Scene from Harry Potter and the OOTP, Chapter Twenty-One
I glanced around nervously as Hagrid led us eagerly into the Forbidden Forest. The trees loomed over me and I jumped as an owl hooted in the distance.
“What prefers the dark?”
I heard the panic in Draco’s voice as he said sharply to Crabbe and Goyle, “What did he say prefers the dark “ Did you hear?”
Draco Malfoy was actually panicking and slightly scared. Now that was a change. My eyes surveyed the clearing we came to a halt in cautiously, as though I expected a dangerous creature to suddenly jump out at me.
I was too much of a crybaby and always scared of something or other. I would always be bubbling, crybaby Longbottom. I wasn’t cool, calm, and collected like the others. But then again, I’d rather be plain old Neville most days than that Mr. Popular Malfoy. But some days, I’d give anything to be thought of as cool and brave.
I don’t know why the Sorting Hat placed me in Gryffindor. It said that I would prove myself to be brave one day; show people that I had it inside of me. For nearly five years, I had never really proven that I was brave; only that I was easily broken down and couldn’t stand up for anything.
Wait, no. There was only one time that I could remember. At the end of my first year, I was awarded ten points for bravery. All I did was say to Harry and his friends that I didn’t think they should leave the Common Room that night. Later on at that same time, Harry also defeated You-Know-Who for the second time. If I had just let them go straight away, they would have got there sooner, and stopped Quirrell before he got past that three-headed dog.
I was thinking so deeply about myself that I jumped a foot in the air when Hagrid threw back his head and gave a shriek.
There I go again with the whole scared reaction. But then again, everyone else looked too scared to speak let alone move.
I heard rustling from beside me. My eyes flickered over to the bush that continued to move. Hagrid gave his shrieking call twice more before I finally saw something. The only thing was I was the only one out of three people who could see them.
My eyes glanced over at Harry, who looked quite relived at the sight of them. At the start of the year, he had seen them. I had as well, but I had no idea what they were.
The creature’s eyes were black, white, and shining as they grew larger through the gloom. I watched the creature half fascinated and half ready to bolt out of the forest. But curiosity got the better of me, so I stayed rooted to the spot.
A few seconds later, the dragonish face, neck, and then the skeletal body of a great, black, winged horse emerged from the darkness. My eyes locked eyes with the horse-like creature before it started eating away at the carcass of the cow.
Ron commented something to Harry and everyone still craned their necks to try and see the something coming from the bushes. It didn’t seem odd to me at that moment that only a few of the class could see them.
“Why doesn’t Hagrid call again?”
“Oh, an’ here comes another one!” said Hagrid proudly. “Now…put yer hands up, who can see ‘em?”
I nearly fainted as another one made its way into the clearing and, right in front of me, started chewing off large amounts of carcass. I held my stomach down barely as the smell of the dead cow started to get to me.
I slowly put my hand in the air. Was I finally about to find out why I could see them when only two other people could?
“What’s doing it?” Parvati demanded in a terrified voice from beside me, as she retreated to the nearest tree. “What’s eating it?”
I knew why she was so terrified and confused by it. She obviously couldn’t see them; she was instead seeing pieces of flesh vanishing into thin air.
“Thestrals,” said Hagrid proudly and Hermione gave a soft, ‘Oooh,” of comprehension at Harry’s shoulder. “Hogwarts has a whole herd of ‘em in here. Now, who knows -?”
They were Thestrals. So that’s what they were called. Still, why could only some people see them? Of course, up goes Hermione’s hand when Hagrid asks.
“The only people who can see Thestrals,” she said. “Are people who have seen death.”
Now I understand,I thought to myself as I backed away from the creature slightly.‘It’s because I saw my Granddad die.
Of course, Hermione would know why only some people could see them. She was smart and basically knew everything there was to know about everything. I admired her a lot. She was another one I sometimes wished I was. With her knowledge, I could do anything. I wasn’t smart. I was just Forgetful Neville. I would never amount to anything with my memory. I was unpopular, untalented and stupid. That’s how I would always see myself.
Minutes passed and the dreadful Umbridge arrived with her sickening, sweet smile upon her face as she took in Hagrid’s bruised and battered appearance.
Within the first few moments of her inspection, she was tearing down Hagrid with her rude comments and notes she had written down on her clipboard.
She made me furious. Hagrid was extremely nice to everyone and, all right, so his lessons weren’t exactly safe, but they matched his enthusiastic personality perfectly; his love of dangerous animals. At least he didn’t make fun of me and constantly take points of my house for the most ridiculous things like Professor Snape.
But sometimes, I did have to agree with Snape. I was stupid when it came to most things, but I was disastrous when it came to Potions.
Oh God, she’s coming towards me, her grin widening slightly.
“You can see the Thestrals, Longbottom, can’t you?’ she asked.
I nodded slowly. She was bringing back painful memories of my Granddad’s death. My poor Gran; she’s lost just about as many people in her life as me. Granddad, my dad, my mum (even though she wasn’t related to Gran, I knew she thought of mum as her own daughter).
