Predictably, Neville was left partnerless.

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Hullo, this is Neville Longbottom, I think I've done this right.
Erm, you can leave me a voiceletter. If you'd like.

Comments

[doggedly]

[ew no]

tellekinesis
which is like an advanced levitation charm as it turns out so significantly less useful in classes just because itd be redundant

hows the sword by the way

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[And by misty-eyed, I mean full on bawling. Neville is not what you'd call "stoic." Prepare yourself.]

well it has got to be quite useful here
hasn't it?
I was never very good with levitation charms my aim is terrible

the sword is just fine I am trying to learn how to use it properly
I think most things have got more ways of blocking a sword than a snake
especially great ruddy giants on fire

[doggedly]

[this sounds horrible Neville please we are men]

its all right i guess
it isnt magic is my point

oh come off it thats no way to be
its not just any sword is it its the sword of bloody GRYFFINDOR thats got to count for something especially versus giants and things
fire or no fire
who do you have teaching you

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[if you want manly dignity you have come to the wrong place, friend]

no I suppose not
I do miss it, magic
I don't miss getting cursed much though, bit of a drag

well it is quite a bit less magical here I would wager, still very shiny though I will give it that
I have been taking lessons at the school and there is another bloke from Sigyn helping me but it is slow going
can you use one?

[doggedly]

[god dammit]

and yet youre quite cavalier about it
were you cursed often enough that this is a talking point

[Actually, perhaps he doesn't want the answer to that. The war, et al. It says something about his age and experience that--though their own version of the war is on at home, the thought of students getting cursed at Hogwarts is still somehow unthinkable. Dumbledore's protection goes a long way, even with the rise of Voldemort's power and influence.]

are you joking i dont know a thing about swords
wish i did
especially that one
are you seriously taking lessons at snapes school

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well yeah during detentions
got quite a lot of those in the end
and just anywhere they felt like it really

[What's that? You don't want heartwarming tales about the year of Hell? Well tough nuggets, because Neville can get quite cavalier about it when the mood strikes him.]

yes.
Harry and Hermione aren't taking it seriously but I was there when he ran Hogwarts
and I'm not letting what he did there happen again
I'm keeping an eye on it, I don't care what they say

[doggedly]

[The thing is, Sirius hates Snape. Hates him, and nothing here has done a thing to improve his feelings toward him. He's on our side now, everyone's said, and certainly he's done things to seem that way. And he is, probably. Sirius doesn't think too much about it because he can't stand to think much of Snape at all.

Detentions with curses, those were under Snape's time as headmaster. He's a bastard, but that seems cruel. Or does it? He was a bastard with hexes when he was a kid. Could have grown to be the same.]

so what youre saying is


youre a spy

[How serious is the threat of Snape? No idea. But Sirius can't disapprove of someone spying on him. It feels somehow... right.]

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[Not just any curses, either. The Unforgivibles.]

I suppose you could look at it like that
but it's not exactly likely he'll be fooled why I'm there
he's been trying to shut me up since I got here hasn't he
one of his teachers let me in though, behind his back I'm almost certain

[doggedly]

[there's a pause, before he answers. as someone who hates Snape, this is interesting to encounter.]

think hes meant to have changed sides so none of us are meant to worry
you really dont believe that?

[far be it from Sirius to defend Snape, but...]

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[This one takes awhile to come back because it's something he's been grappling with. He trusts Harry and Hermione on a very deep level, but... well, nothing Snape has said or done here has in any way helped his case, and Neville is very, very not ready to believe that everything he and the other students went through was all to maintain some stupid cover.]

I think the things he did were unforgivable and it doesn't really matter what side he was on in the end
and I think nobody who actually cared about anybody but himself could have done what he did no matter what justification he's using

did they even bother to tell you what it was like, what he turned Hogwarts into?

[doggedly]

[No one is ever going to get Sirius to like Snape, or even care about Snape. They might be able to work on the same project, as long as they're kept far, far away from one another, but Sirius will always hate Snape. So if there's anyone that would agree readily to Snape being a selfish bastard who only cares about himself, it's Sirius Black. He doesn't actually know all of the things that Snape has done--he has an idea of a few of them, but only things that are more or less contemporary to his time.

