Disclaimer: Not mine!
Girls Are CrazyThe Three Broomsticks was nice, really, but after all that had happened his seventh year at Hogwarts, Neville felt a strong sort of affiliation with the other Hogsmeade pub, The Hog's Head– and that's where he chose to meet with his former classmates.
"So what's all this talk about DA problems?" Ron asked rather loudly, taking a seat at the grimy table in the corner Neville had chosen.
"Keep it down, Ron!" Hermione hissed. "Don't you remember what happened the last time we made DA plans in here?"
Ron scowled. "Well that wasn't exactly my fault, was it?"
Neville exchanged grins with Harry and Ginny. It was like nothing had changed. Well, except for the fact that Harry had another painful-looking scar on his neck and Ron looked like he was trying to grow a goatee…and failing.
"Yeah, Neville," said Ginny, examining her glass very carefully before taking a tiny sip of the butterbeer. "Don't tell us you're trying to start it up again with your no doubt many admirers."
"Oh, that's right!" said Hermione. "How are your students? I'm sure they've heard all about the Battle…"
Nevile grimaced and thought of his first years in Greehouse One. "There's one first year I'm convinced wants to start a fan club," he muttered darkly.
Ginny nodded knowingly. "Just remember– fame's a fickle friend, Neville." Harry snorted firewhiskey all down his front.
"No, that's not it at all," Neville said quickly. "It's just– well, there are some staff appointments this years that… er… what I mean to say is–"
"Come on, Neville, get to the point," said Ron. Hermione gave him a scathing look, and Ginny sighed.
"Well I'd think it was obvious," said Hermione, raising an eyebrow. "You mean Luna, don't you?"
Ginny nodded, smiling, but Ron and Harry simply gaped and looked back and forth from each other to Neville and back again. Neville, of course, had never said anything to them in all the time they'd been in the same dorm at Hogwarts, but all the same, he still hadn't expected shock.
"No way!" shouted Ron, spitting out a bit of his drink and some unidentifiable food, which got stuck in his beard. Hermione rolled her eyes and made a compulsive movement to wipe her own face.
"Really, Neville?" Harry asked, glancing at Ginny as though she knew would be able to give him the definitive answer.
"She used to talk about you all the time at Hogwarts," said Ginny casually, and Neville felt a leap somewhere in the region of his stomach.
With a look of not wanting to disturb the conversation but having gone too long without saying something, Hermione turned to Ron– "You have something stuck to your chin Ron," Hermione said. His ears turned bright red.
"Really?" Neville asked, choosing not to get involved in another one of Ron and Hermione's little arguments. He frowned. "Well, lately she's only been talking about her new traveling partner…"
"You know I'm growing a beard," Ron muttered sourly. "You don't have to keep making all these snide comments about–"
"You mean that Scamander bloke?" Ginny asked, overriding her brother. "The one she wrote the book with?"
Neville nodded.
"No!" said Hermione. "It's something in your… well, if you want to cal it a beard," she added airily. Ron grabbed a napkin and wiped at his face hurriedly, ears growing ever redder. Neville had a sudden vision of himself and Luna sitting in their spots– somehow he didn't think she would be worried about food dribbling onto his face.
"Er… right… sorry…" Ron muttered, but nobody seemed to be paying attention to he and Hermione's bickering.
"I just don't know," said Neville finally with a sigh, shrugging. "She and him are both naturalists, and they have the same interests, and now that they're working together… I just don't know anymore."
"Neville!" Hermione and Ginny shouted together.
"What?" he asked, alarmed.
"Really Neville," said Hermione, taking a sip of her butterbeer. "You can't just give up so easily."
"I'm not giving up. I'm just–"
"You just have a defeatist attitude, that's what," said Hermione. "If you really like her, Neville, you shouldn't just roll over and let Rolf Scamander walk all over you."
Ginny nodded enthusiastically. "Exactly!" she said. "I mean, he might know something about magical creatures, but he hasn't done half of what you have."
"And you and Luna fought together, right?" asked Harry rhetorically. "Isn't that better than– what? Looking for moon frogs together?" Ron laughed appreciably.
Neville smiled faintly, but he wasn't convinced. "But sometimes it seems like she–"
Ron shook his had violently. "Don't, Neville."
"Don't what?"
Ron and Harry exchanged glanced. "Don't try to guess what she's thinking– you'll always be wrong," Ron said.
Neville laughed. "What?"
"Girls are crazy, Neville," said Harry, picking up the thread. Ron nodded.
"And not for us mere mortals to understand."
Hermione and Ginny looked at each other, laughing incredulously for a moment, but ultimately nodded.
"Just don't overanalyze," said Hermione (as Ron scoffed: "You're one to talk. Hermione looked away, dignified: "Then I would know, wouldn't I?"). "Just tell her what you think. It'll make things so much easier in the long run."
The sky in the Great Hall registered a beautiful sunset when Neville got back to Hogwarts. Luna and Rolf were sitting up at the staff table, Luna laughing at something hilarious Scamander must've said. Strangely enough, while the green monster stirred a bit somewhere inside of him, he had absolutely no desire to go up there and steal Luna away at that moment. He didn't want to be compared, side by side, with Rolf– all he had to do was wait for a moment when he and Luna were alone and that Scamander was out of mind.
"Professor?" a high voice squeaked from somewhere a couple feet down– it was one of Neville's first years. "Professor? You have a package up in the owlery, it was too big to fly down."
"Oh, thank you," said Neville. "Do you happen to know what it is?" Perhaps his gran had found something he'd forgotten after all.
The girl shook her head. "It's all wrapped up," she said, "But it kept making all these loud honking sounds."
"All right, well, thank you very much," Neville said, smiling. He knew exactly what the package contained, and it gave him an idea.
