It's not hard for Ginny to brush off the snickered accusations that she and Neville must be dating, because the girls spreading those rumors are mostly the same Slytherins who call her family 'blood traitors' and, more importantly, mostly just as single as she is.

And Ginny may be only thirteen, and too young – in her mother's opinion, at least – to be well-versed in the politics of dating and rumors and gossip, but she thinks she can sense a little bit of Neville's appreciation that she doesn't deny the rumors with indignant protests of "Ewww" and "gross."

Because anyone with eyes could tell that they are Just. Friends.

Honestly.

And he helps her with her herbology homework, pointing out her mistakes and showing her how to correct them. He explains things better than Professor Sprout sometimes. When she tells him that he just rolls his eyes, but she can tell that he's proud to be the 'smart one' for once.

So when he asks her to the Yule Ball, half-stumbling over his words and his face turning scarlet, she doesn't hesitate to respond that yes, she'd love to, and thanks so much for asking because I'm only a third year and now I can go, and Neville mumbles something along the lines of you're such a good friend and none of the girls in my year would've said yes and she shoves him away from her gently and tells him that anyone who's worth being friends with would've said yes.

And then Harry asks her, and Ginny knows that he's only asking her as Ron's sister and that she probably ranks somewhere around Pansy Parkinson-level on the list of people Harry would actually want to go to the Yule Ball with – and he must be getting really desperate, since he's a champion and everything and could probably have had his pick of the Beauxbatons girls – but Harry asks her, and she's been practically head-over-heels in love with him for the past three years of her life, but somehow she finds herself turning him down for Neville.

Because any of those Slytherin girls would have ditched Neville in a second – sorry, you're a good friend and all, but… - but she can't do that to him. And Harry will understand.

She spends all of three minutes feeling sorry for herself for turning down Harry Potter – really, when she comes to her senses she'll hate herself for this – and then she hauls off to go do something more productive.

At the Yule Ball, Neville proves to be a lot more fun than she imagines Harry would've been – for all his charm and good looks, Harry (and Ron, the idiot) is sitting off to the side with two very bored-and-angry looking Patil girls. Ginny mentally places herself in their position. She would probably be soaking up the opportunity to chat up Harry, but no doubt Harry would be spending more time talking with her brother.

No, much as she might want to shove her tongue down Harry's throat – at least, in her thirteen-year-old mind, that would be the best part of having a boyfriend – Neville was infinitely better company. He told her stories about his grandmother, and eccentric old witch who couldn't possibly have done half the things Neville claimed, Ginny refused to believe it.

And he didn't seem to mind at all that a fair portion of the Slytherin girls were starting rumors that he was dating Ginny Weasley.

No, Neville was a good friend.

A/N: For Lezonne's Duct Tape Competition over on HPFC. Prompt: Light Blue – write about a good friendship between two characters.