Chapter 6: The slimy blond boy

Summary:

Neville reflects about Harry Potter.

Hermione Addams arrives at Hogwarts.

Trevor, the terror pulls a disappearing act.

Harry rejects the friendship of an arrogant boy.

Minerva appears to welcome the new students.

Notes:

Sup y'all o/

Did you miss us?

Oh boy this is the biggest chapter up to this point, I was surprise with the size at the end lol

Kudos to Zero who kicked my arsed into gear to finish the chapter, it was there marinating for days until she told me to move at once, don't forget to thank her.

As per usual, my dears, happy reading!

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Seeing Harry Potter looking like an ill treated house elf confused Neville profoundly. He grew up listening to stories about his parents and Harry's parents being friends. His father was great friends with James even with him being a year older, and Alice Longbottom shared a room with Lily Potter for all their seven years at Hogwarts. Gran always told him about how amazing his father was and how his mother was capable of reign in Frank's more reckless behaviour. A behaviour that was accentuated specially when James "Up to no good" Potter came to visit during summers, where they would go out to play and come back home dirty with dozens of new stories of mischief to tell. According to Gran, his mother had a gift in calming down their troublemaker side that grew larger by the day especially after Sirius Black came to live with the Potters.

The playfulness that was the protagonist in so many stories about the Potters told by his grandmother was not found in Harry's smile. The confidence of James Potter's posture that he saw in so many pictures of his parents with their friends, was not present in Harry Potter's shoulders. The kindness of Lily Potter's eyes did not pierced the wariness that existed in her son's. He even hesitated at giving his name, Neville wasn't sure what happened to Harry, but he was sure going to try to be his friend and help him however he was able to.

He finished exploring the train with Hermione in a daze, he provided the information she required about other students without much thought, his mind was back in the compartment of the scrawny boy with too big clothes. Once Hermione was satisfied, he called Trevor over from his hiding spot, relieved that they were finally together once again with Trevor getting comfortable in his favourite pocket. They settled in their compartment after they took turns to change into their school uniforms, Hermione falling silent with her notebook whilst he sat by the window to watch the sunset across the Scottish green hills that signal the ending of their journey. He wondered if Hermione knew something he didn't, with her warning Harry about checking the books he was in. He was aware of the books where the 'Boy-who-lived' had had many adventures. Neville was not dense enough to think any of them true, but wasn't as sure about the rest of the wizarding world. 'They are a bunch of dumb sheep that think whatever the Prophet wants them to think.' Is what his Gran always said about the general population.

She was especially prone to scoff at all the articles written by Rita Skeeter. The reporter, 'If you can call that gossipmonger a reporter.' as Gran would say, had a way with manipulating everything she ever published without writing any truths. Every article that came from her was full of scandals and intrigues that would always bring misfortune to her target. Gran had more than her fair share of protagonism in Skeeter's stories, and had brought her wrath over the woman more times that he could count. For every year, without fail, an Anniversary article about the dark lord and his death eaters' defeat would be published.

Which inevitably would talk about the tragic fate of Harry Potter's family, of the 'Boy-who-lived' himself, 'What a sad epithet to bestow upon a child.' Augusta Longbottom would lament, and eventually the fate of Neville's own family. Thanks to those articles, the majority of the country thought his parents dead, killed by Bellatrix Lestrange with help of her husband Rodolphus Lestrange, her brother-in-law Rabastan Lestrange and Barty Crouch Junior. Their names were seared into his brain, to this day he had nightmares with his parents screams, even if he was supposed to be too young to remember when it happened.

He never told Gran about his nightmares, she suffered enough. Whilst magical Britain were obliviously believing in the deaths of aurors Frank and Alice Longbottom, the truth was so, so much worse. Neville dug his hands into his pockets and petted Trevor's head while his other hand closed around a piece of sweet wrapper. The last one his mother had given to him as he was visiting to say goodbye before his first train ride to Hogwarts. He hoped his parents would be proud. But ultimately knew that they wouldn't even remember him.

'Good evening kids, we are arriving at Hogsmeade in about ten minutes. "The conductor's voice sounded throughout the train. 'Please remember to leave your belongings on the train, it will be transported to your beds during the welcoming feast. Before leaving the train, be sure to be in your uniforms and do not trample one another when exiting the vehicle, you have plenty of time to reach the castle. To the returning students, it's good to have you back. And to the first years, welcome to Hogwarts.'

Hermione closed her book that she had retrieved after a while messing with her notes and put it and her notebook back on her bag, using her fountain pen to write her name both on the black box that sat by her side the whole ride and on the empty cage. Following her example, Neville made sure that he had all he needed and that all his belongings were labeled properly.

