Neville Longbottom and the Goblet of Fire

Chapter 3: Aboard the Hogwarts Express

The morning of September First, Neville was all packed and waiting for his escort to King's Cross Station. The person who knocked on the door was more surprising than Dumbledore, and it left him speechless. Lily Potter was at his doorstep, and standing behind her were Harry and Hermione. Neville had developed a crush on her when he met her for the first time last year.

He stepped aside and motioned them in, unable to speak. Harry shook his hand as he walked by and said, "Good to see you, Neville. We'll be taking you to the Station. Hermione thought you might like to try a Cab ride."

Hermione greeted him with a quick hug, and Lily was the last through the door. "Nice to see you again."

Neville turned to face the parlor. Hermione was trying to engage Roody in a conversation and he was slowly backing away from her. Harry and Lily were standing there, and Gran had to come in and invited them to sit.

"Oh, we don't want to impose," Lily said, "and we really must be on our way."

Neville gave Gran and Roody a hug, said his goodbyes, and reminded Roody to take care of his toad - he decided last year to leave Trevor behind. He watched for Harry and Hermione's reaction when he used 'Wingardium Leviosa' to levitate his trunk out the door. They didn't notice, and Neville was further deflated when Lily had to remind him that their driver was a Muggle. He dropped the Spell, and drug his trunk to the Cab's boot.

Lily must have enlarged it inside because all three of their trunks fit with room to spare. She sat in front, and Neville sat in back with Harry, Hermione and her cat, Crookshanks.

"I didn't know you had a House-Elf, Neville," Hermione said, sounding a bit self-righteous.

"Oh, Hermione," Harry interjected, "you need to lay off about the House-Elf thing."

"No, I won't! The way they're treated is appalling," and Hermione was incensed. "Take poor Winkey, for instance. Mr. Crouch makes her sit in his box way up, knowing that she is scared of heights. Why did she need to even be up there all alone? And then he fires her! . . . for what?"

Harry must have ignored everything she said because he turned to Neville and asked, "Did you go to the World Cup, Neville?"

"No, I –"

"It was so great!" Harry bowled right through. "Bulgaria's Seeker is amazing! And get this, Ron said that Fred and George won a ton of money on a bet, but the guy paid them with fake money that vanished after a couple of hours."

"Were you there when the Death-Eaters attacked?" Neville asked.

"Yeah, but get this," Harry continued, "the guy that welched was Ludo Bagman from the Ministry of Magic!"

Hermione piped up, "The Ministry has more important things to deal with than someone that cheated on a bet."

"How can you say that –"

Lily interrupted her son, "How about the two of you just calm down. Maybe he doesn't want to hear about all that." She turned to Neville and asked, "How was your Summer, Neville?"

Neville couldn't help but smile as he answered her, and he was pretty sure he was blushing. "It was fine, thank you. I took down my model train, and Roody was –"

"You mean your House-Elf?" Hermione interrupted.

"Well, yeah, but he's my brother, too," Neville corrected. "Anyway, I also played a bunch of Wizard Chess with Luna."

"Oh, did Luna visit you?" Harry asked.

"No, we made matching boards last year that let you play from long distances," Neville explained. "When you move a piece on one, it moves on the other."