It Starts With A Dance

AN: Sorry these chapters have been shorter than usual, but in order to keep things moving, I have to break a wee bit earlier, or else the endings fall flat. We coming in to the home stretch, though, so keep reviewing, and keep giving me your opinion about marriage and kids, Hermione/ Snape style!


Something else to note: I already have this story pretty much finished. I just wait for reviews, nip and tuck the chapters, and post at this point. But I do take into consideration your opinions and ideas, so keep telling me what's on your mind!

Chapter 17: WWWD: What Will Wally Do?


"Cousin Neville!" Wally Longbottom finally screeched to a halt when he got inside the greenhouses, slamming the doors shut and casting a silencing charm, one of the few charms he'd been able to manage in his short time at Hogwart's.


"Whoa, Wally," Neville said, floating down to the floor so he could better interact with his cousin. "Where's the fire? Usually you have to be dragged kicking and screaming down to the gardens ~-- what's happened? Are you alright?"


"I'm fine. But Hermione's going to be in trouble if we don't do something, and soon," Wally wailed, and Neville had to restrain from smacking him one. Instead, he reached out and grabbed his cousin by the shoulders, shaking him gently to get him to speak more slowly. "I was down in the taverna, you know, on the dodgy end of Hogsmead?"


"What were you doing there, Wally? Sneaking down to Hogsmead could get you suspended or expelled. And what's this about Hermione in trouble?" Neville's thoughts we about as coherent as Wally's at that point. Wally was shaking his head, muttering to himself, and Neville resisted the urge to shake his cousin more strongly.


"I was following Phantasma. She keeps on missing our appointments with Tonks, Neville, and I was going to check on her~--"


"In another house, in the girls' dorms, which could also get you expelled," Neville pointed out, but his cousin continued.


"But she wasn't anywhere to be found. I was headed down to the lake to see the squid and Hagrid~--"


"Without permission. You know, I could expel you now, and what would Gran say?" Neville said, exasperated.


"Stop it, Neville! You sound like Hermione, but you're even worse. Now listen. I saw Phantasma leaving through a gap in the hedge fence a bit off from the main gates. I followed her, and I thought she was going to get some sweets or something, and I could tag along and get her to buy me some in exchange for me not telling."


Neville nodded and rolled his eyes. If only Wally weren't so much like Fred and George, he might have a chance at finishing Hogwart's. [AN: I love Fred and George. That was NOT a slam at them.]


"But she went past the sweet shops, and the Hog's Head, and even the girly stores that Hermione goes into."


Neville didn't even want to contemplate how his cousin knew about that.


"She kept going almost to the end of the town, until she reached the No-Name Taverna. I followed her in by hiding behind some enormously fat woman and her even fatter cat, if you could call something that huge a cat~--"


"Wally! What did you see and hear that is pertinent to this story and not getting detention?"


"Sorry. She was meeting with some wizard with strange blonde-brown hair and a nasty smile, wearing some hideous hooded coat that he never removed. He wants her to bring Hermione to Hogsmead so he can grab her, all for himself. Phantasma agreed to it, and she's gonna do it soon! Then he said something about her remembering who her parents promised her to, which makes no sense to me. Then I think I gasped or something, because she was about to say his name and she stopped. I found a better hiding place and she left. I waited until she had been gone a bit before I ran all the way back here, without stopping. What do we do, cousin?"


Neville thought a moment before he grabbed Wally's shoulder and dragged him to a strange door-like opening in the ground. Neville dragged his cousin down the hole and through a long passage, ending up in the basement of the Shrieking Shack. He was shaking in anger and fear and relief. If Wally was really telling the truth, he was lucky to have made it back to Hogwart's. It wasn't as if Neville had that much family still living, and his Gran would kill him again if anything happened to Wally.


"Remus, Tonks! Get down here!" Neville bellowed, and his friends ran downstairs, slightly disheveled. Remus was suffering the effects of the dregs of his Wolfsbane, and Tonks had obviously been trying to help him through it. Neville let Wally give the story, and then he spoke.


"I think we need to keep Wally here, away from Phantasma. She knows he's the only one who would follow her like that. Somebody needs to stay with him, and the others need to go find Hermione and Snape and tell them," Neville said, his hands on his cousin's shoulders. Wally shook his head vigorously, not wanting to be left out, or left in a place where someone could get at him.


"NO! Phantasma told him that she thought she'd been followed ~-- he could come looking for me, and I can't defend myself. Just ask Hermione! Oh, and one last thing ~-- Tas was acting really strangely. Like she wasn't talking to him because she wanted to, but because she had to. She was kind of sick, holding her mouth and stomach before she ran back to school," Wally blurted, and Neville clapped his hand against his forehead.


"You should have mentioned this earlier!" Neville howled, and Remus and Tonks shared a look.


"Wally's right. He's the only one who's seen the entire thing, and he can't be left here. Too easy for Phantasma and her friend. But I think I can find out who Hermione's 'admirer' is," Tonks said, and Remus nodded.


"And we'll need his testimony. It sounds almost as if Phantasma's a victim of the black water. Now that I think about it, Phantasma has been acting a bit strangely. I mean, the entire family's always been a bit wonky~--"


"Thanks, love," Tonks said dryly, and Remus rolled his eyes, a very Tonks-like thing to do.


"BUT Phantasma is. . . stranger. . . than usual. I met her once when she was quite young, attending something or other held by one of the Blacks, before they knew I was a werewolf," Remus said, ignoring Tonks. Neville nodded, and Wally shook his head.


"It can't be that Tas was doing this on her own. She had to have been controlled by somebody else!" Wally cried, and Tonks quirked an eyebrow, sharing a look with Neville and Remus.


"That's what we've been saying. Have a reason to offer such an opinion, duck?" Tonks said, and Wally blushed.


"What? Anyway, how can we see who she was meeting, or who she's 'promised' to? How?" Wally asked, looking around at the adults around him.


"Phantasma is a pureblooded witch, which means at birth she was betrothed to a wizard. That information will be in her permanent records," Remus said, "which are given to the school upon entrance. All we have to do is check those records, and we'll know who the admirer is."


Tonks and Neville nodded, and Wally smiled.


"D'you think Aunt Hermione forgive me, then?" Wally asked, and Neville looked at him.


"'Aunt Hermione'?" Neville asked, bemused.


"Well, with your parents gone, and you're obviously not getting married, I figure I'll just adopt some of your friends as family."


"Wally!"