The Other Boy From The Prophecy

Chapter 5 - A Warning too late...

A Warning too late...  

People would be forgiven if they thought Augusta Longbottom was as strong and scary as her reputation proceeds her, but what some didn't realise is that, Augusta was getting on in her years and wasn't as quick with her wand as she would have liked to have been, which is why one of Lord Voldemorts fearless death eaters was currently following her as she was going about her daily routine. Antonin Dolohov was trying to be as inconspicuous as he could possibly be, he had heard of the reputation of Augusta Longbottom, she could take down a wizard twice the size of her, but if he was honest, it didn't look like she would put up much of a fight, she looked really old and frail...was it all just an act to put off would be attackers? who knows, he'll soon find out soon enough...   Dolohov got the opening he was looking for, Augusta was leaning down to pick up the item she had dropped, under his breath Dolohov muttered "Imperio" and instantly Augusta was under the Imperius curse, it was now obvious to Dolohov how weak Augusta actually was, as it shouldn't have been that easy to curse her. It was now time to test how good Augusta was under the Imperius as Dolohov made her go back home and ambush the rest of the Longbottom family.

Back at Hogwarts Dumbledore was in his office preparing his Patronus to send with a warning to the Potters and the Longbottoms. "Expecto Patronum" said Dumbledore and with his Patronus he said...  

"Potter, Longbottoms, Dumbledore here, you must get into hiding at once! Voldemort is after you and he's not taking any prisioners, preserve your family and find somewhere safe to stay until otherwise"  

"I hope this gets to both families in time, I can't bare to think what might happen otherwise" said Dumbledore.

  Back at the Longbottom household Augusta returns acting more content and jolly than her usual grouchy self, what her family doesn't know is that she's under the Imperius curse. Upstairs Frank and Alice were having a family moment bathing their newborn son not realising that below them their lives just got turned upside down. Augusta soon notices a Patronus in the shape of a Phoenix, since she was the only member of the Longbottom family about to hear what was said the Phoenix opened its mouth and replayed Dumbledores message, Augusta acknowledged the Patronus and sent it away and since she was under the curse she made sure not to tell her family about the warning.  

Over at the Potter household, James and Lily recieve the exact same message from Dumbledore, so they rush to get the essentials they would need and they pickup their newborn son Harry and apparate to the only house they see being safe enough, 12 Grimmauld Place and stay hidden under the protection of their best friend Sirius, whom they agreed would be their secret keeper and on arrival performed the Fidelius Charm so it would protect them. A little while later Lily was sitting in the livingroom nursing Harry when a thought came to her, she had forgotten to tell her best friend Alice that they had arrived safely at their new hide out, obviously she wouldn't mention where she was but it would put her mind at ease to inform her. Actually she was pretty surprised she never got the same message from Alice, maybe she had forgotten too? Oh well thought Lily, it wont do any harm to send her a message. Soon as Lily was done feeding Harry she went into one of the many spare bedrooms and gently put Harry done to sleep, "goodnight my precious little boy, mummy loves you so much, you mean everything to me" said Lily then leaned over and kissed Harry on the forehead. Walking quietly out the room Lily went back to the livingroom and sat down at the dining table, where she got a quill and blank sheet of paper and wrote a letter to her best friend. Once Lily was finished she went over to Sirius owl and asked him to drop the letter off to the Longbottom household under the strict instructions that only Alice could open it, she clapped the owls head and smiled then let him out of the house to do his duty and went to find her husband to have some quality time with him.  

  It was Frank Longbottom who noticed the owl flying through his open bedroom window, "I wonder who this could be from?" said Frank as he tried to take the letter from the owls mouth but with no luck retrieving it "dammit, why wont this bird give the damn letter already" said a very frustrated Frank. "okay Frank keep the noise down, Neville is sleeping, what's the matter?" said his wife Alice. It was then that the owl went over to Alice and placed the letter in her hand, "hmm this is Lily's handwriting, I wonder what she wants at this time? and why didn't she just call?" as Alice opened the letter and began to read the letter her friend wrote, her face fell from the smile she had just moments ago, and she became so pale that Frank became worried and took the letter from her hands and read over what his wife just did. "This cant be happening, surely we would have gotten the same message from Dumbledore" said Alice, looking at his wife, Frank took her in his arms, kissed her and said "its going to be okay, you go pack as many things as quickly as you can and take Nevile downstairs and I'll see to my mother and ask if she heard anything from Dumbledore and I'll also see about finding us a secret keeper and safe place to stay"

It was just then that the Longbottoms heard a loud crashing noise coming from downstairs and several snickering voices, with a panicked look on Franks face he embraced his wife, kissed her one last time and told her to get herself and their son out of the house and as far away as she could get them. It was a feeble attempt of course, the Longbottoms never got very far, both were killed protecting their son from Lord Voldemort's Death Eaters, the surprising turn of events though, was that Augusta was free from her curse as her brave son killed Dolohov so she was able to pick up her grandson and flee the house before Voldemort turned up.