Neville Longbottom

Neville Laurence Longbottom
Nicknames/Aliases: Nev to friends

Occupation: Neville would have liked to work as an herbologist or naturalist and is privately doing those studies on his own. To make money, he does occasionally harvest and sell plants to apocatheries although he thinks it something of a personal conflict of interest.

In terms of what he actually does, he mainly performs diplomatic missions for the Resistance. This originated because when the movement first began, there were few Resistance members of strong, undiluted pureblood lineage and the Longbottoms, whatever their associations, had at least that leg to stand on. Neville was also willing to make the attempt to parlay where many of the other recruits were more interested in glorious positions rather than cleaning up the messes made on the battlefield. (Note- his early experiences with this position were not successful. He really worked very hard to be good at it.) However, when he was informed that plans for rescuing Harry were afoot, he made the decision to return so that he could fight for him. While he is not naturally gifted, his diligence at magic has served him well when it comes to defense tactics and he has proved himself in past battles despite his current role.

Home: His family is based in Dunkirk (Dunkerque), France. This is due to his fear in keeping his daughter within English borders.

Finances: Struggling, constantly struggling. Neville's life is a continual battle between what is right and what he has to do to keep his family together and supported. The Longbottom assets were frozen in the war (not that there was ever much to begin with) and as a result, the Longbottoms who remain live very poorly.

Household:
 * Daughter, Gillian Longbottom, 7 years old.
 * Great-Aunt, Enid Longbottom, ancient.

External
Appearance: Neville is still somewhat round of face as he was when younger but he has lost some weight from the stresses of war and his long hours spent in diplomacy. He’s not typically attractive- his skin has a tendency to occasionally blotch and his complexion is somewhat uneven. Has black hair that is naturally curly (and that he never remembers to cut), dark brown eyes and a snub nose. Tends to shove a baseball cap over his hair to attempt to keep it in some kind of control but wisps of the hair still curl out from the sides and the back. Generally clean-shaven because he has some difficulty growing facial hair. He also doesn’t grow it because his daughter doesn’t like it.

Although Nev isn’t as chubby as he used to be, he still has difficulty remembering that and tends to dress as if he still were in shirts that are a bit too big and baggy clothing as if he’s hiding himself. He also has achieved an odd sort of trained grace from his time as a diplomat and tends to move somewhat slowly, mimicking a gracefulness that doesn’t come naturally. When he gets comfortable with someone, he tends to revert back to his old self, constantly breaking, spilling and knocking things over.

First Impression: "Watch the china."

Internal
Personality: Oddly stoic and strongly determined though neither is an attribute most people would recognize in him. Is shy & introverted by nature (for him, he could die quite happily if he never saw anything but plants for the rest of his life). Has learned, however, to work with other people and to be (somewhat) more graceful with his interactions.

He’s genuinely kind to people and extremely patient with a paternal, if absentminded, demeanor. He can be very understanding, yet not always insightful about the needs and feelings of others. Does have leadership qualities when put under pressure although it’s not something that he has needed to express much, typically being in the presence of others who had established leadership roles. He has forcefully taken on that position, however, when it comes to a fight that truly matters to him. It takes a lot to anger Neville but when he is angered, it is a calm, white-hot fire that doesn’t stop burning until its cause has been extinguished. He feels that same anger towards Voldemort- for being responsible for taking his parents from him, for the loss of his good friends and for the death of his wife. Once Neville takes a stand on something, he is not easily moved from it.

Probably Neville’s biggest social difficulty is in dealing with potential admirers or relationships. When that translates to people being attracted to him, he A) generally is so completely oblivious to it that he doesn’t notice; B) doesn’t understand their attraction and manages to talk them out of it; or C) simply runs away from the situation. He’s never pursued or been pursued in a relationship- the only one he was ever involved with revolved around an arranged marriage he didn’t arrange.

