AN: Hey guys, I'm going to try and update this story at least once a week (some time on the weekend). Still do not own Harry Potter. Thank you for reading. Review please. :)
It was Sunday night and Neville had yet to owl his Gran. Neville knew she had already been alerted of his sorting, and was surprised that she had not owled him first. He also knew that she would want a full update on what had happened this week. And what a week it had been.
Neville had already gotten lost at least twice a day going to the common room, lost his schedule on the second day, dropped his bag at least a dozen times, tripped going up and down the many stairways, and forgot the common room password. If it was not for Theodore, Neville was sure that he would have had to spend the night outside in the corridor. These things did not even include what had happened in his classes. Although many of the classes were only going over theory at first, some were already moving on to the practical bits.
In Transfiguration, they had been practicing changing matches into needles, and Neville was the only person to not make any progress. Even Crabb and Goyle had managed to at least change the color of their match to silver. Neville could not figure out what he was doing wrong, he was doing the correct wand work and saying the spell properly. Neville knew he should probably ask Professor McGonagall, but he was determined to do it himself once he noticed the disappointed glance she sent his way when she thought he was not looking.
His first flying lesson was worst though. Neville already knew that he was a bad flyer. As a child, his Great Uncle Algie had tried to teach him to fly multiple times, and every time he had fallen. So he knew this time would not be any different. However, he was not expecting to fall from that high up. Neville was honestly glad that he only sprained his wrist and not broken his entire arm. The worst part of the whole thing was that he had lost the Remembrall that his Gran had given him. Theodore told him what had happened after he had left for the Hospital Wing. Somehow between the time McGonagall got Harry and Harry leaving the Quidditch Pitch, someone had taken it. Neville was pretty sure that it had been Ron Weasley, considering from all that he had heard, since he was the only one close to Harry at the time. Neville was just too scared to confront him.
However, the absolute worst class was Potions. Neville was almost positive that Professor Snape hated him more than anyone else in the castle, excluding Harry Potter, He had managed to explode every potion that he tried to make, sending him and sometimes others to the Hospital Wing. He could see how angry Snape was getting. Hell, everyone could see it. Neville would not be surprised if he would start being treated like a Gryffindor. The only reason he had not been yelled at in front of the class was because he was a Slytherin. This, however, did not save him from being called into Snape's office to "discuss" his progress in his classes the following week, three weeks earlier than everyone else. Neville tried as hard as he could in Potions, he really did, it was just a very hard for him to brew. He so far had managed to get an Exceeds Expectations on all the written work, and it was starting to look like he would have to rely on that to pass the course. Whenever he tried to brew something though, he had no idea what he was supposed to do. The classroom was always poorly lit, making it hard to see what was written in the textbook, let alone what Professor Snape had written on the board. It was also extremely hard to concentrate on his work when Professor Snape kept glaring at him throughout the lesson. He was already scary and intimidating on his own, and the glare only intensified that.
The week did have some upsides though. Neville was doing amazingly well in Herbology, in both written and practical work. During the first lesson, they were working with Mandrakes. Neville knew all about them from the books in his family library and had even worked with them a few times last year in his family's greenhouse. The ones they were working with here were still babies, so it would not be as difficult as working with the full grown ones like he was used to. Around him, everyone had been putting on their gloves and earmuffs. Neville decided to examine his gloves and earmuffs before putting them on, knowing that any rips or holes in them could not prevent some serious damage to his body. He was glad that he had done this, because he ended up finding a small rip at the base of his earmuffs, that, if remained undetected, would not have protected him from the terrible effects of the Mandrake's cry. He pointed this out to Professor Sprout, who was quite impressed that he caught an error, and ended up awarding him five points.
Neville had also become relatively good friends with Theodore Nott. Theodore was a quiet person in general, preferring to read rather than socialize. However, when he did speak, he tended to be very opinionated on many political issues. He definitely was a pureblood supremacist in almost every way and did not hide this fact, but he never would start a confrontation about it unless he was insulted first. The only thing that he did not agree with was the idea of muggleborns not being educated. Theodore believed that muggleborns needed to be educated so that they can assimilate into the wizarding society, so that way they can take the lower level jobs that were below a pureblood's station. Neville did not exactly agree with this idea, but he could understand where Theodore was coming from. For the most part, Theodore was a nice person, as he would always let Neville into the common room when he forgot the password, never laughed at him when he embarrassed himself, and even walked with him to their classes. However, he was still from a dark family.
"I will just emphasize about how well I am doing in Herbology, and hope Gran does not get too mad about everything else," Neville thought as he pulled out a piece of parchment.