Brave { Neville Longbottom}

Chapter Ninety Five

"It's moment like this that reassure me that Hogwarts just knows me so well." Kefira said one morning at the breakfast table.

Seamus looked to Dean who was smiling at their friend.

"Kefi, they're just pancakes." Seamus said.

"To you.." she countered, " but to me...they're so much more. Pancakes equal happiness. Now let me enjoy this moment." she said bathing her breakfast in syrup.

Ginny looked down at her plate of fruit." I wasn't even planning on a big breakfast but...now I want pancakes." she said.

"Strangely enough, so do I." Dean said.

"Well, you guys better hurry up and make yourselves a plate, because this is only my first plate and I definitely plan on seconds and thirds." Kefira said before taking a bite of her food. "Oh sweet baby carrots, this is so good."

When Neville walked into the Great Hall, he had a letter from his grandmother clutched to his chest as he caught sight of his friends at the Gryffindor table. All of them eating pancakes which confused him slightly before he walked over and sat down besides Kefira.

"What do you have there?" Kefira asked him noticing the letter in his hands.

He swallowed and held it in his lap so she could look at it. She read that it was from his grandmother before meeting his gaze.

"Well...at least it's not a Howler, right?" she smiled at him. "Open it."

"I already know what it's going to say though." Neville frowned.

"I don't think that's true unless you finally got a hand on this Divination stuff and if you have, you need to help me out." she said before taking the letter from his hands. "If you already know what it says, you don't mind if I open it and read it, right?"

"Go ahead. But don't be surprised when I'm right." Neville told her.

She wiped some remaining syrup on her robes before opening up the envelope and pulling the letter.

Neville watched her face as her eyes scanned over his grandmother's handwiritng.

When he saw the frown on her face develop, he sighed.

"I'm really sorry, Kefi." he said. "I warned you."

"I'm really sorry too, Neville." Kefira said turning to face him setting the letter down on the table. "I'm sorry, because you spending the summer with my family and I in South Africa!"

"WHAT?!" he quickly grabbed the letter from the table as the rest of the group looked over at them. He read it over quickly to confirm what Kefira said and she was right. His grandmother had actually given him permission to go on the trip with the Walsh family.

He sat still in complete shock while Kefira cheered beside him. "This is going to be so much fun! We're going to see lions! I want to touch one!"

"Kefi, you can't just walk up to a lion and touch one!" Faye laughed.

'Uh, yes I can and I will. Watch me." she leaned across the table and tapped all over her friends on the head before ending with Neville. "See, I just touched five lions without even trying. What's harm is it going to be to touch one more in South Africa?"

"There's a big difference there, the ones in South Africa bite." Seamus reminded her. "We don't."

"Speak for yourself." Ginny said before receiving a high five from Kefira.

"I can't tell if you're happy or upset that you get to go on the trip" Kefira said as she walked alongside of Neville in the corridors of the school. "I mean, I'm not forcing you to go on the trip, Neville. If you really don't want to go, you're free to tell me. I'm certainly not going to hold it against you and neither will my family."

"No, it's not that at all!" Neville reassured her. "I swear, I really want to go!"

"Then why do you have that look on your face?"

"I'm just in shock is all." he said. "I can't believe my grandmother is letting me go."

"Well maybe that Howler was that little push she needed to realize that you need to have some fun in your childhood." she said.

"You think so?" he asked.

"Probably." she told him before hopping onto his back for a piggy back ride. "I mean, we're young and when you're young, you're supposed to have fun. It's like the golden rule, Neville. Plus, it makes for some awesome stories for you to look back on when you're old. Can you imagine, when you're old you can look back and say that you went to South Africa? It's going to be amazing. I'm so excited!"

"I can tell!" Neville said gasping slightly for air as Kefira's arms tightened around his neck out of happiness.

"Whoops, sorry, Nevs." she giggled. She caught sight of Professor Snape down the way, and so did Neville causing the boy to stop walking in that direction.

"Maybe we should head back up to the Gryffindor tower." Neville swallowed as her arms loosened around him. 

"You go on ahead, I'll catch up." she told him.

"Are you sure?" his eyes remained on the potions professor.

"Yes,don't worry, I'll only be a few minutes." she said before giving his a reassuring peck on the cheek before sliding off his back.

While she straightened her shirt, Neville was completely red in the face as his hand touched the side of his face.

"Ten minutes!" she said. "You can time me!"