Courage {Neville Longbottom} (ON HOLD)

Chapter Seventy Three

"Kefi, you should really eat something," Neville tried to coax his girlfriend to eat any sort of food before the quidditch match against Slytherin that morning. Despite cheering her up the days prior to the match, when Kefira awoke that morning, Neville could see that the nerves were getting the best of her. It had nothing to do with the match but more along the lines of being surrounded by feuding friends. She still had yet to speak with Ginny and Dean since apparently Dean had something to say but was only complaining to Ginny. Ginny had tried taking her frustrations out on Kefira but that hadn't gone well at all, Ron wasn't in good standings with anyone on the quidditch team except Harry. 

They were destined to lose. 

"I'm not hungry," she said pushing the plate of food away from her that Neville had made for her a few minutes before. "I don't want to eat anything."

"Well, what do you want to do?" Neville asked with a small sigh.

"I want to throttle someone."

The tiny first year boy that was sitting next to Kefira paused shoving the spoonful of egg in his mouth as his eyes became incredibly wide. He turned his head slowly to the girl and then proceeded to scoot slowly away from her down the bench. Neville stood up from his spot on the bench and then made his way around the corner of the table to sit next to Kefira, to offer some comfort but to also prevent her from attacking anyone at random. 

He reached out and grabbed an orange, bringing Kefira to look over and watch as he began peeling it. It did manage to bring a smile to her face, knowing that he always ended up peeling the oranges for her because she always struggled with it for some reason. Once he finished peeling it, he offered her half without saying anything. She couldn't bring herself to refuse as she grabbed it from his hand and began eating the small slices. 

Neville smiled glad that he could get her to eat something and happy to see the smile on her face as she relaxed for a small period of time. There was a lot riding on the match between Slytherin and Gryffindor. Many of the Gryffindors believed that Harry had selected the majority of the team based on friendship, Seamus included, rather than Harry looking at the skill set. If they lost, it would be hard to argue it but if they could pull off the win, they could tell everyone to shove it. 

Since the last practice, things didn't look like they would go very well with Ron as Keeper and the team just an utter mess. 

"It's all going to work out fine," Neville reassured her with a kiss on the cheek. "Just focus on your job out there, that's all you can really do."

Kefira nodded her head but rather than returning the kiss on the cheek, she grabbed the sides of his face and drew him into a slow kiss before pulling away.

"What was that?" Neville asked in a dazed tone.

"I was giving myself a kiss for good luck," she told him with a chuckle before standing up from the bench and heading out of the Great Hall to go change into her Quidditch robes.

"Good luck," he called after her quietly. Although judging by the smile that lingered on his face long after she was gone, he was feeling like the lucky one in that moment. 

Kefira arrived at the changing room near the Quidditch pitch to find Ginny and Demelza there, making it quite awkward for her since she had yet to talk to Ginny since the spat in the dorms. It seemed Ginny was feeling quite awkward as well as the smile on her face faded from the conversation she was sharing with Demelza. Poor Demelza could sense the tension between the two girls as well as everything fell silent in the changing room. 

Placing on her jersey, Kefira could hear the sound of one of them approaching as she sat on the bench and glanced over her shoulder. Ginny approached her with her lips pressed together, obviously looking like she had something to say but not sure how to go about it. Demelza was left standing there, trying to look busy with pulling one of her gloves on while Ginny cleared her throat.