Summary: Neville's grandmother passes away and he finally decided to live life the way he wishes too. A new inheritance, nice Slytherins, and evil Gryfindors, my oh my. Will Neville succeed in his new life? Eventual slash. NL/DM
Disclaimer: I don't own any of it. It all belongs to J.K. Rowling. No money is made from this.
Chapter 7: A new year-first day back
At breakfast the next morning Neville didn't even want to get up. In fact he got up and showered only after he knew his room mates have already left. The night before was tense because his room mates included Ron and Harry. 'I assume it's because they want me to apologize. That won't happen because I did nothing wrong.' Neville thought bitterly to himself. After getting ready for his first day back he left for breakfast which had only fifteen minutes left. As soon as he walked into the Great Hall he really wanted to leave, but decided to sit next to Ginny who waved him over.
"How was you summer Nev?"
"Alright and yours Ginny."
"It was fantastic we went to the pyramids, we even went in one to find some buried tombs, …."
He kind of stopped listening to her talking when Draco came into the great hall. He couldn't help it, Draco looked so sophisticated and entered with such confidence that people would just stop and look. 'I wish I could do that. I would hate him right now if I wasn't attracted to him. Stop and rewind. Neville you should not be attracted to him because someone like him does not go for someone like you. Get it?'
"Neville are you listening to me?"
"Yes sorry Ginny I'm just kind of anxious today. First day back and all." He said with a nervous smile. 'When did I become good at lying?' he thought
A Gryfindor prefect broke his train of thought by tossing him his class schedule. He was pleased to note that most classes were with Slytherin except for Divination which was the Hufflepuffs and Herbology which was with the Ravenclaws. Not a bad schedule. First up double Potions with Slytherin. Neville smirked, 'Everyone in Gryfindor is upset by this except me.'
Neville left after he ate and politely excused himself from Ginny who was now talking the ear of some poor girl who happened to sit beside her.
On his way to the dungeons he ran into Hermione and Harry. Ron did not make the grade to stay in Potions, not that he complained much about that.
"Congratulations Neville on receiving your awards last night." Hermione said trying to sound nice.
Before he could respond Draco was walking down the halls with his friends. "That's rich coming from the people who didn't even clap for him at the rewarding ceremony. I watched you, all you did was glare at him."
"Draco is right, why are you proud of me now Hermione?"
"I guess what I'm saying is that we were wrong in treating you like we did. And we want to apologize."
"Look you guys, I really would prefer to be mad at you right now. I get it you needed to cool your heels, but you can't expect me to forgive you so easily." Neville said as he walked over to stand between Draco and Vincent.
"Are you telling me that you would rather be friends with these death eaters then me!" Harry screamed.
"They are not death eaters! You don't even know them. They have there own demons fight as you do Harry. Who do you think you are passing judgment on people. The Slytherins are right about us Gryfindors, Dumbledore has let us get away with so much that we have blurred the line between what is noble and what is right. Just because we think we are noble does not equate to us being right."
"Neville you cannot be serious, they are Slytherins who believe that people like me should die."
"No Hermione, they do not want you dead. They simply want muggle borns to adapt to their society as opposed to them adapting to you. How would you like it if I went to the muggle world and changed everything you believed in into something that works for me who was not a part of it to begin with?"
"It's not the same thing Neville and you know it."
"No it's not. They simply have a different view point. It doesn't make them wrong. These people here do not believe in genocide Hermione."
"What is this racket in my hallway?" yelled Snape who was walking down the hall. "20 points from Gryfindor for cluttering up my dungeon. "Everyone in now!"
Having heard everything Snape did not want to take all the Gryfindor points since Neville was defending his students with a passion only a Gryfindor can muster. So he reasoned 10 points from each Gryfindor who annoyed him, not including Longbottom. He was surprised by the defense, but because of it he was not surprised that Malfoy sat next to Longbottom. 'Perhaps I shall talk to Draco this evening about the Longbottom case'
As soon as the bell rang the rest of the students filed into the classroom. Where Snape stood and began his class.
"I want everyone to look at the person closest to you, this will be your Potions partner until the end of the semester. If there is a problem resolve it yourselves or live with it until the end of first semester where I will allow for partners to switch if you need to. Now turn your text to page five."
"Who can tell me what Veritaserum is?"
"No one knows, come on what does the name imply. Longbottom?"
"It is the strongest of all truth serums. It forces the drinker to tell the truth. The person will do so until the potion wears off or an antidote is administered."
"Very good, five points to Gryfindor. Now we will take the next two classes to brew this complex potion. The instructions for the first half of the process are in your text book on page 7 now get to work."
Neville and Draco got to work immediately. Neville volunteered to get the ingredients for the first half of the potion process. He then cut up the ingredients and put them into administering order, which helped him remember what order ingredients went into the potion. Draco set up the cauldron and the created the acidic base. Together they worked remarkably well. While one added the ingredients the other stirred and made sure that the ingredients were cut in uniform slices and ensured that the paste was consistent before adding it to the potion. Draco even tried to explain how to use the colour and scent of the potion to know when it was time to add the next ingredient. Neville didn't mind this kind of help because Draco actually taught him something without making him fell like an utter idiot.
