Neville was trudging down an old and winding woodland path, somewhere in the depth of an ancient forest. Thousands of small white flowers littered the ground. Anemone nemorosa, Neville thought, but he knew the Swedes usually called them Vitsippor. At a distance, it looked like a big white ocean.
He had been travelling the south of Sweden for about two weeks. He could really understand why Luna loved this place so much.
Luna had met her fiancé, Rolf, here in Sweden. It happened when Luna was travelling around Scandinavia in her search for Crumple Horned Snorkacks. Unfortunately she hadn’t found any Snorkacks, but instead she had found Rolf and fallen in love.
Neville passed a ruined stone cottage, surrounded by many different sorts of flowers. He considered to stop and have a look, but decided to continue. He hadn’t come here to study flowers, he reminded himself, no matter what he had told his friends. Neville’s stomach started to hurt. He kept feeling guilty and ashamed every time he thought of the lies he had told his friends. He hadn’t even dared to tell Luna about the true intentions of his mission.
An old Muggle couple with two white dogs passed and greeted him friendly in Swedish. He answered with a simple English hello, but soon returned to his own thoughts.
He thought about how it had all begun. When Luna had returned from Scandinavia with Rolf, she had learned a lot about the many creatures and beasts that were said to live there in the dark forests and high mountains. She had told him about everything from the famous Swedish Short Snout dragons to the more unknown Forest Fairies.
One evening she had told him the story about a mysterious person called Näcken.
Näcken was a man who lived in rivers and lakes in the north countries of Europe. He was well known to both Muggles and wizards. In old times, Muggles had thought he was the son of the devil. Witches and Wizards however thought that he was possibly half merman, half human. He was said to own unbelievable magical powers and Muggles, as well as wizards, had frequently asked him for help.
To begin with, Neville had thought that it was only some crazy legend, just like Snorkacks, but when he decided to learn more about this creature, he discovered that Näcken might be real. Several Wizards and Witches had claimed to have met him, and as Neville’s knowledge of Näcken increased, he found himself believing more and more in the myth.
Wanting to get more information about this strange fairytale figure, Neville had bought a book on Swedish myths. In the book he had found a chapter about the Lord of the River’s many magical powers.
Now when he walked there in the white ocean of flowers, he couldn’t help but wonder if he had made the right decision. After two weeks he hadn’t been able to find any signs of Näcken. Maybe the Lord of the Rivers was nothing more than a fairytale, and the book’s statement that Näcken could cure mental disorders had just been a piece of rubbish.
Neville didn’t even want to think about that possibility. It must have been true, he told himself. He couldn’t give up when there might be a chance that he one day would be able to have a real conversation with his parents.
He tried to push all those bad thoughts away, so that he could just enjoy the fantastic spring afternoon in peace and quiet. After a while he came to a small stone bridge over a murmuring brook. He decided to follow the brook rather than crossing the bridge. Almost an hour later he decided to take break. He pulled out his wand and conjured a teacup in the air.
“Du borde inte ha gjort så utan att kolla om någon var i närheten,” said a voice behind him.
Neville turned in shock to stare at a girl with short blond hair and a face full of freckles. Her two green eyes seemed to be inspecting him.
Neville looked around, but couldn’t see anyone else. He realized that he might have to obliviate the girl and raised his wand to her face. To use spells on innocent spectators wasn’t his favorite thing to do, but sometimes it became necessary.
“Who are you?” he asked her.
“I’m Linnéa Trollberg, and as I said a moment ago, you shouldn’t use spells without first checking if someone is around. I could have been a Muggle.”
Neville relaxed. Good, she was a witch, he wouldn’t need to hex her. He lowered his wand.
“Hi, I’m Neville Longbottom,” He said and shook her hand.
She gave him a warm and friendly smile.
“HARRY!!!!” Ron shouting as he ran into the room. “Azkaban… Carrows… Revenge!”
“Calm down for a second, Ron. What are you trying to say?”
Ron continued to gasp for air before he could talk normally again.
“The Carrows have escaped from Azkaban. I think they’re going to try, killing the guy, they believe is the cause of their failure”
“Me?”
“No! Everything isn’t always about you Harry. I meant Neville. He was the leader of DA during their reign at Hogwarts, and it was Neville who helped you to enter the school through Ariana’s portrait. They want him dead more than anything else.”
“But Neville is in Sweden.”
“The guards found this in their cell.”
Harry stared paralyzed at the object Ron was holding.
