Brave { Neville Longbottom}

Chapter Seventy Nine

"Miss Walsh, you are supposed to be in the Great Hall with all the other students right now." Professor Dumbledore said.

The girl rubbed the back of her neck as all eyes were on here. Professor Snape had his arms crossed from where he stood behind Dumbledore, all the while shaking his head at the girl.

"Well, you see Professor..I..I wanted to make sure that Elizabeth was alright." Kefira told the Headmaster. "And now that I see that she is okay, I'll just head on back..."

"Not so fast, Miss Walsh."

Kefira came to a halt while the surrounding paintings smiled in amusement. The girl groaned before turning back to the professors.

"It was for your own safety that we had the students report to the Great Hall, sneaking out while there is potential danger-" the man continued to lecture her, but Kefira couldn't help but roll her eyes. Was she really being lectured after all the daring and dangerous things Harry Potter and his friends did?

"Headmaster, if you would allow me...I know how to handle this one. You have other matters to attend to." Professor Snape said.

Kefira swallowed before looking to Violet who frowned and mouthed "good luck" to her.

Kefira drummed her fingers on the table as she let out a loud obnoxious yawn before looking at Professor Snape across the room. She had been dragged back to the Potions Classroom but was given no assignment, leaving her incredibly bored in the man's presence.

Professor Snape looked up from his work.

"Quiet."

"But I'm bored." Kefira whined.

"You only have yourself to blame for this. If you had just done what you were told-"

"Did you do everything you were told to as a kid?" Kefira asked the man.

Severus gave her a stern look. "Of course I did."

Kefira did not look convinced at all. "Professor Snape, I did not take you for one to lie about such things."

"I am not lying!"

"You mean, you never got in trouble? Not even once? I find that quite hard to believe."

"What you believe or don't believe in holds no concern to me." Severus replied settling back in his chair.

"Why did you bring me here?" she asked him. "I could have just gone back to the Great Hall and gone back to bed."

"You were already told to stay in the Great Hall once and you didn't listen, now you face the consequences of your actions. Instead of sleeping you will remain awake."

"You're not even going to make me brew a potion?"

"No. You will sit there. Still."

"But-"

"Quiet."

"I'm going to wind up going crazy over here if I just sit still." 

"You should have thought about that before breaking the rules. Now silence."

Kefira waited until he looked back down before making a face at him.

"Unless you want to extend this even further I suggest you don't make faces at me." Severus said.

Kefira struggled through the night to keep awake, each time that she fell asleep, she was woken up by Professor Snape. Usually by him allowing a potions book to drop onto the table startling her. But by the end when he was allowing her to return, he tried to wake her but the girl didn't even budge when her name was called numerous times.

The castle was deemed safe and by morning, the students were allowed to go back to their respective houses.

Neville hadn't seen Kefira since they had been allowed to go back. He had asked Seamus and Dean, but they didn't know. Finally, Faye was the one who told him that she had snuck out of the Great Hall the night before to search for the Fat Lady.

At first, Neville was nervous that Kefira had been hurt, with Sirius Black apparently loose in the castle it was possible. He didn't want to think about what would happen if Kefira met up with him, she was tough and brave, but none of that really mattered going up against a mass murderer who escaped from Azkaban.

He asked Faye to check the girl's dorm to see if she was in there, but Faye reported that the dorms were empty.

"I'm sure she's fine Neville."

"Maybe the professors don't know she's missing, we should tell someone." Neville said.

"Or we can just wait here until-"

Neville wasn't going to listen to the girl as he walked out of the portrait. While the Fat Lady's portrait had been ripped up, Sir Cadogan had been the one to replace her for the time being. However, he was was proving to be a pain already.

Kefira had not been informed of the new password and was left outside the common room arguing with the painting until Neville came out.

"Kefi! You're alright!" He said.

Kefira looked mighty relieved to see the boy as Sir Cadogan was forced to let her in.

"Hey Neville." she greeted him with a tired smile.

"Are you alright?" he asked with concern washing over his features.

"Me? Oh yeah, I'm good. Great, actually. I'm just a little...tired is all..I think I'm gonna head to bed right now and-"

Neville watched as Kefira's eyes grew heavy and before she had made it fully into the common room, she collapsed. But before she could hit the floor, Neville grabbed her.

"Good catch, my boy!" Sir Cadogan said.

Neville struggled but managed with Faye's help to get Kefira onto one of the sofas as he sat down himself.

"What happened to her?" Faye asked.

"I don't know but she's really tired." Neville answered as Kefira curled up into his side and continued to sleep.

Faye smiled. "Looks like you're going to be stuck there for awhile."

He looked down at his friend. 

"I don't mind."

Thank you @milkystars it came out lovely! Also, not to be weird but you have a nice signature as well.

This one is just adorable to me from the eyes to the curls! Thank you