Chapter 115: Dance of Lions

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I would like to thank my beta, Akisu, for his help in this chapter.

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7 March 1993, Hogwarts

The last few months were the worst ones Neville Longbottom ever experienced ever since he arrived at Hogwarts. It wasn't just the fact that his standing in the school was ruined, it was mainly because everyone kept looking at him with suspicion and sometimes even fear in their eyes, ever since he was revealed as a Parselmouth. He was the main suspect, and now that the attacks started once more, just a month after the Boy Who Lived had returned to the castle from his suspensions, things were starting to get bleak when it came to Neville proving his innocence.

Firsties just ran away from him now, and muggleborns stopped meeting his eyes, in fear of being targeted next. The professors kept looking at him like he was a monster, and even Ron's brother, Percy, had anger in his eyes whenever they spoke to him.

And of course, home wasn't much better. Neville's grandmother had tanned his hide, and gave him a disappointed look that was just worse than her yelling. Apparently, using an illegal potion to break into a foreign common room, by impersonating other scions of old families, was not only stupid but also very short-sighted.

Fine, he would admit that the Polyjuice thing was a mistake. It would have been a great story if it had worked, but that's the thing, it didn't.

Neville didn't know if the potion was faulty or something, but the fact that its effects wore off early at the same moment was very suspicious. It was probably some kind of defensive magic in the common room that would reveal intruders, but for some reason, it only worked as they got out. It was the only way to explain this. They had done the whole thing perfectly. Even Potter, whom Neville would admit only to himself that he is very intelligent, had been fooled and had confessed to pretty serious information.

Information that will help prove Neville's innocence. The boy who lived would need to give his estranged godbrother a gift of some sort, for unknowingly helping him. At least, he wasn't a prick to Neville anymore.

Honestly, it was jarring to see how differently Slytherins behaved in their common room. They had rules, they weren't all racist bigots that thought that Muggleborns were lesser. Only a few like Malfoy were the loudest, but when he looked back at it, he couldn't remember any other Slytherin outside his group saying stuff like that. However, the fact that someone contacted his mother for what he said was hilarious.

However, the petrification of Penelope Clearwater sent shockwaves through the schools, and not just for the petrification itself. Everyone had stopped thinking about the Chamber of Secrets since there hadn't been an attack for months. Well, they were obviously wrong, and the heir of Slytherin had claimed another victim.

Needless to say, nearly everyone assumed that Neville was responsible, particularly after it came out that he had no alibi at the time of the attack on Clearwater. He was flying on one of the school brooms to clear his head. His grandmother might have confiscated his broom, and he might have been banned from Quidditch, but Neville still loved flying.

Furthermore, the female prefect had been seen giving the Longbottom scion a detention for going out after curfew. Neville was planning on visiting Hagrid, and well, he was caught pretty easily. But that was motive enough for him to petrify him for most people. The general theory was that Neville had petrified Filch for the detentions he had to spend after the whole taking a flying car to Hogwarts thing, and then when Dean Thomas realized what had happened or caught Neville somehow, he petrified him. And when he tried to sneak into the Slytherin common room to plant some evidence there, he was caught and suspended. Now that he was back, the boy who lived resumed his reign of terror.

Of course, that was nonsense, but Neville had to admit that there was a narrative there. Thank Merlin that the whole thing hadn't been brought into the media. This was enough 'evidence' for Rita Skeeter to crucify him in the Daily Prophet.

Neville's housemates started to harass him somewhat, a movement spearheaded by a few muggleborn upper years. Gilbert Smith was particularly vicious in his attacks and had even hexed the boy who lived in the back when he was alone. Worse, he was backed up by the rest of his year. Cormac McLaggen was Smith's friend and had taken to harass Neville whenever he could. It was a shame because they were pretty friendly the previous year. Unfortunately, his new status as the heir of Slytherin was more than enough to turn that comradery into a burning hatred. Honestly, he would rather one of them be petrified than Clearwater or Dean. Dean was his friend and while Clearwater was a no-fun hard ass, she didn't deserve what happened to her.

