The Sunrise of My Heart

The morning after the meeting in the Hog's Head, I awoke to find a new notice on our House's bulletin board. Curious, I wandered closer and saw that Umbridge had passed a new decree banning all groups, clubs, teams, etc unless she personally approved them. Immediately, my stomach twisted, and I wondered if she could somehow know about the secret meeting. I mean, it was pretty much in public, so someone could have seen it and told her...

"What's that?" Draco asked, coming up behind me and wrapping his arms around my waist. I smiled, glad we'd made up last night and he was no longer mad at me for ditching him. And by made up, I don't mean we shagged. I mean we talked, we argued, we talked, we snogged, we talked, we snogged a lot, and then we went to our separate beds.

"It's a notice banning all groups unless she approves of them. Guess Quidditch is out...for like, ten seconds. But she'll never say no to our team so we're good."

He smirked and nodded. "I bet Potter's team is going to have more difficulty getting their team approved."

"Yeah, as happy as I am for us, I still want her to give them their team back. And not just because I have friends in that house. If we win this year, I want us to win because we're really good, not because our major opponent no longer has a team. You know?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right," he muttered. "Still, this should be fun to hold over Potter's head."

"You're vile," I told him with a smile. "I kind of pretty much love it." He smiled and kissed me softly before we both headed off to breakfast.

That day, as we stood outside the door of Snape's classroom, Draco got his chance to bug Harry about the teams. He was loudly boasting about how our team had been automatically granted permission to continue playing. Then, he went on to say that they had been looking for an excuse to sack Arthur Weasley, and that it was only a matter of time before he lost his job. Lastly, he explained how the Ministry was about ready to cart Harry off to St. Mungo's.

"...Apparently they've got a special ward for people whose brains have been addled by magic," he finished, making a grotesque face with his mouth sagging open and his eyes rolling. Instantly, I looked worriedly at Neville, and sure enough, I saw him charge past Ron and Harry, looking ready to beat Draco's face in.

"Neville, no!" Harry yelled, leaping forward to grab the back of his robes. Ron, too, grabbed Neville, and together they managed to hold him back and drag him away from me, Draco, and the rest of the Slytherins.

Draco laughed, staring at Neville. "Did he really think he was going to beat me in a fight?" he sneered, his question addressed to me even thought he was still watching Neville.

"Apparently he had hope, although I'm not sure why, since you never fight without your goons." Draco turned to glare at me, but I just smiled sweetly. "At least I said he wouldn't have won the fight."

We all entered the classroom and sat down, listening to Snape for a moment before we began, continuing on our Strengthening Potions from the day before. Harry, I noticed, was very interested in what Umbridge -who was inspecting our class today- had to say to Snape. I, however, was more interested in Neville. He still looked really upset.

"You're really distracted today," Draco said to me, breaking my concentration on Neville.

"Huh? Oh, it's just that I was wondering why Neville had such a severe reaction to what you said earlier." A lie, of course, but he didn't know that.

"Who cares. Maybe he's in love with Potter. How are you still doing your potion right, despite not even paying attention to it?"

"This stuff is easy. School subjects are like second nature to me. I just have to glance to know what I'm doing."

"Oh," was all he said before he went back to working on his potion.

As class was ending, I very subtly made a paper airplane fly to Neville's desk, which read 'I need to talk to you after class. Please be alone.' Neville glanced around, not sure who had sent it, then went back to his potion, looking perplexed.

When class ended, I intentionally ripped my bag with my wand as we were walking out the door, and bent to gather all my things. Draco, too, bent down to help me, but I smiled at him and shook my head.

"No, it's okay," I told him. "You go on, I'll catch up with you in a moment. Don't want both of us to be late for our next class."

He nodded and left, and soon everyone else was gone too. Fixing my bag and stuffing everything back inside, I looked down the corridor to see if Neville was waiting. Sure enough, I saw him leaning against the wall, obviously not sure what to expect from the note writer.

"Hey, Neville," I said, walking over to him.

"Did you send this?" he asked, showing me the paper.

"Yeah."

"Oh," was all he said. Geez, boys sure are verbally excessive in Hogwarts.

"Look, Neville, I know Draco crossed a serious line with what he said, but he probably doesn't realize it. And even if he did, you can't go and fight him, you'd get killed by Crabbe and Goyle, and then expelled. How would your grandma like it if you came home in a body bag with a letter saying you'd gotten expelled?"

"Is that all you wanted to say?" he muttered, glaring down at the floor.

"I also want to make sure you're okay. I know Draco's words must be driving you insane."

"You know?" he asked softly. "What could you possibly know?" He finally looked up at me and I saw that his eyes were filled with tears.

"Oh, Neville!" I said, hugging him. "I know a lot more than people seem to realize. I know that Bellatrix Lestrange is an all around bitch. I know that originally, you wouldn't have had to live with your grandma... I know what happened to your parents."

"How?"

"I know a lot of things about some of the other students' parents, thanks to my dad. He said your parents were so brave, and that very few witches or wizards would have been able to withhold information after that much torture. My dad said that not only were they a great witch and wizard, they were also just great people. Kind, honest, respectable people that anyone would be proud to call friends."

"That's what my gran says too," he said, smiling sadly. "I am quite proud to be their son, you know."

"As you should be."

"I don't really know if I'm worthy of it though..."

"Neville! Of course you are!"

"But I don't make good grades, I'm not exceptionally talented... Actually, I'm not talented at all. I've done nothing worth making them proud."

"Don't worry. I'm sure that you'll do something to make them so proud, if they could, they'd stop every person they meet and go, 'See him? That's our boy, Neville. He makes us so proud we just can't contain it.' Do you know what that something is? It's simply being you, being alive, and trying to do something good. That's all you need to do to make them proud of you."

Neville smiled faintly at that, but he still looked unconvinced, so I tried again. "Let me ask you something. Do you think kindness is a good thing? Or honesty? Or loyalty? What about the determination to always try, and try again? Or the strive to do good and be better? Wouldn't you say those are all good things?"

"Yeah, those are all good things."

"Those are just some of your characteristics. Neville, you are most definitely worthy of being Frank and Alice Longbottom's son."

"Do you really think so, or are you just trying to cheer me up?"

"Neville, you know me. I'm rude. If I wasn't being serious, I probably wouldn't have bothered saying any of this."

Finally, I saw a real smile break out onto his face. "Thanks," he said.

"No problem. Now, we gotta get to class. Like, now! Time to run. Bye, Neville!" And with that, I hurried off to my next class, making up an excuse about being attacked by a hammer-wielding Peeves so my teacher wouldn't be angry at me for being late. Thank goodness I can blame things on him and have everyone believe me because he's such a nuisance and trouble-maker. Otherwise, it would be much harder to get away with things.