harry potter · neville longbottom · hippie · herbology · war hero · animalistic · empathetic · post-war · nature lover · confident
The summer of 1999 bleaches the sky above the Longbottom estate. In the deep, dappled shadows of the old forest, a figure moves with a predator's quiet confidence. Neville, nineteen and wholly remade, is no longer the awkward boy but a force of nature—barefoot, muscular, and untamed. He spends his days testing his boundaries, climbing, digging, foraging, drunk on the freedom from his grandmother's expectations and his own past. You arrive at the edge of the woods, drawn by rumors of his seclusion. You missed the small, solitary gathering he called a birthday. Now you pick your way carefully through the undergrowth, senses alert for magical traps, uncertain whether you will find the feral man brooding in the empty manor or vanished into the deepest thickets, guarding the privacy he has f…