Chapter 629
Neville
Chapter 629 Neville
Neville felt like a feather, gently falling into a strange world.
He was standing in a classroom that was split in the middle, with the floor broken in jagged pieces. A dozen people who looked like students didn't seem to notice this and were concentrating on brewing potions.
Their appearance was also very strange, most of them had blurry faces, as if they had no facial features. The few who had faces had facial features that seemed to be randomly pieced together, revealing a kind of weird incoordination.
Above his head was not the ceiling of the classroom, but a desolate darkness. Just as his grandmother had told him, the broken memories in the darkness were like stars scattered among them.
To the upper left of the head is the scene of the young Longbottom couple getting married; to the right, there is a clip of Frank Longbottom learning to walk with the support of his mother; when Neville stood at the edge of the classroom, he saw the young parents arguing angrily not far from his feet.
Tears filled his eyes unknowingly.
"Alice, after stirring three times clockwise, you should stir two times counterclockwise!"
A man said in a gentle voice: "Stir it twice more and take a look at your potion. Is the color a little too dark?"
"Sorry, Professor."
The girl with pigtails stuck out her tongue and apologized quickly.
Neville was surprised to find that the girl's appearance was not very clear, but he could roughly make out her expression.
Hearing the two people's voices, a boy standing in front turned around and looked at the girl with a smile.
The boy's appearance was not handsome, but he had regular features and a gentle temperament. His deep brown eyes revealed a deep smile and tenderness.
But his whole body seemed to glow, and in an instant, the whole classroom became bright.
Neville suddenly understood that this was his mother's memory - even if she had forgotten what she looked like, she had not forgotten his father's smile at that time.
His heart was bitter and sad, but also filled with an indescribable warmth and happiness. He couldn't bear to interrupt this moment, so he just stood there and watched.
Suddenly, the students in the classroom disappeared one after another, and a woman with black hair and pale skin strode in. Her eyes rolled wildly and she waved her wand viciously:
"Crucio! Crucio!"
The spell hit Frank, and the young, teenage boy instantly transformed into a twenty-something, and he fell to the ground, screaming heartbreakingly.
"No—let him go—let him go—"
Alice also grew up suddenly. She rushed over to try to protect her husband, but she was hit by a Cruciatus Curse!
The warm classroom suddenly became dark and cold. In the fragmented picture, the woman's vicious voice was particularly clear.
"You should be dead, why are you still alive?"
"Why did the Dark Lord disappear? What tricks did you use?"
"Where is my master?"
"answer me!"
Bellatrix tortured them over and over again, the women sometimes screaming in anger and sometimes laughing wildly at their pain.
"Stop! Stop! Stop it!"
Neville pounced on the phantom of Bellatrix, his thin body bursting out with amazing strength, blocking his parents like a wall.
"Go away!"
Neville roared angrily, his voice echoing in the darkness.
However, the light of the spell went straight through his body and continued to torture Frank and Alice behind him. Neville waved his arms in vain and threw spells to repel the hateful Death Eaters, but to no avail.
He realized with great pessimism that this was just a memory, something that had already happened and could not be changed.
Anger surged through his veins like magma.
Listening to his parents' screams, Neville's hands began to tremble uncontrollably. At this moment, his mind was blank, with only one voice that was particularly clear.
He raised his wand and shouted bitterly, "Crucio!"
Just like the previous disarming spell, this weak Cruciatus Curse still passed through Bellatrix's body.
But at this moment, the woman suddenly turned her head slowly, and her crazy eyes met Neville's gaze directly, as if she had crossed the barriers of time and space and truly saw him.
Neville suddenly felt extremely terrified. He gasped and forced himself to stay where he was without retreating.
He didn't see that Alice, who was lying on the ground, suddenly raised her head and turned her dazed eyes to where Neville was, but as if they had no focus.
Bellatrix sneered: "You don't want to say it? Then I torture this brat, can you still say nothing?"
