Neville Longbottom and the Philosopher's Stone

Part 6

"Neville, Neville!" called a voice as if from somewhere deep and far away. "Get up, Neville, you're late!" Neville uncomfortably roused himself from his deep slumber and his eyes swam into focus. Seamus, already dressed, was leaning over him and pushing his shoulder. "Come on! You've got ten minutes! Harry and Ron were up ages ago!"

Very slowly, and with no coordination, Neville levered himself out of bed and began automatically to get dressed. He barely noticed when he put his shoes on the wrong feet, until he tried to stand up. He briefly attempted to comb his hair, but gave up as there wasn't time. Dean, who had been waiting for them, thrust a pile of books into Neville's hands and they all went down for breakfast in the Great Hall.

Normally Neville liked breakfast, it was his favourite meal of the day as he felt he always needed it to get going in the morning. Today however he found he couldn't enjoy it at all, he was so nervous. He kept glancing at his watch, terrified of the approach of 9 am, when classes would begin. To take his mind off things, he studied his timetable. First years at Hogwarts took seven subjects, and looking down the list, he wasn't entirely sure what half of them even meant. Defence Against the Dark Arts sounded terrifying, and he doubted he could even spell or pronounce Transfiguration, let alone know what it was. Still, Fridays looked good, only one subject, Potions, and then the whole afternoon off. He suspected that would be his favourite day.

He had barely noticed that Hermione had sat down next to him and was now leaning over his shoulder, examining the timetable. "All ready?" she asked enthusiastically. I'm looking forward to Charms the most, but Transfiguration is said to be the most challenging. Shame it's not till Thursday. I can hardly wait. What about you?" Neville merely nodded weakly. "Oh, come on," she said, "I'm sure it won't be as bad as that. Everyone's in the same position, you know."

"You're not," replied Neville. "I bet you know most of the course already." To his surprise Hermione laughed.

"Of course I don't, Neville," she said. "I'm Muggle-born, remember? It's all books with me. You've actually lived it. I envy you in a way. Tell you what, let's sit next to each other in classes this week and we'll compare how well we each do. I bet you'll be surprised. Come on, that's the bell for the first lesson. We have to find our way over to greenhouse one."

And so the school week began, and Neville and Hermione sat together all week. Unfortunately Hermione insisted on sitting at the front every lesson, so she could best see the blackboard and easily get the teacher's attention. Neville felt terribly exposed up at the front, as if all the other children behind were staring at him, which, given who he was, they probably were. Also it made him feel as if the teachers picked on him more than everyone, which almost certainly wasn't true, but it seemed that way.

In truth, Hermione's "contest" was nothing of the sort, she easily outshone Neville in every class. But Neville quickly forgot about the challenge, as Hermione was very friendly and helpful, if a little bossy at times. As she was regularly ahead of the class at most times, she would have time to help Neville and correct any of his mistakes, which were sadly numerous. An outside observer might have noted that Hermione was heavily talking down to Neville, and largely bossing him about, but Neville didn't notice. He was genuinely grateful for the help, as it made the ordeal of lessons that little bit easier. Hermione didn't notice either. She seemed to have appointed herself the role of private tutor, and was relishing it.

The first lesson they had that week, Herbology, Neville found to his surprise that he actually enjoyed. Quite why he found plants so fascinating, he wasn't sure, but Professor Sprout was an engaging and infectiously enthusiastic teacher, and some of that enthusiasm seemed to rub off on Neville. Also the informal atmosphere of the greenhouse was much more to Neville's liking than a traditional, stuffy classroom. He even considered volunteering to answer a question at one point.