A/N: Look, a chapter!

Okay, I’m really sorry for taking so long! I had a bad conscience about this story for weeks, but school was very very busy. Anyway, thanks for reviewing! It certainly helped me to pick up this story again!

Neville ran away from the stairs, leaving Ginny and Seamus behind. Snape was almost out of sight now, and Neville hurried to catch up with him. Snape was about to turn a corner though, and Neville, afraid he would lose sight of him, grabbed his wand firmly, bringing it forward strongly, shouting the first spell that he knew whose effect would get the headmaster’s attention.

A loud bang erupted from the other side of the corridor, close to where Snape had been walking. Neville flinched. Once he had recovered, he looked forward and saw that the wall had been damaged as if it had been hit by a cannon ball.

Naturally, none of this had gone unnoticed by Snape. Neville, reminding himself that this was what he had intended, stood nailed to the spot, watching Snape turning around. He cast a brief dark look at the battered wall, before his gaze fixed on Neville.

A wave of old fear washed over Neville, one that would have hindered him from running, even if he had not been as determined to stand his ground as he was. He tried to replace the fear with this determination, while Snape walked up to him. Snape had killed Dumbledore. Snape had killed Dumbledore. Snape had killed Dumbledore. While the fact that this made Snape a murderer might have added to Neville’s fear, it worked to strengthen his resolution.

Snape stopped few feet away from him, glowering at Neville. “What is this supposed to mean, Longbottom?”

“Uhm…,” Neville started. “… I wanted to add a passage?” he failed at making a joke, which he had hoped would increase his courage. He wasn’t good at this.

“How extraordinarily funny,” Snape returned. “To my office,” he added in a low tone that needed no loudness.

“The headmaster’s office?” Neville specified.

Snape looked at him in icy silence for a moment, before he repeated, “To my office. Now.”

Neville nodded, and stepped forward carefully, wondering whether Snape would lead the way, or he was supposed to do so. Snape did not move though, but continued glaring at him, so Neville walked ahead faster, leaving Snape behind himself reluctantly. He kept staring straight forward while he was marching to the staircase that would lead to the headmaster’s office, assuming Snape was following him, although he could not hear any sounds of him making steps behind him. It would not surprise him if Snape was able to hover inches over the ground.

They walked around several corners and finally down a long corridor, before the staircase came into view. Neville stopped, turning around to face Snape. The headmaster had been closer on his toes than expected, for he was already directly next to Neville.

“Dumbledore,” Snape mumbled, and Neville looked at him confused, before the staircase started moving, making the way upstairs free. In his confusion and surprise Neville had already missed that this was the password, ‘Dumbledore’. He was still looking at Snape wondering. It was strange that Snape had chosen this password. Unless the staircase had chosen it, and Snape had to take what he got. This seemed more likely, especially judging from the now even grimmer expression on the headmaster’s face. But he would certainly have been able to change it, wouldn’t he?

“Go.”

Neville almost jumped up the stairs. This time he had a good head start from Snape, and could take some calming breaths at the top of the stairs, before Snape arrived as well. He opened the door to his office, and ushered Neville in.

Neville glanced around the room. It was the first time that he had come up here. He could still see many things that he believed to recognize as Dumbledore’s work. Snape had not removed all of it, although one could also see some signs that the new headmaster had moved in here, if the eerie liquids in different coloured bottles that Neville could see on one shelf on his left side where any indication.

“Explain,” Snape said suddenly. He had been speaking quietly, but apparently it could not have been sounding more thoroughly throughout the whole room, if he had bellowed. Neville turned to him once again, his glance going over the shelf of books over Snape’s head. He noticed that a couple of books were missing in between the long row of obviously very old volumes.

He also realized that he would have to answer Snape’s request at some point.

“I… can’t,” he said slowly. Snape was glaring silently. “I don’t know,” Neville continued. “It just happened.” He paused. “You know sometimes there are accidents…”

“Especially caused by you, Longbottom?” the headmaster clarified.

“Yes,” Neville replied quietly, looking past Snape now, wishing he were somewhere far far away. He figured though that there was a chance Snape would believe it had been an accident, considering his low opinion of him. On the other hand, Snape wasn’t stupid.

“Out,” he said now, in an equally quiet voice as before, but Neville still started. He turned and strode quickly over to the door where he stopped dead when Snape’s voice sounded once again behind him.

“The only reason you get out of this without detention,” he explained coldly, “is because I think you would do more harm than good in any task that would even be remotely useful to this school.”

Neville let him talk, not caring about these words at the moment at all. He was too used to this from Snape, and he would certainly not feel more down because of what a Death Eater said about him. The only important thing on his mind now was to get out of Snape’s office and up to the Gryffindor tower as fast as possible.

When Snape did not say anything further, Neville made a careful step forward, unwilling to glance back to see if the headmaster was still paying attention to him. When nothing happened, Neville opened the door, cursing himself for the slight tremble in his hand. He breathed out when he was outside and had closed the door behind himself.

Then he broke into a run. He hurried down the staircase, and along the corridors he had walked along with Snape. Soon he passed the place where he had blasted the hole into the wall and wondered if Filch would have to repair it on the next day. Neville ran up to their common room, almost forgetting about a vanishing step in the stairs in his hurry.

He came to a sudden halt in front of the portrait hole where the Fat Lady was looking down at him sleepily. “Where have you been?” she questioned. Neville ignored her and said the password, hoping that the otherpassword he now knew would be valid when they would try to use it.

Once in the coming room, he found Ginny and Seamus still sitting there. He smiled. He had not really thought about it, but now he realized that he could not really have expected them to go to bed without knowing what had happened to him.

Ginny jumped up. “What happened?” she asked directly. “What did you do? What did Snape do?”

Neville looked at his two friends and could see the curiosity in their faces, knowing that they were wondering if he had got the password, but did not dare to ask before they knew about Neville.

“I blasted a hole into the castle wall,” he said, even blushing slightly in his wonder what the other two would think about this stunt.

Seamus opened his mouth, staring at him for a second. “Amazing!” he exclaimed, and Neville blushed even more, before the three of them broke into laughter.

“Snape took me to his office, I got the password by the way,” Neville informed them then, on which both of his friends cheered. “I kind of talked myself out of it,” he added, shaking his head in slight confusion. Ginny and Seamus were still staring at him, and Neville wondered for a second if that was like Harry felt when everybody stared at him.

He looked into the fire that was still warming the common room at this time of night, thinking.

“I guess we should do it now,” he started then, insecure in taking the lead. “Let’s go and get that sword tonight.”

TBC