Because I said Snape/Neville and took a break from homework
“I understand it now,” Neville says.
Severus does not look up from his book. “You’ll have to narrow the list, Mr. Longbottom. The number of topics on which you need better understanding is astronomically high.”
“Fine,” Neville says cheerfully, and risks sitting next to Severus. “I understand your frustration, or at least a minor part of it.”
“My frustrations-”
“Are astronomical. Okay.” Neville presses his teeth into his lip and wonders if he’s taken too much of a chance. “One of my first years decided that when I said, ‘put on your ear muffs and keep them on’, I meant, ‘put on your ear muffs, but only on one ear so that you can be rushed to the infirmary because a Mandrake splintered your ear drum’.”
Severus raises an eyebrow; his eyes are still on his book.
“And now he’s in the infirmary wing getting his ear drum knitted, and I’m wondering exactly what kind of detention gets assigned for sheer stupidity.”
“I had you scrub cauldrons and chop chameleon liver, as I recall.”
Neville considers that. “I suppose it’s never too soon to re-fertilize the gardens.” He catches, in the corner of his eye, the beginning of a smirk from Severus. “Without gloves.”
I think I'm gonna write this thing in bits and bobs and then make them all fit together near the end. I tend to write my stories from point A to point B and while that works for me about 95% of the time, there are stories that have gotten stuck simply because I'm at point A, want to get to point C, and can't figure out how to write point B. Never hurts to stretch my writing skills, and perhaps writing out-of-sync will provide more fodder, yes?
And now, French homework.