Courage {Neville Longbottom} (ON HOLD)

Chapter Fifty Two

There weren't many times in Kefira's life where she felt like a failure but not being able to help her friends and not being able to transform into her animagus form, failure seemed to hit the girl quite hard after her mother and father guided her into the house. The family was gathered in the living room and no one spoke right away, leaving things to be confusing for all the muggles present. She sat on the sofa, looking down at the floor as her hands twitched in her lap, waiting for Sedi to begin speaking. She wanted to know what the hell had happened and why the group had made their way to London for a fight? To her knowledge, their main mission had been to rid of Umbridge but it seemed the situation had escalated quickly after their departure from Umbridge's office. 

She had worked so hard and had been so confident that she would have done everything right in order to transform for the first time, but it didn't work. All her hard work had been for nothing and it seemed that her confidence had been knocked down a few pegs. It was embarrassing and she was disappointed in herself. Sedi sensed why Kefira was upset, while her parents believed that she was hurt, but she placed her hand on the girl's shoulder and rubbed over it gently.

"It's alright, Kefi," the woman told her. "It's not as bad as you're making it out to be in your head. It may seem like that right now, but you're just under a lot of stress."

"And I would like to know why she is under a lot of stress," Cardel said in an unnaturally stern tone. "What happened?"

"I cannot give all the details,  but there was an incident that unfolded in London that involved You-Know-Who and his followers. Unfortunately, some of Kefi's friends and Neville were involved."

"Involved? In London?" Cardel looked rather confused as to the different location. "Why would they be in London when they should have been in school? Were you there?"

He looked right at Kefira, only to see his daughter shake her head. "No, I was at the school."

"We weren't sure all the details," Sedi interjected. "When we learned that some of the students had made their way there, we all became alerted. When we learned that Neville was there, we assumed Kefira was there as well, but when Bandile learned that she was back at the school, he decided that we should go there. We didn't know if Kefira had gotten in trouble and had to remain behind, so we went there and we found her outside, thankfully."

"What were you doing outside? Shouldn't you have been inside, studying or working on homework-"

"Who cares about that?!" Kefira snapped at her father, causing the entire room to become silent. "Did you not hear a single thing that Sedi just said? Neville and my friends were facing against You-Know-Who's followers! They could be really hurt, goodness, some of them could have even...even....and you're thinking about why I wasn't studying?!"

She pushed herself up from the sofa and left the room, hurrying up the stairs to her room and slamming the door behind her. She wasn't angry with her father, but it was the only way that she could cover up the fact that she was terrified. She was terribly afraid that the people she cared greatly about were hurt and she wasn't even there to actually help protect them. Could she have protected all of them? No, she knew her limitations but she could have helped at least. 

Pacing back and forth in her room, her eyes kept wandering over to her window, waiting for Bandile to return with hopefully some good news or some form of news. There was a knock on her door a few minutes later and she assumed it was one of her parents. She was preparing to tell them to give her a minute as she wanted to collect herself and wipe away the tears that she was unaware had fallen. But the door opened before she could say anything and Rosemary came in quietly. Closing the door behind her, Rosemary turned to Kefira before pulling her younger sister into a hug.