Professor McGonagall sat in the Great Hall after the battle. Voldemort was dead and all around her teachers, students, parents, ghosts, and other creatures sat, mixed together. Some were just talking, others were laughing, while some were crying, still mourning the loss of loved ones.
She saw Neville Longbottom surrounded by a group of fervent admirers. Out of all the students she had ever taught, Neville was one of the ones who had changed the most.
She remembered Neville in his first year. Back then he was just a chubby little boy who was always losing his toad.
She recalled his sorting. If she had to guess just from what she had seen so far on that first day, she would have thought he would end up in Hufflepuff. Not that there was anything wrong with Hufflepuff. Cedric Diggory, for example, had been an extremely talented boy. But Neville just didn't seem to posses the traits common to the other houses. He didn't seem particularly intelligent, cunning, or brave. But the Sorting Hat must have seen something that nobody else had because, after a long period of deliberation, he placed Neville in Gryffindor.
Over the years, Neville was constantly bullied by the Slytherins and continued to struggle with his schoolwork, even with the simplest of spells. McGonagall sometimes wondered how his parent, two extremely talented aurors, had produced him.
Then his seventh year came and with it the darkest time Hogwarts had ever experienced. And McGonagall watched Neville go from an awkward, chubby little boy to a strong, courageous man. He was the one the Carrows most often complained about. He gave them hell that year and McGonagall had never been more proud of him.
But when he would walk into her classroom, bruised and battered because he'd done something like refuse to perform the Cruciatus curse on a first year, a mixture of sadness and anger would flare up inside her. She was saddened that Neville and all her students were suffering while she could do nothing. She hated the Carrows, Snape, and Voldemort for being responsible for so much pain and suffering in a once safe and happy place.
When Neville, Luna, and Ginny had been caught while breaking into Snape's office and trying to steal the sword of Gryffindor, she feared for them. When Snape had only sent them onto the Forbidden Forest with Hagrid, she'd been shocked. Of course she understood now. She knew that Snape had been trying to protect them.
Then the battle happened and people died including, everyone thought, Harry Potter. Voldemort stood before them and everything seemed completely hopless. But then somebody broke free from the crowd and Neville Longbottom, the boy whose worst fear had once been his Potions professor, charged at Lord Voldemort.
She heard him shout, "I'll join you when hell freezes over. Dumbledore's Army!" But then the flaming Sorting Hat had been placed on his head and McGonagall feared for his life. Then she watched as he broke free from the Body- Bind Curse and pulled the Sword of Gryffindor out of the hat. She watched as Neville Longbottom sliced the head off Voldemort's snake, the final horcrux she later learned, causing Tom Riddle to become mortal once more.
McGonagall realized that the Sorting hat had been right after all. Neville Longbottom was a true Gryffindor. After all, only a true Gryffindor could pull the Sword of Gryffindor out of the Sorting Hat.
She found Neville in the crowd again. Their eyes met and she smiled at him. His parents would have been proud.