Political Views: Neville basically subscribes to the motto "live and let live." He was raised by someone who was socially conservative and politically liberal and while Nev believes in many things that would be considered liberal viewpoints (equal rights for lycanthropes, women's right to choose, freedom for house elves, against capital punishment and the use of dementors), he also has agreed to things, like his marriage, that would shock his muggleborn friends. He tends to view things in shades of grey - there are no clear distinctions in Neville's world.

Quirks/Habits:
 * Loves to wake up early. One of those people who's up to watch the dawn and truly loves it.
 * Reads the newspapers daily and keeps clippings in a box under the bed.
 * Still loves plants. Will often stop randomly to untangle a plant or pull a weed, even in public places.
 * Blushes easily, particularly when discussing anything physical, and as a result, often has a faintly pink nose from mild embarrassment
 * Often chews gum when he's feeling lonely, not because he likes it but because it makes him feel loved.
 * Carries a notebook with him to write things down. Neville has an exceptionally poor memory and relies heavily on notes to assist him in this.

Strengths: Extremely inquisitive, endlessly patient, kind, strong-willed, compassionate, beautiful singing voice, strong talents with elemental magic- working with plants, somewhat familiar with muggle living, extremely accepting of other people and their choices (this acceptance does not extend to his own), honest, loyal, courageous, willing to stand up for the weak.

Weaknesses: Extremely inquisitive, low self-confidence, devotion to daughter, stubborn, compassionate, shy, somewhat clumsy, poor memory, dislikes urban environments, weakness for nature, daydreamer, over-accepting of others, somewhat naive at points.

Fears and Philias: The Death Eaters, the deaths of those close to him. Mildly afraid of strangers although he's learned to overcome it for the most part. He often ducks crowds for that reason, frequently making quiet exits for brief periods of time when forced to take part in public festivities. He's also extremely afraid of waking up one morning to find that he's lost his memory completely.

Hobbies/Interests:
 * Gardening. Neville always has a garden somewhere.  He moves in plants before he starts opening boxes.
 * Writing in his journal. Sometimes he dreams of publishing something under his own name, something about the good in people rather than the bad.
 * Moving. While it's not really apparent, Neville does have a mild case of wanderlust.  Whether this is general or circumstantial, he couldn't tell you.
 * Hiking. He's done a lot of forced hiking through forests and on mountains - Nev grew up in a tourist town and finds deep forest and remote locales entrancing.
 * Ballroom dancing. It was one of the very few things he was good at at school.

Favourite Belongings: Neville isn't a terribly possession-oriented person. Thoughout the war, he became used to packing up and moving at a moment's notice. His biggest concern was his wife, grandmother and daughter and simply taking care of them.

Of the things that he now owns, he prizes the following the most:
 * His scrapbooks and notes - Neville has trouble with his memory and relies heavily on them. His journal is important for the same reason.
 * A collection of gum wrappers kept crumpled up in an old cigar box.
 * His battered baseball cap
 * Elinor's old guitar
 * His Remembrall from school (though it never really has helped)

Favourite Places:
 * Blackpool. It's where he grew up and despite the fact that it's an old tourist town, he associates it with holidays.  And near-death experiences but he's generally been able to forgive and forget that.
 * the Greenhouse at Hogwarts. All of his happiest memories are there.

History
Neville was born in London, then went to live with his parents. They were attacked in their home when he was an infant by the Lestranges. Unlike Harry, Neville has no clear recollection of those hours. What he knows is what his gran told him- that neither he nor his parents, both gone mad from the curses hurled, were discovered for quite some time. Aurors at the scene thought it possible that Neville suffered some backlash from the curse, damaging his memory, something that Neville has struggled with ever since.

He moved to Blackpool to live with his grandparents following the death of his parents. While his parents had been fairly well off, his grandparents had a more modest income (or rather one that seemed modest- drained as it was by his parents’ medical bills and the hiring of private nurses). Unlike the Weasleys, Neville never had a painful awareness of being poor. This might have been due to the pride with which his grandparents carried their poverty and also due to the impeccable lineage and connections that they had.

