UnExpected

Chapter 45

Achingly slow, the students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry rose their first morning after the holidays. The first school day of a brand-new year. And while all of the girls in the fifth-year dormitory of the Gryffindor Tower had left for breakfast, one strayed behind just a little longer. And with a very good aesthetic reason.

Neville stood patiently in the common room. His bag slung over his shoulder, looking at his feet, waiting for a girl who seemed to be taking her sweet time. He had just shifted from one foot to another when he noticed the sudden decrease in noise and all of the attention shifting in one direction. Looking to his housemates, he found some of them wide-eyed and slack jawed. Cormac McLaggen's lollipop had even fallen out of his mouth and to the floor without his notice or care. Was Neville missing something again? Barely returned and already he was out of the loop. But what did poor, little Neville Longbottom really expect. Adjusting the shoulder strap of his bag, Neville looked toward the stairs. Where everyone else had been staring, and soon, his very own mouth dropped open in surprise.

Her silky hair was flipped in to frame her face as it shined golden underneath the room lights. Her eyes, which were large and lovely before, were now a notable sparkle of green. No longer covered under cloaks and coats, she showed a little more of her figure. The form-fitting jumper and knee-length skirt that made up her uniform was tailored to perfection. And it wasn't just her physical appearance, she somehow seemed to glow from the inside out. A shining light that had entered the room.

"Hey, Neville," Buffy beamed.

And had spotlighted her way to the last person, a girl who looked the way Buffy did, would go. Or so the people in the common room believed, but what did they know.

Neville was currently stuck on blank; all he could do was stare as he tried to form words. Looking very much like a gaped fish. Was this really the same girl he had befriended just a few months ago?

"You ready to go?" Buffy asked with a genuine smile to show that she was really glad to see him. She waited for him to say something but all she got was a slow, unconnected nod. Still the same dear, sweet, one-of-a-kind Neville.

Neville stumbled slightly as he followed Buffy out of the room. His mind still trying to adjust to what he was seeing. And as soon as the portrait shut behind the two, the excitable talk began. Was that girl really Buffy Summers?

The stares didn't stop when the portrait closed. All the way down the long steps and towards the Great Hall were looks being pulled to them like magnets, and if Buffy noticed she didn't say. But all the heavy attention was uncomfortable to Neville. Who wasn't used to any looks beside exasperated ones.

"Th-they're all l-looking at you," he whispered.

She was beautiful. She always had been, he knew that, but now...what if she suddenly became too beautiful to be his friend. What if this apparently new Buffy Summers decided that she couldn't hang around someone like him? What if she left him behind? She was the first honest friend he'd had and now –

"Maybe it's the hair," she said, shrugging her shoulders carelessly.

And the anxiousness escaped him like air out of a balloon.

That uncaring and simple attitude gave him relief. She may be all shiny and new on the outside, but inside she was the same old Buffy. His same old Buffy and Neville knew right then and there that he had nothing to worry about.

Buffy knew the kind of reactions she was receiving, she may be blonde, but she wasn't oblivious. She knew more about her surroundings than anybody. Calculating every look and whisper without trying. It was in her Slayer genes to be aware. But the many glances weren't a surprise. The Buffy that had left three weeks ago despised attention and would've blended into her surroundings as much as possible, hide away in empty rooms and baggy clothing, and the Buffy that had returned didn't care. She wasn't aiming to be the center of attention. She was aiming to be her confident self. Her old self. To not let others step all over her or define who she was. She wasn't going to take anything laying down. And if that garnered more than enough attention that was their problem and definitely not hers.