“Jamie!!” he called for his assistant. “Contact the Auror Offices in Sweden and Denmark immediately. I want all aurors working on finding the Carrows.”
Voldemort was defeated, so why would this stupid war never end? he thought to himself.
Neville stared at his watch unbelievingly. It couldn’t be right. It felt like it had only been half an hour since he had decided to take that break. Linnéa walked up behind him. When she saw what time it was she stared to laugh hysterically.
“We have been talking for five hours?” Neville could still not believe that the time had passed so fast.
Linnéa had turned out to be a very interesting person and time had just flooded away when they talked. She seemed to know everything there was to know about the Swedish wildlife and when he told her that he studied plants she had gladly shared her knowledge. Soon they also discovered that they had more things in common. Except Luna, he had never met a person who was so easy to talk with. In a way, Linnéa reminded him much of Luna.
Still, he had lost a half days work chatting with her.
“Are you going to stay here in this forest for a long time?” she asked. “I would really like to help you with your work you know.”
If Neville had actually been there to study plants he would have accepted her offer at once. She knew a lot about the flowers, trees and animals that lived here. But I’m not here to study plants at all, he reminded himself. He had already lost a lot of time because of her. Still, he didn’t want to reject her either. Maybe she could be helpful anyway. After all, she might know much more about Näcken.
“I don’t think so,” he finally replayed. “I was thinking about maybe going up north. I’d like to see the midnight sun and the northern lights. I’ve also heard there live the most incredible creatures there, like Snorkacks and Forest Fairies.”
“You can’t see any northern lights in the late spring, silly. And the midnight sun is not that special. It’s just the sun in the middle of the night. There are Forest Fairies in this forest too and that other creature you mentioned I don’t think I’ve ever heard off.”
“What about Näcken?”
She suddenly stopped smiling at the sound of that question and she looked at him like he had said something very strange and bizarre.
“You mean the Lord of the Rivers? No one knows where he is. Most people think it’s just an old fairytale.” She made a short pause before she continued. “But... if you want to know about Näcken, you should talk to my brother. He has been trying to find him for several years.”
“Welcome to Trollberg Hall,” Linnéa said as they entered a gigantic mansion on a hill surrounded by green bare fields.
On the inside, the house looked dark and old and it had a faint smell of mould. Portraits of old wizards and colorful paintings hung on the walls. Linnéa shouted something that Neville thought meant, “I’m home!”
A chubby little woman with dark hair and a flowery apron came rushing into the hall and embraced Linnéa in her arms. They talked for a moment before the old lady turned to Neville. Linnéa introduced them to each other. The woman was evidently her old Grandmother.
“I’m happy to have you in my house, Mr. Longbottom. Of course I already knew you were coming. An owl arrived earlier today with a letter for you,” the woman said with a strong Scandinavian accent and pulled out a letter from one of her pockets. “Linnéa, show him the guestroom. I’m going to go and cook tonight’s dinner.”
Linnéa led him to one of the upper floors of the huge house. The guestroom was quite small and cosy and it didn’t smell of mould there either. In addition to the simple bed, the room also contained a small desk. In front of the desk there was a window with a fantastic view over the mansion’s garden.
“I’m going to go and take a shower,” Linnéa informed him. “Make yourself comfortable.”
When she had left the room Neville took out the letter her grandma had given him. It didn’t take him very long to recognize Harry’s handwriting.
He read through it as fast as he could. According to Harry, the Carrows had escaped from Azkaban and they were now out to kill Neville. Harry wanted him to come home until they had been captured.
I can’t return to Britain, Neville thought. Not now when he had just gotten new hope of finding Näcken. Why would he be in bigger danger here than in England anyway? The Carrows had not been able to find and kill him while he was hiding at Hogwarts. Why would they have better luck this time?
Neville found a quill in one of the desk’s drawers and was just going to write Harry a reply when he heard the sound of music from the yard. Curiously he looked out of the window. In the garden stood a tall, young man with long blond hair, who played on a violin. Neville had never heard someone play a violin so beautifully before.
“Hi,” Neville said when he reached the man in the garden. “Are you Linnéa’s brother?”
The young man looked surprised at the stranger. “Yes, I’m Ludvig Trollberg. Who asks?”
“I’m Neville Longbottom and I must find the Lord of the Rivers.”
Ludvig looked even more surprised than he did when Neville had burst in to the garden in the first place, but slowly he started to smile and look even more excited than Neville.
However, in their excitement, the two young wizards failed to notice two figures hiding in the bushes.