The Scarlet Witch °Neville Longbottom

°1.0°

1.0 |got a secret, can you keep it|

Vera stood waiting outside Umbridge's office along with others.
Every student would be questioned in order to find out if there were any underlying things that weren't supposed to be.
Ofcourse every student taking part in Dumbledore's army was even the slightest tensed.
What if someone let slip of their secret organisation?
The door opened and the pink lady beckoned Vera to her office.

"Thank you for coming, miss Strange."
She motioned for the girl to sit infront of her. "Tea?"
Vera shook her head with a fake smile.
"No, thank you."
The girl grimaced slightly seeing even the sugar and tea in a pink color.
"So I've asked you and your fellow students to come here to see I've you've noticed anythig strange these past few week. Something suspicious maybe?"
Vera pursed her lip, acting as if she was thinking hard.
"Not that I can remember, professor. I'm sorry if I'm not too much of help."
She imitated the fake sweet smile of Umbridge's while cocking her head to the side.
The lady in pink let out one of her annoying giggles.

"Your father is Andrew Strange, right?" Vera nodded.
She was going to make sure this awful woman would believe every single lie she told.
"And he was expelled from Hogwarts?"
Vera clenched her fists and nodded without looking at the woman. She found a new interest in all the different cat plates ha ging on the pink wall.
"After that he moved to Romania and probably met your mother? Where is she now?"
The girl closed her eyes trying to stay calm.
"I'd rather not talk about this any further."
Umbridge ignored her and started to question the girl again.
"And you attended school there before coming back here but I've found no records of your stay at any possible school nearby."
Vera sighed and gave another of her fake smiles.
"You know my father. He isn't the most organized person."
It was silent for a moment and the woman kept staring at the girl with a sweet smile.
She giggled once more before standing up.
Vera stood as well and Umbridge's hand found her way onto the small of her back. Vera tensed at the sudden touch not feeling comfortable while she was let out of the office.
"If something unusual happens, you would let me know, dear?"
The overly fake smile made Vera frown and she nodded slowly.
"Ofcourse."

***

Vera stepped trough the portrait leading to Gryffindor's common room, not needing Neville's help anymore.
She saw Neville sitting at the table, his nose buried deep in a book about herbology.
She stepped towards him but before she reached him a small sound made her smile.
Rex climbed up Neville's shoulder while smiling at Vera. Both of them being glad to be in each other's company again.
She took Rex from the boy's shoulder and he jumped in surprise at the sudden contact.
Relaxing again, seeing it was Vera, he turned back to his book.
"Thank you for looking out for him while I was gone."
He just nodded with a small smile while Vera sat down next to her.
"H-how did it go?"
Vera shrugged with a small frown.
"Nothing special, she just asked a lot of things about my father."

It was silent between the two again. Neville slammed the book down making Rex jump into Vera's hair.
Vera looked at the boy with wide eyes when he leaned towards her. He stopped when he was close enough to feel her breath hitting his skin and he quickly looked around to see if no one was paying attention.
"Do you maybe want to go outside with me? I want to practice some spells for the next meeting."
Vera grinned while nodding excitedly.
"What are we waiting for, mister Longbottom?"

***

Rex was hidden in the scarf of Vera, laying comfortably against the warmth of Vera's skin.
"When you're going to fire the spell at me in a moment, please not try and kill me."
Neville lowered his wand looking at Vera annoyed.
"I wasn't planning on it."
Vera nodded with her brother's wand in her hand.
The river behind her lay still while the two students stood a few feet away from each other.
They were far enough from others to practice and not get interrupted.
"Okay, go head, Neville. You can do this!"
The feeling of a wand in her hand, gave Vera an uncomfortable feeling.
The boy infront of her raided his wand again and focused long and hard before shouting out the spell.
"Expelliarmus!"
Sadly nothing happened and the boy sighed.
Vera frowned and raised her wand again.
"Come on, just try again. Don't give up on me just yet."
After the second try nothing happened and this went on for a couple more times.
Neville lost more hope with each try feeling more helpless with each try.
Vera sighed seeing the boy was ready to give up.

Neville had his back turned to Vera when he felt something pulling on him. He almost fell to the ground and he turned back around.
Standing there was Vera with Scarlett balls of energy surrounding her hands.
"Vera, what are you doing?"
She said nothing and yanked him forwards causing him to lose balance.
"You're being attacked. Quickly, raise your wand and fight!"
Neville tried to protest but it made Vera tug on him even harder.
A red glow formed around his leg and soon he was knocked to the floor.
"Neville, stand up and fight for yourself."
In a swift moment of frustration the boy stood up and yelled out a spell causing Vera to fly backwards.

Rex fell out of her scarf onto the ground making him whimper while Vera layer flat on her back.
Nevilles's eyes grew big and he rushed forward.
"I'm so sorry, Vera. I didn't mean for that to happen."
He stood above her with a worried expression but it soon faded when she let out a laugh.
"That was amazing!"

After picking up Rex she stood up and patted Neville on the shoulder.
"Did you see what you did? It was incredible."
Neville smiled lightly, finally feeling like he did something right for once.

"Look, not all spells may work yet but you'll learn. Just tell me and we'll practice."
Neville nodded while letting out a soft thank you.
They started to walk back to the castle again and Neville gazed at Rex.
"Is he okay? He took quite a beating as well."
Vera petted Rex.
"Don't worry about him, he just likes to act dramatically."

After some time of gathering enough courage Neville turned to Vera.
"Can I ask you something?"
Vera nodded with a small smile while pulling her coat closer to her body.
"How did you get your powers? I know of this family that all had these extra powers but they're all gone."
Vera stopped in her tracks and looked at the lake.
"They're not."
Neville stopped walking and turned back to Vera.
"What?"
Vera frowned not knowing if she should tell. Hell, Neville would probably be the most trustworthy person to tell.
"Not all of them are gone. One survived."
With a heavy sigh she closed her eyes for a second before looking back at Neville again.
"They didn't manage to kill me."
Her hands played with the ends of her sleeves while awaiting a reaction from Neville.
"So your name is not Vera Strange but Vera Ivanov?"
The girl nodded.
"Andrew was the one who found me and took me in. I've been hidden all these years but the Order decided it was time to finally use me now that Voldemort's returned."
Neville slightly flinched at the mention of the dark lord's name.
"Who knows about this except the Order?"

"Ron, Hermione and Harry."
The girl waved with her hand and a small red ball formed above her finger.
"This is the reason my life was ruined but it will also be one of the reasons that many will be safed."
She closed her hand and the magic disappeared.
She reached her pinky finger towards Neville.
"Promise you will keep this a secret. You're my first ever friend that I made myself and I feel that I can trust you but I just need to know for sure."

Neville stepped forward and hesitantly wrapped his pinky around hers. It wasn't very occasionally that he had any contact with a girl.
"Promise?"
Neville smiled at the girl and gave a nod.

"Promise."