A Shaking Neville walked over to Cassius the next day at the Hufflepuff table, his face so pale Cassius immediately turned protective and things about him started to shake as his magic reacted. "What happened?"
In a low whisper, ignoring people freaking out about the shaking stuff ( mostly silverware) Neville said. "Harry, Ron and Hermione found a Cerebus in the building. So did Fred and George. In the Third Floor Charms corridor. Trevor woke me up, and lept downstairs. I hurried down to get him and when I did, I heard them talking about it. I heard Fred and George yesterday but didn't believe them at all, they always are pranking people."
Turning his attentiion towards Sprout who was approaching for the shaking table, he grabbed her arm and pulled her in. "Cerebus, third floor?"
She went wide eyed. "How?"
"Others found it, we just heard."
Neville nodded. "Alohomora broke in?"
She shivered. "Please tell me you were no where nearby?"
"Neither of us, we just heard of it through the grapevine, gossip."
She sighed. "I will look into increasing the protection, but please do not approach it." She looked saddened, more than anything else.
"We have no plans to." They both said, and then Neville cringed suddenly, with a lot force.
"Neville?" Cassius and Sprout said as one.
"Someone is breaking into my stuff, my wards are going off." He shot off, with Sprout at his heels. Cassius followed behind, angry that someone would do something so stupid.
Sprout stopped him. "You cannot find the common room, but I am sure Longbottom will explain it to you later."
Cassius gave her a solid stare that made her clearly uncomfortable. "You better not through this under the rug. Neville, I'll be in our classroom." And he swept off to their classroom, where he started reading on the cushioning charm. He had no intentions of practicing dueling until he could cast it, to make sure they did not die on the marble floors. It was a tad more complicated than the average spell, but it didn't feel too hard. He started to practice the spell while Neville was gone.
By the time he came back, about twenty minutes later, Cassius had mastered the spell as a paling. A temporary ward that would ensure safe dueling.
Neville looked furious. "It was Dean Thomas, he wanted to see if I had any sweets in my trunk. Apparently he stole from me before, before I had my wards up." He was shaking, so angry. "Why do people keep in treating me like this? What did I do?"
Cassius pulled him into a hug. "Nothing, people are garbage. I would never. We will continue learning more advanced wards and dueling spells and put assholes in their place."
Neville sighed. "He got detention for a week, and he has to write a paper on theft. He also lost thirty points. He's in the hospital wing, he really was determined, activated level three of my wards."
Cassius cackled. Level one was a summoning, two was a mild shock and three was a blast backwards. Despite how powerful they were, they were frighteningly simple to cast. Even Ron Weasley, who dragged in their year, could cast them. You just needed a tad more power than most. Which he and Neville clearly had.
"How bad?"
"He broke his ankle when it blasted him across the room into his poster bed. He had a ton of bruises."
They both laughed at that.
"He deserved it." Cassius said.
"He really did."
And with that they got started dueling. Neville, as it turned out, actually had a great memory when he wasn't so nervous. He could easily turn into the practiced dueling stances and practice the spellwork as needed. They moved at each other with the tickling spells and flashes of light. Nothing special but it would set the foundation for years to come. Or so they hoped.
"""
On Halloween morning they woke to the delicious smell of baking pumpkin wafting through the corridors. Even better, Professor Flitwick announced in Charms that he thought they were ready to start making objects fly, something they had all been dying to try since they'd seen him make Neville's toad Trevor zoom around the classroom. Professor Flitwick put the class into pairs to practice. Neville worked with a nice Ravenclaw girl named Su Li. To his horror, Ron Weasley, however, was to be working with Hermione Granger. It was hard to tell whether Ron or Hermione was angrier about this. .
"Now, don't forget that nice wrist movement we've been practicing!" squeaked Professor Flitwick, perched on top of his pile of books as usual. "Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick. And saying the magic words properly is very important, too—never forget Wizard Baruffio, who said 's' instead of 'f' and found himself on the floor with a buffalo on his chest."
Neville took several deep breathes, and in one singular movement, made the feather fly. He had cast much harder spells with Cassius, the paling for the Cushion charm or his own wards for example.
"Look here, Mr. Longbottom's done it!" Flitwick said.
Ron, at the next table, wasn't having much more luck.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" he shouted, waving his long arms like a windmill.
"You're saying it wrong," Harry heard Hermione snap. "It's Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa, make the 'gar' nice and long."
"You do it, then, if you're so clever," Ron snarled.
Hermione rolled up the sleeves of her gown, flicked her wand, and said, "Wingardium Leviosa!"
Their feather rose off the desk and hovered about four feet above their heads.
Ron was in a very bad mood by the end of the class.
"It's no wonder no one can stand her," he said to Harry as they pushed their way into the crowded corridor, "she's a nightmare, honestly."
Someone knocked into Harry as they hurried past him. It was Hermione. Harry caught a glimpse of her face—and was startled to see that she was in tears.
"I think she heard you."
"So?" said Ron, but he looked a bit uncomfortable. "She must've noticed she's got no friends."
Neville was done, he turned and shoved Ron hard. "Why are you such a berk? Seriously, she could have been nicer, but you've done nothing but insult her since you got here. I think you're just pissy because she is usually right, like with the broomstick Harry Objectively should never have gotten. Or that stupid duel I heard you talk about. Or how you can't cast simple spells, not because you are dumb but because you are lazy? Seriously, you're the nightmare Ron, not her."
He hurried off, knowing Hermione would need time to cry before anyone helped her.
""
In the Great Hall, A thousand live bats fluttered from the walls and ceiling while a thousand more swooped over the tables in low black clouds, making the candles in the pumpkins stutter. The feast appeared suddenly on the golden plates, as it had at the start-of-term banquet.
Neville, sadly not allowed to be with Cassius during proper feasts, was eating some delightful casserole when Professor Quirrell came sprinting into the hall, his turban askew and terror on his face. Everyone stared as he reached Professor Dumbledore's chair, slumped against the table, and gasped, "Troll—in the dungeons—thought you ought to know."
He then sank to the floor in a dead faint.
There was an uproar. It took several purple firecrackers exploding from the end of Professor Dumbledore's wand to bring silence.
"Prefects," he rumbled, "lead your Houses back to the dormitories immediately!"
Neville stood and with more strength that he realized, said. "Hufflepuff's Dorm in in the basement!"
Dumbledore stopped. "Slytherin and Hufflepuff go to the Library... and fifty points for Mr. Longbottom's compassion and quick thinking."
And as they hurried back to their dorms, all he thought of was Cassius, hoping he was safe...
Chapter end, tell me what you think in the reviews.
This was a lot of fun.
Love, your Ninja Overlord,
Mika.
