The Scarlet Witch °Neville Longbottom

°1.7°

1.7 |Fire inside|

WEEKS of suffering Umbridge's punishment took a toll on every D.A member. It was silently agreed that speaking to Cho Chang was off limit and everyone ignored her.
Another detention filled with writing lines was over. Being the awful witch she was, it wasn't normal writing lines. Every student could feel the etching of the repeated line in their skin, while their blood provided the ink. With every written line and everytime it would be carved into her skin, Vera's eyes would glow red in anger. This wasn't humane.

She sat in the common room trying to wrap a bandage around her hand. After words being carved into her skin it stared bleeding more everytime she had detention. She was almost finished with her hand when Neville sat next to her, a cloth attached to his hand. Just like every other punished student, his hand was bleeding as well.
Vera turned so she sat facing him with crossed legs.
"Come here, I'll patch it up."
She held out her hand, while picking up a new roll of bandages.
She took his bleeding hand and started to wrap the white fabric around his wound.
"Dumbledore would've never allowed this to happen, if he were still here."
Vera sighed while shrugging.
"Well he left, knowing the trouble he would leave us with, Neville."
She saw him wince when she pulled on the roll and had her hand against his wound. She quietly apologized while putting a band-aid on the bandage to keep it in place.
Her hand stayed on his for a while while she was lost in thought.
Staring at their hands, she grazed her fingers over the palm of his hand until stopped at the end. Their was a comfortable silence between the two while they stared at their hands for a while.
"Vera?"
It was barely a whisper but it was enough to pull the girl out of her thoughts. She cleared her throat and pulled her hand away from his.
"Well, I better be off to bed. Goodnight, Neville."
Without looking back she walked away to the girl's dormitory.

Vera layed in bed with her eyes wide open. Whatever she did sleep didn't take her over and she hated it. Why couldn't she just fall asleep the second her head hit the pillow.
Sighing, she pulled the covers away from her and stood up. If she couldn't fall asleep, she wasn't just going to lay there motionless.
Softly walking out of the dormitory filled with sleeping girls, she made her way to the common room.
The fireplace was still lit and she saw a figure sitting on one of the couches.
Whoever it was seemed upset or stressed, Vera couldn't really tell. She softly walked towards the person and saw that it was Harry.
"Harry, are you alright? You seem a bit tense."
The boy shook his head while avoiding her gaze.
She carefully sat down next to him, while pulling her legs to her chest.
"Did you have one of those lessons with Snape again?"
He nodded while his jaw clenched. Guessing how he was sitting next to her, it didn't go the way he wanted to.
"No matter how hard I try, he always manages to find a way inside my head."
Vera nodded while pulling on her sleeves.
"Well, guarding your mind from intruders is a hard thing to do, Harry. Even experienced people have a hard time doing it and eventually fail to protect their thoughts."
It was silent and Vera sighed. Maybe that wasn't the right thing to say to him tright now.
"If you want, we can practice too. I'll be much gentler than Snape of course. We can start of easy and built it up then."
Harry turned to face the girl with a small smile.
"Who says I want you looking in my head?"
Vera laughed softly and nodded.
"Okay, Potter. So when do we start?"
He tensed up and looked determined.
"We'll start now."

***

Silence boomed in Vera's ears while she felt Umridge's eyes on her once in a while. Vera could see Hermione scribbling fast on her parchment, probably knowing every answer. Vera rubbed her eyes, feeling the consequences of yesterday evening. Trying to teach Harry about shielding his mind, in the middle of the night, probably wasn't the smartest idea Vera had come up with.
Atleast Harry made some improvement. Eventhough they started easy, Vera had felt it motivated more by succeeding atleast at something even if it was the easiest form of mindreading that Vera used on him.

Vera could hear an approaching sound making both of her eyebrows raise in question. She looked at Ron beside her and saw a small smirk on his face.
The pink toad stood up and walked towards the doors to investigate when a small spark of firework entered the hall and zoomed around Umbridge's face. Not too long after two redheads flew inside while an army of fireworks filled the room.
Laughter filled the place and every student stood up in triumph while cheering for the Weasley twins.
Vera laughed when firework chased the bleach blond slytherin boy that had held Cho.
Umbridge stood in the midst of the chaos yelling out things about her authority but none listened.

A large dragon made of fireworks started its way to her and the pink witch started to run in fear of the thing. Once outside the room it's jaws surrounded the toad and all of her frames of rules fell down.
The twins flew away from the room and out into the open, while students sprinted after them.
This happiness was lost for some time at Hogwarts and two Weasleys brought it back.

Vera stood next to Harry grinning up at the big W they made while clapping like every other kid around her.
Somehow Neville came to her mind and she hoped he enjoyed this moment just as much as she did.
She felt a hand on her arm and it felt weak.
She turned her head and saw Harry with a distant look in his eyes.
He started to fall down but Vera grabbed onto him.
She called out his name in worry and soon enough Hermione was beside her.
His eyes started to close and Vera shook him wildy trying to keep him with her.
The last thing she heard before he closed his eyes made Vera look up at Hermione with panic in her eyes.

"Sirius."