OVERANALYZING THE TEXT

Tanya wrote:

It seems to be universally agreed upon that Neville excels in Herbology. However, the only canon I remember seeing that supports this statement is that which comes directly from Crouch/Moody's mouth. If I remember correctly, Professor Sprout herself never mentions Neville's skills at all, not even once. Nor do I remember Rowling ever writing any scenes in Herbology that even hints towards Neville excelling in it.

Kathy offered:

At the end of the book (page 307 in the scholastic paperback edition) Harry and the rest of the students get their exam results. JKR writes that "Even Neville scraped through, his good Herbology mark making up for his abysmal Potions one." This suggests that Neville has a history of success in Herbology and is clearly his best subject.

We also get reinforcement of this idea even before Crouch/Moody's tete-a-tete with Neville in GoF. When Neville raises his hand in DADA class to volunteer the name of the Cruciatus Curse, we are told that:

The only class in which Neville usually volunteered information was Herbology which was easily his best subject.

So no. I don't think that Crouch Jr. was making it up.

Besides which, his plan wouldn't have been a very good one, would it, if Neville hadn't been genuinely interested in Herbology and at least reasonably competent in it? Only an interested student would have bothered to do out-of-class reading voluntarily, and Crouch's plan depended on Neville having read an entire book -- or at least far enough into it so that he would possess the information about gillyweed which Crouch hoped that he would later pass on to Harry. And indeed, when Harry runs into Neville in the dormitory after his tea with Crouch/Moody, Neville seems to be quite absorbed in that reading.

So I'd say that he's both genuinely interested in and reasonably skilled with Herbology. "Excelling" I don't know about. But it does seem to me that he's probably pretty good at it.

Kathy also wrote:

IMO, I believe that Neville's skills in Herbology may come into play later on in some future plot or sub-plot.

It wouldn't surprise me. JKR does seem to have been setting it up for some time now -- since the first volume, in fact. And I agree with you that Neville is likely to take a more center stage in future volumes.

Some people on this list have suggested in the past that Dumbledore designed the obstacles to the Philosopher's Stone very consciously as a test not only for Harry, but also for his friends. Some of them have cited the Devil's Snare obstacle as evidence for the supposition that Dumbledore fully expected Neville to be accompanying the Trio on their quest when he designed the barriers. The Devil's Snare, they claim, was tailored to Neville's particular talent, just as McGonagall's chess set was tailored to Ron's.

I'm not sure if I really believe that one, myself. But it's a neat theory.

Star Opal listed a number of ways in which Neville is brave. Mainly a "me too" on those, except to add one that she left out:

Neville is an adolescent boy who wears fuzzy slippers.

Without shame.

That's courage.

Star Opal also wrote:

So that's why I'm particularly amazed by Neville when Harry ditches him to go to Hogsmeade (PoA ch 14). He never brings it up to Harry. Never says anything to Harry, we don't even see him again till ch 16 IIRC.

Yes, and that's another way in which Neville has real courage. He puts up with an awful lot of abuse without complaining. He never reproaches Hermione for casting that Body-Bind on him at the end of PS/SS. He doesn't go squealing to a teacher when Draco harasses him in the corridors. He never objects to being punished (and rather harshly, too) for leaving his list of passwords lying around where they could be found in PoA, even though as we later discover, he did not leave them lying around where just anyone could find them. They were stolen from off of his bedside table by Crookshanks. Neville does not whinge.

He also refrains from pressing his company on Harry, Ron and Hermione, even though he seems to have no other friends. The only place we ever see him pressing his company on Harry is in that scene in PoA, right before Harry ditches him to go to Hogsmeade, and one could argue that the only reason that he is willing to do so there is because he has reason to believe that Harry, whose real friends are all away and who has no one else to talk to, might welcome a bit of companionship.

Stoicism isn't a very flashy sort of courage, perhaps. But it is courage.

James wrote:

I am not sure Neville's mother is even named, except as Mrs. Longbottom or Frank's wife or some similar formula.

Nope, she has no name. She wasn't an auror, either, as surely if she had been, then the defendents in the Pensieve scene would have been standing accused of abducting and torturing two aurors, rather than an auror "and his wife?"

Rather irritating, that, isn't it? Yet another nameless martyr mother, taking her place alongside the unnamed Mrs. Crouch and Tom Riddle's equally unnamed mother.

::sigh::

—Elkins, who is really just so very tired of JKR's faceless martyred maternal figures