Thankfully, the Mandrakes had almost matured and according to Professor Sprout, it would only take a month for the victims to wake up. Alas, Neville knew from the testimonies of the older students that they didn't remember their attacks, so he wouldn't be able to clear his name this way.

Anyway, Neville decided to not stay in the common room as much as possible while figuring out the whole heir thing. Plus, his housemates were very suspicious and occasionally hostile. He had holed himself in the Astronomy classroom, which wouldn't be used until late at night. He was sitting down across from Ron, playing chess.

Well, losing a game of chess is the more apt description, until he saw Hermione running in while yelling out, "I figured it out. I figured it out."

Neville looked at her with concern, "What are you talking about?"

"It was Hagrid. He's the one who was framed for opening the chamber of secrets."

"What?" he and Ron exclaimed at the same time.

Neville cleared his throat and asked, "Are you sure about that? We couldn't see any records of how the situation was resolved, just articles about the attack. Although, it is curious that nothing was written in the Prophet about the attacks, which is kinda unusual, now that I think about it."

The Golden trio spent weeks in the library trying to decipher the information that Potter released. They confirmed that the Chamber of Secrets was in fact opened fifty years back, and people were petrified. A student had died, but they didn't say who out of respect, and there was a brief article saying that an unnamed student was expelled and that the attacks stopped afterwards.

They couldn't even figure out what Slytherin's monster even was. Potter's clues about a long-lived snake capable of petrification were a little too vague. They couldn't really find anything about the subject. Hermione thought that it might be in the restricted section and they were all planning on tricking Lockhart into signing a permission slip to get a book there.

"Of course, I'm sure. I couldn't find a direct link to who was expelled, but I had a list of all the students in attendance when the Chamber was opened, and I got a list of the graduating roster for the next seven years. Only two students attended Hogwarts but didn't graduate, a muggleborn girl named Myrtle Warren and Rubeus Hagrid. Myrtle was probably the one who died since she's the muggleborn, so, that leaves Hagrid. He's the only one left."

"He never did say why he was expelled. And we can be sure that it can't be him; Dumbledore wouldn't have hired him in the school if it was him," Neville mused.

"Yeah, no wonder he never said anything," Ron exclaimed.

"Although, there was something else," Hermione started, "Someone got a Special Award for Services to the School in the year when the attacks occurred. I think he was a Slytherin named Tom Riddle."

"Oh, I remember him. I cleaned his badge in the trophy room for my detention at the start of the year. It was really dirty, so I had to polish it several times," the redhead said. He then looked pensive for a minute, "Do you think he might have done it and put it on Hagrid? It's a pretty Slytherin thing to do."

Hermione brightened, "That's actually a good idea."

"Why do you sound so surprised?" Ron grumbled back at her.

"Do you think we should go and ask Hagrid about it all? He might know something more about the attacks," Hermione asked.

"That'd be a cheerful visit," said Ron. "'Hello, Hagrid. Tell us, have you been setting anything mad and hairy loose in the castle lately?'"

In the end, they decided that they would not say anything to Hagrid unless there was another attack, or if they were really stuck. According to Potter, the man was framed, so bringing suspicions onto him was just being inconsiderate.

With that subject out of the way, Hermione started prattling on about choosing their electives for the next year. Apparently, they were forced to choose at least two new subjects out of the five choices given. Runes, Arithmancy, Divination, Muggle Studies, and Care of Magical creatures. It was a choice that Hermione was taking very seriously indeed.

Yeah, right. As if Neville had a choice. The Longbottom matriarch gave him a long letter outlining each of the electives.

