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A Fitting End	By : bibliobibuli17 Category: Harry Potter > General > General Views: 1282 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I don't have any claim, monetary or otherwise, on anything HP related. Actually...I don't really have a claim on anything, period, except my dudefriend. That's sad.

Chapter List
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Disclaimer: If only it were mine. If only if only, the things I could do...

Neville waited, tense and ready to spring, behind a bed in a patient�s room. There hadn�t been enough time to evacuate even half of those housed in the building, and Neville shied away from wondering whether his parents had been one of the few who�d been taken to the Hogwarts dungeons.
Snape had said Voldemort would be in attendance. With how poorly the battle for the Ministry had gone for the Order, he apparently felt that he would be in no danger in a battle for a building holding patients. Neville, knowing that Voldemort was in no way aware the Order would be here, couldn�t fault his logic. Truthfully, taking St. Mungo�s would be greatly beneficial to Voldemort. He�d control the best healing center in all of England, if not the wizarding world.
Deciding that thinking about such discouraging things was not beneficial to his cause, Neville turned his thoughts to his defense. Working a year and a half with Harry, in addition to the DA in fifth year, had left Neville fairly competent when it came to defense. He'd obtained hours of practice in their escapades. He was more confident, more prepared, now...but he was still up against seasoned Death Eaters, and he was aware of his limitations.
He, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Elphias Doge, and Remus Lupin were all assigned this floor. The Order had been spread out over different rooms on different floors, ready to spring out on the Death Eaters. They were ensconced in occupied rooms, in hopes of keeping the Death Eaters from killing those who hadn�t been evacuated. The patients themselves they�d cast sleeping charms on. His room was near the end of the hall, near the stairs to the next floor.
Hearing the footsteps of multiple people running down the hallway he was in, Neville�s thoughts directed themselves at the environment. Doors slammed open, and he heard the voices of his allies and the Death Eaters shouting in pandemonium. The voices and steps moved closer, colored light flashing frequently. A shadow moved over the crack between the door and its frame before it was blown apart, shards flying about the room and landing on the patient of unknown identity in the bed. Jumping up, Neville aimed and fired �
�Expelliarmus!�
The Death Eater dodged the spell before firing a red hex at Neville. He, not bothering to even attempt figuring out what it had been � it didn�t matter what a Death Eater cast, you wanted to avoid it anyway � ducked and rolled on the floor so he came up at the end of the bed. The Death Eater had moved their way around the opposite side of the bed, and now Neville was nearest to the door. Hoping to draw the Death Eater out of the room, he cast a quick �Glasius!� before stepping closer to the door. The Death Eater began to stalk toward him, simply moving out of the path of the spell, and recognizing the strut Neville paused.
�P-professor?�
�Shut up, you imbecile! Do you wish to alert everyone to the fact that I am a traitor?� came Snape�s voice from behind the mask.
�No, Prof-�
�Did I not say shut your trap, you bumbling idiot? Now use the very little competence you are in possession of to make this look as real as possible!� Snape snarled, before throwing another nonverbal spell at Neville.
Neville ducked. Even though it was an ally in disguise he was dueling with, he figured it would probably be best if he were to still avoid all spells thrown at him. He himself hadn't quite mastered nonverbal spells, despite his improvement.
Backing out the door, he and Snape traded a volley of harmless spells (at least, Neville assumed Snape�s nonverbal ones were mostly harmless) until they were both in the hallway.
At that moment, Neville heard the anguished cry of what he thought was Doge. Wincing, knowing there was nothing he could do now, Neville counted him as a man down.
He saw out of the corner of his eye as Remus ran from his room at the other end of the aisle. He watched as Remus turned sharply back around and shot a binding spell at the unwitting Death Eater that tore out after him. Casting Petrificus Totalus for good measure, Remus turned back to face them.
The Death Eater from Doge�s room chose then to appear. Seeing Neville and what he thought was his fellow Death Eater dueling, the nameless Death Eater aimed at Neville. He never got the chance to cast, however, as Remus had come up behind him. Giving this Death Eater the same treatment as the first, Remus then aimed for Snape � though, even if Remus had known who it was, it wouldn�t have made any difference after the events in sixth year.
Snape, seeing this, turned from Neville to duel with Remus. Kingsley ran out of his own room, apparently having dispatched his own Death Eater. He glanced at Remus briefly to ensure he was holding his own, then grabbed Neville by the arm to drag him toward the stairwell. Kingsley had blood soaking through his right shirt sleeve and singe marks on his pants.
�Come on, Longbottom, stairs! All the fighting is in the lower levels!� Kingsley shouted, tugging at Neville�s arm. Neville had been lagging, wondering whether he should stay to make sure Remus and Snape didn�t kill each other.
