The Importance of Being Different

Anne was sat in front of the fire with Irwin and Olivia. They had only been home a day, Voldemort had only been defeated a day before and all the other children apart from Jack had been taken back to their families. It was early on the Sunday morning, only ten o’clock.

Harry had hardly been back to Grimmauld Place, he had missed Ginny and Ron so much over the last five months that he had practically moved into the Burrow.

School had been cancelled until next year, Hogwarts needed a lot of repairs, it hadn’t been decided what was going to happen about the OWLs and NEWTs yet, the Ministry were still trying to figure it out.

Anne was in the middle of telling Irwin and Olivia what she had been up to over the last few months.

“You were caught by Snatchers?” stammered Irwin.

“Only for about two hours,” Anne shrugged.

“You freed a dragon?” asked Olivia excitedly

“Uh huh,” nodded Anne.

As they were talking Neville came bursting into the room.

“Anne! Irwin!” Neville said breathlessly.

“Whats up Nev?” asked Irwin.

“Its Mum and Dad, St. Mungos just called,” he said beaming.

“What about them?” asked Anne getting up.

“They’re calling for me, I think they’ve gone back to normal,” he nodded.

“Do you want me to come with you?” asked Anne.

Neville nodded enthusiastically at them.

“Sirius and Remus are coming too,” he explained.

“Livi can you stay here for me, I’ll be back soon,” said Anne giving her a hug.

“Ok,” said Olivia getting out a book.

“You sure you want me to come Nev?” asked Irwin.

“You’re my friend, aren’t you?”

“Of course,” said Irwin as they went to fetch their cloaks.

Remus, Sirius, Anne, Irwin, Neville and Augusta flued over to St. Mungos and ran up to the ward where Alice and Frank were.

Neville stopped outside the door and seemed to be slightly wary.

“Go on Nev,” said Irwin gently.

Neville opened the door and went through the door to the ward and walked straight past the reception desk and over to his parents’ beds.

Alice and Frank certainly looked better; they were both sitting on Franks bed with their arms around each other.

“Mum,” said Neville cautiously, “Dad.”

“Nev?” said Frank looking away from Alice.

“Neville!” exclaimed Alice jumping up from the bed and pulling Neville into a hug. Frank soon joined in in the hug as well.

The others had been standing a little bit back so that Neville could have this moment with his parents.

“But you’re so big,” said Alice sobbing as she looked Neville up and down.

“I’m seventeen,” said Neville.

“Seventeen!” exclaimed Frank, “we’ve missed sixteen years of our son’s life!”

“You’ve missed quite a bit,” said Augusta.

“Mum,” sighed Frank as he came close to tears and gave his Mother a huge hug.

Once Alice had finished hugging Neville then she looked over to the others who had been standing back so the Longbottoms could enjoy a family moment.

“Remus?” she asked, “Sirius?”

“Hi Alice,” said Remus waving shyly.

“It is you,” chuckled Frank as he gave them both a hug.

“But wheres Peter?” asked Alice as she hugged Remus.

Sirius growled slightly.

“Oh I’m sorry did I say something wrong?” asked Alice.

“Peter betrayed Lily and James,” explained Remus.

“And tried to kill Harry and Anne,” growled Sirius.

“What!” exclaimed Frank.

“As we said,” said Sirius, “you’ve missed a lot.”

“But first, theres someone you want to meet,” said Remus beaming ushering Anne forward.

Anne pulled at one of her plaits and stared at the floor.

“Lily?” asked Frank confused.

Remus shook his head.

“Anne?” asked Alice.

“Spot on,” beamed Sirius.

“You’re so beautiful,” said Alice giving her a huge hug, “just like Lily.”

“But your eyes are prettier,” said Frank in a stage whisper.

Anne started to laugh as she pulled at one of her plaits.

“Our Annies a bit shy,” said Sirius, “but shes the reason you’re here.”

“How?” asked Frank.

“She figured out that if we killed the three Lestranges you would get your minds back,” explained Neville.

“You started to get them back after Crouch lost his soul,” explained Augusta, “you thought Anne was Lily and you Alice thought Neville was Frank.”

“I killed the last two Lestranges yesterday morning,” said Sirius smugly.

“Nice one Sirius,” chuckled Frank patting his friend on the back

“There is one young man here who we haven’t been introduced to yet,” said Alice looking at Irwin.

