Brave { Neville Longbottom}

Chapter One Hundred Twenty Five

The morning of the first day of classes turned out to be a pleasant one for Neville as he awoke to someone poking him on his cheek. He opened his eyes slightly and lifted his head up from his pillow to find Kefira standing beside his bed, motioning him to be quiet. Looking around, the other boys in the dorm room were still sound asleep in bed. He gave her a nod that he was waking up before pushing himself out of the bed. She gave him a wink before heading down the stairs. 

Neville smiled to himself, happy to have the personal wake up call before heading to the showers for a quick one. He finished up quickly knowing very well how impatient Kefira was and also knowing that if he kept her waiting long that she would probably find herself in some trouble. He dressed as fast as he possibly could before heading down the stairs and tripping over the last one, only to crash right into Kefira who was waiting for him. 

He landed right over her bringing a bright blush to both of their faces as well as a squeak from Kefira as all the air was knocked out of her upon impact. 

"I'm so sorry!" He apologized pushing himself up.

"That's okay, Nevs." Kefira said sitting up on the floor and pushing her curls out of her face. "The floor broke my fall."

She gave the floor a small pat before smiling up at him to reassure him that she was fine.

Offering his hands to her, he pulled Kefira back up to her feet, still wearing a frown on his face, in fear that he hurt her.

"Don't make that face." She told him. "I'm fine. Trust me, I've experienced worse than that. You should have seen some of the trees I've fallen out of when I was younger. Much more painful. Are you alright?"

Neville went to respond but his breath caught in his throat as the girl neared him, standing only a few inches apart. He remained quiet as her hands moved closer to him, and went to fix the collar of his shirt that was all over the place. 

"Sorry," she chuckled. "I know how you like your collar neat."

"T-thank you." He said. 

"Right, well, " Dropping her hands to her sides, she met his gaze for a brief moment. "Do you want to go to the Great Hall for breakfast?"

He nodded his head with a smile. 

Neville wasn't sure if he was hot from wearing his robes, or because of Kefira sitting so close to them that their arms continued to brush. He didn't understand why he was feeling so flustered sitting beside her as he normally sat with her. Not to mention he had spent the entire summer with her in a very close proximity, so it wasn't like her being close was anything new. But every time her arm brushed up against his or she looked over at him, he could feel a tingling sensation run through his entire body.

However, it didn't seem like he was the only one that was effected by it either. Whenever he looked over at Kefira, her face was nearly as red as her hair, and she seemed to be avoiding all eye contact with him as she focused on her food. 

"You should be happy." She told him before taking a bite out of a piece of toast. "We get to start with Herbology first. I know you love that class. And you can tell Professor Sprout about some of the plants we saw in South Africa, I bet she'd like to hear that."

Neville smiled. "You think so? I bet she knows most of those plants though."

"Doesn't hurt to mention it," she shrugged. "Besides, my dad says you learn something new everyday, so it's possible she might learn a thing or two from you today. Unless Seamus decides to blow something up in the greenhouse."

"Again." They said together before laughing. 

Kefira wasn't usually one to blush and she knew that, so whenever she felt her face grow warm around Neville, she internally kicked herself. She didn't want to come across as a little lovesick puppy, but since the summer, things had definitely changed between the two teens.  She had openly admitted before that she liked Neville, there wasn't anything about him that she disliked if she was being honest with herself. 

Her feelings though continued to grow the more and more time she spent with him, which was quite a lot of time. There was a time where Neville could hardly get a sentence out without stuttering back in first year but as they were beginning their fourth, already the boy had come such a long way.  He had much more confidence than before, standing up for himself more and more, which Kefira loved to see more than anything. 

Neville was finally developing his inner roar and letting people hear it. 

Something she had been rooting for since the day she met him. 

Glancing over at him, the two caught each other before facing forward. She let out a small laugh before shoving the rest of her toast in her mouth while Neville busied himself with his drink.  Kefira wanted to say something, at least put her feeling out there on the table so that there wasn't any confusion or questions, but she figured breakfast time in the Great Hall was not the time and the place.

The two enjoyed their meal in silence but with smiles on their faces.

When it came time to head to the greenhouses for Herbology, Kefira went to stand from the bench, but found a hand in her face. 

Her eyes trailed up to look at Neville as he offered her hand to take. When she didn't take his hand right away, Kefira watched as he slowly retracted his hand away from her.

But before he could fully, she quickly grabbed onto it and helped herself up .

 Together the two left the Great Hall hand in hand to head to class.