A/N: Most of the characters and the main plot belongs to J.K Rowling.

It was currently the middle of February. Neville had known cold winters, but never did he have one as cold as this year. Sure, Longbottom Manor was near Birmingham, so that could have had something to do with the temperature. He was in his bed in the Griffindor common room, Ronald Weasley was snoring louder than ever, and he couldn't get much shut-eye.

He wasn't exactly the person who slept the most, but he wasn't the person to sleep the least either. However, that night, it was impossible for him to sleep, not that he knew why, he wasn't exactly stressed over anything. Seen as he couldn't get any sleep, he rummaged through his trunk, and pulled out the book on Herbology that Harry had gotten hi for Christmas. He still hadn't read it because he had received a load more books on the subject from everyone else.

They all knew that Herbology was the only thing that he was really good at. He had proven that he wasn't exactly a master with spells. Harry had tried teaching him a couple of simple ones, and he couldn't see what he was doing wrong either. He had never wanted to shame his family, yet he felt like that was exactly what he was doing. His father had used this want for so many things, and Neville couldn't even use most spells with it, sometimes he felt like a squib.

The sun had rose above the mountains to the east, and so he decided it was time to get ready for the day. He went in to the bathroom, washed up and got dressed. When he got out, the other Griffindor first years started stirring. Neville said a quick 'Morning guys' before he left the dormitory, and headed off to the Great Hall.

He was on the Grand Staircase when he met Harry and Hermione while they were on their way to eat too. He hadn't really spent much time with his two best friends lately, they had been otherwise occupied. In Harry's case it was learning to control his power, and Hermione was already studying for the end of year exams. He was sure she would get 100% on her tests at this rate.

"Hey Harry, hey Hermione !" he said loudly enough for the both of them to hear him. They did thankfully, and turned around to look at where the voice came from. Their eyes landed upon him, and they both smiled and waited for him.

"Hey Neville" they both said st the same time. "How was your sleep mate ?" Harry asked him. He had wished that he could spend more time with the Ravenclaw boy, but they didn't have a single class together, so it was only when they had free periods or when it was weekend when they actually saw each other, because at meal times, they ate at separate tables.

"It wasn't the best if I'm being honest, didn't sleep much, plus I woke up to Ron snoring loudly." Harry and Neville both shared a laugh at this, while Hermione just shook her head and rolled her eyes. "So, what are you up to today ?"

"Well we got Charms, History of magic and then double potions. I'm just excited about tomorrow's match. It should be fun, I hope we beat Slytherin, they've won the House cup for the past 7 years, and it would be good if we could surpass them." Harry replied, he did want to be a part of the team, perhaps he would try out the next year.

"Well as long as we go past you afterwards, I'm all for it" he said with a laugh.

"Well good luck on that, you've got the worst seeker there is" Neville did agree with this, Cormac McLaggen was rather annoying and quite obsessed with himself, he believed that he was better than everyone at everything. They had lost their first match against Slytherin because the older boy couldn't stay concentrated on the snitch, instead he went around telling the other players how to play. Unfortunately though, they had no other choice for a seeker, as there was nobody who showed up for the position.

"I hope he can actually catch the snitch at least once throughout the whole season, if not we're going to be at the bottom of the leaderboard." Harry chuckled at his friends comment, the Griffindor seeker wasn't exactly anything promising.

"On a more interesting topic," Hermione said cutting through their discussion "have you started studying for the end of year exams ?" she looked at them expectantly when they didn't answer her question. She took that as they hadn't. "Really ? You do know you need to pass these exams if you want to reach second year, right ?"

"Yes we know Hermione" They replied in unison, both with a heavy sigh and a bored sort of voice. "It's just that we also need time to relax from the stressful week of work as it is. You can't expect us to work on our free time as well" Neville finished.

Of course, he and Harry both did work on their free time as well, they just weren't as serious as Hermione about it. Harry would study Charms, Transfiguration and DADA mostly, while Neville spent time learning more about Herbology, and trying to get better at Potions. He was right at the bottom of the class in Potions, it was hard to concentrate with the bat of Slytherin looking over your shoulder waiting for you to make a mistake so that he could punish you.

