Hello again and thank you to everyone who read, favourited, followed or reviewed. The amount of response I have been getting from this story has taken me completely by surprise!
This chapter will be from Neville's perspective. :)
To say Draco was little unwelcome in Gryffindor Tower was a massive understatement. The Weasley twins had taken to pranking him mercilessly and any self-respecting Gryffindor was expected to give him the cold shoulder. Which is probably why Neville was paired with everyone's least favourite sort-of-Gryffindor.
They were practising the Banishing Charm today, which was the opposite of the Summoning Charm Harry had used in the First Task of the Triwizard Tournament. Pretty much everyone was having fun flinging objects across the classroom. Well, everyone except two Gryffindors who stood awkwardly at the back of the class.
Neville sighed, as his aim went wide yet again, sending Professor Flitwick flying across the room. The class dissolved into chaos and Draco ducked a cushion sent by Ron, which sailed through the air and knocked Parvati's hat off. Dodging another projectile, the young Malfoy strode over to his partner.
"Try getting your aim right and then attempting the spell," he told Neville, thinking of his memories about spell casting. "Like this." He gave a small demonstration and his spell hit the cushion and it landed beside the box they were supposed to be aiming for.
"Er, right." Said Neville, who was understandably nervous to be standing next to his not-so arch nemesis. This whole "not evil" thing tied his mind into knots. He aimed his wand, focused hard (screwing up his face in the process) and cast the charm.
It shot in a straight line towards the cushion, which shot across the classroom and landed in the box. Neville blinked in surprise. Even Draco felt a little shocked at how easily Neville had done it.
"Wow, Neville." Draco breathed. "You're the first one in the class to master the spell." Only, just as he spoke, Hermione Granger flicked her wand while quarrelling with her friends. Her cushion flew across the room and landed in the box they were supposed to be aiming at. Professor Flitwick (who had been too busy trying to restore order to the class when Neville had attempted the Banishing Charm) awarded Gryffindor twenty points, but Hermione had returned to her conversation with Harry and Ron and none of them appeared to notice.
Neville looked slightly put-out that no one except Draco Malfoy had seen him come top of the class for once. But he still managed a meagre smile. "Yeah, no one except Hermione seems to have made any progress." They shared a grin, as they watched the rest of the class struggle.
Then, Neville realised who he was currently grinning with and promptly stopped. Draco Malfoy and Neville Longbottom could never be friends. It probably went against every cosmic law of the universe. Sneaking a glance at his new dorm-mate, Neville decided that it was probably a fluke. The sort of moment which would never happen again.
He watched Harry cast the charm and his cushion flew straight across the room, landing neatly on top of Hermione's - much to the surprise of everyone watching. Neville shook his head, ridding himself of his nagging thoughts of protest. Yep, he thought solemnly. Most definitely a fluke.
So by the lunchtime, Neville had himself convinced once more that he was useless and sat down at the Gryffindor table as far away from the former Slytherin as he could manage. Not really having anyone to talk to, Neville pulled out the Herbology textbook Professor Moody had leant him and began to read.
This chapter was based on the scene at the beginning of "The Second Task" in the Goblet of Fire.
I've always believed that Neville just needed someone to believe in him, as he isn't particularly close to anyone in his dormitory and the fact that he lead the DA and he could hold his own in the Department of Mysteries proves that he's a great wizard. Meanwhile, no one's sure what to make of Gryffindor-Draco and the Malfoy-Imposter has disappeared into the shadows for the time being.