Thorn | Neville Longbottom

Chapter 30: It's the Middle of the Night

Briar felt as though she was continuing to collapse inside, but she kept practicing her occlumency tactics each day. She was barely sleeping, often just dozing off for a few hours here and there. She was too on edge for sleep as her father had sent her another letter, asking her to come home for the Easter holiday this year. She was a fifth year, but she hadn't come home for a single Easter holiday yet, and she didn't like the idea of her father's request one bit, and her uncontainable nerves made it impossible for her to rest. Her lack of sleep was taking its toll on her though, and she was greatly underperforming in all of her courses despite her best efforts.

One night before Easter and after the incident with the older Slytherin girls, Briar was standing on the bridge, leaning against the railing, and trying to catch her breath. The harsh air somehow felt more breathable, and she had started coming out here every night, uncertain how she hadn't been caught by a professor yet.

She blew air through her teeth and looked down at the ground below. She felt exhausted inside and out, and she wondered when this would all end. Would it ever end? Would she ever get her escape?

Briar let a soft groan pass through her lips and dropped her head to her hands in front of her.

"Briar?"

She jumped and whipped around with her wand out towards the sound of her name being whispered. Standing amongst the shadows and only illuminated by the faint light of the stars was Neville.

He was in a plaid set of pajamas with a quilt wrapped around his shoulders, and his eyes were blinking heavily as if he had just woken up. He rubbed at his eye with the back of his hand before blinking at her and repeating, "Briar? What are you doing out here? It's the middle of the night."

"I could ask the same thing of you," Briar replied somewhat stiffly, shifting her eyes to look out at the stars again. She gripped the railing tightly, her knuckles turning white at the thought that her only sense of relief was about to be taken away. She needed this, no matter how much it was destroying her to not sleep.

Sleeping destroyed her too.

Neville shuffled forward a few steps and shivered in the cold. He admitted, "I came to check on you, actually."

Briar scrunched up her face and turned to look at him. She questioned, "What? How did you even know I was out here?"

His eyes widened, and he looked out at the stars too. He confessed, "I promised I wouldn't tell."

"So someone else is aware I'm out here right now as well?" She deduced with lips pressed flat. So much for thinking she had gotten away with this without being seen.

Neville just nodded, but he stopped all movement to brace against the cold as a strong breeze ripped through the bridge. Briar didn't even notice the cold until she saw Neville's reactions to it.

She turned to him with her eyebrows drawn together in worry and hissed, "Neville, you really need to get back to bed. You look like you're freezing."

He just shook his head despite his continued shivering.

Briar let out an exasperated sigh and argued, "But you're shaking like a leaf for merlin's sake. You need to get somewhere warm!"

"Not until you're feeling okay enough to go to bed too," Neville declared with his chin jutted up and arms crossed defiantly.

She swallowed hard and turned back towards the railing. A heavy silence fell over them for the moment, and she stared down at the ground below in her attempt to collect her thoughts. She finally whispered, "But that might not ever happen, and I can't stand to watch you shiver all night."