Neville Longbottom's Development

Neville Longbottom is seen by many of the students of Hogwarts as a clumsy, disorganized and mediocre student. Neville struggles through many of his classes, except for Herbology. His past is just as sad as Harry’s, minus the fame. His parents were not killed, literally, but became insane after dueling with Bellatrix Lestrange. Neville is portrayed as a timid person in the beginning of the series but has vast strides in terms of showing bravery and courage in the face of danger. Throughout the series, Neville’s transformation from a chubby, timid student into a brave leader of the DA at Hogwarts, while Harry, Ron and Hermione are out on a mission to destroy Voldemort’s horcruxes. There are a couple scenes from the book that illustrate this evolution very well.
One scene that shows the evolution of Neville is in The Sorcerer’s Stone. Neville stood up to his friends (Harry, Ron and Hermione) by trying to stop them from leaving the Gryffindor common room, when they knew they weren’t allowed to. This scene shows bravery to the highest degree. Standing up against your friends is a true sign of bravery. He and Gryffindor are later rewarded for this act by winning the House Cup because of the points he was rewarded by Dumbledore.
His bravery was then developed to an even higher degree when the DA meetings started. Here, Neville displayed vast improvement in his skills, but more importantly his confidence. With his gains in self-confidence, Neville is propelled into many more situations that involve extreme bravery. One of these situations happens in The Order of Phoenix, when he fights off Death Eaters at the Department of Mysteries. Neville showed extreme bravery, specifically, when he faced Bellatrix Lestrange, the person who tortured his parents. To stand up to the person that took your parents away from you has to take a lot of courage and bravery, skills that Neville didn’t display in the beginning of the series. Neville also displays bravery and courage in The Deathly Hallows when he takes the leadership of the DA and helps tremendously in the final showdown with Voldemort at Hogwarts.