Ding-dong, ding-dong…

The great clock struck and Neville Longbottom jerked awake. Three o’clock. Hours before dawn.

Neville cautiously looked around in the darkness. The dormitory was completely silent, more silent than it had ever been. In the past, when there had been five boys sleeping in the room, there was always some sort of noise—a snore, a sigh, maybe even someone talking in his sleep. Dean had tended to do that quite a lot and Harry would cry out sometimes. But now, with only Neville and Seamus left, it was silent.

It was creepy, the other three boys not being there. Neville and Seamus were the only ones who had bothered turning up. Where Harry, Ron, and Dean were was a complete mystery. Neville could only guess at the type of life his former compatriots must be living.

Probably better than mine, Neville thought bitterly. He wished he was on the run, out doing something, rather than being stuck in school, if Hogwarts could even be considered a school anymore.

Neville rose from his bed, slipping his feet into the stupid bunny slippers that Great-Aunt Eugenia had given him. Why Great-Aunt Eugenia thought that bunny slippers were still appropriate for a seventeen-year-old boy, Neville had never determined. Actually, it was comforting to know that some things would never really change in his life.

He silently left the dormitory and went downstairs to the common room. He didn’t dare leave Gryffindor tower, but he could at least be in the common room where it didn’t feel quite as deserted. True, at this time a few years ago, he would have found Hermione studying diligently by the light of the fire, and Hermione was gone now, but the common room still felt more alive than the dormitory. Maybe it was because the Carrows couldn’t penetrate this room without McGonagall’s help, and McGonagall would gouge out her eyes with her own wand before helping the Carrows.

Neville shivered. His mind had gone back to the dream he’d been having before he had woken up. It was one he’d had all his life, but in years past, with Harry Potter sleeping just across the room, he had been able to let it go. Now Harry was gone and the subject of his nightmare was an everyday encounter.

In the daylight, even with the Carrows breathing down his neck and trying to destroy him, Neville could put on a brave face and brush it all off. But when the sun set and Neville went to bed, he could feel it all come back to him. When no one was watching, when the others weren’t looking to him to lead them, Neville became the boy he used to be, the boy he had been before Harry had taught him to be brave, the little boy who was scared of his own shadow.

“Neville?� Seamus’s voice cut through the darkness. “You down here, mate?�

“Yeah,� Neville called back as Seamus came down the stairs and sat down next to him. “I just… woke up and couldn’t go back to sleep.�

“I heard you get up,� Seamus said. “I was afraid you were about to do something stupid.�

Neville shook his head. “Not tonight,� he said. “If I had something to do, I’d have told you… or Ginny…�

“Not necessarily,� Seamus said. “You didn’t tell me you were going to try and steal the sword.�

“That wasn’t planned,� Neville shrugged. “We just had a chance and… well, you know how impulsive Ginny is…�

“I know,� Seamus nodded. “It’s kind of… well, if she wasn’t Dean’s ex…�

Neville nodded back. “I wish we could get some of the others out of here… out of this nightmare…�

“At least the ones who can’t fight,� Seamus agreed. “You and me and Ginny and Luna and… well, all of them… we can look after ourselves. The first years, the ones who are scared…�

“You know,� Neville interrupted. “I’ve always been afraid of this sort of thing… of torture… Death Eaters… Snape… but I’d take all of it for the ones who can’t. I can take it.�

“We all like to think so,� Seamus sighed. “And some of us actually do.�

Neville looked at his friend in the firelight. Only three months at school had done a lot to Seamus. Both his eyes were blackened and he had multiple scars, some of which would probably never heal. Neville himself looked almost as bad, though Seamus would get the worse share. Seamus was only a half-blood and was a lot mouthier than Neville had ever been.

“Why did you get up?� Seamus asked.

“Nightmare,� Neville admitted. He had never told anyone about his nightmares before. No one could ever understand.

“What was it?� Seamus asked.

Maybe Seamus could understand now that he had seen some of the horrors.

“It was… I don’t know if it’s a memory or just my imagination… or a combination of both… you know about my parents?�

“I heard about it,� Seamus said. “My mam said something about it when I mentioned that you were in my dorm and she told me the full story when she heard about the Carrows coming.�

“Well… I was in the same room,� Neville said. “And when I fall asleep, I hear… screaming. Just screaming. And I can hear mad laughter… and I can see the lights… and I wish… I wish I could do something to forget it… to stop having these nightmares…�

Seamus sat stock still. No expression crossed his face and it was too hard to see his eyes under the bruises.

“But the worst part of it… of that nightmare… I hear her… she’s crying… and then, before she starts to scream again… she whispers, ‘I will always love you, Neville… be brave.’ I don’t know if that was real… I don’t want to know… because if it isn’t… I want it to be real… because when I can think of it… it makes this nightmare a little brighter.�

Seamus nodded. “We’re all having nightmares,� he said. “But none like yours… this is a nightmare, and we can’t wake up, any of us. But we can make it better… if we think of it as a battle that we can win, not a nightmare we can’t control.�

Neville thought this over. “Isn’t a battle another kind of nightmare?� he asked.

“I don’t know,� Seamus admitted. “I’ve never seen a battle like you have. But if we’re awake, we can control it a little.�

“Right,� Neville said. “We’ll make it their nightmare.