With that kind of first encounter Neville was understandably terrified to knock on the next door, but slowly; with practice, he became slightly more confidant. This was only helped when he met Hermione Granger. His hand was still shaking as he lifted a fist to knock on the compartment door, when it was pulled open with excessive force.
'Hi!' panted the girl within, who twitched as she slumped into the nearest chair and slid halfway down it. 'Oh, um, hello,' Neville began 'I'm awfully sorry to bother you, but have you seen a toad?' Neville was shocked. He'd managed that entire thing without stuttering, he had even managed to sound proper whilst doing it!
'Well that was just rude,' scolded the girl, in what she hoped was a playful way 'you should introduce yourself before anything else. I'm Hermione Granger, how' do?' At this point she was lying in a slump on the ground, thrusting her hand in the air to be shook. 'Oh, ah, sorry. N-Neville, N-Neville L-Longbott-t-tom.' Neville was so ashamed, she thought he was improper and rude; and what's worse was that he hadn't introduced himself to any of the others, what a way to prove his Gran right. Despite his shame Neville couldn't help but ask 'W-What are you d-doing on the f-fl-fl, ground?'
Hermione's copious amounts of bushy hair supported her head as she swiveled it to face him, 'Hah,' she panted 'I may have eaten too much sugar.' With the way she said it, it was almost as if sugar was a bad thing, Neville knew it wasn't exactly good for you, and that too much made you excitable, but- oh. 'How much have you had,' he worried, crouching by her. Hermione did a strange little wiggling dance, lying on the floor it was hard to call it a dance 'One, whole Sugar Quill!' she crowed in disturbing delight. 'And, and, and, I still have one left!' she hissed happily. That said she leaped to her feet; knocking Neville on his back in the process, and lunged towards her trunk, climbing on the seats to do so. 'Wait!' cried Neville, heart bounding painfully in his chest at the thought of Hermione on more sugar 'Would-would you like to help me?' he implored from his spot slayed on the floor. Hermione paused in her frantic unlocking of her trunk and peered at him suspiciously, 'With what?'
'It's, um, it's a quest!' cried Neville, pulling himself up 'I've lost my toad and have been searching for him since the train left.' Hermione tilted her head to the side and crouched on the seat, 'A quest you say?' With that she leaped from the seat and landed in a dramatic pose 'Fear not; gentle maiden, I shall accept this quest and solve the Mystery of the Missing Toad!' halfway through this announcement she went from a courageous knight to a witting and clever; and a bit hunched over, detective eager for a case. To Neville though it was simply the sugar talking, 'Um, okay. But the thing is,' he hurried on and she went for the door 'you've got to pretend your normal, like you've not eaten any,' at this point he paused, purely for dramatic appeal 'sugar.'
He hadn't expected it to work, he wasn't a good actor after all and couldn't lie to save his life; but she'd bought it. With terrifying speed she'd gone through every compartment on the train; maintaining her sugar-free façade, including the ones he'd already done. Now, 20 minutes later he was back in his compartment, he had his toad; 'I'll never lose you again Trevor!', and an exhausted Hermione. He'd been re-checking his compartment for Trevor when Hermione had entered with a dramatic flair and dumped Trevor on his head and slumped asleep in the opposite seat. Sugar-crash can do that to you. With a few minutes until they would have gotten to Hogsmead station Hermione had woken up and stammered her apologies, declared that he'd never have to see her again and ran off. Neville just hugged Trevor and hoped he'd see her again, he'd enjoyed pretending to have a friend.
