Broken Love Song
Part 1
"take a broken love song, keep it by your side
never be lonely, find a place to hide"
Neville Longbottom accidentally kisses Hannah Abbott that horrible morning, and Hannah nearly lets him.
He doesn't know what he was thinking; first Hannah is sobbing her eyes out all over his favorite Herbology apron, then she is blowing her nose noisily on his sleeve, and then she is burying her head in his neck, and somehow, it just seems like a good idea for their lips to collide.
It only takes two seconds of wet, hot, soggy smooching for Hannah to pull away, an embarrassed flush on her face (and somehow that makes Neville feel even worse - her mother's just been killed, and here she is, having to look embarrassed) and whispers, "Sorry."
"I'm that bad?" Neville asks, a tiny part of him sincere, most of him stalling for just a few seconds escape until they have to have their hearts broken once again, and remember the letter that came for Hannah that day; Your mother is dead.
Both of them laugh; it's a bad joke, it's a terrible joke, but they laugh in spite, or maybe because, of Neville's subpar stand-up comedy skills, until they remember why they are here, huddled in the corner of an abandoned greenhouse, why Hannah is crying and rocking in Neville's arms, and why the last thing they should be doing is fucking laughing.
And then the moment is over, and they are tossed back into the real world, two shy pudgy young teenagers clinging on two one another out of loneliness and pure fear that the cruel new life they have been thrown into will suddenly rip them away and swallow another of them into its distant black depths, and here Hannah is once again curled up against his chest and sobbing her eyes out.
"Neville?"
"Yeah?"
Hannah snuggles into his arms, "I think you could use some practice on the kissing thing."
And she leaves Neville to figure out the implications of her words, resting her head on his neck and somehow, the pain in her head and heart seems to have lessened.
Later, Hannah almost hates Neville for that moment - he made her smile, damn him, smile when her mother had died and her childhood been ripped away and the whole fucking world had fallen apart and left her to fend for herself... and Neville Longbottom made her fucking smile. And she doesn't smile for the rest of the day, or the rest of the week, and not for several weeks after that, but whenever she finds herself so empty that she may as well be one of her Muggle cousin's toy robots, her and Neville's shared smile becomes her sanctuary, and she will reach inside herself and remember that smile, and for the next few seconds at least, she doesn't feel completely alone.
A/N; First in a series of short one-shots/drabbles on Neville Longbottom and Hannah Abbott's romance. I'm really falling in love with these two, and it's such a shame that so many potentially great romances were left off the pages in the books. The title and page quote comes from the Pete Doherty song, who is an idiot in all facets of life except when it comes to his amazing lyrics and songwriting. (As is my new policy, review one of my stories and I review one of yours.)