WRITTEN FOR THE QUIDDITCH LEAGUE FANFICTION COMPETITION
Season 9, Round 7: Whoops!
Montrose Magpies - Chaser 1
Prompt: Write about an herbology incident
Optional Prompts: (character) Neville Longbottom
(setting) Hogwarts Hospital Wing
(quote) "You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it." — Maya Angelou
Set in the Deathly Hallows, when Dumbledore's Army has not yet retreated into the Room of Requirement.
AU!Luna and Ginny are still at Hogwarts.
Word Count: 1452 (Google Docs)
Planting Perseverance
"You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it." — Maya Angelou
Neville scrawled another line of his Defence essay out, flipping through the pages of the book open on the table for information. Amycus Carrow had set the seventh year class an essay (though Neville wasn't quite sure that Carrow actually knew what 'essay' meant - maybe Snape told him), and Neville had been so caught up with Dumbledore's Army that he'd completely forgotten about it until tonight, and he needed to hand it in tomorrow!
After what seemed like an eternity, Neville finished off his conclusion and reviewed the essay quickly. It wasn't as good as Hermione's used to be, but Neville didn't care whether he did it well. He wouldn't get a good grade anyway, because Carrow hated him. But at least Carrow wouldn't be able to find a valid reason to give Neville detention.
He checked the time. It was already one twenty in the morning! But Neville didn't feel sleepy at all. Instead, he felt alert and awake, and could barely stop himself moving.
He hesitated for a moment, and looked around. The fire was still burning brightly in the fireplace of the Gryffindor common room, and because the sun had long since gone down, the fire cast eerie lights on the walls. No one was in here. Most had gone to sleep hours ago, and Ginny had disappeared to 'borrow' some healing ointments from the Hospital Wing for the members of Dumbledore's Army who had gotten injured.
Neville stuffed his finished essay into his bag, which lay at his feet. Then he dug deeper, pushing his hand into the bag even though it shouldn't have been able to, until he gripped a frozen branch.
Neville pulled it out, sweating a bit because it was so heavy. Finally, after ten minutes of grunting, groaning and panting, he managed to extract the plant that the branch was attached to from the bag.
He wiped sweat away from his eyes, and glanced at the Venomous Tentacula.
"You better be worth it," Neville muttered.
"Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently." — Henry Ford
Twenty minutes later, and Neville still couldn't control the stupid plant.
He'd 'borrowed' it from the Greenhouses, with the vain hope that Sprout wouldn't notice. Neville planned to use it in the battle that was sure to come (and maybe before that to throw the Carrows out of Hogwarts), because a Venomous Tentacula was quite dangerous for enemies. That was, if Neville could actually control it and manage to stay alive until the battle.
An investigation had been launched by the Carrows. Though they kept glancing at him suspiciously (because he was a known member of Dumbledore's Army), they couldn't prove it. Alecto Carrow had even stormed up to his dormitory in an attempt to find the plant. Since Neville had frozen it and stuffed it into his newly Undetectable-Extension-Charmed bag (courtesy of Luna), which looked far too small to fit it, the Carrows hadn't thought to check there. Any time Neville thought of it, a bit of pride flowed through him.
He'd been trying to subdue it every night, when the common room was free, but when he released the Freezing Charm it always went amok.
Neville ducked to avoid one of the Venomous Tentacula's branches, then he straightened up and waved his wand in an elaborate motion, casting the non-verbal taming spell. He'd only found it today, and he hoped it would work. The hardest part was actually not getting hit by one of the Venomous Tentacula's branches, because the taming spell couldn't be cast with the object of the spell frozen.
He mentally recited the wand movements in his head.
Swish right...flick up...swipe left...and then what was it? Swish right again? No. Double swipe left? No. Then what was it?
And then suddenly, so quickly that Neville didn't even realise what had happened, something hard collided with his forehead, and he had one moment to wonder, What is happening? Then his vision went completely black, and Neville knew no more.
