For Fanfiction, School of Imagination and Creativity (Compounds - write a Fred II/Neville fic); the Hunger Games Challenge (word: beautiful, emotion: loneliness, dialogue: "I'll die happy", class: Herbology and weapon: poison); the If You Dare Challenge (769. Taboo); the Pairing Diversity Bootcamp (11. fire); the Fantastic Beasts Challenge (Fire Crab) and the Popular Song Competition (Nobody Compares)

The thing about having a war hero for a teacher, Fred thought, was that he was perpetually the topic of discussion among students. The younger ones had grown up hearing about his exploits, and their first few years at Hogwarts were spent in hero worshiping him on behalf of their parents. Then they got old enough to think for themselves, and the hero worship was through their eyes.

Fred Weasley had grown up around war heroes of all kinds. Hell, he was even named for one. So the legend of Neville Longbottom was the last thing that drew him to the man, especially since, having known him since childhood, Neville was more of a cool older friend than a hero or father figure.

Other people would have found it odd, but Neville Longbottom had never treated the Weasley-Potter cousins as children. So while the rest of the family friends became aunts and uncles to them, Neville, along with Luna and Rolf Scamander, remained exactly that. Neville.

Coming to Hogwarts, it had been the oddest thing for him to transition from calling him by his name to Professor Longbottom. Even now, at every chance he got, he would return to his childhood form of addressing the man.

For anyone else, it would have been an odd thing to do, but all the Potter-Weasley children shared that habit, and so nobody, not even Headmistress McGonagall, blinked twice at it.

If you asked anyone, Fred Weasley II was a remarkably well adjusted boy. He had none of the inferiority issues people had said he would have when his name had been announced to the world. He had grown up with all the love a child could want, and even though he was named for his father's dead twin, he had never once thought that he was a replacement for him.

So being a person like him, likeable, well adjusted, and the all-around boy next door meant that the world had saddled him with certain expectations. A girl or boyfriend his age, a good job, two point five kids and the white picket fence. He was the one who was supposed to have the dream life.

But by the time he got to sixth year, he had never had a single significant other, and it was definitely not due to lack of trying from the rest of Hogwarts. As one of the few unattached Weasleys left, he was one of the most sought after bachelors in the wizarding world. A number of gossip magazines had even speculated as to what he was looking for in a person, or how someone could attract his attention towards them.

Of course, every single one of them had been wrong.

It was this irritating persistence that resulted in him barging into Neville's staff quarters in the middle of the night. Theoretically, no student was supposed to know where the staff's rooms were, but Fred was the child of one of the legendary Weasley twins. He had memorized every nook and cranny of Hogwarts years before he actually left for Hogwarts.

At the sound of his door banging open, Neville looked up in surprise.

"Fred! What brings you here?" he exclaimed as he saw the unmistakable combination of red hair and mocha skin enter his room.

"I've had enough!" the sixth year fumed, collapsing on the couch in front of the merrily crackling fire. "It's always the same thing with them – let's go out for a date Fred, we can go to the Three Broomsticks next Hogwarts weekend Fred – I enjoy spending time with my friends during the Gryffindor parties, sure, but it's not worth it if I have to deal with the Weasley seekers too," he hissed in disgust.

"Fred-" Neville started.

"Don't!" Fred said, breaking him off. "I know what you're going to say, I need to learn to deal with it, I'm going to have to face it in the real world too, etc, etc. That's all well and good, but it doesn't change the fact that even the horror stories I've heard of Uncle Harry's stalkers pale in comparison to what I'm facing!"

"If you would have let me finish speaking," Neville said with a touch of amusement, "You would have known that all I was going to say that it's not something many people realise, how lonely fame can get."

At the sound of that, Fred calmed down a little. "They're like a slowly spreading poison," he grumbled, "Every time I think that they're cured, they come back stronger than before. How on earth do you deal with them?"

