Courage {Neville Longbottom} (ON HOLD)

Chapter Seventy Four

***

Slughorn's party was coming up and while Kefira wasn't in the mood to go, she looked forward to having Neville there with her. She also had a little time and focusing her attention on her classes seemed to do the trick of distracting her. When they walked into the Transfiguration classroom one morning, they saw that mirrors had been set up for every student. McGonagall informed the students that they would be working on human transfiguration and that they were supposed to change their eyebrows a different colour. 

She sat in front of one of the mirrors and amused herself by making faces until McGonagall caught her and sent a stern look in her direction. She quickly offered a smile before focusing on the lesson that the woman was sharing with them. To make things awkward and annoying, Hermione and Ron didn't seem to be on the best of terms, Kefira had to assume that it had to do with Lavender and something else that she didn't want to get involved in. But every time that McGonagall asked the class a question, Hermione raised her hand eagerly. 

Ron decided to be "funny" mocking and mimicking the girl's actions by jumping up and down in his seat and holding up his arm whenever McGonagall turned her back. Lavender and Parvati only encouraged his behaviour by giggling. Kefira was growing irritated, it wasn't like she and Hermione were best friends or anything, but Harry certainly wasn't stepping in to tell Ron that he was being a total arse. Obviously, Hermione had not found it funny at all as she had been reduced to tears by the end of the class, running out of the classroom and leaving plenty of her things behind.

While Harry collected the girl's belongings and left the classroom after her, Kefira walked over and smacked Ron upside the head. He turned to her with an incredulous look, opening his mouth in attempts to tell her off but she wasn't going to give him any chance.

"Becoming the new Professor Snape, are you?" She glared at him as she growled at the boy. "Some best friend you are, making fun of her, for what? To make the girls laugh? You hardly know anything about Lavender besides the inside of her mouth and throat but Hermione has been one of your best friends for years. You just made her cry, you git. You want to know why it took you this long to snog someone, you should have been looking in the mirror throughout the class, you would have seen the number one reason."

"You don't what you're talking about, she decided to tell me that it was all luck when it came to the last quidditch match-"

"So? She wasn't the only one who thought it!" Kefira said, " but she's been your biggest supporter if you don't remember. I didn't see her cheering for Cormac during tryouts. I hope Lavender's tongue can replace a friendship with a brilliant witch."

***

"I'm telling you, Trevor, this year has been nothing but stressful with everyone so concerned about who's dating who, who's snogging who, who...ugh, it doesn't matter, it's just ridiculous. All of it."

Kefira glanced down at the therapy toad that was sitting before her, she had found him after classes, enjoying the little bit of sun that was poking through the heavy clouds. She was waiting on Neville to show up as the boy was out in the Herbology gardens tending to some work. She didn't feel like distracting him, knowing that he was probably enjoying himself. But Transfiguration had set her into a bad mood and she didn't feel like ranting to him. He put up enough with her nonsense, it wouldn't be fair to drag his mood down. 

She had actually gone to Professor Snape's office in hopes of getting another Potions lesson in during some free time, but the man wasn't there, counting that idea out. 

"Then we have the Slughorn party, I don't want to go but I feel like if I try to skip out on this one that the man is never going to leave me alone. It has nothing to do with me anyway, he just wants to hear about Godric, which is silly. He is fully capable of talking to Godric's portrait himself, just like I do. But I suppose it'll be tolerable since I'll have Nevs with me. And from what I heard, Harry invited Luna, Ginny will be there, so it should be fun. At least, that's what I hope so."

Suddenly, she heard the fluttering of wings and looked up to see Loxie flying towards her. Trevor decided to hop away as fast as possible as the owl landed near, dropping something into Kefira's lap.

"I see you're still stealing things," Kefira chuckled as she saw that Loxie had stolen a knitted cap. "If there is such a thing as owl prison, you're going to end up there. They'll wingcuff you or something along those lines."

She took the cap and placed it over the owl's head causing Loxie to hoot as she hopped around blindly. 

Neville came upon the scene of the owl wearing a cap, Kefira laughing, and Trevor watching from a safe distance. As he neared with a smile of his own, he scooped the toad into his hands and walked over.

"What's going on here?" He asked. Kefira jumped slightly before turning to face him.

"Teaching Loxie a lesson about stealing."

"And that lesson would be?"

"I'm not sure but hopefully it gets her to stop. Next thing I know she'll be bringing me a stolen painting or something."

Neville chuckled as he sat down beside her, setting Trevor down in his lap. The toad seemed content as he came to a rest. Kefira decided to let Loxie off the hook, pulling the cap off of the owl. 

"So," Neville began, " I heard through the gardens that you and Ron had a bit of a spat in class earlier. "

He could see her turning her head slightly, trying to conceal that her face was turning red. Of course, it had been heard through McGonagall and Professor Sprout, who were talking in the greenhouses. Apparently, McGonagall was preparing to intervene as she thought things were about to get ugly between the Gryffindor students, but Neville heard that she was quite proud of Kefira for actually walking away before it went any further. 

"You should have seen it, Nevs. Just making fun of Hermione, I don't care if they're having a fight or anything, but it was just low. He was only doing it to show off. He's only done well for one match, there's no need to get cocky, the season isn't over yet."

"I'm not defending him, Kefi," Neville said, "but I think for the first time that Ron is getting some attention that he normally doesn't receive. After all, Harry is the Chosen One and Hermione is incredibly bright and everyone praises her for being smart. What does Ron get praised for?"

"Uh...Chess?"

"Kefi, that was back in first year."

"Well, still, there's no need for him to act like that. He was trying to show off for Lavender. For what? He's already snogging her every five minutes, we can't even sit in the Common Room anymore without those two there eating face. He's got her attention, no need to throw one of his friends under the bus to boost his ego."

He could see the rage building and before Kefira went mental with anger, he began petting her head again, hoping maybe it would settle her down and make her fall asleep. 

"Nevs..."

"Shhh..."

"This is not going to....oh, okay, I see now. Proceed." As he continued to pet her head and bring her to calm down, Kefira glanced over at him with a small smile.

"Are you ready for Slughorn's Party?"