As the Potions Master was making his final round of the period, he was disgusted with the pitiful attempts the students made. Even Miss. Granger and Mr. Potter weren't even close to what they should have at this point. Before telling everyone to forget it and clean there cauldrons he saw Mr. Longbottom's and Mr. Malfoy's potion. It was almost perfect. He decided to allow the class to continue this disaster just to see how well this one potion turned out. He told the class to cast a refreshing charm over their cauldrons so it was safe until tomorrow's class.
Since this class took the whole morning everyone was off to lunch.
"Neville would you like to eat with us?" asked Draco
"Yeah, but I don't think it would be best if I sat at the Slytherin table"
"We don't have to sit the table we could grab some stuff and eat outside by the lake. How's that? Reasoned Pansy.
"Awsome!" Neville replied with a sincere smile.
'I will kill anyone who takes that smile from him.' "All right then. Blaise, Vince, Gregg and I will gather some food and meet you two by the tree." Said Draco as he was dragging the others along to the great hall.
As Neville and Pansy were walking to the tree by the lake "That was a very nice thing you did. Sticking up for us and all. Most would agree with what Potter and Granger said."
"Yeah, well I don't think it's right. I would have agreed with them last year. But I promised myself that I wouldn't judge people like that anymore. I don't like being judged so I don't want to continue the cycle."
"Just so you know we appreciate it. Here they come bearing food. Hey Blaise what do you have for me today?" Pansy asked with her characteristic smile.
Everyone ate in a comfortable silence. Once finished they decided to do the homework Snape assigned just to pass the time. Once they all finished, in record time, they had ten minutes until transfiguration. So they all got up and walked slowly to the class. It appeared that no one really wanted to be there except for Vince. Everyone paired up again like they did in Potions and prepared for another hour and a half of boredom.
"Today we will transform the box into a turtle. Everyone turn to page 16 and begin reading. Once done you and your partner will try to accomplish the goal of the lesson. If not it is to be done for homework."
Draco and Neville simply scanned the section and jotted down the important points. It didn't sound so bad when you looked at the point form notes.
"Its all about perception. You gotta visualize what you want then hope it happens." Draco said with good humor. Draco knew he sucked at this and didn't pretend to get it either. "You go first Neville. If you screw up, then I won't look so bad."
"Thanks a lot. Fine I'll go first. It takes courage to go first." Draco stuck out his tongue while Neville laughed.
Neville cast the incantation with his new wand and visualized the transformation step by step. The box turned into a turtle in front of everyone's eyes. "20 points for Gryfindor for successfully casting the incantation. Good show Mr. Longbottom."
"Wow. Now I'm really going to look like an idiot if I don't get it. Tell me how you did it. You made it look so easy."
Neville spent five minutes going over what did and explained to Draco that he pushed the transformation along in his mind while going through the steps. On Draco's first try he got it too, but only received 10 points for his house for his attempt. Even though this blatant favoritism got Draco down he was happy that Potter and Granger still had not gotten the incantation right by the end of the period.
"What do you have next Neville?"
"Divination. You?
"Arithmancy."
"I'll see you after dinner. We can all meet up in the library to help Pansy and Blaise with Transfiguration. I'll also probably have Arithmancy homework. So homework after dinner in the Library don't be late." Yelled Draco.
"Alright!"
Divination class was such a joke. They read tealeaves again. Professor Trelawny predicted Potter's death again and talked about the grim being in everyone's cup. This class was such a joke. However he had to write a parchment about the differences between visions and dreams. Not very hard but a time waster nonetheless.
Dinner was a quiet affair. No one wanted to talk to him, but Neville could have dealt with that and ate in peace. But Ron decided to make a big spectacle of how he was now a death eater because he defended some of his new friends. Then he continued his rant by stating that Neville was no longer worthy of Gryfindor house and that he should never have gotten into Hogwarts because is only a step away from being a squib. Having lost his appetite he stood up and left without a word to go to the library to complete his divination homework.
About 45 minutes later the Slytherin gang showed up in the library. The timing was perfect because Neville was beginning to put his Divination homework away and getting out his Transfiguration textbook.
"Neville did you eat dinner?" asked Pansy in a worried voice.
"A bit, but then Ron decided to classify me as a death eater by association so left to avoid further confrontation."
"I see. Perhaps after this we can raid the kitchen. How's that? Homework always makes me hungry."
"Gregg you're always hungry."
"I'm a growing boy."
"Right. Now who still needs to get the transfiguration assignment?" asked pansy
Neville explained what he did the same way he explained it to Draco. In less then thirty minutes they all got it.
"No offense Neville, but you used to really suck at this. So how come you got this quicker then any of us?" Asked Vince.
"Well part of my problem in school was that my grandmum made me use my fathers wand which was a complete disaster. So this year I went to Olivander to get my wand."
"So what's made of?" asked Draco while trying to work on an Arithmancy problem.
"My fathers had a twelve and a half inch holly wand with dragon heartstring, mine is a twelve inch holly wand with basilisk blood."
"Are you kidding me? Wouldn't that imply that you're dark or something?" asked Blaise.
"I asked Mr.Olivander the same question. But he said no because some dark wizards have unicorn hair as their core. So wand core and wizard type are not really correlated."
"Neat. Your wand sounds so much cooler than mine now. Mine has a core of vampire hair." Said Pansy.
"When Mr. Olivander asked me to try a wand with vampire hair but the wand literally jumped from my hand a flew back into its box. It was kind of funny."
"Draco what are you doing?" asked Gregg
"Hold on a sec." scribbing things on his parchment. "Yes I got it. Now my Arithmancy homework is done. Who's up for some food?"