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The Neville Saga

Part 1: The Mandrake

When Neville woke up that fateful morning he had no idea what was in store for him. He slowly pulled away the hangings around his bed to see the dim, early morning sky peek through the window in the Gryffindor dormitory.. He got up and walked over to the window and looked out over the Hogwarts grounds. Neville noticed the giant squid lazily tread water in the very middle of the large lake. He then noticed a tawny barn owl swoop out of the sky toward the window he was looking out of. He was carrying a small parcel. Neville sighed, What did I forget this time? The owl flew in and dropped the parcel into Neville's hands. It stared at him with its huge honey brown eyes and immediately flew away. Neville stared at it. There was no return address, which was odd. His Grandmother always wrote her address, and she wasn't one to forget things. Neville looked it over some more and decided to open it now, when he had privacy. He walked back to his bed and sat down. He pulled out the tape surrounding the package. With some difficulty he managed to open it. Inside he found a plant inside a large pot. He recognized the bud as a Mandrake. He wondered if Professor Sprout, his Herbology teacher, had sent it as a present for his recent marks, which were the highest in the class of both Gryffindors and Ravenclaws. That didn't make sense though. They had planted Mandrakes in his third year and it hadn't gone all that well. It takes a very good Herbologist to care for a Mandrake. Neville knew they were a good way to relieve acne, but he had no need for pimple cream. "Neville? Is that you?" it was Harry Potter, calling sleepily into the morning air. "Yes, Harry. It's very early, go back to bed," Neville instructed. "Are you alright?" Harry asked. "Yes, just go back to sleep." Neville heard Harry lay back in bed. A few minutes later Neville heard his soft snores. He decided to go to the common room so he wouldn't wake any other fifth years. When he reached the common room he set the mandrake on a table and looked it over carefully. "Who on earth would send me a Mandrake? And with no letter?" Neville thought aloud. He heard groaning behind him. He jumped up and whirled around. It was his friend, Hermione Granger. She had obviously just awoken. Her hair was even frizzier than usual and her eyes were rather bloodshot. "Hermione! What are you doing up so early?" Neville asked in wonderment. Hermione looked around, confused. "Oh," she shook herself off. "I suppose I nodded off." "What were you doing?" "I had to finish that essay on the ramifications of the Goblin Revolution of 1507 for Binns's class," Hermione replied, suddenly looking extremely tired again. "But that's not do for days Hermione. Why would you pull an all-nighter so early?" Hermione put her head down. "Well, I have an Ancient Runes test tomorrow and then there is a huge report I have for Arithmancy due in three days. Plus I'd like to get started on my recipe for the truth potion for Snape. It seems I don't have enough time. I just wanted to check at least one thing off." Neville looked at her, worried. "Have you ever thought of dropping Ancient Runes or Arithmancy? I hear they're extremely difficult." Hermione looked up as if Neville had insulted her. "Those are my favorite classes. I wouldn't dream of dropping either." "Then maybe Care of Magical Creatures? It's not much of a challenge, you know?" Neville still looked at Hermione with a worried statement. Hermione took this in. "Maybe you're right Neville. I may, in fact, drop Ancient Runes and Care of Magical Creatures. That new Professor Ranma is so annoying. He's so full of himself." "Another Lockhart?" Ron, who was standing at the foot of the stairs said. Hermione rolled her eyes. "Up early Ron?" "Yes, actually. I was considering sending an owl to mum saying how well I did on my Divination readings." "Still making it all up, then?" Hermione said. "I resent that," Ron mocked. "It really did say in my planetary readings that I would be poisoned by a strange potion any day now." "I'm sure," Hermione said, unconvinced. "Well, I'm off. See you both at breakfast," Ron said, leaving. "Is that a Mandrake?" Hermione asked, only now noticing the Mandrake. "Yes, I believe so. I received it this morning." "Who would send you a Mandrake? Was it Professor Sprout?" "I have no idea. There was no note attached. Do you know of any uses other than acne cream for Mandrakes?" Hermione thought for a second. "To be honest I don't do much research in Herbology. I could help you look if you wish. I always enjoy a bit of extra research." "No that's alright," Neville replied evasively. "Alright Nev. I think I'll try and get a little more sleep," Hermione walked up toward the girls' dormitory, leaving Neville alone in the common room. Neville then decided to head to the library. He knew he'd never be able to get more sleep and he, after all, had to begin his own truth potion recipe for Snape. It would take him days, as he was incredibly horrible at Potions.

