, who seemed to think, that no one heard them or didn’t care if their two father figures did.
As soon, as they were in the library, Harry lost Neville to the herbology section. He went to look at the history books. His interest in history had been rekindled, by the books the ICW people had brought. Harry even had ordered some, yesterday, they were that good!
Neville was in heaven. So many books, that were thought to be lost! As most were older than the copyright charms, he got quite some duplicates, made by Severus.
“Do you think, Madame Pince would accept duplicated books? Because she would love them, I am sure.”
“Hm, if I wrote into each, that it was a duplicate of a book from the Library in Prince manor, made with the express permission of Lord Prince…. Good idea, Neville. I will go through the Library and do that after I asked Irma if she would like that. I will tell her it was your idea as well!”
After some hours of reading, they were treated to a late lunch and then went back to the beach, as the sun had come out again, as one elf scouted out for them.
Severus and Rafael were still strange to one another. Harry had an idea, why and whispered it to Neville, who looked bug-eyed at the two handsome men. It boggled his mind. His formerly most hated teacher, who was now a great human being and his healer? Uh. Strange!
“You think?”
“Yeah. Well, would you mind?”
“Nah.”
“Me neither.”
And that was that. The green shell they found was much more interesting, anyway.
The End