Neville Longbottom and the Philosopher's Stone

Part 10

Events came to a head at Halloween, when shortly after lessons Hermione came to him in tears. Apparently Ron had said something insensitive to her after Charms, Neville couldn't really make out what Hermione was saying in between sobs. Comforting a crying girl was something Neville had no experience in whatsoever, and so he just sat there quietly for a while and tried to cheer her up by talking about the Halloween feast that evening. Hermione didn't much like the idea of being seen in public that evening but eventually Neville talked her round and promised to stay by her.

They went down from the common room to the Great Hall together and took their seats at the Gryffindor table. They found themselves a little down across from Ron and Harry. Neville gave them a glare, but Hermione ignored them. She kept unusually quiet right through the feast and kept her head down so that her bushy hair would conceal the evidence that she'd been crying.

The rather miserable atmosphere was enlivened somewhat when an agitated Professor Quirrell burst into the Great Hall and announced through several stutters that there was a troll wandering the dungeons. The resulting uproar and commotion was actually something of a relief to Neville as it took his mind off their other problems. He made sure he stuck close to Hermione as everyone was sent back to their common rooms. They all filed behind Percy Weasley as he led the way back up to Gryffindor tower.

On the way Hermione paused for breath at the top of a staircase and Neville waited for her. As he did so he was sure he saw down a corridor Snape rushing past in a hurry. Neville wondered where he was going, as he was clearly going in the opposite direction to the dungeons, which was where the teachers were supposed to be, confronting the troll.

When they got back to the common room, Hermione went straight up to her dorm. Neville looked around the room until he found Ron, talking of course with Harry. "Ron," he said, "are you going to apologise to Hermione or what? I don't know what you did, but she was in a right state this afternoon."

"Oh, leave off, Neville," said Ron. "All I said was something like she was a bossy know-it-all. You saw the way she was going on in Charms. It's not my fault if she overheard it. She shouldn't be so sensitive."

"Hey Neville," said Harry, "it wasn't you who let the troll in, was it? It seems to be your style. Maybe we should all go looking for it." Neville simply shook his head in astonishment and went off to his room. He was beginning to think that Hermione was right about those two.

Just over a week later and the animosity between Neville and Hermione and Harry and Ron had not got any better. They now did everything to stay apart from each other in lessons and Neville like Hermione now went out of his way to avoid the pair as much as he could. At first he'd expected an apology to eventually be forthcoming, but when it didn't his opinion of them had hardened.

Now today was the first Gryffindor match of the Quidditch season and, as everyone in the school seemed to know, Harry was playing Seeker. He'd somehow managed to get himself on the team, despite the bar on first-years taking part, and rumour was that McGonagall had even got him a top-of-the-range broom to use. For Neville, who hadn't even dared to get back on a broom since the fiasco of his second week, it was almost too much to bear. If it wasn't for the fact that House pride was at stake, and particularly that the match was against Slytherin, Neville wouldn't even have gone to watch the game.

One other reason for him to go was actually that Neville had never seen a Quidditch match before. He'd listened to a few on the Wizard Wireless before (his team was the Appleby Arrows) but had never been taken to see one. Mostly he was simply curious. Hermione was coming along to watch too and Neville had spent most of the morning explaining the rules of the game to her. Though Hermione was not remotely sporty and her broom skills were nearly as bad as Neville's, the technical intricacies and statistics of the game were exactly the sort of thing that interested her.

They took the stairs all the way down from the tower to the Entrance Hall to make their way out to the Quidditch pitch. But as they were crossing the hall, talking to each other, they ran straight into a hobbling figure right in the doorway, barely moving at all. The figure fell to the ground and as Neville went to help him up he almost yelped in horror. It was Snape.

Professor Snape had been acting oddly all week, with his stiff and morose manner even more accentuated than normal. He'd also spent the last lesson at his desk, refusing to inspect the class's work. Now, with him sprawled on the floor, Neville could see why. His long black robe had fallen away from his left leg and Neville could see that his left ankle was horribly scarred and bandaged. Was it Neville's imagination or were the blood marks on the bandages exactly like teeth marks?

Hurriedly, Snape covered his ankle, and then, refusing help, clumsily dragged himself to his feet. "Cant you watch where you're going, Longbottom? Or do you go out of your way especially to be clumsy? Two points from Gryffindor either way." And with that he stalked off, as best he could with his injured leg.

"Did you see that?" asked Neville.

"See what?" replied Hermione. Neville explained what he'd seen as they continued on out of the castle. "Bite marks?" said Hermione. "Are you sure? Maybe it was from the troll?"

"Trolls don't bite people on the ankles!" said Neville. "Anyway Snape wasn't anywhere near the troll. I saw him going to...going to...that's it! The third floor corridor! It must have been that three-headed dog that bit Snape."

"But why would Snape go anywhere near that dog?"

Neville thought for a moment and tried to remember what he'd seen in that room. All he could think of were those three huge heads. "Think, think!" he said to himself. Why was his brain so useless? Then, as if from nowhere, it hit him. "There was a trapdoor," he said. "A trapdoor in the floor of the room. That dog wasn't there by accident. It's there to protect something. And Snape's trying to get at it."

"But what would be so important that Snape would do that?" But Neville did not reply as at that moment the scar on his forehead erupted in pain. It continued to throb and feel sore all the way to their seats. They postponed further discussion on the matter until after the game.

Neville quite enjoyed Quidditch, though it was a little difficult to follow at times and he had trouble pointing things out to Hermione. Lee Jordan's commentary did help though, even if he was undeniably biased to Gryffindor. It was still clear that the Slytherins were not doing anything to improve their reputation and Neville almost felt sorry for Harry as he was much smaller than the other players and was being treated quite roughly.