I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_sally_anne]

Neville, are you going to be alright? Is your grandmother going to be able to protect you and Evelyn? You've surely heard -- for the rest of you, there was an article in the Daily Prophet today about Neville's parents. They're alive, apparently, and they're working with Sirius Black (or so the Ministry says -- they found a letter with Sirius Black's things). And Neville has a little brother. A baby who was just born in the last year.

Congratulations about the brother, Neville. I wish there'd been a picture, too, so you could know what he looks like.

I'm worried, though. They thought your parents were dead so there wasn't any reason to

I'm worried about you. Be careful. If they ask you any questions pretend you're a Slytherin when you answer.

Comments

[alt_gredforge]

There is a picture. Maybe you missed it. It's on page 2.

[alt_sally_anne]

I did miss it -- Mrs Stretton wanted the paper too quickly.

He's a beautiful baby, Neville.

[alt_sally_anne]

I finally got the paper back and read the article properly.

Neville, your parents sound ... well, utterly heroic. If they have journals I wish they'd start writing in them. Now that Sirius Black is gone, I mean. I think people would trust them.

[alt_neville]

Thanks, Sally-Anne.

I'll write more later. I promise.

I'm needing to talk to Evelyn again right now.

[alt_ron]

Don't really know what to say, mate. I guess it must've been a shock, though to see that in the papers.

[alt_ron]

You okay, then?

[alt_neville]

Yeah. The worst one I've ever gotten, I reckon.

[alt_neville]

No, I'm really not. Not yet, anyway.

It's so strange. I keep thinking that the secret I told everyone here that was supposed to keep me from breaking this Lock is out now. It's been blown sky-high.

But even if the secret's out, there's no way I'd ever break the Lock now. My parents must have given me up to my Gran to keep me safe. That's the only way I can figure it. It's not that they didn't like me, or they didn't like kids. It was so they could do work that's so dangerous that they could get arrested for it. Maybe even killed for it, the same way that Sirius Black was killed.

I can't repay that by doing anything that would ever hurt anybody here. Or any of the other people they were trying to protect.

If we ever find out who they are.

I'm scared for my brother, though. If it was so dangerous to keep Evelyn and me, are they sure they're going to be able to keep him safe enough?

[alt_ron]

Yeah, I see what you mean. About it being dangerous for them to keep your brother. But it's not like they could bring him to your Gran and give him to her. Because then people would wonder why she took in a tiny baby and where she got him from, and it wouldn't take too much thinking for someone to think it might be like you and your sister, especially if he looks like you, y'know? And then people would have guessed your parents were alive, and they'd have thought your gran must've known where they were or anyway must have seen them. And then who knows what might've happened.

So I don't see they've got a lot of choice, your parents.

[alt_terry]

I just thought of something.

I mean, we all know you're lying about hating your parents and all.

So, what I was wondering is...do you think your Gran is lying, too? About not ever being in touch with your parents, since you were a baby? What has she told you about all this?

[alt_neville]

Blimey. I can't ask, even hint...I can't even BREATHE anything like that. Do you realise what they'd do to me and Evelyn if they found out she'd been doing anything like that? Much less Gran herself?

They'd send us all off to be punished like--what do they DO to blood traitors, anyway?

[alt_terry]

You don't want to know. Honest.

You're right. You just can't ask, can you?

[alt_neville]

No. I can't.

[alt_sally_anne]

They send blood traitors to the camps. With their families.

It would mean all of you. Your Gran, you, Evelyn, and possibly your uncles as well.

[alt_neville]

It's not going to happen.

It just won't.