Neville Longbottom stared at an unopened letter in front of him on the table at breakfast, he recognised his grandmothers handwriting and knew it could only contain more comments about his lack of accomplishments, that he wasn't good enough in comparison to his parents.
"Are you okay Neville?" Harry asked sliding into the seat beside him, Ron and Hermione sliding in across from them. His eyes were full of concern and Neville hated to think he was making Harry worry over him when there were more important things to worry about.
"You look like a ghost just appeared in the middle of your scrambled eggs." Ron commented, earning an eye roll from Hermione.
"Yeah I'm fine, just a letter from my Gran." Neville replied, picking the letter up and shoving it deep into the pocket of his robes. "They're never very nice." He added picking up his fork to eat his eggs but feeling a little put off by the thought of a ghost coming out of them.
"Ah well," Harry replied, clapping a hand reassuringly on Neville's back, "I wouldn't worry about it too much, are you coming to the D.A meeting later?" He asked and Neville nodded.
"I wouldn't miss it!" He replied with a grin, "I'll let Luna know too." Harry thanked him and the trio left in search of other members of Dumbledore's Army. Neville watched as Harry walked away wishing he were as confident of the boy who lived, Neville could never have tried to teach other students, he could barely handle the simplest of spells. Neville respected Harry and though he would never admit it he may have had a small crush on the green-eyed boy.
Neville spent a lot of his free time in the greenhouses, herbology was one of the very few things he was actually talented at, not that his grandmother thought that was anything to boast about.
"Hey, Neville." Harry said walking in through the greenhouse door, Neville was so startled that he dropped the plant pot he was carrying, it shattered as it hit the floor and the walking-plant it had contained attempted to make an escape.
"Dammit," Neville exclaimed as he attempted to corral the plant into a corner so he could scoop it up.
"Sorry, Neville I didn't mean to startle you." Harry said wandering over to a shelf to grab another pot for the plant.
Neville shook his head, "Its no bother really, we're always loosing these plants." Neville replied grabbing the plant before it could slide its way out of a gap in the greenhouse wall. The plant squirmed as Neville carried it over to a waiting Harry and dumped it into the pot he was holding. He quickly covered the plant with soil and patted it down firmly. Neville didn't know how a plant could look disappointed but somehow this one did. "The second years never pack the soil in tight enough and they managed to crawl their way out." Neville explained, "Fascinating plants!" He beamed.
Harry smiled at Neville, he knew next to nothing about plants and honestly had no care for learning about them but watching how excited Neville got when he talked about them always made him feel a little warm inside. He liked watching Neville work and occasionally would spend his free time watching him in the greenhouses.
Harry took a seat on a desk as Neville pulled another walking plant out of its pot to repack the soil, "Did you open that letter from your gran?" He inquired, watching Neville's soil browned hands work.
Neville frowned as he pictured the unopened letter crumpled in one of his pockets along with his wand and the Remembrall he'd thought he'd lost never used. "Not yet, I'll open it later and write out an apology for being so useless."
"I wish you wouldn't be so hard on yourself," Harry said, passing Neville a larger pot from on the shelf above him as the plant he was repacking had grown too big for the pot it was already in. "You're not useless at all." Harry reassured him. Neville smiled in return but Harry could tell he didn't believe him.
After repacking the last pot, Neville wiped his hand on his dark trousers and rolled down his shirtsleeves. "Ready to head to the DA meeting?" He asked as he buttoned his sleeves and picked up his knitted jumper from the desk beside Harry.
The two of them talked as they made their way upstairs. Neville wondered how he'd made a friend like Harry Potter, why someone so nice and smart and good-looking would bother to spend time with someone like him was beyond his comprehension but that was the thing about Harry, he didn't care what other people thought of you, only what he thought of you. It was one of the things Neville liked so much about him.
The meeting went well, Neville finally managed to master the disarming charm, earning himself a round of applause while he stood their sheepishly grinning to himself.
Harry called him over when the meeting ended and the two of them stopped and waited till everybody else had left, "You did really well today, Neville." Harry said smiling.
"I'm sure I can do better, but thank you, Harry." Neville replied, the two stood together looking at the photo of the original Order of the Phoenix. Both Harry's and Ron's parents smile out at them from the photo. "I hope I'm doing them proud." He said and Harry rested a hand on his shoulder.
"You are." Harry reassured him, "We both are." He said and his hand fell from Neville's shoulder to his side where he linked their fingers together. Neville's face reddened and he thought he should pull away but he didn't want too, he was sure Harry was just being friendly.
"Neville I want to tell you something," Harry said, pulling the other boy gently so he was facing him but not letting go of his still soil covered hand.
Neville didn't know what to say and he could feel his face burning. "W-what is it?" He managed to stutter out. Harry opened his mouth to speak but thought better of it and instead he pulled Neville's head gently down his own and place his lips gently on his. It was a simple kiss, it only lasted a few second but when Harry finally let the boy go Neville couldn't keep the smile off his face.
"Sorry, I didn't know how better to say it." Harry apologised, but Neville shook his head.
"There's no need to apologise, Harry." Neville said, "I couldn't have worded it any better myself."
AN: I've never written this ship before but I read something on them the otherday and thought it was super cute and thought I'd give it a go. I've also never written a same-sex couple before. I hope you like this little one-shot and hopefully this'll be the start of things to come and not the end, I may even decide to make this longer later. Anyways, thanks for reading, much love ~RainbowVeins