“Goodbye, Neville. We enjoyed having you with us. See you again sometime.” Mrs Granger gave Neville a big hug and kissed him on the cheek.
“Thank you, Mr and Mrs Granger. I had a great time. Bye,” said Neville politely and wiped his cheek with his sleeve. He wheeled his trolley around to face the wall. As he did so he was reminded instantly of being here just one year ago, standing nervously between platforms 9 and 10 of King’s Cross Station, London. Had it really been a whole year ago? He remembered the mixture of fear and excitement he had felt at the prospect of travelling to Hogwarts for the first time. So much had happened since then, but it seemed like only yesterday. Now the adventure would begin all over again.
The remaining time he’d spent at the Grangers had passed in a blur too. He’d enjoyed every day of it, learning first-hand so many of the quirks and intricacies of everyday Muggle life. But all too soon it was over and September had arrived. Neville had taken his last car ride into London and now here they were.
“Neville? Neville come on, stop daydreaming, we’ve got to go!” Hermione was at his shoulder as always, keeping him focused, chivvying him on. “The train goes in only three minutes and we need to find seats.”
“Alright, alright,” said Neville, snapping out of his reminisces. “Shall we go together?” He recalled not liking the experience of passing through the magical barrier onto Platform Nine and Three-Quarters.
“Fine.” They waved one last goodbye to Mr and Mrs Granger and charged their trolleys at the wall. Neville closed his eyes… and was suddenly hurled forward onto his suitcase. He had crashed straight into the wall. “Not again,” he thought and opened his eyes. He was surprised to see Hermione getting to her feet next to him. She helped him up.
“How come you didn’t get through?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” Hermione said. “Why didn’t you get through?”
“Well, I just figured… you know… I’d messed it up.”
“No, something’s wrong.” Hermione pushed the wall a few times and hurled herself against it quite hard. “The barrier, it’s closed itself somehow.”
“But that other kid got through fine a couple of minutes ago as we came down.” Neville looked up at the station clock. One minute to eleven and the seconds were counting down. “We’re going to miss the train!”
The few Muggles who had stopped to see what was going on passed on by. Mr and Mrs Granger now came over. “What’s the matter?” Mrs Granger asked.
Hermione explained, but by the time she had, the clock had ticked round to eleven. “What are we going to do now?” panicked Neville. “We all have to be on the train, it’s the rules. We’re going to get in so much trouble.”
“Calm down,” said Hermione. “I’m sure we can work something out.”
“Does the train stop anywhere else? Is there another train you can take?” asked Mr Granger.
Hermione shook her head. “No, it only runs this once. We have to be there by tonight or we’ll miss our first lessons tomorrow morning. Can you drive us up, please?”
“We can’t drive you all the way to Scotland and back, dear, it’d take more than two days and we have to work. Besides I don’t even know where Hogwarts is.”
“Somewhere remote. Not that far from Inverness apparently, but come to think of it I doubt you could find it by road,” Hermione acknowledged. “We should really try and get in contact with Hogwarts somehow, but it would take an owl ages to get there and back.”
“Hold on a minute, did you say Inverness?” said Mrs Granger, looking up at an information board. “There’s a train to Inverness from here that leaves in about an hour. You could get that.”
“But what would we do once we got to Inverness?” asked Neville.
“If we sent a message on ahead, could someone pick you up from there?” asked Mr Granger.
“I don’t know,” said Hermione, “but I don’t know what else we’re going to do.” They sat down on a bench and Hermione wrote a quick note on a small piece of paper she tore from a notebook. “Could you take it down to the Leaky Cauldron, Dad?” she said, handing it over. “You remember where it is. If you hang around for a while, someone will let you in, and they’ll be able to post it on to Hogwarts for you. Hopefully it’ll get there before we do.”
“I guess there’s not much else we can do.” Mr Granger took the note and they went over to the ticket office, where they bought two tickets for Inverness. The train left on time and Mr and Mrs Granger made sure Hermione and Neville were aboard before leaving. “Bye,” they said. “Stick together and call us when you get there if there’s a problem. Good luck.” They waved them goodbye and left.
