Little Brave Hearts || Neville Longbottom

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

"Can someone remind me of why we're here and not in out common room to celebrate again?" Maykha huffed as she crossed her arms against her chest.

Immediately after Lee announced their triumph, Maykha had almost jumped from the railing to go and congratulate Harry, but was only stopped by Neville. They would have a celebration for their victory in their common room, but instead of heading there, they were dragged by Hermione, telling them that they have something to tell Hagrid.

"Blimey, tha's a one bloody mental thought!" Hagrid exclaimed in response to the children's accusation of Professor Snape jinxing Harry's broom to danger him. "Why would Snape put a curse on Harry's broom?"

"Who knows? Why did he try to pass through the three-headed dog on Halloween?" Asked Harry.

Hagrid looked at the five of them suspiciously, "Who told yeh 'bout Fluffy?"

"Fluffy?!" Ron exclaimed at Hagrid, emphasizing the creature's name.

Hermions snorted, "That thing has a name?"

"Of course he's got a name, he's mine. Bought 'im from a Greek chappie I met in the pub last 'ear. Then I gave him ter Dumbledore ter guard the-"

"The?" all five of them asked in chorus as Hagrid cut off his sentence.

"I shouldn'ta said tha'. No more question, don't ask any more question! Tha's a top secret, tha' is", the half-giant scolded the kids, preventing himself to slip any more information to them.

Harry stopped from walking so did the others in protest, "But Hagrid, whatever Fluffy is guarding, Snape's trying to get it."

Hagrid looked down on the boy and placed his right hand on Harry's shoulder, "Professor Snape is a Hogwarts teacher"

"Hogwarts teacher or not, I know a spell when I see one, I've read all about them. You've got to keep an eye contact and Snape wasn't blinking!" Hermione stated, convincing Hagrid that what they were telling was true.

Hagrid sighed, "Listen 'ere, all five of yeh", he said, pointing each one of them, "It's dangerous. Whatever that dog is guarding is strictly between Professor Dumbledore and Nicholas Flamel -", he added before he gasped and covered his mouth.

"Nicholas Flamel?" Neville asked the half-giant but Hagrid avoided their eyes and started walking away from them.

"I shouldn'ta said that. I should have not said that. I shouldn'ta said that," the man said over and over as he walked.

The five of them were left there and looked at each other with a mischievous and curious smirk on the faces.

Neville shut his eyes and shook his head slowly, "I don't like where this is going."

...

"I feel like we already searched the entire books in the library," Maykha complained as she buried her face into the book in front of her.

The five of them went straight to the library to search for Nicholas Flamel, whoever that was. Their table in the library were already filled with mountains of books but still yet to find what they needed.

"I'm sure his name is in one of these. It has to be," Hermione said while reading the book.

Maykha adored Hermione's determination in finding out who Nicholas Flamel was and what was his contribution in this whole 'Snape-trying-to-steal-something' situation but Maykha was already tired from reading and reading for almost four and a half hours and her eyes were also becoming heavier as she started to feel sleepy. She refused to shut her eyes of course, but it seemed like luck wasn't with her that moment as everything became blurry and eventually, black.

Neville noticed how Maykha became silent and when he stopped reading to look at her, he saw his dear friend sleeping soundly. He chuckled by the sight of it, perhaps she was really tired from exerting so much energy while cheering on Harry during his game.

Harry sat across them and looked at the girl before shaking his head, "If someone walks up and see her sleeping like that, they'd think she's the one who's got beaten up by Wood during training earlier."

Neville giggled as he closed the opened books on the table, "Right? Well, she's been up quite early today. Her energy is at its peak during morning. T-that being said, why shouldn't we just c-call it a night?"

He nervously eyed Hermione, afraid that she would snap at him for his suggestion. Afraid as he was, he also worried for Maykha with her uncomfortable sleeping position. He'd want her to rest as comfortable as she could, and library was not doing it for her.

Ron heavily sighed as he also sat on the chair next to Harry, "Thanks for suggesting, mate. I would swear to Merlin the letters in this book is dancing, and someone still refused to go back." He said while glaring at Hermione who was still looking intently at her book.

The girl raised her head and glared back at Ron, "Is it my fault that I just wanted to help?"

"No, but we're all tired, Hermione. Why don't we just head back to the common room for now? It's almost curfew," Ron stated.

Hermione closed the big book that she was reading dramatically, making a loud noise, "Fine."

Ron silently let out a triumphant noise as he stood up and started walking away from them.

Neville sighed in relief as he looked at Maykha who was still sleeping beside him. He decided to carry the girl on his back with the help of his other friends. He was surprised to see that the girl wasn't as heavy as he expected her to be.

Neville walked with sleeping Maykha on his back as Hermione supported the girl from behind, "You alright there, Neville?" she asked.

"Of course," Neville smiled, assuring the girl that he was fine.

Carrying his friend on his back like that was a trivial thing for him. Truth be told, it was not even enough. Feeling the warm breath of Maykha from the back of his ears, Neville wished she could rely on him more little by little.

When they reached the Gryffindor tower, they headed quickly to the girl's bedroom that Neville managed to climb even though the strairs was charmed to become an inclined plane when a student of opposite gender tried to climb up. Although he struggled climbing, he did his best for his sleeping friend.

The other girls in the dormitory seemed to be surprised to see a boy there but when they saw Maykha sleeping on his back, they immediately helped him and Hermione to carry the girl onto her bed.

"It's alright now, Neville. You can go back to your dorm and rest," Hermione instructed him and he silently obeyed her as he too was tired and his back ached a little bit from carrying the girl for too long, and climbing that slope was not an easy task.

When he stepped on the stair, it became flat again and since he was not paying attention, he slid his way down to the common room, making his bottom hit the floor.

"You alright?" Harry asked, helping him to stand up.

"Quite good. Although, it's amazing how this staircase really does its job", Neville said rubbing his butt from the impact from the floor.

"Of course, Percy informed that to us the very first time we stepped into this common room. He probably learned it the hard way," Ron joked as they walked towards their dorm to rest because they knew that tomorrow would be another long day to search the whole library for some information.