Here is the next chapter. Please enjoy it and read and review love Hannah xxx

Severus returned to work and informed Poppy of what his sister would be doing. After doing this he was summoned to Dumbledore's office where the other heads of house were. "Welcome Severus. Now I have to leave on emergent business with the ICW so I will be gone about a week. If you need anything now I would suggest you ask for it while I am still here. I leave in a few hours!" he said as everyone looked at him for a while.

"I need permission to get the house elves to craft me another four greenhouses for extracurricular activities as we have many great Herbology students in the school. I don't think it will come as a surprise to any of you that our best student in this subject is Neville Longbottom" she said as Severus gasped beside her drawing her attention.

"Forgive me Pomona but if he is so epic at Herbology why is he so terrible at potions? I don't think I need to tell you how closely our subjects relate. You're an excellent brewer yourself as you well know" he said as she frowned.

"Yes Severus I don't actually know but I do know it annoys me. He's so great in my class and so terrible in yours. It's frustrating for me because I feel that if he got the link between the two it would help him so much. Thanks for the compliment but as you know you cannot do one well without the other. Would you consent to the both of us meeting with him to explain things now while he is free unless you need anything else here?" she asked as Severus turned to Albus.

"I don't need anything Albus but I will be putting air vents into my potions room and having Bathsheda place runes on all of the desks to further contain explosions. From now on my classes are going to be much safer!" he enthused as Dumbledore actually looked annoyed with him.

"Well so long as it doesn't take from the budget of the school I guess I can't forbid you from doing it. Please ensure that Bathsheda does this only when her schedule actually allows. I will not have her slacking in classes because you have the patience of a two year old. You are dismissed! Pomona do as you like with the elves but ensure they want to do it and do not under any circumstances force them. They answer solely to me and will tell me if they have been mistreated" he said as they both left in search of Neville who they found walking through one of the corridors.

"Mr Longbottom" Severus said shocked at Neville's response.

"Please I'm just walking here I don't want any trouble sir. Whatever it is I am sorry ok?" he asked as a stunned Severus pinched his nose in aggravation but it was not actually aimed at Neville.

"Neville please calm down you're not in trouble. Will you join Professor Sprout and I in my office please?" he asked as a terrified Neville agreed and walked with them practically shaking with fear.

They arrived and a comfortable chair was summoned for Neville who look stunned but took it none the less.

"Now Neville before Professor Snape goes on I want you to know that you are the best student at Herbology we have here in the school currently. Having said that I am not only disappointed you are not in my house but disappointed that you are so wonderful at my subject and yet you still don't know how closely it relates to potions. You cannot do one without the other!" she insisted as he preened at the praise and then deflated as she mentioned potions.

"I um…thanks Professor!" he said sounding unsure but was stunned as Severus placed his wand on the table in front of him removing his outer robes.

"Neville things will be changing in my classroom from now on and I want you to know that. Now I am going to give you an opportunity to ask me anything at all you like without getting into any trouble. I promise you that you may ask me anything you like no matter how rude and won't get punished for it" he said as Neville gasped in awe.

"Thank you sir. Why are you so obsessed with Black? Draco Malfoy said it was the colour of your soul once when I asked him about it!" he said as Severus shocked him by actually laughing really loudly. It was a surreal thing for him to see.

"Draco Malfoy should really stick to the day job. Humour is not his thing and boy does it show. I like Black because it looks professional and when you brew you can't wear anything too elaborate or the fumes from the potions you brew will ruin them. It is for this reason I see no need to do so" he explained calmly.

"I am very sad that Harry isn't here anymore. I know I don't show it but that's because I don't like to show it. Why did you always hate him or at least appear to hate him?" he asked as Severus lost his smiled at once.

"Ok Neville I will tell you some things about myself not many people know. When I was growing up I grew up in a highly toxic and abusive home. My father who was a muggle was a raging alcoholic and he beat us regularly. When I got my Hogwarts acceptance letter I was delighted because I thought I'd finally be free of abuse but I wasn't!" he said wistfully as Neville listened intently with wide eyes.

"My mother; Merlin love her who at the time was the most idiotic person I knew; could do magic but would never defend herself against him because he didn't like it. When I came to school I didn't have much because my mother had been too injured from his beatings to go to Gringotts and get us much money. I came to school with my then best friend Lily Evans who I had met in my neighbourhood as a child. That's Harry's mother!" he said shedding a quiet tear as Neville gasped in awe.

"She didn't have it easy at home either. You see while her parents were very excited she was a witch and her sister wasn't they did unfortunately always tell Petunia she wasn't lucky enough to be blessed by god as a witch. We tried to tell them that our powers didn't come from god but they wouldn't listen to us. Then when we came to school I was bullied and targeted mercilessly by James Potter Harry's father. I was bullied relentlessly because truth be told I did look less then. I discovered how unfair this world could be when he broke the law and I outed him but nothing happened to him purely because he was a pureblood!" he said that last sentence bitterly.

"I am so sorry sir. What did he do to break the law?" he asked as Severus looked at the now tearful boy in awe.

"He had become an unregistered animagus before turning seventeen. I do not know if others did it with him or not. I followed him one night to catch him out again but he must have known I was behind him because he ran away and before I knew it I was chasing him across the grounds. We came to an area in the shrieking shack where your old Professor Lupin the werewolf was mid transformation and almost killed me from the shock of me being there at all. In truth my being there had stunned and terrified him as he was not used to it. It took months for him to forgive James for almost getting me killed. Lily all the while wouldn't date James something as a pureblood he expected her to do without question!" he said as Neville nodded for him to go on.

