Brave { Neville Longbottom}

Chapter Ninety Eight

Kefira was lying upside down hanging off the end of her bed, when she heard someone entering the room, she expected to see Faye, but instead it was Hermione. The girl looked slightly flustered, her hair frizzy and a slight scowl to her face as she walked over and dropped her bag onto her bed.

"Hello." Kefira greeted her. "How are you doing?"

Hermione glanced over at her, she seemed surprised as if she didn't notice that someone was actually in the dorm room at all.

"How long have you been there?" Hermione asked.

"Long enough." Kefira answered. "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing." Hermione said quickly before sitting on her bed. "I'm fine."

"Fragile. Insecure. Neurotic. Emotional. Fine?" Kefira said sitting up.  Hermione sat on the edge of her bed, studying the red head across from her.

"How did you do it?" she questioned Kefira.

"How did I do what? You're going to have to be more specific here, Hermione, I'm not a Seer."

Hermione made a face at the term Seer, obviously still bent out of shape about Divination class.

"I meant in Potions, you finished so quickly."

"You mean, you're surprised that someone finished before you?" Kefira looked at her. "That someone actually beat you in something academically...the horror."

"I didn't mean it like that-" Hermione went to defend herself, but Kefira only laughed at her response.

"Relax," she said, "I'm only teasing you. If you must know, I know how to do a lot of the potions because of all the detentions I've served with Snape over the last three years attending this school. He's made me brew potions ranging from the difficulty of first years to seven years. And if I happened to make a mistake...well..he'd make me start all over again. It's to the point where I have most of the potions memorized."

"That's...amazing." Hermione said looking genuinely impressed.

"But don't worry," Kefira added, "I'm not going to take over your spot as the smartest witch in the school, potions just happens to be really one of the only subjects I'm actually good at. You can still be great in every other class....except for Divination as well. However, I'm nowhere near being the star pupil in that class."

Hermione laughed. "I don't think anyone is...the class is a load of nonsense."

"I know. I told my parents about it and they think it's all a bunch of made of rubbish."

"Exactly." Hermione smiled. " I don't think one can accurately tell the future by staring at tea leaves at the bottom of a chip tea cup."

"I wish I had followed your lead and tried my hardest to drop that class for something else."

Neville sat beside Kefira as she began to plot her evening plan to sneak out of the castle.

"I don't think it's a very good idea, Kefi. It's near the end of the year, you don't need to end up being caught outside the castle." Neville sighed.

Kefira turned to face him on the sofa with a bright grin. "How many times do I have to tell you to relax, Nevs? I'll be fine. Besides I haven't fed the dog in a couple of days due to classes and studying in the library. I'm sure the poor thing is starving."

"But what about Sirius Black?" Neville frowned. "He could still be roaming the grounds.."

"He could be and he could be half away across the world by now." Kefira pointed out. "Who knows? But apparently he's been around here throughout the year, and I've been fine, haven't I?"

"I know...but I don't want you getting hurt." Neville said.

"And I won't get hurt, just trust me, Neville."

"I do trust you, it's things outside of our control that I don't trust." 

Kefira smiled at him. "You know, I think you're absolutely adorable when you get into your protective mode." she said. "I can almost hear your lion roaring."

Neville turned a bright shade of red at her words before she picked herself up from the sofa. "I'm going to go change into more comfortable clothing but then I'll be heading out." she informed him.

"Well, I'm going to wait up until you get back, you know."

"You could just save yourself the trouble and come with me." she offered but the look on Neville's face made her laugh. "Okay, okay, silly suggestion. I won't keep you waiting too long."

Kefira was getting better and better at her methods of sneaking out of the castle at night. With her pockets full of food for the poor dog, she made her way onto the grounds of the castle, as the night was settling in.

When she arrived to the spot where she normally found the dog, he of course was nowhere to be seen, but she decided to leave the food for him if he arrived later on.

She was pretty confident she was going to get back to the castle completely undetected until she saw Professor Snape outside, walking with a face full of what looked like determination, worry and anger.

"Oh no..." she muttered to herself when he caught sight of her. At first, he seemed to be surprised that she was outside the castle during the evening hours, but his face quickly stricken.

"Miss Walsh, what are you doing out here? It is past curfew hours and-" He didn't bring himself to say anymore when the sounds of something in the distance caught both of their attention.

"Go back to the castle." he ordered.

"But-"

"Get back to the castle ...now!" he said through gritted teeth before moving along. 

He should have known better than Kefira wasn't going to listen.