At this point, they had arrived at the Great Hall, and they went their separate ways. Neville sat close to Fred and George Weasley. The two of them were fun, a lot more fun than their brother, he was just annoying and really jealous about everything. He started piling up his plate, and began eating. He didn't think he was exactly hungry when he had come down earlier, the food had to literally be placed in front of him to notice his hunger.

He had just about finished when it was mail time. His main hope was to get a positive response from his Gran about his last inquiry. His plan was to invite both Harry and Hermione to his place during the summer. They probably had other things to do, but he had planned on inviting them for the last two weeks of the summer holidays.

He waited to see if he had received an answer when finally as the rest of the owls had started to leave the Great Hall, Neville's dropped a rolled up newspaper in front of him, and a letter. He wasn't really bothered about the newspaper if he was honest, he only had a subscription in case of any major news. So he picked up his letter and opened it.

Hello Neville,

I hope you're doing well, and that you are at least performing some kind of magic at that school. Yes you can invite your friends over, it will be nice to have some other people in the manor for once.

Love,

Gran.

Her letters, or even when she spoke she wasn't the most pleasant of people. He guessed that she wished that he was more like his parents. They were very capable aurors, and Neville wanted to do them proud.

His skipped the slight digs at him and read the letter again to confirm what he read. 'They're allowed' he said to himself, and let a small smile take its place upon his face. He got up and headed off to the Ravenclaw table where Harry and Hermione were seated.

"Hey guys," they turned around and looked st him with a smile tugging at their lips, 'at least they're happy to see me again' he thought. "I was just wondering if you'd like to come over to my place for the last two weeks of the summer holidays ? I know it's a long time away, it's just that if you had any plans for that time, I could always change the date."

"I'm in, I'll be by myself for most of the holidays anyways, what harm could come from it. Besides, I'd like to see this greenhouse of yours." Harry said to the boy in front of him.

"I'll have to see with my parents about it, but normally I should be able to. Just one thing, where do you live ?" Hermione asked. Always going to the most important that girl.

"No need to worry about that, I'll send a letter to the both of you with a Portkey in it. It'll activate at a pass code that I will send you through the letter.

"Thanks Nev, see you later, we gotta get to class." With that the two Ravenclaws and their classmates got up and headed off to their class.

Harry was currently in potions. They had to brew the sleeping draught today. Harry didn't consider himself as good in potions, but he was working on it. Professor Snape still looked at him as if he was debating something with himself. He seemed to let it go after a little while, and he explained how to make the potion.

After they were explained, Harry went to the teachers cupboard and picked up 4 sprigs of lavender, 6 measures of standard ingredient which was a mix of herbs, 2 blobs of flobberworm mucus and 4 Valerian sprigs. He took them all to his desk and prepared each ingredient for the potion.

Potions was by far his favourite lesson, he preferred the ones that would be used in duels, some potions were helpful if entering a duel, like the Pepper-up potion. He knew it was vital to learn the basics at least, especially as a lot of jobs in the wizarding world required at least an O.W.L. in Potions. His potion was meant to end up a dark purple, but his was a couple of shades too light. He didn't know exactly where he went wrong but wasn't going to complain.

At the end of class, Professor Snape asked all of them to bring a small vial of the potion to his desk. He stored them in a box and dismissed the class.

Harry was deep in thought. He didn't know why the Potions Master looked at him that way, it was as if he was torn between doing everything he could to annoy him, and to caring for him. He had no clue why though.

Professor Snape was currently in his office. The first year Ravenclaws had just left his class not more than 10 minutes ago. What bothered him was the fact that the Potter boy didn't seem to act like any of his parents. Sure, he had his father's hair which had constantly annoyed him while his time here, but he had his mother's eyes, and his face used to look like his father's, but it was changing. He was becoming his own man, and Snape didn't know how he should act with the boy.

