Courage {Neville Longbottom} (ON HOLD)

Chapter Four

Neville sat in the grass outside as the night began to fall on the day. The sun was just barely peeking out, giving the purple night an orange glow near the edges. The entire Walsh family was gathered outside for the bonfire that Kefira had mentioned earlier. Like he had witnessed many times before, Cardel gathered the wood and brush to start the fire and began working to get the fire going. It was still strange witnessing such a simple task take up so much time for muggles, the boy just thought about how he or Kefira could have easily just used the Incendio incantation to start a fire. 

Unfortunately, neither one of them were of age to do so, leaving them to be not much of a help. However, even if they were able to perform magic in that moment, Kefira reassured Neville that her father would insist that they didn't. He liked doing things hands-on and the aspect of magic would just take the fun away from it. He enjoyed the fruits of his labor far too much to let magic get in the way of that. 

Which was fine, because watching Cardel try and start the fire provided plenty of amusement for everyone around. Several times he had gotten a small flame going, only to have it die out suddenly or be blown down by the wind. He had slipped a couple of times, letting out a curse here and there, which was quickly met with a scolding by Alana. 

"Didn't you say that you were going to finish telling me all the exciting things that happened while you were with Bandile?" Neville asked Kefira as Cardel left to the house to retrieve something. 

Nellie and Lottie had been in charge of making S'mores, but with the lack of a fire, the two were left with nothing to do, which meant bother the hell out of Rosemary. While Alana was trying to get the older girls to settle down, Kefira had a look on her face that was borderline a hysterical grin before she glanced over at Neville.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot," she said.

"How could you forget?" Neville chuckled. "You're the one who kept bringing it up in the letters and you even mentioned it when I got here. Come on, you have to tell me."

"Yeah well," she glanced around once more to make sure her family was occupied. "You can't go telling anyone, Nevs, do you promise?"

"Of course," Neville said quickly, wondering what exactly he was promising to keep secret.

Kefira leaned back so that she kept herself propped up on her elbows, while laying her legs out in the grass.

"Uncle Bandile is an animagus," she told him in a lower voice. "Along with those people that I told you about, Sedi, Thato, and Junior. They're amazing. They learned how to become them at school when they were only fourteen. It's all part of the curriculum there."

"Animagi that young?" Neville said. "That's unheard of here."

"I know. But apparently it's super uncommon, Bandile said they offered it more as an elective in the beginning, but who in their right mind is going to turn down the chance to become an animagus? Especially since a lot of them turn into cheetahs and stuff."

"Cheetahs," Neville repeated before swallowing as he envisioned himself being chased down by the large and deadly feline. "Is...Is Bandile one of them?"

"No," Kefira shook her head. "He turns into a hyena. Sedi is an elephant-"

"Kefira!" Her mother's voice rang out bringing the girl and Neville to look up. Alana was a lot closer than they originally thought making both of them nervous.

"What?" Kefira answered her mother, keeping a confused expression on her face to appear innocent.

"You do not call a woman an elephant, even if she has a weight problem! I thought I taught you better than that!" Alana shook her head at her in disapproval before walking off.