“Oh,” said Anne nervously, “this is my fiancée.”

“You look familiar,” said Frank thinking for a moment.

“Scamander!” he exclaimed.

“That’s right Mary did have some little boys, they must be quite big now,” nodded Alice.

Irwin blushed slightly.

“Irwin Scamander,” said Irwin holding out his hand, “pleasure to meet you Mr and Mrs Longbottom.”

“I am not Mr Longbottom,” said Frank, “its Frank or nothing.”

“So we’ve missed sixteen years?” asked Alice.

Between the six of them they managed to explain the event of the last sixteen years, Voldemort disappearing, coming back and now being dead again.

“So Nev,” asked Frank after a few hours, “you’re seventeen, right?”

Neville nodded.

“Well Anne’s got a fiancée; you got a girlfriend?”

Neville had been sat between his two parents on the beds that they had pushed together, Anne and Irwin were sat on the other end of the bed and the others were using chairs.

“What a question Frank,” muttered Alice shaking her head.

“Go on Nev,” chuckled Irwin.

“Well actually,” muttered Neville, “there is this one girl.”

“That’s my boy,” said Frank proudly.

“So,” said Sirius “whats she like?”

Neville smiled nervously.

“Shes a Hufflepuff girl, her names Hannah.”

“You and Hannah?” exclaimed Anne, “oh that’s wonderful Neville you two are made for each other!”

Irwin started chuckling sitting next to her.

“You knew?” she asked turning towards Irwin.

“They got together in September.”

“Why didn’t you tell me!” she said hitting him with a pillow.

“Hey!” protested Irwin, “you only got back from a five-month camping trip in Wales two days ago, we had more important things to talk about that Nev’s love life.”

“So, when do we get to meet this young lady?” asked Alice.

“Um, maybe tomorrow?” suggested Neville.

“We’ve got some good news for you,” said a healer coming over and smiling.

“You’re going home,” she said beaming at Frank and Alice.

“Seriously,” said Frank clutching onto Alice and Frank.

“There’s nothing wrong with you, your minds are completely back,” she beamed.

“We should get home,” said Remus wanting to leave the Longbottoms to get reaqqauinted.

“Remus!” Alice called.

“Bring in round that wife and kid to see us some time,” said Frank.

“And thank you Anne,” called Alice as Anne, Irwin, Sirius and Remus left the ward.

When they got back to Grimmuald Place they found Lee Jordan setting up a radio set in the living room.

“What you doing Lee?” asked Anne.

“Setting up for the last broadcast of PotterWatch,” beamed Lee.

“What?” asked Anne confused.

“We have some international listeners,” he explained.

“The Ministry wanted to check that Tom was really dead before they broadcast it, its official he’s dead,” said Julian.

Harry was helping Lee set up the radio and Hermione was here as well looking very excited.

“We’re all set,” said Lee.

He passed a microphone and a headset to Remus, Anne, Harry and Hermione.

“Do we need code names?” asked Hermione.

“Not any more,” said Lee smiling.

Lee put a finger to his lips to indicate for them all to be quiet.

“Hello my lovely listeners,” said Lee down the microphone as the radio to whir, “welcome to PotterWatch, this is River with Romulus.”

“Hi River,” said Remus.

“Today we have a very special broadcast, our first international broadcast, I am being joined by a very special listener who is calling in from Australia.”

“Regal are you there?”

“I’m right here River,” came an Australian accent down the microphone.

“Is everyone there with you and they can hear us?” asked Lee.

“Yep, we’re all here,” said the voice.

“I’ve got someone very special who wants to talk to you all,” beamed Lee.

He nodded at Hermione.

“Mum, Dad,” she said nervously down the microphone, “can you hear me?”

“Hermione?” called a frantic voice.

“Hi Mum,” Hermione said with tears running down her face.

“Whats going on?” asked Mr Granger.

“Voldemorts dead,” said Harry.

“He’s gone?” asked Mrs Granger.

“You’re coming home on the next flight back to England,” said Lee.

“Did you hear that kids?” asked Keith, “we’re going home!”

There was the sound of loud cheering from the other end of the radio as the muggleborns celebrated the fact that they could actually go back to their families.

“And that,” said Lee, “is the end of the final broadcast of PotterWatch.”

Lee turned off the radio and the radio turned whirred down for the final time.