Neville Longbottom

Lord Longbottom

Professor **Neville Francis Longbottom** (b. 30 July 1980) is the son of Frank Longbottom and Alice Longbottom.

## Appearence

Neville was said to strongly resemble his mother. He was round-faced, short, chubby, and had blond hair. He was also somewhat buck-toothed. Pansy Parkinson had once called him "*fat*", but this may have been an exaggeration, as she frequently made disparaging comments about Gryffindor students.

## Personality

When he was younger, Neville was clumsy, forgetful, shy, and many considered him ill-suited for Gryffindor house because he seemed timid. However, Neville proved that the Sorting Hat had seen the bravery beneath his insecurity, as he stood up to his only friends as a first-year and later became one of the D.A.’s most courageous members. Part of Neville’s problem seems to have been poor self-esteem, as he referred to himself as a "*nobody*" and "*almost a Squib*" at times. This was likely caused by his grandmother’s belief that he was not living up to his parents’ accomplishments, and browbeating from fellow students and people like Professor Snape. Though he came from a pure-blood family, he held no prejudice against half-bloods or Muggle-borns.

Neville appeared to suffer from a degree of post-traumatic stress disorder, as the torture of a spider via the cruciatus curse by Barty Crouch Jr. in disguise as Alastor Moody was enough to cause him a severe anxiety attack. This was likely due to his own experience with his parents being subjected to the curse's worst possible outcome: the onset of permanent and complete insanity. This familiarity of what the Cruciatus Curse could do in skilled enough hands was more than enough to terrify him.

With the support of his friends, the encouragement of Professor Lupin to face his fears, and the motivation of knowing his parents’ torturers were on the loose, Neville became braver, more self-assured, and dedicated to the fight against Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters. This was proven by his participation in many battles and his revival of the D.A. in the face of threats and torture at the hands of the Carrows in his seventh year, as well as his defiance of Voldemort himself during the final battle.

Throughout the trials he faced over his seven years at Hogwarts, Neville blossomed from a timid, self-deprecating, and generally nervous student into a stalwart soldier possessed of an ironclad will, courage of outstanding merit, and a nobility of spirit, despite still having a comical and shy but at the same time courageous and fierce personality. In many ways, Neville's transformation allowed him to change from a scaredy-cat into a lordly lion, becoming a ferocious defender of his fellow students during Voldemort's reign. Suffice it to say, Neville's appointment to Gryffindor House was well-deserved.

## History

Neville Longbottom was born on 30 July, 1980, to Frank and Alice Longbottom, a pair of Aurors. Moments after his birth, Neville was able to adjust his blankets so that he was swaddled more snugly, but no one witnessed this unusually precocious display of underage magic. The midwife who attended the birth assumed that his father had tucked him in more tightly. Neville was born "several hours" before his classmate, Harry.

As a pure-blood wizard, he was likely related to other wizarding families such as the Weasleys, Crouches, Potters, and the Blacks. Neville's parents were members of the Order of the Phoenix and in these roles, they defied Lord Voldemort at least three times. Neville was one of two infants referred to in a prophecy made by Sybill Trelawney about the person with the power to defeat the Dark Lord. The other was Harry Potter, and it was Harry whom Voldemort targeted on 31 October, 1981 making Harry his equal and leading to his first defeat.

Shortly after, a handful of Voldemort's most loyal followers attacked the Longbottoms. Frank and Alice were tortured into insanity with the Cruciatus Curse by Death Eaters Bellatrix Lestrange, her husband Rodolphus Lestrange, her brother-in-law Rabastan Lestrange, and Barty Crouch Jr. The four Death Eaters were all sentenced to Azkaban for their crimes, while Frank and Alice were sent to St Mungo's Hospital, where they would live the rest of their lives, not being able to recognise their own son. Neville was subsequently raised by his paternal grandmother, Augusta Longbottom. At some point early in his life, he also witnessed the death of his grandfather.

Neville's grandmother was a stern and formidable woman who was concerned when her grandson did not exhibit early signs of magic (Neville did, however, show faint signs of magic in him throughout his early years, something which his family persistently missed — the first such sign took place moments after birth, when Neville managed to magically shift his blankets more snugly over himself, something which went unnoticed by midwife who attended his mother). She often chided Neville for not living up to his family's honour and was partly the reason for Neville's lack of self-confidence early in his school years.

His relatives feared that Neville might be a Squib, though this was disproved when his great-uncle Algie was holding him out of a window by his feet when he was offered some lemon meringue and let go. Miraculously, Neville bounced. Previous to this, there were various attempts to make him show signs of magic, including dropping him off Blackpool pier, where, according to Neville, he nearly drowned. Neville inherited his father's wand at the age of eleven when he started to attend Hogwarts. This wand was later broken during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries.