Brave { Neville Longbottom}

Chapter One Hundred Sixty Five

"Oh, I love how the kitchens know me so well," Kefira clapped her hands together as one morning came around and she was met with the delicious smell of pancakes in the Great Hall. She rubbed her hands together only to see Dean, Seamus, and Neville watching her with odd looks.

"Aww come on boys, you know how great the pancakes are here," she said facing them.

"Uh yes," Dean said. "But it's nothing to get that excited over. I mean, they're just pancakes."

"That's it...you're banned from sitting with me..." She said walking off.

"Hey, you can't ban me!" He called after her following her into the Great Hall. Neville chuckled to himself as Kefira sat herself down and began loading up her plate. 

"You know, there's plenty of other good food on the table," Seamus pointed out. "You've got your eggs, bacon, and look! Kippers!"

"Ick!" Kefira pushed the bowl of kippers away from her with a scrunched up face. "If those things come anywhere near my pancakes again, you're going to find yourself at the bottom of that bowl."

Seamus held the bowl closely to him. "Well then..."

Kefira went to search for some syrup when she found Neville holding out the small container of it to her. She smiled before gently taking it from him.

"Thank you," she said.

"Just make sure you save some for me," he said as he made a plate for himself. 

The group was settled in, enjoying their breakfast when the post came in. All the owls were making their way over to drop off the respective mail, however, it seemed down the way that someone was quite popular. But popularity was not a good thing in that case.

Letter after letter was dropped off in front of Hermione as owls were fighting over who was going to drop off their letter first. Kefira leaned back to watch behind Neville as the rest of them looked over. 

At first, it didn't seem like much but as the envelopes were opened, it appeared that each one of the letters was full of hate mail. 

"What people in their right minds would send a teenage girl hate mail?" Kefira whispered to Neville. 

"The same type of people who believed the stuff written in those magazines," Neville replied.

"They're called idiots," Dean said. "I'm so glad I only have to deal with the muggle version stuff back home, it's not as bad as this stuff."

"I dunno, Dean," Kefira said. "I've seen some of the ones my sisters read and they could be just as bad or worse."

Suddenly, Hermione jumped up from her seat as she let out a cry and looked down at her hands. Her hands had erupted in pus-filled sores that looked horribly painful.

"What is that?!" Kefira asked.

" Bubotuber pus..." Neville said. "Remember we covered that in the beginning of the year..."

"Oh yeah...we had to squeeze that stuff out!" Seamus made a face. "Nasty stuff..."

"I reckon it wasn't diluted either," Neville told them. "Judging how fast she broke out...that's why we had to wear those gloves."

Hermione left the Great Hall quickly making Kefira feel bad for the girl. 

"Hey, I'll be back," she said placing her hand on Neville's shoulder. "Watch my pancakes."

"Yes, because they're obviously going to just run off!" Seamus exclaimed. 

"Quiet, Kipper," Kefira told him before leaving. In passing, she looked down the letters collected on the table and read over one of them.