In Harry Potter as Neville Longbottom

Chapter 31: Going Back to their homes

The Train Journey back to the platform was the most silent and depressing train journey in the history of Hogwarts. No kid was in the mood to chatter or most of them were injured and in hurry to leave this dreadful place.

As the announcement of the station came, kids hurriedly grabbed their luggage and the minute the train stopped, it was a flood of kids escaping the station.

As Nev and his friends made their way out of the crowd, they found many kids hugging their families and crying their eyes out or some dragging their families to leave the place. It was not a beautiful sight.

"Who knew, the black wizard you fought Neville was the Dark Lord himself! I don't even know how you are alive Neville!" Dean whispered among the trio.

"Yeah, man! I mean I loved that magic. Those explosions were simply awesome, but I don't think I want to face that kind of man as an enemy. I don't think any of my tricks can do any damage to that guy." Seamus whispered this time.

"Well, it's the holidays. The HOLIDAYS. Now, let's spend some time with our families and in our homes and you guys can come to my manor later when your parents agree. I will send my house-elf to bring you directly. Second, my birthday will be on July 30th. So, you and your family are invited. I will send the formal invitations via owls. Just keep this in mind."

Neville finally finished their conversation before Seamus found his mum and they parted their ways. Neville knew one of his House-elves would be waiting for him somewhere in the crowd and after looking for some time, he finally found Dufus in not so comfortable dress waiting for him.

"Welcome master! Dufus is here. Dufus was waiting for the master in front of the crowd, but Dufus is wearing this dress and other wizards were giving Dufus strange looks. Hence, Dufus moved back. Dufus is truly sorry. Dufus will punish himself once we reach the manor master!

"No need Dufus. No need to waste time on others. Let's go to the manor." Nev simply ignored all the blabbering of Dufus and Dufus apparated with Nev to their family manor.

Inside the manor, lady Augusta was teaching her son, Frank Longbottom, and his wife Alice Longbottom, how to pronounce some words. The recent improvements in their condition is a blessing of Merlin for her.

"Great! Now try to say Apple!...AP-UHL".

"I am back Nan!" Suddenly a loud voice came, startling her and disrupting her afternoon lessons with her kids. A huge smile bloomed on the old face, and she headed calmly towards the voice at a brisk pace.

"Come here, my boy!" She said sweetly to her grandson who finally came back from the Hogwarts.

"I missed you, Nan!" Nev replied by giving her a tight hug and then together they walked inside the manor leaving all the chaos and worries outside.

It was only in the evening Nev decided to let his Nan know about the chaos at the Hogwarts. He tried to make it sound as normal as possible, but the result was something he knew he could not avoid.

"Oh, Merlin! Nev, how can he come back? Isn't he dead? How is this possible?" Lady Augusta lost her composure and grace of the old lady and started firing one after another question without giving her grandson any chance to reply.

It was only when she was out of all the questions, that she looked at her grandson who was sitting in front of her quietly.

"Nan, it was just a wraith. A part of the soul that somehow was detached from the main soul or whatever was left out of it. Clearly, he is dead or in a spirit form. I don't think it is us who should be afraid Nan, it must be him. Imagine Dumbledore running behind him and chasing him when he is at the weakest and besides there is ministry. Don't worry Nan, they will find his wandering spirit soon."

Lady Augusta hardly looked satisfied or happy with that answer. She just got her family back or the hope that in future, her family will be together again but this! Oh, Merlin!

"Nev, your parents started to speak again, you know. Frank called me 'mum' again. After more than 12 years Nev, I could finally hear this but that evil, who destroyed this family is back again.

I cannot be calm Nev. We must prepare for evacuation and choose another place to escape, in case, his loyalist started the bloody period again."

"Ok Nan. Leave this to me. I will prepare a safe house for our family in America. Dean told me his uncle Kingsley had few businesses there and I think they might help us in this regard".

Nev tried to calm down his Nan and only with many empty promises did he manages to get his old calm and composed Nan back.

A similar situation was happening all around the British wizarding world. All the kinds from the Hogwarts went back this year and instead of happy stories or cherished memories, they shared the life-threatening incident they faced.

The next morning, there was a report in all papers.

"He is back!"

What happens when the news of the return of one of the most feared wizards, the second dark lord gets leaked by every student who ever attended Hogwarts in the past year.

Chaos! Total Chaos!!

The ministry even if they wanted to suppress the news or hide the news had no effective means to deal with such a crisis. The news was out there. There was a battle between the wraith of the dark lord and the professors of Hogwarts which was witnessed by all the students.

A lot of students were even injured. So, the ministry was now focused on containing raging panic and hysteria among the wizard population.

"Next!" The Auror sent the next professor inside the memory hall where a group of most respected and oldest Aurors, wizards and even some of the Wizengamot leaders were sitting here.

"Please, madam. Share the memory of the attack with us!" An old wizard Auror made a request to the professor sprout and considering the crowd that was around her, Professor sprout knew that the request was more of an order.

After half an hour later, Professor Sprout left the ministry with a relieved face. She was happy that she was not blamed for the attack of Voldemort. She knew the ministry wants to find a scapegoat to somehow minimise the damage and thankfully she was not the one.

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