Brave { Neville Longbottom}

Chapter Seven*

Neville peeked at the girl out of the corner of his eye as she spoke to Dean about football, something he knew nothing about and couldn't contribute to the conversation. She argued with him about something to do with the West Ham United Football Club, but Dean only brushed her off, not daring to admit that the girl knew her stuff.

Suddenly, her eyes met his and Neville panicked.

"Why are you so quiet?" she asked him bluntly.

"I-I-I...don't have much to say," Neville answered.

"Oh, that's not true!" Kefira laughed. "Everyone's got something to say. What are some things that interest you, Neville?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know?"

He felt incredibly awkward as Kefira, along with Dean and Seamus just stared at him. He didn't feel like he had any interesting stories to share like the rest of them. He had no siblings like Dean and Kefira, or Seamus' funny stories about his parents.

He was just boring Neville.

Kefira picked up on Neville's shy demeanor, confused by how the boy could have no interests whatsoever.

"Well," she began trying to help him out, " what about this guy?" She picked up Trevor the Toad and held it out to him.

"What about him?" Neville asked confused.

"Why don't you tell us about him? When did you get him? Why did you name him Trevor?"

As Neville told the story of how his great-uncle Algie had given him the toad as a gift upon his acceptance to Hogwarts, Kefira couldn't help but notice how nervous he was as he spoke. His fingers trembled in his lap, occasionally he would wipe his sweaty palms against his slacks, and eventually he just let them grab onto his robes tightly. 

So tight that his knuckles were turning white.

He stammered and stuttered or spoke so quickly in one breath that he would gasp for air after a long sentence. All the while, he wouldn't look anyone in the eye as if someone would turn to stone if he did.

Kefira wasn't used to shy spirited people, her family members were all fairly confident people and it was what she was raised to be. It made her feel bad for the boy as he struggled to just tell them the story of his toad. She felt guilty as well as she was the one who had pressured him into telling her the story, but she only wanted to include him.

She hated when people excluded others because she knew how it felt but she was beginning to think that Neville would have been better off if she hadn't interfered.

Fortunately, Dean and Seamus were nice enough to listen, not daring to make fun of him. When Neville finally finished, he fell silent.

"You're lucky," Dean said breaking the silence.

"Wh-what?" Neville looked at him surprised.

"Yeah, I told my mum that I wanted a pet but she told me no."

"Same," Seamus added. "Dad's allergic to a lot of animals. though."

The boys looked to Kefira wondering what her reasoning was for not having an animal.

"Mum says I can hardly take care of myself so getting an animal wouldn't be a very good idea." she mused. "Besides, I don't need an animal, I'm as wild as they come!"

Perhaps it was all the excitement from the prior month and the hectic day of the train, but somehow, Kefira had fallen asleep at least halfway through the train ride.

When the train finally came to a stop, Dean and Seamus were the first to stand up while Neville looked over at Kefira who was still sound asleep.

"What should we do about her?" he asked them.

"You could ...I don't know...wake her up." Seamus said with a chuckle.

Neville frowned. He didn't want to make the girl angry and he was sure she would be upset from being woken up.

"Go ahead, she's not going to kill you!" Dean told him before walking out of the compartment behind Seamus.

Neville wasn't too sure of that.

Carefully, he arose to his feet and walked over to where Kefira slept in the corner near the window. He slowly reached out and poked her.

Almost instantly, her eyes opened and she sat up.

"What's going on?" 

"We...we're here." he announced.

"WHAT?!" 

Neville jumped back as she hopped up onto her feet and immediately looked out the window. "We're here!? We're actually here?!"

She suddenly ran out of the compartment leaving Neville alone.

He stood there only to hear the sounds of her returning moments later.

"Well, don't just stand there! Come on!" She grabbed his hand and dragged him behind her.

The cool air of the night greeted Kefira, the wind tossing her curls left and right, but she paid no mind as she saw the castle off in the distance.

"This is amazing." she said under her breath.

She turned to Neville, she still had a hold of his hand, he seemed in just much awe at the sight of the castle as she was.

"Firs'-years! Firs'-years over here!" a thunderous voice rang out.

The voice belonged to a man that was hard to miss. He towered over the smaller students that walked over to him. Kefira was sure she only came up to the man's hip if that.

"Wow. Come on Neville-"

"We're going over there?!"

"We're first years, aren't we? He's calling us over."

Neville felt nauseous as Kefira continued to pull him over in the direction of the giant man. However, Kefira showed no fear as she approached the man, refusing to let go of Neville's hand no matter how hard he pulled.

The burly man caught sight of them and lowered himself to Kefira's eye level.

"Are you a first year?" he asked.

"Kefira Walsh." she introduced herself, holding out her free hand to him.

"Nice to meet ya," the man smiled. 

"What's your name?"

"Rubeus Hagrid."