On one side, he wanted to hate the boy, he really did, because his father had taken the woman he loved, all because of a mistake he had made when he was in his fifth year. On the other side, he wanted to protect the boy, to care for him, to hopefully earn forgiveness for his past. He regretted a lot of things in his life, but the thing he regretted most was the fact that he was the one that had told the Dark Lord about the Prophecy that led to the boy's parent's deaths, to her death.

In terms of grades, he was a bit of both really. He did well in both Charms and Transfiguration which was his parents strong subjects respectively, but he didn't have his mother's gift for potions which he had wished he would have. He was good at DADA from what Dumbledore had told him, and Potter and Lily were average in that.

He was thinking about it when he heard a knock on his door. He waved his wand and the door opened, and in came Dumbledore. The old man sent him a small smile. Snape wasn't the sort of person for smiling, not since that Halloween anyways, so he just gave the man a nod.

"Ah Severus, how has your day been ?" he asked politely while sitting down in the seat opposite the Potions Master.

"Well, I've taught some rather useless students, but I've also taught some decent ones, not that any of them are exceptional, there's only Granger that seems to show any talent for it." He knew that the Granger girl was probably the best he'd had in quite some time, not as good as Her, but she was still good.

"Ah yes," Dumbledore began, he quite liked the young friend of Harry Potter's, she would be a valuable ally to him in his life, he was sure of that. "I think you'll find that Miss Granger exceeds in quite a few subjects, the one she shows the least promise in is flying, of course she relies heavily on her books, flying being something that cannot be taught through books, so it isn't her strong suit. She is also frightened of heights you see, so it doesn't help the matter."

"I'm sure. Now, headmaster, not to be rude, but I have a lot to do, what is it you came to see me about ?" He didn't have time for pleasantries so cut them short.

Dumbledore's face fell a bit at this, he was always the sort to talk a lot about anything he could. "Well you see Severus, I don't know of your relationship with Mr. Potter, but I do remember your relationship with his father." At the mention of the man, Snape's face automatically adorned a frown upon it. "I am just here to say that you should be careful about how you treat the boy if you treat him in a similar fashion, which I hope you don't. You see, Mr. Potter is actually already Lord to both the Houses of Peverell and Potter."

At this, Snape's eyebrows rose quite a lot. This was something the man hadn't expected. He knew that he would be Lord eventually, but he didn't expect it so soon. It also relieved him to see that he didn't show off the fact in the faces of everyone, that was another trait to remove from his similarities to his father, he wasn't as arrogant, well at least not yet.

"I just thought you ought to know, but I ask that you do not share this information, it is for young Harry to share this when he is ready." Snape nodded at this, and the headmaster got up. "It was nice talking to you Severus, however I must be off, I have some papers to fill in, I'm looking for a new DADA teacher for next year."

With that, the headmaster left. The old man knew that he would take the position any day, but he seemed insistent on keeping him as potions master. It had something to do with the job being cursed.

He was beginning to wonder what the Potter boy would do with his Lordships. He was politically powerful with two Lordships, but he also had his fame, and that could go a long way to change things around. Maybe the boy could even reform the Longbottom-Potter alliance. That alliance would be very powerful if he did.

A/N: Thank you for your reviews, follows and favourites. Won't be long before Draco finds out about Harry's Heirship to the house of Black. Should be quite interesting.Replies:About your non liking of the female characters, Hermione was rather bitchy in the first book, so I thought I'd stick with that, Tracey I don't know why, but I just imagined her being all cheerful, and Daphne is said to be the Ice Queen, so that's where the cold demeanour comes from. They will change, and hopefully become more likeable to you later on, but this will change as the story goes, I didn't want them to be OOC.I will try to incorporate Neville more into the story, it's just that seems he didn't go down the chamber with the other four, he wasn't around for at least two chapters.They aren't ostracized by the school because, Ravenclaw and Griffindor haven't got any rivalries going on except the House Cup and the Quidditch Cup. The reason behind why Harry's relationship with the Slytherins hasn't been spoken about is because most people just see them as classmates in Herbology, they don't really spend any time together outside of that class for now. It will come eventually, but for now, they're only seen as classmates.Thank you for telling me about the knockback jinx, I looked it up and couldn't find it, they said that it was unknown, so I did a translation to Latin.