It was from his grandad that Neville first learned to dance although he wouldn’t think of it that way. Wallace Longbottom was a loud, happy man who frequently burst into song and enjoyed dancing despite the fact that his wife didn’t appreciate either. Wallace wasn’t inclined to sing so much as bellow and part of Neville’s gentle tonal quality developed as a reaction to the raw, jarring sound of his grandad’s voice. Despite Wallace’s bold, brash attitude, Neville loved him and admired him greatly. However, like all of the males that he admired in his youth, Neville simply wasn’t made to be anything like him, however much he might have wanted that.

His grandfather died when Neville was ten. The pair of them had gone for a walk and Wallace just fell, then didn’t get up again. Neville managed to keep it together long enough to fetch his gran but nothing could be done. His grandad’s death changed everything for the two of them- his gran became much more critical and in some ways, Neville always thought that her conviction that he couldn’t do anything started there. That his inability to save his grandfather somehow made her feel that he was less than his father. Of course, this belief fostered a lack of confidence and real inabilities.

By the time he went to Hogwarts, between all of his relatives, Neville had really lost much of the confidence that he had gained. Through his friendships with the other Gryffindors, he slowly began to recover it. The war changed many things for Neville, however, not the least of which was that he was expected to fight. The first battle that he was involved in was Lyminge Forest, something that displeased his grandmother as she began to realize that her grandson might die, leaving the Longbottom line extinct.

Neville’s Gran arranged his marriage not long after that, picking a young woman of prestigious bloodlines 7 years older, whose fiancee had been recently killed and wasn't thought of as a great catch. (Augusta had the full belief that this would enable her to retain her dominance on the family.) Ellie (short for Elinor) Hornby was her name and while Neville didn’t love her, he liked her well enough.

Most of their relationship was spent apart but in service to the Order and the Ministry. Neville served as a foot soldier for most of the war, proving decent at Apparation if not nearly as effective with a wand. However, like his peers, his skill with magic increased from the sheer testing of it. His wife became pregnant towards its end and at that point, they moved further north to try and shield both Elinor and Augusta from the worst of the Death Eaters. He wasn't present for his daughter's birth, too busy fighting as the war ended and it became slowly apparent that the Order had lost.

And then the Last Battle happened and things changed

There had always been a strange, small, wincing hope in his mind that his parents would become sane, that things would reverse themselves and that life would become all that Neville had always wanted it to. But the end of the war left him with a series of problems - the support of his family, his parents in Voldemort's custody and mounting expenses that he didn't know what to do with or how to face. In desperation, the Longbottoms tried to go into hiding as he tried to determine where the Resistance had gone and to locate the family members still missing at war's close.

Neville volunteered his services to the Resistance and laughingly, they put him in the position of diplomatic envoy. The official reasoning for the placement was his purity of blood and familial connections - in actuality, Neville eventually came to perceive, they believed he could be used as a lure, bait to call out the Dark Lord, even as he met the supposed criteria of someone who could treat with the Death Eaters and pureblood foreign governments. He didn't like it but he took it on. And there weren't many people left to try to carry out that duty with the war ended.

And he was horrible at first. Spilling things down dresses, knocking things over, stammering whenever he opened his mouth, forgetting names... But eventually, Neville learned that if he simply kept his mouth shut and listened, moved slowly, took notes that people respected him. He began to look serious, rather than shy, and as he grew into the role, he also began to grow up, losing some of his shyness.

Then the worst thing he could imagine happened. His wife was captured by the Death Eaters while he was in France and was tortured into telling them the location of his child and grandmother. They went to his home before he could make it there and killed Augusta, leaving Gillian for dead at the age of three. She survived but barely and Neville took her back to France with him as he tried to figure out what to do next.

The next years were hard as he tried to juggle the care of his daughter with the needs of the Resistance, often failing in both arenas. He was fortunate when his aunt Enid was found and smuggled into France where they reunited and she happily agreed to take care of Gillian. The three live in a town near the English Channel where Neville can transport overseas easily but they can still hide from the Dark. It isn't an ideal life but it suffices well enough.

Meta
Journal: bringhands

PB: M. Ward

Player: Gwen