Smiles don't hurt once in a while
Neville walked back to the Common Room happily after escorting an extremely talkative Luna to the main Ravenclaw Corridor, whose partner seemed to abandon her for a rather more serious and prettier Beauxbatons girl. For once, here was a girl who didn't really judge him for his clumsiness or lack of ability to have a good conversation.
Also, Luna wasn't that bad. She was interesting to talk to, although you couldn't be certain if she was ever being serious or not.
Soon after arriving in the Gryffindor Boys' Dormitories, he found himself dancing around in his shiny new dress shoes, grinning like a madman. Luckily, the only person who saw him was Harry, who simply shrugged like he couldn't care less, and went off to change. By the time he was finished, other fourth-year boys piled into the room, and Neville had stopped dancing.
-x-
"Neville? Why are you smiling?"
"Huh?"
It was next morning, and Neville, Seamus, and Dean were sitting at the Gryffindor table for breakfast. Apparently, Neville had still been smiling, and Seamus and Dean were concerned about his personal well being, knowing all-too-well what Neville was capable of.
"You're smiling a lot, Neville." Dean repeated, shaking an oatmeal-filled-spoon at him.
In between dodging nutrition-filled grains and milk, Neville answered, "Grams says it doesn't hurt to smile a lot once in a while."
"Er," started Seamus, "are you sure you're not planning on—"
At that moment, Luna had just walked into the Great Hall, wearing earrings that rather looked like a cross between a miniature Hinky Puff and a flobberworm. After a few seconds, Neville realized that his shaking spoon of cereal was dripping slowly on his robes.
"Oi! Earth to Neville! Are you in there?" Seamus said loudly.
"Wha—" Neville turned around and saw Seamus and Dean looking expectantly at him and the direction he was staring at. "Oh, sorry…"
"What were you staring at, Neville?" asked Dean, struggling to keep his voice innocent.
"Lu—no one," said Neville hastily. All of the guys already teased him about his clumsiness. The last thing he needed was a girl they would tease him about!
"Don't play innocent with us, Longbottom," Dean admonished Neville severely, "we all know who you're staring at."
Neville managed one harmless looking glare before looking back towards where Luna was, however, he found to his dismay that Luna had moved, and in her place was a very greasy, ugly looking Snape.
"Severus Snape. Greasy, slimy, sod-off Snape," Seamus said tonelessly, his face at complete odds with his colorless voice. "I would've never believed it of you, Neville!"
"Yeah, honestly, Neville," said Dean, taking feverish bites of kipper. "Even Snape's way out of your league."
"I wasn't—who're you—not him—wasn't looking at—I'm not," Neville blustered unsuccessfully. Dean and Seamus clicked their tongues, looking at Neville sympathetically.
"Give it up, Neville." Dean shook his head. "Or rather, give him up. Too old and wrong gender."
"What the—" Neville stuttered yet again. "I—I don't like Snape," he said helplessly. With a last bewildered shudder, Neville stood up abruptly from his seat and left the Great Hall, not having even touched his cereal, which Seamus instantly claimed.
"Poor bloke," he said, shoveling Muggle Apple Jacks into his mouth. "Gullible."
"Guess he didn't realize we were kidding," Dean added, finishing off a goblet of pumpkin juice. He replaced the goblet back on the table, where it instantly began refilling itself.
After a minute of silence, Seamus looked up from his plate. "Eh, mate, he was stuttering quite a bit. You don't think—"
Dean's eyes seemed to grow wider. "No," he said, in what he obviously thought was a dreaded tone of voice. "Neville can't possibly like Snape. It's—it's—it's against the Hogwarts rules!"
"Forget that—it's against the laws of nature!"
"Ugh," the two boys said, pushing away their heavily-loaded plates, getting up themselves.
-x-
"Luna!" Neville called out, jogging breathlessly over to where Luna was sitting alone, reading what appeared to be a Muggle Chinese take-out menu sideways. Clutching his side, even though he had not even been jogging for a minute, he sat down beside her, wheezing slightly.
Luna looked up, slightly surprised, but not displeased. "Oh, hello Neville," she said cheerfully.
Neville inclined his head in greeting. "I just wanted to say, thanks for being my—er, sort of partner last night at the Yule Ball."
Luna smiled, setting her Chinese menu down. "It was nothing at all, Neville. I rather enjoyed doing the Suckbloodika and the normal, yet quite boring dance with you."
"Er," Neville said uncertainly, not quite sure of what to say.
"Oh, don't worry," Luna said comfortingly, turning her protuberant eyes upon the uncomfortable boy. "I wasn't insulting you. Oh no." Here, she turned the Chinese menu around on the table, studying it intently. "In fact, you dance rather well," she added.
"Thanks," Neville said with a hint of pride that he only used once before. "Well, I'll see you later in Potions."
"Gryffindor-Ravenclaw Double-Potions," Luna confirmed, nodding gravely. "Two intelligent Houses, coming together in an unintelligent, dark, damp dungeon. The same thing happened once in 1947, I believe, when—"
"Oi! Neville! Get a move on!" Ron Weasley called from the opposite end of the Great Hall. "Potions starts in a few minutes."
Neville turned around, bewildered. Ron Weasley, worrying about tardiness?
Ron must have spotted the skeptical look on Neville's face, because he added hastily, "Hermione. She told me that no Gryffindor could be late today." With that, Ron left the Great Hall, muttering something about "animal magnetism", "little messenger-boy" and, "oh well, I can't really stand up to her", and an audible sigh.
"That Ron really seems infatuated with Hermione, doesn't he?" said Luna matter-of-factly.
"Well, er," said Neville, not really wanting to delve into his friend's private life.
"Right. You should go on to Potions. I can bear being late."
finite