Snape was eyeing Neville in disgust, but also with curiosity. He had made it his hobby to first guess at the students thoughts before he used legilimency. Why was this squib being so cheerful ? After all, students were usually not happy to attend his detention classes, which was precisely why he made them come. After some minutes he became too bored with his speculations – he couldn't really think of something interesting that would make Neville happy, for alle he knew the boy probably knew the whereabouts of his toad for once - and decided that the guessing time was now over.

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After running to Snape's office, leaving behind his fellow Gryffindors without an answer, Neville had started to sort the potion ingredients in the storage aphabetically. Although determinded not to think about what happened in herbology, Neville's mind frequently wandered to his newfound ability due to the tedious assignment the potions professor had given him. Talking to snakes could sometimes be practical, both in the magical world and the muggle world, if only because you could ask the snake not to bite you. Snakes had a keen mind and an inscrutable personality, but if you were subtle, you could gather information from it ('It ?', Neville asked himself, 'Do you still say "it" if you can talk to it ?') and ask it for help. No, he corrected himself, asking for help probably wouldn't work, you'd have to make a deal. Snails on the other hand… He'd never read anything about the psychology of snails. He reckoned that snails could be asked for help if they even understood abstraction, if they had a word for "help". The snail he had spoken to had not answered, in fact, the only time he had heard snail-tongue it had come from another human. "Use it wisely", Professor Sprout had said. How could he use this gift, wisely or not ? Strangely, Neville hadn't thought about trying to talk to a snail after the incident, he'd been to overwhelmed and… defensive. Yes, looking back he saw how all he'd wanted was to get away from his inquisitorial schoolmates.

Suddenly he realized that Snape was standing behind him. Hell, what Snape want, had he said anything ? Neville had been so lost in thought he'd forgotten everything else. Feeling uncomfortable, he turned around. He had already used the legilimency spell against him, Neville was quite sure, because he could see the satisfaction in Snape's face.

"So Longbottom, rumor has it you're a slimespitter" Snape said with a drawl. "Is it true?"

"Yes, Sir."

Neville knew there was no use in lying. Snape probably knew a rude word for everything. He tried to keep himself calm and not to seem too much offended. It would only make things worse for him and another detention was the last thing he wanted to risk.

Snape watched him closely. Neville's face was blank, but his eyes betrayed him. They were wild and furious like Snape had never seen them before. What had happened to the shy little boy he'd enjoyed to intimidate for years ? Anyway, Neville had almost finished his task and he needed to occupy the incompetent little lophotrophob with something.

"Finished ? All in proper alphabetical order…? I knew even you could manage that. Now that you know where to find everything you might as well start with your work. Sort them according to this list." He handed Neville a handwritten list.

Neville eyed the piece of paper in disbelief. 'Start with your work' ? He'd thought he was almost finished ! Almost all of the words were completely illegible. Severus Snape didn't have a neat handwriting at all. However, Neville was sure that he didn't put much effort in his penmanship, at least not when it came to detention assignments. He sighed. This would take him until midnight and he would need to ask Snape for clarification every few minutes and he was tired and he needed to think about the elapsed day… No ! He would not fall into his old pattern of feeling mildly sorry for himself and resigning to his fate !

Surely Snape knew something about Lophotrophobs, had at least heard about them before. His subject was potions but it was well known that he wanted to become Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and maybe the snail-tongue did have a dark quality.. Also, Neville had never known his teacher to be ignorant of something.

"Professor," he said loudly, "do you know anything about… slimespitters, as you call us ?"

Now it was Snape's turn to widen his eyes in disbelief. What had the little git asked him ? It had sounded like a dare. And he'd used the degrading term, his voice dripping with sarcasm… He got up from the desk where he'd been busy correcting papers and turned around slowly, rearranging his face into a blank mask.

"Do I know anything about them ? I do", he said darkly, giving Neville a long, cold stare with his dark eyes. He was curious to see if Neville would leave it at that.

He wouldn't.

"And what can you tell me about us ?", he asked, choosing the words of a teacher testing his pupil but making his voice sound innocent of that fact.

There was a minute of silence when they stared into each others eyes.

Then Snape aswered slowly, "I do not have the time to tell. However, if you should be so pitiable as to know nothing about your own kind, you will find everything you need to know – and more – in this book." While he had talked, Snape had walked over to a bookshelf in a dimly lit corner of the room and pulled out a book with golden letters on it. He held out the book to Neville.

Neville breathed in deeply. Then he stepped forward to take the book from Snape's hands. 'The Shape Of Snails, By Tomas de Caracos', the cover read. He hadn't thought that Snape would ever lend a book of his personal property to a student, much less him, but that was what he was doing, wasn't it ? The professors voice interrupted his spectulations.

"You will give it back to me tomorrow at 6 o'clock, when you come to finish your detentions assignment. You can go now."

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Snape knew that Neville would never have dared to ask him for a book. Asking him about lophotrophobs had been daring, but it had not invaded his personal space. No student ever dared to invade his privacy, he saw to that. If he ever lent out a book – and he had done so before – it was not because he got weak but because he liked to picture the students eyeing it suspiciously, hardly daring to open the covers. They were certainly too scared of him to damage his property. However, he would never give away something to a student that disgusted him. Neville Longbottom had disgusted (and annoyed) him in the past, more so than any other student except Harry Potter, but today he had showed… nerve. Snape had become a little curious, he wanted to know what had induced that change in the boy, and that had inspired him to give him the book.

Too bad that all he knew about slimespitters was where to find the book to look them up.