Hannah Abbott had had a crush on Neville Longbottom before he even knew she existed.
It had started in their fourth year, at the Yule Ball. She noticed the smile on his face and felt an unfamiliar and unexpected stab of jealously aimed in the direction of Ginny Weasley. She had tried to ignore it but found herself unconsciously seating herself nearer and nearer to Neville during Herbology, abandoning Ernie and her other friends to discuss Venomous Tentacula, despite Neville's affiliation with Harry Potter, who had taken Cedric's rightful glory in the Triwizard Tournament.
In fifth year, as part of Dumbledore's Army, Hannah partnered Neville as often as she could, and despite being a relatively skilled witch, she sometimes let him Stun her, just so she could see the smile on his face. When the stress of her O.W.L's got to her, and she broke down during Herbology, it was Neville's hand on her shoulder that calmed her, and the second Calming Draught that Madam Pomfrey made her take was not because of exam stress, but because she feared she'd made a fool out of herself in front of him. He comforted her after her disastrous Transfiguration O.W.L, and during the rest of her exams, all equally difficult and stressful, it was Neville's comforting words that she thought of to calm her down.
After the death of her mother, she returned to Hogwarts to re-sit the sixth year she missed. Neville was now the unspoken leader of the newly reformed DA and she went back as soon as he told her about it. Because he told her about it. It was during those dark times that they became closer and closer. They'd spend increasing hours together, writing training schedules and taking time to discuss their joint favourite subject of Herbology. During one particularly emotional evening, the anniversary of her mother's death, they opened up to each other on a new level. He shared the pain of his parent's condition, of being unable to communicate with them. Hannah sympathized and that evening, in the Room of Requirement, with people asleep all around them, they shared a quick but meaningful kiss. It was one of promise.
After the war was finally over, when Hannah had witnessed Neville s courage, and when Neville had seen Hannah fight for him and for Harry with a ferocity he would not have expected from her, they came together in silence, neither of them able to find the words to express the sadness of their friends death, or the relief that the other was alive.
He proposed two years later, stumblingly, haltingly getting onto one knee in the snow outside their home. He d been working up the courage to do it over dinner but had never been able to get the words out. He could barely get them out then, but she knew what he meant and had known her answer for years.
