The Longbottoms' Awakening
The room was silent as everyone quietly watched Hazel on the floor in the center of the two beds. She had written a power circle on the floor in magic, and it was slowly disappearing, starting at her feet and going around in both directions to the front. It was a slow process and, at first, it went unnoticed. Neville was the first to notice, but he truly trusted Hazel and said nothing. His grandmother, on the other hand, quickly spoke up when she noticed it.
She abruptly stood and pointed a crooked finger to the fading runes.
"Is something wrong!? Why is her circle fading?"
Dumbledore turned his gaze to where the gnarled finger indicated and focused. He saw the smooth flow of magic and how it was unhurried and uniform. He nodded in understanding. Then he looked to Mrs. Longbottom, shaking his head.
"We will have to ask her the specifics later, but this seems to be the design of the circle. Maybe it is to ensure that she does not spend an overabundance of time.
"Whatever the reason for the fading circle, it is too smooth and uniform to be true deterioration."
Augusta had begun focusing on the magic as well once Dumbledore first spoke of it, so she was nodding in agreement and sitting back down by the time he finished speaking.
"This is truly a remarkable girl, Neville. You should think of marrying her."
Neville's eyes went wide and he forced himself not to speak out and say more than he should.
Hazel was in the midst of the second half of her MindCall technique. The first was to lead her to and then secure the mental faculties of the individual. Now she was bracing them to return to their bodies. She was not speaking to them per se, but she was allowing—maybe even forcing—the dreamscape to remind them of their lives and the bodies that they once inhabited.
Alice and Frank Longbottom had not been in this state for much time, but they were like this due to magic—and a curse at that—so it was as if the mind and spirit had been separated from the body and soul respectively for hundreds of years.
Hazel had drawn the circle to both help the Longbottoms to remember and help them to accept who they were and the situation they were currently in. It also helped to focus Hazel and tell her when the mental faculties needed to return to the bodies no matter how much they had absorbed and accepted.
Surprisingly, Frank was absorbing more and was more accepting of the situation than Alice. This could have had something to do with their actual personalities and how the separation had affected the two of them individually.
In the end, Hazel had to elicit the help of Frank to help Alice.
The three of them stood on a broad starry plane. Hazel had been a nonparticipant the entire time and, to Alice and Frank, she was a tall fruit tree whose crown was too high to see and whose fruit were of many different colors and shapes.
Alice sat at a distance from this tree, looking at it and wanting to approach but not sure how. Frank had already sat under the tree, climbed it, and eaten of its fruits. He now passively watched this familiar person debate whether to do the same. He felt it was odd that he knew she was debating and that she was familiar.
Then that bit of knowledge slotted into place and he sat up, back straight and eyes alert. Alice? He looked around in confusion as more and more information settled into his being, and he looked back to Alice.
When the tree spoke to him, he was not alarmed; he just wanted to help his wife and find their son.
But how could he get to her? Her fear and doubt had manifested as a deep roaring body of water that looked like a river but behaved like a whirlpool-filled ocean or sea. He frowned and pursed his lips as he strained his brain for a solution.
We are on the dreamscape. It is just an illusion. Walk across it with the belief that it is just your wife protecting herself.
The tree had spoken again and Frank knew he could trust her. Her? Could trees be feminine? There was still so much he did not know about his world of magic.
He jumped down from his perch within the tree and did as he had been told.
In the waking world only a quarter of the magic circle was left when Hazel opened her eyes, stood, reached her hand forward, palm side down, and drew in the remainder of the circle. She turned to Alice and Frank Longbottom and sparks of magic fell on their heads, chests, and a small area of their abdomens.
They stirred in their beds and then their eyes opened, slowly, at the same time. They lay in their beds looking at the ceiling, absorbing sensations and trying to gain an understanding of their surroundings.
Hazel quietly turned and looked to Neville and silently directed him to go to them. He was up and between his parents so fast it took time for the movement to actually register for Augusta Longbottom.
Alice blinked several times. She just looked at him for a long moment and tears began to roll down her cheeks. Her voice came out as a whisper when she finally spoke.
"I missed so much, haven't I?"
Neville could only shake his head. It was his grandmother who stood, dusted herself off, and then spoke loudly, shattering the mood.
"Good! You two. Up now! These Potter children need help with that fiend."
Both Madam Pomfrey and Hazel's eyes went wide as they looked to each other and both reacted at the same time to ensure the Longbottoms did not overdo things too quickly.
Dumbledore rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Calm yourself, Augusta. We need to first consult with the physician before we can say what the patients can and cannot do now."
All eyes turned to Hazel and she did not miss a beat as she immediately began speaking.
"They need at least three weeks to fully recover their memories and get their mental balance back. They may even need to relearn magic techniques. Inside the dreamscape I could see that magic was flowing a bit chaotically within their mental faculties. This usually indicates someone with abilities they do not understand. Also allow then to continue their IV drips until they have the max dosage because this will help them to stabilize faster and a bit easier.
"Finally, I feel they should do all of this in secret. Either here at Hogwarts or in a different dimension or pocket space, either way I do not feel the Death Eaters should know about this."
When she ended, she looked to Professor Snape and he quietly and subtly nodded. Only Dumbledore picked up on the motion.
Augusta nodded. "I have several pocket dimensions. They need mental exercises, correct? And then we can go over the basics of magic and see what they have retained."
Hazel nodded and pulled out a thin white book that had a light golden glow on the spine.
"These mental techniques will help them."
Madam Pomfrey snatched the book before Augusta could take it. "They will stay here for the first week, Augusta. Once I am sure they are okay, they can go to the pocket dimension."
Madam Pomfrey did not look up from the white book as she spoke and Augusta Longbottom did not disagree. She just quietly watched her grandson lost in an embrace that neither of them ever thought he would experience again.
Hazel nodded. "I will be back to check on them in a couple of days." Madam Pomfrey looked up and gave a quick nod she then turned back to the Longbottoms and began several monitoring spells at once and began monitoring their vitals.
Neville didn't hear any of it, not his stern gran's voice, Hazel's instructions, or Hazel even leaving. If he would have known she was leaving he would have definitely jumped up and hugged her.
His parents not only consciously hugged, kissed, and spoke to him, they understood who he was. Their words made sense. Their movements were conscious things of purpose and not odd reflexes or things performed by the insane.
He buried his face deeper. His life was forever changed now. He had achieved his one secret goal. Studying all the plants of the Wizarding world and learning all he could in school and he got his hearts desire because he talked to a friend and she heard.
Whatever the Potter's needed from him he would give and he would stand with them against that vile serpent who tried to take his parents from him. He would not be afraid and Voldemort would definitely pay.