Author's Note: This chapter is pretty much pure fluff. Fair warning.

Prompt 3: Sliding

Herbology was supposed to be Neville Longbottom's favorite class because of the plants. It was, in reality, a bit more complicated than that. There was also the small bonus that he sat two seats down from the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen.

Hannah Abbott was easily more alluring than anyone Neville had ever met. She was smart, funny, and had a way of smiling even brighter than anyone else despite her tragic past. He always felt an underlying need to save her as well, mainly because she was clumsier than he was (A rare feat, to be sure) and he could finally be someone's hero.

Granted, this was a few years before the Battle of Hogwarts, where so much changed everything, but way back when, he was just an innocent boy who always had a habit of screwing up. And she was an equally innocent girl who seemed awkwardly beautiful.

She had muggle braces on her teeth for a few years, and when they came off for the first time, Neville was awestruck. She had an even more dazzling smile than ever…

But he sometimes missed the way her front teeth never quite touched. His own weren't prefect, and neither was he.

Neville suddenly hit the realization that Hannah was no longer that awkward girl that day in Herbology, when he reached across the table to grab something and accidentally dropped the Falling Fichus right on her. To his credit, the plant is called a Falling Fichus for a reason. They have an odd tendency of falling out of your hands due to their slippery stalks, which eat throw their pots and make everything slippery. The plant was blessedly undamaged, but dirt went smearing everywhere.

She was the only girl who had ever seen him screw up and said nothing about it. Didn't laugh, didn't comment, didn't try to talk down her nose and say, "Gee, Neville, it's okay. You'll do better next time," as if he was constantly down on himself and needed cheering up.

She just smiled ever so slightly and muttered a quick "Evanesco," until the mess vanished and he could re-fill the pot with soil.

From that moment on, he developed an odd desire to get close to her. She had become even more fascinating than before. It was unfortunate that on most days, Seamus sat between them and prevented him from ever speaking with her.

But the next day, Seamus had blown something up during Charms class and was in the hospital wing having his eyebrows re-grown. And Neville was still sitting the same exact distance from Hannah as he was every day.

Damn.

Neville had no clue why the one time he had a chance to be close to her, there was still a Seamus-sized gap between them.

Instantly, Neville knew he had to fix that. He pretended to have the sudden desire to grab a spade and replant the Chinese Chomping Cabbage in front of him. Naturally, he had to slide a few inches to the right to reach the spade, and mysteriously he didn't slide back.

The most appalling result, however, was not that he was three inches closer to Hannah. He had ended up a full six inches closer. How had-?

And then Neville realized that the bag of soil that had been on his side of the table had changed positions and was on Hannah's other side. How had she gotten that?

He decided that he wanted some of that back, otherwise the whole "Look, I'm innocently transplanting the Cabbage," would seem pointless. He set down the spade and reached over and pulled the bag back over to him, sliding over three more inches in the process, and then casually trying to pick up the spade and get back to work. But…

What in the name of Merlin?

The spade was now in Hannah's hand. And, she had slid three inches closer than he had. He was aware that they were much closer than they started. Finally, he scooted closer to whisper in her ear.

"Hey, Hannah, can I have that spade back? I'm…Err, just trying to replant the Chinese Chomping Cabbage," Neville said. She looked in his eyes, and then replied,

"Sure, Nev. Let me grab it. I've set it back down over here," she said. Neville realized he liked it when she called him by his rarely-used nickname.

Magically, she had turned her back to him to grab the spade again from the other side of the table, and in the process had scooted even closer to him.

Somehow, the two had gotten so close that their legs were touching. Hannah smiled and handed him the spade.

He smiled back, and lost track of his own actions. He was vaguely aware that he was transplanting something, but he was still stuck on the way she looked as she smiled and slid closer to him. Lucky for Neville, herbology was second nature for him, otherwise he could have gotten distracted too easily.

And then, Neville realized that Seamus was standing behind him, coughing awkwardly, eyebrows beginning to re-grow.

"Err…Here, Seamus. You can have your spot back," Neville said grudgingly as he slipped back into his usual spot.

Seamus looked at him quizzically and sat down with an imploring look in his eyes.

Neville ignored him, and promptly began to think of ways to make something else around Seamus blow up so that he could go sliding closer to Hannah again tomorrow.

Adding a few leaves of the explosive Chomping Cabbage to Seamus's concoction in potions sounded like a good idea.

Neville made sure to sneak a few of those into his pocket on the way out.