Neville Longbottom and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Chapter 10: Grim Problems

The next morning it was announced that the Fat-Lady had been found and was recovering, and her painting was being repaired. In the meantime, a different painting and guardian would be required, and the volunteer was an elderly knight named Sir Cadogan. This proved to be very frustrating for Neville, as Sir Cadogan was inclined to change the Password daily. With a new Password every day Neville was spending a lot of time waiting for another Gryffindor to come by and let him in, all the while Sir Cadogan was challenging his courage with oddly worded threats. Adding to this frustration, Malfoy had taken to staring him down every chance he got, and Neville was nowhere near as good at ignoring him as Luna was.

On Thursday morning he forgot his 'Unfogging the Future' book, and went back for it. He had to wait at the Common Room entrance to be let in which made him significantly late for Divination. Trelawney's acolytes were eager to point out that she had predicted this the second week of class.

Later during class Trelawney made yet another prediction with Harry and the Grim. Neville remembered seeing that large black dog over the weekend, and said as much.

"I think I saw the Grim last Saturday," he told Trelawney. She stared at him blankly, then turned to Harry and back to Neville.

"I'm sorry Mr. Longbottom, but Mr. Potter has the Grim not you. Your danger lies elsewhere." She always spoke with certainty, but this time she didn't sound as certain.

Neville tried to listen to what Ron and Harry were talking about. He was wondering if they had any insights on Harry's Grim since he now felt somewhat involved. They weren't talking about the Grim though, they were talking about their recent trip to Hogsmeade and what they wanted to do next time. Neville already knew that Harry wasn't supposed to be going, but it was easy to guess how - his invisibility cloak.

That afternoon at his meeting with Lupin, they started on a Disarming Spell - 'Expelliarmus'. Despite being able to calm himself, they had made no progress after an hour of intense practice. Because they were getting nowhere, Lupin decided to shift their focus to another Defensive Spell - 'Remora'. He explained that it was much easier than 'Expelliarmus', but that it didn't work against more powerful Spells. However, it was a good stepping-stone to other Defensive Spells that would. After another half-hour of practice, Neville was able to use it successfully against basic attacks.

The second Quidditch Match of the school year was between Hufflepuff and Slytherin. The big question was whether Harry could beat Cedric to the Snitch for a second time - they were one for one against each other. There was a lot of mostly healthy rivalry between the two Houses building up to the Match, but Neville purposely remained neutral. He was just looking forward to a good Match.

All three of Hufflepuff's Chasers were Veterans, and worked well together, and they scored three times before Slytherin could score once. Slytherin's Chasers were doing worse than usual; of course they had lost Flint and were working with a new Chaser. Also, the Slytherin Beaters - both Seventh-years - were normally fairly average, but today they were downright brutal and were getting called on foul after foul.

The contest between Harry and Cedric was pretty intense. Cedric began with his well-known searching pattern, which was good because not using it was likely why Harry spotted the Snitch before him last year. Harry was zooming around him like an annoying fly, and on occasion he would zip off as though he spotted the Snitch. Cedric would follow, of course, but then return to his pattern when he realized it was a ruse. Neville remembered that this same strategy was used against Harry two years ago, which was strange that Harry was using it now because it failed before.

The strategy didn't exactly work this time, but Harry did catch the Snitch. Cedric never assumed that it was a ruse, however, when Harry spotted the Snitch for real, Cedric didn't have enough time to get there before Harry had caught it. The final score was Slytherin over Hufflepuff, 170 to 50.