Courage {Neville Longbottom} (ON HOLD)

Chapter One Hundred Seven

Following Bandile's final question, Neville was immediately up on his feet, a look of anger washing over his face as he looked at the man. He wasn't upset with Bandile, but he didn't like what was being suggested, especially if it was following the train of thought he had developed through what Bandile had just informed him.

"What are you saying?" Neville asked him. "That...that Snape fancied Kefi? Is that it!? Because she looked like someone he knew and liked over a decade ago.  That's disgusting! He was a professor and she was a student...no...he-"

"No, Neville, I wasn't going along those lines," Bandile cut him off, placing up his hands to settle Neville down before he created a scene. "I don't think Snape fancied Kefi, but he didn't favour her because he enjoyed her feisty nature and loud personality. He placed her above all of you because she has elements that reminded him of the woman he was in love with that didn't share those same feelings for him. Like I said, the man was obsessed with Lily, anyone could see that with his behaviours speaking for themselves. He probably couldn't bring himself to look at Kefira without seeing her."

"I don't understand," Neville shook his head, " he may have treated her differently compared to the rest of us in Gryffindor, but he was still cruel to her a lot of the time too. If that was the case of seeing the woman he loved, why would he be mean to Kefi? Why would he treat her that way if he saw Lily?"

"Why would you join Death Eaters if the woman you love is a muggle-born, Neville? How could you claim to love a woman and then knowingly join a group that goes to the extremes and wants to eradicate muggle-borns?" Bandile countered. "Snape didn't make much sense to me either, I'm just telling you what I know from what I was told. I never liked him, not even after he "crossed over" to the good side. Not after he gained Dumbledore's trust. The man should have never been placed into a teaching position, especially with the lot of you. It didn't come as a surprise when Kefira told me how horrible he treated you and Harry compared to all the other students."

"Why does Snape have something against me?"

"Neville, " Sedi interrupted, " are you sure you want to go through all of this right now? After the funeral and dealing with all of the chaos that's been going on. I don't think it's a good idea to get into all of this at this moment. There will be more opportunities, I promise. But right now, surely you must be tired, perhaps you should take a nap-"

"No, I want to know now, " Neville said focusing his attention on Bandile for his answers, " what did Snape have against me? Because I never did anything to that man but from day one, he always felt the need to just come after me. He was a Death Eater...he is a Death Eater...so was it something with my parents being Aurors? Is that it? He has something against my parents?"

"In a way, Neville."

"So what is it? What did they do?"

"They had you," Bandile replied simply, " that's really all it is, my boy. They had you and Lily and James Potter had Harry. It came down to one of you boys, one of you that Voldemort would go after. It could have been you and Lily and James might have lived...there's no guarantee but there is a possibility. You might have been the Boy-Who-Lived instead of Harry and in Snape's mind, that was enough of a chance that he could still have Lily. It's delusional thinking, but that's what he thinks and that's why he held harsh feelings towards you."

Neville stood completely still, feeling quite stunned at the moment as Bandile laid out the truth for him. Back when he learned that it had nearly been a possibility that he became the Boy-Who-Lived, it had left him in a similar state. But to figure out that, was what his Potions Professor had held against him for so long, it wasn't even any fault of his own. For so long, Neville thought it was the fact that his magic was considered nothing compared to others, but it would have mattered even if he turned out to be the top wizard in the entire school, he would never be viewed fairly in the eyes of Severus Snape.