Little Brave Hearts || Neville Longbottom

CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE

Neville noticed that Maykha did not come to the Great Hall to have her breakfast that morning. He immediately felt guilty, but he could not bring himself to go back to their common room to apologize.

"I hope Maykha's doing okay," he heard Ron said.

"Why?" He asked not knowing what was wrong with the girl.

It was Hermione who gave him a look, apparent that she was not too pleased with him, "Maykha ran away from her house in the middle of the night."

His eyes widened with surprise, he had no idea about what happened to the girl. There was nothing about her running away that was written in the letters they exchanged, and he had no idea as to why he was only hearing about this now.

"WHAT!? Why?"

"We don't know. We didn't ask, mostly because it seemed like she was already having so much on her plate."

Neville mentally cussed himself for being insensitive. He already noticed how Maykha lacked her usual enthusiasm the moment they stepped in the castle, but there he was, busy being a jerk to her just this morning.

He did not mean to make Maykha feel worse than she was already feeling. Truth be told, he did not quite understand himself as well. During the summer, he asked his Great-uncle Algie to help him get used to mounting a broomstick. Of course, it was a request that the old man had welcomed with open arms as he had always wanted to be of Neville's help. He asked Neville about what made him suddenly want to overcome his fear of flying, and it was when he said Maykha's name that the atmosphere suddenly changed.

In his thirteen years of life, he had never came across the feeling of liking someone. It was an emotion that he thought he did not need to understand, thinking that there would be no one in their sane minds who would like him for who he was. But then, his Great-uncle did not stop pestering him to admit that he fancied his friend. He tried to deny it as he had not have the concept of liking someone yet in his mind, but the more his Great-uncle pushed him, the more he came to realize his feelings for his best friend. It was his first introduction to liking someone, and as time went by, it had become overwhelming for his part. Mostly because he thought that Maykha was too good for someone like him, and he wanted to work on himself first before anything else.

As the start of the school year was coming near, he dreaded the idea of seeing Maykha with his feelings still left unresolved. He did not want to burden the girl, but it was exactly what he did in an attempt to hide his feelings away.

He wanted to look for Maykha, but with the need to go to their first class, he could only blame himself for being stupid.

...

Maykha settled in the library when she finally got bored. With her friends in their class, she was left to spend time with her own company. She ran her fingers through the books on the shelf, not really knowing what she wanted to read. Just then, she stopped and grabbed the book entitled 'Magical Professions: A Guide for Confused Young Witches and Wizards.'

With the thought of her future beyond Hogwarts coming into her mind every so often, she decided to have the book to entertain her for a while. As she scanned the pages, she realized that some of the professions in the wizarding community were not that far different than its muggle counterparts.

As interesting as some professions seemed, nothing really quite piqued her interest just yet. She knew what aurors were and what they do, they fight against the dark forces, and often dealt with different high-risk situation that could potentially harm the wizarding community. Although Maykha was known to have a deep thirst for danger and thrill, she did not see herself having her life constantly on edge as her lifetime job. While there were other much more interesting jobs like dragonologist like Ron's brother, Charlie as she reckon, or something like a curse-breaker who often travel to different places, there were also some that sounded boring for Maykha's liking.

However, after a couple of pages, she stopped and was stuck staring at the same page for quite a while.

Healers.

Suddenly remembering her childhood dream of becoming a doctor because of her parents' influence, she found herself deeply drawn to the information given by the book.

Unlike the muggle doctors, healers were much more capable of treating a larger variety of diseases and injuries. They were also known to treat some magic-caused illnesses, and some of the notable examples of which were dragon pox and vanishing sickness. However, the current capacity of how far healing magic and potions could do were still limited, as there were still some injuries and diseases that even magic cannot heal.

Realizing how deep she was already in with her interest with the profession, she immediately closed the book.

Becoming a doctor was nothing but her dream in her childhood, not to mention that it was because of those people, who made her believed to be her parents, that she wanted to become one in the first place. After what they had done, she did not wish to associate herself with them. At least, not yet. Her dreams included.

"My, my, I wonder what my favourite Gryffindor is doing here all alone?"

Turning her head to the direction of the voice, she saw Cedric walking towards her with a girl from the same house.

"Well, isn't it nice to see each other in different place other than the Owlery?" Maykha said, also smiling.

"I'm not going to argue. By the way, she's Yunifer Westwood, a fellow Hufflepuff and my best friend," Cedric introduced the girl, but the way she frowned did not escape from Maykha's eyes.

Yunifer had a long, brown hair that reached her waist, and a dark brown eyes. It was Maykha's first time seeing the girl, considering that she had always met Cedric only by coincidence.

"Nice to meet you, Maykha. I've heard about you from this git," Yunifer said, as she extended her hand for Maykha to reach.

"Nice to meet you too, Yunifer."

"Oh, Yuni is fine. I only get called Yunifer whenever I'm in trouble! Also, if you don't mind, can we sit here with you? No, I'd beg to sit here with you. Only having Cedric as my company would be the death of me," the girl asked, making Maykha laugh.

"Sure, suit yourself."

"Hey, what do you mean by that?" Cedric asked, frowning as he took his seat.

"Shut up, I came here to study and not listen to your love story with Cho." Yunifer said, rolling her eyes.

"Cho?" Maykha asked, "Cho Chang of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team?"

"None other than! Ced is so whipped for that girl, so much that it hurts my brain," Yunifer said. The mention of the Ravenclaw girl immediately brought a flush of red on Cedric's cheeks, and it was what convinced Maykha that what Yunifer said was true.

Cedric smacked a book on Yunifer's arm, "Stop embarrassing me, you git! And for your information, I do not talk about her that much! You're exaggerating with your stories again."

"I do no-"

"Hey, Maykha," Cedric ignored Yunifer as she was about to voice her agrument, making Maykha laugh again, enjoying the company of the two older students. "Why are you already reading this? Isn't it a bit too early for you?"

"Ced's right, I should be the one reading this. We're on our fifth year, and not mention we'll have to take our O.W.L.s this year too, and I still have no idea as to what I wanted to do with my life," Yunifer said as she lightly banged her head against the table.

While laughing, Maykha extended her arms to gently pet the girl's head, "There, there, you still have a lot of time to think about your future, right Ced?"

Cedric just snorted, "Let her be. It's better for her to worry as early as now than cram her plans later on."

"So helpful, Diggory," Maykha said flatly.

"By the way, why are you alone?" Cedric asked, ignoring her comment.

"I wasn't in the mood for class, so I skipped."

Cedric's eyes widened with surprise, "On the first day of class?!"

Yunifer then raised her head from the table and grinned, "You're great, I like you. You're my daughter from now on."