Okay, another plot bunny I just had to get on paper. This one wouldn't let me sleep no matter how hard I tried. I've discovered that I really like writing from two perspectives. I like how different the same situation can be from someone else's point of view.
Disclaimer: I haven't put these on all of my stories, so this applies for all of my previous stories as well: I don't own anything from the Harry Potter books, world, etc. (duh) and I'm not making any money for writing this. I am the plot bunnies' slave. tehe.
Neville took deep, steady breaths as he watched the red hair a few paces ahead of him swing from side to side. The effect was quite calming; lines blurring until it was flame in front of his eyes no longer her hair. His eyes got wide before he clamped them shut. He'd only been calm because he'd forgotten what he was planning on doing.
He started running his planned words over in his head nervously, Hey, Gin, would you go to the ball with me? At first, he'd thought of spicing it up with some witty comment but he knew he'd never succeed in delivering it. Things always sounded great in his head but never came out right.
"Waahyow!" Neville's thoughts came to an abrupt halt as he ran into something (he'd forgotten to reopen his eyes) and proceeded to fall flat on his face.
"Oh! Neville, are you alright?" Neville was devastated to hear Ginny's voice asking him. As she helped him to his feet, he fleetingly thought of a change of words: "As I've obviously fallen head over heels for you already, I'd like you to be my date to the ball."
Neville turned even more crimson than he'd been before, at the thought of actually attempting that cheesy line.
Ginny just smiled warmly at him and then her lips started moving and it was a few seconds before Neville realized she was speaking, "…distracted again, I suppose?"
Neville nodded his head dumbly as he ran the line through his head one more time.
Hey Gin, would you go to the ball with me?
"H-hey, G-gin-ny," he saw the corner of her mouth twitch. She was trying not to laugh at him! "W-would you – er – would you go to the –" Neville cut off and looked down. Her twitch of the lips had turned into a full-fledged grin. She was going to laugh at him… He couldn't bear to look at her and last minute he changed his mind. He couldn't ask her to go to the ball! He'd just go stag. "er – library with me?"
Ginny took a moment to respond and Neville used that moment to mentally berate himself for saying library of all things.
"You want me to go to the library with you?" Neville imagined a bit of sadness in Ginny's voice when she said the word "library." He knew he was just imagining it though.
"Er – yeah," he stumbled over his words, as usual, "you know to – er – study and stuff."
"Um, sure Neville, after dinner?"
Neville just nodded. He was too ashamed of himself for screwing this up to talk again.
Neville didn't see Ginny walk away as his eyes had once again found his shoes.
Ginny glared at the parchment in her hands. She had just gotten her most recent Potion's essay back from the greasy git and was looking over it on her way to the Great Hall for dinner. She couldn't believe he marked her down so much for this essay. Her anger really flared up as she noted that he'd marked her off 5 points for a supposed misspelled word. She'd spelled the word right! So what if her handwriting made the "e" look a bit like a cursive "i". The old bat knew what she meant but marked it wrong anyway! After another minute or so of fuming over the assignment that she knew deserved a better grade, she stopped to put it back in her book bag.
Just as she was zipping it up though, something collided with her and let out a loud noise that sounded like "Waahyow!" She caught herself before she fell but the other person wasn't so lucky. She turned to see Neville laying face down on the floor.
"Oh! Neville, are you alright?"
Ginny hurried to help her friend up and she couldn't help but smile when she saw how red his face was getting. Lately, Ginny had found Neville to be absolutely adorable. She saw this as a positive step in getting over Harry. If she could find another boy adorable then at least she had a chance of not being a lovesick puppy for the rest of her life, right?
"You always manage to get yourself into these situations, Neville." She liked the way his name rolled off her tongue. She paused just for a second and noticed that Neville's eyes were slightly glazed over and he was staring at her lips and probably not hearing a word she said. She continued anyway, "Some new plant has you distracted again, I suppose?"
Neville just nodded and Ginny smiled knowing he had no idea what he was agreeing to. She waited a few moments assuming he was going to say something. She wasn't disappointed.
"H-hey G-gin-ny," Ginny tried not to smirk at how cute he was being. He couldn't even say her name. She wondered for a second why he was so nervous. Her answer came as he continued, or so she thought, "W-would you – er – Would you go to the –" Ginny couldn't hide her smile now. He was going to ask her to the ball! His eyes fell back to the floor and he mumbled, "er – library with me?"
Her face fell. He hadn't asked her. She wondered if she had just been hoping that he was asking her to the ball or if that had been his intention originally.
She couldn't keep all of the emotion from her voice as she said, "You want me to go to the library with you?"
"Er – yeah, you know to – er – study and stuff."
"Um, sure Neville, after dinner?" She looked at Neville with a bit of sadness as he nodded his head without looking at her before his eyes found their way back to his feet. Ginny waved at him anyway and continued toward the Great Hall. After a few steps, she turned to see if he'd looked up yet.
He hadn't.
Please Read & Review and let me know if you think I should write another chapter of Neville trying again in the library! I haven't decided if I will or not yet, so until I decide this isn't complete but if I decide it doesn't need that other chapter then it's just a one-shot and I'll change it to complete.