RED -

If there is one thing that Neville Longbottom isn't, it's easy to anger. Before The War, it was near impossible. During The War, it was easier to do but still a feat if accomplished. And now, exactly one year after The War, during his Eight Year at Hogwarts, it's even harder a thing to do.

Not because people don't try, don't make fun of him or laugh at him or jeer at him just like they used too, but because he refuses to let it bother him. Neville knows that the scars they're making fun of were gotten while he defended their peers. He knows that, even if the others think his burst of courage during The War was just a fluke, that it's still here.

It always was and always will be.

That's why it was such a surprise to everyone when he got so mad, so utterly furious at them. And for what? For giving retribution where it was deserved and for doing the same thing that had been done to them for countless years. That was all.

But it wasn't what Neville saw. No, he saw a group of students, of Gryffindors that should have known better by now, taunting a boy to tired and worn to fight back. A boy who didn't think he was worthy of fighting back, even if the words being thrown weren't true and were only said to hurt. And it made his stomach curl and his skin crawl and he couldn't just stand there and watch them tear into that pale skinned boy just as he himself had been torn into while he was still a proper student at Hogwarts.

"Bugger off!" He told them, lips curled downwards and the scarred skin on his face stretching tight. One hand pointed towards the castle, the other rested light upon the shoulder of Draco Malfoy.

And when they didn't move, just stared at him like he was the bad one and not they, he could feel the anger bubble to the surface. Eyes cold and unforgiving, Neville raked his gaze over the group of Eight Year students. And when he spoke, it was in a tone harsher then they had ever heard before.

"I said bugger off!"