Beyond the Sound || Neville Longbottom

03 | A Dead Dog

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When she saw Neville next, the hallways were empty, and he was sulking down the stairs. He was hunched over, head pointing at the ground, and his arms were wrapped tightly around a book that he seemed to clutch to his body. She stopped walking and observed him for a moment. She had never seen him like this, it was so sad to see him that way. If she was going to be honest it looked like someone had killed his dog right in front of him.

As he reached the bottom of the stairs she grabbed onto his shoulder and he jumped. His whole demeanor read: shocked, scared, and completely unprepared. "Neville are you ok?"

When he looked at her it only just then seemed to register with him, that Nia was in front of him and talking to him. "What are you doing out? I thought Hufflepuff had classes right now."

He avoided answering her question. that was the first thing she noticed. "Professor Sinistra went ill so she let us off." The second thing she noticed was how he never looked her in her eyes. She lowered her head and caught his gaze. "Neville, are you okay?"

His eyes lowered back to the ground and he clutched his book tighter. That, was the third and final thing that she noticed. Throughout their encounter, his grip on the book got tighter and tighter and tighter. "Do you want to sit with me in the library?"

The shy boy finally met her eyes willingly, and he nodded his head so softly that she had almost missed it. They walked silently to the library, neither said a word or even made a breath that was too loud. Nia thought that if she made a noise he would leave, and she didn't want him to be alone in the state he was in.

When they reached the library it was empty, and even though nobody was in the room, Neville went straight to the table in the far back and began to read his book. Nia just sat and stared at him. She wanted to give him his time, but at the same time she was curious. Neville never seemed too down. Not even when Draco and his cronies picked on him would he get like this. Whatever was bothering him was something that stemmed far beyond normal high school drama.

"I'm fine you know. I'll be ok."

"You don't look fine. You look like somethings eating up at you. I'm a great listener if you want to talk." A soft grin broke out on her face as she found the humor in her words. Thankfully, Neville did too. "See there goes that smile!" She gently nudged him with her elbow, glad to see him perk up, even if it was for a moment.

They sat there staring at each other. Both just enjoying their own laughter. As they began to quiet, everything became serious once more. "Do you want to talk about it?"

He shook his head and stared off into the distance. "Can we just sit here and read? I'll be fine, promise, I just need some time."

Nia smiled and nodded softly. She had been doing that a lot in the past half-hour. "Tell me about that book. What's it about?"

"Moody gave it to me," he said flipping the book around in his hands. "It's called Magical Water Plants of the Mediterranean. It has all kinds of interesting stuff in here!"

"Oh, is that right?" Nia leaned her head in her hand and smirked at the boy as he continued speaking.

"Yeah! Like, did you know, that there's a plant that grows just south of Italy that looks like a marigold, but it actually has a large body that comes from above the water and captures creatures that get attracted by its smell."

While he went far off into his rant about the importance of herbology in the modern world, Nia leaned back in her chair and admired the look on his face. He was still sad, that much she could tell, but it appeared he was slowly getting more and more distracted as he went on. By the looks of it this was his passion. Herbology. Nia thought it was cute how in love with the subject he was.

They went on talking like that for hours. Neville would spew facts and tidbits about the new plants he was learning about, and Nia would just smile and listen. They didn't even realize how late it was until Hermoine came storming in and yanked Neville up by his arm and pulled him away while simultaneously lecturing him on why he should be out so late after hours.

Oddly enough, when she was walking back to her dorm, she found the biggest smile on her face. It would normally be because she helped somebody, but this time, something felt different. Nia had no clue why though. Maybe it was just because he had looked so sad before. Yeah, that's what it was.

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A/N: Pretty short chapter but I hope y'all like. Oh and since i'll be starting school on the 28th updates will be every other week when I go back.

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-Brooklyn