A Light of Meaning

Hermione sighed in exasperation. “Remind me again why I agreed to spend the night in a closet?”

Harry and Neville both raised their heads to look at her. “Because you’re a good friend,” Harry said with a disarming grin.

Hermione scowled at him. “You could at least have arranged for Ron and I to be on watch together!”

“But then you wouldn’t have been watching anything but each other,” Harry pointed out logically, and Hermione blushed.

“Hermione, thanks again for doing this,” Neville said to her.

“Oh Neville, you know I’ll do anything to help you and your parents,” Hermione told him. “But I still say it’s absurd to think that Bellatrix Lestrange is going to waltz into St. Mungo’s!”

“She’s mad, Hermione, remember?” Harry replied.

“She may be mad but she’s not stupid, or she wouldn’t have managed to evade the Aurors for so long!” Hermione countered. “And yes, I know Voldemort is hiding her, but I can’t imagine he’d be happy if Bellatrix risked herself to murder two – sorry Neville, but two older ex-Aurors who’ve been bed-ridden for over fifteen years!”

Harry passed a weary hand over his eyes; it was after eleven at night, and the three of them weren’t due to be relieved until two in the morning. Harry had Enlarged the closet, but it was still very claustrophobic inside. “Hermione, do you want to go back to the house? You could ask someone else to relieve you.”

“What?” Hermione looked shocked that Harry was even suggesting it. “But- but you said-”

“I said that this wasn’t D.A. business,” Harry reminded her. “This is personal; we’re doing this on our own, not because we’re in the Army. If you want to go home it’s your choice.”

Hermione looked down at her lap and shook her head. “I’m not asking to go home,” she said in a quiet voice. “I said I’d be here, and I will.”

“Thanks,” Neville said again.

Harry stood up from his chair and stretched, wincing when his back popped loudly. “I only wish I dared cast a Window Charm like they’ve got all over the Ministry,” he said as he collapsed back into his seat. “At least then we’d have something to look at, even if it wasn’t real.”

“Have you ever attempted a Window Charm?” Hermione asked skeptically.

“Er, once, back at the house…it was really small and kind of crooked,” Harry admitted sheepishly. “And, um…I couldn’t get it to show anything but what was directly on the other side.”

“And what was on the other side?” Hermione inquired sweetly.

Harry sighed. “The wall of the house next door, all right?”

Neville smiled tentatively. “Sounds like a tricky Charm.”

Harry nodded, and then frowned. “Am I the only one who sees how raving I am to think I can take on Voldemort when I can’t even pull off a bloody Window Charm?”

“You’re not taking on Voldemort, Harry,” Neville corrected firmly. “We’re taking on Voldemort. In the last month or so, you, Hermione, Ginny, Luna and Ron have combined together to pull off two powerful spells that probably haven’t been successfully cast anywhere in the Wizarding World in over a century. What you can do by yourself isn’t really important – what all of us can do together is.”

“You’re exceptionally happy tonight, Neville,” Hermione observed with a smile.

“Why shouldn’t I be?” Neville replied, returning the smile. “I have my mum and dad back! I don’t think anything would make me happier, ever!”

Harry’s smile fixed on his face for a second, but he shook his head and grinned genuinely at Neville. “Yeah, and you get to celebrate by sitting in a closet all night. I guess it wouldn’t be so bad for me if Ginny were here…”

“And a good thing she’s not,” Hermione shot back smartly, “or you wouldn’t be watching anything but each other.” Harry stuck out his tongue at Hermione, who wrinkled her nose at him.

Neville laughed, but it died away quickly. “Hermione? Er…look, I know I asked before, but are you sure those Stunning Spells won’t affect my parents? After what happened to them, maybe another spell messing with their heads isn’t…”

“Neville, I told you,” Hermione said patiently, “your parents were given a clean bill of health by the Healers; they’re only even still in St. Mungo’s for observation. They’ll be just fine.” Neville let out a long breath.

“So who’s coming at two to relieve us?” Neville asked as the three of them took turns stretching and casting Vitalizing Charms on each other.

Harry thought for a moment. “Justin, Padma and Sally-Ann,” he said finally. “Since Justin just showed up, I figure Padma and Sally-Ann can use the time to fill him in on some of what we’ve missed telling him.”

“Setting the Ravenclaws to do information dissemination,” Hermione said with an ironic shake of her head.

Harry shrugged. “Makes sense to me.”

“Hey Hermione, I always meant to ask you,” Neville said. “You mentioned back during Fifth year that the Sorting Hat almost put you in Ravenclaw?” Hermione nodded tentatively. “Why didn’t it? I mean, you’re the smartest student to go through Hogwarts in fifty years, everyone said so, even Dumbledore.”

