Title: Happy New Year
Author: CosmicalMadison
Prompt: New Year's Eve/Neville challenges 30minutefic LJ
Summary: Neville is nervous about taking Luna Lovegood to the New Year's Eve ball.
Rating: K
Genre: Romance
Pairing: Neville/Luna
It was eight-thirty, and Neville Longbottom was nervous. He stood in front of a full length mirror in the Gryffindor seventh year boys' dormitory looking at his reflection. He wore a pressed white shirt, a black suit and tie, and shiny black suits. He had never felt more self-conscious.
It was the thirty-first of December, and he was getting ready to take Luna Lovegood to the first annual Hogwarts New Year's Eve Ball. He was so nervous that he was frozen in place. He had been starting at his reflection for at least twenty minutes now.
The door to the room opened, and his friend Harry Potter came in. Of course Neville could only hear this and see it in the mirror, but he still caught the confused look on Harry's face. "Neville," the raven-haired boy asked curiously, "what are you doing?"
"Can't - move," Neville managed.
Harry snickered. "You look almost as bad as when Hermione put that Petrificus hex on you first year."
Neville blushed.
"Anyway," his friend continued, "we've got to get going. If you don't pick up Luna soon, we're going to be late."
"Right." The boy with brown hair still couldn't move.
Harry laughed again. "Here, let me help." He stepped forward, took hold of Neville's arm, and towed the other boy out the door.
Neville found that he could move now, but he was still nervous beyond imagining.
Five minutes later, Neville foun himself standing in front of the door to the Ravenclaw dormitory. He knocked, ignoring the senseless riddle it was spouting at him, and waited for someone to open it.
Only a moment or two later, someone did, and Neville's draw dropped.
There stood Luna Lovegood, and she looked beautiful. She was wearing a long, strapless yellow gown, matching high heels, long white silk gloves, and her ever-present radish-shaped earrings.
The girl smiled at her date. "Good evening, Neville," she said in her ethereal voice. "Shall we go?"
Neville nodded dumbly, unable to speak.
She smiled again before taking his hand and leading him toward the Great Hall.
The night went splendidly. The two of them danced to the Weird Sisters, even singing along to a few songs, and spent time chatting with their friends.
At around ten minutes to midnight, while they were in the middle fo the floor, Luna suddenly whispered, "Hey, Neville, watch this." She pulled her want out of one of the glaves and held it at waist height so that only he could see it. "I've been planning something special." She winked, then pointed the wand toward the ceiling and whispered, "Confettius!"
There was a spark, and a bang, and then dozens of tiny black beetles were raining down on the crowd. Many girls ran screaming from the room, and their dates had to follow, begging them to come back.
Luna's face fell immediately, and Neville heard her sniffle. "That wasn't supposed to happen!" she cried. "It was supposed to make confetti!" She ran off toward a table in a corner, and Neville followed quickly.
He thought then, though, that maybe she might want a moment alone, so instead he made a beeline for a concession stand. He picked up a pair of butterbeers, then went to find his date.
He found her sitting at a table alone with her head in her hands. "Oh, Neville," she moaned when he had seated himself beside her, "I can't believe I just did that! I'm such a failure…"
"No, you're not!" Neville objected. "I couldn't even have done that, let alone made the original charm work." He paused awkwardly, now knowing what else to say, then passed her one of the bottles. "I brought this for you."
She sniffled once more before popping off the top and taking a drink. "Thank you, Neville."
"You're welcome." The two of them sat there for a few minutes not saying anything.
After a little while, someone cast a charm on the other side of the room causing giant numbers to leap into the air. They were counting down from ten; the new year was almost here.
Everyone in the room starting counting down, "Ten…nine…"
Neville joined in. "Eight…seven."
He looked over to see that Luna was still moping and touched her arm.
"Six…five…"
She smiled at him and joined in.
"Four…three…"
The voices were growing more and more excited.
"Two…one…"
One second left to go.
"HAPPY NEW YEAR!' everyone screamed. All around the room, confetti charms and other colorful but harmless spells were flying through the air.
Neville looked over at Luna and grinned. "Happy new year," he said.
"Happy new year, Neville," she answered with one of her dreamy smiles. "And I just thought of something else…Something I'm pretty sure can't go wrong."
The boy was about to ask what she meant when she suddenly leaned over and kissed him.
Neville was so surprised that he nearly fainted.