The Light in the Dark | Neville Longbottom

Chapter 28: Pythons

April 5th, 1996

I returned to Gryffindor Tower smiling. Today was my last day of detention with Professor Snape. I knew that I had messed up pretty badly by blowing up Theo's cauldron, but at least I was able to turn everything back to normal. Either way, I ended up in detention for a month, and was forced to clean and organize the potion's cabinet after my classes. It was absolutely horrible. And to add onto that, Snape also forced me to sit through countless lessons on wandless magic.

These "lessons", per se, consisted of Snape yelling at me for possessing such magic and telling me that I could've killed someone - things I already knew and were taking care of. Despite telling Snape that I had found ways to control it, he didn't care, forcing me to sit through the repetitive lessons anyway. But it didn't matter anymore because today was the last day of that.

"I'm finally free!" I exclaimed, walking over to Neville on the sofa.

"And you went a whole month without blowing something up!" Neville chuckled, "I'm impressed!"

"I know..." I scoffed, "Detention had a bad effect on me!"

Neville rolled his eyes and grabbed my waist, pulling me onto the sofa. I rested my head on his shoulder as the sullen feelings sank in.

"I'm going to miss detention..." I sighed, "It gave me something to do while you were at the D.A. meetings..."

"No... you should be able to attend them," Neville protested, "It's boring in there without you. Except for Seamus, Dean, and sometimes Luna... nobody in Dumbledore's Army talks to me outside of the lessons."

"Not even Potter?" I asked.

Neville shook his head, "Rarely..."

"It's because of me, isn't it?" I hesitated.

Neville shrugged, "Possibly... but even before you two fought, Harry only ever talked to me whenever you were around... we're not exactly friends."

"Oh... I'm sorry about that, Nev..." I consoled.

"It's alright... at least my existence is acknowledged sometimes," Neville chuckled, "Say, do you want to see something new I've learned?"

"Yeah... of course!" I exclaimed.

"Alright well, it took me a bit to master it," Neville rambled, "But I'm going to need you to stand over near the exit with your wand."

Hesitantly, I stood up from the sofa and walked over to the common room door, pulling my wand out my robes once I had done so. Neville shuffled to the opposite side of the common room while I did this.

"Okay... now hold your wand out in front of you," Neville continued, "Like you were going to hex me or something."

I held my wand at the ready, "Like this?"

"Perfect!" Neville beamed, "Okay, erm... EXPELLIARMUS!"

A red beam shot out of Neville's wand, causing mine to fly out of my hand. I yelped, having been caught off guard by the event. On the other hand, Neville was screaming with joy.

"IT WORKED! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!" Neville explained, "I WASN'T SURE HOW IT WAS GOING TO GO! I'VE ONLY DONE THE SPELL CORRECTLY A COUPLE TIMES!"

"That was really good!" I assured, picking up my wand, "That's the disarming charm, if I'm correct?"

Neville nodded proudly, "Yeah! I could teach you it, if you'd like!"

"Oh... I erm-" I said awkwardly as I flicked my finger, causing Neville's wand to fly out of his hand and land on the other side of the common room, "Sorry... I already..."