Hermione reddened a bit at the compliment. “I have no idea why it sorted me into Gryffindor,” she said hesitantly. “It just said something about a thirst to prove myself.”

Harry went pale. “W-were those its exact words, Hermione?” he asked tremulously. “A thirst to prove yourself?”

“Why- yes,” Hermione said confusedly. “Why?”

“That’s exactly what the Sorting Hat said to me,” Harry told her, “when it was telling me how well I’d do in Slytherin.”

Neville’s jaw dropped. “It said that? To you?”

“Yeah…it said that I could be great, and Slytherin would definitely help me on the way to greatness. And it said I had courage and talent, and not a bad mind, either – it did!” he exclaimed indignantly at Hermione’s smirk.

“So why didn’t it put you in Slytherin, then?”

“Because I begged it not to,” Harry said simply. “I’d only heard a bit about Slytherin, all bad; Hagrid had told me earlier that all the dark wizards who followed Voldemort had been in Slytherin. And I knew that Ron was likely to be in Gryffindor because his whole family was, so…” He shrugged. “But it saw the same thing in us, Hermione; and both of us could have gone to different Houses, but it put us together in Gryffindor. What do you make of that?”

Hermione smiled nervously. “I- I think the hat was telling us… that we’re more alike than we ever knew. It was giving us a clue, so that one day we’d have this moment, and we’d realize that- well, that we’re destined to do amazing things together.”

Harry smiled ruefully. “Bet you’re wishing you could’ve had the glamorous life of a Ravenclaw, now.”

“And miss the chance to spend an evening in a closet with you two? Perish the thought,” Hermione said wryly. Then she frowned as both Harry and Neville chortled. “What?”

“Lots of g-girls might enjoy spending an evening in the closet w-with two b-boys,” Harry choked out through his laughter.

Hermione rolled her eyes. “Oh, honestly,” she huffed.

“S-sorry, Hermione,” Neville said, calming down again. “But it was pretty funny, hearing you of all people say that.”

“Boys,” Hermione muttered, and changed the subject. “What about you, Neville? Were you almost sorted into a different House?”

Neville shook his head. “No, I was just hoping for either Gryffindor – that’s where my mum and dad were – or for Ravenclaw; my gran was a Ravenclaw. I was kind of hoping for that, because I knew gran would be really happy. But she was pretty happy to see me in my parents’ old House too, so that worked out.”

“Am I the only person who actually got into the House she wanted?” Hermione asked rhetorically.

“You knew you wanted Gryffindor?”

“I did say so on the train,” Hermione reminded Harry as though he should have remembered. “All I really knew about it was that Dumbledore had been a Gryffindor, and…and well, I was still outside yours and Ron’s compartment on the train when he told you all his family had been in Gryffindor,” she added with a slight blush. “And I thought it would be nice to be in the same House if you two would be there.”

Harry chuckled. “Now that makes sense!” he exclaimed. “Somehow I can’t see you in Ravenclaw though, even if you are too smart for your own good.” Hermione smacked his arm.

The three of them chatted a bit longer, mostly about the Houses and how much they missed Hogwarts. “You know,” Neville said eventually, “I feel kind of sorry for Pansy, out there all alone with no one to talk to. Why’d you have her do that, Harry?”

“Actually, it was her idea,” Harry told him. “I’d thought it would be good to have someone on the other side of the room – to catch anyone dangerous between us – but it was Pansy who suggested going under the cloak over there.”

“Okay, but why her?” Neville asked.

“Because Pansy knows a lot of very nasty spells,” Harry said simply. “And, well…us Gryffindors, we’re all still learning to use more powerful spells instinctively – Pansy’s been taught to use them since birth. We all might hesitate to cast something in a situation, where she’d do it automatically. Against people like Bellatrix Lestrange, we might need that extra second.”

Neville nodded slowly. “That makes sense,” he agreed, “but she’s not going to have to stay there all night, is she?”

“No, eventually-” Harry stopped when Hermione grabbed his arm. “What?”

“I heard something!” Hermione hissed. “Out in the hall!”

All three of them stood up and crowded by the inside of the closet door; Hermione had spelled it so they could see out without anyone seeing in; in fact, like the conference room in the House of Black, it looked like part of the wall from the outside. They all held their breath and strained their ears, and sure enough, they heard quiet footfalls coming from outside the door the Neville’s parents’ room. “It’s almost exactly midnight,” Neville whispered. “Could it be Sally-Ann and Padma and Justin?”

“No, it was made very clear they were to come at two in the morning!” Hermione insisted quietly.

“You know, the closet has a Silencing Charm on it – you don’t have to whisper,” Harry reminded them, and then realized to his embarrassment that he’d whispered as well.