Snape would probably try to talk to Remus. Remus was reasonable � maybe he would listen.
At that thought, Neville followed Kingsley willingly to the stairs. They crashed through the stairwell doors, running down two flights. Neville almost fell once, but he managed to catch the handrail.
They hadn�t intended to stop two flights down � they were headed for the main entrance, which Kingsley said was where the fight between Harry and Voldemort was � but they saw the Death Eaters through the glass on the doors; the Order hadn�t gotten to this floor, and the Death Eaters were having �sport� with the patients. Neville felt himself go pale, and nausea roil in his stomach at the little he could see going on through the glass. He looked to Kingsley and watched as his face contorted into an expression of disgust and rage the likes of which Neville had never seen. Without a second thought, Kingsley blasted the doors open with a curse and began to fling spells in every direction � and he didn�t bother with the easy, mostly harmless spells Neville stuck with. He was a trained Auror, and was authorized to use the Unforgivables in certain situations.
Watching as Avada Kedavras flew from Kingsley�s wand, Neville figured this was one of those situations.
All the Death Eaters - about five in total - had dropped their toys when Kingsley had made his presence known and turned to face their enemy. They seemed to mostly disregard Neville, who was standing partially behind Kingsley. Having determined through a cursory glance that none of the victims on the floor were his parents, he was doing his best not to study the scene any further.
All disregarded him � all but one, that is. A high-pitched maniacal laughter flooded the hallway when the owner spotted him, one Neville could place anywhere after the Department of Mysteries. How likely was it that the one person he hated, with all his soul, was on this same floor instead of with her master?
Hearing his parents� torturer�s laughter instantly froze Neville. He stood for a moment. He wasn�t sure at first he could confront her, but then he thought of his parents...what they�d gone through at the hands of that bitch. A seething fury filled him. His parents didn�t even recognize him when Grandmother brought him to visit. Sometimes he thought it might be worse, to have parents alive yet not know who their child is, rather than dead watching over that child. There were times he wished his parents hadn�t survived, so they wouldn�t have had to live with the consequences of her �sport� with them.
Feeling the hot, churning anger in the pit of his stomach, face twisting into an expression that communicated his anger to the world, Neville strode toward the woman at the other end of the hallway.
Bellatrix Lestrange.
She stood, an insane light shimmering in her eyes, as she fondled her wand and watched his approach. Kingsley had already dispatched two of the Death Eaters and was dealing with the others now, expertly dodging their curses before returning the favor. The two Death Eaters ignored Neville as he walked past them, knowing Bellatrix wanted him to herself. Another Longbottom for her pleasure - it seemed she had a fetish.
Watching for his reaction, she brought one hand covered in blood up to her face and licked, before humming in approval. Neville ignored her antics � he knew she was trying to unsettle him � and raised his wand. Feeling the anger running so deep within him, letting it consume his mind with the true hate he felt for this, this thing - this bitch - Neville cast it as she looked on in amusement.
�Crucio!�
She hadn�t expected it to work at all, not even the little that it did. It was nothing compared to that of Voldemort�s, and one does have to truly mean it to get the full effect; nevertheless, Bellatrix found herself twitching on the floor for a scant few seconds. She didn�t, however, cry out, and was up almost as quickly as she went down.
�Awww poor wittle Neville! Lost his mummy and his daddy, tortured into insanity by big, naughty Bellatrix,� she mocked him in her typical high voice. Neville�s hand clenched on his wand, still pointed at her, and hers pointed at himself.
�What�s wittle Nevvie gonna do? Is he gonna cast again on poor wittle me? Should naughty Bellatrix tell him how his parents twitched, and bled from their ears and noses? How blood vessels popped in their eyeballs? How the smell of their urine and shite filled the room? Should she, wittle Nevvie?� she cackled, eyes nearly glowing with pleasure.
Face flushed, heart beating frantically, Neville forgot his wand altogether and charged her. Not expecting this, Bellatrix was unprepared for the entirety of his weight - reinforced a dozen times over by the irrational, overwhelming anger that motivated him - to slam into her. She was thrown into the wall, a sharp crack coming from her frail, Azkaban-nurtured body. Unfortunately, her wand stayed within her grasp.
She hacked, a drop of blood sliding to her chin from one corner of her mouth.
Glaring at him, she cast a blasting curse. Moving aside easily, he didn�t take into account the wall behind him. The wall took the blasting curse, and in response a large chunk of it crumbled, bringing part of the ceiling on his side of the hall down with it. He heard Kingsley shout from his end, but a dense cloud of white dust had risen throughout the area, blocking out visibility and muffling sound. Right before a falling piece of the ceiling glanced off of his head, Neville heard a scream of pure, primal rage, accompanied by sounds of a scuffle.
Then all he knew was darkness.

