*Disclaimer: I do not own Neville Longbottom or any characters featured in the Harry Potter series, although I wish I did and could stash them all in my closet :3 They are all from the mind of our queen J.K. Rowling.

Prologue

Neville

I vaguely remember hearing voices as I drifted back to consciousness in my hospital wing bed, but none of them seemed to make sense. The words all seemed disconnected as my brain tried piecing them together.

"Dumbledore..."

"Snape... killed..."

"Death Eaters... gone..."

The details from earlier that night were still a little hazy to me. I remember running down the hall towards the Astronomy Tower with Ron, Ginny and the members of the Order of the Phoenix who were on watch that night. Jets of light were flying in all directions as Death Eaters and defenders of Hogwarts fought. There was one tall, blonde Death Eater who was standing in the thick of the chaos, firing off curses like mad. I thank my lucky stars that Ginny shared some of that felix felicis potion Harry had given to her earlier that night, otherwise... who knows what would have happened.

The last thing I can remember from tonight is chasing after Malfoy and the gang of Death Eaters who were running up the stairs of the Astronomy Tower, and being thrown back by an invisible barrier blocking the foot of the stairs. I soared through the air, hitting the wall across from the stairs and crumpled to the floor. After that, everything is pretty foggy, although I think at one point Harry may have tripped over me, but I really can't remember.

I opened my eyes a fraction, then shut them back tight again. My head was still spinning quite a bit. There also seemed to be an argument going on at the other end of the ward, so I waited for the raised voices to die down a bit before attempting to open my eyes again. This time when my eyes opened, I managed to catch a glimpse of the other end of the ward from the corner of my eye before my heavy eyelids closed once more. There was a big group of people gathered around an occupied bed. Who was it? Who else had gotten hurt?

Then, all of a sudden, I heard the doors of the infirmary burst open.

"I've... I've done it, Professor." It was Hagrid who entered the ward. He sounded really choked up over something. "M-moved him. Professor Sprout's got the kids back in bed. Professor Flitwick's lyin' down, but he says he'll be all right in a jiffy, an' Professor Slughorn says the Ministry's bin informed."

'Thank you, Hagrid,' said a very tired sounding Professor McGonagall.

She then addressed the group of people that I had glimpsed earlier when I managed to sneak a peek of the other end of the Hospital Wing. They then had a brief discussion about something, but unfortunately I couldn't hear a word of it. Once Professor McGonagall was finished speaking, she hurried out of the room, along with the shuffling footsteps of others following behind her. The room then became very quiet.

"I'm very sorry Arthur," said a very familiar voice, "but I really must be going. Take care Molly. I hope for the best."

"Yes, I probably should get going too, Molly." This time, it was a woman's voice I heard. She sounded exhausted. 'I'm sure he will be alright. I'll see you again soon.'

Alright, now I really need to know what's going on. With that, I opened my eyes once again and saw my ex-Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Lupin walking towards the Hospital Wing's doors. Behind him was a younger woman with mousy-brown hair. She caught up with him before reaching the door, took his hand, and then I swear that I saw her hair change to a vibrant bubblegum pink colour.

I tried turning my head over to the right to see who was there, but it hurt so much that I closed my eyes once more and groaned in agony. It was so painful to move, but there were too many questions whizzing around in my head that needed to be answered. It's now or never.

I slowly started to pull myself up into a sitting position on the bed, being very careful not to hurt myself. All was going well, that is until my hands slipped and I fell back awkwardly in the bed.

"Arghh!"

My head bumped into the headboard with a loud thump, but it was the rest of my body that was in excruciating pain. Madam Pomfrey came rushing over to my side and helped me to sit up.

"You should've waited for someone to help you! You were terribly hurt last night, my dear boy! Here, drink this," she said, handing me a vial of purple coloured potion. "It will make the pain go away."

I mumbled a thank you before she beetled off to tend to the other patient at the end of the ward, and then gulped it all down. It tasted awful and burned as it made its way down my throat. Moments later, it felt as if there was a fire in the pit of my stomach, and waves of heat were radiating throughout my body. Suddenly, the sensation stopped, and I was numb all over. It was almost an uncomfortable feeling, but I was just glad that it didn't hurt to move anymore.

I stretched out my legs and yawned. Everything felt so stiff from being in bed for so long. Before I had the chance to turn my head, someone at the end of the ward yelled 'Neville!'

Ginny came running down the aisle of the hospital wing and enveloped me in a big hug.

"How are you feeling?" she asked concerned. "You took a nasty hit last night, you've been unconscious for a couple of hours."

'"Yeah, I'm fine Ginny," I said straightening up in my bed, "but what about the others? Who else is hurt?"

