Brave { Neville Longbottom}

Chapter One Hundred Seventy One

It seemed word about Kefira falling sick had spread around the castle relatively fast, however, the girl was confused by the amount of concern that came her way from her classmates and other students. Students that she didn't talk to on a regular basis were coming up to her and asking her if she was feeling better. She thought it was sweet but she really didn't like the idea of people worrying about, after all, she didn't see it as a big deal at all. She was still writing it off as a head cold of some sort. 

Even the students from Durmstrang that she had conversed with before were coming up to her in the Great Hall to check on her during dinner to make sure she was okay. Of course, Bisera was one of the first as she had attempted to visit the girl while she was in the Hospital Wing, but plenty of others approached her as well.

"Okay, I think everyone is overreacting just a bit," Kefira said stabbing her fork in a chunk of red meat on her plate. "I was just feeling a little under the weather, I wasn't dying or anything."

"Don't worry over it, Kefi," Nevile told her. "It just shows that plenty of people care about you, that all."

Suddenly, the two heard loud and obnoxious coughing before they turned their heads and caught sight Pansy and her minions making coughing noises as they pretended to look sick and look over in their direction. 

"Not so mighty, are we? I heard you were sick," Pansy called over to her.

'Yeah, sick of seeing your ugly mug of a face!" Kefira yelled back. She watched as the girl imitated her being sick by shaking and weakly walking about. She wasn't sure where she had heard it from but now Kefira was pissed off. 

"You know, I feel really bad for Madam Pomfrey right now," Kefira said in a calm tone as she began rolling up her sleeves. The boys exchanged confused glances before Neville looked back over at the girl.

"Uh, why is that?"

"Because she's going to be up all night tending to their injuries," Kefira said as she went to climb over the table. Dean and Neville jumped up dragging her back down as the Slytherin girls quickly stopped their antics and ran over to the Slytherin table.

Once they got Kefira sitting back down, Dean let out a laugh releasing his hold on the back of her robes.

"Needless to say, but I think Kefi is feeling a lot better," he said.

"Yeah, well, she better stay that way too," Seamus added before taking a bite of his green beans. "This school year has been stressful enough, I think. Can we at least get through the rest without any more drama? That would be great."

"You say that, Fire Ant," Kefira began. "But we still have the final task to sit through. Judging by how the other two tasks played out, I'm pretty sure it's safe to say that there will probably be a decent amount of drama involved in this one too."

Seamus furrowed his brows together for a moment. "Well, after all of this...we agree to go back to no drama and I mean it."

"So it looks like we're going to have to get rid of Seamus," Kefira sighed while Dean and Neville nodded.

"What?! Get rid of me? Why?!"

"Because you're the most dramatic out of our group!" Dean told him. 

"Wh-no I'm not! How could you say that?"

The three just looked at the boy before he realized just how dramatic he was being in that moment.

"I am not the most dramatic," he said folding his arms. "By default, it's Kefi. I mean, just look at her hair, it speaks dramatic."

"Seamus...nearly everything you touch either explodes or sets on fire," Kefira said. "Let's just be honest with ourselves at this point or you're just going to end up embarrassing yourself."

"I hate you guys!"

However, Seamus' statement was far from true as that evening with Kefira back, the group including Ginny settled in the common room with blankets and pillow. The floor was littered with their blankets and pillows to just create one large bed before they all settled down. Without telling Kefira, the group had agreed to the "slumber party" as a way to keep an eye on Kefira through the night to truly make sure that the girl was okay. 

But as the night grew later and later, it seemed that her sudden fatigues had vanished as she was the one with the most energy. She told her elaborate stories that were passed down to her from her father, crawling and climbing on the common room furniture like the wild animal that she was. It settled everyone's mind to see her return back to her usual self and not once did she complain about being cold, although, she did ask Neville to wear his jumper, just to wear it. 

He gladly agreed to it after making sure that she really wasn't cold. Eventually, the group one by one fell asleep on the pile of comfort. The prefects that had returned from their rounds thought about waking the students up and sending them back to their respective dorms, but thought against it, it was such a nice sight to see them asleep and quiet. They didn't want to take the risk of disturbing that.

Kefira drifted off to sleep to enter quite an interesting dream world that evening.

"I am glad you came, Merlin, I was afraid my request came in far too late to reach you-"

"Nonsense, Godric, as soon as the owl arrived and I put everything aside. Telling by the distress in your handwriting and the look on your face now, I can tell that you did not call upon me to share in a simple drink."

"I am afraid not, Merlin, if you wish I can certainly pour you one."

"No, that will not be necessary, I truly am curious as to why you called upon me, especially when the news is not good."

The two men were sitting in the room, one with a fiery red man and beard to match, a serious expression planted on his face with a hint of distress in his green eyes. The other man had dark black hair and his blue eyes narrowed in anticipation of what Godric was about to say.

"Relations with Salazar have not improved," Godric said. "He insists that those who come from muggle families should not be permitted to learn the ways of magic. He has already placed a ban for them in his house as you well know."

"Yes, I do remember," Merlin said. "Do you want me to try and speak with him about the matters?"

"No, it will not do you any good, he is stuck in his ways. I called upon you to keep caution and be aware of your surroundings."

"And pray tell, why would I do such a thing? Is Salazar planning on coming after me for some reason?" Merlin questioned.

"Not he, but the witch he has called upon in the recent days to assist him with something, you are quite familiar with her, Merlin."

The young man's eyes widened after a few seconds.

"No, not her..."

"I say this not to scare you, Merlin, but she has already placed her threat over my head, I assumed it would only be a matter of time before she did the same to you. After all, there is already bad blood between the two of you."