Brave { Neville Longbottom}

Chapter Eighty Eight

Kefira ran down the corridors to meet up with her friends outside when she came to a screeching halt as Professor Lupin rounded the corner.

"Oh no," she said to herself waiting for the scolding or the detention like all the professors had given her once or twice when they found her racing through the corridors.

"Well, you don't look very happy to see me, I didn't think I assigned that much homework this week." Professor Lupin said.

Kefira glanced around. "You're not going to yell at me?" she asked him.

"No.." he replied slightly confused. "Why would I yell at you?" he questioned.

"Because I was running down through the halls." she told him.

Remus turned around and observed the empty halls. "Well, I hardly see the point of yelling at you, there's hardly anyone in the halls for you to run into."

Kefira smiled. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it. I spent quite a great deal running down these halls myself when I was in school."

"Really?" she grinned at him. "Did you get into a lot of trouble, Professor Lupin?"

"Let's just say I got into more trouble than I certainly should have."

"Tsk, tsk, for shame." she laughed.

He smiled at her before  leaning down to her eye level. "You might want to run along quickly to your next destination with caution, who knows what Professor lurks around the next corner."

"I certainly hope it isn't Professor Snape, I know he's been trying to find a reason to give me detention."

"Now why would he do such a thing?" Professor Lupin asked her.

Kefira shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine Professor. Between you and I, I always thought he had a bit of an attitude problem, from the moment he came to my house."

"To your house?"

She nodded. "He was the one who delivered my letter to my parents and I...muggle born witch here. Didn't know anything about the magic world until he showed up on my doorstep. And he's not the best person to hear it from."

"I can only imagine." Professor Lupin said with a distant look.

"Anyways, I have to go meet up with my friends. Nice talking with you Professor, have a nice day!"

'You do the same, Miss Walsh."

The Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher stood there for a moment longer after the red head left him to skip down the halls. He straightened himself and his robes before looking down the hall to see Severus heading his way. Turning his head around, Remus caught sight of Kefira just disappearing around the corner before Severus was about to pass him.

"You know it's not her." Remus said quietly.

Severus stopped and turned to him.

"Excuse me?"

"I said you know it's not her. That's not-" Before Remus could finish Severus continued on his way down the hall.

Remus rubbed his forehead with a sigh. "Oh what a mess."

With Spring nearing, the temperatures during the day were becoming nicer as the Gryffindor students found themselves outside by the Black Lake for an afternoon free of classes.

When Kefira arrived she saw that Seamus already had been splashed to oblivion as he sat on the grass, his hair dripping wet.

"What happened to you?"

Ginny smiled in amusement. "Dean swore he saw a mermaid and told Seamus to lean in."

"Oooh I want to see a mermaid!" Kefira said walking over to the water's edge.

"Come over and lean in." Dean said with a mischievous grin that Kefira didn't catch on to.

However, before she could lean in, Neville pulled her back by her jumper. "He's trying to trick you."

"Aww Neville!" Dean pouted. "I almost got a second person to fall for it."

Kefira narrowed her eyes at Dean before looking out to the lake. "But there are mermaids out there, aren't there?"

"Yes. " Faye answered. "A whole colony of them live under water."

"I thought they were only supposed to live in the sea, thought." Kefira said.

"There's all kinds of merfolk." Neville explained. " These are selkie type, they don't look like the ones in the sea."

"Oh?"

"Yeah the ones out at sea are much prettier." Seamus said.

"How do you know that?" Kefira asked.

"Because my mam told me!" Seamus told her. "She said the ones in the lake are a lot uglier than the ones in the sea."

"That's not very nice!" Kefira snapped. "They could be beautiful in their own way, they don't have to fit your mother's description of what's beautiful. It doesn't make them ugly."

"Why are you taking it so personal, it's not like I called you ugly."

"You shouldn't call anything ugly based on appearance. It's not what's on the outside that counts, it's what's on the inside." Kefira responded.

"Right but the inside only goes so far." Seamus argued.

"What are you talking about?" Kefira looked at him.

"If you don't find something attractive, it doesn't matter what you think about them on the inside, you're not going to bother with that person."

"You can be so shallow sometimes Seamus, I swear. "Kefira said before splashing some water near him.

"Hey!"

"All those explosions have finally gone to your head."