Neville. My Neville.

Chapter 6

Nothing really ever changed. We were approaching the end of the year. Neville and I were sitting in the hufflepuff common room. I didn't really like hanging out around other gryffindor boys. The only ones that didn't really bother me were Harry and the Weasleys. Most of them just kept on and on saying things like "Ohhhh Longbottom and his girlfriend," and it really just got on my nerves. So Nev respected my wishes and whenever we hung out, we were either in my common room, somewhere else in the castle, or at Hogsmeade. We decided to go on a walk around the school. We were on our way to the astronomy tower, when Harry came running down the hallway, crying. He crashed into Neville, apologized, got back up and began running again. "That was weird," I said and Neville agreed. When we got up to the astronomy tower, I looked down off the balcony and saw something. No. Someone. "Neville. Who is that? Down there?" Right as I finished my sentence, I recognized the body. Dumbledore. Dumbledore had died. The man that came to my house when I was 11 and told me that I was a witch. The man who just all around made my life better, had died. Nevilles face dropped when it hit him. I turned towards him and leaned my face into his chest and began crying. He wrapped his arms around me and just let me let it all out. I could tell that he was still in shock. "Should we go tell someone?" he asked me. "No. I'm sure that's what Harry was doing." I began to reminisce on all the times the professor had come to my rescue. Neville just sat and listened to me ramble on for what felt like hours. It was at that time, I knew. We were officially at war. The whole wizarding world was. Nothing was going to be okay until this war was over. It was not going to end without a lot of bloodshed. "How about you come stay the summer with my grandmother and I? That way I know you'll be safe," he suggests. I smile and nod, "Yeah. That would be nice. But what am I going to do about my parents? They are muggles. What if they get targeted because of that?" I started panicking and Neville calmed me down and assured me nothing would happen.