Thorn | Neville Longbottom

Chapter 5: Leave Him Alone

A few weeks after the boggart incident, Professor Lupin had asked Briar to stay after class. Briar had raised her eyebrows but nodded her head in agreement. She had no interest in staying after class, but she also didn't want to get detention by refusing to do what a Professor asked.

After the class had cleared out that day, Briar approached the front where Professor Lupin was standing. Once the last student filtered out of the room, he sighed, "I wanted to address what happened a few weeks ago. I'm very sorry about your boggart since you seemed a bit embarrassed about it."

Briar blinked. "I wasn't embarrassed. It's fine, really."

Professor Lupin stared at her quietly for a moment before he sadly asked, "That was about your mother, right? You're afraid you'll suffer the same fate?"

Her eyes immediately widened as she questioned, "You know about my mother?"

Professor Lupin hesitantly nodded, shifting his weight between his feet.

Briar took a step back as she whispered, "Are you a death eater?"

He couldn't have shaken his head more assertively as he promised, "No, no! The opposite. I'm the farthest thing from a death eater."

Briar nodded and realized, "You were in the order then."

He blinked in surprise but didn't say anything in response, his eyes darting around as he tried to decide what to say.

Briar murmured, "Don't worry. I won't tell your secret, Professor."

The two of them made eye contact as they understood one another for the first time. Briar turned and left the room without another word.

As Briar walked down the corridors, she noticed Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were cornering another student. This irritated her greatly, as it always had, but when she recognized the student to be the shy Gryffindor named Neville, her blood began to boil.

She marched up to them and growled, "Leave him alone, Malfoy."

Malfoy snapped his head and glared at her. He taunted, "I don't have to listen to you."

Briar got a sickly sweet smile as she pulled out her wand. She twirled it around her fingers as she quipped, "But would you listen to my wand as it hexed you?"

The blonde boy jolted with the threat. He sneered, "You would never do that...would you?" His last two words barely audible as they hesitantly passed through his lips.

Briar gently giggled as she continued twirling her wand around her fingers with ease. She threatened, "Leave him alone, and you won't have to find out."

Malfoy glared daggers at her, but she just leveled her wand and pointed it at his face with a look of menacing indifference. Fear flashed in Malfoy's eyes as he took a couple steps away from her. He grumbled, "Come on, boys, he's not worth it."

Malfoy scurried off while Crabbe and Goyle shot glares at her. Crabbe complained, "You're such a buzzkill, Davies." The two boys followed Malfoy with hurried steps and glances casted back towards her still raised wand.

Once they left the corridor, Briar turned to Neville and wondered, "Are you alright?"

Neville just stared at her with wide eyes for a moment until he asked, "Not that I don't appreciate it, but why did you defend me?"

Briar stuffed her wand into her pocket and shrugged. She confessed, "I don't know. It just felt like the right thing to do. Malfoy is a pest, but you're a good person."

Neville nodded, a shy smile pulling on his lips. He murmured, "Well, thank you, Briar."

He scurried from the corridor with that comment, leaving Briar standing there and blinking in shock. He knew her name?

Briar realized then that she wasn't as invisible as she thought she was. She walked back to her dorm that night with a small smile on her face after the interaction. She assumed it was because of how good it felt to stand up to Malfoy. That slimy git and his horrible mistreatment of their peers was unacceptable, and it felt good to make him realize she wouldn't stand for that. Not with a boy as sweet and innocent as Neville Longbottom.

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