BROTHERHOOD ⟶ Harry Potter

Chapter Thirteen

Milo ran off in one direction as the twins went one way and Lee in another to avoid Filch's wrath, of course whenever the twins or Lee mentioned having fun it normally meant at the cost of the Filch getting angry and chasing after them. Somehow, the twins had managed to get the password to the Prefects' bathroom, probably snagging it off Percy when he wasn't paying attention to his surroundings, only to figure fill the large baths with immense about of bubbles. The entire room had been flooded before they ran out, and now with squeaky shoes, Milo was doing his best not to get caught. However, as he rounded a corner, he collided with another person, knocking them to the ground.

He immediately spotted Neville, the younger boy with a dizzy look in his eyes after falling to the floor.

"Oh, Neville!" Milo greeted offering his hand. "Sorry, I didn't see you when I was rounding the corner, are you alright?"

It seemed to be a foolish question to ask as he noticed the look on Neville's face, the boy once again, looked close to tears. "Neville, what's wrong?"

"It was terrible today!" Neville blurted out. "I ended up melting my cauldron, it went everywhere, even on me. I got burned and had to go to the Hospital Wing. Then, Professor Snape, he called me an idiot. I don't want to go back to that class, it was dreadful. He kept picking on Harry and then-"

"'Arry?" Milo repeated. "He was picking on him a lot?"

Neville nodded his head. "Kept asking him questions that Harry didn't know, called him a celebrity of some sort, then I got Harry in trouble for my own mistakes. I didn't mean it, I wanted to apologize-"

"Neville," Milo reached a hand out and placed it on the boy's shoulder. "You have nothing to be sorry about. Professor Snape has always been a miserable git and being in Gryffindor, doesn't help your chances at ever getting on his good side. No one is ever on his good side, except some Slytherins but even then it's not guaranteed every day. It's not your fault what happened."

"It isn't?" Neville sniffed as his watery gaze met Milo's, only to be greeted with a kind smile. 

"No, not at all. Cheer up, you're going to love your other classes, you're just going to have to put up with Potions for the time being," Milo reassured him before he heard Filch's yells in the distant. "On that note, my dear Neville, I have to go! Bye!"

The young Gryffindor watched as Milo took off racing around the corner and disappearing without another word. He lifted up his hand and gave a small wave.

"Bye."

To work out a compromise during lunches, Milo informed all the girls that they were just going to have to sit together at the Hufflepuff table, it was only fair and he explained that he wanted to remain in the company of all of them.

"There's nothing wrong with inter-house unity," he informed them and for the most part, they seemed to agree, the only difficult matter was, all the girls that he was friends with were extremely competitive and many of them were running about with Quidditch in their blood and spirits. So while they were friendly in the corridors and during meals, out on the pitch, would prove to be a very different story. 

But while he was working on the girls being a little less competitive, Milo was also attempting to work on having his brother talk to him on friendly terms. He wasn't angry with Harry, no matter how upset he had been before, it wasn't Harry's fault. While his friends like Heidi were fully prepared to punch Harry in the face, they didn't understand the pain that Harry was carrying and for the most part, Milo didn't understand it either, but he was aware of it. His mother had warned him from the time that he was young that things in the world weren't always so great.