Brave { Neville Longbottom}

Chapter One Hundred Thirty

Between Neville and Kefira being completely traumatized by Professor Moody's first lesson, Dean and Seamus didn't know who to tend to first. Kefira was sent to the Hospital Wing with Lavender and Parvati to make sure that she was alright by Professor Moody's orders. The girl protested but as she eyed the dead spider on the floor once more, she nearly hurled again and she wasn't sure what was left to throw up anymore. 

Neville remained outside of the classroom for a short while until Harry, Ron and Hermione approached him to see if he was doing okay. But Neville was not okay, not mentally. Witnessing the spell first hand that stolen his parents' lives from them, was enough to make Neville feel like he would never be happy again. He saw the spider squirm in agony, unable to scream, but all he could hear in that moment was the scream of his parents. The two of them trying to remained strong and fight against it for the sake of being there for their son.

The fact that Professor Moody had claimed that there were those that could fight off the Imperius curse but they had to be strong to do so, there was no fighting the Cruciatus curse. The pain was too much for one to think about doing anything else but try and escape the pain. Did Professor Moody honestly believe that just by demonstrating it to the class that they would find themselves prepared to fight? His parents had been noted and skilled Aurors and one of the curses had led to their downfall. How were they to prepare, was Professor Moody going to try and test the curses out on them?

He shuddered at the thought of being turned into one of the spiders and having the curses being throw at him.

"Neville?" He heard his name being called. He looked up expecting to find Kefira, but instead he found Hermione, Ron, and Harry.

He glanced around in search of Kefira, wondering where she had gone, as he didn't remember much after watching the spider be killed in front of him. Instead of appearing weak before his peers, he put on a brave face and tried to perk his voice up, but he overdid it completely.

"Oh hello," He greeted the three in a horribly pained and high pitch voice. "Interesting lesson, wasn't it? I wonder what's for dinner, I'm - I'm starving, aren't you?"

"Neville, are you all right?" Hermione and the other two looked at him in concern.

"Oh yes, I'm fine," He tried to reassure them. But he wasn't fine. He wasn't fine at all. "Very interesting dinner - I mean lesson - what's for eating?"

"Neville, what -?"

Before Hermione could question him anymore, they were interrupted by Professor Moody approaching them. He asked them if they were alright, before inviting Neville back to his office to offer him some books.

Neville didn't want to go and gave a look to the three, begging them to come up with some excuse for him not to go. But they didn't come to his aid as Moody moved him along to follow him to the office.

He was invited to sit down as the Professor moved about awkwardly in the office, collecting the books he had promised the boy. He glanced around nervously, trying to focus on something else to calm his nerves. His mind went to Kefira, which didn't help him at all as he didn't know what had happened to her. His mind had been so preoccupied with the lesson, that he didn't even noticed that she was gone until he snapped out of it.

"I hope I didn't upset you too much with the lesson, Longbottom." Professor Moody said from where he was standing from across the way. "That wasn't my intentions. I am here to teach as I said and I only have a limited time to do so within the year. I figured it would be best to jump right into it."

Neville didn't respond to the man, he just continued staring as the heavy clunking of the wooden foot sounded in the room.  He rubbed his sweaty palms onto his trousers, wanting so desperately to leave as he felt his eyes swell. He didn't want to think of the lesson anymore. He didn't want to think of the class or anything to do with it in that moment.

"I suppose you don't want to talk about that anymore though." Moody continued. "Understandable."

He shuffled about a bit more before setting a couple of books in front of Neville.

"Professor Sprout tells me that your strength is in Herbology. Says you have quite the talent in that class."

He looked up at him for a brief second, attempting to avoid the man's odd gaze before his eyes settled on the books.

"She said that?" He said. He couldn't help the surge of pride he suddenly felt as he heard some praise. Far too often it was easy for Professors to pick out what he had down wrong or point out the negatives instead of the positives. He was so incredibly glad to hear that he was actually good in something, even though he did know that he was good in the class. It was just nice to hear it.

"Are you okay?" Lavender asked Kefira as she and Parvati walked on either side of the red head.

"For the millionth time, Lav, I'm fine. Really, I just...that class caught me off guard."

"The man is a complete lunatic!"Parvati said. "Was any of his lesson even legal?"

"I don't think anyone at the Ministry is going to come after Professor Moody." Lavender said. "Besides, did you hear what he said? Dumbledore gave him the okay to hold the class. I don't think anyone is going to go up against him. "

Kefira rubbed at her head before walking ahead of the girls after thanking them for escorting her to and back from the Hospital Wing.

When she entered the Gryffindor Common Room, she found Neville sitting on the sofa, who quickly jumped up to his feet to check on her.

"Are you alright?!" He asked her. "I'm really sorry about-"

"Whoa, easy, Nevs." Kfeira smiled at him. "I'm okay, I'm alright. I just got a little nauseous in class...it was a bit intense. Are you okay?" 

Neville opened his mouth to answer as he looked at her. He hadn't been the one to vomit in class but of course, her first thoughts were if he was okay.

Rather than talking anymore, the two just embraced each other in a tight hug.

"I am definitely not inviting Professor Moody to Christmas dinner." She told him.

"I think that's a wise decision."