Her wand was pointed at Neville.
At this moment, Neville suddenly heard a loud cry. He was startled and turned around, and found a baby lying in the cradle, kicking the air with his legs and crying heart-wrenchingly.
"Let him go!" Frank yelled frantically, "We know nothing. The mysterious man has never been here!"
Neville then realized that Bellatrix didn't really see him, she was looking at Neville as a baby.
Just as the woman was about to chant the spell, the baby in the cradle suddenly burst out with powerful magic power——
The entire space was shaking violently. The crying of the baby seemed to turn into tangible sound waves. The Death Eaters flew backwards and hit the wall. The old bricks and stones were shaken and fell off, and even cracks appeared on the wall!
The baby who released this power fell into coma the next second. His face was as pale as paper and his breathing was so weak that it almost disappeared.
Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom howled like wild beasts, dragging their bodies that had been ravaged by the spell, and crawled desperately towards the child.
As soon as they held the child in their arms, the Death Eater with a bloody head crawled up from the ground and roared angrily:
"I will kill you! Cruciatus! Cruciatus! Cruciatus..."
Multiple Cruciatus Curses fell on the couple, but they didn't even let out a scream, and the light in their pupils silently shattered and dissipated.
After an unknown amount of time, the door was blasted to pieces by a red light, and several figures rushed into the room like thunder, instantly subduing several exhausted Death Eaters.
"Frank! Alice! Wake up! You are saved, everything is fine... Frank! Alice..."
The voice gradually changed from an excited roar to a sob.
"Are they still alive?"
"Still alive, but..."
Frank's back had been burned black by the power of the spell. He lay on the ground, staring at the ceiling. His once gentle eyes seemed to have turned into glass balls that would not move.
Alice stood up with a blank look in her eyes, and stroked the air with her hand, murmuring, "It's okay... It's okay... Baby... Darling... You'll be fine..." "They... They seem to have..."
One of the men knelt on the ground, punched the ground hard, and tears dripped down his bruised cheeks.
"Fortunately, the child is still alive. This must be what Frank and Alice want to see most."
Another person carefully picked up the unconscious Neville and said worriedly: "But... he may have seen his parents being tortured..."
"We can't just leave it alone. This memory might overwhelm the child. It's best to let him forget it."
"But, using the Oblivion Charm on such a young child..."
"Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom must want to see their son grow up happily. Apart from that, nothing else matters."
"Let old Madam Longbottom make the decision... She is the only one qualified to make the decision for them..."
The discussion gradually became unclear, and Neville, who was standing aside, was already in tears.
Only he himself knew that what his mother was caressing at this moment was not the air, but his own face.
At this moment, he couldn't even tell whether this was a memory or an illusion. Was it that the place where his mother had touched him just happened to coincide with where he was standing now, or was it that at this moment, Alice Longbottom in the spiritual world finally gained a brief moment of clarity and saw him?
Neville couldn't tell the difference between what was real and what was fake, and cried miserably. He held the skinny hand carefully, feeling the warmth of the other's fingertips, and tears flowed freely along his face.
"Why are you crying like this again?"
Alice said helplessly and lovingly, "Are you hungry, or did you fall down?"
Neville shook his head, choking with sobs and unable to speak.
"I see. It was grandma who didn't allow you to play with fireworks, right? Grandma did it for your own good. Those things are a little too dangerous for you..."
The boy was still crying and unable to speak. He opened his mouth to comfort his mother, but he only let out a heart-wrenching cry and his whole body was shaking.
Alice was so anxious that she asked quickly, "Are you feeling unwell? Do you have a stomachache? Or something else? You don't have a fever..."
She stood on tiptoes and tested Neville's temperature with her forehead.
Suddenly, Alice stopped talking.
She leaned back and looked at Neville blankly. Her expression was still a little dull, but there seemed to be a hint of confusion in her cloudy eyes.
