Chapter 18: Benevolent Dark Lord and Poor Lord Saviour
After the normal classes started in Hogwarts, Neville started his routine of class, ROR, Lake and Greenhouses in Hogwarts. He would spend time in these places and enjoy his school life in the best way he can. It was during the weekend's breakfast when he was reading the Daily Prophet, a small piece of news published in a small caught his eye.
There is a story about a wanted smuggler who was last seen near the Hog's Head Inn in the Hogsmeade. It was noted that this smuggler was seen with dragon eggs and the ministry wanted any information related to him. Reading this news made Neville think of something.
Right now, in his potion materials, he is using Ashwinder's eggs for pure fire and fire magic but it has to be noted that this is a very precious, if not banned, material in several locations. What if he could use a dragon's blood directly? A dragon is a much higher magical animal than a magical snake and its fire is purer than ashwinder's eggs.
Neville decided to rob this dragon egg from his smelly professor and raise this dragon. As of now, Longbottoms had no animal farms and it will make a good start if starts a dragon farm with this. Anyway, a small dragon farm meant three to four dragons and this small new dragon could be their future leader. Not only materials like dragon's scales or dragon teeth were rare items but also quite expensive. This might not only solve his money problem for now but also raise his potion's power to the next level. Sorry double face, smelly and dying professor.
Neville started looking at the marauder's map regularly now and would often check Professor Quirrell's whereabouts. He found his opportunity three days later when our dark arts professor decided to have a night walk in the dark forest. The whole thing was too dark to care.
He found his roommates, Harry and Ron also running in hallways and missing from their room. Knowing that this must be because of the Cloak of Invisibility that our headmaster gave Harry on Christmas, he ignored them. Anyway, let the old Gandalf play his game with Harry.
Nev sneaked out of the room and kept looking at the map. After avoiding our famous night cat watchman, he managed to get near the office of Professor Quirell. Using a simple unlocking spell, he managed to get into his office. Quirell tried to act as normal as possible and that made it impossible for him to cast any strong magic protection for his items.
Neville searched the professor's desk, drawers and compartments but there was no dragon egg hidden there. When he was almost ready to give up, he noticed a small briefcase near the fireplace. He checked for any magic traces and after using multiple charms to disarm the suitcase magic, he opened it to find a big red egg inside it. Smiling, he picked it up carefully and then ran back to his dormitory.
He checked the map twice during his escape and when he was sure no one was in his way, he went straight into his room. He entered his own suitcase where he was keeping some small animals and herbs for his own practice and experiment and put the dragon egg in one of the habitats that would suit him. He was feeling so excited.
He wrote a few letters that same night to his house-elves and his Nan asking them to buy any small dragon farm or a large area that was available for purchase and also instructing his house elves to not buy large quantities of ashwinder's eggs from now on. They had enough stock for one month and a dragon will be big enough in one month so he can easily draw blood from it.
Finally, after such a good night's walk, he was very happy. Just for being safe he checked the map again and found that our dark arts professor came back at this very moment and somehow he bumped with our potion professor, Mr Bat. The Bat and The Two-face were arguing something and our famous saviour Mr Potter and his sidekick Mr Weasley were also coming closer to them.
He kept laughing at this strange thought. Anyway, this means the duo is convinced that Snape is the bad guy and trying to steal something from Hogwarts. Hmm...it seems our headmaster is trying to end the first year Harry Potter experiment after the exams. Such a good headmaster. But why there is no Bushy face with the duo?
He checked the map and found our bushy head was sleeping in her room and was missing all the action. Hmm...It seems because the trio didn't go any troll incident this year, their bond is not that strong. Considering Ron has a bigger influence on Harry and he dislikes Hermonie's strong bookworm spirit, they would make this boy's night out only. Anyway, not his game nor his chess pieces to worry about.
The next few days he noticed our dark arts professor was more pale and weak than usual and it seems his lord is not happy after he lost a dragon egg. Clearly, the poor weak professor was getting punished and it seems, the more he was punished the more badly he smelled. Amazingly, this gave him another idea of money-making.
Soon, the twins were selling new scented dresses and items for the lovely cute pets that are famous in Hogwarts recently. Pygmy Puffs are the mainstream pets now and since they are very well behaved, many young wizards would keep them close and often take them in their pockets. Our Dark arts professor gifted me more gold than anyone. I hate thinking he will die such a pitiful death.
No, I must shed a tear for him and try to find whatever he kept in his vault. I must inherit complete legacy and properties, if possible. All Hail Dark arts professor who loves Dark forest and is loyal to Dark Lord. Thinking this I chucked and decided to head towards the lake area.
Now, my six month period was coming close and I knew next month, I would have to face the test of Professor Ravenclaw. My own understanding of runes was only at beginner level but at least she had not made any comments in the last few meetings which gave me some confidence.
I was walking towards the lake when I noticed our lord saviour, Harry Potter and Ron getting a good beating from Malfoy and his cronies. I thought of helping them for a second but then I realised, there was no bushy head there.
So, fuck them.
I believe our lord saviour will forgive his oppressors like Lord Jesus in future and without the cute and annoying Hermonie, let the Lord saviour face his demons alone.
Ohh...that punch must have definitely hurt. Ron was definitely getting the worst of it. Poor Weasley. I think the show is good but let's head towards the lake area.
The next day, the common room was boiling like anything. Our Griffyndor house lost 100 points and it was found that Harry Potter and Ron Weasley had a fight with Slytherin students. During the fight, Potter used a charm to levitate a nearby stone and threw it towards the Crabbe and Goyle and they were injured. Thanks to this, 2 weeks of detention and loss of 50 points from both of them.
Our lord saviour needed some serious saving now. Thankfully, Harry could still participate in the hellish Quidditch training to skip the anger from fellow lions but Ron was again the more miserable one. Our bushy head also refused to talk to them now because of their action of losing house points. For our cute Hermonie, the house points were something she collected every day and thanks to the performance from her and me, our points were looking good before the whole fiasco.
Somehow our fated duo still went to the dark forest for their punishment. It seems either my butterfly wings are small or our headmaster is hell-bent on making the first meeting between Voldemort and Harry Potter in the dark forest.
Apart from all of this, Nev would check the notebook copy he made from the potions professor regularly. That book reflected how deeply imaginative and smart our potion professor was in his student life. He could see so many changes and edits he made in his potions process that reflected his hard work and knowledge in this field. Such a pity. Sometimes reading this will make him feel sorry for the Bat. That man ruined so many lives because of his love and in the end he even lost his love in this life.
A poetic tragedy straight from Shakespeare's classic. Reading his notes, he would regularly share new ideas with his house-elves in his letters and looking at his new cute pet dragon which was growing nicely, he was feeling more confident in his holy water potion.
"Neville, I hoped during all your night tours and lake visits, you didn't forget to practice the runes. Tomorrow is Sunday and I want to test your progress this weekend. Come early morning here and bring saps, quills and other items for the rune test." Professor Ravenclaw announced the rune test to Neville suddenly.
"Don't worry professor. I am ready. I will see you tomorrow morning!" Neville wished goodbye to his professor and went back to his dormitory.
He was not scared or anything. He never lost focus on any of his extra studies. Be it potions, wand magic or runes.