Brave { Neville Longbottom}

Chapter One Hundred Forty

Awkward silence washed over the Great Hall like a tidal wave, as all eyes fell on Harry, who looked just as lost and confused as everyone else. He whispered something to Ron and Hermione before Dumbledore called him up again to the front. Hermione pushed him forward, and he began the slow walk up to the front as the buzzing in the hall became louder and louder with whispers. Kefira was completely dumbfounded, trying to think of ways that Harry could have actually succeeded in putting his name in the goblet. After all, the older students had tried and all had failed miserably.

Harry disappeared into one of the chambers off to the side, as Kefira looked to the faculty that all seemed to be in disbelief. When her eyes settled on Professor Snape, there was a flash of confusion, which was quickly covered up by an irritated look replacing it. Turning to Neville, she tried to think of something to say, but she was left speechless and it seemed Neville was in the same predicament.

All students were dismissed from the Great Hall and informed to head back to their respective houses without a detour. The amount of angry mumbling coming from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang rang through the corridors as the students filed out. They were claiming that Hogwarts had attempted to better their chances by adding a second champion.

Kefira didn't believe that was the case, and even if Harry wanted to enter the tournament, she wasn't going to believe right away that a boy in her year was able to outsmart Dumbledore and all those in charge of handling the tournament. There had to be something else that everyone was missing.

Back in the Gryffindor Common Room, all anyone could talk about was Harry. Plenty of them seemed happy that a Gryffindor was in the competition, while others seemed to be quite bitter about the matter. She didn't want to tick around for it and told her friends that she was going to bed.

Sitting on her bed, Kefira decided to write a letter home, wondering how much of the tournament she would reveal to her parents, when Hermione came in looking rather flustered.

"You alright there?" Kefira questioned.

The girl sat on the end of her bed and looked at the red head, before just shrugging her shoulders. It seemed to be one of the times where Hermione didn't have a logical response or explanation as to what had taken place that evening. 

There wasn't much Kefira could say to comfort the girl, so rather than speaking, she dug into the pocket of her robes and pulled out a handful of Halloween sweets.

"Shove a bunch of these into your mouth, it'll help some."

Hermione had no intentions of eating the offered sweets, but she didn't want to come across rude and held her hand out. 

Kefira looked back down to her barely written letter and shook her head. "I know I said last night that it was going to be an interesting year, but I didn't think it was going to be this interesting."

The next morning, Dean, Seamus and Neville were up and decided to wait on Kefira to head to breakfast, however, after a half hour, they decided that she was probably sleeping in that Sunday morning. They figured he would arrive to the Great Hall when she finally awoke.

"It's rare that she sleeps in, but it's kinda a blessing." Seamus said. "That girl is never still."

"Kefira is going to accomplish a lot in life and she can't do it if she's being still." Neville defended her, bringing Seamus to crack a grin.

"Are one of those accomplishments going to be being called your girlfriend?" He asked.

"Knock it off, Seamus." Dean said.

"What? I'm only asking a question. She's been wearing his jumpers, the two have been holding hands...my parents don't even act as close you two, and they're married."

Neville fought against turning red in front of the two boys. "Kefira wears my jumpers because she gets cold and they cover her up more than her jumpers do. And ..."

"And the hand holding?" Seamus inquired crossing his arms over his chest with a curious look. "Is that to keep her little hands warm?"

"It's probably to keep her from smacking you half the time, Seamus." Dean chuckled as they entered the Great Hall.

However, before the conversation could continue, the three boys were surprised to see Kefira was already in the Great Hall. However, she was standing by the Slytherin table, talking to several of the older students from Durmstrang.

"Uh...are we all seeing the same thing?" Dean questioned. "Because I just want to make sure that everyone is seeing Kefira over at the Slytherin table."

"Who else would it be? No one else looks like her!" Seamus said. "And..and...she's talking to Viktor Krum!"

"Ah, you guys are so lucky. I would kill for one of these robes, I mean it." Kefira told the Durmstrang students as she stood before them. They seemed to welcome her company as her opening line that morning had been a compliment to their uniforms. She had asked them several questions about Durmstrang Institute, but she soon learned that even if she wanted to, she wouldn't have been able to attend the school as it was not opened to muggle-borns.

She felt slightly awkward at first learning about it, but the students reassured her, it wasn't something they were going to hold against her personally.

"Does not bother us." Viktor had told her after offering her to try on one of the woolly fur robes. It was massive on her, making several of the students laugh.

"I would definitely have to get one in my size because I'm pretty sure I look ridiculous right now."

"Looks good on you." One of the girls reassured her. "Like a dress on you though."

"Yeah, that's with most things I wear." Kefira admitted.

"Unbelievable." Seamus shook his head. "Hardly knows anything about Viktor Krum, yet she gets to wear his robe."

"Do you want to wear it?" Dean questioned the boy.

"No, but I was just saying." He turned to Neville. "Hey looks like you might have some competition."

Neville didn't smile.