Neville and Hermione jammed their suitcases into a tiny luggage rack and found a couple of seats and sat down. Neville looked around him nervously. This was a Muggle train and he hated it instantly. Instead of the quiet, spacious compartments of the Hogwarts Express, here there were what seemed like hundreds of Muggles crammed into rows and rows of tiny seats. It was loud, busy and frightening. He sunk down in his seat by the window and tried to block out the world around him.
It occurred to him that he had never been more surrounded by Muggles in his life than he was now. Even over the last fortnight they’d spent most of the time in the Grangers’ home among the family. Now here was a great crowd of strangers all about him and he felt a little afraid. He remembered what Mr Granger had said about wizards being afraid of Muggles. He hadn’t believed it at the time, but here he realised some of the anxiety he felt was that any moment someone would stand up and point him out for what he was. He was used to being unique, being always noticed, but that was among people he knew, in surroundings where he felt comfortable. Here he simply didn’t know what to expect. He recognised there was still a great deal about Muggles he ought to know.
Hermione was much more relaxed in this environment. She bought them lunch from the buffet car with the last of her Muggle money, given to her by her parents. The food was awful but Neville didn’t dare complain and ate it in silence. Hermione then spent most of the seemingly endless journey reading. She offered Neville one of her many spare books to read but he declined and instead stared out of the window and unsuccessfully tried to go to sleep.
The miles passed and the cities and towns of England and Scotland rolled by: Nottingham, York, Durham, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Aberdeen. Rolling countryside and open fields, wild hills and steep mountains, picturesque villages and urban sprawls. The canvas of Britain laid out before him. But none of it interested or inspired Neville. He simply huddled in his seat and waited for the journey to be over. Concealed in his pocket his hand clutched a precious object of his that reminded him, ironically, of home and who he was: his Remembrall.
Eventually, the numbers aboard the train now considerably thinned, it pulled gently in to Inverness station. It was a little after eight-thirty in the evening. The last few passengers disembarked and Neville and Hermione carefully pulled their heavy trunks off the train. Surreptitiously, Neville looked inside the small sealed box with holes poked in the top strapped to the top of his trunk. Trevor his toad was still safely inside, seemingly asleep.
They loaded the trunks onto trolleys and wheeled them off the platform towards the station forecourt. The station was fairly quiet but there were still a few people milling about. “Do you suppose your message got through?” asked Neville. “Will anyone be here to meet us?”
“We’ll just have to see,” said Hermione. “This way, it looks like.” She led Neville out past the ticket booths and onto the forecourt.
There, standing in the middle in front of the doors, someone was waiting for them. Someone had indeed been sent from Hogwarts to meet them. Neville gasped in horror when he saw who it was. It was Snape.
There was something faintly ludicrous about the sight of Professor Snape standing, dressed in his customary long black robe and with his blank scowl etched on his face, in such a Muggle setting as this. Several Muggles around him gave him strange glances but he acted as if he saw none of it. He just stared directly at Hermione and Neville. Neville’s stomach tightened painfully.
They walked nervously up to Snape. “You’re late,” he snapped.
“Er, sorry, the train was a bit delayed, I think…” said Hermione.
“Quiet,” Snape growled. “Come with me. Walking quickly, he led them out of the station and round the corner to a quiet street. “Keep up,” he called. Neville and Hermione, having had to leave behind their trolleys, were clumsily and slowly dragging their trunks behind him. Snape barely looked back and kept walking.
As they rounded the corner into the street, Neville gave a gasp. There, standing on the side of the street was a giant black horse. Its flesh seemed hideous and translucent, revealing the bones beneath. Huge leathery wings sprouted from its back. Its long neck tapered to a sharp, ugly, pointed head in which sunken spectral eyes glowed brightly. “What is that?” he exclaimed.
Snape looked back at Neville in surprise, up at the horse, then back at the boy. “You can see it?” he asked in a mildly curious voice. “Hmm. I see by your puzzled expression, Granger, that you can’t. It’s a thestral. Only… certain wizards and no Muggles can see it. It’s pulling this.” He looked up and down the street to check it was empty, then pointed his wand behind the thestral. An ornate carriage appeared behind it. “Get in quick,” he said. They loaded their trunks aboard and climbed in.
As soon as they were inside, Snape raised his wand once more and the carriage, now again invisible, lurched forward and took to the air, being pulled up and out of the city. Snape sat across from the two children and glared. Now they were alone his face had turned almost instantly purple. “What the hell do you think you were doing?” he yelled. “Travelling alone with all your wizarding belongings on Muggle transport for so far? Do you know the trouble you could have caused? What were you thinking?”
