Little Brave Hearts || Neville Longbottom

CHAPTER SEVEN

Waking up in the middle of the night, Maykha fought hard to go back to sleep but it was to no avail. As she shuffled the blanket off of her body and stood up, she noticed that Hermione's bed was empty. Assuming that she just went down to their common room, Maykha went down to search for her, but she was still nowhere. It was already way past curfew, and Hermione was not someone who would break the rules like that.

When she was about to go back to her dorm, Neville appeared from the staircase that led to their dormitory.

"Hey," the boy greeted, "Have you seen Harry and Ron?"

Maykha's brows knotted in confusion, "No, and Hermione is not on her bed as well."

Both of them exchanged looks before sitting down on one of the sofas.

"Those gits," Maykha frowned, "they went out past curfew and they did not even tell us anything!"

"I-I don't think that's the point, it's past curfew and they might get themselves in trouble," Neville said nervously.

"That's the fun part, Nevy! You have to get in trouble every once in a while!"

"I'm sorry, but I feel like I've missed the 'fun' part there."

Maykha huffed, "I'll show you someday, but for now I'm too sleepy to even get up from this sofa."

Though Maykha wanted to wait for her friends to interrogate them, her eyelids started to get heavy.

"I wanna wait for them but my lids are not cooperating," Maykha yawned before she rested her head on Neville's lap.

Neville froze in his seat while his friend laid on his lap sleeping. He dared not move an inch for the fear of waking Maykha up. As he started feeling comfortable, his eyes darted on the girl's sleeping face. With a smile cracking from the corner of his lips, he unconsciously touched her curls, making him flinch with his own actions.

He decided to tear his glance from the girl as not to look like a creepy stalker, yet every once in a while, he still found his eyes coming back on her face. The memory of how she flew to save him was stuck on his mind, and though she acted as if it was something normal to do, it was nothing normal for him.

It was a comfortable feeling, blanketed by the warmth of the fireplace in the common room with Maykha resting her head on his lap, it was small and maybe even insignificant, but he felt needed. He wanted to stay like that a bit more, but it seemed as if he left his luck sleeping on his bed when the door of the common room suddenly opened, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione came walking in.

To his dismay, Maykha opened her eyes and sprang up from her rest to greet the others with her hands resting on her hips, and brows raised.

"Well, well, well, look who we've got here," Maykha said, still sleepy from her nap, "Explain yourselves, traitors!"

...

"YOU DID WHAT!?" Maykha slammed her hands on the table.

"SHH!" The three hushed.

Maykha interrogated Harry, Ron, and Hermione when they entered the common room. However, as Hermione did not want to associate with them any longer for the fear of getting into trouble ever further, she decided to climb up to the dorm and sleep. Maykha did not let Harry and Ron go easily as she held them both by their collars and dragged them down to sit on the sofa.

"Duel, Maykha," Harry said for the second time, "Malfoy challenged us to a duel after knowing that I did not get into trouble with Professor McGonagall earlier."

Maykha was about to speak again when Ron interrupted her, "And before you even get mad, Malfoy said something pretty nasty about Neville. Of course, we couldn't let it slide so we accepted the challenge."

They all looked at Neville's direction to see him surprised by their revelation. Sighing, Maykha turned to her friends.

"Then why didn't you tell us about this?"

"Maykha, you just came back from an injury. We can't possibly involve you in this," Harry said.

"And involving Hermione was okay?"

"No. She came on her own when she heard about the duel. She wanted to dissuade us from coming since...it was technically illegal to duel unsupervised," Ron said, looking away.

"And it's past curfew," Harry added.

Maykha sighed again, "Please tell me you guys at least won."

"Well, about that..." Harry looked at Ron nervously, who was already looking back at him with the same expression.

Maykha's eyes went back and forth as she listened to their story. Malfoy's challenge was fake, and it was Filch who came to find them. As they ran to escape from him, they ended up in the third floor corridor where they saw a giant, three-headed dog.

With her hands pressing her temples, she threw herself on the sofa and leaned her back, not knowing what to react.

The boys looked nervously while nudging each other to approach the girl first. At last, it was Harry who walked towards her and tapped her shoulders.

"A-are you upset?"

"Upset?" Maykha scoffed, "I am mad, you gits! Why didn't you inform me?! I wanted to see the three-headed dogs!"

There was a moment of silence broken by Neville's laugh that he tried to conceal with a cough, while Harry and Ron looked at her flatly.

"I think she was upset for the wrong reason."