“Who did you see die?” she asked, her tone indifferent.
“My…my Granddad,” I said, forcing the words out.
“What do you think of them?” she asked, waving her stubby hand at the horses, who by now had stripped a great deal of the carcass down to the bone.
What was I suppose to say? I pondered this while Umbridge looked at me, her smile growing wider. I didn’t particularly like these creatures. They were symbols of death. But I didn’t want to let Hagrid down. He already looked pretty devastated.
“Erm,” I said nervously, with a glance at Hagrid. “Well, they’re…er…OK…”
Well, I didn’t say that I hated them, and thought that they were dangerous and unlucky. But I didn’t say I thought they were fascinating and wonderful either.
“Students…are…too…intimidated…to…admit…they…are…frightened,” muttered Umbridge, making another note on her clipboard.
What? No! I didn’t say that I was frightened. And Hagrid does not intimidate me! How dare you, you vile woman! I thought sadly.
“No!” I said, looking upset. “No, I’m not scared of them!”
That’s not what I said, you vile, piece of-, I thought furiously.
“It’s quite all right,” said Umbridge, patting me on the shoulder with what she evidently intended to be an understanding smile, though it looked more like a leer to me.
Once again, I had messed things up. I seemed to do that a lot. I mess potions up, spells, and charms and answering simple questions like that.
What seemed like ages later, the lesson finished, and Umbridge marched off back to the castle and the students started to move out of the forest. I could see the disappointment on Hagrid’s face as I passed him. I felt terrible. The situation had been bad, and I had made it worse.
I walked slowly behind Harry, Ron, and Hermione and couldn’t help but listen in on the conversation about the lesson. I just happen to catch Hermione’s last words.
“…the way some people can see them and others can’t! I wish I could.’
Neville stopped dead in his tracks. She wished that she could see them? Obviously she didn’t understand that seeing the Thestrals meant you had seen death. No one would want to have seen death on purpose. I sure wasn’t grateful that I could see the Thestrals. All I thought they were were symbols of death. Every time I saw them, I would think of the pain and heartache inside of me.
Scene from Harry Potter and the OOTP, Chapter Thirty-Eight
I sat, thinking deeply about the past events that had taken place in the Hospital Wing in one of the comfortable chairs between to beds. I could vaguely hear Hermione reading from the Daily Prophet and apparently, they had heard that the Minister had finally agreed to believe that the Dark Lord had returned.
I still couldn’t believe what I had done. I had joined Harry and the rest on their journey to the Ministry’s Department of Mysteries and fought against Death Eaters, and stood up to the Death Eaters and faced Bellatrix, the cow of a woman who took my parents away from me.
My nose had been returned to normal size and shape with the help of Madam Pomfrey. Ron helped himself to a handful of Chocolate Frogs from the immense pile on his bedside table and threw a couple to Harry, Ginny, and myself. I slowly tore the wrapper off, still thinking.
My Gran had been notified of my participation in the incident. She had sent a Howler to the school, shouting about how I could have been killed, but then her voice softened and she had said that she was so proud of me and so would my parents have been.
Thinking of my parents brought Bellatrix into my mind as I chewed off the head of my frog. She had ruined my life. She took my parents away from me, but didn’t even kill them. She tortured them into insanity. There are things worse that death. They don’t recognize me at all. It’s painful to see them, but inside I think that maybe if I see them as much as I can during the summers, they’ll remember who I am.
The Healers at St Mungo’s and my Gran say encouragingly to me, that seeing them doesn’t mean that they’ll snap out of it, but I can’t just ignore them for the rest of my life; they’re still my parents.
I keep my collection of bubble gum wrappers that Mum gives me in my bedroom, hidden away from Gran. She thinks they’re ridiculous and tells me to throw them away. She doesn’t understand. They may not mean much to her, but to me, they mean the whole world.
I look over at Ron and wonder briefly if he ever is truly grateful for his large and loving family. Or does he think that it’ll just always be there when he needs them? I never had that feeling. I never was able to go home to the comfort of my Mother’s arms. He may just think that his family is poor and wishes that he were richer.
Me? I’d give anything for his family, or any family at all. Just to be able to kiss my Mum goodnight and have Father and Son moments.
No, I’ve never had any of this, because of one woman. Bellatrix Lestrange. Because of her, I grew up alone in the world with no parents or family except for my Gran. She ruined my life when I had barely started to live it.
She didn’t deserve to live her life. Killing and torturing people for the fun of it. Ruining people’s lives and causing years of loneliness and misery. I may not be the greatest of wizards. But the events that took place at the Ministry give me a confidence boost. A thank you for helping stop Death Eaters is better than any test score in DADA or Potions. And I’d rather do that that just beat someone in a stupid test any day.
Others may have better luck getting rid of all the other Death Eaters, but Bellatrix Lestrange is mine.
As I sat there, I thought to myself:
‘She will pay.
A/N: A big thanks goes out to Lindsey (Ron x Hermione) for beta'ing this for me. *Claps*