The train stopped at the station exactly ten minutes after the announcement, Hermione didn't allow him to run out of the compartment right away, forcing him to wait until the bulk of a bustling crowd of children and teenagers had passed. When they joined the procession leading outside, it was amidst older students from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, who recognized the pair and made sure to ask after Trevor. Hermione, with a smile on her face, said they managed to find him hiding at the end of the train and even joked how he would be a tough opponent to play hide-and-seek with, which made the majority of the students burst into laughter and wish good luck on their sorting.

Following the thundering voice that was shouting for the first years, Neville found himself looking at the tallest man he had ever seen. Hagrid, as he introduced himself, gamekeeper and keeper of the Keys and Ground of Hogwarts. He was a giant man with a bush like dark hair past his shoulder that combined into his equally bushy beard that reached his chest, making it very difficult to see his eyes that were covered by more of the same bushy eyebrows. Despite his intimidating appearance and his outfit that consisted in a heavy brown trench coat, dark brown trousers and heavy black boots the size of Neville's torso, Hagrid was gentle as he spoke and said hello to Harry softly, asking how he was. His every step was marked by the jingle of various keys hooked in a large loop that hung off his belt as he guided them to the boats.

Hermione and him followed at the back of the group and ended up sitting with two of his friends, Susan Bones and Hannah Abott, who looked at Hermione weirdly since she was not presenting the arrogant know-it-all personality they've met at the train, instead she was as calm and silent as the waters of the Black lake. Neville could see they didn't know what to make of her, and she did nothing more than nod at them and settle into the boat easily as if balancing on the moving platform was the same as walking on firm land. He was a bit embarrassed that he needed assistance to get into the boat, but none of the girls made fun of him and Hermione's hand shot up and grabbed his wrist, keeping him from falling into the water until he could sit. She just nodded when he thanked her.

Once everybody was seated securely, Hagrid gave the order for the boats to move. Not so long ago, Neville thought that watching the fireflies play amongst the trees during the summer nights in the border of the forest that surrounded his home was breathtaking, he stood corrected the moment he saw Hogwarts. The castle was magnificent, it stood over them with its hundreds of windows lit up by the torches inside, but instead of being intimidating, it was inviting. The castle welcomed them all to explore its many corridors and learn as much as they could in its hallowed halls.

He turned to Hermione to watch her reaction and was surprised to find her with her eyes closed with a peaceful expression, she took a deep breath and her posture changed. Even though their year mates and himself had an expression of awe when they saw the castle, Hermione looked like she was finally home after a long day, the fondness in her eyes mirrored how she looked at her family when she said goodbye to them at the station.

And just like that they arrived on the other side of the Black Lake and just like when she entered, Hermione exited the boat as if the side to side movement it made didn't exist, this time she didn't wait for him. He was left stumbling out of the boat with his friends helping him. He found her waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs, she was touching the stone wall and as if she was having a conversation only she could hear, she was whispering to it. He wasn't sure but it seemed like the castle responded to her because she smiled softly, a real smile this time and it was nothing like the smiles she gave during the train ride whilst talking to people. Even her dimples seemed more real now that she was not performing for the crowds.

Walking up the stairs brought all his nerves back, but he dared not voice them, it seemed most of the others around him were nervous as well. He heard Ron whispering to Harry that his brothers told him that they had to fight a troll for the sorting and some people started to list the spells they read about under their breath and what they think they could cast.

Taking a deep breath, Neville tried to calm down and find courage to stand tall in front of this unknown challenge. Just like the others, he worried about what he could cast, his wand wasn't the best at answering to him, Gran handed him his father's wand, proudly proclaiming how it aided Frank Longbottom to be a successful auror. Sadly Neville disappointed her when he couldn't make sparks without an immense amount of effort on his part, it was as if he was waddling in a waist deep mud puddle whilst carrying a heavy potted plant that refused to be moved to another spot. He hoped that Hogwarts would help him to be even half the wizard his father was.

Reaching into his pocket to pet Trevor so he could calm his nerves just made his anxiety go through the roof when he found an empty pocket, quickly looking down he confirmed that there was no toad in sight. Frantically patting his other pockets that were spread across his robes didn't diminish his fears, for in each one of them there was no sign of his toad. Trying to call his familiar back to him only made him receive the equivalent of a back turned to him and the blocking of Trevor's exact location. This time his toad was truly lost and he couldn't find him, looking around agitatedly yielded no result.

Hermione, he noticed, was pulled away from her one sided conversation by his frantic stumble down the stairs. When he passed by her, quickly turning his head around trying to look everywhere, she grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him back the couple of steps he managed to go down, lumbering his body to rest against the wall. All the witch had to do was raise a single eyebrow for him to tell her almost hysterically that Trevor was missing.