"Eventually Lily exploded in my face because she was quite frankly sick of sticking up for me with James all the time when I did nothing about it myself. I was mortified by his latest prank and in my mortified rage I lashed out calling her a mudblood. It wasn't what I thought and I regretted it so much after I had said it. I tried to apologise but she wouldn't forgive me and we stopped being friends something I have always regretted. I loved her Neville and I regret that I didn't tell her that each and every day. Never forget to tell those most important to you how much you love them Neville!" he said wistfully.

"Thank you for telling me that sir. You really didn't have to do that but you did. I can see that Harry looked so like his father it brought the pain back to you. You were wrong to judge the child by the sins of the father as was I. You see I also came from an abusive household and it took me a while to even see that. Until recently I had been using my father's wand at the insistence of my grandmother. I don't think she realised it was bad for me to do that or if she did she didn't truly care. Let's just say I was a late bloomer and life attempts were made to try and get me to use accidental magic to save myself. It was not ok but I am fine now. The man who did this to me is thankfully dead now. Sir why do you scream so much in your classes? I mean even your snakes are scared of you when you scream they're just better at hiding it then we are which I also don't understand" he said sounding annoyed.

"To be honest Professor Dumbledore mentioned it to me and it is something I only realised I was doing after he said it. I guess it became a habit for me to do. It was only when Gregory's potion exploded all over me that I realised how bad at the subject he was and that it was my fault. He was in my own house after all and I had not helped him. Even Astrid shouted at me and it made me seriously think about everything I'd done up until that point. I naively assumed that everyone knew how related Herbology and Potions were and I was wrong. I am sorry Neville truly!" he said as Neville cried releasing fat tears of sorrow which soon turned into gut wrenching sobs shocking Severus.

"You're the first…p…person to ever say sorry to me. I should have said sorry to Harry and I didn't. Is there a potion to remove guilt sir? Our house treated him horribly. We all thought he was the heir of Slytherin in second year and then last year we thought he put his name in Goblet of Fire even though he said he didn't. I'd go to his grave sir but someone keeps bloody defacing it like a pig. I'd so like to seriously harm the person doing it. Does that make me an awful guy? Oh sir!" he said as Pomona rubbed his back in a soothing way.

"There, there Neville get it all out. You'll be fine sweetie!" she soothed as he smiled slightly in thanks in her direction.

"No Neville it doesn't make you a bad guy. If you didn't have these feelings I'd be concerned about you to be honest. I have not spoken of this with anyone yet but I am planning to set up the Harry Potter trust which will aid orphans from all walks of life so they may have a better life. I think he'd like it very much if I did that in his memory. It's not what we did that counts now but what we continue to do. Never regret anything you've done in your past Neville because you did the best with what you had at the time" he said wisely as Neville smiled slightly.

"Do you wear black outside of school sir?" he asked suddenly as Severus laughed.

"Yes I do Neville. My favourite colour is teal and so I wear much teal and navy blue shades" he said as Neville blushed.

"Do you have a girlfriend? Pansy Parkinson said before you're always so cranky cause you don't get any. I hope you do sir it would be good for you!" he said kindly as Severus smiled at him.

"Yes Neville I do. Miss Parkinson is an idiot. That she is in my house and thinks I won't know what she says about me is ridiculous. All heads of house have ways and means to know what those in their house say about them when they are not in the common room themselves. Slytherin students all say bad things about me when I'm not there and to be honest it is very funny for me. I know it probably shouldn't be but it is. Do you know occlumency Neville?" he asked as Neville nodded.

"Yes I do. My grandmother insisted I always know it. Don't worry sir no one will know about what you told me!" he said as Pomona stepped forward.

"Now Neville you are the best Herbology student this school has and there is no point in me denying that. That will get me nowhere. Now you know the properties of each plant, how they must be planted and grown etc. What you don't know is how to relate this information to Potions so Professor Snape and I will be holding remedial lessons for you a select few others so we can help them to understand this connection. You yourself have taught us that this is not something we stress enough in our classes and we should. Hufflepuff students suffer with this too it's not just Gryffindor and Slytherin. Don't worry sweetie!" she said kindly as he blushed.

"Ma'am why do you speak so seriously in your lessons? I mean you talk about how Herbology should be done only and don't deviate from it even slightly. You know it might interest people more if you could relate it to everyday life. I'm just giving you some advice though!" he said as her eyebrows rose in shock.

"You know Neville I have never thought of it that way before and I should have. From now on anyway Professor Snape and I will plan our lessons so that a new plant you learn about is then put to use in the potion you make that week. I feel it would be best to do this as many are great at Herbology but suck at Potions. Go on now off you go sweetie while Professor Snape and I iron out the details!" she said hugging him closely. He thanked them both and stood.

"Before you go Neville I am just curious to know how is Professor McGonagall as a head of house?" Severus asked as Neville looked a bit stunned.

"Well in all honesty pants but it's only because we all know she has been given too many jobs to do. If I had as much to do as she does I'd be awful at it too. I really don't think she means to be bad. We just don't always know where to find her and she's not always in the house either!" he said as Severus informed him that they would be rectifying it at once and thanked him. It had been an interesting meeting for sure but Neville did feel better for venting.