Title: Hero Character: Neville Longbottom Rating: G Summary: Neville isn't going to forget the day he frightened Alecto Carrow.
Neville isn't going to forget the day he frightened Alecto Carrow.
Ginny keeps telling him he's been oh-so-brave from the moment they stepped off the Hogwarts Express, but this is the first day that Neville has felt it.
Devoid of the usual celebratory trimmings, this Halloween the Great Hall was a tomb of despair. And the Carrows were proud of it. Even Snape didn't look as gleeful in his macabre surroundings as they did (he looked gleeful enough to make Neville's skin crawl).
So Neville slipped away into the DADA office and waited.
Now his left eye is swollen shut, courtesy of Amycus Carrow, and he's hobbling along on what might be a broken ankle, but his chin is high, his chest inflated. He swears that if he really listens, he can still hear her shriek echoing through the halls, or maybe that's the remnants of Peeves' mockery. The fat lady eyes him regretfully. Neville smiles. He whispers the password, climbs inside. The common room erupts into cheers, quieting quickly to avoid detection, but for a few seconds, Neville is their hero, and he's pretty sure that this feeling will carry him through the rest of the year.