Chloe Rilea

Mr. DeJonge
English IV CP
28 September 2016
The Real Chosen One
The background character of every story is usually the one with the most interesting
story. Neville Longbottom is that background character, he doesn't get all the glory, he doesn't
have a famous story. He lives a sort of normal life, well as normal as it can get when you are a
wizard who goes to a magical school for wizards, called Hogwarts. Neville was never meant to
just be Neville Longbottom, the but of every joke. He was meant to be Neville Longbottom the
boy from the prophecy, the one destined for greatness. I believe that Neville Longbottom the
unsung hero.
Before I can tell you why I think Neville is a hero I need you to understand his story first.
Neville Longbottom was born on July 30, 1980. He is a fictional character from a book series
called Harry Potter. This book series is the story of Harry Potter and his adventures at Hogwarts
and, spoiler alert, how he defeated the dark lord once in for all. But the roles could have been
easily reversed for Harry and Neville. Both of their parents were very well respected Aurors,
who are Wizard cops, and were a part of an organization, called the Order of the Phoenix, whose
sole purpose was to bring down Voldemort and his many followers, called death eaters, who are
essentially the villains of our story. As the war was going on Lily Evans and Alice Longbottom
had become pregnant at the same time and then a prophecy was told to Albus Dumbledore who
is the creator of the Order. The prophecy was told by Sybill Trelawney a Hogwarts professor who

had the sight, "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 his 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... the one with the power to vanquish the
Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies...." Both mothers were due on July 30 and both
had defied the Dark Lord also known as Voldemort so both families went into hiding. And soon
the babies were born but the dark lord had already heard of the prophecy and had only thought
that it was one child so he was set on killing the child. The death eaters had found Alice and
Frank Longbottom, Nevilles parents, at their home and had known that they were a part of the
order but not about their child, so they tortured them for information about where the Potters,
Harrys family, were hiding and because they would not they were killed.
Neville is an unsung-hero because he is usually the person who makes a substantive yet
unrecognized contribution and is unacknowledged for it. He is usually the one who always gets
picked on for not having any parents and for being clumsy. People undermine Neville and don't
really give him a chance to show who he is and go with what others say about him first. Neville
is very smart and he has proved to be loyal to those he considers friends. He proved this by
following Harry Potter and a couple of other friends to the Ministry of Magic to save Sirius
Black, Harrys godfather, from death eaters. The qualities that Neville has that I would use to
describe a hero would be bravery, loyalty, and caring. The first book in the series had been the
first time Neville had been acknowledged for his bravery by Dumbledore when Neville had
earlier in the year he attempted to stop Harry, Ron, and Hermione from sneaking out, though he
did not know what they were trying to do. He even claimed to be willing to fight them to make
them stay. In the final book of the Harry Potter series Neville finally stands up for his beliefs and

his friends in the final war and in front of everyone that he cares for. He didn't make his stand for
the glory but for the greater good. He pulled the sword of Godric Gryffindor out of the sorting
hat and slayed the last horcrux which was Voldemorts pet snake Nagini.
In conclusion, Neville Longbottom is a great example of an unsung hero of the book
series Harry Potter. He shows us the classic characteristics of a hero that include loyalty, caring,
and his bravery. He has proved himself multiple times over the span of seven books but it was
the seventh book where Neville finally got his glory.

Work Cited
Rowling, Joanne Kathleen, and Mary Grandpre. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. New
York: Arthur A. Levine, 1999. Print.
Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. London: Bloomsbury, 2007. Print.