Courage {Neville Longbottom} (ON HOLD)

Chapter Thirty Nine

If the students weren't feeling the pressure and strain put on their mental states by Umbridge enough, there were professors that were feeling it too and some of them a lot worse than others. Professor Trelawney and Hagrid had apparently made it onto Umbridge's shit list as the woman was present for nearly every single class. It was bad enough that the students had to deal with her in Defence Against the Dark Arts class, but having to suffer in the others, was just becoming pure torture. Trelawney and Hagrid were on edge and Hagrid's classes that were normally exciting and left them all talking, were just full of them feeling bad for the man as he was jumpy and fumbled over his words.

Trelawney was no better as she constantly spoke faster and faster in classes whenever Umbridge wrote something down on her cursed clipboard. So many times Kefira wanted to jump up from her seat, snatch the clipboard and crack the woman across the face with it. The way she made so many people feel terrible and not one adult was doing a thing about it was driving her absolutely mad. But she had made a promise to her family that she wouldn't draw attention to herself especially if she was already involved in illegal activity. She couldn't bring unwanted attention to her with Umbridge already disliking her. The foul fart would look for any reason to get back at those that she didn't care for.

Already, she had deprived Harry of enough, meaning no student was safe from her wretched grasp or professor for that matter. But things were not all terrible at Hogwarts as Kefira had noticed a shift in Neville's behavior. Since the news of the mass breakout from Azkaban, Kefira expected Neville to feel down and out for awhile. However, he had taken the opposite approach to dealing with the matter, working incredibly hard, not only with his classes but even on his own. Seamus and Dean told her about the late nights where he was up practicing incantations and going through all his textbooks.

If the Death Eaters were even considering about approaching Frank and Alice, they were going to have another thing coming when Neville came storming in. The boy carried a lot of pain, but he also carried a lot of anger that many other students didn't see. Often times, they still saw Neville as the shy and timid type, but it was quite obvious that Neville was growing tired of it. He was tired of everyone, including his own grandmother noting that he wasn't living up to his full potential.

So while Kefira was off at Quidditch practice or hanging out with Ginny and Luna, Neville took to working hard all on his own to prove that he didn't have to be his mother or his father, that being Neville Longbottom would be enough.

***

"Ron, watch out!" Kefira yelled as she closed one eye. One of the bludgers that she smacked was making its way towards the boy and he wasn't even close to paying attention to his surroundings. He was so worked up on Angelina yelling at him earlier to not let another goal get passed him or she was going to drag him across the pitch.

Luckily, he heard her warning and was able to dodge the incoming bludger before it struck his left arm.

"Kefi! You're not supposed to call out warnings!" Angelina called to her after clapping her hand over her face.

"Why not? He's on the same team! What good will he be if he's got a bummed elbow?"

"I don't think it would make much of a difference," Andrew Kirke muttered beside her from his broom. 

"Hey, do you want me to practice on your head? Thick enough to be a bludger." Kefira threatened him. "Don't insult your teammate like that."

"Alright, alright!" Angelina called to all of them. "Land and dismount! I want to talk to some of you in private about your performance during practice!"

Kefira could see the dreaded look on Ron's face as he already knew that it meant him. Before he made his way over, Kefira made her way over to Angelina to speak with her.