31 March 1992

Neville knew that it was once again his turn to talk, and possibly the last as Professor Sprout had told none of them of her plans. His day began as it usually did; with him already having to make up time. He woke up to an empty dorm and found himself already late for breakfast due to the inconvenient fact that he had not set his alarm the night before. Unfortunately, nobody seemed to have noticed that he had been dead to the world, and he ended up having to get dressed as quickly as he could before running down the stairs to join the rest of his house. He ended up eating breakfast in his usual fashion, which was not how he had imagined spending his time at Hogwarts. His Grandmother had told him of the wonderful time his father had had at Hogwarts, and all the friends he had made in Gryffindor, but Neville almost always spent breakfast eating alone. He had not managed to make any friends in Gryffindor since Hermione had decided to hang out with him on the train before deciding that she would hang out with Harry and Ron instead, although he could not blame her for that. Far from it. Since childhood, he had known he was a waste of space, and this had only served to confirm it. Therefore, he usually spent breakfast sitting alone at the Gryffindor table picking at his food. Hogwarts breakfasts were praised far and wide, but he supposed that they were probably more fun with friends. To him, they also seemed to taste like sawdust.

In an attempt to alleviate his boredom, he got out the first book in his bag, which just so happened to be on herbology. Alpine medicinal lichen was more interesting than the general atmosphere of the Gryffindor table. People were talking loudly and some people (Fred and George Weasley) were making everyone laugh. It seemed hilarious to everyone else at the table, but to him the jokes seemed to always fall flat. He imagined that there were plenty of things that were better when you were part of something.

Eventually, everyone filed out to go wherever they needed to be. In a clutter of cutlery and a stampede of feet, the position of Hogwarts' loudest house would be won by Gryffindor annually should anyone decide to put together any such competition. Neville waited for everyone to leave, before following in their wake. Charms was not his favourite subject, but at least it was not potions.

Professor Sprout was known among the House Elves for being the teacher who took care of 'pathetic and lonely students' and was usually provided with more cake than she knew what to do with. She always took joy in arranging all the group's favourite sandwiches, and eagerly observed which ones they liked and before using this to figure out which sandwich fillings to get, as she wanted to both reduce food waste and disappointing sandwich experiences.

This week was no different. She had ordered lunch the day before, requesting a special version of coronation chicken for Neville. The first time she had requested them, during the first few weeks of lunch club, the Head House Elf had asked her whether she was sure about putting so much spice in 'Mr Neville's' sandwiches, as The Headmaster was of the opinion that bland food was best for growing children to do well with. She had pondered it at the time and had decided to just go for it. She requested that they increase the spice level weekly and she really hoped that he would enjoy it.

When the group arrived, they got down to business.

"This week," Professor Sprout said, "Neville will be talking about Hogwarts."

"What about Hogwarts?" Neville asked. "If you want the history, surely Addie would be the best person to ask about it?"

"No, Neville," Professor Sprout reassured him. "I want you to talk about what Hogwarts means to you, and what you like about it."

"Ok then..." Neville said uncertainly.

Professor Sprout was fully aware that by the end of her brainstorming about what to have them talk about, she had been running out of ideas, and had started scraping the bottle of the barrel. Hopefully Neville would be able to figure out something to talk about.

"Well," started Neville, "I've wanted to come to Hogwarts for a long time. My gran talks about it all the time. She talks about how important it was to her when she was a teenager as it gave her some independence from her parents, and about how much my dad liked it when he was here. I heard about it so much that I felt as though I could see it, but for ages I wasn't sure whether I would qualify. I didn't do any accidental magic when I was younger, until my uncle pushed me recently and I bounced."

Professor Sprout made a mental note to send that Merlinforsaken man a single slice of mouldy bread in the post with absolutely no context. A carefully planned campaign could very easily ruin a perfectly respectable Wizard.

"When I came here," he continued, "I wondered whether I had been sent to the wrong place. I considered asking my gran to send me to another magical school or to at least consider having me educated at home. I didn't like being here. I spent quite a lot of time hoping that I would have a chance to leave."

Professor Sprout looked around the group and was surprised to see all of them nodding in agreement.

"I considered asking my aunt and uncle if I could go home and just go to muggle school."

"My mum tried making an application to the ministry for home education, but she has to work, so I had to stay here."

"My parents don't want me cluttering up the house. They always have their friends round and their slightly strange child isn't a good look, apparently."

"Well, I asked my gran over Christmas, and she said that it was the way it had to be. I really don't understand why. Maybe she's busy, maybe I'm annoying to have around, but erm I had tutors throughout childhood and that was fine. I asked her if she could explain, and she said that she couldn't. I didn't like the boys in my dorm, and that hasn't changed. They're all friends and get on really well, and I don't fit in with them. It's not all bad though. I've joined this lunch club and study group, and both have be improving my grades."

