A/N - So... its been absolutely ages since I have updated this story, which I'm sorry about but unfortunately life got a bit in the way. You'll have to forgive me as this chapters a little rough. I think its going to take me a little while to get back into the swing of things but I have a lot of ideas and can't wait to continue this story throughout the summer.
Chapter Seven - A Bit of Encourage-Mint
School was a lot harder than Neville remembered. Of course, it wasn't quite the same, after all now he was a teacher rather than a pupil, however the basic day to day ritual was practically identical. He had to get up early, the same as before, he had to go to lessons the same before, the only thing that was really different was that he was allowed to talk in class now; rather than be shouted at he was the one who got to do the shouting.
Not that he did a lot of it, shouting. It was only his first day after all, he wanted to make a good impression. He wanted the kids to like him and to actually want to listen to him and the things he had to teach. He'd learnt from the mistakes from the professors at his time in school. Neville was never the most confident person, nor the most intelligent, and he'd often get shouted at, simply for not knowing the answers to questions. He was determined not to be like this. Not to scare kids so much that they hated his lessons. Certainly, he wouldn't let the students walk all over him, but he was determined to make things a little fun.
That's why, walking into Greenhouse One bright and early on Monday morning, pushing the door closed behind him with a concerningly loud creak, he had the biggest smile on his face. Twenty students sat before him, all first years of varying sizes, genders and dispositions. Some of them certainly looked a lot calmer than others, with a few, what Neville could only assume were muggle- born's, eyeing up the plants around him with a mixture of intrigue and apprehension. Neville took a moment to pass a glance over all of them. He had a mixture of Hufflepuff's and Ravenclaw's today, and whilst their ties to their houses were fresh, there was still a very distinct divide down the room, with the two houses keeping to themselves. Though Neville suspected that this divide was more of a nervous habit; the new students had just moved in, clinging to the first friends they'd met in the dormitories was only natural, this tended to be the Hogwarts way. People stuck in their houses and while there was a little mingling, lots of inter-house friends, it was still very much a huge four way divide throughout the castle. Neville had always found that a bit odd, and decided that he, no matter how small his effect would be, would try and do something about it.
"Okay everyone!" He said, in a loud booming voice that was a rarity to come from his mouth. "Welcome to your very first Herbology lesson. My name is Professor Longbottom and I hope that you all enjoy your time here at Hogwarts."
Neville peered around the room, satisfied that he'd made a good first impression. None of the students were laughing at him in any case, that was always a good sign.
'Herbology, as I'm sure some of you know," he said, leaning on the table behind him which creaked slightly in protest under his weight, "Is the study of magical plants and fungi. We study these plants as they have many uses for us in the wizarding world, mainly in potions and medicines but many plants have their own magical properties in themselves. Over the course of this year, and certainly throughout your time at Hogwarts, you will all learn what these uses and properties are for several plants here in the greenhouse, as well as their proper care and how indeed to use them. Does anyone have any questions so far?" He asked, mainly for the benefit of the muggle-borns in the room. He could only imagine how daunting it must be for them, to be catapulted into a world they had no idea existed a few months ago. While Neville was a pure-blood and had grown up with the influences of magic, he knew a lot of muggle-borns back in the day and knew how this lot must be feeling. After all, not all of them were Hermione Granger, and he suspected that the spines of the text books in their bags and in the dormitories were quite unbroken.
Since no one put their hands up, despite their being a few children who looked like they wanted to ask something but didn't have the courage to quite yet – Neville decided he wouldn't push them- he cracked on with the lesson.
"Excellent. So today, I thought we'd do something a bit interesting to start the year off, and have a look at the Moly flower." He turned his back on the class for a moment to pick up some plant pots that were sitting on the table behind him. He walked around the room, his arms full of the plants placing one on each table, and as he did so the students leant forward to have a look at what was inside, muttering and mumbling to themselves and each other- some excitedly, some indifferent – at the pots contents. Inside each one was a single white flower with a long black stem. It shimmered delicately in the sunlight that was streaming through the glass walls, reflecting slightly into the faces of the students that surrounded them.
Neville walked back up to the front, realising that he needn't have done his lap of the classroom and could have used magic to distribute the plants. However, smiling to himself, he realised it was merely his way. When he was in a greenhouse, surrounded by plants, he quite forgot magic was a thing. Despite the plants he worked on having special properties and qualities that were obviously magical, he disappeared into a world of his own, and preferred doing things himself, by hand and quite without magic. He chuckled very quietly to himself as he thought about how much it would leak into his classroom this year.