"A bend in the road is not the end of the road… unless you fail to make the turn." — Helen Keller
"...concussion, poor boy…"
Neville's vision was hazy as he came to. He remembered the Venomous Tentacula and his failed taming spell, as well as the plant smacking him in the forehead. He opened his eyes slightly, but not enough for people to know that he was awake.
White walls loomed up beside him, and he saw a small bedside table to his right, with his wand on it. He looked down on himself. Neville seemed to be unscathed, though it was hard to tell because a blanket covered his body.
He realised that he was in the Hospital Wing.
"No, he's not a poor boy at all," a voice - Carrow's, though Neville couldn't remember which Carrow had that squeaky, horrible voice - snapped angrily. "He fell off the stairs to his dormitory, the idiot."
Fell off the stairs?
"Oh. Oh, yes, Professor Carrow." That was definitely Madam Pomfrey.
"Good." Carrow snapped. "Because if you're standing up for that fool, well…" Neville couldn't really see what Carrow was doing, but he bet that it wasn't anything nice.
"Oh, he's waking up!" Madam Pomfrey said quickly. Horror gripped Neville as he wondered how she had found out. Maybe she had cast a discreet diagnostic charm on him.
"Oh, alright," Carrow snapped. There was a moment of silence, then the Hospital Wing's door slammed against the wall and Carrow's footsteps rescinded. Neville breathed a discreet sigh of relief, and tried to make it look like he was sleeping.
"Oh, you can't fool me, Mr Longbottom," Madam Pomfrey said, her voice much closer now. "I know you're awake."
Neville opened his eyes fully and tried to look sheepish.
Madam Pomfrey sighed. "You still can't fool me, Mr Longbottom," she said. "Here are your potions. You must take them every four hours, and now."
Neville glanced at the four potions on the bedside table. The colours were nice: purple, orange, light blue and maeve; but he was ready to bet that they didn't taste nice at all.
"Every four hours?" he repeated. "For a concussion?"
Madam Pomfrey didn't answer. She rearranged the curtains around Neville's bed, gave him a look that said You better drink these potions every four hours otherwise I'll kill you, then bustled off to her own office.
Neville sighed. He glanced at the potions.
"Well, let's get it over with." he muttered.
"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts." – Winston Churchill
"You're awake."
Carrow's sneering face met Neville when he turned around. It was Alecto, he noted.
Neville arched an eyebrow and smiled. "Well, of course I am. Why wouldn't I?" he said, deliberately trying to annoy Carrow.
"Because you little fool fell on your stupid little face when you tripped on the staircase!" Carrow shouted, turning red-faced.
Neville kept smiling. "Oh, really?" he asked cheerfully. "Can't remember it."
"That's because you forgot it!" screeched Carrow.
"Don't think I have amnesia, to be honest," Neville said, brushing imaginary lint off his hospital gown. "I still remember everything."
"No you don't!" screamed Carrow. "You're lying! You've forgotten everything and won't admit it! You fell off a staircase and are too embarrassed to say it! You -"
"No I didn't," said Neville. "I didn't and you know it."
"Stop sounding like such a stupid smarty-pants!" Carrow shouted. "You're just an idiot with a superiority complex! Just admit it!"
Neville had to admit something. Carrow was a lot smarter than Dumbledore's Army had made her out to be if she knew what 'superiority complex' meant.
Carrow apparently had nothing else to say, because she turned around and stormed straight out of the Hospital Wing's doors, which made a 'boom' sound as they crashed against the walls.
Neville clenched his fists. That meeting with Carrow had reminded him how much he needed to tame the Venomous Tentacula. He couldn't let Hogwarts be in that woman and her brother's control.
He was a Gryffindor for a reason, after all.
Neville could be hit by the Venomous Tentacula a million more times, and that wouldn't change the fact that he wouldn't give up.
He couldn't allow the world be run like this for any longer. It was no longer just for Hogwarts. It was for the fate of the entire world.
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Challenges and Assignments): Assignment 11
Health and Fitness: Yoga
Task 2 - Warrior Pose: Write a fic set in a war (doesn't have to be a canon war)