Extra Credit: Coming of Age - Neville Longbottom

In my mind, I see a true coming of age story one that has the character mature from that awkward childhood stage still trying to figure out where you belong, into a confident and strong person that has went through some tough experiences and has come out better because of it.  Neville Longbottom does just that throughout the series, finally becoming the man he was always meant to become by the end.  We see Neville in the beginning as this boy, barely capable of doing magic, a disappointment to his family, and an outcast.  He is afraid of Professor Snape and is also so down on himself, that I think results in him failing at potions and their other classes, except to Herbology.  This lack of confidence spans the majority of the series, until Dumbledore’s Army is formed and Neville wants to join.  We finally see Neville emerge from the cowardly boy, into someone who can succeed at magic beside from Herbology, which is a huge turning point in his coming of age.  

From that moment when he joins Dumbledore’s Army and goes to the Ministry with Harry and the others to fight, I knew that Neville’s’ story was far from over.  When we get to the final book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Neville reveals his true character that he has been building all these years.  We don’t see him until later in the novel, when Harry, Ron, and Hermione need to return to Hogwarts to find Ravenclaw’s Lost Diadem.  Neville was the one to let them back into the castle and he is one of few who stood up to the Carrows and Snape.  Through his Gran’s eyes he was always a disappoint until now, Neville is telling Harry, Ron and Hermione that “she sent me a letter, telling me she was proud of me, that I’m my parents’ son, and to keep it up” (576).  This is a drastic change from the little boy we see in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.  The final moment when Neville’s coming of age is complete, in my opinion, is when he has the sorting hat and “he drew from its depths something silver, with a glittering, rubied handle” and “sliced off the great snake’s head” (733).  With this, the scared boy that was Neville Longbottom is gone.  Every coming of age story needs an ending where the outcast becomes the hero and good does triumph over evil.  Neville Longbottom is one of the most dynamic characters of the entire series and has developed into a brave man.