Neville Longbottom

Neville Longbottom is the son of Frank and Alice Longbottom, famous and well-liked Aurors who were tortured into madness by the Death Eater Bellatrix Lestrange. The Longbottoms are one of the few pureblood families in the wizarding world. Neville is a staunch friend of Harry Potter’s, and a true Gryffindor.

History

Neville’s parents were tortured into insanity by Bellatrix Lestrange and other Death Eaters who were trying to find out where Voldemort was (GF30); according to Albus Dumbledore the Longbottoms were very popular (GF30). After his parents were institutionalized when he was an infant, Neville was raised by his grandmother Augusta. She and the rest of his elderly extended family worried that Neville was a Squib (a non-magical child of a wizarding family) because he showed so little aptitude for magic. Once at Hogwarts, this did not improve very quickly. Neville was rather forgetful and often had serious trouble performing magic; it didn’t help that Professor Snape relentlessly singled Neville out for ridicule. Luckily, while broom-flying and Potions were problems, Neville excelled at Herbology.

Neville’s turning point came when he joined Dumbledore’s Army during his fifth year at Hogwarts (OP18). Under Harry Potter’s patient tutelage, Neville gained confidence and mastered quite a few Defence Against the Dark Arts spells. Mere months later, Neville, along with Luna, Ginny, Hermione, Ron and Harry took part in the running battle in the Department of Mysteries against a band of Death Eaters that included his nemesis Bellatrix Lestrange. Although Neville was wounded, in the end he was the only other student left standing besides Harry (OP36). He also fought bravely a year later when Hogwarts itself was infiltrated by Death Eaters and their minions (HBP28).

Naturally, it was Neville who protected the weak and led the resistance at Hogwarts while Harry, Ron and Hermione were hunting Horcruxes (DH29). He remembered how Harry’s dogged assertiveness gave others hope and encouraged the same thing amongst the beleaguered students. During his seventh year at Hogwarts, Neville, Ginny and Luna tried to steal the Sword of Gryffindor from Headmaster Snape’s office; for punishment they were told to help Hagrid with something in the Forbidden Forest (DH15). In the final battle at Hogwarts, it is Neville who utterly defied Voldemort (“I’ll join you when hell freezes over”), drew Gryffindor’s sword from the Sorting Hat, and slew Nagini – the last Horcrux (DH36).

After the Battle of Hogwarts, Neville, Ron and Harry were recruited to join Kingsley Shacklebolt’s progressive government as Aurors to clean up the department and finish the job of ending Death Eater power once and for all (PC/JKR1). After that he became a beloved Herbology professor at Hogwarts (DH/e). It is probably while a professor that Neville married former Hufflepuff Hannah Abbott, who eventually became the landlady of the Leaky Cauldron (OBT/CH). Neville still has his charmed coin from his Dumbledore’s Army days (BLC).

Affiliations and acquisitions

OWL exam results: “Acceptable” in Transfiguration (HBP7), “Outstanding” in Herbology, “Exceeds Expectations” in Defence Against the Dark Arts, “Exceeds Expectations” in Charms.

Wands: Initially uses his father’s wand, but it broke during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries. New wand is cherry and unicorn hair, possibly the last wand Mr. Ollivander sold before he disappeared (HBP7).

Other devices: Remembrall (PS9, PS10), Mimbulus mimbletonia plant (OP10), Sword of Gryffindor (DH36).

Organizations & affiliations: Dumbledore’s Army (OP18, DH29).

Career: Post-battle, worked in the Ministry for Kingsley Shacklebolt (PC/JKR1), then became Herbology professor at Hogwarts (DH/e).

Boggart: Potions Professor Severus Snape (PA7).

Prophecies

The one with the power to vanquish the dark lord approaches …
Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies …
And the dark lord will mark him as equal, but he will have power the dark lord knows not … And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives (OP37)

According to Dumbledore, this prophecy might have referred to Neville until Voldemort “marked” Harry.