Confronting Darkness

Voldemort made a movement with his wand and a few seconds later the Sorting Hat came flying out of one of the broken windows of the castle and landed in his hand. He shook the mildewed object by its pointed end.

"There will be no more sortings at Hogwarts School," said Voldemort. "There will be no more Houses. The emblem, shield and colors of my noble ancestor, Salazar Slytherin, will suffice everyone. Won't they, Neville Longbottom?"

He pointed his wand at Neville, who grew rigid and still, then forced the hat onto Neville's head, so that it slipped down below his eyes. There were movements from the watching crowd in front of the castle, and as one, the Death Eaters raised their wands, holding the fighters of Hogwarts at bay.

"Neville here is now going to demonstrate what happens to anyone foolish enough to continue to oppose me," said Voldemort, and with a flick of his wand, he caused the Sorting Hat to burst into flames.

A giant came lumbering into the memory yelling for 'HAGGER' and at the distraction the memory Neville moved, In one swift, fluid motion, Neville broke free of the Body-Bind Curse upon him; the flaming hat fell off him and he drew from its depths a ruby hilted silver sword. He swung it as hard as he could. The slash of the blade connected with the snake that was near Voldemort and the head spun into the air.

And the memory ended.

Back out of the pensieve, Harry looked at Neville who was white as a ghost. "You confronted Voldemort face to face Neville. You stood up to him and by cutting that snake's head off you allowed me to kill him. Don't ever say you're not a great wizard Neville, or that you don't think you have the courage. When it matters, you have it all."

Everyone in the Room of Requirement was looking at Neville. Luna's eyes were wide as if seeing an entirely different person standing beside her.

"That sword you used? That's the Sword of Gryffindor," Harry explained. "Dumbledore said only a true Gryffindor can pull it from the hat in time of need."

Neville had a contemplative look on his face for a few seconds before looking back at Harry. "So Voldemort won?" He asked. "And that's why you're back?"

"So you believe us now?" Hermione asked and when Neville sheepishly nodded, she continued. "Good. We'll answer a lot of questions soon, but I want to show Luna a memory before we do. Hermione bottle the memory of Neville and poured out one from a vial labeled, 'Luna/final battle'.

The memory was from Hermione as she, Luna and Ginny fought with several Death Eaters before finally they were battling Bellatrix Lestrange. Together they dodge and hexed, holding their own against the deranged witch who was casting killing curses at them. The memory ended with Molly Weasley finishing off the psychotic Death Eater.

When it was over and they were back out of the Pensieve, Hermione looked at Luna. "That happened after what you saw Neville do. You fought by my side at that battle and you also helped us fight in another one that happened very soon from now. The memory you just saw was the final battle here at Hogwarts, you did that after you had been captured by Death Eaters and held for months."

Now all eyes were on Luna who seemed to be lost in thought. She then pulled her wand out from behind her ear and looked at it. "My wand was different. Why?"

"The Death Eaters took yours from you when they captured you," Hermione explained. "You spent a lot of time taking care Mr. Ollivander who had been captured as well. After you were rescued, he made you a new one."

"That was nice of him, but why did the Death Eaters capture me?"

"Your father was quite outspoken in the Quibbler in supporting Undesirable Number One, which is the moniker the Voldemort Ministry had given Harry," Hermione answered. "Your home was mostly destroyed when Death Eaters attacked it."

"Not going to tell her about her father trying to turn us in?"

"It wouldn't do any good and she loves her father," Hermione replied to her husband and then she continued to both Neville and Luna, "We are trying to avoid all that happened before. A lot of good people including students here at school lost their lives because one man could not let go of his secrets."

"Who?" Neville asked.

"Dumbledore," Harry replied. "He knew the secret to killing Voldemort but didn't tell anyone until he was dying himself," At the look on Luna and Neville's faces, "Dumbledore died at the end of next year because of something he did stupidly in the next couple of months," Harry looked at Hermione, "We hope we can prevent it this time, only because Voldemort is scared of him. Once Dumbledore died, Voldemort took over the Wizarding World. But back to what he did wrong."

"Even when he decided to tell someone, he told me the secret and then he told me I could only to tell Hermione and Ron. Once he had died, we trusted him, thought he knew best. We turned away help because of his instructions. Yes we finally succeeded but only because of sheer luck. We did kill Voldemort, but at the cost of too many good people deaths, deaths I lay at the feet of Dumbledore."

"But Voldemort was dead and so was Bellatrix," Neville argued.

"And so were a lot of muggleborn witches and wizard along with some of our friends," Harry explained. "Do you remember Professor Lupin?"

"Of course."

"He was always very nice to me," Luna added.

"He died defending this school along with his wife. Their newborn son was left an orphan," Harry explained. "Umbridge went back to the Ministry and under Voldemort's rule she was in charge of persecuting muggleborns. They were accused of stealing their magic from purebloods. Many of them were sentenced to Azkaban or were kissed by Dementors only for being muggleborn."

"That's outrageous," Neville said. "What are you going to do about Umbridge?"

"What can we do?" Hermione asked. "She hasn't done anything yet. Not in this timeline."

Neville looked at them with a look that belonged on the Neville two years in the future instead of the current one. "If she is the cause of someone's death in the future and you did nothing to prevent it now, would you be able to live with yourself?"

Harry looked sharply at Hermione, "Is it that simple? He's right you know."

"I…I know," Hermione hesitantly agreed. "But that means it's across the board, all the Death Eaters in two weeks. Can we do that?"

"Just remember that it was the threat from them that caused you to modify your parent's memories and send them away."

"I know but can we do it and live with ourselves? We'll have to discuss this later but for now let's get back to Neville and Luna," Hermione replied and Harry nodded.

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