Practical Lesson

Practical lessons in Potions always made Neville panic. He did all right in the theory lessons and tests, mainly by studying frantically and begging help from Hermione or some of the upper year students. That was the only reason he hadn't failed the class his first year.

It was when he would come into class to see the potions ingredients laid out on the work tables, with cauldrons hanging next to them, that his heart would sink and his fingers begin to tremble. In a few minutes, the trembling would spread throughout his entire body, until he could barely move for the shaking.

Snape was no help either, watching him with hawk eyes to spot any mistake he made in his potion. Of course, having those eyes staring at him made Neville mistake his ingredients, or the order in which he was supposed to put them in. If he managed to get Hermione for a partner, she would usually catch him before he made a serious error. Otherwise, he ended up with fuchsia potions that were supposed to be aquamarine, as well as the occasional explosion that took off his eyebrows or turned everyone's skin funny colors.

Snape would swoop down like a bird of prey, swishing his robes around, to mock Neville and his potion. The Slytherins would gather behind him to snicker on cue, while most of the Gryffindors would merely look up and scowl. Neville knew they didn't like watching Snape be a bully, but by this point they had given Neville up as a lost cause and didn't bother to defend him. Sometimes Harry or Hermione would try to stand up for him, but their interference usually infuriated Snape and meant more points off from Gryffindor.

So Neville spent hours poring over his potions texts, trying to figure out where he had gone wrong so that he could complete extra papers for Snape. Of course, it didn't matter how well he knew the steps and ingredients; as soon as he entered the dungeon classroom he would lose them in his panic. That was why he was certain he would get a failing mark on his Potions O.W.L.

Neville knew that independent auditors would be supervising the O.W.L.s, but he assumed, with dread, that Snape would also be there, watching all of them with a sneering expression on his sallow face. He was almost tempted to forget revising for the practical and spend the rest of the day in utter despair. Harry and Ron convinced him to join them in their revising, though, so he hoped he wouldn't be utterly unprepared.

But when he entered the potions classroom on the afternoon of the Potions Practical, he discovered that Snape was nowhere to be found. Instead Professor Marchbanks was there. Neville found that his hands were steady and his mind was clear. All the lists of ingredients were lined up in his mind, he clearly remembered the steps, and he managed not to turn the potion into any unseemly color.

He couldn't believe it - he had successfully brewed the potion! He wouldn't fail his O.W.L after all - he might even get higher than an Acceptable. For once, Neville was on top of the world. That is, until he remembered the N.E.W.T.s.