They waited silently for any sign that whoever was outside was coming to their room; and just when they’d begun to relax, certain the person had moved on, the door swung open, and Bellatrix and Rodolphus Lestrange stepped inside.

Hermione had to grab both Neville and Harry by their shirts and pull with all her strength to keep them from bursting out of the closet. “NO!” she cried. “We can’t beat them head-on!”

Harry hesitated, but Neville still fought to reach the door. “They’re going to kill my parents!” he shouted.

“Pansy! Remember Pansy’s out there!” Hermione insisted desperately, and Neville finally stopped fighting her. “All we have going for us is surprise!” Hermione said quickly. “Pansy knows to cast the first Curse if she sees an opening, and we’ll back her up! She’s the best chance your parents have, Neville!”

Neville took a deep breath and nodded tightly; his eyes, fixed on Bellatrix’s face, had darkened almost to black with rage. “Hermione,” Harry said abruptly, “Your Galleon; activate the Protean Charm, let the others know!”

“Oh – of course!”

Hermione started digging in her pockets for the Charmed Galleon. “Don’t you know where it is?” Harry asked incredulously.

“I didn’t really think we’d need it!” Hermione snapped. “Where’s yours?”

“I gave it to Ginny since she hasn’t got one!”

Before Hermione could find the Charmed Galleon disaster struck. Bellatrix, who’d been inching closer to the curtain which hid the Longbottoms, spun suddenly, pointed her wand at a blank section of wall and shouted “Expelliarmus!” A burst of magic slammed into the Cloaked Pansy, who was sent flying back into the wall with a solid thud; the Invisibility Cloak flew aside as Pansy collapsed to the ground, her wand rolling out of her hand.

Damn!” Harry shouted.

“Little Pansy Parkinson,” Bellatrix sneered. “Defying the Dark Lord, protecting these muggle-loving fools? What will your dear parents think? I daresay your father will be only too pleased to return home long enough to deal with a traitor to his flesh.” Rodolphus chuckled at Pansy’s horrified expression, and wrapped his arm around his wife’s waist, leaning into her in a bizarre mockery of a loving embrace. “Before we finish what we started sixteen years ago, I think we’ve a little time for you to tell us just who it is who turned you from the Dark Lord? Did that old fool Dumbledore feed you false words of how strong the Light was?”

Pansy cast her eyes down and shook her head. “She’s trying to buy us time!” Hermione insisted. “She knows she can’t tell them about us because the geas I put on her will kill her!” She began frantically pulling things out of her pockets. “Where’s that Galleon?”

Bellatrix was enjoying drawing out the terror in Pansy. She knelt down and placed the tip of her wand under Pansy’s chin, forcing the girl to look up at her. “Shall we really do this the hard way, my dear?” she oozed. “Wouldn’t you like to be intact when you’re brought before the Dark Lord to answer for your betrayal?” Pansy’s face screwed up, and to Harry, Hermione and Neville’s horror she began to cry. Bellatrix sighed. “Oh, if it has to be that way…Cruc-”

“NO!” Neville shoved the door open, startling Harry and Hermione, who scrambled to follow. Bellatrix turned just as Neville shouted out “Stupefy!”, and before Rodolphus could even turn he had fallen to the ground unconscious. With a shriek of rage Bellatrix fired a blast at Neville which missed widely; then Bellatrix’s eyes caught Harry; “Potter!” she screeched, raising her wand. “Weikener Peraefre!” Harry had just stepped out the door and was able to dodge to the left – just in time for Hermione to step into the doorframe and be hit full-on by the Curse.

“Stupefy!” Neville shouted, but Bellatrix deflected his spell easily and sent a vicious hex at him, which he just barely ducked under. Neville’s distraction gave Pansy time to reach her wand; Bellatrix couldn’t dodge in time, and flailed furiously at the results of the Bat-Bogey Hex Pansy must have learned from Ginny. Bellatrix then sent a Curse that Pansy just barely managed to dodge and sent chunks of marble from the floor flying everywhere; Harry covered his face with his arm just before a piece of marble the size of a Remembral slammed into it, knocking Harry back against the wall headfirst. Bellatrix twisted her wand arm towards Harry-

“REDUCTO!”

Bellatrix’s head exploded. Harry again covered his face as a spray of blood and gristle splattered over him, the walls, the floor, Pansy, and the unconscious Rodolphus. He only lowered his arm when what was left of Bellatrix hit the floor with a sickening squelch. Almost everything between her shoulder blades had been removed by the Curse, too; Bellatrix almost didn’t look like a human any longer. Harry only tore his gaze away when he heard Pansy retching violently. That broke the spell on him and he vomited too, falling to his hands and knees as he lost everything inside him.

