I loved him as a character when I was growing up with the book (I was always a sucker for an underdog) - so maybe I'm slightly biased, but it always pisses me off when he doesn't get the respect that he actually deserves.
In the Potter Puppet Pals he's a butternut squash on a stick who explodes becuase he's too lame, and in the Very Potter Musical he's given the nickname "Schlongbottom" then prompty ignored by everyone - the only fanfic where he's actually given any character is Hary Potter and the Methods of Rationality, but even with the lightsaber, he's still just a Hufflepuff.
After Rowling's treatment of him in the first few books, this is understandable - first impressions count, and everyone's first impression of Neville was a boy who couldn't keep hold of a toad and was terrified of his gran.
But Neville is possibly the character who undergoes the most radical changes throughout the series, if you were to sum up the main characteristics of each of the main characters in the first and last books, you'd have something that looks a bit like this:
| Book 1 | Book 7 | |
| Harry | "The Boy who Lived" | Still Alive |
| Dumbledore | Infallible Gandalf | Dead, fallible Gandalf |
| Snape | Evil | Evil because he's sad |
| Hermione | The brightest witch her age | The brightest witch her age |
| Ron | Ginger | Still there |
Sure each of them makes sacrifices and accomplishments (defeating the Dark Lord, dying, killing, excellent test scores, still being there etc), and I'm not trying to diminish anything that any of them have done (except Ron, because seriously), but it's Neville who actually developes as the books progress, almost as if he was living in an instituion with the greatest teachers of the generation who don't expect him to be the man he'll be for the rest of his life on the first page:
| Book 1: | He can't remember things he's forgotten even when he knows he's forgotton them, the only thing he can do on a broom is fall off it and the only thing he can do with a potion is melt the cauldron. |
| Book 2: | He's pretty much a non-entity in this one, his only real accomplishment is not being able to wear pink earmuffs properly. |
| Book 3: | He starts to conquer his fear, now that he actually has a teacher who can let him do so without also terrorising him further in the process, and allows him to dress Snape up in women's clothes and laugh in his face. He's still not quite there yet though and, fearing his own inadequacies, inadvertently lets convicted killer into Gryffindor tower. |
| Book 4: | Starting to come into his own now - he's growing in confidence under the tutelage of Professor Sprout and really starting to like Herbology. His back story is also starting to flesh out a bit: why does he know about the Cruciatus Curse? He actually holds the key to Harry succeeding the second trial, but obviously the characters still don't know him well enough to even bother asking him if he has any opinions. |
| Book 5: | Here he helps found an Army in order to better his knowledge of defensive and offensive spells. Initially everyone's afraid to partner up with him in case he'll blow them up by accident, by the end of the year everyone's afraid to partner up with him in case he blows them up. He's getting top marks in herbology, and the confidence boost from that carries him through the rest of his classes. Towards the end of the book, mirroring his refusal to stand down in the first one, he refuses to let Harry go to the Ministry alone - and when there he fights some of the Dark Lord's strongest henchmen, including the woman who tortured his parents into madness and never backs down. |
| Book 6: | By now, most of the character have noticed just how bitchingly awesome Neville is, even McGonagall states that "[His Gran] should be proud of the granson she's got, rather than the one she thinks she ought to have". Nevilles itching to learn some more offensive spells, pleading with Harry to reinstate Dumbledore's Army. At the end of the book, Neville defends the castle against an invading force with only a few of his friends against a cupboard-full of dark wizards and a paedophagic werewolf. After the fight at the ministry last year, Neville has a new wand and is no longer inhibited by one which was loyal to another wizard (his father) - with this wand, his full potential is unleashed and he just goes all our crazy on those Death Eaters. |
| Book 7: | Obviously he's not with Harry through most of the book, but when we catch up with him, it turns out that he's been leading a guerilla campaign against the Death Eaters in the school, hiding out in the Room of Requirement, and leading task forces of students into the depths of the castle to prey on the teachers torturing the students, and recruit as many followers as he can. In the final battle, he even takes the flowers that everyone called him a cissy for liking, and turns them into full-on sonic grenades that he launches over the castle wall, causing fatal injuries at best, and knocking his enemies out at worst. Then, with Harry "dead", the Dark Lord turns on Neville and sets him on fire - Neville decides that he doesn't quite like this idea, shrugs of the flames, pulls a sword from a hat and decapitates the nearest giant snake, which also happens to be 1/8 of Voldemort - putting him on equal parr with Dumbledore in terms of how many Horcruxes he destroyed, and remember: his one could actually fight back!  |
If there's a moral to the Harry Potter series, it's that you should never under-estimate the underdog. Voldemort's inability to see the house-elves as a threat ultimately led to his destuction and death, and cutting the house-elves from the climax of the final movie is, as far as I'm concerned, the only unforgiveable cut that they made in the entire transition.
Neville, ultimately, epitomises this trope- every other character was either naturally gifted with the brains to cast good spells, or the brawn to cast strong ones. Neville got to his strength through sheer hard work and determination to avenge/honour his parents. And he did it all while wearing a cardigan!
Finally, as a gay man I feel morally obligated to share the following:
BAMF!
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