Courage {Neville Longbottom} (ON HOLD)

Chapter One Hundred Twelve

Kefira stood completely still and quiet, the most stoic that Neville had ever observed her be and he wasn't sure what to do. He was facing just as much shock over the situation, but Kefira's state seemed to render her silence. There were two streams of tears coming down her face and staining the top of her clothing, she attempted to hide behind her hair, but she couldn't hide from Neville, he wouldn't let her. For someone as strong as Kefira was on a regular basis, Neville expected her to have more moments where she couldn't do it anymore and he welcomed her to lean on him when she couldn't bring herself to stand tall.

The Healers had ushered them out of the room after Faye was announced dead and as much as they urged Kefira and Neville to return to their families and go home, Kefira protested against it. Faye had made a final request, one that Kefira was going to follow through with, no matter how painful it was. Nothing could be more painful than Faye's situation, she wasn't even guilty of the crime that had been committed, she had merely been a vessel.

The confession had come far too late but that wasn't Faye's fault either, she had become a pawn in a battle that shouldn't have even concerned her or Kefira. It was a rivalry between Godric and Morgana that should have ended with them.

"This isn't fair," Neville heard her finally whispered, " none of this fair. She shouldn't have died, it wasn't her fault. I'm the one who sent her here, but she was the one who needed help."

"Kefi, this isn't your fault either," Neville interjected, " I'm not going to sit here and let you blame yourself. It wasn't Faye's fault and it wasn't your fault either."

"But-"

"No," he said firmly, not willing to listen to anything that she was going to try and argue. He knew better, he knew that Kefira did not handle the idea of death well.

No matter how strong a person was, they all had their weaknesses and for Kefira, she could not face the idea of something so permanent. She was a firm believer of change, she believed that people could always change the outcome of things if they tried hard enough, but nothing could change death once it happened.

However, Kefira was stubborn to a fault in many ways and when it came to something that she felt was her responsibility, she was not willing to back down so easily, even if Neville kept his voice firm.

"But we should have known something was wrong!" Kefira snapped in his direction. "We should have seen it, she was our friend! We knew her, she was my dormmate and I...I just thought she was distancing herself because she just didn't want to be friends anymore. I let her slip away too easily, I wasn't a good friend!"

Suddenly, she was breaking into hysterics, moving away from Neville and her hands pulled at the ends of her hair, threatening to rip out every single curl if he didn't intervene in time.

"KEFIRA! STOP!"

The roar of his voice seemed to echo enough that Kefira finally heard him over her own thoughts and she fell quiet once more. Her hands dropped down to her sides as he started walking towards her slowly. Her eyes were focused on her feet and she made no movement towards him as she still appeared shameful over her actions. It wasn't his intentions to yell at her and make her feel worse than she already felt, but he couldn't allow her to place the blame on herself.

Reaching out his arms, Neville slowly wrapped them around Kefira and pulled her close until she was leaning up against his chest. Finally, rather than trying to bottle it all up or trying to hide it all behind self-blame, Kefira placed her face into his shoulder and started to full out sob. Neville remained in place, his arms not loosening in the slightest as he continued to hold her tight. He wanted her to know that he was there for her, he wasn't going to let her go.