Neville Longbottom might have the most inspiring, dramatic and interesting personality change of any character in the Harry Potter franchise, and that includes Katie Bell, who literally got a new face.
In the 2001 film, The Philosopher’s Stone, Neville was a short, confused and unintelligent boy who had been raised by his grandmother after a scarring experience as a child in which he had lost his parents. Take a look at what he ended up turning into.
He Became Brave
The whole point of Neville in the early days of the Harry Potter franchise was to demonstrate his lack of bravery. He was depicted as stuttering and scared, even if he did attempt to stand up to Harry, Ron, and Hermione (and won himself ten house points for it).
In The Chamber Of Secrets, he fainted a few times, while The Prisoner Of Azkaban showed him to be deathly afraid of Professor Snape. By the end of the series, he was boldly making speeches to hundreds of people and having a direct impact on the downfall of Lord Voldemort.
He Became Incredibly Important
Speaking of his role in the downfall of Lord Voldemort, none of it would have happened without Neville. Early on the franchise, the most storyline-impacting thing Neville did was provide Harry with the Gillyweed that saw him through the second Triwizard task.
By the dying moments of The Deathly Hallows, Neville had chopped the head off of Nagini, killing the final Horcrux and allowing Harry to end everything once and for all. In the process, he saved Ron and Hermione’s lives, and thanks to the sword of Gryffindor appearing to him, proved himself to be “a worthy Gryffindor”.
He Became Able To Face His Fears
When Lupin made everyone face their biggest fear, his morals as a teacher went surprisingly unquestioned. Imagine if you went to school and the teacher told you that you were going to stand there and be the most scared you possibly can be. They wouldn’t get away with it.
Anyway, Neville is given the Boggart treatment and sees Professor Snape before dressing him in his grandmother’s clothes. This seemed to be an important moment for Neville, as he was able to face up to Snape after this and developed his newfound (and very important) bravery.
He Became A Herbologist
Despite not exactly excelling elsewhere in his education, Neville found an incredible gift for herbology. Professor Sprout ended up taking him under her wing, while the disguised Barty Crouch Jr. led him to provide Harry with Gillyweed. The fact that Neville knew so much about Gillyweed suggests that, unlike magic, that sort of information came very naturally to him.
It was no real surprise that as time went on after the events of the final book, Neville became the herbology teacher at Hogwarts, with Harry and Ginny wanting to “send their love” to him.
He Became Big
The first time we see Neville, he is podgy and tiny. He doesn’t look like the sort who would be attracting women from every corner of the globe, and his development over the next few films didn’t look promising.
However, by the time The Deathly Hallows came around, Neville had shot up. Tall, handsome and muscular, this was a character who had managed some seriously impressive physical development alongside that of his character change. Maybe the two went hand in hand?
He Got A Girlfriend
Neville’s first brush with love came when he and Ginny attended the Yule Ball together. This didn’t exactly blossom into a relationship, but it did cause him to dance around his dormitory alone. By The Deathly Hallows, we haven’t had a lot of suggestions for a romantic future for Neville.
Out of nowhere, he drops a bombshell: “you haven’t seen Luna have you? I’m mad for her. Thought it was about time I told her since we’ll both probably be dead by dawn!”. This didn’t really work for Neville, because he ended up marrying Hannah Abbot, but still, well done!
He Became A Pretty Good Wizard
Dropping his Remembrall and not knowing where it ended up, neglecting his earmuffs and fainting due to the mandrake cry, accidentally taking off on his broom and getting into all sorts of trouble. These were the early moments of Neville we were exposed to, which made him look stupid and almost incapable of controlling his magical abilities.
However, after some training in the DA, Neville mastered various spells and his inability was never referenced again because it was gone!
He Stopped Being Comic Relief
On a similar note, these early moments of ineptness seemed to give Neville the permanent position of comic relief provider. He would say some stuff that didn’t make sense in a way that made him seem confused, everyone would laugh and that would be it.
However, towards the tail end of the franchise, everything changed. Sure, he still had the occasional zinger (“you and who’s army?”) but they became moments to laugh with him at something funny he said intentionally, not laughing at him at some uncontrollable personality quirk.
He Stopped Feeling Lonely
Considering his parents were out of his life from an early age, and the early films seemed to suggest that Neville didn’t have many close friends, it seemed that he was probably pretty lonely for a good while.
Not only did he marry Hannah Abbot, but he ended up making a solid group of committed friends who he regularly hung out with and stayed in contact with. When the DA was hauled up at the end of Aberforth’s tunnel, he spent all day surrounded by his friends.
His Gran Was Proud Of Him
This might well be the most important part of Neville’s personality arc. His gran was supposed to be a stern figure who Neville was slightly scared of and very scared to let down. She proved herself to be incredibly capable, going on the run successfully after being interrogated, and joining (and surviving) the final battle.
By the time of The Battle Of Hogwarts, she told Neville just how proud she was that he was finally following in his father’s footsteps. Aw.