Evening came with Eric still feeling like he needed a break, so he decided to check on Neville. The hospital would be the safest place for meeting anyone outside his house, since in order to be there you had to either be injured or checking on a friend. Since none of the Slytherins had blown themselves up in the first week, there was no chance any of them would be anywhere near the beds.

Neville was lying back on a cot, still in his flying robes, staring off at the ceiling. The fact that he had a guest gave him a start, but the fact that his guest was a Slytherin confounded him. Eric tried to take it in stride, though. "Don't let the robes fool you. I'm really very different than the person you think you see."

Neville didn't seem comforted. "You could probably say the same thing about me. Here I am at Hogwarts in flying robes, wand in my pocket and everything, but I'm probably going to end up to be the most pathetic wizard in history."

"Don't worry about it. Some of the most successful students in Hogwarts started out worse than you. It just takes some time to get the hang of it." Eric drew out his wand. "Here; want to try something simple?"

"I don't know. Professor Flitwick tried to teach us a basic wand motion, but Hermoine said I was doing it wrong."

"She's bright, that one, but she misses the mark when it comes to dealing with others. Anyway: the 'swish and flick' is a bit harder to master than they say. It's a two-part move meant to draw together magical energy then apply it it two distict motions. Personally, I think there's a way to picture it: think of your wand as a large scoop, and you're going to dig out some sherbert." Eric couldn't help but smile as Neville's eyes lit up. Clearly, he was speaking his student's language. "You dig the scoop deeply into the sherbert, then snap it straight into the bowl in front of you."

The two of them repeated the move together three times before Eric continued. "Now, if you want to see if you've got it, repeat these words while you're casting: 'illuminus dochs'. When you do it, match one word for each movement and enunciate; like this:"

Eric held his wand solidly before him. "Illuminus Dochs!" A small sphere of pure light popped out from his wandtip and hovered for a second, quickly burning itself out. "The spell creates a small lightform – nice and harmless. Give it a go."

Neville steeled himself, set his jaw in determination, then cast. Giant tentacles of spectral energy burst out of his wand, streaking out to the middle of the room where they joined into a swirling volume the size of a bowling ball. Blinding light filled the ward while a low hum resonated through every pipe and tube in the room.

Struggling to see, Eric got his bearings enough to counter the errant spell. "Dispelium Mysticus!" With a huge popping noise, the ball was gone and the two boys sat dazed in the relative darkness.

Neville lamented forlornly. "You see? I can't even do the simplest of spells without messing it up."

"Actually, most fifth year students couldn't make that spell go off that spectacularly, no matter how much they put into it. That's the result from having way too much untapped potential." Eric looked at Neville with a newfound sense of respect. "You get a handle on your abilities, Longbottom, and there won't be a wizard in the world who could match you spell for spell."

Neville wasn't convinced. "Knock it off, that isn't funny."

"I'm not trying to be. Everybody thinks you just have bad luck. It might be that your natural ability hasn't been able to find a release, so it keeps creating one. The results are things happening out of nowhere: brooms taking off on their own, your frog disappearing and re-appearing at random, spells misfiring, that sort of thing. You see it as bad luck, but if it really is magic potential, then you just need to learn how to re-direct it, and you'll be the best of everyone."

Neville couldn't help but smile. It didn't matter if Eric was right or not; the fact that he was saying nice things about him was enough.