Part 2: At the Library

When Neville reached the library he discovered he wasn't the only one starting the day early. He immediately noticed Dumbledore speaking to the librarian, Madame Pince, and Professor McGonagall?. They didn't noitice Neville walk in, all three seemed very involved in the conversation. Neville immediately thought to leave, but he then thought of the Mandrake, which was sitting by a window in the common room. Curiosity got the better of him so he ran to the Herbology section, which was, unfortunately, very close to where the three teachers stood. He tried to phase the conversation out of his head as he perused for a book on Mandrakes, but when he heard the name of Professor Snape, his least favorite person in the world, who also happened to be his Potions teacher, he couldn't help but listen. "Snape will be gone the whole year, you say?" he heard Madame Pince say. "Yes, of course he will," Professor McGonogall? answered sternly. "He can't very well teach and…well, he just can't teach at this time." "Who will be replacing him?" Madame Pince asked. "Professor Ranma, the Ancient Runes teacher," Dumbledore replied. "Then who will take his place?" "That's sort of why we are here Irma. We would like you to take Professor Ranma's place as the Ancient Runes teacher," Dumbledore said. "Me? Why? I haven't studied Runes in some time Professor," Madame Pince said, rather flabbergasted. "Irma, we all know you are extremely qualified for the position. Not as many students take the class, so you'll only have a few classes per week. Please, Irma. We are in a bind," Dumbldore pleaded. "Well," she began. "Alright." "Thank you Madame," Dumbledore said. Neville heard three sets of feet leave and realized he was alone in the library. He grabbed a book he saw titled The Mandrake and ran out of the library, not caring there was no one there to see him now. He had to get back to the common room. He had to speak to the only person he knew he could tell. He had to get to Hermione.