"It's Trevor, he's gone! I put my hand in my pocket to pet him and he wasn't there. He's gone!"

Murmuring an exasperated ''Honestly!" under her breath, Hermione closed her eyes, took a deep breath and tried to control the sudden urge of strangling Longbottom. They've just got there, how can he lose his familiar the moment she doesn't have her eyes on him? Something has to give, she did not come to Hogwarts to babysit anybody. Pugsley has been enough for the last 8 years and that responsibility had at least been shared with Wednesday.

Unfortunately for her and fortunately for him, Neville reminded her too much of her brother and the ridiculous urge to protect and aid the weakest link was ingrained in her at this point. Exhaling slowly she tried to control her irritation with his incompetence of keeping a check on one of the strongest bonds he'll ever have within reach, especially giving his familiar's prey status despite being highly poisonous.

"It's alright, just call him back."

"I'm trying! He's not listening! He's feeling more nauseated while I walk on land then from when I clumsy got in and out of the boat. But that's no reason to leave as he did!"

Neville had the same kicked puppy expression on his face as Pugsley did when she and Wednesday would avoid his tacky ill thought out attempts of traps. Most would find that expression pitiful whilst all it did was give Hermione the strong urge to kick him down the stairs.

"Come on." She turned around and started walking away from the other students in the direction of the boats. "Let's go find your runaway tadpole."

Whilst his worries did not completely go away, Neville's panic had been subdued and a hopeful confidence was slowly starting to fill him, replacing the urge to cry in frustration for not finding Trevor. He had the impression that Hermione would not take that well and would refuse to help if that was to occur. At this point, even after spending only half a day with the witch, he understood that Hermione was not someone to be underestimated, she would always somehow find a way to get what she wanted. And if someone decides they will not collaborate, she will stubbornly refuse to budge until everyone else buckles under her unnerving stare down.

Reaching the coast of the Lake where the boats were merely floating waiting to be ordered to wherever they were stored, they still saw no sign of his toad. He heard croaks everywhere, but no toad in sight.

"Mr. Trevor, if you do not allow Longbottom to find you then I will find you, and that means that you will be fed to my familiar, and I guarantee you Mr. Trevor, you being poisonous will make no difference to them."

Well, that was one way to do it, Neville looked at her in horrified fascination, she threatened his familiar with a calm voice of someone who was serious and knew they could carry on with the threat. All the croaks had suddenly stopped, Trevor suddenly opened their bond and sent a flood of feelings that he could barely keep up with and tugged almost as frantically on the bond, urging the boy to find him quickly.

They saw Trevor hopping in their direction coming from a circle of other frogs and toads that dispersed almost immediately after Hermione's eyes fell on them. When Trevor jumped in his direction, both he and Neville were surprised when he was snatched from the air, much like what happened at the station, by the girl.

"I shall keep him for now. To avoid more of his… impromptu adventures for tonight, don't you agree?"

Both of them hastily agreed, and the two wixes swiftly headed back to the stairs in order to join the others, who didn't even notice they were gone, but by a blond girl who watched them curiously.

Catching up with the crowd, they saw a boy with hair so blond it almost looked white against the flames of the torches on the wall behind him. He stood tall at the top step with an undeserved arrogant expression on his face, looking down on the other students as if they were beneath him. Neville, particularly, thought he looked insincere and instantly knew he did not want to mix with his crowd. The boy's arrogance loomed over the students like a dark cloud, souring the mood of whoever was caught on its range. While Hermione could exude arrogance as well, it was a deserved arrogance which made it somehow more bearable, maybe because he witnessed her default personality before venturing off to charm or intimidate the rest of the train. Besides, he was pretty sure that whatever Hermione says, she was pretty capable of backing it.

The boy held his hand out in front of him, with a smug smirk of someone who held the upper hand, to Harry Potter, if he was not mistaken. Harry refused to shake his hand and must have said something that turned the blonde haired boy's expression sour and an ugly sneer crossed his face as he looked down his nose at Harry Potter for snubbing him.

Hermione, seeing the impending conflict about to happen, looked down on the toad that sat quiet and secured in her hand. A concealed glance at Longbottom who was wearing an expression of contempt towards the blond boy. She mentally rolled her eyes, she would need to beat that out of the boy, he had such an expressive face, anybody could read him like an open book with those infantile images teaching the alphabet. Without looking down a second time, she opened her hand and thrusted the toad forward a bit, directing where he was supposed to go.

