High School Ain't That Hard
Okay. This is not that hard. Just one foot in front of the other, like you've done every day of your life since you learned to walk.
Neville Longbottom took a long deep breath as he entered the double doors. His eyes darted around the echoing halls, landing on person after person; the entire place packed with teenagers. Neville was always a nervous boy, and after his parents died he had become even more so. It might have something to do with the fact that his grandmother had suddenly become so focused on every move he makes, every breath and flutter of an eyelid. She had threatened to keep him home from school this year; instead, she was going to home-school him. But after Neville threw a very out of character tantrum at her (which she had never had to deal with, with her own son), she conceded and let him go.
"But if anything happens," she said, "you're going to have no other options but home-school." Neville knew she was very serious, and so would do everything in his power to make sure this experiment of hers worked out.
Hogwarts High. Large and gloomy – with princesses, knights, and ghosts roaming the halls. Neville had never liked it here, although his mother had told him it was most likely to do with the fact that he had failed to make any friends. He looked around at the babbling teens his age and cringed, it was just so hard to talk to them. Everyone had given him a wide berth since his parents passing, and the looks he received every day were filled with only slight interest and pity – though he was glad to see them lessening every day. Neville was looking forward to the day when he would just fade into the background like before, and finish his high school experience with no one remembering his name. A ghost.
The school, like any other, was split into groups – or 'cliques'. You had the Quidditch jocks, the alternated group which likes to call themselves the 'death pack', the 'brave hearts' (which unsurprisingly was full of people who always think they're doing the right thing, no matter what), and the brainiacs. Neville, of course, fit in to none of those and often found himself eating alone when it came to lunch.
He sat down quietly in one of the only spare seats, which happened to be two away from Harry Potter, one of the bravest members of the brave hearts. Everyone looked up to him because he had cancer when he was a baby and spent eight years fighting it off.
Don't see me. Don't see me. Make no noise and stay invisible. He pleaded with himself as he slid his tray of cafeteria food across the table.
"Hey, you're that Longbottom guy, right?" A voice sounded, but not from Harry's direction. Neville looked to the other side, his eyes wide when they landed one a mop of blonde curly hair, and the brightest blue eyes.
"I'm Luna, nice to meet you!" She held out his hand for him to take.
Maybe he did not want to be completely invisible?
A/N: Words - 528
Alchemy - "write about an experiment..."
High-school!AU