Gods, but his head hurt. It throbbed, sending pulses of pain from the left side of his head (which seemed to be where the source of pain was located) throughout the rest of his skull, down into his neck. He groaned, and the previous chattering that had woken him quieted.
He tried to move a bit, but feeling the nausea any jostling of his head caused, he decided to stay put. Moments later, Hermione�s hesitant voice was heard near his right side.
�Neville?�
He opened his eyes. The light incited quite the protest in his head, and he quickly shut them. He felt a soft, feminine hand slip into his left, and knew it was Luna�s. He�d know her anywhere.
Then Madam Pomfrey was there, demanding he open his mouth and pouring potions down his throat. The pain in his head dulled dramatically, though it didn�t completely disappear � his nausea, however, did.
�Ok, dear, I think you�re okay now,� Madam Pomfrey said when she�d finished, helping him to sit up.
Once he was situated, he ventured to open his eyes again and was greeted with the sight of Ginny, Ron, and Hermione to his right (between his and Harry�s bed), and Luna standing on his left, holding onto his hand and for once looking as if she was fully aware of her surroundings. She was gazing at Neville worriedly, and he smiled at her to reassure her. The look in her eyes calmed a bit as she smiled back.
Neville then turned his attention to the rest of those in the room. Sprout, McGonagall, Vector, Lupin, and most of the rest of the Order seemed to be surrounding Snape down at a different bed, nearly at the other end of the ward. Snape looked quite frightening with the scowl he was directing at all those badgering him. Neville could only assume they�d been told the truth, and were now attempting to get details and answers to their own questions regarding the whole situation. The rest of the Weasleys were around a different bed not far from the Order, listening in on the conversation going on at Snape�s bed. They were sitting by an injured Fred.
There were several others occupying the hospital ward, but Neville didn�t recognize most of them. All the color and moving objects in the room were hurting his head anyway, so he turned his focus back to the people at the right side of his bed.
They were watching him, concern shining on their faces, and Neville felt warmth travel through him. He really had the greatest friends.
�Hey guys,� he said, and was confused to note that his voice was strained and scratchy. Seeing the look on his face, Hermione answered his unspoken question.
�You�ve been in a coma for a week, Neville.�
Neville�s eyes widened and his mouth fell open. �What happened?� he asked.
�Well,� started Ron with a goofy grin on his face, �Harry met Voldemort at the entrance of St. Mungo�s, marching in all cocky and ��
�No, Ron, not now. I�m tired of hearing it � we can tell him later. I think he meant more along the lines of what happened to him, anyway,� stated Harry tiredly. �I�m sure he can see we won, and that�s all that really needs to be said for the moment.�
Actually, Neville did want to hear about what happened with Voldemort, everything about the Horcruxes, and ask all the questions he�d been burying for the last year. On the tail of that last thought, though, he realized�he�d waited a year, what were another few days? Harry really did need a break.
�You were hit with a rock on the head, Neville,� said Hermione softly. �Kingsley saw you get hit before the rest of the wall collapsed to the side of you, blocking off his view of you and Bellatrix.�
Neville nodded, careful not to move his head too much. He had a very vague recollection of that - that, and a scream of such ferocious rage�
�And Bellatrix?� Neville asked, feeling that old anger stir up in his stomach once again.
�She choked to death,� Ron said. Seeing Neville�s bewildered look, he went on, �It looked as though the thing was physically shoved down her throat � at least, that�s what Kingsley said. It was far enough down that she wasn�t able to get it out in time and suffocated. When he cleared the wall away, there was just you and that insane woman�s body.�
Harry caught his attention then. His face was a weird compilation of sadness, bemusement, and pride. Hearing that vocalization of pure fury echo in his head again, clearer than before, Neville thought he might know where Bellatrix had been going when he�d met her on that floor of St. Mungo�s. The floor that he�d traversed so often, the floor that held Ward 49. What he�d so mockingly referred to as her �fetish�.
�What was it?� Neville asked, his voice hesitant. �What was in her throat?�
The same mixture of emotion present on Harry�s face was evident in his voice, though the pride more so than the others, when he answered Neville�s question.
�A large wad of gum wrappers.�

A/N: In case you don't recall, we learn in the books that Neville's mother gives him gum wrappers every time he visits...

I really like that ending. Feral's a genius. Criticisms? Comments? Observations? Click the button of goodness!
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A Fitting End