"Neville, you can only take out 10 books, not 15. You're going to need to put a few of those herbology books back. Madam Pince proclaimed. Neville truly didn't want to put any back, but since he had to, he did. After trying to argue that they were all for class, he finally walked over to the shelf to decide which books to put back.
"Great, another plant geek. Well, at least this one knows that you can only take out 10 books." Neville overheard Madam Pince say under her breath. Neville looked over at the check-out desk from the shelf where he was putting back Great Herbologist of Ancient Greece. He saw a beautiful, lovely girl of about 14 year with sky eyes and long, blonde hair, which was pulled back into a ponytail.
She was holding ten books; all about herbology. Neville only had one thought in his mind, and it was 'Yule Ball'.
Being the great klutz he was though, he just dropped a big heavy book on his toe and yelped, "OW! OW! OW!"
The girl ran over to help him. They both grabbed the same book and looked up, catching the others eyes. Both Neville and the girl, blushed and looked quickly away.
Even though they both wanted to ask the other one to the Yule Ball, they were both extremely shy creatures and were too afraid to and instead, the girl just returned the booked to Neville and walked away with cheeks bright red. Neville just stood there stunned.
He then went back to check out the best ten books he could find. While Madam Pince was checking the books he meekly asked her what the girl's name was.
"Shannon," was the answer to his question. "4th year, Ravenclaw, O student, loves herbology." Madam Pince continued.
"Thanks, oh these are due next week right?"
"Yes."
The next day, Neville went to the library to return A Wizard's Guide to Herbology, which he found too easy when he saw Shannon again. He smiled and said hello when she past but was too shy to do anything else.
For the next week or so, the same thing happened every day. He would see her in the hallway, or in the library, and try as he might to ask her to the Yule Ball, every time he looked at her, he would get flustered and would only be able to manage to smile weakly and say, "Hi,".
After about a week after he first met her, he at next to her in Herbology. Shannon said hello and Neville meekly answered with a hello of his own. They went through the whole class only talking when they needed to ask the other to pass something.
Finally, at the end of class, when Shannon was walking out of the green house, Neville said, "Shannon," when she turned around he spit out the rest of his sentence. "Ever since I saw you in the library a few days ago, I've wanted to know if you have a date to the Yule Ball, and if you don't, do you want to go with me?" By the time he actually asked her the question, he was a shade of red Ron Weasley would have been proud of.
"Yes! Yes, I'd love to go with you; I wanted to ask you the same thing!" She found if hard to conceal her eagerness at the prospect of going to the ball with him.
" REALLY! Wow, are you sure, I mean, I'm just, well, Neville, and you're so pretty, and are you serious?"
"Yes," she laughed. "But do you always talk so much?"
After he told her he usually didn't, they talked on the way to the castle. When he told her he owned a Mimbulus Mimbletonia, a rare plant, she was very excited. They chatted animatedly about the properties and the plants until they had to go to their separate classes. As Shannon walked away, Neville realized that he had never had such a good Herbology class.