Here is the next chapter. Happy Christmas to all my wonderful readers. I hope you have the best and safest holidays no matter how you celebrate them. Please enjoy it and read and review love Hannah xxx
Neville entered the common room and sought out Blaise and Draco for a chat. He found them sitting in the corner talking and they both looked up as he sat beside them. "Can we talk please? I have a question you may or may not find sensitive?" he asked as they both glanced at each other and nodded once that he could go right ahead.
"How were things in the dorms in Slytherin? I mean to say did you notice everything about everyone there? Did you all talk about your personal lives at home and that?" he asked in rapid succession still working through it all in his head. If anything they were stunned at the question.
"Well Neville what you need to understand about Slytherins is that what you see outside of our house is a mask. There is no point in denying it any longer. We don't really let our true feelings about anything show and any feelings we do let show are done on purpose for reasons even members of our own house may not know if we do not choose to tell them" Draco said wisely as Neville nodded.
"Wow I can safely say I didn't know that at all! We all just assumed you were emotionless people who came from abusive homes who were unable to properly express themselves for this reason alone. I am so sorry I assumed with everyone in my house. When we came here as first years the older students in our house all told us you don't get into Slytherin unless you've been badly abused at home or something" he said as both men looked at him stunned.
"Neville for some of us that is true. It's not cool to admit but it is true and as you are part of our trusted coven we cannot lie to you. I mean it's not true for me but was for Draco for a time. He wasn't always physically abused but he was always mentally abused. When you become a Slytherin so much is expected of you and everyone within our walls watches your every move. People talk to their parents about all they see and then their parents talk with yours at social gatherings. It's a bit of a vicious cycle to be in. That is why I am usually probably talked about as being a boring sod because I do nothing they could ever gossip about. I am better than that and this proves it!" Blaise said seriously.
"I am still struggling with my grief over the death of Harry guys. I suffered physically mentally at home myself. I was a late bloomer and my grandmother told me I'd be disowned if I was a squib. For ages I was forced against my will to use my father's old wand and it affected my core making it lower and giving me the memory of a damn flubberworm. Now thankfully I have my own wand and I am better then ever but I was so obsessed with not failing or feelings like I was failing all the time that I never really knew Harry. I never knew truly what he liked or didn't because I didn't try enough. I spoke to Ron about it today and he told me Harry got a Nimbus two thousand in our first year from Professor McGonagall. It is true but I was so self-obsessed that I didn't see it" he said a tear leaking from his eye as he did so.
"As Slytherins we're either trained or have an innate ability to see the meanings behind everything. It is what makes us so cunning after all. In Slytherin we all saw it but we also saw the message behind it which you all were too silly to see. It wasn't obvious after all unless you were looking for it. We in Slytherin always look for the hidden in everything. It is after all how we survive. She gave him the broom it's true but the message which came with it was you better not loose Potter I don't want to have wasted my money on you!" Draco said intelligently as Neville blinked.
"I can see we all missed much myself more so then others. Was there anything you noticed which I might not have seen this is after all very interesting for me?" he asked as Blaise smiled happy to share with Neville.
"Despite what everyone may or may not think the smartest house in the school is Slytherin. We learn and use everything we learn efficiently. If Ravenclaw did this they would be the smartest house in school and it really is that simple. They learn everything and too much of it but do hardly anything with all they learn which is no good. Hogwarts worst house is without a doubt Hufflepuff and it is the most unintelligent too. They are all about loyalty but they are often loyal to a fault. They all follow one thing if a few believe in it and never stop to think about what they themselves feel on the matter. They do everything as one unit and it is what makes them weak!" Blaise said as he poured himself a glass of pumpkin juice from a pitcher on the table.
"What about Gryffindors then? I really didn't notice that about Hufflepuff but it is true unfortunately!" Neville responded.
"Gryffindors are all so obsessed with being noble and brave that they often miss the whole point of the thing entirely. They think they're being cunning when they light up like a beacon whenever they do anything of significance. The only Gryffindors who are remotely cunning are Fred and George Weasley. We may not like Ronald but they are amazing and entirely different. They do think before they do believe it or not. I know most people don't think so but it's not true. They never prank anyone who doesn't deserve it in one way or another and whether we know that way or not is irrelevant" Draco said which seemed to mildly shock Blaise. He had assumed he was the only one who had ever noticed that but then again Draco had not mentioned it before so how was he to know if he'd noticed or not.
"Slytherin is not a house where feelings are hidden within it's walls. We all knew what went on at home for our dorm mates and discussed it often. We always made sure we knew so we could know how best to help them out. You were a shit friend to Harry. I am so sorry for saying it but it's true. You were all so shit to him none worse than his supposed best friend Ronald. We in Slytherin assumed you just weren't his friend or something we didn't know you were an ignorant pig. At least you can say you are better now Ronald cannot. I think Neville Harry would want you to live each day to the fullest and do everything he couldn't do. He wouldn't want you to be sorry for yourself all the time now!" said Blaise as Astrid who was around the corner gasped. She'd been listening to their entire conversation and was stunned at all Neville had said.
To be honest when she'd been Harry which she did miss at times she hadn't really noticed Neville either. He had always been so awkward and quite frankly stupid that Harry actually hadn't bothered with him. He'd always been worried he'd be harmed if he hung out with the extremely accident prone Neville so he never had although what Neville had said about his wand did explain so much about why he was always so bloody awful at magic. Herself and her mother had; had some serious words since she'd become Astrid. Pandora needed to apologise and see that it wasn't going to just go away either. She'd been Harry and it had been awful but she hadn't really wanted to be a girl. At the start that is. Now of course she loved Blaise with all she had and was very used to it indeed but moments like this made her regret so much about the life of Harry. Whether they saw it or not he was much like Neville himself. He'd suffered so much rejection and abuse at the hands of the Dursleys that he was useless when he'd come to school. He'd expected to be hated and friendless but was anything but. The problem with this however is that he never if those people who were his friends were ever true friends.
At least Neville had been honest in saying he was fucked up before because he truly was. Astrid genuinely admired the courage it took to admit he'd fucked up. That was a true Gryffindor quality. For some reason better known to her she found herself crying hard. Crying for the life which had been taken from her and for the extreme grief Neville was feeling. She didn't understand it much just that it took some serious stones to admit it. Ron hadn't ever admitted to fucking up once and here was Neville a non-friend admitting it in seconds. What an absolute mind fuck this was. He'd never hated Neville but had been wary to spend time with him for fear of ending up physically hurt in yet another magical disaster the boy produced. Now that she knew about the whole wand debacle she felt awful. His constant accidents weren't his fault after all. If Ron and Hermione knew even a fraction of what he'd gone through they wouldn't last the damn day much less any longer. Furiously she swiped at her eyes and headed to her room. It was time for another ritual.
