All for nothing
Trevor had never seen Augusta so upset in his entire toad life. On the surface, she made it sound as if she was upset about all the publicity young Harry, the Boy Who Lived, received in the Daily Prophet.
Six young Hogwarts students had gone into the Ministry of Magic and risked life and limb for what turned out to be a carefully laid trap by Lord Voldemort, but only the Boy Who Lived received all the praise and publicity befitting a hero.
Of course there was much more to it than that.
The fact that her only grandson had risked his life at such a young age for nothing was only one of the thoughts occupying Augusta Longbottom, mother of Auror Frank Longbottom, mother-in-law to Auror Alice Longbottom, and grandmother to the boy who was lying in the hospital bed beside her.
It had not all been for nothing exactly. At least the other side had not been able to get their hands on what turned out to be a prophesy.
‘A prophesy!’ Trevor had heard Augusta shriek, when she found out what had been behind the whole insane adventure. ‘They risked their lives for a Merlin forsaken prophesy? When will they ever start teaching sensible subjects such as science and maths and foreign languages at that school, instead of bloody divination,’ she had mumbled, as she paced beside Neville’s bed.
Augusta had been campaigning for educational reform long before what she called ‘that toad-like excuse of a witch’ (no offence, Trevor), had completely ruined the concept by turning it into some sort of wizard supremacy indoctrination campaign, rather than the progressive reform Augusta and some of the more forward thinking wizards had envisioned.
Prophesies, according to Augusta, should be taken with a heavy dose of salt. Their value depended solely on their interpretation and Merlin knew most prophesies could be interpreted in a million different ways.
The fact that her grandson had risked his life for some prophesy, she nearly spat out the word as she ranted to no-one in particular, or possibly to Trevor, as he was the only one present in the hospital room, both angered her and made her proud at the same time and also immensely sad.
‘I drove him to doing this,’ she kept repeating to herself.
‘If I had not been so hard on him, constantly comparing him to his parents, time and time again saying that he wasn’t half the wizard his father was, he would never have done something so reckless to prove himself. He is only a kid,’ she wailed.
Trevor wasn’t convinced Neville had done any of this to prove himself. The Neville he knew was only driven by one thing and that was helping his friends. The only reason Neville would have gotten onto a Thestral of all creatures, to fly to London, would have been to help either Harry or one of the other Gryffindors or any Hogwart friend. Neville generally simply followed his generous heart, rather than making grand gestures to prove himself.
Seeing him lying in a hospital bed in St Mungo’s, just one floor away from where his parents were, was as difficult for Trevor as it was for his grandmother.
He had jumped into her large handbag as soon as she was about to leave for the hospital, to make sure she took him to see Neville. Initially she had lifted him back out and told him to stay at home, but as he had repeatedly hopped back into the bag, she eventually, reluctantly had given in and brought him along. Trevor observed his young human from the night stand beside his bed, where he had been perched since they arrived.
The doctors informed them that Neville was fine. His broken leg would fully heal eventually and there would be no lasting effects from his ‘little misadventure’, the doctor reported with a laugh, which froze on his lips when met by the icy stare from Grandma Longbottom, who did not think any of this was a laughing matter.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
When Neville woke up his eyes first registered Trevor and he scooped up the friendly toad before he noticed the tear stricken face of his grandmother. She reassured him they were tears of relief, as she folded him into a hug.
‘Gran, I fought Bellatrix Lestrange, but she was too strong,’ the words were gushing out of Neville as if his life depended on getting all this information out. ’She captured me, but I told Harry not to give them the prophesy, no matter what she did to me. And then the Order came and she killed Sirius Black and …’ Neville all of a sudden stopped talking and looked at his gran. ‘Is everyone else ok, Gran?’ He paused. ‘Are Luna and Ginny and Hermione and Ron and Harry ok?’
His gran simply took him into her arms and hugged him tightly.
‘They are all fine, Neville, you brave, brave boy. Everything will be fine.’ She hugged him some more, relieved that her grandson had not become another victim of that escaped convict Bellatrix Lestrange.
Trevor had never seen Augusta display as much physical affection for her grandson, but both Longbottoms clung to each other for dear life.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
It was much later that Neville was allowed to visit his parents. Frank and Alice were the same as always. They were no more surprised to see Augusta wheeling in their son in a wheelchair than they had been when she brought him in wearing his Hogwarts robes before he started school.
The words ‘I tried to avenge you, Mum and Dad’ froze on Neville’s lips. There was no need to upset his parents unnecessarily. Instead he presented his mother with a bag of sweets in colourful wrappers. Over the years he had learned that she liked the wrappers more than the sweets, so he always tried to bring her the most beautifully wrapped sweets he could find.
‘I will avenge them one day, Trevor,’ Neville said later, when he was back in his hospital room. ‘I will make sure that Bellatrix Lestrange pays for what she has done to them. Azkaban was too lenient a sentence for her. She is pure evil, she is.’