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."
.....
Want to read ahead by more than 60 chapters. Then join my p@treon Right Now.
Link: p*atreon.com/BookReaderBoy (Remove the *)
Also Free members get 2 advanced chapters for Free as well.