Courage {Neville Longbottom} (ON HOLD)

Chapter Sixty Five

Kefira had to admit, while she and Slughorn didn't become the best of friends aboard the train, she was still curious about him as a professor. Potions had been her element since first year after serving numerous detentions. It had been her comfort zone for a long time, the one thing she believed she was top at among the either students, even going so far to believe that she one-upped Hermione, even if it was just by a smidge. It felt good to have the one subject where she excelled without having to try incredibly hard. Similar to how Neville was in Herbology, she had found her calling and she wanted to hold onto that. 

It felt odd to enter the classroom without Neville, Seamus, or Dean as they did not continue on to the N.E.W.T levels, in fact, it was only Harry, Ron, and Hermione that she recognized from Gryffindor. The rest of the students being a mixture of Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff. She suddenly felt uncomfortable as she wasn't sure where to really sit. Hermione, Ron, and Harry had allowed Ernie Macmillian to sit with them, leaving her the odd ball out. She wasn't familiar with the Ravenclaw students and seeing that Draco was among the other Slytherins, she sure as hell wasn't going to put herself into the predicament where she would find herself slamming his face into the table repeatedly. 

She sat by herself at a table, wishing that Neville, Seamus, and Dean pursued taking the class so that she could have some company. It was a shame that Neville had opted out as he didn't have to face Professor Snape anymore, but he was happy to spend more time in the Herbology greenhouses. 

Without her friends by her side, Kefira suddenly didn't feel as confident as she used to, it felt so weird to be alone and she didn't even have the familiarity of Professor Snape being there. She never realized how much she had relied on them even if the class had been her element among her friends. They had always been there so when something went wrong they were there to rely on each other. But she couldn't let it drag her down to the point where it would affect her performance.

Instead, she saw it as her first solo mission, like a lioness out on her first hunt. 

There were cauldrons bubbling at the front of the classroom as the students entered and as Professor Slughorn got the class underway, he asked the students if they could identify them. Of course, Hermione was the first to raise her hand, identifying each other. However, when it came to one of them, the majority of the students seemed curious.

"It's Amortentia!"

"It is indeed. It seems almost foolish to ask, but I assume you know what it does?"

Unlike Professor Snape who always seemed irritated by Hermione knowing the answers, Professor Slughorn seemed thrilled, encouraging the girl to continue answering the questions for the class. He had a bright smile on his face, impressed by the girl's knowledge. 

"It's the most powerful love potion in the world!"

"Quite right! You recognized it, I suppose, by its distinctive mother-of-pearl sheen?"

"And the steam rising in characteristic spirals," Hermione continued, excited herself that she wasn't being condemned for knowing the answers, "and it's supposed to smell differently to each of us, according to what attracts us, and I can smell freshly mown grass and new parchment and—"

Kefira took a sniff of the air and found herself relaxed with the familiar scent of the tree that was outside of her home that she regularly climbed, the smell of the stream that she and Neville crossed numerous summer, she swore she smelled the odd smell of the Mimbulus Mimbletonia, and....cherry blossom. While Hermione had cut off her answer and turned slightly pink, Professor Slughorn wished to learn the girl's name.