In the beginning, Neville was described as being extremely forgetful.

Sure, he comes into his confidence later and becomes a badass, but should that really have improved his memory? There are tons of stories about Neville going on to be a professor or auror, but none of them ever mention his forgetfulness.

I think I'd like to see at least one story portray Neville as an absent-minded professor or auror or something. Still causing problems despite being a war hero.

 

I always took it that he didn't have memory problems so much as struggled to focus because of anxiety.

Also childhood lapses in attention which are grown out of are a pretty well observed phenomenon.

 

It's not unreasonable to assume that he was forgetful due to stress.

 

Or perhaps his dad's wand was interfering with his mind, and that cleared up once the wand was broken.

 

Y'all making a lot of excuses. I just feel like Neville is treated as generally flawless when he grows up, and I don't like that. Even I am guilty of it, as I generally think Neville should have been the prefect of his year. Him being brave is fine and all, but I'd like to see a story where he stays stupid.

 

Yeah, "stupid" was me exaggerating for humorous effect, which doesn't really come across. Still, I feel like he should be portrayed as being absent-minded, forgetful, or something similar occasionally.

 

His poor memory does - from his perspective - nearly get one of his friends killed in third year, which could well be a catalyst for him putting some serious effort into improving on that front.

 

Possible. Maybe magic can fix forgetfulness?

 

That seems like one of those too-good-to-be-true things (like, say, some of the fanon rituals that cause you to bleed and hurt for a few minutes for a monumental edge) that if it existed, every single witch and wizard on the planet would already have done it (Whether they had a forgetful nature or not) and would be a required bit of the Hogwarts' curriculum.

 

A normal person's brain isn't fully developed until they're well into their twenties. Kids are fucking dingbats when they're 11, and it doesn't improve for most of them for a few years after that either, but if everyone stayed as dumb as they were at 11, well... that would explain a lot I guess for some people.

 

I agree with SB, him being more careful after he nearly got someone killed by being careless is a very normal change. Kids personalities are still flexible and he was like 13 when that happened. I think he was more quiet in 4th year and the next time we see a lot of him is when his bravery's showing more and his confidence is growing in fifth year.

I could see him being a sometimes forgetful person as a professor though, like an absent minded Arthur Weasley.

 

I mean, also people can be forgetful without it being a notable or defining character trait. Maybe he just learned to manage it to the point where Harry didn't notice it later in life, as we all learn to manage our little issues as we grow up.

There's a difference between, losing your toys/belongings often as a child, and forgetting life or death things in a resistance movement.

Maybe Neville loses his wizard keys or wizard wallet in private and nobody else notices because he learned Accio.

 

The first year of Harry Potter has the potions final exams be the forgetfulness potion. They learn about a wit-sharpening potion on their fourth year. There is also mention of a memory potion on the fantastic beasts book that was released.

Considering they have a potion to cause forgetfulness it's possible they have a cure for it. Possibly the wit-sharpening potion or the memory potion.

My opinion is that forgetfulness could be cured with the wit-sharpening potion but as we all know Neville is horrible at potions because of Snape and his anxiety so it takes until 5th year for him to start being able to brew it with enough proficiency now that he has a lot more confidence and no Snape as he would brew it outside of the classroom.

 

I think that you guys are overthinking it.

Neville is a relatively minor character in canon, so Ms.Rowling probably didn't care enough to even remember (haha) all the characteristics she had given him.

He DID stumble when he stabbed Nagini, IIRC, so he's still clumsy in DH. After the series... eh, who cares...?

 

I'm not really complaining about canon. I'm complaining about Neville's portrayal in fanfiction. Everyone writes him as some flawless badass who never got a fair shake. I'm just saying I'd rather see him as more realistic every once and a while.

 

Ah, fair enough.

 

I guess it's been too long since I've read the early books especially, but I don't remember if Neville actually being unusually forgetful was backed up by much evidence. He was sent that Remembrall, yes, but I don't think they included many specifics showing why he'd need one. He keeps losing his toad, but that's because it actively tries to escape him all the time. And he needed to get Sir Cadogan's passwords written down on a paper, but that was at least in part because Cadogan liked making really complex passwords that would change willy-nilly. Put together, those seem kind of normal, and not really an unusual degree of forgetfulness.

 

That is kind of how I see it. Neville also didn't have a lot of friends, its not like he was walking around with his friends who could help remember some of the passwords. you and two friends slinging passwords at the door is much easier than remembering all of them on your own.