Author's Note: It has been awhile since I have written but I want to make sure that I stay in the challenges and assignments forum because I like it there. This is for the charms assignment two of term 4 and the chocolate frog card club. Enjoy!

Card: (Gold) Godric Gryffindor - Write about a Gryffindor who isn't one of the golden trio

Assignment: Charms - Write about someone who feels stuck. (Extra Prompt: Foxglove)

Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognise!

Escape

Neville heaved out a sigh so soft it was lost amongst the gentle rustle of the breeze. The air was filled with beautiful scents that filled his nose and his heart, the sun was warm and shone down illuminating the beautiful, exotic field that he stood in.

This was paradise, especially a herbologisit's paradise. A compression of space and time cultivated in one perfect moment to hold all sorts of magical and muggle flora. Beautiful, simple foxgloves growing side by side with dittany. Rose bushes with little mandrakes running around them. There was even a shaded corner for devil's snare.

This was a magical, natural place where magical and muggle lived together in harmony.

So why wasn't he happy?

He sighed again, plopping down amongst the tall grass, picking a wild daisy from the ground and twirling it in his fingers.

He felt so stuck, so trapped. Of course not literally, this field was easily escapable, he just had to keep walking and he would end up on the other side back in the really world. This beautiful place would seek to exist the second he left. No, it was more personal this constriction.

It was something in the way everyone looked at him, talked to him. He was still a member of the group, they all met at least once a week for dinner and he loved his friends but the way the saw him. He would always be the chubby little child who was afraid of every shadow.

It didn't really matter that he had killed the giant snake or lead people into battle. Once a coward always a coward.

He wanted so desperately to be different, to make a name for himself aside from the reputation he had gained at school. Herbology was such a tame subject though, and he already knew everyone, it wasn't like he could make a new first impression. He'd made hundreds already.

Neville frowned; the pleasant breeze now seemed to be choking him heavy in fragrance. The sun burned his skin and the flowers became sharp and garish in colours, his eyes began to ache and he squeezed them tightly. The daisy in his hand fell away and he could feel the magic lying heavy in the air causing the muggle plants to wilt.

Suddenly he saw, he realised. What this place, his life was trying to tell him. How he could get the fresh start that he desired, that he craved. It was obvious in the way he was reacting to his surroundings.

Neville jumped up from sitting, he looked around frantically his eyes burning against the heat and the colours. He started walking, jogging, and sprinting. He broke through the barrier surrounding the little field back into the cold grey reality of England.

But he didn't stop. He didn't want to stop. He needed to escape the thing that had been holding him back his entire life. That had set him apart as mediocre at best. Magic, he needed to escape the magic.

He could have a fresh start, wherever he wanted as whoever he wanted to be. Neville Longbottom was going to be a muggle.

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Much Love, MaryandMerlin x