Title: Don't Ever Change

Rating: G

Summary: Neville always thought his dæmon would stay a toad forever.

[*]

Everyone always made fun of Neville- the boy with the toad dæmon.

Ekaterina was rather unfortunate, just like Neville. She would doze of during lectures and start snoring, even when Neville was paying attention. She would croak or belch at mealtimes, especially during the Headmaster's speeches, and though Dumbledore would smile kindly down at them, the other students always laughed. Ekaterina shifted, but she did prefer to remain a toad most of the time.

Neville didn't care. He loved Ekaterina very much and she complimented him so well, listening when he needed to cry or talking enough to cheer him up. He wouldn't change his dæmon for anything in the world, not even for a bigger dæmon who could protect him from bullies or a more talkative one who would make people like him.

When the war came closer and closer to the school, people got nervous. Big Gryffindor lions had their fur flat to their backs, Slytherin snakes coiled around their humans' arms and hid under their clothes.

Ekaterina and Luna's Johannes were quiet and calm. They did not fear, they did not falter.

You-Know-Who cast a spell over the whole of Hogwarts. No human could open their mouth, no dæmon could so much as flutter their wings. Neville's eyes caught on a glitter within the smoking Sorting Hat and he broke free as Ekaterina leapt from his pocket, changing shape mid-flight.

The giant snake lunged for him and Ekaterina smacked it away with a heavy badger's paw. Neville stepped forward next to his dæmon and stabbed it through the head.

Somehow You-Know-Who survived the death of his dæmon. It was terrifying to see the man sweeping around alone, shaking and paler than ever, eyes insane and fire-filled. When Harry finally killed him, Neville felt a moment of mercy that he would no longer be without his dæmon. Even for an evil bastard, there were limits.

The war was not over. Harry and Hermione asked Neville and Luna and a few other members of Dumbledore's Army and some individual students to work with them to track down the remaining Death Eaters. Neville had a quick floo to make sure his gran was safe, then promised them he would help.

For the next several months, Neville and Ekaterina got a crash course in Aurorship. The new spells came so fast that Neville had none of his previous troubles with memorizing and mastering; it was do or die. Ekaterina kept the badger shape for fighting. Birds underestimated her heavy body and blunt claws, missing the beady eyes and sharp teeth. Wolves and bears thought she would be easy pray, but her body was dense and her muscles thick and strong. When Neville needed to pass unnoticed, her lumbering frame seemed weak and lazy, but when she reared back on her hind legs she was nearly as tall as he was and she struck a truly intimidating figure. Some of Neville's old school friends asked if he'd decided he belonged in Hufflepuff instead of Gryffindor, but he just shrugged it off. Ekaterina knew what she was doing.

When they'd finally caught most of the Death Eaters and their accomplices, Harry asked Neville to stay on as an Auror. Neville could tell what was coming- something about how he made his parents proud, how he made Harry and Hermione and Ron proud and stuck it to all of them who had teased him back in the day. But Neville didn't want to be an Auror, and he told Harry that. He wanted to be a teacher.

He returned to Hogwarts and took teaching courses by owl while he assisted Professor Sprout's replacement. Ekaterina's blunt claws came in handy for digging, she was excellent at finding grubs and things and scaring off plant-eating animals and she could smell that a plant was sick almost before magic could warn Neville. But then he asked her to turn into a bird to check on a high-hanging plant and she just told him.

"I can't," she said calmly.

Neville blinked. "But… I thought you were going to be a toad. I thought we- we'd practically agreed!"

"I was going to be a toad," she admitted. "But that was before. We're different now." She gave him a minute to take this in. "Now are you going to do something about that levitating shrub?"

Neville gave her a tight hug and she licked his ear with a rough tounge. Then he went to fetch a ladder.