"I never told you about my first few years teaching, did I?" Neville asked, moving Fred's legs for a moment so that he could sit down before replacing the boy's kegs on his laps. He had an amused smile on his face at the memory. "The students – especially those who had chosen Herbology as an optional in sixth and seventh years – seemed more interested in me than in the subject. At first, it annoyed me to no end – I love the subject, and all I had ever wanted was to share that knowledge, and here you had students who didn't seem interested in the least. When I spoke to my own teachers about it, all they would tell me was that I needed to be a bit more firm with them. It confused me for a while, until I realised that instead of subtracting house points every time they focused more on me than on the subject, I'd subtract a point from their final exams. You would be surprised how quickly they changed track after that."

Fred watched Neville as he laughed about his first years as a teacher, completely immersed in the story he was telling.

He was gorgeous, beautiful in a way the finest poetry was, and he-

Neville's expectant look broke him out of his thoughts. He was obviously expecting Fred to say something, and he scrambled to give a reply to what the older man had been saying.

"I can't exactly threaten to reduce their marks if they don't stop annoying me," he grumbled, easily hiding the fact that just moments before, he had been on the verge of waxing rhapsodic about the man he was talking to.

"No," Neville replied, "But that doesn't mean you don't have a way to get them to stop. All you have to do is find someone to date, and they'll all stop harassing you. Isn't that all they want really – an answer on your relationship status?"

Fred sighed heavily. "You wouldn't understand," he mumbled.

"Try me," Neville said with an understanding smile. It was a smile no one could resist, and Fred wasn't any different.

"If I actually started dating someone," he began haltingly, "It wouldn't be fair to them. I'm already in love with someone, and there's no one who could live up to that person."

Neville nodded understandingly. "But why don't you ask that person out then?" he asked, sounding slightly confused. "You're a brilliantly boy, Fred. I'm sure they wouldn't say no."

Fred laughed humourlessly. If only Neville knew who he was talking about…"They would," he finally said. "The person I'm talking about – he's so out of my league that it isn't even funny. And besides, even if he felt the same way, he wouldn't risk it for another two years at the least. Not when there's so much at stake. So I'll wait, and in two years I'll tell him how I feel. Hopefully he won't hate me when he finally knows."

The devastated, hopeless look on Fred's face as he talked about the man he loved nearly broke Neville's heart. He had seen the boy grow up into the wonderful young man that he was, and he couldn't think of anyone who would refuse the kind of love that he offered.

He knew that he certainly wouldn't, if he was ever lucky enough to be offered something so precious.

But he also knew that that was never something that was going to be presented to him, so all he could do was make sure that Fred knew that it was practically unthinkable that he would ever be turned down.

"I'm sure that whoever he is, he'll be more than thrilled when you tell him,' he murmured, fighting a sudden need to stroke Fred's hair in an attempt to comfort him. As long as they were at Hogwarts, Fred was his student, not the boy he had known for all his life or the young man he had grown to care more deeply about than was accepted.

Fred let out another laugh, the same empty laugh as before that made Neville flinch. "You wouldn't be saying that if you knew who I was talking about, you know," he said.

"Why don't you tell me?" Neville asked. "I won't tell anyone, and I'm sure getting it out of your chest will help you…"

Neville had always been able to look unfairly eager and sympathetic when it suited him, Fred thought. Unfortunately, it was a look he had never been able to ignore and refute, even when he knew that going along with it was ultimately going to harm him in the long run.

It wasn't any different this time. Even though a large part of his brain was berating him for what he was about to reveal, he was a Gryffindor. And that, combined with the look on Neville's face, meant that there was nearly no chance for any logical reaction from him.

He let out a defeated sigh as he pulled himself together, getting up from his prone position on the couch to sit next to Neville.

"Fre-"

Fred held up a hand to stop Neville. "Just – Just give me a moment, please?" he asked, sounding pathetic even to his own ears.

"Of course," Neville murmured.

Gathering every little bit of both courage and love he had ever possessed, he leaned forward and gently touched his lips to Neville's, pulling away almost instantly.

Even though he was terrified of his professor and friend's reaction, he forced himself to look at him.

Neville's eyes were closed, fingers touching his lips in disbelief. Had it been anyone else, Fred would have thought that he hadn't been able to imagine the fact that Fred could ever love him. But he knew better, and so he knew that Neville's shock was only a prelude to disgust and revulsion.

And so he braced himself for what was going to be inevitable repulsion.

