The Truth About THAT Kiss
The Gryffindor Common room was noisy, awash in the victory celebrations of the Quiddictch match over Slytherin. People were celebrating the best way they knew – Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnegan were downing butterbeers like they were water, Ron and Lavender were going at it (again), his tongue down her throat and his hand up her top. Ginny looked like she was muttering to herself and pacing the floor. Hermione was sitting serenely on the chair, a book in her lap, reading intently. Neville saw it all from his perch on the boys' dorm stairs. This was his role, he mused to himself, an observer of life, not an active participant. Unless you count the Department of Mysteries, a voice deep inside him spoke, you were very involved then.
Neville wondered how, after that glorious but dreadful night, he had faded back into the background in Gryffindor. He had stood and fought – faced that bitch who stole his parents from him, Bellatrix LeStrange, and the other Death Idiots. He'd been scared – oh, no doubt – but he'd rebelled against the school rules, against Umbridge, against all he'd blindly followed and supported Harry, his mate.
But you haven't been such a good mate to him lately, have you? That voice in his head reminded him. You know there's something weird going on and you haven't done anything about it. Neville had seen many disturbing things this year – an increase in the arguments between Harry and Hermione, widely thought of as the most compatible and companionable of people, the strange behaviour of Ginny, who was going a bit too Snapey for his liking, spending too much time down in the dungeons and too little time on the books. Then there was Ron, who suddenly became the walking hormone with Lavender, whose mouth was more often employed kissing her than scoffing huge amounts of food – yeah, that was especially weird.
The common room door swung open, and all sound ceased at the abrupt sound. Harry ducked his head in before his body followed. Seamus staggered to his feet. "We won, mate, we won! Slaughtered them, four hundred and fifty to a hundred and forty! Yee-hah!"
Harry beamed. Suddenly, Ginny stopped her pacing and muttering, gave Harry a hard, determined look and ran at him. Harry looked a bit frightened as she sprang up and into his arms, her mouth fastened to his like a leech.
Neville could stand it no more. "Stop!" he bellowed.
"Something strange has been going on this year, and I have had enough of standing by and watching it destroy my friends," he began. He trudged down the stairs and pried Ginny and Harry apart. "Harry – what are you doing?"
Harry looked a bit lost. "Well, mate, she ran at me and kissed me – what am I going to do?"
Ginny looked smug. "I was just staking my claim – he's all mine girls, especially you, Hermione – keep away!"
Hermione looked hurt, lowered her eyes, closed her book and made for the girls dormitory stairs.
"Wait," Neville touched Hermione's arm gently. "You're going to want to hear this." Hermione stopped where she stood, curious.
Neville gulped – it was awkward, the way everyone was looking at him. Courage, don't fail me now! He thought.
"Well," he began. "This year, things have seemed a bit off between you guys." He gestured to Harry, Hermione and Ron. "Harry, you and Hermione have been fighting pretty much non-stop this year – which is strange in itself." Harry slowly nodded. Hermione didn't need to, she knew all too well that her relationship with Harry had deteriorated terribly over the year. "Ron has seemed much less part of the group now – look, he's not even listening to me!" The room as one observed Ron and Lavender getting even more amorous, to the point that clothes were becoming unbuttoned and moans were starting to come from the intertwined pair. All eyes swung back to Neville as he continued. "I know this is strange for you guys, and, as your friend, I can't stand by any longer and watch you three self destruct".
Ginny had had enough, and marched over to the shy herbologist. "Wait just a minute, Neville," she started, her eyes fierce. "What do you mean, they'll self destruct? They're just growing up – Ron's found love...or lust. Harry's found me waiting for him, and Hermione...well, it's pretty apparent she's going to end up alone and bitter, isn't it?" She eyed her former friend with disdain. "I mean, look at her, even McLaggan gave up after one measley date – what's wrong, Granger, wouldn't you put out for him?" Shocked gasps were heard in the room as Hermione's eyes filled with tears.
Neville narrowed his eyes. Yes, there was someone in the room who would reap the benefits of a broken trio. Bingo!