"Well done Neville," Addie said, "you have been working very hard."

Professor Sprout had to agree with her. The change in both Neville's grades and demeanour had been truly staggering.

"Thank you. I'm getting more acceptables which is a big improvement. My magic isn't getting any better, but I understand the theory more now, which really helps. Professor McGonagall even went as far as to say that my essay on what went wrong with transfiguring a gerbil into a coaster was 'sufficient' which was very generous of her."

"What did she say before that?" Professor Sprout asked, wondering what on earth Minerva McGonagall was saying to her first years.

"That I was 'wilfully misconstruing her instructions' and that she had 'met less obtuse geese'."

"Minerva has always had a way with words," Professor Sprout said faintly. "She really doesn't discriminate between houses."

"Except when it comes to Quidditch," Adrian said sullenly. "Apparently when it comes to Quidditch, anything's fair game."

Professor Sprout couldn't help but imagine a world in which Professor McGonagall had instead of blowing the entire Quidditch budget on a single broom for a first year who had been breaking the rules anyway, and had instead used it either to replace several other school brooms, or return her previous herbology budget. She was purchasing equipment out of her own salary, which had also been reduced. She pushed this thought aside. This was not the time at which to think about it.

"She tries to help me – at least I think she does – but she doesn't seem to understand that when people ask me what I need to succeed, I just say that everything's fine in order to get them to leave me alone."

"Muggle schools sometimes have special departments that help make sure that people have everything they need in order to pass their exams. My primary school had one and my aunt was always in touch with them to try and make sure everything was alright."

"Like for disabled students, Addie?" Cho asked.

"Disabled?" Adrian asked confusedly. "I haven't heard a person be described in that way before."

Professor Sprout hadn't heard it be used either. She wondered if it was a new fangled muggle term that had picked up speed after she had stopped working at that muggle primary school.

"It describes when people aren't able to do specific things, or struggle to do things because they are different from the 'average' person. A lot of the time, adjustments can compensate just fine, but some people also need lots of help and can't have jobs."

"You need a formal diagnosis," Addie added, "with something that makes it more difficult for you to do things, whether that be mental or physical. My aunt and uncle haven't told me what I've got, apparently it's too embarrassing for them to talk about, and they just call me a freak or another word instead."

Professor Sprout wondered whether muggle hell was taking nominations.

"What other word do they call you?"

"It's not a word I'd like to repeat, Neville. I would like to know what my formal diagnosis is, though. I think it would make everything easier for me to understand."

"Is it something that the magical world checks for?" Adrian asked. "Everyone always says that we are on top of everything especially healthcare, but I haven't heard of that word before, or anything like it."

"No," answered Cho. "I had to go to the muggle world for mine. My magical paediatrician tried to have me sectioned when my mum explained what was going on."

While Professor Sprout had been surprised by the word that had been used to describe such people, she had not been surprised by the concept. Many ailments and injuries that could result in 'disability' as she supposed she could now call it were not an issue in the magical world due to their advancements. However, that didn't stop them from having wards full of patients that they couldn't explain and she supposed that was why Neville hadn't been surprised either.

"I suppose we just talk about disabled people less," Neville said, perfectly expressing her thoughts.

"We are a very narrow culture, and anything outside of the norm that cannot be fixed or changed by magic is strange to people. I have an aunt who is just tired all the time. Nobody can explain it, nobody has any way to fix it, and nobody is willing to give her a job that she can actually do. She is a hard worker and has good days and bad days, but nothing seems to be good enough for the Ministry," Adrian agreed.

"Magic seems to make everything even narrower. Magic removes so many problems in the world that the muggles must still have and have to find solutions that the group of people who don't fit in to the 'normal' is even smaller, and we do even less to help them," Neville said. He said this with an outburst of such passion that everyone looked slightly stunned for a moment.

Professor Sprout understood his anger. In 11 years, there had been no advancements in such brain trauma as experienced by Frank and Alice Longbottom. There had, however, been other advancements, as mentioned in the newspaper almost daily. The headline 'Solution to Muggleborn Scurge may have Finally been Found' and its close associate 'Are Food Warmth Products causing Squibs to be Born in Your Family' had been influential headlines in the late 1970s. There had been other problems going on at the time, not limited to people she supposed must have been considered to be disabled not being hired at the ministry, health costs still being high and of course; the war. Since then, Minister Bagnold followed by Fudge had received an increase in their wages so significant that Professor Sprout often found herself wondering what they had done with it all, and prescription apothecary prices had been increased. She hadn't really thought about it before, but their society was probably far behind the muggles in that regard, or maybe they had problems of their own.

"The muggles don't have everything sorted out, but they have legislation in the works. Maybe something similar will end up in the magical world?" Cho reasoned.