"you you……"
Her eyes wandered confusedly over Neville's face, as if she was shrinking and uncertain.
"Are you Neville?" Alice murmured, "How come you... have grown so tall?"
……
The day before the new semester started, Wade saw Neville - the boy from the Longbottom family had just returned to school and came to Wade to thank him.
"My mom can recognize me! She can speak to me several words at a time, and she knows that I am now a Gryffindor and in my fourth year!"
Neville said happily: "With her here, my father is slowly recovering. He told me yesterday that he was sorry for not accompanying me to school."
"They have forgotten a lot of things...even how to use most spells, but they haven't forgotten me..."
His expression seemed to be both crying and laughing, a mixture of joy and sadness, so complex that it was difficult to describe.
"As long as consciousness begins to recover, it will only be a matter of time before he fully recovers." Wade patted him on the shoulder and said, "Your parents are very strong. They will definitely be able to overcome the pain of the past."
Neville wiped his eyes and nodded vigorously: "I believe they can do it! Actually, I originally wanted to stay in St. Mungo's to help, but my grandma insisted that I come back to class, and my parents said so too."
He never thought that one day he would be able to say the word "Mom and Dad" with confidence.
"Isn't this great?" Wade said with a smile, "Because you will have a lot of time to spend together in the future, so there is no need to rush for the moment. And if you study magic well, you will be able to become a support for your parents and grandmother in the future."
"Depend on me... I don't know if I can do it..."
Neville touched his head somewhat unconfidently, hesitated for a moment, and asked, "Wade, do you know Bellatrix? Criminals like her who have been sentenced to life imprisonment, after being imprisoned in Azkaban, should have no chance of coming out again, right?"
Vader said cautiously, "Generally speaking, no."
Neville's mind suddenly lit up, and he asked, "What's unusual about that?"
"For example... someone is trying to break into the prison?"
Wade said in a joking tone: "In a place like prison, in the eyes of some people, every criminal inside is a talent. Even if they are locked up in the deep sea, they will want to get them out and turn them into their own helpers, regardless of whether it will cause chaos in the world."
Neville has never been able to tell the difference between people joking and telling the truth. If it were someone else, they would definitely think that Wade was joking, but Neville asked worriedly: "Will someone like Lestrange want to get her out of prison?"
Wade looked at him deeply and said, "Instead of worrying about this kind of problem, you might as well try to make yourself stronger. Then, if that day really comes, the one who should worry is not you... but themselves."
Neville's body jolted and his eyes widened slightly.
Because of his parents' tragedy and his own clumsiness and weakness, Neville was shrouded in all kinds of pessimistic emotions for many years. He was sad, self-pitying, and lamented that he was always the unlucky one. Even when he was bullied and ridiculed by the Slytherins, he just endured it silently.
Becoming friends with Wade and the others did change him a lot, but Neville knew that deep down in his heart, he had always been the little boy bound by fear and weakness, and he could not become as "cool" as his friends.
Neville never thought... that he could still hold the power of revenge in his own hands!
This subversive statement was like a bolt of lightning, splitting the haze that had been weighing on his heart for a long time. He slowly lowered his head and looked at his palms, which were covered with scars of varying sizes.
"I'm always stupid, have a bad memory, get hurt easily, can't do anything right, and can't even speak loudly to others..."
Neville said softly: "But even so...even so..."
He had a flash of Bellatrix's malicious, mad, hateful face.
And in his ears, the screams of his parents in agony were always ringing.
Those people were right… memories like these really did change him forever.
"Even so..." Neville said slowly, with an unprecedented firmness in his tone: "I will definitely do it! Bellatrix...she is the one who should tremble, and she is also the one who should be afraid!"
"And Barty Crouch Jr., Rodolphus Lestrange, Rabastan Lestrange..."
"If one day they leave Azkaban, I hope... I can put an end to it all with my own hands!"
(End of this chapter)