Starlight |Neville Longbottom|

~Chapter One~

When do you get the chance to start over? I am legitimately asking, do you ever truly get an actual chance or will your past come chasing after you like a dog chases after a bone? Well, it was my time to find out as I was starting my fifth year at Hogwarts a year after I was supposed to.

My situation was strange to say the least. I am a twin and a muggleborn so basically, I am a statistical anomaly. At the end of my fourth year my parents died in a car crash. Both my twin brother, Stephen and I were taken out of our Herbology lesson by Professor McGonagall who sat us down and told us the bad news and that we would be going to live with our Aunt Monica and Uncle Greg in Liverpool after term had ended. Together we ultimately decided that it would be best for us to take a year off before we resume our studies just so we could work out how our lives would work now. I am so thankful that my family and the teachers at Hogwarts were so accommodating to us.

During our year off I really missed Hogwarts. I had never realized how heavily reliant I was on simple spells until I couldn't use magic anymore. Even simple things like accio-ing the remote to the telly had to change, but I guess it was for the better. I definitely needed to break my lazy habit.

But in reality, we've been back at Hogwarts for a while now, and I do have to say it's strange that I am now in with the kids who used to be a year under me..not that I'm complaining, I like a good amount of them.

At Hogwarts, it seemed like everybody had something to be remembered by...well at least the year five Gryffindors. Harry was the chosen one, Ron was his right hand man, Hermione was a wicked smart witch and I do not mean only the chosen one and his group, even Seamus Finnigan was known for something which was his knack for blowing everything up. No disrespect to Seamus though, at first he was one of my only friends but that was just because he was friends with Stephen.

I was just Starla Danielle Collins. A five foot nine, blonde-haired, brown eyed, girl who could be looked over very quickly. My only real claim to fame was the mystery of my absence and my loud brother that most people found annoying.
But that was all before...before I joined the DA...before I became friends with Ginny and Luna... and before I met Neville Longbottom.

**

It really all started on the first day back I guess. I was always extremely nervous no matter how many "first days" we had and Stephen knew that so he stayed glued to my side all day.
We made it through the day really without any incident and it was time to go to bed. It slipped my mind that none of the other fifth years would know that I occasionally slept in Stephen's bed and I should've guessed but it definitely freaked some of the boys out. Especially a tall boy with a long, round, face, and brown hair who I caught staring at me from his bed until I ultimately decided to leave Stephen.

That wasn't the last time I saw this boy staring at me that week. It was all the time..during breakfast, classes, lunch, dinner, and even when I was just sitting in the common room with Stephen.

"Why is that boy always staring at me Stephen? It's sort of creepy," I asked my brother after a few days while sitting in the courtyard, after I locked eyes with the boy from all the way across the courtyard.

"Who?" Stephen responded and he frantically looked for the boy I mentioned. Finally after he saw the boy leaving very quickly and put two and two together, "Oh Neville, he's harmless."

"Well I think he's strange," I huffed.

"Maybe you should try to talk to him. He does have a reputation of being a little awkward," Stephen suggested.

"Fine. I will only talk to tell him to leave me alone!" I sighed.

"I guess I can't change your mind," Stephen said as he got up to leave. Boys are frustrating...even the male I came out of the womb with is frustrating!

After I took a few deep breaths to calm myself down, I got up to go to the common room so I could at least get some homework done before I went to dinner.

Once I got there I was obviously so overjoyed to see that Neville was the only other person in the common room. I just decided to plop down at a table and ignore him until he moved to the seat across from me.

I snapped my head up from my charms paper that I was working on and said, "Yes?"

"Hello, I don't think we've met yet which is really embarrassing since we are in the same year. I've kind of been beating myself up about it all day," Neville explained.

"It's no problem at all," I replied, "No need to beat yourself up."

"It's sort of funny, I don't even remember your sorting first year."

"Well, that's because you weren't at Hogwarts yet."

The realization hit him like a tuck when he finally put two and two together to make four, " You're the Starla Collins everybody is talking about."

"Bullseye!" I smiled but it faded quickly as I asked, "Why have you been staring at me?"

He suddenly went red at the face. I guess he didn't expect to be called out. "As I said earlier, I was kind of beating myself up that I couldn't recognize you. I was half-way trying to figure out who you were and the other half of me was trying to find a good way to introduce myself."

"A good way would've been, Oh Hi, I'm Neville," I mocked using his tone of voice and accent.

'Alright, I see that I am not wanted here so I'll leave you alone. Maybe we could start over one day."

I didn't say anything to him at all. I just stared back at my essay suddenly feeling kind of bad about myself. Maybe I didn't need to be so rude.