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Neville walked out of the Great Hall with his head held high. Voldemort was finally gone! He was still shaking from the rush of the final moments of battle. Truth be told, all he currently wanted to do was go home to his childhood bedroom and get some much needed rest. The last year had taken a severe toll on his mind and body. What he needed now was some much deserved rest.
However, rest was not coming easy to him. He tossed and turned throughout the night in his four-poster bed in Gryffindor tower. It seemed that every time he closed his eyes, images from the battle snuck into his dreams, turning them into horrific nightmares. When he woke up in the morning, he was more exhausted than he was before he had went to bed. He shook it off, figuring that it was completely normal to have nightmares following a battle, and went about helping to repair the castle.
Unfortunately, the nightmares did not stop after one night. Neville went for a solid two weeks without hardly any rest. He wasn't sure what to do, or who to ask for help. At the beginning of the third week without any sleep, Luna found him leaning against the wall in the charms corridor where he was beginning to make repairs. She looked fresh and rested. Luna peered up into his eyes and laid her hand on his cheek
"Are you having trouble sleeping?" She asked, worriedly.
"Yes" he sighed
"Come with me" she said, grabbing hold of his hand.
She led him down to the dungeons, to the part that was not flooded by the Black Lake. Luna led him to a classroom where there were already several older students working hard over caludrons.
"What is this??" He asked
"The old headmasters are teaching us to brew dreamless sleep potions." Luna answered
Neville looked around the room and his jaw dropped open. Sure enough, there were several tables set up, each with a portrait sitting on it. Luna led him over to the desk where an ancient woman sat in a comfortable looking armchair admist a background of what looked like a forest in a far away land. The old woman introduced herself as Dilys Derwent and started instructing him on making his potion.
While making the potion, she started asking him questions about his role in the war. He opened up to her a little bit at a time and by the end of the afternoon, he had told her pretty much everything. She told him to come back for an hour or two the next day so they could speak some more. He readily agreed and bottled up his potion.
Neville left the classroom to find Luna waiting outside. He didn't understand why, but he already felt so much better. Luna simply smiled at him and held out her hand.
"This wasn't just about the potion, was it?" Asked Neville
"Sometimes it helps to speak about things that are troubling us, with people who are good at listening." She simply said
Neville stayed silent and went about the rest of his day. When he went to bed that night, he took the dose of the potion he had made and laid his head on the pillow. Sleep was instantaneous and deep. He woke up completely refreshed in the morning. He got dressed, had breakfast, and made his way back to the dungeon again. He went straight to Dilys, who was finishing up with another student. Dilys and Neville picked up their conversation where they had left off the day before.
On the fourth day of brewing, Dilys told him that they were going to be making a calming draught rather than the dreamless sleep. He was nervous- but decided to trust her judgement. Her judgement was, in fact, correct and he continued to sleep well at night.
On the tenth day of brewing, she had told him that the hospital was running low on bruise paste, so they brewed that instead of calming draught. She told him that it was time to start using his newfound potion skills to help others and that he wouldn't need the calming draught anymore, anyway. Apprehensively, her agreed and started the bruise paste.
His nightmares came back a few times that summer, but each time he found himself talking through them with Dilys the next day. She became his friend, and mentor and was instrumental in helping him heal himself after the war. Years later, he was talked about his experience with Hermione. She explained to him that what he received was called therapy and was quite common in the muggle world. Neville honestly didn't care what it was called- but only knew that without Dilys, he might not have been able to function after the war. With her help, he had come to terms with all that had happened to him. She helped him move on and relearn to live. It was truly the best Potions class he had ever had.