A one time thing {Severus Snape}

Chapter 24: Together

He shrugged his shoulders and waited for his tea, a slight shake in his shoulders and hands keeping up the pretence.

One for the cause couldn't be helped. Everyone was a means to an end in Dean's game.

~

Snape watched him closely before stepping up to him and leaning over slightly he spoke quietly, his voice dripping icy sarcasm.

"Is there a reason why you've just added the newts eyes before the toad skin, Longbottom or do you think that listening to instructions is of no importance?"

Neville jumped and blinked down at his cauldron, the potion bubbling merrily, a deep pink instead of the black it should be.

"Um..." Neville flushed dark red and shifted painfully on his feet.

"Sit down, Longbottom," Snape barked. "I have absolutely no idea why you even bother to try and catch up now."

Hermione Granger was seething, and he knew it and it amused him no end.

"Careful Miss Granger, you have smoke coming from your ears," he smirked as he passed her. "Wouldn't want it to be permanent, doesn't really go with your hair."

He heard the choking noise she made and still smirking he went back to the front of the classroom. He went to his desk and sat down.

"I have no doubt that you've all had a simply wonderful time with Professor Kincaid. But she isn't teaching you now, I am." His smirk was cold and dark as his gaze swept around the class.

"As such. I don't want to see how incredible stupid you all are, as I already know. I want three feet of parchment on why this potion is better than a charm to neutralise negative energy; by Monday! Mr. Longbottom you will remain behind, the rest of you get out!"

The class almost ran from the room, several of them patting Neville reassuringly, several of the Slytherins sniggering.

Snape waited till the door shut behind the last student before looking down at Neville, who was sitting, his face extremely pale.

"Mr. Longbottom, I do not believe you should be here."

Neville scraped the chair back, fury and humiliation evident on his face, as well as pain.

"I know! I know," he grated, his teeth gritted in pain. "Just a bloody squib...." He turned his head away and used packing his bag as a way to hide the tears in his eyes.

"Squib?" Snape's eyebrows shot up. "What would make you come up with that term? And watch your language." He had not been expecting Neville to react at all, but now he had he was intrigued and more than curious.

Neville stuffed book and parchments away without caring or really seeing, as the tears blurred his vision.

"It's what you think, what you all think," he mumbled, some of the initial fire leaving him as he remembered who it was he'd just spoken back to.

"Mr. Longbottom, have you been testing your potion? Are you in need of the infirmary, because you seem to be slightly delirious?"

Neville slammed his bag down, his fear of the potion master was legendary, but even timid people have their limits. Everyone can be pushed to those limits. Everyone had a line that could be crossed. And Snape had just crossed Neville's.

"I may have trouble remembering things. I may have trouble making potions. But I am not stupid. I may not be a great wizard, I may not even be a good one, but I am not stupid. I know what you think of me, what you all think of me. I wish that I'd never set foot in this school. Every year I start out meaning to do well; make a fresh start, turn over the proverbial leaf, but the problem is, both sides are the same for me. If I could, I'd leave this school, now, and never come back. I'm fed up trying to live up to other people ideas of what I should be capable of. I'm fed up trying to be what I am not. I am not a wizard. I may not be a squib either; he said that Dumbledore put up with me here because he was kind. That's probably true, but it would have been kinder to let me go to a muggle school and find something I can be good at."