Courage {Neville Longbottom} (ON HOLD)

Chapter One Hundred Eight

Kefira stood inside her home, looking out the window in the living room that gave a clear view of the porch where her father sat. Cardel had been seated outside for the last hour or so, despite the fact that it had started to rain quite a bit, he had yet to budge. Since Kefira had placed her foot down with both of her parents that she wasn't going anywhere with the time of war coming, he didn't know what to say. In just a short amount of time, she would be of age and even then, if he tried to stop her, he wouldn't be able to. Kefira would have her own say and he knew very well that she was going to fight to see the end of it all, alongside Neville.

Cardel didn't want that for his daughter, he didn't want that for Neville either. They were children in his eyes, no matter how close they were to being of age, they were much younger than him, so he would always view them as children. But they were both asserting their rights as adults and he knew he wouldn't stand much of chance of stopping them. Neville was determined to fight and Kefira had always been his support and had always had the fight in her.

He wanted both of them to remain safe, he wanted to keep both of them safe as he had already placed Neville under the care of his household. Knowing how much he meant to Kefira, it was extremely important that he didn't go off and get himself hurt or killed. But what was he supposed to do? What was he supposed to say?

"He's been out there for about an hour now. He's not going to come in any time soon," Kefira said to Neville as he came to stand beside her. "It's like his silent protest against us having any involvement in any of this. I tried telling him..."

"Kefi," Neville began, as her voice trailed off and a frown took to her face, " I don't think there is anything you or I could say that would settle his mind about our involvement in this matter. To be honest, even I don't like the idea of you getting involved-"

Kefira turned to him, almost looking offended as if he was questioning her abilities to stand her grounds, but he didn't mean it like that. The way his hands reached out and rubbed over the top of her arms gently, he didn't mean it like that at all.

"It's not because you're not capable of fighting, Kefi," he said, " you're the best fighter I know, with or without magic. But you're a muggle-born, which makes you one of the biggest targets in all of this. With Dumbledore gone, I don't know what that means. I'm not the fondest of his name right now, but I know that he was the barrier that was keeping many of us safe. But now that he's gone, who knows what's going to unfold. His target has always been muggle-borns, possibly even before blood traitors."

"Yeah, well, I'd like to see the bald-headed bitch even try to take a scratch at me," Kefira said, folding her arms and looking down at the floor, " he thought Dumbledore was scary, I'll show him the definition of it. I bet he's never had a lioness shove a foot up his bum."

Neville let out a light chuckle, it felt good to laugh at something as nothing seemed to really be funny at the time with all the thoughts of "what if" overtaking his mind.

"I'm going to go talk to your dad," he said to her, " and maybe, you should talk to your family a bit more. Your mum seems to need a bit more of reassurance, and maybe your sisters do too. They're only upset because they care about you-"

"Us," Kefira corrected him, " they care about us, Neville. Don't act like they don't care about you, you're part of this family, whether you like it or not."

With a smile, he gave a nod of his head, reassuring her that he understood what she was saying. He leaned in, giving a kiss to her forehead before making his way outside, where the storm had definitely picked up. Looking over his shoulder before he turned to close the door behind him, Neville could see the worried look on Kefira's face as her eyes settled on her father. But she seemed to listen to Neville's advice about talking to her mother and sisters as she went to leave the room.