In Harry Potter as Neville Longbottom

Chapter 78: Catching a mouse

Because of Duel Club, one can catch a group of students excitedly talking among themselves in corridors or in classes all the time. All the representatives chosen by Professor Flitwick received their notice and Hermione Granger, the charm master from the second year along with Neville Longbottom, the hero of last year, also received their schedule.

"Neville, we got our club activity on Saturday evening after classes. What do you think Professor will teach us?"

Hermione asked Neville who was finishing his homework in the common room. No, he is not writing it but reciting it after checking some books.

Neville would always use these automatic quills and even promoted them heavily in Hogwarts. Even professors did not stop this as this was not against any rule and even with auto quills, students must recite the words.

This even made many students remember the words they 'wrote' in their homework and overall, the quality of the response in the classroom by students had improved.

"I think it must be the basic courtesy, basically use of charms in duel and introduction to some fighting style. I don't think he will teach us anything dangerous in the second year." Neville replied after quick thinking.

"Oh! That's still fine. At least it's a start." Hermione replied and started working back on her second book.

Yes, the second book.

Our bookworm Hermione is now famous as the youngest author in the wizarding world and her book "Introduction to the wizarding world" was published last week.

Contrary to the expectations of many, it became a hot seller in various bookstores. Even the ones placed in Longbottom's new library were borrowed on the first day and there is a long list of names on the waiting list for it.

The old wizards and a few pure-blood families are seriously affected by this and there are even some who made a loud noise but for now, no one has made any strong attack on Longbottoms. For ministry, this is a big headache.

The wizarding world today has more than 70% wizards that came from half-blood or muggle families and for them, this book is like an eye-opener and each one wants to grab this book to understand the world of their kids.

Ministry cannot force muggle parents to not buy this book when their kids are studying in the wizarding world and there is already a tracking charm placed on the book - like the one on wands - to make sure they do not circulate outside the wizarding world.

Plus, thanks to this book, there are many muggle families that are ready to tour the wizarding world properly. This even gave a good boost to their stagnant economy and the businesses in famous places mentioned in the book are already seeing a surge in the crowd.

This was also the reason many pure blood families have not spoken against this book as the unexpected rain of gold in their vaults in Gringotts is more soothing to their souls than the loud noise made from the old farts in some old but poor noble houses.

The wizarding world and Hogwarts were slowly recovering from the damage done by the appearance of the 'one who shall not be named' last year but Neville was not idle in recent days.

He was ready for the plan for this year and the target was a mouse that came this year to Hogwarts with Ron.

"Hey Ron, I need to talk to you about something." Neville approached Ron after their flying class.

"What's up Neville? Is it related to the Duel Club?" Ron asked excitedly hoping that Neville would give him some big responsibility that can increase his presence and get him some prestige among the students.

"No, not related to the Duel club but to the Quidditch. I heard you are trying to join our Gryffindor Quidditch team this year?" Neville asked calmly running the shining dream of stardom for Ron.

"Yeah, mate. You know I learned how to fly with my brothers from a young age and I think I am good enough to join this year. What do you think?" Ron asked.

"Well, you know this year I heard Draco asked his father to get new brooms for the whole team. To fight Slytherin this year won't be an easy task. So, I think you should buy a new broom to show your value to the team and let them keep this factor in mind.

Besides with the money the twins earned from me, I don't think buying a new broom for their bother, especially for the Quidditch would be an issue." Neville replied and his words deeply affected Ron.

Ron knew when it comes to technique, he is not the brightest lad out there but with a new broom, his chances might be the best. However, asking his brothers for money That's simply impossible.

"Your idea is great Neville. But you know, the twins are saving every single Knut, Sickle, and Galleon they are earning. They are planning something big, and I don't think they will agree with this idea." Ron replied.

Harry who joined them during the conversation kept his mouth shut. For harry, the gold in his parent's vault is enough for seven lifetimes but unless he becomes an adult or his guardian agrees, he can never take any extra money from vault other than for his studies.

Hence, even though he has a vault full of gold, he can hardly access them. However, listening to the conversation and thinking about Neville's idea, Harry also agreed that is might be the way to help Ron.

"Why don't I ask from the twins? I don't think they will refuse." Harry said and then before even getting any response, he ran to find the two famous troublemakers.

"Well, how about I supply you with one Nimbus 2000. Consider it as a gift." Nev said to a shocked Ron and patted his shoulders before walking away.

However, his steps were slow and waiting for a reply. Thankfully, Ron woke up from shock early.

"WHAAATTTT? A NIMBUS 2000? OH MY GOD! Neville are you sure?" Ron shouted so loudly that even students around them became aware of this amazing gift.

After all, even if Nimbus 2001 came this year, Nimbus 2000 is still the more popular one because of slight drop in the price.

"Neville, you are my best friend. I knew it. I don't know how to thank you. You know once I am on Nimbus 2000, I don't think even Harry can catch me!" Ron was so excited that his face was already red, and his eyes were already watching the scene of the 'Great Saviour Ron' who saved all the goals in every Quidditch match.

"Well, it's a gift and its not a big matter for me. If you want, you can just give me the old owl Errol. I think he is already too old to deliver letters and can retire at my farm." Neville replied which put Ron into thinking.

Even if he wanted, he could not hand over their family owl to Neville. It was not his decision to make. Plus, their family only have two owls and his mum will never agree to this. But wait.

"Neville, you know that Owls belongs to Mum. I can't gift it to someone else, but I do have a pet. It has been in our family for a long time. It's also old and I think it will be better for it to spend the final days on the beast farm peacefully."

Ron decided to hand over his new pet, Scabbers to Neville after thinking. Anyway, exchanging the old rat for a new broom was hardly a brain twister.

"Cool. No problems. I welcome any new member to our beast farm." Neville replied happily and by the evening, he gifted a new Nimbus 2000 to Ron while Ron wrote a simple contract of transfer of his pet to Neville to avoid any trouble in future.

This simple contract just finally sealed the fate of the famous 'Wormtail' Pettigrew. For Ron, this was his favourite but dying Pet. For Neville, this was a mole that might have passed secret information to Voldemort or Death eaters that resulted in his parent's torture.

Neville is going to hand over this mouse, expose his deeds and free an unfair prisoner locked up in Azkaban but first, he must receive his due vengeance.