Chapter 12 - Searching

Hannah nipped into a bathroom (not one on the first floor) to tidy herself up a bit before running down to the Great Hall for dinner. Everyone was already eating by the time she arrived and she fell into the seat Susan had saved for her. It wasn't until she had half-filled her stomach and was mentally preparing herself to approach Neville at the Gryffindor table that she realised he wasn't there. She spent the rest of dinner obsessing over why.

"Hannah, just go and ask one of his friends, will you? And give us a bit of peace!" snapped Ernie, who was usually abnormally patient but had experienced a rather bad day himself.

Susan was so shocked she looked like she was trying a new way of ingesting her food through her nose. After Hannah had "put her jaw back" she took Ernie's advice and grabbed Hermione just as she was leaving.

"If you didn't know any better, you would think it was something in the water."

Hermione Granger had not been having the best of days and Ron blaming all her emotions on her hormones was less than helpful. The fact that what caused her feelings was her body's chemistry made those feelings none the less real. She was stomping off to the library in the hope of some refuge from herself when Hannah stopped her

"No I don't know where Neville is. Just because I'm a Gryffindor Prefect I'm supposed to keep tabs on the entire school and come top in all my classes as well? Everyone always expects me to know all the answers to everything and…."

Hannah thanked her and quickly ran away before she entered full ranting mode. She spent the rest of her evening searching all over for him - unsuccessfully. It was until her third collision with a thoroughly exasperated Professor Snape that he demanded to know why she was sneaking about. His lip curled into a sneer and he seemed to take great pleasure in telling her that Neville had been sent home and would not be returning until next year.

Severus Snape was finding the students even more irritable than usual. He had just taken leave of Professor Trelawney who had come to visit him in his office to kindly offer to read his tea-leaves. He had been overtly cruel - but she was more arrogant in her abilities than even James Potter and Sirius Black had been. He shivered as they thought of those two made him even more angry and a little embarrassed. Then for the fourth time that day, the fat, blonde, snivelling Hufflepuff ran into him. She stuttered her usual apology and he looked down at her disdainfully before walking on.

"Excuse me sir, but…..um…can you…do you….eh…it is… do you know where Neville Longbottom is?"

What Snape say in this innocent question was an opportunity to vent all his anger and frustration - and he was definitely going to take advantage of this. He glared at her, carefully picking words that he knew would do the most damage.

All in all it had been a bad day for most of the school, but most of all for Neville Longbottom.