Author's Note: Playing with Rowling's toys but not promising to bring them back in one piece.

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Professor Longbottom left the headmistress' office, shuffling his papers. Preparing the 5th year students for O.W.L.S. always caused headaches. Every year, it got harder and harder to impress on these kids how important these exams were to their futures. Headmistress Dobrinski was insistent though, demanding reports on students, giving pointers on better focusing the lessons. Neville thought back to his own 5th year, almost three decades ago. The headmistress was strict, but a far cry from the totalitarian, transparent and truly sadistic tendencies that Umbridge had subjected them to. Dobrinski was fair and effective. Really, a teacher couldn't ask for more than that.

However, he hadn't really been interested in discussing his teaching methods. He was a fine teacher and there was always room for improvement, but there really wasn't much he could do when a student showed no interest or ability in Herbology. Fact was fact. Most students didn't find the subject particularly exciting.

The main focus on tonight's meeting boiled down to one student. Scorpius Malfoy.

Neville shuffled Scorpius' papers to the top. That kid was a whiz. Top marks in every lesson. Always knew the answers, even to things that they hadn't really covered yet. The kid could even calm a mandrake! He had never seen that level of skill before.

When Scorpius was unguarded, Neville had seen the boy lovingly tend to his plants, almost as if they were children. The effect was spectacular. Plants that went under Scorpius' care flourished. More than once, Neville gave Scorpius plants that had been on the brink of dying, even ones that he had written off for gone, only to see them end up bigger and brighter than the previously healthier plants.

There was no doubt about it, Scorpius had an extraordinary gift.

Not that you would notice first off. Just like his father, Scorpius had cronies who practically demanded his leadership. Goyle and Zabini were always at his side, picking fights and causing general mayhem. They were behind nearly every nasty prank in school, and everyone knew it. Malfoy senior had been told several times about these problems, but just like Neville remembered, Draco always waved away the accusations with a smirk on his face. Knowing Draco, he was probably secretly urging such horrible behavior. Maybe even offering bribes.

Many teachers had decided to give up on Scorpius. He was rude in Transfiguration, down-right mean in Care of Magical Creatures and since the potions mistress, Mme Saffrun, was head of Slytherin house, Scorpius simply settled on being lazy. Many of the teachers were simply content to let Scorpius go about his own way, as long as he kept quite.

Even though Scorpius was moderately behaved in Herbology, Neville still refused to take any of Scorpius' abuse. 'He may have talent and money,' he thought 'But there is no excuse.'

He walked out the back of the school, towards the greenhouses. To be fair, Scorpius wasn't the only one causing problems in Herbology. There was still the issue of Rosie Weasley.

'Old prejudices die hard,' thought Neville. Smart as her mother, bullheaded as her father, she and Scorpius got on as well as gasoline and fire. For the past month, every Gryffindor/Slytherin potions class ended with subtracted points and shared detention for the two. Neville had hoped that getting them to work together would resolve some of their differences, but it didn't stop. More and more, it seemed as if they were deliberately trying to rile each other into detention. A push here, and insult there, and off they went.

Neville yawned. Looking at his watch, he realized that it was nearly one am. He picked up the pace towards the greenhouse. He hadn't meant to leave Scorpius and Rosie so long. He only meant to be gone an hour, but the headmistress had started onto one of her lectures and they had lost track of time. With any luck, the pair would be on opposite ends of the greenhouse with minimal injury.

The greenhouse got closer and closer, and Neville could barely start seeing through the windows. He saw a flurry of motion in the window. Two figures were wrestling, fighting.

"Oh Merlin!" He cried as he broke out into a run, drawing his wand. He had to put a stop to this before they--

But once Neville got close enough, he stopped in his tracks. They weren't fighting.

They were snogging. Passionately.

He tucked his wand back into his robes with a chuckle. 'So that's what this past month has been about,' he thought. Really. He had been fifteen once. How could he have been so blind?

He walked up to the greenhouse door, chuckling. He was plainly visible but it was not surprising that Scorpius and Rosie didn't seem to notice.

Taking off his shoe, he gave it a few good whacks on the frame of the door. Rosie and Scorpius flew apart, adjusting their clothes and rushing over to their abandoned projects. Neville gave himself until the count of three, finally hopping inside, wrestling to get his shoe back on.

"Got a nasty bug caught in my shoe. Don't you hate that?"

Rosie and Scorpius looked up innocently from their projects, faces flushed and dirty, just as they had looked for the past month. Neville really had been stupid. Very very stupid.

"Yes, Professor," Rosie said, breathless.

"And oh!" Neville exclaimed, re-examining his watch theatrically. "Look at the time! You two better be off to bed." Separate beds, he resisted to mention. "I'll write notes for both of you, so you won't get in trouble with the prefects." Taking out a notepad from a pocket in his robes, Neville wrote the notes as they tidied up their messes. It took all the effort he had not to laugh knowingly at them.

Rosie and Scorpius headed out the door, taking their notes in turn as Neville handed them out. They had just walked out onto the grass when he added "Oh kids! If you would like some extra project time here in the evenings," he said, trying to control the smirk on his face "you can simply ask rather than disrupting my classes."

He gave them a wink and closed the door, noting the wide-eyed expression on their faces before turning away.

'Teenagers,' Neville chuckled to himself.

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"Do you think he saw us?" Rosie whispered, clutching her note in her hand.

Scorpius shook out of his daze to look at her. There was a twig in her hair. Ever so gently, he reached over and plucked it out. "I don't know," he said, flicking the twig to the side. "I don't really care."

Rosie give him a smile, warm and inviting. A few moments ago, her hands had been on him, hot and delicate against the bare skin of his back. It was hard to believe that someone so small could generate that much heat, but then again, it was hard to predict anything with a girl like Rosie.

Her smile quirked. Grabbing his hand, she let out a giggle and dashed off. Despite himself, Scorpius grinned, letting himself be dragged behind her. They rounded the corner and Rosie fell against the wall, panting as she tugged Scorpius toward her.

He pressed against her, feeling her warmth and breathing in her scent. Sweet jasmine invaded his senses as he filled the gap between them. Their lips met again, firm and wonderful. Something blossomed in the pit of his stomach, and Scorpius decided that if he were to die right now, he would go as a happy man.