Ginny hesitated, but then said softly "My brother, Bill. He was attacked by Fenrir Greyback, you know, the werewolf who's helping the Death Eaters. He wasn't transformed... but Lupin said he probably will have some wolfish tendencies."

"I'm so sorry." I said looking over at Mrs Weasley who was crying in her husband's chest, while Fleur Delacour stroked Bill's hair as tears fell from her blue eyes. I then looked back into Ginny's light brown eyes as she wiped a tear from her cheek.

"It's alright, I'm sure he'll be ok" she said turning to look out the window, but her eyes said otherwise. She seemed to be trying to convince herself rather than me.

Then there was a very awkward silence between us that. I knew Ginny was upset, but I didn't know exactly how to comfort her. Luckily I didn't have any time to make the situation more uncomfortable than it already was thanks to Ron.

"You're up mate!" he yelled.

"Ron, keep it down! You're in a hospital" Hermione snapped.

"Oh, right" said Ron, his ears turning red. "Sorry."

"Hello Neville," said a quiet, dreamy voice. Luna had drifted along behind Ron and Hermione. She had a scratch along her cheek, and her silvery blue eyes were tired and weary.

"Hi Luna," I said as the colour slowly returned to my cheeks.

"So how are you Neville?" Hermione asked.

"I'm pretty good. The potion Madam Pomfrey gave me was really helpful. I barely feel any pain, I just feel a little weak is all. Where's Harry?"

"He and McGonagall have gone to meet with the Heads of House to discuss what will happen to the school, seeing as Dumbledore's-" then she stopped speaking.

"What? What's happened to Dumbledore?"

"Well... he's dead, mate." Ron said quietly.

Silence spread throughout the room. All that could be heard was the sound of Madam Pomfrey scurrying around in her office, and Mrs Weasley sobbing quietly over her son's still form.

My thoughts kept revolving around the news that I had just taken in. Everything that I heard in my haze suddenly made sense, but I just couldn't accept it. Dumbledore can't be gone, but by the look of all the solemn faces surrounding me, I know it has to be true.

"My goodness... I don't understand. I mean, how?"

"Snape" said Ginny. "After you had been knocked out, Snape ran up the stairs to the Astronomy Tower where Malfoy and the gang of Death Eaters were with Dumbledore. Lupin tried to run after him, but he got flung back like you did."

"Yeah, he reckons only people with the Dark Mark could pass through" said Ron.

"Then, well... he killed him" Hermione said as tears slid down her cheeks. Ron then put his arm around her shoulder to comfort her. "And when Snape ran down, we did nothing. We thought he was on our side!" Hermione cried.

"It's alright Hermione, it wasn't our fault. Snape had us all fooled..." Ginny said softly.

Then all was quiet again. After all the violence that took place earlier that night, you'd think that silence would be a good thing, but when you're lying in a hospital bed with no hope left in you, you'd give anything for a Hippogriff to swoop into the room and carry you off . Luna's voice surprised us all when she disturbed the silence.

"Well, I think that if Dumbledore were here, he wouldn't want us to be sad and fret too much over what is to come." She said in her dream-like voice. "Perhaps instead of dwelling on what has happened, we should forget about our troubles for the while and remember the love that we had for him.'

"And how are we supposed to do that exactly, given everything that's happened?" Hermione asked a little cynically.

Fawkes the phoenix's song of lament echoed throughout the hospital wing as he soared in the dark sky, his cry emanating across the grounds of Hogwarts. I looked into Luna's piercingly silver eyes, searching for the answer to Hermione's question. How are we to just forget what dark times are ahead of us?

Luna half smiled, and then said "Well for a start, we still have each other, and right now I think that is all we need to at the least go on living."

She paused and looked at each of us. Hermione was now staring at her feet as Luna continued with a smile on her face.

"That's what Dumbledore would want, isn't it? Yes, I do believe that would make him very proud."

She was absolutely right, but sometimes things are easier said than done.

A/N: Hi! So this is my first ever Fanfiction story! I got the idea to write this 2 years ago when I was recovering from wisdom teeth extractions and suffering from Post-Potter Depression :3 I only got the courage to post it onto Fanfiction this Summer. The prologue may not be perfect, as I was 2 years younger than I am today when I actually wrote it, but hopefully I have improved since then and will be more religious about writing chapters, but I am starting college next week and It may be harder for me to find the time to write (I actually have 2 other chapters written, which I wrote over the course of the past 2 years... my goal doesn't look very promising, but I'll try my hardest!). So please review the story, I would really love to improve my writing ability, because I am very insecure about the process in general.