Brave { Neville Longbottom}

Chapter Forty Seven

"Now Neville, try not to take offense when I say this, but...you stink." Kefira said to Neville, one afternoon in the Common Room.

"It's not me, it's this." Neville hoisted up a green onion, making the smell even worse to Kefira to the point where she was nearly gagging.

"What in the...why are you carrying an onion around?" Kefira said pinching her nose shut. "Oh ...it's worse, I can taste it now in my mouth!"

She pulled her shirt over half of her face before facing Neville. "Now what's with the onion Neville??"

"It's not just the onion, I've purchased this, a rotting newt's tail, and this crystal." he said holding up the contents in his hand.

"Why?"

"Because it'll protect me."

"From what?"

"From whatever lurks in the Chamber of Secrets." Neville said nervously.

"Neville, why are you so worried about that? You're a pureblood, whatever that thing is attacking students, Professor McGonagall pretty much said it's going to go after muggle-borns. You don't have to worry about it."

"But I'm practically a squib with my magical capabilities, perhaps it will deem me unworthy of learning magic."

"No, but I'm sure it'll recommend you shower." she laughed. "Really, Neville...you'll be fine. Besides, if anything tries to attack you, don't worry, I'll save you."

She walked over to him and removed the smelly onion from his hand.

"Now, come on let's get rid of this stuff."

"This is the baddest idea in the history of bad ideas." Kefira said as she stood next to Neville and Faye at the first ever Dueling Club meeting, held by Professor Lockhart. " And I know all about bad ideas."

"I don't think it'll be that bad." Faye said. 

"Of course you don't, you'll spend half the evening trying to keep yourself from drowning in your own drool puddle." Kefira told her. "This man is incapable of teaching class, how is he supposed to teach us to duel?"

Much to her relief though, Professor Snape seemed to join in on the teaching as they were all paired up. Neville was paired with Justin Finch-Fletchley while Faye and Kefira were paired up to practice the disarming charm.

Kefira was getting better at managing her wand and her spells as she disarmed Faye and return the girl disarmed her. But as Professor Lockhart called Neville to demonstrate spell blocking, Professor Snape quickly dismissed the idea claiming that Justin would end up in the Hospital Wing in a matchbox.

Kefira's blood boiled as she approached the professor for once again shattering Neville's confidence.

"Stop picking on him!" she growled.

Professor Snape peered down at her. "It's called being honest, Miss Walsh."

"No, it's called bullying. Stop picking on him. He's more than capable, but if you keep putting him down like that...it's not fair!" she stomped her foot.

The crowd of students and Professor Lockhart fell silent.

"The wizarding world is not a fair one." Professor Snape said through gritted teeth. 

"It doesn't have to be like that."

"You cannot change that."

"I can try."

Professor Snape turned Kefira to face Neville. "I'll show you how unfair the world can be... Suppose Mr. Longbottom falls under the Imperius Curse. He has no control of his actions, he will attack you with the intention to kill."

Neville shuddered at the thought as Kefira stared at him wide eyed.

"You will have no choice but to disarm him or take him down. So go ahead, take him down."

"No!" Kefira refused. "I'm not going to-"

"Then you fail." Professor Snape said. "Plain and simple. One must cast feelings aside in order to perform a duty. You can't fight with high emotion-"

"He's my friend!"

"Under the Imperius Curse, he would not be your friend."

"It's o-okay, Kefi." Neville told her in a shaky tone. "I won't hold it against you."

Kefira shook her head before turning to Professor Snape, eyeing him with dirty look.

"One must cast feelings aside  in order to perform a duty, huh?" she snarled at him. "You should take your own advice. Whatever you have against Neville or any student should be put aside, because it is your duty to teach! Not put down a student for any reason! How can you expect any student to learn under you if all you ever do discourage them every time they try! You can consider yourself just as bad as him when it comes to teaching." she said pointing to Lockhart.

"Hey." Professor Lockhart said touching his chest with an offended look.

"Detention tomorrow night, Miss Walsh and fifty house points from Gryffindor." Professor Snape responded coldly.

"Yeah, yeah." she said as she left the hall.

Kefira roamed the empty halls muttering to herself angrily about how stupid Professor Snape was with all his prejudices against students who didn't deserve it. Neville didn't deserve any of what Snape put him through. He was the kindest soul at Hogwarts and yet all everyone ever seemed to do was look down at him. They focused on his weaknesses and not his strengths.

She sat down in one of the window seats and glanced out the window, she couldn't see much of the landscape with the moon hiding behind some clouds. She sighed, but immediately became alert when she heard a noise and caught a reflection in the glass.