The plot bunnies attacked me this morning. I had no idea what I was writing, but I knew that I had to get 'Fair of hair and fair of face. Brain is small and slow of pace.' in there somewhere. That was the entire inspiration for this fic, which is weird. Anyway, I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE CHARACTERS FROM HARRY POTTER, and this is a SLASH fic. You've been warned, so if you no like it, you no read it. My first slash fic, so feedback very welcome. Yes even you flaming people. Afterall, a girl needs something to laugh at.
In the depths of night at Hogwarts, in the Gryffindor boys dormitory, a cloaked figure crept among the beds. Curtains twitched briefly as the intruder peeked in to see who was there, until they finally arrived at the bed of Neville Longbottom. His curtains were thrown open completely and the figure stood before the slumbering lad, simply watching him sleep. The cloak was removed, and Draco Malfoy knelt down by Neville's bedside with the silence and grace of a feline. His steely grey eyes softened and roamed over the sleeping Neville, resting on his sandy hair flopping over his warm, angelic face. Draco felt the urge to brush a lock out of Neville's eyes, but resisted, knowing that he was taking enough chances just being there.
Fair of hair and fair of face, he thought to himself, enjoying the way the moonlight danced on Neville's features, highlighting the little frown that had crept onto his face from some dream or another. He looked so innocent and vunerable when he slept. Draco noticed the open Potions book hanging limply in his hand and smiled to himself. Brain is small and slow of pace, he finished, remembering just how cute Neville had been that day when Snape had him on the verge of tears. Draco knew Neville wasn't stupid; he knew how well he was doing in Herbology. He only called him stupid so that the other Slytherins wouldn't suspect how much he really liked Neville. If that happened, then his father's reputation would only go so far before he had 'the gay beaten out of him'. Draco wasn't gay. He just felt attracted to Neville. One guy didn't make him gay, did it? Involuntarily, Dracol;eaned over and bathed in Neville's adorable smell: a perculiar mix of spilled ink and hint of toad, and of course, the comforting scent of fresh potting soil.
"No Professor Snape, I don't want to drink my potion!" Neville murmered in his sleep. Draco watched with concern as Neville's face twisted in fright, and wondered if he could get Snape to go a bit easier on the Gryffindor. Suddenly, Neville cried out and sat bolt upright, with his brown eyes wide open. He was panting and sweating, and his hands were frantically slapping at his pyjamas as he checked that everything was where it should be. Draco had catapulted himself to the ground from blind panic. He swore he was having a heart attack.
"Oh, it was just a dream." Neville sighed. He took a second to calm down before he laughed nervously and fell back onto his pillow. Draco was slowly edging away from the bed, praying that Neville would just go back to sleep without noticing him. No such luck.
"What the hell are you doing in here?" Neville yelled. He had been reaching to draw his curtains when he had seen Draco sprawled on the floor. Now he was screaming blue murder.
"Please, I can explain." Draco whimpered, wondering why the hell he was trying to explain himself. Malfoys did not explain, mainly because people did not question Malfoys, but that wasn't the point.
"What's going on?" Seamus Finnigan demanded as he staggered from his bed to Neville's. He was soon joined by the rest of the Gryffindor boys, each as confused as the next.
"What's ferret face doing in here?" said Ron, having finally looked down to see Draco on the floor.
"Yeah, and how did he get in?" Harry asked, slightly more awake than the others.
Draco opened and shut his mouth several times, attempting to force out the words. He had never been so flustered in his life. He couldn't bear the thought of the whole of Fourth Year Gryffindor knowing exactly what he was doing in their dormitory at - what time was it? No matter, the exact time was irrelevant. Draco simply knew that if he told them, he would never hear the end of it. He just needed a different reason to give them. Finally, he managed to speak with what he hoped was a sneering tone: "What I'm doing in here is strictly Slytherin business. Not for you bunch of peasants and mudbloods to know." Slytherin business? How lame did that sound?
"Well, if you're going to be like that!" Harry snapped, and went to fetch his wand. Draco scrambled to his feet and withdrew his, ready to defend himself. Neville was still in his bed, looking at Draco with a very confuddled expression.
"Why were you by my bed?" he murmered. Draco pretended not to hear him. "Why were you by my bed?" Neville repeated, more persistantly this time. Draco still refused to answer. By now the other boys had returned with their wands and stood there with quizzical looks on their faces.
"Yeah Malfoy! Why were you by Neville's bed?" they all chimed, edging closer to Draco. He searched desperately for an excuse, but couldn't find one. Instead, he pasted on his best 'Do-not-dare-defy-a-Malfoy' look and planted his feet firmly on the ground.
"Alright," Harry sighed, seeing that they would get nothing from him without a thorough hexing. "If you won't tell us what you're doing here, then at least tell us how you got in here."
"That's simple." Draco smirked. "I just followed Potter and Weasly to the Fat Lady one night and overheard the password."
Both Ron and Harry were appalled that they had failed to notice Malfoy tailing them, and Ron was turning scarlet. But, at least they knew that the portraits weren't fussy about who they let in as long as they gave the password. This meant that they could get into the Slytherin tower and wreak as much havoc as Malfoy was going to, once they found out how much that was.
