Brave { Neville Longbottom}

Chapter One Hundred Sixty Three

The aftermath of the second task was definitely worth standing around for some time and staring at the water, as those who were placed under the lake were able to give their accounts of what actually took place below the surface. Although, it seemed there were two very different tales to what occurred among the merpeople. While Hermione told everyone that the professors reassured they would be safe and then placed to sleep, Ron's story differed...slightly.

According to the boy, he had fought nearly fifty of the merpeople before being subdued and waiting on Harry for backup. 

Kefira giggled to herself as she sat in the common room listening to the stories as Hermione interjected a couple of statements claiming that Ron was getting a bit over zealous in his storytelling. 

"What's so funny?" Neville asked. The boy had an astonished look on his face from Ron's story, completely enthralled by the idea of one of their classmates being able to take on fifty merpeople at once under such stressful conditions. 

"Well, it's just...you have to take some stuff into consideration, Nevs," Kefira said. "The merpeople are adapted to live in the lake and such, but can you imagine how dark it is under that water. I mean, I'm assuming it's called the Black Lake for a reason. I'm just picturing the whole scenario but as dark as it was, how could Ron even have time to count the merpeople, let along see all of them so clearly? Have you ever opened your eyes underwater?"

"Not really," Neville confessed. "I tried when I was little but it hurt my eyes..."

"Exactly," Kefira said. "I'm pretty sure if Ron encountered any of the merpeople, it was probably just one who kept trying to play tricks on him the entire time."

Neville snorted before Seamus groaned. "Come on, Kefi, don't ruin the story with logic!"

"I didn't ruin it!" She said throwing a throw pillow at him from the sofa. "I was just adding onto it to make it funnier."

"Great, now I'm just picturing Ron punching water and thinking it's a merperson," Dean said rubbing at his eyes before letting out a chuckle. "Thanks, Kefi."

"You are very welcome!"

"Double Potions, why does it have to be double potions?" Neville muttered under his breath at the end of an afternoon of classes. He had enjoyed the time spent outside with Kefira, despite it being so cold. The incoming March weather wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't for the terrible wind that seemed to be smacking the students around as they ventured outside. Even the post owls were taking a beating as many of them were blown off course. However, even though it was cold, he did enjoy his time sitting with Kefira. The two were discussing the possibilities of the summer, both trying to figure out what they were going to do with their respective relatives.

Kefira was cold, even wearing his jumper but she refused to go inside. He could see the hint of red on her nose that was matching her hair. Her curls were blown all over the place by the wind giving her the appearance of her mane, that remained quite poofy for the remainder of the day.

"Hey, it won't be as bad, I promise," She told them as they walked along in the corridors. "If Professor Snape even looks wrong in your direction, I'll fight him for you. "

The two giggled quietly before entering the classroom. Kefira was setting her things down on the desk when she saw a couple of Slytherin girls, mainly Pansy Parkinson and her nasty little friends, who were talking to Hermione, Ron, and Harry.

The girl rolled her eyes as they threw a magazine at Hermione and entered the classroom.

"You know the whole reason while they travel together, right?" She asked Neville in a low voice.

"No, " Neville answered honestly.

"It's because they're too weak to stand on their own. They need constant reassurance because they're so bloody insecure."

Neville's eyes widened as Kefira's voice grew louder, loud enough for Pansy to hear her.

"You've got something to say, Walsh?" The girl glared in her direction.

"Not to the likes of you," Kefira countered. "My mother always said if you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all. I see your mother didn't teach you the same."

"Dear Merlin," Seamus said clapping his hand over his chest. "Someone call Hagrid because we have some slaughtered meat here for his creatures."

Dean nudged him in the ribs hard to keep the boy from getting involved.

Pansy opened her mouth to say something nasty to Kefira, but Professor Snape intervened by approaching the two.

"This doesn't appear to be sitting in your seats as I've asked you all to do," he said. Pansy muttered something inaudible before leaving to her seat and before she got any further on Professor Snape's bad side, Kefira took her seat beside Neville.

The class was to brew the Wit-Sharpening Potion which quickly brought a smile onto Kefira's face as she looked over at Neville. "This is great! I've brewed this one before in detention," she told him. "The only good thing to come out of the detentions, but we should have no problem with this one."

That seemed to help Neville relax plenty as they began to gather their supplies for the brew. They were working diligently and seemed to avoid Professor Snape's wrath for the day, however, Hermione, Ron, and Harry weren't as fortunate.

 "Ah...reading magazines under the table as well?" Professor Snape snatched the magazine away from the trio. "A further ten points from Gryffindor...

"Ugh," Kefira grunted in annoyance. "Here we go.."

Professor Snape began to read the article from Witch Weekly out loud. "Harry Potter's Secret Heartache...dear, dear. Potter, what's ailing you now? 'A boy like no other, perhaps..."

He allowed the Slytherins to laugh every time he took a dramatic pause. 

He continued reading it as Harry, Hermione, and Ron all turned red and at that point, it seemed the majority of the Gryffindors in the room were red as well from feeling secondhand embarrassment.

"This is called bullying!" Kefira shouted. 

The classroom grew silent as Professor Snape came to the end of the article and looked over at her. 

" A friendly reminder just in case you forgot, Professor," she said looking back down at her cauldron. 

Professor Snape was not about to let her comments go unpunished as he took another ten points from Gryffindor and then proceeded to separate, Ron, Harry, and Hermione from each other. He placed Potter right by his desk, Harry looked furious and while Kefira couldn't hear what the professor was saying to the boy, it obviously wasn't anything nice."

"Someone certainly has his knickers in a twist beneath his robes today," Kefira mumbled to Neville.

"Let's just get through the class without you getting in trouble, Kefi. You almost came really close," Neville told her in a worried voice.

"I don't care," Kefira said. "He shouldn't be allowed to get away with taunting students. If no one else is going to call him out on it, I gladly will."

Suddenly, as the class neared the end, Karkroff burst in, appearing quite panicked. Professor Snape continued to try and shoo the man away, but he was persistent on the matter. Eventually, the students were clearing their things away to leave.

"I wonder what's got him all riled up," Neville questioned.

"Who knows?" Kefira shrugged. "Let's just get out of here before Professor Snape decides to pick on anyone else. "

She was placing her supplies back into her bag roughly as Neville watched her.

"And to think, I actually went out of my way to check on him to see if he was alright," she sighed. "I won't make that mistake again. I won't waste my time on a person who acts like that, they're not worth it."