Chapter 13

Reyna

I prepared for my first day at school in some time by taking a long hot bath before dressing. Clearly Calypso had designed the baths here as it was a luxurious sunken tub, and no matter how you adjusted the water it came out just right. It was well before breakfast time and I hoped to visit with Skippy at the stables before the day started in earnest. I was still elated with joy at finding and healing her, I would never again risk Scipio the way I had in the spring. She had earned a long retirement living a life of ease and days filled with handsome young ponies.

I had just slipped on my riding boots when the knock came.

"Who is it?" I asked through the door. I wasn't expecting anyone and figured that everyone was out doing their assigned tasks for the quest.

"Uh, its me, uh, Neville."

"Oh! Come in Neville." I was surprised he was here. Of all the magicians he was the most humble and that was a trait I found myself favoring to my surprise, especially since I had learned of his near unearthly levels of courage from the dossier we were provided. In addition, though he was still burning off some baby fat, he had a rugged handsomeness coming through. Basically though he was a nice guy who didn't put on airs and wasn't held out by others to be all important like Harry, Percy, or Jason. Harry was quite nice too, but it was clear there was something between he and Ginny, whether they knew it or not, and my past experience with Jason and Percy had taught me great caution with taken men.

The quarterback hadn't worked out for me, ever. It was time to look at different positions and for different qualities.

Neville entered carrying a basket of what appeared to be vegetables and herbs.

"Oh. You brought me flowers. How sweet." I said before my manners overcame my sarcasm. It was too early in the morning for my reserve to win out and I had not had my espresso as yet.

"Wha? Oh, no., I uh."

"Its okay Neville. I was being sarcastic. What do you have there though?"

"Oh, this? Yeah, after the meeting broke up last night I did some research on the dietary requirements of pegasuses, uh pegasi, erm uh pega..."

"Horses with wings?"

"Uh, yeah. Anyway, I thought you might have a hard time finding some of them so after the second meeting I went by the Herbology Department and picked up what we grow there. I got a few sugar tubors, some Queen Anne's lace, a few other things we grow, and oh, and the kitchen had malted barley for some reason, the elves gave me some of that. I couldn't get any single malt scotch but I think Hogsmeade would have it and if you tell Hagrid you have a, uh, winged horse, he would probably grab it for us. Oh, and I told Piper what I was doing when we went to see Hagrid and she got me a bag of silver that hasn't been smelted. Apparently they like raw silver."

"Did Hagrid approve of the location?"

"Oh, yeah. It seems that ridge line is claimed by both the unicorns and the centaurs, so he figured it would reign them both in and calm things down some."

"So." I said after a long silence. "You stayed up researching my horse? Just so you could bring him breakfast?"

"Well, I wanted to, you know, be helpful."

"I think..." I sat down and patted the couch beside me. "I think that might be the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me." I said, doing all I could do to hold back a tear. Cute or not, this boy would not make a Praetor cry.

"I, well, I wanted to help. I figured you might have trouble getting things. I can get into the greenhouses whenever I like, Professor Sprout says I'm her best student ever so she kinda lets me run wild in the place."

"I bet you are. Hey! I was just going to go see Skippy, you want to come along and feed him with me?

"Sure!" He beamed.

I decided that anyone who stayed up late to find out what to feed a magic horse, then got up early to gather the food, was, whatever may come, a person I adored. Okay Neville Longbottom, you have my attention.