I know, I know! I should be updating In War and Peace! However, I am struggling a bit with the characterisations. I wrote this to try sort some of it out. Expect more drabbles.

(This is not from the same verse.)

His face is flushed and he stares up at me with big brown eyes that shine in the glow of early morning sunlight. The air in Greenhouse Three is warm and humid. It smells of earth and roses, just like his skin, which is soft and sticky against mine.

I lean down, press my chest into his, and kiss the tip of his nose. He laughs softly. His hair is brown and wild and damp at his temples. I can't help but run my hand through it, and I keep it there as he turns his head towards mine and we kiss and kiss and kiss.

Slender arms slide around my waist, clammy palms move down my back. I don't mean to, but I whimper, the sound ridiculous and shameful in the lovely silence between us.

"Theo," he says into my neck. He is the only one who gets away with calling me that. I sigh and rub my nose behind his small, cute ear. None of us wish to move, but both of us know it is time.

"When are you done today?" I ask roughly, throat sore from taking him in my mouth last night. I shudder when his lips move against me as he speaks.

"'Round four."

I swallow, and then let out a long, shaky breath. "Okay. Do you, um." It would be our first, if he agrees – and I am sure he will, yet I am nervous. I clench my hand in his hair; curl my fingers against the discarded clothes that make for a pillow. "Would you like to have dinner with me?" I finally manage. We are still too tightly intertwined for eye-contact, but I feel his heart and mouth, and his lashes brush my collar-bones as he blinks.

"Are-are you asking me on a-a date?" He stumbles over the words, like he used to when he was a young boy and insecure and sad and frightened the whole bloody time.

"Yes," I say, and something wet and hot hits my shoulder. He is crying again, and I hold him through the trembles that wrack his body – longer and thinner than before. He was a late bloomer, and he is achingly beautiful now.

"Neville," I whisper, drawing back to brush the salty tears off his pink cheeks. "Why do you cry? You know how much I like you."

"I-I know." He grimaces at his stammer, something he has always struggled with, but I grin, finding it endearing. "I just… I am." Neville huffs, pushes me further away, and then smiles at me like I hung the moon. "I'd love to," he says. "I'd love to go on a date with you, Theo."

My stomach flops and I crush our mouths together, teeth and lips and tongues and, Merlin, it is delicious.

"Did you think I would say no?" Neville asks, while we put on yesterday's dirty, wrinkled shirts.

I buckle my belt and watches as he puts on his trousers. "Not really," I admit. "I just wanted to hear you say yes so badly. I really like you, you know."

"I know," he says, beaming like he can't really believe it. "Theodore Nott likes me. Wow." I gather him in a hug and we stand like that amidst plants and cobwebs and repellent sprays.

"After all these years, and you are just as overwhelmed as the first time we snogged," I comment, filled with wonder at having this man so besotted with me. Me.

"I thought we wouldn't last," Neville mumbles. "When the war came, it was all about comfort. And then you left to study abroad."

"I am back now. For good."

"Yeah. I'm glad."

"Mhm, me too." I reluctantly un-tangle myself from him, and we part with a final, innocent kiss. "Shall I pick you up at your office then, Professor Longbottom?" His thick brows shoot up in amusement.

"I'll be honoured, Mr Nott," he returns teasingly, clasping my hands as they leave his hips and stroking my wrists with his thumbs. "And let's hope we actually manage to get out of there before we decide to shag. Having sex on the floor isn't what it used to be."

I laugh. "No, you're right. Our desperate, needy schoolboy days are over, it seems."

"Oh, I wouldn't mind a bout of rough, impulsive sexing now and then. After all, seeing you in your expensive Muggle suit turns me on like nothing else. Well, besides seeing you naked," he adds shyly, and we grin stupidly through the dust that spiral like glitter in the sunbeams.

"Then I'll make sure to drop you surprise-visits after work more often," I promise.

We walk hand in hand across the Hogwarts grounds and to the impressive golden gates at the edge. He pulls me into a last lazy kiss, and he sighs my name over and over. "I look forward to seeing you later. Good luck in court."

"Thank you." I embrace him once more, but quickly let go. I do have to leave, lest I'll be horribly late. "Goodbye, Neville Longbottom."

"Bye, Theo."

I head out where I can Apparate to London. I glance over my shoulder and see Neville wave from behind those gilded bars.

I wave back, so happy I could burst. I love him. And tonight, I will tell him.