Neville Longbottom bio

Name: Neville Longbottom.

Age: 36 by the end of the 7th book

House: Gryffindor.

Distinguishing Characteristics: Neville is relatively poor at magic and struggles with a lot of his subjects. He is also exceptionally forgetful. At one stage he received a Remembrall in order to help in this respect, but keeps forgetting what it’s reminding him to remember.

Heritage: Pure-blood.

Family: Son on Alice and Frank Longbottom, product of a respected wizarding family.

First Mention: Chapter Six of The Sorcerer’s Stone.

General: Neville has suffered an particularly unfortunate early life. His parents were both Aurors and active members of the Order of the Phoenix. They were captured by Death Eaters shortly after the fall of Voldemort (when Neville was only a year old) and tortured using the Cruciatus Curse by Bellatrix Lestrange, amongst others. This drove them to permanent insanity, and they have been resident for the past 15 years in St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, unable to even recognise their son.

Neville was brought up by his kind but overbearing grandmother. He still makes occasional trips to St Mungo’s to visit his parents, but does not speak to any of his friends about this area of his life. His lack of magical prowess led many members of his family to believe he was a Squib for a number of years. An incident when his Uncle Algie dropped him out of an upstairs window and he bounced down the garden rather than being injured proved he was a wizard, and he was subsequently invited to attend Hogwarts.

Despite his outer slowness, Neville has an admirable inner strength, which continues to evolve further as he gets older. He was a member of Dumbledore’s Army, where his excellent progress very much impressed Harry, and also fought in the battle in the Department of Mysteries, although with limited effect.

The only school subject at which Neville does well (his progress in Dumbledore’s Army aside) is Herbology. He is particularly poor at Potions, and is bullied mercilessly by Professor Snape. When asked to name his greatest fear during Professor Lupin’s Defence Against the Dark Arts class, his choice was in fact Snape. Neville has shown considerably strength of character to withstand the harassments (by both staff and students) he has been subjected to, and it is likely that this resolve will be tested against more malevolent opposition in the further books.