Little Brave Hearts || Neville Longbottom

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

"You have to promise me! Stay away from that Malfoy, okay?" Neville pestered her as the two of them were left alone in the Common room, trying to get Maykha to finish her Herbology essay that the professor gave them just after Christmas break. She finally found her weakest subject, and it was officially Herbology. Professor Sprout seemed to be speaking in Ancient language during discussions and she could not understand a thing, the others had already given up on her and decided to call it a day and went to sleep.

Neville on the other hand, started acting strange since the night they went back from Slytherin common room. He had started to be vocal about avoiding Malfoy at all cost, which was harder than he wanted it to be considering they shared some classes with those Slytherins. Neville had never been so vocal about his hostility towards anyone, which only made Maykha suspicious of his sudden change of behavior.

She frowned at him as she crossed her arms, "For the love of Merlin, Nevy, I won't! What's up with you anyway? You've been weird since you came from there. Did something happen?"

"No...nothing!" Neville answered, shaking his head aggressively that hadn't quite impressed the girl. She narrowed her eyes on him but he just let a nervous laugh. "I'm–I'm quite tired now, p–perhaps I should go and rest. Goodnight, Maykha!" he said and left as the girl eyed him suspiciously.

Something definitely happened, she thought.

Maykha decided to shrug it off , if Neville wasn't telling her about it then it must not be something important, she figured. She already had a lot of things she would worry for and her Herbology essay was one of those.

"Those gits! Just wait and see, I won't help them in their Charms homework even if they begged me to", she mumbled as she clenched her quill. Bloody Harry and Ron pulled Hermione up and forced her to sleep, leaving her and Neville alone to finish her homework.

Finally, she gave up. She tossed the quill and laid her back on the floor. She frustratedly pulled her hairs as her head ached from trying to understand the subject. It was impossible.

"How does Neville find this subject interesting?!"

Maybe she can bribe Neville in exchange for letting him copy his homework? But Hermione and her hawk-like eye would certainly catch her in the act, and have her face something more than just finishing her schoolwork.

In defeat, she was ready to go back to her dorm and accepted the fact that she will be scolded and be put in detention tomorrow, her eyes were already too tired to read and her mind was already too tired to function.

She started gathering her things as she mentally cursed her friends for leaving her alone. "Those bloody friends of mine are awfully kind, aren't they?" she said and rolled her eyes.

Just then, the door of the Common room opened but it was already dark for Maykha as the only source of light in the common room was the fireplace and few candles inside. She tried squinting her eyes to see who it was but she could only see a shadow of a girl.

Suddenly, the shadow ran towards her and threw herself at Maykha, leaving the girl no time to be surprised. She looked down to a ginger-haired girl, crying in her arms.

"Ginny?" she called but the Ginny's hug just became tighter. "Ginny, what's wrong?"

The only response she got was just another sob. She remembered the girl being so out of her usual self, always carried a notebook whenever she went. Ginny did not come across as someone who would carry a diary with her everywhere she went, so it came to Maykha by surprise.

She eyed the girl worriedly as she patted her back in hopes of calming her friend down.

They sat on the sofa as Ginny started to calm down, "M–Maykha I'm s–scared...h-he was the one who made me do it. I–I have no idea what I've been doing. Mayka, he's going to...he's going to hurt me".

Maykha looked at the girl, puzzled. "Who?"

Ginny could not bring herself to look at Maykha, "T–Tom. I thought he was a friend. I thought he understands me. But I was wrong. Help me, Mayka! I-I'm scared!"

Maykha mentally panicked as she doesn't have any idea as to how she would be able to calm Ginny down. She was not familiar with anyone named Tom.

"G-Ginny, look. I'm just going to call your brother and others. Let's talk about this, okay?" she nodded.

Maykha sprinted towards the the boys' dorm and pointed the tip of her wand on her throat.

"Sonorus" she cleared her throat. "RONALD, HARRY, NEVILLE WAKE UP! WE'VE GOT AN EMERGENCY!"

All people in the dorm, including Seamus and Dean, jolted up awake and glared at the girl.

Seamus threw his pillow at Maykha but she managed to dodge it. "You git, what time do you think it is?!"

"Quietus," Maykha said and kept her wand back to her robe. "I've got no time for jokes now, you three follow me we have something to worry about."

The three exchanged looks before following Maykha as they sensed something serious happening. However, when they've reached the common room, Maykha's face immediately turned pale and her breathing became rapidnas they saw no one sitting at any of the sofas nor armchair.

"What's the emergency?" Ron asked and yawned.

They were starting to think that Maykha were just pranking them but her expression was too serious to even joke about it.

"Oh no!" the girl turned towards them with a horrified expression. "She's gone. Ginny's gone!"