"Okay, so Moly's," He said loudly, once again commanding control of the classroom, to his slight surprise and great pleasure. IT felt like he was good at this. Maybe Hannah and Harry, and god forbid Professor McGonagall, were right about him. Maybe he is going to be a good teacher. It certainly felt nice, last night at the banquet when he was introduced to the school as the new herbology professor. He was given a loud round of applause, coming mainly from the Hogwarts staff sitting next to him up the table, most of whom he'd known when he was at Hogwarts. But even the students joined in, at least politely, with only a few of them whispering to each other excitedly, and some questioning. Neville wasn't really sure what that was all about, but he'd returned the applause with a sheepish grin and a little wave, before attention was drawn away from him and on to the round of deserts that had just appeared on the long tables.
"These flowers, while very pretty, have a very important use. If you'll turn to page 204 in your textbooks," he announced, his attention back in the greenhouse as twenty copies of One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi opened and were riffled through, the clicking of the pages drowning out all other noise in the room. "You'll see that they are in fact, incredibly useful against Dark enchantments. There are a few listed on the page there, but generally you can eat some of the petals to counteract most jinxes and hexes. They are known to occasionally work against curses but those are generally a lot more powerful so they aren't always effective. They're also used in potion making, I'd wager you'll be using them a few times this year in your potions class with Professor Slughorn, He uses these very plants for his supplies.
"Now, can anyone tell me what muggle myth that these herbs feature in?" he asked, peering around the room. He didn't expect anyone to know of course, it was the kind of question you'd find on a pub quiz at The Leaky Cauldron, not something he expected a few first years to know. However, he was still interested to see if anyone had any inkling. He would have taken a guess really, he just wanted to students to get engaged.
And to their credit they did, a few of them whispered to each other, trying to come up with an answer together. A few merely looked confused, raking their brains to come up with something. It was only after a few moments of silence and comforting looks from Neville did someone put their hand up. It was a blonde girl, her Hufflepuff robes swamping her as she constantly had to push her sleeves up her arms so she could use her hands.
"Yes!" Neville beamed, smiling warmly in her direction, "Annabel, isn't it?"
"Um, Yes Professor," she said a little shyly.
"Fantastic," Neville replied, thankful he'd poured over the list of student's names with their pictures next to them last night. It was a recent development he'd been told when they'd been delivered to him, but one he was very grateful for. "So Annabel, can you tell me what muggle myth I'm referring to.
"Yes Sir, I think it was the Odyssey? When Odysseus the hero went up against the sorcerous Circe, he ate some Moly to resist her dark magic."
"Brilliant! Well done Annabel that is exactly right. Take 10 points for Hufflepuff." The girl grinned, probably receiving some of the first points her house had that year. She kept smiling as Neville continued talking, Professor Longbottom's enthusiasm obviously rubbing off on her.
"As Annabel said, Odysseus used Moly against Circe. And it definitely would have worked, as Circe was very fond of turning people into pigs with transfiguration. Of course, while it is a muggle myth, there is some truth behind it, as Circe was an actual sorceress, you'll find a few portraits of her around Hogwarts – and I think I have her chocolate frog card on my wall at home." A few children giggled at that.
"However, I won't bore you with anymore magic history, no matter how interesting it is. I'll leave that to Professor Binns in your History of Magic lessons. Today then, we're going to be repotting these little fella's. They're growing very fast and getting a little big for their current homes. So, if we all split up into groups, two or three to a pot, I've got some brand-new plant pots over here and some new soil and fertilizer. I will apologise now, it is of the dragon variety and stinks up a storm when you open the bag so I hope you didn't have too many sausages at breakfast this morning or they may be making a reappearance. Any questions? No? Fantastic. Crack on with it then, I'll be coming around to you all to help if you need it.
The rest of the lesson passed in a whirlwind. The students were fantastic, listening to Neville and getting on with the work at hand, even cracking a few jokes and laughing with him as he went around the greenhouse. When the lesson ended he was almost sad to see the first years go, he was having that much fun, but he didn't get too hung up on it, he had the next lesson to look forward to of course.
Neville didn't even realise the school day had come to an end until he was sat in his greenhouse waiting for a class to come, when he realised they'd all gone back to their common rooms and he should really start heading home. He had promised Hannah he would go to her flat and watch "The War of Stars" or something with her. He had no clue what it was, but she was so excited when she'd asked he couldn't help but say yes. He wanted to get more into the muggle way of living anyway. As great as magic was muggle life just seemed so much more interesting, spending time with half-blood Hannah, who was practically raised as a muggle, made him wish he'd had more sense of the muggle world, maybe even taken muggle studies at Hogwarts. However, there was no point dwelling on it, he thought as he put his tools away before heading out of the greenhouse, Hannah was going to do a good job of catching him up, and that was all he needed.
His new boots, bought specially to wear when teaching – a present from his Grandmother- crunched on the gravel of the path as he headed up to the castle. It was a bit of a trek from the greenhouses, but one Neville enjoyed, especially on a lovely sunny day like this. He wanted to stop in on Professor McGonagall before he headed home, tell her about his first day, something she'd been very keen on hearing about. But before he could make his way to her office he saw something that gave him pause: a boy, a first year that he'd taught this afternoon, sitting alone on the steps up to the great hall.
