Wow! What a response! Thanks to all the reviews, really! I'm pleased. I left this chapter short because, well the next one is probably going to be extremely long.

This story, I'm thinking, will definitely be under ten chapters. But there's a good reason for that.


Double Blind

Chapter 2: Christmas Shopping


Neville Longbottom, with his hands in his pockets, strolled down Diagon Alley, wondering to himself what he would get his friends for Christmas. The shops were cleaning and sparkling with Christmas decorations and fresh snow.

With a twinge of sadness, he saw Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, which was still open. He (and many other people) had been completely sure that George would not go on running the place. But after a long year of hiatus, he and Lee Jordan reopened shop and the business was still doing very well.

He went into the shop, which was alight with green and red pops and bangs. The center of the store was completely obscured by a large Christmas tree, and young Hogwarts students were rummaging through shelves and shelves of items.

"Neville!" Lee cried happily when he saw him walk him. "How are you, old buddy?" he asked.

Neville smiled. "I'm doing good, just getting some Christmas shopping done, you know. How are you, Lee?"

Lee shook his long dreadlocks out of his face. "Doing okay, business is always good around Christmas, Hogwarts kids love this place."

"I can see why," Neville said, looking around. "Where's George?"

"The Holeyman is in the back, he's getting a few items to put back on the shelves."

A few moments later, George walked out of the back with a few very large boxes in his arms. He started restocking the shelves, when he finished, he looked over at Lee and spotted Neville.

"Neville!" he called, he ran over to him and shook his hand enthusiastically. "Alright then Neville?" he asked.

"Yeah, yeah," he said. "How are you?"

"Thriving, Hagrid brought us this Christmas tree this morning," he said, pointing at the huge tree. "We like to have a bit of festiveness for our Christmas shoppers. So what can I do you for?"

"I'm Christmas shopping, I thought I'd pop in."

"Who are you shopping for, might I ask? Has our Neville finally found a lovely lady?" Lee interjected, smiling slyly.

Neville blushed. "No. Not at all, I'm going over to the Potters' for Christmas Tea tomorrow and I need to get something for the kids and Luna Lovegood too."

"My nephews and niece," George said, putting on a face of concentration. "I'm sure Rosie would enjoy a nice book," he said mockingly. "She's a lot like Hermione, that one. Shame too."

"James is like you," Neville said. "A lot like you."

George smiled. "Victorious, then. Speaking of that, I'm having lunch with Bill and Fleur tomorrow myself, before we all head back to the Burrow. Victoire is eight now! She looks just like Fleur, except she has red hair. I was so proud," he said, pretending to wipe a tear from his eye. "So, I think you should head in to Flourish and Blotts, get some little kid books for them. As for Luna, get the most outrageous thing you see, the wackier the more she'll love it. We're sending those kids a whole stock pile of our products, they don't need any more of them, hopefully they've got the good Weasley gene, and not turn out like Percy," he added, though there was no malice in his voice at all.

Neville laughed and waved goodbye, walking out of the store into the chilly afternoon. He did go into Flourish and Blotts and look through a vast section of children's books, finally picking a couple that he thought might work for the young kids. He also found a strange little book he decided that Teddy Lupin would find useful: How to Survive Hogwarts, by Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas. Nearly laughing out loud, he flipped through the book and saw several hilarious cartoon drawings that he knew represented the people they had gone to school with. Dean and Seamus had obviously had a lot of (somewhat childish) fun with this.

He made his purchase and popped in and out of a few shops, trying to look for something blaringly outrageous that would suit Luna. He was unsuccessful, and returned home. He wondered if Luna would even notice he couldn't find her a Christmas present.

Neville awoke with a start the next morning. It's Christmas Eve and all, but who'd be coming to call this early? he thought to himself as he got out of bed, looking for his dressing robe.

He finally answered the door and found Luna Lovegood staring at him. She was quite a bit taller than she had been last time he had seen her, she was actually taller than him now. Her long straggly blond hair was back in a high ponytail and she was clutching a huge sack.

"Happy Christmas Ever, Neville!" she said, smiling.

He let her in and stared at the back of her in wonder. "I wasn't expecting you this early!"

"Well, I got back earlier than I had expected, so I thought I'd stop by so we could leave together this afternoon," she explained pleasantly, examining Neville's flat with vague interest.

"Would you like some breakfast? Toast? Kippers?"

"Some toast would be nice…"

He nodded and went to the kitchen. He came back a few minutes later with a stack of toast on a plate. "Here you go."

"Thank you Neville," she said, smiling and taking a piece.

"What's in the bag?" he asked conversationally.

"Things I picked up traveling, I thought I could take a few of them with us to show everybody," she explained.

Neville smiled. "That's nice. So how long are you staying before you go back out traveling?"

"I think I'm going to leave a couple days after the New Year," she said, biting into her toast.

Neville pondered for a moment.

It was then that Neville Longbottom knew what he had to do. It would be spectacularly amusing, too. Neville had not ever really technically asked a girl on a date before. But he could.


Well, I think we all know what Neville's plotting. Review, please?