"I still want to know what you were doing by my bed. It's my bed; I have a right to know who's sniffing around it!" Neville persisted. Draco smirked - if only he knew exactly what kind of sniffing he was doing.
"I know a way to get him to talk." Harry chuckled to himself. He gave a brief nod to Ron, Dean and Seamus and as one unit they jumped Malfoy before he even had time to squeak in protest. His wand went clattering to the floor and all four limbs were pinned down by four Gryffindor boys.
"Fools! Get off me! You'll pay for this tomorrow! I swear to Merlin you'll pay!" he howled, resisting with all his might. He wriggled and writhed until he ran out of strength and gave up, determined not to break though he had ceased his struggle.
"Neville, get Ron's trunk." Harry instructed as he not-so-inconspicuously twisted Malfoy's arm a bit too hard. "He's got some of Fred and George's itching powder in there." Neville got up and fetched the itching powder, then stood infront of the restrained Malfoy and waited for further instruction. Harry thought for a moment, considering the most torturous place the powder could go. He grinned as an idea struck home. "Pour it down his pants Neville." he said. An evil smirk spread across the room as every Gryffindor boy imagined the humiliation, apart from Neville, who stood there gaping at Harry. Draco suddenly began struggling again, making Neville even more nervous.
"I can't do that." he whispered.
"Yes you can. Think of all the times he's made fun of you and put you down. Remember when he stole your rememball, and when he made fun of your parents being in St Mungos."
At the mention of his parents Neville found his sense of revenge and went to dump the whole lot of itching powder down Draco's pants.
"NO!" Draco yelled. Neville stopped an inch away. "Please Neville," Draco whimpered. Everone was shocked to see him beg. "I'm sorry about what I said about your parents. I didn't mean it one little bit." Now he was taking back something he said! It was a double humbling from Malfoy! No one could quite believe it.
Neville was confused for the hundreth time that night. "Why did you say it if you didn't mean it? And what were you doing by my bed?" he added.
Draco sighed. "I can't tell you. Please, I'm sorry. Just don't make me explain myself. That would be worse than the itching powder." Neville looked into the pleading eyes of one of his most hated classmates and saw nothing but grey pools of desperation. He took the powder away out of pity. Malfoy must have been really desperate to beg him for mercy.
"Let him up." he said. No one moved. "Let him up. I don't care what he was doing any more, so just let him go."
"You might not care, but I do." Ron grumbled. Neville brandished the itching powder in an un-Neville-like threatening manner. Ron and the others immediately let him up. Draco dashed to his feet, gathered up his wand and his cloak and scurried towards the exit.
"Thank you." he said before he disappeared through the door. On his way out he fought back tears of - relief? Sadness? Gratitude? Well, he fought back tears all the same. He just couldn't get his head around the fact that Neville had helped him. Neville had helped him, despite all the horrid things he had done. Did Neville like him? No, Neville just pitied him, which Draco felt was worse than telling him and the itching powder put together. It had been a very bad night.
Did we like? I think everyone was slightly out of character, and I suppose the plot could have been better. And maybe if I rewrote the whole thing in a completely different context...no, that's putting myself down too much. Did everyone like the Draco/Neville pairing? Should I continue?I'll only know through reviews, so you know what to do. Everyone gets a reply!
Veritas Indolentia Adamo: Ohmigod hi! Thank you for reading this. Um...I kind of already said everything in reply to this at school, but never mind. I like the different times in their lives idea. If I weren't so damned lazy I might use it, but I think I just about have the energy to insert some purty romantic stuff, and then I'll collapse in a heap of globble (new word for ya!) And regarding your proposal to continue this in exchange for you writing a slash fic: you're on! I want Oliver/Percy (though Oliver is rightfully mine, I don't mind lending him to Percy for a bit). Those are so great, and one from you would be awesome. So yeah, I'll continue this because you bribed me, and threatened me. Not that I'm intimidated by you (ducks out of way of hail of arrows). Okay! I am! I'm writing, I'm writing!
vanillafluffy: yeah, draco and neville together is great. Glad you apreciated the hint of toad bit. This will be continued when I can find my plot bunnies again, but for now whenever I try to continue I end up bashing my head against the keyboard, which isn't good for the keyboard, so there you go. Thankies for reviewing! I love your story Ink, by the way! giggles
feltons-babe90099: (grins) Aw, shucks! I'm so glad you loved it. And you thought I did well on Ron? Ohmigosh you have no idea how huge a compliment that is, because I find him sooo hard to get right! If you want more, you'll get more, as you asked so nicely along with the flattery and all. I just can't guarantee it'll very soon. Sorry, but this story keeps glaring at me evilly. I'm trying to continue, I promise.
calikocat: Interesting? Yeah, I thought so. I love Slytherin/Gryffindor pairings, they're so cute. And I thought it was about time Draco had a taste of humble pie. There is more coming. As afore mentioned, probably won't be for a while, but bear with me please!
whitey: (sighs) I knew you'd think I was wrong in the head for writing slash. Hence my website remaining SECRET until rozza found it. (grumbles) But if reading through and replacing names with yours and Gerard Way's makes it bearable, then so be it. It wasn't that bad, though, was it? At least you enjoyed the actual writing, right? And i suppose your general dislike for harry Potter is a huge contributing factor aswell. (smiles) I do however, have an idea of what to give you for your birthday...