So for anyone who has been following me these past couple of years (as I have deleted and rewritten and then deleted a TON of stories) Neville is my absolute FAVORITE character in the HP series. And when I found out that he did not die alone, as I first imagined after reading DH, but actually married Hannah Abbott, I immediately wanted to write a story about the two of them, from start to finish, and after two years or so that is finally a reality :D I'll admit I'm a bit of a lazy bum but I'll try and get on and update as much as I possibly can (cause this little thing called college can make life a living hell sometimes).

Rating is simply for safety. Language will be present throughout the whole thing--and when we actually get to the dirty parts they won't be TOO bad. I promise.

Disclaimer: JK owns the HP world, and I do not. Any dialogue from the book that I fit into the story was written BY JK and did not come out of MY own head.

"No, we haven't seen your toad!"

Neville Longbottom sighed as the door was slammed shut in his face. He knew he was a first year, and he could already tell by just looking at the other first years that he didn't belong, but was it too much to ask for them to help him find his toad? It was the only pet that his grandmother had ever let him have; she was worried he wasn't able to take care of anything by himself.

Judging by his current situation, she had been completely right.

He sighed to himself and knocked on the door of the next compartment. With every visit to a new carriage, he could feel his hope and confidence draining. If no one had seen Trevor by now, he was most likely a goner. The poor little toad had probably been left behind on the platform, alone and scared. He quickly opened the door and slipped in, glancing at his feet as he spoke. "Erm, excuse me, have you see a toad?" he asked.

There were three people in the carriage--there was a blond boy sitting next to the window who was sitting up abnormally straight...across from him was a red-headed girl, and few feet away from her on the seat sat a little blonde girl with long pigtails on either side of her head. They seemed to be about his age--how did all these first years know each other already? It was maddening!

"No, sorry...but we'll be sure to let you know if we see one!" the blonde girl assured him. Well, she seemed nice. Nicer than the other people had been to him earlier.

"Oh, ok...thanks," he said, blushing and stumbling out of the door before closing it quickly behind him.

He stopped and took a deep breath. So far, he was making an AWFUL first impression on his fellow peers. The compartment he went to next had only two people in it--a black haired boy with glasses and his red-headed friend. They seemed alright--better than the awful blond boy he had run into earlier. Him and his two burly friends had threatened to curse him if he didn't leave them alone.

The next compartment had only one girl in it. She had very bushy hair and was reading a book while flicking her wand about. She looked to be about first year, just like him. To Neville's astonishment, some sparks were actually coming out of her wand. She was probably a good three lessons ahead of everyone else around! Feeling himself frown with jealousy, he remembered that he was on a mission. He needed to find his toad before he got stepped on!

He knocked and walked in to her compartment. "Sorry to bother you, but have you see a toad?" he asked.

"No, have you lost one?" the girl asked. She spoke rather quickly and he saw that she had abnormally large front teeth. Scary.

"Well, he got away from me…"

"I'll help you look!" the girl exclaimed. She ran up and grabbed his wrist as she pulled him out into the hall. Unsure of what to do, his eyes widened and he allowed himself to be pulled out into the hallway.

"Oh!" she stopped suddenly and whipped around. "My name is Hermione Granger, by the way. What's yours?"

This took Neville so completely by surprise that he didn't answer at once. "Um…I'm Neville Longbottom."

"Great," Hermione said, and with a smile dragged him to the compartment next to hers.

"I've already been…" Neville began, but she didn't seem to be listening as she barged right into the compartment.

"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," Hermione said at once. Her voice didn't sound cheerful anymore, but demanding and bossy. He didn't like the way she had just sucked the words out of his mouth either. Way to make him look even MORE helpless than he already was.

"We've already told him we haven't seen it." The red haired boy said. Hermione ignored him and looked only at the wand he was holding. It was very shabby, much like Neville's wand. His had been his father's before the accident and his Gran insisted on giving it to him. She was hoping that it would possess some of his old spellwork. Merlin knew he needed the extra help.

"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see, then." She demanded.

She plopped down in the seats across from the two boys, folding her hands in her lap and waiting patiently.

"Er-all right…"

He cleared his throat.

"Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow,

turn this stupid, fat rat yellow!"

He waved his wand about but nothing happened. He poked his rat, which was seating on his lap, gently, but nothing happened. He just rolled onto the floor. Neville wondered if it was even alive--it certainly LOOKED like it was dead.

"Are you sure that's a real spell?" she asked, "Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family is magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the greatest school of witchcraft there is I've heard-I've learned all the course books by heart, I just hope it will be enough-I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?"

She stopped after this long speech very abruptly. Neville was, by this point, completely kicking himself for even stumbling into her compartment in the first place. He felt awkward just sitting there while Hermione went on about spellwork. He needed to find Trevor! Should he sit down, or just leave?