"Lucius Malfoy and Co are big fans of reducing funding," Neville explained. "Even wards that are considered to be important have been reduced. I have f-family in one, and nothing has changed in the time they've been there, except perhaps, for the worse."

In that moment, the value of words became clearer to Professor Sprout. Clearly, they were all very passionate about the same area, but they had not been referring to the same thing by the same term. They were all amped up about the same thing, and it hadn't taken long. It also connected them together even more strongly than they had been connected before.

"Which one do you have, Cho?" Addie asked, clearly interested. "We might have the same one."

"I won't tell you the name as I don't really like it, but it means that I find it more difficult to communicate, and concentrate as well. I have narrow interests, and things that fit within this are called 'special interests', and astronomy is mine. It doesn't really mean that I find it easier at school, though. I am interested in the wrong stuff."

"That does sound like me," Addie admitted. "Does it have anything about struggling with eye contact and weirding people out when I meet them?"

"Not something I really deal with, but yes, I think it is part of the criteria."

"And me," Neville said. "That does sound like me, even with the eye contact thing, but I don't know if my gran would let me go and get checked. I can only really do things if my dad did them first."

"That's unfortunate," Addie said. "If I could only do things that my parents did, I would never have been able to do half the things I am interested in."

James Potter had been far too interested in Transfiguration to bother with History of Magic, so Addie's life would have been very different, Professor Sprout considered.

"I hope she will change her mind one day," Neville said. "I don't think she realises how heavy the burden is."

After everyone was finished, Professor Sprout asked Neville to stay behind.

"It won't take a minute, Neville. I just need to talk to you about a few things."

Once the others had left, Professor Sprout sat back down, and patted the seat beside her as Neville clearly needed a clear indication he was supposed to sit down.

"Now, Neville," she said. "After hearing what you said today, I have a very serious question for you. Is your grandmother making you use your father's wand."

Neville froze. "How do you…"

"Neville, I have been teaching for many years, and I know that it is traditional for the wands and weapons of fallen warriors to be passed on, especially in old families, but it is not suitable. Now, do you want me to write to your grandmother and explain to her that it is unsuitable?"

"It's fine…"

"I will remind you that I heard perfectly clearly what you told the group earlier. I want you to think about this seriously and give me a yes or no answer. Would it help?"

Neville swallowed before nodding.

"Wonderful," Professor Sprout said brightly. "I'll send her a letter right away."

Once Neville was gone, Professor Sprout sat down and began to write.

Dear Madam Longbottom,

I am the Head of…

She stopped writing for a minute, unsure of how to continue. She couldn't tell Madam Longbottom that she was the Head of Hufflepuff as she would question why exactly she was the one writing. She ripped off the top of the piece of parchment and began writing a different letter.

Dear Professor McGonagall,

As I am sure you know, I am currently running a group for some lonely students from the lower years. I know that The Headmaster is away at a conference, but I wouldn't write unless it was urgent. Therefore, I am dispatching this letter to you in the hopes that you will be able to facilitate a speedy solution.

I have become aware of the fact that not only are there students who are lonelier than the average, but also that there are students that need an additional level of support. Whether that is with time management, handwriting, concentration or making friends, I am sure there is a way to ensure that they have the support they need.

I would like to propose the creation of a pupil support department within Hogwarts to enable this to take place, and would like to volunteer myself for the role. As a former Hufflepuff and the Head of the House, I am not part of the enduring grudges that always seem to emerge between the houses. I am also already engaging in ensuring the welfare of at least one student from each house. This department would not need to be particularly extensive as I do not anticipate many attendants. However, it would be useful, in the aim of supporting these students, to have an official title in supporting these students, as well as to have some funding to attend training. I think "The Academic Support" department would start as a name would be a good start, and I would like to be able to refer to myself as the Academic Support Manager.

Thank you for your attention,

Professor Pomona Sprout

She selected an envelope and addressed it before making her way to the owlery. Who was to say that only Slytherins could plot?

Very busy week for me. I didn't get much writing done as I was in London to see Sondheim's Old Friends (I highly recommend it) and visited family as well. What downtime I had was spent on work for university and the train journey was dedicated to that as well. This chapter feels very clunky to me, but this is the best I could do with it. Regardless, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter.

Now, onto something more specific to this website. On the day I published this chapter (10/10/23) I noticed that I had two new comments from a few days ago. As I was away and didn't have much time, I didn't check for reviews so didn't catch them as quickly as I should have. They were clearly spam, which in itself is to be expected on the internet, but they related to a very unpleasant issue (it begins with a p). I don't know how many people saw them, but to those who did, I am so sorry that you had to see them. I do have guest review moderation enabled, but I clearly didn't see the reviews until after the 36 hours was up so they were uploaded regardless. I will do a better job of moderating my comments in future. I want people to feel safe on this website and try to do my best to ensure that on my particular part of it, but this time I didn't do enough. Again, I am so sorry.