Brave { Neville Longbottom}

Chapter Twenty Four

The holiday break was upon them and Kefira while she didn't want to leave the school, she was excited to see her family. The students returning to their homes for the holidays were to take the Hogwarts Express back and it seems all of Kefira's friends were returning to their respective homes.

She sat in a compartment with Faye, Neville, Seamus and Dean as they were on the journey to King's Cross Station.

"I'm so ready for Christmas." Kefira said. " Dad and I go out for a tree every year and Mum makes the absolute best Yorkshire pudding. I'm going to eat my weight in pudding."

"I'm guessing that won't be much considering how tiny you are." Seamus teased her.

"Hush." she told him. She turned her attention to Neville as Faye napped against her shoulder. "What about you Neville, any Christmas traditions?"

"Um..." Neville immediately became uncomfortable by the question. As he did every year, he would go to St. Mungo's on Christmas morning and visit his parents in the permanent ward. But he wasn't about to tell everyone in the compartment those details. He could see Kefira's eyes watching him as she waited patiently for his answer.

"Probably just going to spend it with Gran as usual." he said. "We don't do anything really traditional. Except, I get to open one present on Christmas Eve."

Kefira's face brightened. "Really?! You're so lucky. Mum always makes us wait until Christmas morning, even as late as the afternoon to open presents. It kills me."

"Are you hoping for anything this year?" Dean asked her.

"Not really." Kefira answered. "I normally don't ask for anything because my parents usually do a really good job at picking presents out. I swear they have like some sort of sixth sense when it comes to present picking."

While everyone discussed their past Christmases with their families, Neville remained quiet as he listened. The tale of Kefira's father waking them all up on Christmas morning by jumping on her and all of the Walsh sibling beds. Seamus' mother cooking the largest breakfast in existence for their family and Dean and his family singing silly Christmas carols obnoxiously loud to annoy their neighbors.

Besides the visit to Janus Thickey Ward, Neville normally had a relatively quiet Christmas with his grandmother and before his death, his grandfather as well would join in the festivities. His great-uncle Algie would pop in and out during the holidays, which was always good fun for Neville. But his Christmases didn't sound as exciting as the others.

When they arrived to the train station, everyone bid each other goodbye before heading off the train in different directions. Neville found his grandmother waiting for him outside the barrier, as he walked over. He went to greet her when he heard his name being called.

"Neville!"

He and his grandmother looked over to see Kefira running over to him leaving her parents with confused expressions. She reached into her bag quickly as she reached him slightly out of breath.

"I almost forgot!" she told him.

"Forgot what?"

"Your present silly." she said with a smile. She handed him a small wrapped package.

"What is it?" Neville asked curiously.

"I'm not going to tell you!" she laughed. "Just at least wait to open it until you get home! I won't make you wait until Christmas."

Neville smiled at her before his grandmother nudged his back. "Isn't there something you'd like to tell her, Neville?"

"Oh right. Thank you, Kefi."

"No problem!" she winked at him. "Have a nice Christmas, Neville. I'll see you soon!"

She raced back to her parents and launched herself onto her father's back as the man had lowered himself for her.

She waved to him one last time before she began talking to her parents as they left the station.

"Who was that, Neville?" his grandmother, Augusta asked him.

"That's my friend, Kefira." Neville told her.

"Oh, well..she's...cute." Augusta said. "It was very nice of her to get you a gift. But did you get her anything?"

"I didn't know we were exchanging gifts." he said honestly.

"Well, we'll be sure to find something nice for her over the time you have. Now come along, it's freezing out here."

That same evening, Kefira sat with her father by the fireplace in their home, telling him about her adventures at the school, but making sure not to mention any of the trouble she had gotten in.

"And he actually laughed at your toad joke." Kefira said informing him of Neville's laughter at the corny joke.

"That doesn't surprise me at all. It's a funny joke." Cardel smiled.

"Sure. Okay." Kefira smirked.

"Sounds like you're having a good time there."

"I am! It's amazing!"

"And it's even more amazing that you've managed not to get into any trouble.." Cardel said.

"Well..."

Neville dropped his belongings off in his room while his grandmother remained downstairs in their home. He sat on his bed, still holding onto the gift that Kefira had given him. He had listened to her instructions and waited to open it until he got home.

Curiously, he began taking off the wrapping paper and opened it to find a book. He opened it up to find a small letter.

Dear Neville,

I hoped you waited until you got home to open this. Although, I guess it doesn't matter if your did or didn't. It's not like I'll ever know. Anyways, since you enjoyed my father's stories so much, I thought you might like to have them written down so you could read them whenever you wanted to. I hope you like. Happy Christmas!

Kefira

P.S Excuse my handwriting, I know it's terrible.

Neville set the letter down with a wide grin as he opened up the book fully. Kefira's handwriting wasn't terrible, in fact it was the neatest he had seen her write which meant she had probably taken her time to write it out as neat as possible. He settled back into his pillow and began reading the first story.