Part 3: The Potions Master

"Canary creams!" Neville could barely get the password out he was so out of breath. The fat lady swung away and Neville climbed into the portrait hole. When he reached the common room he saw Harry and Hermione walking towards the portrait hole. "Hi Neville!" Hermione called happily. "Want to come to breakfast with us? It just started." Neville shook his head. "I have something to tell you." "What is it?" Harry asked, looking at Neville with concern. "It's about Snape." Harry's lip curled as it often did at the name of his least favorite professor. "What is it then?" "He's gone! He's left!" "What do you mean Neville? Where has he gone?" Hermione asked. "I'm not sure. I was in the library looking up Mandrakes and I heard Dumbledore and McGonagall? talking to Madame Pince. They offered Professor Ranma's job to her." "What do you mean? Professor Ranma lost his job?" Hermione asked, smiling slightly. "No, no. He's taking over for Snape." "Oh," Hermione replied, obviously disappointed. "Is that it Neville?" Harry asked, obviously not impressed by the news. Neville's ears turned pink. "Aren't you curious about Snape?" "Not particularly," Harry answered. "Why not? They didn't seem to want to talk about where he is now. Maybe he went back to You-Know-Who!" "I doubt it," Harry said walking into the portrait hole. "How can he be so sure?" "He has his reasons," Hermione told him. "What reasons?" "Let's go to breakfast Neville," Hermione said in an end-of-the-conversation sort of way. Neville followed Hermione through the portrait hole. "Hey, we have Potions today! We'll get to see Ranma!" "And that's a good thing?" Hermione said, rather disgusted. "Well, he must be better than Snape. I wonder what he'll be like." "I've already told you he is extremely full of himself and a difficult teacher on top of it." Neville went pale. "More difficult than Snape?" "I wouldn't go that far," Hermione replied. The color returned to Neville's face. He realized the Mandrake book was still in his hands. "You know what Hermione? I think I'll meet up with you later. I'm really interested in this Mandrake thing right now. I think I'll skip breakfast." "Alright. I guess I'll see you at Potions then?" Neville nodded as he ran back up the stairwell (taking a little longer than necessary because he got his foot stuck in the trick step he always forgot about) and back to the common room. He sat next to the pot which held his Mandrake and opened the book. He skimmed the contents, looking for likely chapters. He decided upon 'Uses of the Mandrake' and turned to that page. Other than acne cream, Mandrakes had a lot more uses than Neville expected. It seemed they were a vital part of many potions. As he looked down the line of potions he saw almost none that were of any actual use. "Why would I need to make my ear hair grow?" Neville wondered aloud. But he did find a few that seemed interesting. One in particular caught his eye. "This Forgetful Potion would be perfect! It says it keeps people from forgetting nearly anything that is important," Neville slumped slightly in his chair. "But would I remember to take it?" Neville also saw that there were a lot of ingredients, many of which he had never heard of. "What in the world is a Bulgarian Horn Plant?" Neville asked himself. "Whatever it is it sounds dangerous and I doubt Professor Sprout has one." Neville scanned the rest of the potions, all of which continued to get stupider. He decided against turning the page, where there were more potions Mandrakes were used in. He suddenly realized he was late and he bounded out of the portrait hole and sped toward the dungeons where he had Potions with the Slytherins. When he ran in he realized he was the lastone to arrive. Out of reflez his ears turned a dark shade of magenta, along with the rest of his face, waiting for Snape to embarrass him with a scolding. It seemed a few of the Slytherins, particularly Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, seemed to be looking forward to it, as they sniggered to each other. But intead Professor Ranma, a tall and lanky man with not much in the way of hair or a nose, smiled down at Neville. "You're late. I'll have to dock a point from Gryffindor for that of course. Don't make it a habit boy," Ranma said rather nicely. Neville smiled back and ran quickly to his seat next to Hermione. "Anyway, as I was saying, my name is Professor Ranma. I will be replacing Professor Snape for the rest of term and possibly past that." Draco Malfoy raised his hand. "Where is Professor Snape?" he asked in his drawling voice. "He's on sick leave," Ranma answered evasively. "That's not what I heard," Neville heard Draco whisper to Crabbe. "Back to business then," Ranma continued. "Professor Snape left a note saying you have some truth potions do in a few days." The class gave a collected groan. "Well, I'm not a big fan of truth potions, so you don't have to do them. Unless you want extra credit." The class cheered. "Okay, today's lesson will be on potions that have been banned by the Ministry of Magic." Everyone looked at Rnama, rapt with attention. "First off, the Polyjuice Potion. Does anyone know what this potion does?" Ron, Harry, and Hermione raised their hands simultaneously. Yes?" Ranma asked, nodding toward Harry. "It changes your appearance to another's." "Yes," Ranma said. "Does anyone know what the key ingredient is?" Ron, Harry, and Hermione raised their hands simultaneously once again. Ranma smiled. "Yes Hermione." "The hair of the person you wish to turn into." "Very good, all of you. That's ten points to Gryffindor." "Now, let's learn about some more forbidden potions. Everyone get out some parchment and a quill." For the rest of the class they took notes on potions that did everything from make someone sprout eight noses to literally kill them with one sip. "That was the best Potions class ever!" Harry exclaimed as they left. "Who knew Potions with the Slytherins could be so great?" Ron added. "Yeah, it's nice to have a Potions teacher who doesn't play favorites so much," Neville said. "What's the matter Hermione? Didn't you like Potions?" Ron asked. "I don't know. I just never remember Ranma being so…so…so nice." "And that's a bad thing?" Neville asked. "No. I just don't know. I just don't know. I'm afraid he's going to get us used to his niceness and then he'll turn into…himself." "Hermione, I'm sorry if we don't take Ancient Runes," Harry began. "I'm not," Ron interjected. "and have no idea what you're talking about, but we rather like Professor Ranma," Harry finished. "Yeah," Neville agreed. "He might just be tougher on his Ancient Runes students." "He's usually so full of himself though!" Hermione said defensively. "We believe you," Ron said, looking a little scared. "Just ask another Ancient Runes student. They'll tell you!" "Who else takes it?" Neville asked. Hermione thought for a second. "Padma and Parvati Patil." "We'll be sure to ask them later," Harry assured. He also looked at Hermione a little scared. Hermione looked away. "Maybe I'm overreacting about him. I might be a little bitter about my recent marks." "What were they?" Ron asked. He couldn't hide his happiness to hear Hermione wasn't perfect. Hermione looked away again. "B m-m-m-minus," she could barely get it out. Ron rolled his eyes. "How utterly horrible." "Just give him another chance," Neville said. "It'll be better with Potions. You're so good at it, it won't affect your grades any. If you can get an A with Snape, you can get an A with anyone." Hermione blushed. "Thank you Neville." Ron looked at Neville with slight distain. He whispered something into Harry's ear. Neville looked over at Ron strangely. "Well, I'll see you all at Herbology. I'm going to head down there early." "Bye," Ron called in a glad-you're-leaving sort of way as Neville walked toward the giant doors that led out to the Hogwarts grounds.

