Neville Longbottom and the Philosopher's Stone

Part 15

Neville's opinion of Professor Snape was sufficiently low that he himself had no trouble believing it. But now he was more terrified than ever. "We have to tell someone. At least Professor McGonagall."

"But Snape's had all year to get past Fluffy and he hasn't done it yet. Besides, You-Know-Who wouldn't dare try anything with Dumbledore around. You know that Dumbledore was the supposed to be the one wizard that he always feared." Neville didn't actually, but he accepted Hermione's word, it was invariably reliable. "Tell you what," she said "there's nothing we can do right now as we've got our exams next week. If nothing's happened by then, we'll tell McGonagall before the leaving feast and they can make sure it's safe while we're away in the summer. Agreed?"

"Agreed," said Neville. In the excitement he had rather forgotten the looming exams. He could only worry about so many things at one time. To take his mind off the horrors of the previous night he persuaded Hermione to help him in his revision, something it wasn't too hard to do. Hermione drew up a rather complex schedule for him to follow with study sessions for each subject.

The rest of that week, Neville worked as hard as he had ever done all year, but frankly he didn't think it did much good. Information seemed to go in one ear and out the other. By Monday, when the exams began, he was nearly in a state of flat panic at the prospect of being thrown out of Hogwarts for failing them. In spite of everything, he'd grown quite attached to the place.

Once the first exam started however, he found he could relax a bit. If he didn't know something, well he just had to pass over it and move on. It was too late to get worried about it. Besides, in the subjects he quite liked, Herbology and Defence against the Dark Arts, he thought he actually did fairly well by his standards. Professor Quirrell looked particularly pleased during Neville's practical test.

Potions was a total bust, particularly as Neville was now utterly terrified of Snape being anywhere near him. He thought that at any moment Snape would discover he knew his secret and strike him down with some curse or poison him. But in Transfiguration he did manage at least half a transformation of a mouse.

By the time of his last exam, History of Magic, Neville was tired, but mostly relieved it was all over. That morning his scar had begun to itch again, however, and it only seemed to get worse as the day wore on. Meeting with Hermione after the exam, they swapped stories but the pain in his forehead forced him to sit down for a while and they took a rest in the courtyard outside the Entrance Hall.

"Are you all right?" asked Hermione. "Maybe I should take you to see Madam Pomfrey, see what she can do."

"I don't think Madam Pomfrey can help. I told you, the scar it... it responds to You-Know-Who. Whenever he's near or, or something's going on with him, I don't know. I don't understand it."

Hermione looked grave. "Maybe he is up to something. Maybe they're about to steal the Stone." She looked at Neville with concern, as if trying to decide on something. Finally, she said "Alright, we'll tell McGonagall. And Dumbledore as well, the Stone's his responsibility. I said we'd wait until exams were over and now they are. Best we get this worry over and leave it in the hands of the teachers. Come on, Neville."

She led Neville back into the castle and up to McGonagall's office on the first floor. On knocking and entering, they found McGonagall sitting at her desk, carefully scrutinising several rolls of parchment. "Yes, Miss Granger, Mr Longbottom, what can I do for you?" she asked, peering over the top of her spectacles

Hermione did the talking. "Professor, we need to speak to you urgently. And Professor Dumbledore as well. It's very important."

McGonagall looked surprised. "I'm afraid the Headmaster is not here. He received an urgent owl from the Ministry of Magic this morning and has had to go to London immediately."