Brave { Neville Longbottom}

Chapter One Hundred Fifty Five

The Great Hall had been transformed into something even more magical if that were possible. Normally the Christmas decorations were elaborate and beautiful, to begin with, but the staff at Hogwarts had pulled out all the stops for the ball that evening. There was silver frost decorating nearly everything along with enough mistletoe for everyone in the world to share a kiss if they felt like it.  The large tables were gone, and replacing them were dozens of tables, decorated with Yule Tide arraignments. As Kefira entered, she looked for her friends and came up behind them motioning for Bisera to remain quiet as they snuck up.

"Is that Hermione?" She heard Dean ask out loud at the table in disbelief.

"No way, that's not her," Seamus shook his head. "Hermione doesn't look anything like that."

"She does tonight!" Kefira told them causing both boys to jump.

"Merlin's...don't do that-" Seamus went to scold her but as the boys turned around, they were caught off guard to see the little lion without her mane. "Kefi? What..."

Kefira made a face as Lavender smiled in her direction, quite proud of the work that she and Parvati were able to accomplish in such a small amount of time. 

"Who else would it be, Seamus?" She said looking down at him as Dean reached out to touch her hair. But quickly, Lavender smacked his hand away.

"Don't mess it up!" She scolded him. "It took us ages to get it like that."

"Yeah, my hair put up quite the battle," Kefira chuckled.

"Sorry," Dean grinned. "It's just a new look, but it looks really good on you, Kefi. You should try wearing it like that every once in a while."

"And go through that hassle again? No way," Kefira shook her head. "I'll take poofy curls any day. Anyways, where's Neville and Ginny? They're here already, aren't they? I didn't see them back in the dorms."

"Yeah, I just saw them over in that direction earlier," Dean said pointing over her shoulder. "I think Ginny was trying to talk to the Weird Sisters."

"Thank you," Kefira said before turning to Bisera, " are you coming?"

"Actually, I think I'm going to sit down, I think dinner is about to be served. You go on," Bisera told her.

Kefira skipped away from the table, keeping an eye out for Neville and Ginny, but it was quite hard to see through the crowds of students that were standing around and talking. She would have jumped up and down, but her dress robes left her unable to do so, for the most part, leaving her to grow annoyed.

She was just about to turn around and head around a rather large group of older students when she crashed into a body. She was hoping for Neville, in fact, she was hoping it to be anyone besides who it actually was.

As her eyes trailed upward, she met eyes with Professor Snape, instantly causing her to take a step back from him. She didn't want to talk to him, let alone be in his presence. She thought about just walking away from him, but as she looked at his face, she remained in place. The look on the man's face seemed twisted with pain as he looked down at her. There was also a mixture of confusion added in, that it raised concern inside the girl.

"Professor Snape, are you alright?" Kefira asked him. She would say that he looked rather pale in that moment, but then again, Professor Snape always looked pale. He did, however, look as though he was about to be sick.

But at the sound of her question, his emotions became masked as his expression hardened and his eyes returned to a glare. He said nothing to her before turning around and walking away from her.

"Rude," she mumbled under her breath before she heard her name being called. She recognized Ginny's voice, bringing her to turn around quickly and spot her and Neville. 

Neville heard Ginny call out Kefira's name, instantly causing him to become excited that Kefira had arrived. He had overheard Lavender talking to Ginny earlier about her and Parvati helping her get ready for the Ball and he was curious as to how much they did, or rather how much Kefira allowed them to do.

As he turned around, the boy nearly dropped the drink in his hand as he saw her. He couldn't even fight back the smile on his face to see Kefira in her dress robes. He wasn't even sure how to react to the hair, it was a different look that was for sure and it looked amazing on her, but he liked the curls just a tad bit more. 

"Look at you!" Ginny said. "You clean up nicely, Kefi."

"Thank you," Kefira said curtseying in place. "You look amazing too. And..."

She turned to face Neville, leaving the two quiet for a moment as they looked at one another. He did look incredibly handsome in his robes, even as he continued to pull at them in an uncomfortable manner.

"You look very handsome, Neville," she told him.

"Hey, watch it, Walsh, that's my date!" Ginny told her before the two girls bursted into laughter. "Are the others still at the table?"

"Yeah," Kefira answered. "Bisera is there too."

"Great, well, I'm going to uh...just give you two a moment and head on over there. I heard they're serving pork chops!"

With Ginny leaving them alone, Neville suddenly felt quite hot beneath his robes as he stood before Kefira. 

"You really do look beautiful, Kefi," he began. "I wasn't expecting the hair.."

"Yeah, you and me both, Nevs," Kefira said. "I planned on letting the curls just hang out for the evening, but Lavender and Parvati were having just too much fun with all of it. I was like their personal doll up in the dorms."

"It does look great on you," he said before Kefira gave him a hug. 

"Thank you," she said before looking up at him. "You still plan on saving me a dance, right?"

"Of course. I'll save you two if you want me to?" He said with a smile.

"I'll take as many as I can get, Nevs."