Trevor, who had decided that behaving was in his best interest, felt the hold slacken and the hand he was being held firmly just a second ago, moved slightly forwards encouraging him to jump. At this point he had learned that it was not healthy, at least for him and most certainly his wizard, to not disobey The Apex Predator. Trevor was suddenly airborne and leaped up to the top step.

It took Neville a few moments at being distracted by not only the slimy boy's attitude and Harry's response to that, but also the sights of the enormous doors in front of him, for him to hear the familiar sounding croak of a Trevor running away. Quickly looking over to the girl by his side, he confusingly noticed that Hermione's hands were empty. He saw something moving fast in the corner of his eyes and turning his head a bit he catched the quick glimpse of long green amphibian legs stretched in a leap up the stairs. Neville immediately responds to his familiar's behaviour by yelling his name and jumping after him as predicted, squishing himself between the two feuding boys. Effectively shutting down the imminent argument that was about to happen.

Suffice to say that nobody was expecting the older witch that stopped right in front of a kneeling Neville who was scooping up Trevor from the floor. Neville had the grace of looking embarrassed when he heard her cleaning her throat above him. Following the dark green robes up, he saw an older witch with graying hair tied into a severe tight bun held under a large brim black hat, she looked down her nose at him over her thin wire framed glasses and raised an eyebrow at him, making him scramble up to his feet and retake his place by Addams' side.

The witch surveilled the children in front of her with a stern no nonsense look that took the rest of the fight from Harry and the blond boy. Neville inhaled sharply when he recognized Minerva Mcgonagall, Hermione glanced at him whilst he was having a mental breakdown over such a bad first impression he gave to the head of Gryffindor house, Gran would kill him.

"Good evening, I'm Professor Minerva Mcgonagall, welcome to Hogwarts." said the Professor with a thick Scottish accent.

"Behind those doors you will find the Great Hall, where the start of term banquet will begin shortly." She gestured to the big doors behind her. "However, before you join the other students you must be sorted into a house. The sorting ceremony is one of the most important events in a Hogwarts' student life, its tradition expands through hundreds of years back to the founders of the school. While you are here, your house will be your family. You will join your housemates in classes, your common room, and you will sleep amongst them in your house dormitory."

Hermione could already feel the annoyance of having to share her space with other people. She and Wednesday had parted ways, bedroom wise, a long time ago, she would have to get used to roommates again, the foreboding dread of having her privacy invaded crawled up her spine like a spider stalking the prey that was stuck in its webs. Nevertheless, the older witch resumed her speech after a few moments of silence.

"The four houses are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each and every one of these noble houses has its own history and values, every house has produced outstanding witches and wizards that went out in the world to make an impact of their own." Minerva observed the children perk up on the name of their desired house or frown with others, all but one child, who remained looking at her attentively with no reaction nor expression. Dark cold dead eyes that reminded her of Severus' eyes when he was occluding. The girl did not blink or look away from her eyes as children would normally do when being observed directly by an authority figure, nor did she seem intimidated by her stern posture, instead the little witch just observed her calmly. Minerva knew right there and then, that she would need to keep an eye on this one. The Weasley twins were more than enough mischief for one school year at a time. She continued to look over the other students after their excitement calmed down.

"While you are at Hogwarts, every triumph will earn you house points, of course breaking any rules will result in losing house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the House Cup. Being able to study at Hogwarts is a privilege and an honour, each one of you is expected to behave accordingly. I hope you will become a credit to whichever house is lucky to welcome you."

She paused, letting the children absorb the information whilst cataloging the ones she was sure were going to be one of her cubs. After over twenty years of teaching, Minerva had a knack at identifying the Gryffindors.

"The sorting Ceremony will commence shortly." She turned sharply and walked towards the door. "Form a single line and follow me. Do not dawdle."

Neville took his place on the line, trying to quell his nervousness, he could feel his palms sweaty. Suddenly he felt a jab at his back that made him straighten his posture out of reflex after years of conditioning with his Gran poking him in the back to force him to hold proper posture.

"Shoulders back, Longbottom. Are you a Gryffindor or not?"

Hermione's voice came from behind him, harshly censoring his fear of not being sorted into his parents house. She was right, a Gryffindor wouldn't cower like that. With his shoulders back and head held high, Neville watched the doors of the Great Hall being open, it was now or never.

Notes:

Oh so you thought it was Addams vs Malfoy showdown? SIKE!

It was not this time that our favourite git got his arse handed to him.

We stan Neville in this house, he did not deserve the way he was always brushed aside all the time.

Poor Neville though, his parents aren't even aware he is there with them.

Anyway, Trevor do not give that boy a break lol

Also, also. Hermione has dimples

Minerva for sure had goosebumps the moment Hermione step foot out of the train.

See you next chapter, y'all!