So, I found this chilling out in a forgotten folder on my hard drive. I think it got cut from a longer story at one point? But I read it, and it stands on its own, so I thought I'd post it for y'all. :)

Set during Deathly Hallows, just after Harry has left with Luna to find the diadem, as Ron and Hermione are on their way out of the Room of Requirement.

Ron and Hermione turned for the entrance to the Room, only to find their way blocked by Neville Longbottom, who did not look happy.

"I'm having the strongest flashback," Ron murmured to Hermione. Neville heard him.

"So am I," he said darkly. His eyes flicked to Hermione. "You going to put a body-bind on me this time?" he asked.

"Of course not, Neville," Hermione said.

"You have to convince him to fight," Neville said with conviction, and Ron had to spare a moment to wonder what must have happened this year to put that tone of steely authority in Neville's voice. He and Hermione shared a brief glance, and he knew they were thinking the same thing.

"We can't," Hermione said, trying to match Neville's tone, but not quite managing it.

"You can't?" Neville repeated. "Or you won't?"

"Both," Ron told him. "Look, Neville, without what the three of us are doing right now, You-Know-Who can't ever be defeated. We have to move on, as quickly as possible, and we can't get sidetracked —"

"Sidetracked?" Neville broke in furiously. "You think what's happening here is a sidetrack? Look around you, Ron. This isn't a school – it's a war zone. If you three don't think what's happening here matters—"

"It's not like that, Neville," Hermione broke in. "If you understood the importance of what we have to do—"

"That's what you said to me six years ago," Neville reminded her. "You got me out of the way then, but it's not going to be so easy now. I've had a lot more practice with people who wanted to get me out of the way. You say you're following orders from Dumbledore? Well, so am I. Protecting the school and the students that he worked so hard to protect. He gave me the first public recognition of my life for having the courage to stand up for what's right, no matter who I'm standing up against. I've had a lot more practice with that, too. If you three can't stay here to fight for these people who adore and revere you, you'd better have a damn good reason why. And I'm waiting to hear it."

He was speaking to both of them, but it was Ron's eyes he held, and it was Ron with whom his words really resonated. And so when Hermione said, "Neville, please, if we could tell you–" Ron interrupted with, "You-Know-Who found a way to immortality."

"Ron, what are you doing?" Hermione asked in an undertone.

"Hermione, he's right," Ron said to her. "You-Know-Who already knows Harry knows, and he knows Harry's here, so what good does secrecy do anymore? More people knowing can only help us, and Neville's right. If we're not staying to fight, he deserves to know why." He held her eyes for a long moment, until finally, she nodded, and he turned back to Neville. "You-Know-Who found powerful Dark Magic that grants him a kind of immortality. It's why he never really died, and why he was able to come back fourth year. He split his soul and housed pieces of it in powerful magical artifacts, six of them. We've been tracking them down all year and destroying them. Until all six are gone, the final piece of his soul that still resides in his body can't be destroyed."

"How many have you found so far?" Neville asked.

"Four," Hermione said. "And we've destroyed three. Harry's tracking down the fifth."

"Ravenclaw's lost diadem?" Hermione nodded. "And you two?"

"We're looking for a way to destroy the rest," Ron told him. "We lost the one we had."

"And the sixth? You know what and where it is?"

"It's You-Know-Who's snake," Ron said. "It'll be with him. Once Harry finds the diadem and we destroy it and the other one we have, we'll leave, try to pull You-Know-Who away from the school." In reality, they hadn't planned much beyond getting to Hogwarts, but Ron knew they couldn't let a battle happen here if they could possibly avoid it.

"Where it'll be You-Know-Who and all his Death Eaters against the three of you," Neville said flatly. "Let us help you. There is no reason you three have to sacrifice yourselves like that!"

"Let's let Harry find the fifth Horcrux and let the two of us track down a way to destroy it," Ron said, not wanting to argue anymore. "Then we can discuss what happens next."

"I'm not going to stop preparing for a battle," Neville warned. "Neither are the others. This is our fight, too."

"In a way," Ron said, "I'm almost glad to hear that." An understanding passed between them in that moment, and in the next, Neville stepped aside and let them pass.

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