Courage {Neville Longbottom} (ON HOLD)

Chapter Ninety-Two

For a few stolen moments, it was quiet as Draco continued to stare at the girl, wondering what had possessed her to ask such a question. Not to mention, she wasn't asking it in a mocking tone or in a joking manner, she actually seemed concerned as she remained on the floor waiting for his reply. However, he was not about to appear weak in her eyes, this was the same girl who had taken a few hits at him and insulted him to defend her friends, if he showed any sign of weakness in her presence, he was done for. But he couldn't deny that actually having someone ask him that and meaning it was somewhat of a relief. 

She didn't ask him any other question further as to why he looked like that or what was going on. Unlike Potter's nosy arse that had been following around "in secret" trying to figure out anything he could. Her question was short and simple, she wanted to know if he was just alright.

"I'm fine, go away," he grumbled at her before trying to return to his potion, but Kefira remained on the floor looking at him. "Didn't you hear what I said-"

"I heard what you said, but I don't believe it for a second," she replied, keeping her voice low. Slughorn's obnoxiously loud voice was blocking out their conversation from any prying ears in the room as he was telling an old story about something that neither Kefira or Draco had any interest in. 

"Why do you care?" Draco snapped at her. "Mind your business-"

"Look, put our differences aside for a minute, just ignore what's happened in the past, Draco, if you're in trouble-"

"I'm n-not."

Kefira stared at him for a moment longer before shaking her head. "You know, I've seen you do better acting over a 'hippogriff' injury, you're not fooling anyone. Not even yourself. Fine, if you don't want my help, that's fine. But go to someone, Draco, for the love of Merlin, look in the mirror...even you might be surprised at what you see. Look at yourself and tell me that you're fine."

"Go aw-"

 Before he could say it again, Kefira pushed herself up and walked away from him, returning to her seat. She didn't look over at him for the remainder of the class, instead, whenever he looked over in her direction, she had her back completely turned to him. 

The crazy thing was, Kefira didn't brew anything for the class, in fact, she didn't think it was going to make any difference if she did and she didn't want the ingredients to go to waste. As soon as Professor Slughorn walked over to Harry's cauldron, it was all over anyway. It didn't matter what the rest of them had brewed, the man didn't pay attention to it at all. He didn't say much to Ernie's potion and described Draco's hiccuping solution as passable, which earned a deadly glare from the boy. But as Slughorn made his way around, he stopped at Harry's and the praise party began. 

"Well, now, this looks absolutely wonderful,"Euphoria, I take it? And what's that I smell?" As Slughorn continued on Kefira could find herself planing some very dark moments in her head. But she had promised Trevor that she was not going to make a scene with the man. 

"Mmmm... you've added just a sprig of peppermint, haven't you? Unorthodox, but what a stroke of inspiration, Harry, of course, that would tend to counterbalance the occasional side effects of excessive singing and nose-tweaking... I really don't know where you get these brain waves, my boy... unless—"

He took a dramatic pause that caused the other three students glance up.

"—it's just your mother's genes coming out in you!"

Kefira rolled her eyes and proceeded to grab her belongings to get the hell out of the class. Ernie and Draco seemed to have the same idea as they rushed out as soon as the bell rang. As she entered the corridor, she thought about heading outside of the castle for the rest of the day. But she had to find Neville first, it sounded a good way to get her mind off of things and she needed to write home. Climbing a tree sounded good too as she as she was feeling quite fidgety.