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"Neville! Wake up! Class is over," Hermione said, and poked Neville in the side.

He sat up and accidentally knocked over the cauldron that he and Hermione (mostly Hermione) had been working on during Potions class. The cauldron rolled down the aisle, spilling its contents all over the classroom, until it stopped right in front of Professor Snape´s feet, and splashed out the last of the potion onto his robe up to the waist!

Neville and Hermione could do nothing but gasp.

"Detention, Longbottom! Be here immediately after dinner! And that’s twenty points from Gryffindor," Snape said and stared at them both until they left without a word.

Neville felt terrible when they walked towards the Great Hall for dinner.

"I’m sorry for ruining the potion and getting points taken from Gryffindor," he said.

"It’s not your fault, Neville. It could have happened to anyone," Hermione said.

"But it never happens to anyone else. It always happens to me. I’m just a clumsy idiot!" Neville said, and smacked himself on the forehead.

"No, you are not! You might be clumsy and forgetful, but that doesn’t make you an idiot," Hermione said adamantly." And you are best in the class at Herbology, aren’t you?" she continued.

Neville nodded, but didn’t feel much better. "But I suck horse-willy at everything else! Remember back in first year when we had our first flying lesson?" Neville said.

"Yes, but it was your first flight! And you didn’t know how to control the broomstick!" Hermione said.

"Wrong! I had flown before. Many times, but I just choked under pressure at doing a good job," Neville said. They opened the doors to the Great Hall and joined their fellow Gryffindors.

"I think that might be your problem, Neville!" Hermione said and ate a spoonful of soup.

"What problem?" Ron asked, with a mouth full of spaghetti.

"Why I suck so greatly," Neville answered.

"Oh," Ron said back and continued eating.

"As I was saying, Neville. I think that you are just trying too hard and when you do, you get nervous and when that happens, everything blows up in your face!" Hermione said.

"Literally! Seamus said.

"But how does that explain how I’m best at Herbology?" Neville asked.

"I guess you feel at home in the greenhouses and don’t have the same pressure as in any other class."

"But why are you so disastrous in Potions class? It can't be just Snape's fault. I mean, he's awful and all, but I see him more as an unfair joke than someone to be afraid of," Ron said.

Neville didn't answer; he just shrugged.

"I think that if you only concentrate on what you are doing at the moment, and forget everyone else, you’ll do fine," Harry said and smiled at him.

"Try that at detention! You’ll see that it won’t be so bad," Ron said.

"How did you know I had detention?" Neville asked.

"You always get detention!"

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After dinner, Neville walked into Snape´s office and waited to hear the awful things he’d have to do for detention. Snape was sitting with his feet up, still in his soaked robes. A single candle was burning next to him and Neville thought he looked like a vampire, waiting on its prey.

A toothbrush, shifting its colour from one to another, was lying on the table next to him.

"You’re late, Longbottom," Snape said.

"What? But...but you never said a precise time. You said come after dinner and I just came from..."

"Shut up! You will clean up the mess you caused in class and when you’ve finished you will clean every single bathroom stall on this floor with a toothbrush," Snape said in a cold tone.

"But.."

"Get to work! When you are done, you will return here so we can inspect it together," Snape hissed.

Neville sighed and took the toothbrush from the table and walked towards the Potions dungeon.

As he walked, he remembered Ron's words earlier, about why he was so bad in Potions, and Ron was wrong!

It was Snape's fault, but it wasn't because he was mean or frightening, Neville had gotten past that stage last year when they fought the boggart. It was because of something else. Something that Neville had denied and repressed for over a year. Neville had fallen in love with Severus Snape! But the thing was, Neville wasn't sure if it was real love or just plain carnal lust it.

He still thought Snape was the most unfair and malicious person on this planet, but the way he moved, the way he looked in his black robes was too much of a turn on for Neville not to regularly have raw, sexual fantasies about him.

He had known and accepted his sexual orientation years ago, even before he came to Hogwarts, but wasn't ready to tell the public about it just yet; imagine the onslaught of crude and tasteless jokes and pranks the Weasley twins would pull on him, not to mention all the Slytherins!