“We didn’t know what to do,” stammered a surprised Hermione. “It was the only way we could get up here.”
Snape sighed in disbelief. “As much as your egos might not allow you to believe it, you are not the first students ever to miss the Hogwarts Express.”
“We didn’t exactly miss it, sir, you see…” began Neville.
“I’m not interested in your excuses, and I wasn’t finished. If you had been more sensible and less impulsive, you might have realised that we do have plans for such an eventuality. An appropriate adult could have been dispatched on the Knight Bus to pick you up from home. Instead you come up with your own hair-brained scheme, causing no end of trouble. I’m astonished at both of you. Especially you, Mr Longbottom. Miss Granger has at least the excuse of being Muggle-born and inexperienced in such matters. You should know better. But it would seem the scope of your ignorance is not limited to your woeful skills at potion-making.”
Neville gulped and looked at his shoes. “But sir…”
“Silence! You’re lucky the Headmaster took pity on you and sent me to collect you. If it had been up to me I would have left you there, and you could have turned around and gone home, expelled. I fear you may not get what you deserve from Professor McGonagall.” He arched his eyebrows and stared hard at Neville, who continued to examine his own feet. They sat there in silence, under Snape’s harsh glare, for the rest of the journey, which was another half an hour.
When they arrived at Hogwarts, Snape dismissed the carriage and the strange winged horse and told them to leave their trunks at the entrance. He then led them up the main staircase and along to McGonagall’s office. Neville barely had time to take in that he was back in the huge, wonderful, awe-inspiring surroundings of the castle before Snape, in a hurry, bundled them into the office. “Here they are,” he said in a surly voice.
To Neville’s surprise, not only McGonagall was there, but Headmaster Dumbledore as well. Snape seemed also a little surprised. “Thank you Severus, you may go,” said Dumbledore. Snape looked almost disappointed, but left without a word, only a quick glare at Hermione and Neville.
Neville shifted uncomfortably. “W-we’re sorry Professor, Headmaster,” he mumbled awkwardly.
McGonagall looked sympathetic but stern. “Are you two alright?” she asked. They nodded silently. “Good. I hope you both realise you have been very fortunate. The Hogwarts Express is not just some holiday excursion. It exists for the protection of all students and to safely deliver them to Hogwarts. I trust in future you will not seek to override this precaution by… improvising?” More nods. “I am glad to see we agree. To make sure you understand, I am assigning you one night of detention each. Think on it, both of you.”
Neville and Hermione looked disappointed but said nothing. They had the feeling they had got off lightly. “Now go up to Gryffindor Tower at once,” said McGonagall. “You will find your belongings already there.”
“If I may, Minerva,” interrupted Dumbledore. “I will accompany Mr Longbottom and Miss Granger up to the tower. It is on the way to my office.”
“By all means, Albus,” said McGonagall, a little surprised. Dumbledore led Neville and Hermione out of the office and back to the stairs. He laid a comforting hand on each of their shoulders.
“I’m sorry about that,” he said. “I read your letter. I know it wasn’t your fault and that you did what was best. Really, you should not have received detention. But we have to make an example, to make sure the other students understand, for their protection. I will ensure your punishments are light.” He paused and coughed gently. “Tell me, what happened? Do you know why the barrier was closed?”
“No sir,” said Neville. “But I…” He hesitated.
“Yes, Neville, what is it?” Dumbledore looked down at the boy.
“Nothing.” He didn’t feel like having to make any long explanations tonight.
“Very well. Ah, here we are.” They stopped in front of the Fat Lady’s portrait. The door into the common room was already ajar. “Well, good night. I am glad you made it here safely. Your safety is very important to me.” He looked straight at Neville. “Very important. Make sure you thank Professor Snape for bringing you.”
Neville was reminded of a question that was bothering him. “Sir, why did you send Snape to pick us up? Why him?”
“I needed someone I could trust,” replied Dumbledore, “and I trust Professor Snape. Implicitly.” He nodded to them and walked off towards his office, whistling as he went.
Neville Longbottom and the Chamber of Secrets by Sonorus
Chapter Notes: In which Neville and Hermione take alternative means of travel to Hogwarts.