Part 4: The Ingredients

Neville walked into the greenhouse where Herbology class was held. He saw Professor Sprout putting a tray of plants into a large tank. "You're early Longbottom. Rather unlike you. Is there something you want to talk about?" "Did you send me anything recently?" Neville asked. Sprout looked at him strangely. "No. Why do you ask?" "I received a Mandrake by post earlier today." "A Mandrake? Interesting." "Yes, I thought so as well. Why do you think I might have received one?" She thought for a second. "I have no idea. Do you?" Neville shook his head. His eyes turned to the tray of plants Professor Sprout had just put in the tank. "What are these?" Neville asked, pointing to a menacing looking leafy plant. "Mediterranean Thorned Ferns?" "Yes," Sprout replied. "Lots of uses, you know. Most water plants, actually, are quite useful. We're starting a unit on water plants, in fact, today." Neville nodded. "I've read up on some." "That doesn't surprise me Longbottom. You're one of my best students." Neville blushed. "Thank you Professor." "About this Mandrake then. Was it a bud?" "Yes," Neville answered. "Well, I'd like to take a look at it." "Of course. I'll take it down for our next class." "That sounds good," she said. "Oh, the rest of the class is coming." Neville looked over and saw all the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws walking toward the greenhouse. It was a rather interesting Herbology class for all. Professor Sprout showed them a lot of amazing water plants, some of which Neville had never read about. "Your homework is to tend to the water plant of your choice," Sprout told them at the end of class. "I have single aquariums over there and simply fill them up with water from the faucet outside of the greenhouse." The class each took a single-sized aquarium and filled them up with water as Professor Sprout had told them. They then chose their plants from the tray. "Wow!" Ron exclaimed. "We are certainly on a roll. First Potions, and now Herbology! Who ever thought fifth year would be so fun?" "Not me," Harry added. Neville, however, wasn't quite as excited. He now had two plants to look after. He had chosen the Mediterranean Horned Fern as his plant and he also had the Mandrake. But when Neville reached his dormitory to clean up before dinner he would find those weren't the only plants he had to take care of. On his bed lay three identical boxes. He picked each up and examined them. Still no return address or note. He opened the first. Inside was what Neville recognized as a Bobotuber. Its puss was good for some medicinal purposes, Neville remembered from last year when they worked with Bobotubers. He placed it next to his Mandrake, which was now on his bedside table. The next package held some Gillyweed, which was used to breath underwater. "Who is sending me this stuff?" Neville nearly screamed in frustration. The final box looked somehow more ominous than the others. At first he imagined himself chucking the box out the window, but decided against that. He was extremely curious what it held. Neville pulled the tape enclosing the package slowly. When he folded the top back he found an oversized jam jar of what looked much like jam. But on further investigation he discovered it was actually blood. Extremely thick blood, which meant it was most likely dragon's blood, one of the most magical things in the world. It's used in many potions, most of which are dangerous. Neville returned the jar to the box and slid it under his bed. He walked down to the Great Hall full of thoughts of going to the library to do more research, but his stomach wasn't in the mood to miss another meal. Neville quickly wolfed down his food and went to the library. There he grabbed books on Bobotubers, Dragon's blood, and Gillyweed. He got straight to work, jotting down anything he found important or useful. After what seemed like only minutes Hermione came. "Neville, you've been here for hours. You should come back to the common room. Harry and Ron said your plants aren't looking so good." Neville looked up in horror. "My Gillyweed! I forgot to put it in water!" Hermione looked at Neville, confused. "You got a Gillyweed? When?" "I received some more things in the post. A Gillyweed, a Bobotuber, and a jar of what I think is Dragon's blood." Hermione's eyes bugged slightly out of her head. "Did you check if these are ingredients to a potion or anything?" Neville shook his head. "Not yet. I've been researching each separately for the time being." "Neville come back to the common room now and I'll help you research tomorrow," Hermione offered. Neville smiled. "Alright. That's really nice of you Hermione." "Don't mention it," she replied. They both left the library after Neville had returned his books and headed for the Gryffindor common room. "Canary creams," Hermione said to the Fat Lady. She swung past and they both climbed into the portrait hole. "Do your essay for Binns yet?" Hermione asked upon arrival into the common room. Neville turned very pale suddenly. "No. I completely forgot with all this plant business." "Well you better get cracking," Hermiopne scolded in a very Professor McGonagall? sort of way. "It's do in two days." "I will," Neville promised. "See you in the morning," he said as he walked up the stairwell to where the fifth year boys slept. They were all up, sitting on the floor with parchment strew everywhere. "Oh hello Neville," Dean Thomas greeted. "Hey. What did you guys do?" "Our essays for History of Magic," Seamus Finnegan explained. "Yeah, we just finished," Ron added. "Did you do yours yet?" Harry asked. "No," Neville replied sadly. "Too bad," Ron said. "Yeah, it's a killer," Seamus continued. Neville walked to his bed and fell into it, pulling the hangings back. "You okay Neville?" Harry asked. "Fine, fine," Neville said. He suddenly sprang up. "My Gillyweed!" He pulled the hangings away and found that his Gillyweed was rather designated. "Damn it!" "Neville!" Ron exclaimed. "I have never heard you speak in such a way!" Ron added, acting appalled. Neville ignored me. "Maybe Professor Ranma has one in his stores he can give me," he wondered aloud. "How'd you get all those plants anyway?" Dean asked. "Someone sent them to me in the post, don't know who." "That's odd," Seamus noted. "Yeah, and it's ruining my life."

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