"Ron Weasley."

"Harry Potter."

Neville let out a little squeak. NO WAY! There was no way that THE Harry Potter was sitting right there, in front of him...

"Are you really?" Hermione asked, her eyes popping out of her head slightly. "I know all about you, of course-I got a few books for background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century."

"Am I?" Harry asked in a small voice.

Hermione opened her mouth to speak, and Neville considered leaving again.

"Goodness, didn't you know, I'd have found out everything I could if it was me," she said. "Do you know what house you'll be in? I've been asking around, and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best; I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad…Anyway, we'd better go and look for Neville's toad. You two had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon."

And she left, and Neville lamely followed her.

"Let's try the next one," Hermione said, heading in the direction of the carriage where the blonde haired girl sat with her two friends.

"I've been to that one already. I've been to all of these," Neville pointed out to her. She was dragging him in the same direction he had just come.

A group of 3rd year boys, including a pair of red haired twins, rushed passed them, bumping into Hermione slightly. They were too busy shouting and hollering about something to notice.

"Oh, really!" Hermione moaned in exasperation.

"You know, um, I'm sure if anyone finds a toad, they'll let me know," Neville muttered. "Why don't we go back and sit down?" he asked.

"No, you can sit in my compartment, I'm going to talk to the conductor," she replied in a very snooty voice.

What she was going to talk to him about was anyone's guess. A moment later she had walked toward the end of the train and out of sight.

Neville sighed and walked into the empty compartment. He plopped down in one of the fluffy chairs and rested his head against the glass. It felt cool against the throbbing headache he now had. Slowly his eyes got heavier until he finally fell asleep.

Neville was beyond ecstatic as he walked away from the staff table--so excited, in fact, that he had forgotten to give the sorting hat back to McGonagall at first. Whoops. He hurried back and gave the hat to the professor while trying to ignore the sniggers from his fellow students (especially the ones from the Slytherin table). But who cared, really? He was in GRYFFINDOR! He had been hoping for Hufflepuff at the best, and instead, he got in the best one!

As the feast passed and he listened to the stories of his fellow Gryffindors, he found that it was only HE who had ever been dropped from a window to test his magical ability. Everyone else seemed to come from relatively normal families. Luckily for him, no one seemed to want to ask him about his parents. Part of him was a tad disappointed that they weren't taking much of an interest in him, but then again--did he WANT them to ask? Of course not! And besides, even if they weren't asking him questions about himself now, they'd be together for seven years. He didn't need to make best friends with any of them TONIGHT.

Although it would be nice for someone to ask him more about himself. Right now he was just the loony who came from a family that had been under the impression that he was a Squib for most of his life. That was what was to be expected, though, since Harry Potter was also a Gryffindor. He was much more interesting than Neville.

Once the feast had finally ended--after a very odd performance of the school song--Neville joined his fellow Gryffindors in following the Prefect to the common room. As they were leaving the hall,, however, he felt someone tug on his sleeve.

"Did you ever find your toad?"

Neville turned around to see the blonde girl from the train headed his way. He quickly tried to recall her name from the sorting...Oh, what was it again? Curse his awful memory! He even remembered watching her get sorted...she was the first to put on the hat, and she got in Hufflepuff...

Lost in his thoughts, he hadn't even noticed that he hadn't answered her question yet. It took him a few seconds to remember why she was staring at him like she was waiting for something. His cheeks began to heat up and he stared at his feet.

"Oh, yeah, I found him...thanks for asking," he mumbled with a small smile.

"I'm Hannah, by the way," she said, holding out a friendly hand for a handshake.

Neville wasn't sure what to do. Could this possibly be some sort of trap? After his run in with those bullies on the train he had become rather cautious around his peers--but no, Hannah seemed nice enough. She seemed to be genuinely sincere about that handshake.

He shook. "I'm Neville...Neville Longbottom," he told her. She giggled and he wondered if it was at his last name...he knew it sounded a bit odd but there was no need to poke fun!

"Nice to meet you Neville...well, I just wanted to see if you had found him. I guess we're going this way," she said, pointing at the retreating Hufflepuffs who were headed down a staircase nearby. "Bye!" she called before hurrying off, just as quickly as she came.

Blinking in a sort of shock, Neville quickly rejoined his fellow Gryffindors as they began the trek up the staircases to their common room. Well, that was interesting. No one from his own house seemed to have taken any interest in him, yet someone from Hufflepuff (the house he had been completely SURE he was going to be sorted in) had bothered to ask him about his toad. How ironic!

As he followed his peers up the stairs, he couldn't help wishing Hannah had been in Gryffindor. Maybe then, at least, he'd have someone to talk to.