Neville's Story

Neville had a hard time trying to concentrate on lessons the rest of the week. Though he had declared that he never wanted to go near the huge three-headed dog again, he couldn't help but feel a bit curious about the trapdoor that Hermione had mentioned. Not to mention he had overheard Harry talking to Ron about Gringotts and was now at Hogwarts. Shrugging he decided to let them keep their own secrets, after all, everyone had secrets to keep.

"Neville how's the arm?" Parvati Patil, one of the girls in Gryffindor, asked as she and Lavender Brown, another girl in Gryffindor sat down across from him.

"Good, thanks," he replied as he smiled at them.

"You should have seen Harry flying yesterday," Lavender added as she smiled at him in greeting. "That git Malfoy picked up your Remembrall and was going to chuck it when Harry went up after him."

Nodding, Dean quickly drank from his goblet. "Yeah, it was incredible. I never saw anyone fly like that, and it was his first time too."

"Oh, we thought he was done for when Professor McGonagall came and took him away," Seamus added. "He flew right by her window when he was chasing down your Remembrall."

Listening to the others talking about how they enjoyed it despite their nervousness and caution after seeing him got injured, Neville couldn't wait until their next flying lesson despite his fear of falling off again.

The week went pretty well, despite his lack of focus during lessons. Hermione seemed to not be speaking to either Ron or Harry and was spending time with Dean, Seamus and Neville. Grateful for her help with his lessons, Neville listened to her tips on flying.

"Ahem," Professor Sprout said as she approached them in the greenhouse and brought their attention back to the lesson. "Can anyone tell me what this plant is?" she asked as she indicated a large patch of plants.

Immediately Hermione's hand shot up into the air, as did Neville's. Seeing that someone other than Hermione had the answer, Professor Sprout called on him.

"It's called monkshood, also known as wolfsbane or aconite," he replied, smiling at himself for knowing the answers.

"Very good," Professor Sprout replied. "I'm sure that Professor Snape has told you about its uses in Potions. But today I'm going to teach you how to properly handle it."

Nodding, Neville and the others took notes as they listened to Professor Sprout's lecture on how to spot it in the wild and how to care for it in a garden.

As class ended, Professor Sprout approached the Gryffindors. "Neville, could you take this plant over to Professor Snape?"

Looking up as he finished putting his things into his bag, Neville nodded. So used to running errands for Professor Sprout, he had failed to catch that it was for Professor Snape, his least favorite teacher. Unable to find a good excuse as to why he could no longer take the plant to Professor Snape, Neville smiled weakly as he took the potted wolfsbane and headed towards the dungeons.

Carefully making his way down into the dungeons, Neville knocked on the door to the Potions room before entering. Spotting Fred and George as well as the other third year Gryffindors, Neville smiled at them as he slowly walked over to Professor Snape.

Scowling as Neville walked to the front of the class with the wolfsbane, Snape's cold, cruel eyes sent chills down Neville's spine. Focusing on not dropping the pot, Neville sighed in relief as he set the pot down on Snape's desk.

"Thank you," Snape replied coldly as he watched Neville cautiously back away from the desk. "If you could, please take this to Professor Sprout." Taking a vial from his desk, Snape wrapped a piece of paper around it.

Nodding, Neville carefully took the vial and exited the room. On his way back to the greenhouse, Neville heard the bell toll. Only half an hour before flying lessons, he thought, as he made his way back to the greenhouses. Reaching the greenhouses in near record time for him, Neville smiled at Professor Sprout as he carefully set the vial down then quickly left.

Hoping that Madam Hooch would be there early to give him a few pointers and tips before the rest of the first years arrived, Neville jogged towards the forbidden forest. As he neared the grounds where the flying lessons were held, Neville spotted a large group of Slytherins already gathered by the brooms. The only Gryffindor present, it was too late for him to turn around as it was clear that the Slytherins had already spotted him as well.

Slowing his pace, he could see the features on several Slytherins and spotted Malfoy and his goons Crabbe and Goyle easily. Feeling his heart pounding in his chest, he took slow, deep breaths as he approached the group of ten Slytherin first years.

"Going to put on an even better show for us this time Largebottom?" Malfoy shouted, drawing a chorus of laughs and cheers from the gathered Slytherins.

"Probably takes more than just breaking his wrist to scare him off," Blaise Zabini said, trying to get in on the fun. "Too dense to understand what fear is I guess."

"Probably," Malfoy agreed. "I don't know why he's in Gryffindor; they're supposed to be brave. Largebottom here's a coward, can't even stand up for himself; has to have Potter or one of the Weasels to back him up. It's a wonder that he got into Gryffindor at all."

Feeling himself go red as he listened to Malfoy's cuts on him, Neville surprised himself as he heard himself say out loud, "At least I don't need two brainless goons to back me up all the time." Realizing that he'd said that out loud, Neville's eyes widened in shock as he eyed the Slytherins.

Expecting Crabbe and Goyle as well as the rest of the Slytherins to pound him for that remark, Neville stood there and stared at them. Apparently he had over-estimated Crabbe and Goyle as it seemed to take them forever to even mutter any sort of reply.