When he finally raised his trembling head, he saw Pansy staring across the room. Following her gaze, he saw that Neville hadn’t even lowered his wand yet; he was still crouched awkwardly against the wall, and was staring at Bellatrix’s remains. He didn’t look sickened, however; he looked prepared to do it again.

Then Harry caught sight of a foot sticking out from behind the closet door; “Hermione!” he yelped, and stumbled toward her, cursing the blood on the floor that made him slip and Bellatrix Lestrange and Voldemort and the missing bloody Galleon. He and Neville reached Hermione at the same time; Harry raised her off the floor, but her head just lolled back limply. “No,” he cried, trying to blink away his tears. “No, you can’t be dead, Hermione, please, wake up!”

“She’s breathing,” Neville said suddenly, his voice almost giddy. “Harry, she’s breathing, look!” As Neville grabbed Hermione’s wrist to find her pulse, Harry’s heart leapt when he saw Hermione’s chest rise slightly. “There’s a strong pulse, Harry,” Neville insisted.

Harry had a powerful flash of déjà vu, and it took him a second to realize that he and Neville had crouched over Hermione like this in the Department of Mysteries over a year ago. Well, Hermione had survived that, and she was bloody well going to survive this! And of course, Harry thought with grim satisfaction, Sirius’ death that horrible night had just been avenged. All the remained of Bellatrix Lestrange was a nasty corpse and blood to be washed out of his and Pansy’s clothes.

Pansy- Harry half-turned and saw that Pansy was, oddly, staring at the Stunned Rodolphus. “Pansy!” he called, and she turned to look at him. “Pansy, get out of here, Apparate home!”

“What?” Pansy stared at Harry like he’d gone mad.

“They can’t find you here!” Harry snapped. “This place will be crawling with Ministry people, and Voldemort has spies everywhere – word will get back to Voldemort you’re helping us!” Pansy opened her mouth to say something but Harry cut her off. “Don’t worry, I’ll Obliviate Rodolphus Lestrange so he doesn’t remember you. Just go! Now!”

Pansy gave Harry one last glare of what looked like disgust, and then vanished with a crack. “Stay here with Hermione,” Harry said to Neville, starting to get up. “I’m going to get the Healers!”

“Harry, wait!” Neville said quickly, grabbing Harry’s wrist. “You have to Obliviate me too!”

That was probably the last thing Harry would have expected Neville to say. “What are you on about?”

“Harry, I just killed Bellatrix Lestrange,” Neville said with an odd little hitch in his throat.

“Neville, we can talk later if you still feel guilty, but-”

“Guilty?” Neville said incredulously. “Not for a second! But I killed someone, Harry, and when the Ministry finds out-”

“But it was self-defense-!”

“They’ll question me under Veritaserum, Harry!” Neville interrupted manically. “It’s Wizarding law, they have to for me to prove it was self-defense! And if you don’t Obliviate me they’ll find out everything about the House of Black, and Dumbledore’s Army, I won’t be able to help it! And you said yourself – Voldemort has spies in the Ministry. If they find out, so will he! None of you will be safe!”

Harry stared dumbfounded at Neville, feeling ready to vomit again. “We- we can remove your memories instead,” he croaked out. “Use a Pensieve, so we can put them back later-”

“There’s no time!” Neville countered. “That would take hours, and Hermione needs help now!”

“I’m not Obliviating you, Neville!” Harry shouted. “For Merlin’s sake, you’re my friend!”

“You have to, Harry,” Neville said, looking surprisingly calm. “Look, Professor Flitwick said at some point that an Obliviate can be undone if the recipient was willing when it was cast; if you figure out how to do it, you can bring me back after I’ve been questioned!”

“That’s a bloody big if!” Harry shouted.

Hermione shifted in Harry’s arms, and both boys looked down at her, but she still didn’t wake; was it Harry’s imagination, or was her breathing shallower? “Harry, every second we argue might mean the difference for Hermione,” Neville said quickly. “I’m telling you to do it; it’s part of what I have to do to help you win! Everything all of us have done mattered, and now this is going to get you closer to beating Voldemort – maybe this is my destiny, but that doesn’t matter! Save Hermione’s life, Harry! You have to do this!”

“Neville…” Harry glanced down at Hermione; was she dying? He had no idea. He looked into Neville’s face; honest and open, not a bit of guile in his entire being. He’d blindly, faithfully put his trust in Harry, and Harry had led him to this. “Bloody fucking hell!” he shouted, swiping his sleeve at the angry tears that forced their way from his eyes.

“Come on, Harry, do it quick,” Neville said solemnly.

“I’ll get you back,” Harry whispered. “I swear.” He raised his wand and pointed it at his friend. Neville nodded. “Obliviate!”