"Hey," Neville said softly, walking up to him, "Joe, isn't it? Are you okay?"
Joe looked up at the new professor looking upset and embarrassed that someone had caught him. "Oh, hello Professor. Yes, I'm fine. Just sitting here."
Neville paused for a second, then sat down on the step next to him, crossing his arms and resting them on his knees. "What's wrong eh? You don't sit on these steps by yourself if you're happy. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but I might be able to help."
Joe looked at Neville, at his kind face, and said "Well its nothing really sir, I just feel a bit homesick. I'm a muggle born and, well it's all quite a lot to get used to. And I think I might have been put in the wrong house."
"Now I don't believe that for a second, the sorting hat is never wrong. You're in Gryffindor yes?"
"Yes Sir, but Gryffindor's are supposed to be brave and courageous. And I'm neither of those things Sir. I'm scared of everything, even the owls that flew in this morning. How am I supposed to be a Gryffindor if I can't even fetch the post?!"
Joe threw his head into his hands when he'd finished talking, and Neville couldn't help softening when he looked at him. He knew exactly what he was feeling, he thought the exact same when he'd first got to Hogwarts and sorted all those years ago.
"Look Joe, I'm going to tell you a secret okay? I was sorted into Gryffindor when I came to Hogwarts and I felt the exact same as you! I was terrified of everything, I hated talking to people and I had barely any magic to speak of; my family thought I was a squib – a person with wizard heritage that's born without magic - for most of my childhood. People said I should have been a Hufflepuff, or not even at the school. But you know what I did?"
"What?" Joe asked.
"Absolutely nothing. I just went along with it. Being brave doesn't mean you aren't scared. If anything, it means you're more scared than ever, but despite that fear you still do what you have to, because its what you have to do. Eventually, when I was in school and after, I faced up to my fears. And I'm not going to lie to you Joe, I'm still scared. I'm still scared of a lot of things. I was scared about today, it being my first day just like you. I though I would be an awful teacher and all you students would hate me. But I did it anyway, and now I've had one of the best days ever. You just have to remember you aren't the only person to be scared, and you aren't the only person to think the sorting hat made a mistake. But you've just got to pick yourself up and just keep muddling through. And at the end, you'll realise you were brave, and that's all there is to it."
Neville looked over at Joe, who was staring at him with a strange look in his eyes. "Thank you, Sir. That, that does help…. But sir I have to ask, and I hope you don't think I'm being rude, but aren't you the Neville Longbottom who fought in the war? Who fought in the Battle of Hogwarts? Who lead Dumbledore's Army against the death eaters at Hogwarts –
"Blimey mate," he said, forgetting he was a teacher for a second, "you've done your research haven't you?"
"A little bit," Joe blushed. "One of the boys I share a dorm with, Chris, had a brother at Hogwarts during the battle. He was a second year so got evacuated from the castle, but he told Chris all about it. And everyone around here still talks about it. They tell stories. And there's a lot about you."
"Really? Wow. That's quite… wow. Just I'm not really used to being the one who's recognised. Its usually Harry you know? He's the one that did it all, I only helped a little bit."
"But sir, you killed his snake, you destroyed the last horcrux! That's not helping a little bit sir. That's helping a lot"
"Well I suppose so. I just don't really like thinking about it you know. They were dark times. Not good times to be a wizard. Or a muggle for that matter."
"Oh, I'm sorry Professor, I shouldn't have brought it up, you probably don't want to talk about it I'm sorry."
"Don't be sorry Joe. It's still painful, it hurts to think about it sometimes, but talking about it helps. And besides if anything it just proves the point I was saying before. If me, tubby little Neville Longbottom, scared of his own shadow, can go up against a bunch of death eaters, then you can do anything." Neville smiled at the boy before checking his watch, "Now I'm really sorry, but I'm going to have to go. Professor McGonagall is expecting me, and I know I haven't been a student here for a while but I don't think she's above giving me a detention for being late." Joe laughed at that, looking a lot happier than he had when Neville had sat down.
"But," Neville continued, "I hope I've helped you feel a little better at least, and you should know if you ever need anyone to talk to my door is always open. And if you'd like, you can come down to my greenhouse tomorrow and I'll show you my DA coin. I still have it in my drawer at home."
Joe looked ecstatic, "Really! You'll show it to me! That would be awesome!"
"Great, come at the start of lunchtime and I'll be sure to have it. Then you can tell the boys in your common room a few stories of your own eh?" He said with a wink. "Now I really must go, I'll see you tomorrow!"
"Thank you, Professor! Joe said getting up from the step. "Thank you for talking to me, I feel a lot better now." He paused, as if deciding whether he was going to say what he wanted to next. "I know I haven't been here very long, but you're definitely the coolest professor here."
And with one last grin, Joe ran off, leaving Neville standing there, revelling in the compliment the boy had given to him, and really, really looking forward to coming to school tomorrow.
