The Houses Competition (or THC) Round 4

Story Type: Drabble (up to 1,000 words)

House: Hufflepuff

Class: Herbology

Prompt: Neville Longbottom

Word Count: 995

"Don't all relatives just drop you off a bridge sometimes?" Neville asked, surprised, as he studied the newest charm he'd once managed by accident. The incantation to make one bouncy looked immensely complicated for something he'd done instinctively.

Harry was waving his own wand around at his pencil-case without much hope. "My cousin tried once, but it wasn't something I'd like repeated." He shrugged without concern, eyes on Hermione who was sparring with Ron over the proper phrasing of the spell.

The Boy Who Lived and Neville had a running tally. Ron had already called her a know-it-all twice; one more time and he'd hopefully strike out for the day. Then she'd either come over here and help or stalk off to the Library while they'd all follow in her huffy silence while she told the answer.

The bell rang for evening classes to begin, cutting them off instead. Neville tucked Trevor carefully into his bag along with his Charms work, as he miserably swung it into place and went down to his least favorite subject.

Neville always sat at the table directly in front of Hermione rather than with the trio. This way, he wouldn't be distracted by Ron and Harry when they chose to be inattentive in class, but could still hear her whispering the instructions to herself as he tried to follow along with her rather than his own imbecile hands skipping and forgetting steps. He knew they were supposed to be working on the Shrinking Solution today, because it was written on the board, but he'd already forgotten what steps he'd done while trying to keep up with her fast pace. One rat spleen had his potion almost at the same shade of green, perhaps another would strengthen it. No wait, Snape had said something about those, he was sure of it, so maybe if he added a dash more leach juice would balance that out...

At least Malfoy coming in caused a minor distraction before Snape could get to him and notice quite yet. He was frantically cutting up his roots and trying to make them symmetrical before that wore off. The Slytherin prat wasn't helping, making him jumpy and even more ill at ease. Malfoy had set himself up next to Harry and Ron today, just begging for trouble as he instigated them about his own potion, getting help as if something were actually wrong with his arm. If Neville hadn't gotten hurt by being so skittish around those hippogriffs— there was no way that scratch of his had any lasting damage.

His potion might be more dangerous than a hippogriff, though. It was the wrong color now and he knew it, if only he could go back and—

"Orange, Longbottom?" Snape appeared out of nowhere, ladling some up splashing it back into the cauldron, so that everyone could see while he flinched back from the drops. One landed on his book making the page grow out of the binding, as if a reminder for later when he had to do extra homework. "Orange." He cringed into his seat as those bottomless black eyes and mirthless, tormenting smile bore down on him. "Tell me, boy, does anything penetrate that thick skull of yours? Didn't you hear me say, quite clearly, that only one rat spleen was needed? Didn't I state plainly that a dash of leech juice would suffice? What do I have to do to make you understand, Longbottom?"

Neville was near tears, he could feel the waves of embarrassment crashing down on him. Gran had said if she got one more letter from the school, she'd send him another Howler for his dismal performance. He'd be yanked out any day now and he'd have to tell his parents. He wondered if that would finally be something to get their eyes to focus on him...

"Please, sir," said Hermione, "please, I could help Neville put it right—"

"I don't remember asking you to show off, Miss Granger," said Snape coldly, and Hermione went as pink as Neville.

The Potions master had already turned away from her dismissively, back to him to likely throw him from the castle. "Longbottom, at the end of this lesson we will feed a few drops of this potion to your toad and see what happens. Perhaps that will encourage you to do it properly." He moved away, leaving Neville breathless with fear. The boy wished he could get on his knees and grovel, apologize to Snape for his stupidity and whatever else he'd done to earn such wrath. Not Trevor, his beloved pet who always put a smile on his face with his shenanigans. He'd rather drink it himself!

"Help me!" he moaned to Hermione.

She truly was the brightest witch of her age; only needing to hear the briefest explanation of what he'd been doing for her eyes to light up in understanding. She hissed at him that he could balance it out properly, whispering to him what should go in and to stir constantly now to help it all even out faster; and it worked! Trevor was saved from whatever madness he would have caused, but Neville packed up and sprinted along to his next class still fighting off tears. One more day like this and Snape would ruin his entire future.

He wished he could speak to his parents properly, just once. It probably sounded stupid and his Gran would scold him, if he could ask them one thing it shouldn't be how to deal with a terrible teacher, and he knew he would grow greedy quickly from this being granted. Just one more question, just one more minute...he stopped in front of the DADA classroom and took a deep breath. The new teacher wasn't even here yet to make yet another bad impression on. He could do this, stop these pitiful tears and just do one more class today. He would do this one thing properly, for them.