Fuming, Malfoy apparently couldn't believe that Neville had the guts to reply. Stunned, as all the Slytherins appeared to be, Malfoy and the others simply stood there, unsure what to do next.

Before any of the Slytherins could recover from their stupor, Madam Hooch arrived. "I hope you're all remembering what I told you last time," she said, mistaking their silence to be concentration.

That day changed things between him and Malfoy. No longer was he merely the butte of Malfoy's jokes, but Neville was now a marked man. Malfoy and his goons took to cursing and jinxing him in the corridors when ever they found him alone. Malfoy truly enjoyed using Neville for target practice and for practicing the latest hex or jinx he had learned, though Neville occasionally got away without any harm being done to him due to Malfoy's poor aim (unless you count the scraps and bumps from falling as he avoided Malfoy).

Neville's natural response was to always be accompanied by several other Gryffindors or to keep out of sight of the Slytherins, particularly Malfoy and his brainless goons. His other means of defense was to remain in places where the Professor provided him with protection. His favorite place was of course the greenhouses where Professor Sprout had begun to treat him as her assistant.

Spending so much time in the greenhouses with Professor Sprout, Neville couldn't help but wonder if he had chosen the wrong house. Though she never asked, he always felt that she had that exact question in the back of her mind whenever he showed up in the greenhouses outside of lessons.

Aside from the Gryffindor common room, Neville had begun to spend some time in the library as well. During one of their last flying lessons he had nearly fallen off his broom when he spotted what he thought was a half starved horse flying over the forbidden forest. The sight of the skeletal looking creature with its dragonish head and pupil-less eyes had nearly caused him to fall as the class flew by the forbidden forest. (Malfoy and the Slytherins had gotten a good laugh as he barely recovered in time to avoid hitting a tree.)

Seeing the strange creatures, he had mentioned it to Professor Kettleburn when he ran into the aged and limping Care of Magical Creatures teacher in the hospital wing (another failed potion and melted cauldron in potions). Professor Kettleburn had listened to his description of the creature and nodded. Looking out the window, he pointed at several of the flying horse like creatures as they flew over the forbidden forest.

"Thestrals," Professor Kettleburn explained as he glanced out the window while Madam Pomfrey bandaged his hand. "No, I don't mean to say that these bites are from a thestral Madam Pomfrey, just explaining to the boy here what he saw."

Neville also asked about three-headed dogs, like the one he, Harry, Hermione, and Ron had run into, though he didn't mention that fact to Professor Kettleburn. Nodding, Professor Kettleburn had suggested a book for him to read. Spotting Trevor in his pocket, Professor Kettleburn was amazed to see that someone had brought a toad to school. After a brief talk about Trevor and how to care for the toad during the winter, Neville was given another book to read up on so that he could properly care for Trevor.

Neville actually liked the peace and quiet of the library. Though Dean and Seamus didn't like to study there much, Hermione did, and she kept him company most of the time that he was there. With her help, Neville was able to complete his homework and lessons, especially during Potions with Snape, who had now concentrated his dislike and distain on both Harry and Neville.

It wasn't until Halloween that Neville realized that he had a crush on Hermione. He'd been spending so much time with her in the library and was nearly always paired off with her in potions so that being around her had become natural.

After slipping away on Halloween day after Charms class, she had not gone to their afternoon class. He overheard Lavender and Parvati talking about how they had heard Hermione crying in the girls' bathroom and Neville had thought about stopping by to check on her, but realized that that might be a bit too odd. After all, Neville knew what it was like to need to be alone from time to time.

After Ron, Harry, and Hermione returned to the Gryffindor common room and their story was told to everyone, it was clear to Neville that Hermione now shared a strong bond with Ron and Harry. Their tale of the troll and how Ron and Harry had knocked it out was soon being acted out by the Weasley twins and their friend Lee Jordan.

Wearing his pretend smile, he appeared to be merry and happy as the Gryffindors celebrated Halloween in their common room. As he always did when he didn't want to talk or smile, he stuffed his face, eating the sweet treats and wonderful Halloween meal that had been brought up to their common room. As he ate the food, he knew that the wonderful food wasn't what kept him eating as he could barely taste anything that he put into his mouth.

Telling the others that he had eaten too much, which he had, and that he had a stomach ache, Neville headed up to bed well before the others. Changing into his pajamas, he set Trevor on his bed. Crawling into bed, he smiled weakly at Trevor as he held his pet toad in his hands.

"I'm glad," he said, telling himself more then the toad his half-lie. "I don't want her to feel sorry for me any more then she does already."

Trevor croaked in reply.

Sighing, Neville closed his eyes. "I mean, what's there to like? I'm fat, no good at magic, I'm constantly losing points for us in Potions, and I can't even defend myself from Malfoy and the Slytherins.

"The only reason she helps me is because she doesn't want me to lose more points then I already do," he said, rationalizing everything.

"Besides," he said as he set Trevor into his terrarium, "Hermione's a smart girl. She'd begin to wonder why I was being raised by gran and not my mum and da. It's better this way."

Hugging his pillow, Neville heard the sounds of the other Gryffindors enjoying themselves in the common room. Sighing, he closed his eyes and tried to forget the heavy feeling in his heart.