"Ginny, why do you have such an interest in the goings on with these three? I know you've hero-worshipped Harry for years –"
"Hero-worship? Hero-worship? I LOVE Harry, I have done since I was six! All my life I've had one goal, to be with the famous Boy-Who-Lived! And who was it who just snogged him silly in front of an entire room of witnesses, Longbottom? ME, that's who! Now I'm his girlfriend, soon to be fiancé and then wife – what does he need the other two for? They've outlived their usefulness to him, surely! So, I've said it before, girls – hand off, he's mine!" Ginny's smug, self-satisfied look was not lost on her housemates.
Harry, on hearing these words, seemed to come out of the stupor he'd been in for the past few minutes. "Wait a minute, Gin – girlfriend? Hey, you just kissed me once, that doesn't make you my girlfriend."
Ginny stopped, then sidled up to him. "So we don't become boyfriend and girlfriend until after we've been naked with each other, no problems...why don't we go do that now?" She tried to pull Harry towards the portrait hole, only to be stopped by another voice, Hermione's this time.
"Get your filthy hands off him, Weasley!" Hermione snarled. "You've given him potions, I've seen you put some into his goblet at meals – don't deny it, Neville's seen you, too. At first I thought they were just health potions, but now I know they were love potions – something your mother said about potioning your Dad to like her just clicked it in my head just now. Don't you know that's a cheater's way of getting a boyfriend." More shocked gasps issued from the mouths of the stunned Gryffindors.
Harry looked sadly at Ginny. "Is this true, Ginny – have you been dosing me with love potions?"
Ginny nodded breezily. "Oh, that was just to get things going between us, Harry, I was going to stop them as soon as we kissed, anyway."
Harry took a step back. "Then you don't me at all, Ginny. I don't need potions to know who I can trust, who would never betray me the way you have." He looked at her in disgust. "As for being my girlfriend, or anything to me – that's never going to happen. We never were, never are and never going to be anything more than acquaintances."
Neville sent a quick Petrificus totalis Ginny's way to avoid any repercussions.
Harry came over to Hermione, who by this stage had perched on the arm of a chair, tears running down her cheeks. Gently, he lifted her chin to face him. "Hermione," he began. "Why didn't you tell me about the potions?"
"Harry, I honestly thought they were for your health – you know as fifth years we studied healing potions. If I had for one second suspected something different, I would have told you!" She looked beseechingly at Harry. "Please believe me! I love you, I'd never do anything to harm you, Harry!"
Harry smiled, and nodded at her. "We have been fighting a lot this year, over nothing, really. Why?"
Hermione blushed. "Well, you see...I'd started to fancy you, and knowing you could never fancy me, I was trying to protect myself from getting hurt. Then you got that blasted potions book and I was jealous, too." She looked down at the ground again. "Sorry."
Neville smiled. Ah, here it comes – the happy ending.
Harry bent a little to slip his arms around Hermione and haul her to himself. With one hand he raised her face. "Well, Miss Granger, you forgot to factor one thing into that sentence – I do fancy you, and have for some time. I thought you fancied Ron!"
Hermione went a little green. "Fancy that?" and gestured to where Ron gave a pretty decent impersonation of the Giant Squid, covering Lavender and seeming to have twenty hands. "No thanks!" She looked at Harry with a watery smile. "So what do we do now, Harry?"
Harry laughed a little, then lowered his mouth to hers in a gentle kiss. "Now, we go for a walk to...uhh, cement our newfound understanding?" He gestured towards the portrait hole. "Shall we?"
As the new couple left the common room, Neville enervated Ginny. His courage had righted one wrong tonight, and he'd need it again to right another. "Ginny, you don't belong with Harry – you belong with me. I've loved you for years. Will you be mine?"
Ginny was still seething that Hermione and Harry were together. She was the one who was meant to be with him – she deserved the glory and the gold! Until Neville whispered in her ear, "Harry told me the prophecy – seems I could have been the Boy-Who-Lived instead of him, and might still be." Ginny looked at him, not certain to believe him, until he smiled and nodded.
"Well, then, my boyfriend, what say we investigate some broom closets?"
Neville chuckled. "Sounds good to me, Ginny!" He wrapped his large hand around her smaller one and guided her towards the portrait hole. As he was about to clamber out, he saw the stunned faces of his housemates. "Oh, carry on, guys! As you were!"