Hogwarts has a battle. That's always been a little inconceivable to him, but with Dumbledore, why not? And with Snape as the bloody headmaster...]

theyve only said a little

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[Of course, is what he thinks, rather vindictively. Because once you consider the things Snape actually did, it becomes so much more difficult to rally behind the justification he was doing it for our benefit.]

Did you know that he sent all the muggle-borns to Azkaban?

As young as the first years. It didn't matter to him.

[doggedly]

[As a future prisoner of Azkaban (the future Prisoner of Azkaban)-- well, Sirius has done a bloody good job of ignoring that aspect of the future, mostly because James and his fate have been all-consuming. But there's times when it comes up--deliberately, accidentally--and then he doesn't know what the hell to think.

There's no moment of pause here. It's not always easy, not being selfish, but something like this rates far beyond him.]

first years

[and Merlin, what else do you say to that? First years.]

he did it or he tolerated it
not that it matters
and they know this?

[Harry and Hermione, he means. They can't know it.]

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well he was the one in charge, wasn't he
if he didn't do it then he's the only one who would have had the power to stop it and he didn't, so it's just as bad

they ought to know it if they're not thick, and you know they're not
they saw Dean Thomas while they were out there, he's a muggle-born in our year
some of the 7th years were able to make a run for it because the trace expired, but anybody younger than that...

anyhow even if they didn't get that they know all about how he turned Hogwarts into a Death Eater training camp, how he hired two of them (the Carrows) to torture the students who didn't fall in line, and how he took kids hostage when their parents were causing too much trouble outside.

[The fact that they're not explaining this to the strangers here from other worlds isn't exactly sitting well with him, but the fact that they're not telling even other Order members is making it very, very hard for Neville not to pull his hair out. They cannot possibly buy the stupid martyr story that he's telling so fully that they won't even give their friends and family a fair warning about what sort of things Snape has proven he can live with himself doing, can they? It's ludicrous.]

[doggedly]

[this is a hell of a lot to think about. Sirius is, obviously, always one for hating Snape, for various reasons--but this information gives new dimension to his hatred.

Hogwarts is Hogwarts. it should never have had a battle fought at it, he'd thought that from the start. but a battle after it was turned into some grim parody of itself, where students were tortured, where kids were trained at the ways of the bloody Death Eaters--that makes it all so different. it makes Snape as big a bastard as Sirius always thought that he was--no, knew he was.]

i'll ask them about it
i'll see what exactly they know and i'll tell the others about it as well

[because James ought to know, and Remus--and Lily.]

have you told a lot of people here about this
people that arent from the wizarding world i mean

[and then, after a small delay--]

he won't get away with it dont worry
one way or another he's going to answer for all of this shit

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alright

[They're going to be awfully cross with him about this, he figures. When he had started to say something on the Network, Harry had messaged him and essentially told him to keep quiet about it, if not in so many words. It was complicated, he said.

And then there was the way they defended him on Barty's announcement. Like he was some brave and noble soul, misunderstood and unfairly misrepresented, even though none of the stuff said there had even been a lie. Like he'd been the hero of their war, and not the warden of one of its worst prisons.]

just the two teachers from his school who contacted me to ask about it
I wasn't going to lie about what happened

[Because while he believed Harry at first glance (it was Harry saying it, why wouldn't he), time and circumstances in Asgard had caused him to backslide wildly into being wholly convinced that Snape had fooled everybody, somehow, again. That even if he had truly been working undercover, he'd gone so far beyond anything forgivable in maintaining his secret at the cost of everyone and everything around him that there was absolutely no difference between that and what he'd have done if he'd been on Voldemort's side the whole time.

Neville doesn't think there is any way the ends have justified his means.]

thanks Sirius
I mean it

[doggedly]

yeah dont lie
people ought to know him for what he is
i'm not saying lets publish a book about it but he is a bastard

dont talk about him to barty crouch though
dont talk to barty crouch at all if you can help it
hes not as big a bastard as snape but he's no sweet little puffskein either

[because no one's as big a bastard as Snape, not in Sirius' books. maybe Voldemort, but his problem with Snape is so much more personal and pertinent. he has to sort all of this out, and see what James and Remus have to say--like always--

Merlin.]

yeah youre welcome mate
the least i could do especially after the time youve had of it
let me know if crouch gives you any trouble, same with snape
we'll sort them both

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[The only person Neville hates more than Snape in Asgard is Barty Crouch.]

trust me, I haven't got any delusions about Barty Crouch
and I will
let you know if it happens, I mean