Chapter 4

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Ginny slowed her pace as she neared the portrait leading to the Gryffindor common room. She was suprised; talking to Luna really had helped. She wasn't sure if it was just finally sinking in, and thus didn't seem like such a shock, or if Luna's casual acceptance had rubbed off on her. Either way, she was in a much better mood than when she left. She had been weighing what Luna had said on the brief jog back here: she could ignore it and try to forget it, move on and wait until someone else ellicited such feelings, or she could try to figure out what exactly was going on in Hermione's head, and perhaps try to initiate something.

When she began her journey back, she was 75% for just ignoring it, but with each step she took, that number went down. As she rounded the last corner she had made up her mind - she was going to do it. She was going to win Hermione over, or at least give it a go before failing. She stopped suddenly, feeling overpowered by her new sense of direction.

'I'll woo the hell out of her. Yeah! Maybe Luna's right. Maybe she really does feel the same way I do. She just needs a gentle prodding to open her eyes to it. And even if she doesn't feel the same, well, we Weasley's are resilient. Yeah. Yeah!'

Ginny slammed her fist into her palm as her third and vocalized "Yeah!" echoed in the darkened corridor. 'Whoops, meant to keep that to myself...'

She heard a high pitched, "Eep!" from several feet away, further down the hall from the portrait, and jumped, her heart pounding. "Who's there?!" She grabbed her wand and pointed in the direction that the sound had come from. "Lumos!"

Neville stood in front of her, pale faced and shaking. "Oi! It's just you," He sighed and visably relaxed. "You scared me a little there," he smiled at her. She breathed more easily once she saw it was just him. 'So much for Gryffindor courage.'

"What are you doing out at this hour?"

Neville lifted Trevor up to eye level. "What about you?"

"Oh, you know..." she trailed off and looked towards the floor.

He raised an eyebrow, "No, not really."

"I was just out, okay?"

"Sure. Whatever you say." He turned towards the portrait. "Excuse me, miss? You awake?" When she didn't stir he reached out a finger to poke her portrait, near the vicinity of her shoulder.

She jumped immediately at his touch, causing both Neville and Ginny to jump back, as well.

"Well, I never!"

Neville turned a funny shade of pink and mumbled an apology.

"Do either of you know what time it is? Roaming around at this time of night, doing God knows what! I ought to make you stay out there, if I didn't think you'd be up to some no-good hanky panky if I did."

Neville's pink coloring increased, and he nearly shouted the password to make her shut up about the alleged 'hanky panky'.

"Shenanigans!"

The portrait remained closed. Neville stared at where the door should have become visible, obviously flummoxed.

"That was last weeks password," Ginny whispered, and grinned as his face surpassed pink and went full-on red this time.

"Bloody hell," he moaned, turning his head to look at Ginny. "I hate this whole password business."

"Lemony Gibblets."

The fat lady 'harrumphed', but moved aside to let them in.

As Neville followed Ginny through the opening, he asked again, "So really, what were you doing out?"

She glared at him, but he kept on, "I won't tell anyone, I'm just curious. You can't fault me that, right? I told you what I was doing."

"I was just talking to Luna. That's it, that's the big secret."

"Oh," He grinned oddly. "About what?"

"Blimey, Neville, just--" Ginny cut herself off as she noticed Hermione was not only still in the common room, but was making her way over to her. Ginny knew she probably wanted to talk to her about her hasty departure earlier, but she wasn't ready, not now. Panicking, she raised her voice louder than was necessary, "Sure, Neville, I'll help quiz you on your Charms, no problem. In fact, we can start now!" Apparently she wasn't going to start 'Operation: Win Hermione' tonight.

He furrowed his brow, looking just as confused as she was sure he was feeling, and glanced at Hermione coming towards them, but thankfully played along. "Um, thanks Ginny. I, uh, I appreciate it."

Hermione stopped beside the two of them. "Hello, Neville. Ginny."

"Hey, Hermione," they answered simultaneously.

As Hermione turned fully toward Ginny, she felt heat rising to her cheeks, but there was nothing she could do to stop it. Normally she didn't mind her red hair and the complextion that came with it, but times like this, she hated that she could turn so red, so quickly. "I was wanting to talk to you," she glanced at Neville, then back to Ginny, "privately, I mean. Do you have a moment?"

"I just promised to help Neville study, and it's so late already. Can it wait until tomorrow?"

She frowned, but agreed. "Tomorrow, then. Have a nice night." Hermione took her hand and gave it a squeeze before turning around and heading towards the dorms.

"Good n-night, Hermione."

Ginny stood rooted to the spot for a few moments until she remembered how to breathe again. She has clearly had forgotten Neville, but was reminded of his presence by his bewildered question, "What was that all about?"

Ginny turned toward him slowly, the color not retreating from her face in the slightest at being caught staring, "I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh, come off it Ginny! I'm not quite as dense as all that," he smirked, "At first I thought maybe you two were fighting or something, but that didn't look like any fight I've ever seen."

Ginny narrowed her eyes at him, "What is that supposed to mean?" She unconsiously gripped her wand in her pocket.

This wasn't lost on Neville, and his eyes widdened as the hand not carrying Trevor flew to cover the lower half of his face, "Don't hex me! I didn't mean anything by it, I was just, you know, thinking out loud. I must be wrong." He'd heard all about her infamous Bat-Bogey hexes from her brothers, and had no desire to be on the receiving end of it.

She deflated, "I'm not going to hex you, Neville." She sighed, "I just didn't mean to be so bloody obvious about it."

"So what is going on? I won't say anything, I swear, and I won't think anything different of you."

"Seems like you got it plenty figured out for yourself."

"So you, eh... you like Hermione, then? I mean, like that?"

"I guess so."

"You gonne tell her?"

"Thinking about it."

He straightened up and smiled, "I think you should go for it. Just out and say it."

"It's not quite as easy as all that. She's my best friend, and I just don't want things to be weird."

"You really think she'd be weird about it? I mean, maybe for a bit, but she'd get over it. And if she said she felt the same, well," he looked off to side, grinning, "It'd be something fun to think about."

He laughed as she punched him in the arm, "Ha. Ha. Real funny, Longbottom." She smiled along with him, feeling a little better. She'd told two people, and both had been fine with it. Perhaps she was overreacting about the whole thing, after all. Neville was right; they'd been through too much, and even if Hermione didn't fancy her in the least, everything would work out fine. Unfortunately, telling herself this and actually believing it fully were two completely different things.

"Thanks, Neville, for not freaking on me. I hate to admit it, but I really was worried that if any of this came out, that my friends would start dropping like flies. I guess I was wrong."

"'Course you were wrong, Gin." He had taken on a gentler tone, and laid his hand on her shoulder, "If you ever need someone to talk to, you know where to find me. And if anyone does give you any trouble, well... I can get them intimately acquainted with bubotuber pus."

Ginny laughed, "Sounds great." They both yawned.

"I think that's our cue. Night, Neville," Ginny turned, making her way towards the stairs.

"Night. And good luck!"

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A/N: Oy! This is pretty slow going. Sorry about that. I swear, Hermione will show up eventually with more than a teensy part. Really! Please review, even if anonymously, and let me know what you think. To those of you who have reviewed, you're the ones that keep me writing. If you see something you do/don't like, anything wrong with the pacing or whatever, or any mistakes, just let me know, and I will fix them ASAP. Thanks for reading!!

Also, as you can see, I'm not particularly good with chapter titles. If you can think of any good ones, let me know and I will probably end up adding some later.