The Boy Who Cried - Part III

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The Author's Note in Part I explained this story's time, etc, so
make sure you read that first. Thanks to everyone who reads this
series and "The Girl Who Loved"... especially everyone who reviews,
it makes my day everytime I recieve a message from the Review Alert!
I didn't get a very good response to my Snape/Lockhart fic, "The
Man Who Lied", so if you are reading this I would really really
appreciate it if you checked that one out too.

Warning: This is slash, like all my Harry Potter fics. This is Neville
and Draco... although this story is focusing mainly on what drove
Neville to accept Draco's bargain, so there isn't much slash *yet.* :-)

Warning even to People who can Tolerate Slash: You aren't going to like
my potrayal of Neville, I can almost guarantee it... but please read
anyways!!

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Neville fiddled with his quill as he sat, bored, through Snape's
potions lecture. His thoughts were on his parents, mainly...
although occasionally, a certain blonde Slytherin managed to
infiltrate his thoughts, although Neville quickly drove him
from his mind.

His thoughts were interrupted when Snape suddenly whirled on
him. "Neville! What potion uses unicorn hair and phoenix feathers
as its base?"

Staring up at Snape in horror, Neville racked his brain
frantically for an answer- any answer. He knew this, curse it!
But the sight of Snape glaring down at him, just waiting for
Neville to make any mistake, emptied Neville's mind of all
logical thought. "The... the Patronus potion?" He asked,
snatching at the one name that entered his head.

Laughter resounded from around the room- even Hermione, content as
always in her academic perfection, looked rather amused. Snape
almost smiled, but the smile was certainly not a pleasant or
friendly one. "10 points from Gryffindor for not paying attention,
Neville! And for your information, Patronus is a charm, not a
potion. *And* it has no relation whatsoever to unicorns or
phoenixes. Perhaps you need to return to class with the 3rd years
to pick up the basic tenants of magic once more!"

Neville looked down at his half filled scroll of notes, feeling
faintly ill. He knew that, now, now that it didn't matter, and he
also knew that those ingredients were in fact the base of the
memorius potion. He felt the mocking glances of Slytherins and
Gryffindors alike as his face heated in shame. Finally, he made
himself turn to stare stonily up at the front in the classroom,
listening halfheartedly to the continued lecturing of Proffessor
Snape.

As he fought back tears of shame at his own continued idiocy,
Neville caught a glimpse of Draco out of the corner of his eye.
Draco was not laughing, or even smirking over Snape's humiliation
of Neville. Whereas Harry and Ron were still grinning slightly,
even though THEY proffessed to hate Snape while Draco was one
of Snape's pampered favorite students. Neville gritted his teeth-
what kind of "friends" were they, anyways?

Another 10 minutes passed without incident for Neville at least,
but then it was time for the section of class that Neville dreaded
with a passion: the application of skills into potion making.

Snape walked around the class assigning pairs of Gryffindors and
Slytherins to work together. Neville edged towards Draco, hoping
irrationally that he would be paired with Snape's favorite
student.

Such was not to be, and Neville was instead paired with Goyle,
one of the two idiotic boys who served Draco hand and foot. But
when Neville took his place beside Goyle at the cauldron, he
realized that considering how all the other students viewed
him he really had no right to pass judgement on Goyle. So instead
of trying to take over the potionmaking, as he saw Hermione
doing across the room with Crabbe, Neville asked tentatively,
"Would you like to prepare the solid ingredients or the liquids?"

Goyle looked at Neville in faint suprise. He was used to being
pushed aside by his partner, and not trusted even with the
simplest tasks. "I guess I could grind up the powder part."
He suggested, figuring that would be easy enough.

Neville nodded his agreement, and the two silently gathered their
ingredients. Snape ignored them, apparently having decided that
there was no further sabatoge needed to make Neville and Goyle
create a completely malfunctional potion.

Without Snape shouting at him, or Hermione staring over his
shoulder fussing over precision and care, Neville almost relaxed
as he poured the various liquids into the cauldron, stirring
them gently as he watched Goyle preparing the powders.

Pleased to be given some actual responsibility in the assignment,
Goyle took extra care while cutting the lengths of plants and herbs
and grinding them down to add to the potion. The two were among
the last to finish, and when Snape came around to check their
potion they stood nervously aside.

"Hmm..." Snape murmured as he studied the contents of the cauldron.
"You didn't use enough ginseng. But otherwise, it looks almost
decent." He moved on as Neville and Goyle simultaneously let out
a pleased sigh.

As the two waited for Snape to finish assessing the other students'
potions, Goyle whispered to Neville, "Hey, do you want to join
me, Draco, and Crabbe for lunch after this?"

Neville looked up at him in surprise. Before he could think it over,
he heard himself saying, "Sure. By the way... nice job on the potion."

Goyle grinned- a rather twisted smile, but a grin none the less- and
replied, "You too. I'll see you by Slytherin table then.

Nodding his consent, Neville looked up and caught Draco's gaze upon
him. Neville winked at Draco, and to his delight, Draco winked
back.

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Neville ignored his Gryffindor companions as they walked back to the
dorm to drop off their textbooks before lunch. He was far more
concerned with how everyone would react if he actually sat with the
Slytherins. True, there were no rules *against* students sitting
at other Houses' tables during meals, but it wasn't exactly the
most common of practices either.

But what did he care, really? Draco and Goyle treated Neville like a
person. Everyone else just laughed and snickered when he was near
them, as if he was a clown who had been placed in Hogwarts merely for
their personal enjoyment. Let people stare, he decided. Gryffindors
were supposed to be brave, so he was going to show that bravery by
not caving to the pressure to follow strict house lines in friendship
and love.

In love? Where had that come from?? Neville grimaced as he followed
his friends into the common room and upstairs to the dorms. He wasn't
in love with anyone! Certainly not... certainly not a Slytherin.
Managing to convince himself of that, he dropped his books in the
mess surrounding his bed and, swallowing back his nervousness,
went alone to join Goyle and Draco for lunch.

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The Dining Hall was already overflowing with students when Neville
walked through the large wooden doors. He spotted Draco sitting
near the end of the Slytherin table, and hesitated. True, there was
an empty seat, and Goyle and Crabbe were both already there, but...
he forced himself to walk towards them. Cowardice is not a virtue
of a Gryffindor, he reminded himself at every step.

"Hello, Neville. Glad that you decided to join us." Draco said,
pulling out the seat beside him. Draco spoke with less than his
usual mocking drawl. Neville nodded to Draco and Goyle in turn,
and then smiled uncertainly at Crabbe. Crabbe nodded back with
acknowledgement if not outright friendliness.

Neville fell easily into the pattern of chit chat about meaningless
things that the three Slytherins began, and did not once turn to
look over at the Gryffindor table. If he had, he would have noticed
the occasional shocked look directed in his direction.

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To be Continued.... My thanks to everyone who reviewed the first
parts, I tried to respond to the often request for a more vivid
depiction of Neville's alienation from his peers. That resulted in
a story with way too little Draco in my opinion... what do you all
think?