Through All the Pain // N. Longbottom

Third Year // Chapter 13

~*Lori's POV*~

*Also skip to Springtime*

The Hogsmeade trip ended in a little bit of sadness. We all learned a shocking truth ... Sirius Black was Harry's godfather and his dad's best friend! It really made Harry angry, and I can't blame him. Christmas this year wasn't the absolute best, Harry got a new broom. A Firebolt, to make things more confusing. 

Well, Hermione did kind of a bad thing and informed McGonagall about said broom, which got it taken away. Harry and Ron avoided her for weeks! That was until he got his broom back right before the Quidditch finals. 

WE WON THE QUIDDITCH CUP! We got to kick some Ravenclaw arse, with only a few injuries throughout the entire game. We had a huge party in the Gryffindor Common Room until McGonagall came in and told us all to head to bed. So, we all headed up to our bed and fell asleep fairly quickly ... that was until around 3 a.m.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHH! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" I heard screaming from the boy's dormitory. More importantly, the dorm room that contained my twin brother, which I was pretty sure who just screamed.

"What the actual fu-" Parvati started to say.

"I don't know. What I do know, is they better have a bloody hell good reason to be waking all of us up at like three in the bloody am!" I said getting out of bed and running out of the door. I ran to the common room in my light purple nightgown. "What in the blazes, makes you boys scream at this time of night?" I said walking into the dimly lit common room.

I made my way over to a small lamp in the corner and flicked it on. In front of me, I saw Seamus, Dean, Neville, Ron, and Harry with worried looks on their faces as they scanned the room.

"SIRIUS BLACK IS HERE WITH A BLOODY KNIFE! THAT'S WHAT!" Ron panicked.

"Are you sure you weren't just having a nightmare, Ron?" I said rolling my eyes. "Sirius Black couldn't possibly be in the dorms."

"What is all the noise?" Someone shouted from the stairs.

"Professor McGonagall told us to go to bed!" another person yelled coming down the stairs. By this time most of the boys were awake and coming down the stairs, the girls following suit.

"Excellent, does that mean more partying?" Fred said brightly. I heard Angelina slap him on the head, as I turned back to my twin. 

"Ron. Where exactly did you see-" I was speaking in a soft tone when Percy came bursting into the room.

"Everyone back upstairs!!" Percy said pinning his head boy badge on his Pyjamas. Which caused a bunch of eye rolls from everyone in the room.

"Perc - Sirius Black! Was in our dormitory. WITH A BLOODY KNIFE! He woke me up." Ron said eyes growing wide with fear.

"Nonsense! You must have had too much food and drink, Ron go to bed! You just had a nightmare!"

"I'm telling you-"

"Now, really, enough's enough!" Professor McGonagall yelled as she slammed the portrait behind her and stared us all down as she walked into the common room. "I am delighted the Gryffindor won the match, but THIS is getting ridiculous! Percy, I expected better of you!" She spat at Percy. 

"I certainly didn't authorize this, Professor!" He spoke. "I was telling them all to go back to bed! My brother Ronald here had a bloody nightmare - "

"IT WASN'T A NIGHTMARE! PROFESSOR, I WOKE UP, AND SIRIUS BLACK WAS STANDING OVER ME, HOLDING A KNIFE!!!" Ron yelled.

"Don't be ridiculous Weasley, how could he possibly have got through the portrait hole?"

"I dunno how he got in! I was a bit busy dodging his knife!" Ron replied. McGonagall placed her hand to her head, clearly over this night, and wanting it to be over.

"Percy, have you seen Sir Cadogan?" McGonagall asked in a very annoyed tone.

"I - umm - Oh! He is right there Professor." Percy said pointing at one of the portraits near the stairs.

"Sir Cadogan? Sir Cadogan?"

"Ah! How may I serve you tonight, Minerva?"

"Excuse me, is it possible that you let a mysterious man in the tower tonight?"

"Ah! Ah! Certainly my dear lady! He had the password! In fact, he had the whole week's worth of passwords! Written on a small piece of paper!"

"Now, which person, which abysmally foolish person wrote down this week's passwords and left them lying around?" We all glanced around. After a moment Neville slowly started raising his hand. I walked over and place a hand on his shoulder.

"Is it always going to be you, Mister Longbottom?" Neville looked down toward the ground. Trying to hide his embarrassment.

"While we know Sirius Black is gone tonight, I think you can safely assume he will, at some point in the future, attempt to return. Let me be clear. You are not to move about the castle alone. And you are not to write down the passwords! Understood?"

"Yes Professor." We all said together.

"Very well then. Go to bed. And remember act responsibly." She demanded as she left. A few people muttered and walked back up the stairs to their dorms. However, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, and I stayed back. Neville walked over to a table in the corner and sat by himself. I was going to go check on him when I heard Ron start bursting out towards Hermione.

"And that bloody beast ate my rat!" Ron yelled,

"That's a lie!" Hermione defended while hugging Crookshanks closer to her chest.

"It is not and you bloody know it!" he fired back. Hermione turned around and sat on the sofa beside Harry.

"I cannot believe him!" she whined.

"I could've killed him!" Harry whispered but I heard him. His words caught my attention and Hermione's. As I walked over to the sofa to join them, Harry spoke again. "He was right there. Close enough to touch. I could've killed him." He said again.

"Harry you can't - " I started to speak but he cut me off.

"No! I will kill him!" He spoke again. The anger behind his words sent a shiver down my spine. I could understand where he was coming from yet ... at the same time, it scared me to see Harry so violent.

I shook him off and went over to Neville. 

"It's not your fault, Nevy," I said rubbing his shoulder.

"Yes, it is. I lost those passwords weeks ago! I should've let McGonagall know so she could tell Cadagon to change them!" He banged his forehead onto the table. "I'm a disgrace!" 

"Neville Longbottom! If you EVER say that again, your wand will be up your own arse! You are fantastic, you are loved, you are talented, and you are meant to be here to make us enjoy the small screw-ups. All right?" I spoke sternly to him. 

"Yeah, whatever. It's not like you really care about me anyway." He got up and ran up the steps. I stood there in shock for a few moments, trying to figure out what he meant. 

"Lori? You coming to bed?" Hermione asked as she got up and walked to the stairs. 

"Uh. Y-Yeah. I'm coming." I took a breath and followed her up and went back to bed. The entire time thinking about what Neville could possibly mean.