As soon as Fred's lips touched his, Neville combusted. The light and fleeting touch tore down every thought and expectation he had of the boy's feelings for him, and allowed himself to attempt to believe something he had never dared to let himself.

He needed a moment to process it all. The feeling of having everything you thought you knew torn down and replaced with something altogether new too overwhelming for him to react immediately, though he did have every intention of letting Fred know that his feelings were returned as soon as he gathered himself.

And then he opened his eyes to Fred's devastated expression.

As soon as he saw that his eyes were open, Fred began whimpering in distress. "I…I'm sorry, I promise I won't do it again…" he babbled, and it broke Neville's heart all over again.

He had had every intent to talk this through with him, but the moments he had taken for himself had obviously led to Fred fearing the worst. He knew that talking would do them no good at that moment – Fred was in no state to hear anything but the reprimands that he was obviously expecting.

So he pulled the boy into his arms instead, stroking his hair and murmuring soothing words and promises in an attempt to calm him down.

He didn't know for how long they stayed like that until Fred finally pulled away, looking at him with impossibly wide eyes that belied the fact that he was barely a year away from being an adult.

"You don't – You don't hate me?" he asked tentatively, voice shaking with fear.

Neville shook his head immediately, the idea so absurd that the fact that Fred thought that shocked him to the core. "Of course not!" he exclaimed vehemently, "Why would I ever do such a thing?"

"Because-" Fred started, before stopping abruptly. He paused for a few moments, thinking, while Neville waited patiently for him to say whatever it was he wanted to. "It doesn't matter," he finally said. "I wouldn't be able to explain it in any way that made sense. Just – are you sure you don't hate me?" The last bit came out too doubtful for Neville's liking.

"I'm sure!" Neville said. "I already told you – I can't think of a reason why I'd ever hate you!"

Fred gaped at him, seeming to struggle for words. "But – But I kissed you even though I knew you wouldn't want me to!" he finally exclaimed in a strangled voice, sounding as though he was on the verge of tears.

And suddenly, in a flash, it all made sense to Neville. He reached out to pull Fred back into his arms, returning to stroking his hair. "You silly, silly boy," he murmured, refusing to let him go even when Fred tried to break away at his words. "You kissing me is the last thing I would hate you for."

"But-"

Before Fred could continue with his protests, Neville pulled away just the slightest bit, just enough for him to have space to bend down and drop a feather-light kiss on Fred's lips, not unlike the one he had given him earlier.

"Now do you see?" he asked gently as he pulled away.

Fred looked at him, stunned. He reached up to touch his lips, looking much the same as Neville imagined he must have looked after Fred's kiss. "You-" he whispered in surprise before stopping, seeming to be unable to say anything more.

"I never allowed myself to dream of the possibility," Neville murmured. "You're so much younger than me, and had I allowed my thoughts to go there, I was certain that I was going to get my heart broken. But now…"

Fred still looked astounded, unable to believe that this was happening to him, but he contented himself with curling back into Neville's arms, deciding not to question his sudden stroke of luck.

After a few moments holding Fred, Neville reluctantly pulled away.

"You were right at the beginning you know," he said regretfully, "We do have a lot to talk about before we can properly start this relationship. Regardless of what we are outside of Hogwarts, I'm still your Professor. We need to-" Fred's finger on his lips silenced his rambling.

"I know," he murmured, "But can we please do talk about it later?" The impossibly big eyes were back, the use of which Neville was pretty sure should be declared illegal because of the things it did to his self-control and willpower to continue on with the discussion. "I just want to spend some time with you like this, just the two of us without any thoughts of the outside world."

That sealed it. There was no way Neville could refuse Fred when he worded his request like that, a fact that he was almost certain the younger boy was aware of. Besides, holding Fred in his arms was no hardship at all. If that was the last thing he experienced before he died, he would be able to die happy.

"Of course," he murmured, pulling the boy deeper into his arms. In some time, they would have to separate, talk about the rest of the world and how it would affect their fledgling relationship, but for the moment, holding Fred in his arms, Neville was more than content to pretend that nothing existed in the world apart from the two of them.

I hope you guys liked it! As always, please don't forget to drop a review on your way out :)