Brave { Neville Longbottom}

Chapter Ninety One

If McGonagall's punishment wasn't enough for poor Neville, he had one more heading his way unexpectedly. It had two days since the incident in the Gryffindor Tower and of course, rumors were flying around all over the castle. One of them being that Neville was secretly helping Sirius Black try to kill Harry Potter, but that one was quickly dismissed from Draco when he claimed Neville was far too scared to do such a thing, among saying other nasty things about about the boy.

That was until Kefira confronted him about it. It ended with Draco promising her that his father would hear about it and Kefira telling him please do. 

She sat beside Neville in the Great Hall, listening to Faye complain about the amount of homework they had been given in Transfiguration.

"I'm not worried about that." Kefira told her. "I'm worried about this divination stuff.. it's wicked hard!"

"Oh don't worry about that. I'll help you out there. It's quite easy."

"I don't know why I didn't just take muggle studies." Kefira grumbled. "I bet I would have aced that."

"Well, it's not always about doing well." Neville pointed out. 

The girls turned to him. 

"It should be about challenging yourself, right?" he said looking to Kefira. "I mean, you said it yourself, you came here to learn as much as possible. You already probably know all about that muggle stuff, I don't think you need to waste your time on it."

"You're right...but I don't think I'm really learning anything in Divination. That class just leaves me all kinds of confused. Get it? Leaves...tea leaves." Kefira laughed to herself while Neville share in the laughter.

Faye just looked at the two of them and shook her head.

"Oh come on, Faye, that was funny and you know it-"

Before Kefira could continue coaxing her friend to laugh, an owl swooped into the Great Hall and dropped a letter in front of Neville. But not just any letter, a Howler, from his grandmother.

"Oh no." Neville groaned. His eyes were full of fear. He jumped up quickly listening to his fellow peers laugh at him before running out of the Great Hall.

"Neville.." Kefira went to call after him but stopped as he walked out. She looked to her fellow Gryffindors.

"It's not funny!" she snapped at them, shutting a few of them up.

As she left the Great Hall, Kefira could easily recognize the harsh sound of Augusta Longbottom yelling at Neville through the letter. But she couldn't believe what she was hearing the woman say, especially after Augusta claimed that Neville brought great shame to his family.

She watched as all confidence Neville had built up over the years dwindle in an instant as he sat down on the staircase with a look of horror on his face. Kefira walked over to him and sat beside him.

"You know what she said isn't true, Neville. " She tried to reassure him. "She only said those things because she was angry and upset."

"But she was right. I do bring shame to my family. How could I not? My parents were amazing, and this is all I have to show for them, how-"

Kefira covered his mouth with her hand and shook her head at him.

"The first thing you need to stop doing Nevs, is to stop comparing yourself to your parents. Because you're not your parents, no one will ever be your parents, because they are two separate people. It's okay that you're not exactly like them. You're their child, not their clone. Just because you're not doing everything like them doesn't mean you're bringing shame to your family. That's just silly. You're different and that's okay. And you're allowed to make mistakes, that's what childhood is all about. At least, that's what my dad says."

Neville removed her hand from his mouth but didn't let go of it as he stared down at the floor.

"I want to make them proud." he whispered to her.

"You've already made them proud, Nevs. Even if you don't think so, you've already made them proud. But you shouldn't focus on just making them proud, you should focus on making yourself proud. You can't expect anyone to like you if you don't like yourself."

Neville glanced over at her with a smile. "Are you sure you weren't supposed to be in Ravenclaw?"

"No, I'm pretty sure, why?"

"No reason, it's just you hold a lot of wisdom." Neville admitted.

"Well, I know a lot of people like to think I don't listen a lot of the time because I'm so hyper, but the truth is, I really am listening and retaining what people tell me. My body just wants to move most of the time, but it doesn't affect my mind. I wish people understood that. But most don't...oh well." she shrugged her shoulders and turned to him. "But you and I, we belong in Gryffindor. I know you don't believe it now, but you will."

Neville smiled, giving Kefira's hand a gentle squeeze with his own.

"You know what we should do?" Kefira said, a mischievous grin growing across her lips.

"Oh dear.."

"We should send a Howler back to your grandmother! It would be hilarious!" She jumped up to her feet. "Come on!"

"Kefi wait! Kefira! I'm not sending Gran a Howler! Kefi!"