Neville knew his grandmother enough to see the subtext underneath the nicely worded letter. Long story short, she would kill him if he didn't choose runes. It seemed kind of pointless to learn an entirely new language, but she still terrified the hell out of Neville, so that was that. She strongly advised him to take Arithmancy, but Neville was never good with numbers. If he didn't take arithmancy, then he would have to take three electives instead of two, which were divination – rumoured to be an easy O – and Care of Magical Creatures, which seemed kinda of necessary if he wanted to spend time with Hagrid without being accidentally maimed. Neville still had nightmares about the dragon the man hatched in his wooden hut. Muggle studies seemed kind of useless, to be honest. It just didn't seem like something he would ever use in his life. Seeing the future and taking care of magical animals seem a lot more interesting.

Hermione, for some reason, wanted to attend all five and Ron chose Care and Divination for the easy grades.

Anyway, the day ended with them splitting up. Hermione went to the library, Ron wanted to go back to the common room and take a nap, while Neville slowly walked towards the Quidditch pitch to fly for a bit. The school brooms were horrible, but they would do.

Of course, all things had to come to an end, when he heard a faint voice, "I smell blood…I SMELL BLOOD!"

He stiffened and instinctively followed the voice. It probably wasn't a good idea, especially if Potter of all people thought that the monster was terrifying, but he had to do something. He ran as fast as he could, the whispers of killing and hunger getting louder as he got closer until they became silent.

He looked around and saw nothing. This was a deserted wing in the castle. Practically no one went there. Neville had a couple of times when he was running from Filch. The Longbottom scion raised his wand, ready to defend himself against the monster, until he froze when he saw blood on the wall. It was another smiling face and Neville knew that a body was near it.

Still, grasping his wand he gasped when he realized who it was. It was the familiar form of Cormac McLaggen, lying on the ground, rigid and cold, a look of frozen shock on his face, his eyes standing blankly at the ceiling.

Holy shit! Did he do that? Neville did personally wish he was petrified a couple of hours back. What the hell? It didn't make any sense. Cormac was a pureblood. His father was a pretty known entity in the light faction at the ministry. He wasn't a muggleborn, so why was he attacked?

Neville's heart was doing a kind of drumroll against his ribs. He looked wildly up and down the deserted corridor and saw a line of spiders scuttling as fast as they could away from the body.

This was a deserted place in the castle. He could run, and no one would ever know he had been there. Cormac was an ass, yes, but he needed to tell a professor or something about him. Would anyone believe he hadn't had anything to do with this? After all, his confrontations with McLaggen in the last couple of weeks were public knowledge in the castle.

As he stood there, panicking, a door right next to him opened with a bang. Peeves the Poltergeist came shooting out.

"Why, it's little icky Longy Botty, what are you up to in this part of the …"

Peeves stopped, halfway through a midair somersault. Upside down, he spotted Cormac's body.

ATTACK! ATTACK! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! NO ONE IS SAFE! LONGBOTTOM'S CAUGHT IN THE ACT! ATAAAAACK!"

It didn't take long for the professors to arrive alongside a large foray of curious students. Neville just stood there, transfixed, as Cormac was carried to the hospital wing by two junior professors. He saw Potter with a complicated look on his face as if he was trying to figure out a large puzzle. He was particularly staring at the face in the wall before shifting towards Longbottom.

As their eyes met, Neville felt like he was being seen through. It wasn't dissimilar to how it felt to stand next to Snape or Dumbledore. Neville only hoped the boy didn't also think he was guilty. He didn't know if it was a remnant of whatever familial bond, he subconsciously wished they had, but Potter was one of the few people who were smart enough to see through whatever was happening.

Alas, the boy left when he was shooed out by the transfiguration professor, leaving Neville alone with her.

"This way, Longbottom," she said.

"Professor," said Neville at once, "I swear I didn't -"

"This is out of my hands, Longbottom," said Professor McGonagall curtly.

They marched in silence towards what Neville realized was the headmaster's office. He only hoped he didn't get expelled this time. The headmaster was already pretty short with him ever since the whole Polyjuice incident.

Yeah, things didn't look good for Neville Longbottom.

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If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr

I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.

Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.