But maybe this year would be good to come out; he wouldn't get so much attention with the Triwizard Tournament going on, would he? Neville wondered who would be chosen to compete for Hogwarts. Maybe the twins would find a way to be chosen, or the captain of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, Cedric Diggory. Just as long as no one from Slytherin was chosen!

Neville entered the Potions dungeon and looked around at the horrible mess on the floor and even the walls.

He sighed heavily before he took off his robes and rolled up his sleeves and began scrubbing the floor with the mop Snape had left for him.

"That's the most considerate thing he's done in all his life, I bet," Neville muttered to himself and began working.

After a good twenty minutes, the floor looked just as horrible as when he started.

Neville stroked his hairless chin as he thought out which spell would be best to remove all the work.

He felt slightly nervous about using a charm to cheat like this; it may very well go really wrong, but that was why he was here, wasn't it? To learn magic for everyday use.

He threw the mop away and grabbed his wand, twelve inches of rosewood with unicorn hair, and swung it around. He remembered what Harry said at dinner about concentrating about what he was doing and to forget the surrounding world.

"Erh...Evaporate Liquido!" Neville said and flicked the wand at the potion on the floor.

A silvery light hit one of the puddles and made it disappear in a loud puffing sound leaving only a small dust cloud.

"I..I did it! Woohoo!" Neville exclaimed and was genuinely happy that he succeeded at the first try!

He moved over to the next puddle; a little bigger this time.

"Evaporate Liquido!" he said again and the puddle disappeared. He kept on using the spell until the entire dungeon was spotless.

It didn't even take ten minutes and afterwards he spun his wand in his hand like an old Western hero spins his gun after a duel and put it in his pocket, satisfied beyond himself.

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When Neville finished cleaning the bathroom stalls, he returned to Snape's office so he could inspect Neville’s work, as he had said.

Neville opened the door, but couldn’t see Snape anywhere.

"Professor? Are you in here?" Neville asked, but heard no answer.

Neville entered the office and walked around for a minute, looking at the many peculiar objects on Snape´s desk. There wasn’t one single photograph on it, though. Doesn’t everybody have at least one? Neville thought.

Then Neville heard something! It was the sound of water splashing!

He noticed a door in the far corner of the office and walked up to it, listening; the sound came from in there.

Neville gently turned the knob and opened the door just a little and took a quick peek inside.

And there, before Neville’s eyes, was Snape standing in the shower completely naked with his back turned.

Neville’s heart began racing immediately and he gasped!

Snape hadn’t noticed him yet and Neville knew he should avert his eyes this second, but he was hypnotized.

Then, Snape started to turn around and Neville ducked out of the doorway, slamming the door, and ran out of the office and closed that door, too.

He leaned up against the wall and caught his breath and tried to make his heart stop going a thousand miles a minute. He listened outside the door and heard Snape moving about in there.

What was he going to do?

A crowd of Ravenclaws came around the corner on their way to the library, tittering like the schoolgirls they were.

They noticed Neville and looked at him suspiciously, making him even more nervous.

"What are you standing there for?" Orla Quirke, a first-year, said.

"What? Neville said, sweating.

"Well, are you going in to see Professor Snape or not? I know people say he’s really bad, but I don’t think he’s that scary, do you?" she said.

Neville sighed in relief that he didn’t look like a pervert sneaking a peek at a teacher.

"Oh, er, no! I’ll...just knock, shall I?" Neville stuttered and raised his hand and knocked at the door.

Snape opened it within two seconds and gave the Ravenclaws a stare of death and made them leave very fast without a word.

He then turned to Neville.

"You are finished?" he said, very cold.

Neville jumped a little.

"Er, yes. All finished, Professor," he said and accidentally stared at Snape´s crotch and could clearly see that he wasn’t wearing anything underneath his robes. Neville’s cheeks went bright red and he looked away.

"Good. Now let’s go see just how finished you really are," Snape said and grabbed Neville by the arm and stalked down the corridor towards the Potions dungeon.

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To be continued in chapter two, The Goblet of Fire.

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