Before meeting Neville's grandmother, Mrs. Longbottom, Brian had already gained a few fragmentary impressions of the witch.
The first came from the Howlers Neville had received over breakfast in the Great Hall-each one delivered a truly crushing lesson. Whenever that happened, Neville's face would usually turn from white to tomato red, then deepen to the scarlet of the Howler's envelope.
The second came from something Professor McGonagall had once muttered to herself-"Neville Longbottom's Transfiguration marks this term-oh dear,
"Oh dear. I hope his grandmother doesn't claw him too badly this time." At the time, Brian had not understood why she had said "claw him" rather than "come down on him," and it had not been convenient to ask. Given Professor McGonagall's cat Animagus form, he could only guess that Neville's grandmother was also an Animagus with sharp claws.
Yet he had subsequently found no Longbottom on the register of Animagi. Fortunately, today Brian finally solved the mystery.
When Brian followed Madam Strout into the long-term ward to choose a bed for Lockhart, he noticed that one of the curtains toward the back of the room stood half open, revealing a figure he initially mistook for a patient—an elderly witch in green robes, draped in a shedding, moth-eaten fox fur, with a stuffed vulture mounted on her hat.
When Brian met the elderly witch's gaze, he genuinely had the illusion that a vulture was watching him.
Just then, he heard the Healer beside him say warmly,
"Oh, Mrs. Longbottom, you're here again today! Sometimes I think how wonderful it would be if all our other patients' families were as diligent as you!"
Mrs. Longbottom-the form of address made Brian pause. Longbottom was not a common surname in the Wizarding World, and the family was also one of the so-called Sacred Twenty-Eight.