"I'm such an idiot! I failed that for sure!"

"Hannah calm down, I'm sure you'll be fine, people have panicked in the middle of exams before, I'm sure of it!"

Neville was standing next to Hannah outside the Great Hall, along with Ernie and Susan. There were tear streaks on her face, and she was hiccupping slightly. Neville found it extremely odd that HE was the one telling her to shake it off—it felt like it was just yesterday that HE was the one needing a self-esteem boost.

"He's right Hannah, and besides, you flew through the written portion of the exam," Ernie reminded her. He threw an arm around her and gave her a squeeze, and Neville couldn't help but feel a bit angry. He really wished Susan and Ernie weren't there; it would be so much easier to comfort her alone.

"So? That doesn't mean I aced it!" Hannah exclaimed as another tear dripped down her face.

"I'm just trying to—"

"You know what, Ernie? How about YOU go in there and lose your mind and cast a flock of flamingos in the Great Hall and halt the entire exam and see how YOU feel!" she shouted at him before storming off.

Susan sighed and Ernie rolled his eyes.

"I cannot wait until these bloody exams are over and I get my girlfriend back," Ernie muttered.

"She's just under a lot of pressure!" Neville said, his voice coming out a lot harsher than he intended it to. He bit his lip—the last thing he needed was to start a fight with Ernie. "We all are. She's just worried about how she's doing."

"He's right," Susan said with a head nod. "Hannah has never been one to take pressure well, you know that Ernie."

After a few moments of silence, Neville started to look in the direction that Hannah had just gone.

"I think I'm going to go talk to her," he mumbled.

Ernie snorted. "I think it's best to just let her cool down, Longbottom," he said in reply.

Neville had to physically stop himself from gaping at him. Ernie was such a bloody prat. He was Hannah's boyfriend; it should be HIM going to calm her down, not Neville! He wasn't exactly complaining about that, of course, but still—this was his job, not Neville's. Hannah needed her boyfriend now more than ever and it looked like he wasn't going to be there.

"Well, if she snaps at me and bites my head off, it's my own fault," he retorted.

Ernie sighed. "Good luck with that, then," he grumbled.

Neville rolled his eyes and he saw Susan cast a very dirty look at Ernie before he turned and hurried down the corridor. He found Hannah sulking in the stairs to the dungeons, sniffling with her knees pulled up to her chest.

"Hannah?"

"Go away Neville, I don't want to talk to anyone!" she snapped.

"That's not true, I know it's not," Neville said sternly, sitting down next to her. He didn't care what she said, he wasn't going anywhere.

She shook her head. "No, you don't understand," she mumbled. A few more tears fell down from her eyes, and Neville found his arm going around her and to his surprise, she leaned on his shoulder, wetting his Gryffindor robes with her tears.

"Ernie is such an arse!" she exclaimed.

Neville blinked. He hadn't been expecting THAT. Even though it was obviously true, he hadn't really been sure that Hannah had been aware of it up until this point. It was as if a tiny bubble of hope had suddenly formed, and now Neville wanted to know everything about how she was feeling—was she going to break up with him? Were they going to try and work it out? What had he done wrong, exactly? That information might help him in the future…

"Why do you say that?" he asked, rubbing her back in circles in an attempt to comfort her. He knew there had had to be some underlying reason for Hannah going nuts during the exam. The stress of Ernie being a horrible boyfriend combined with exams must have just pushed her over the edge.

"There are just…so many things," she said softly. Her voice had calmed down a bit more, but the tears were still flowing steadily down her cheeks. "He's always walking around with the bloody badge, acting like HE'S the only prefect that matters—he doesn't even care that we're supposed to be a team, and I just…"

She sighed and sat up, wiping away some of her tears. "I miss the days when we were just friends. It's like he thinks he can say whatever he wants to me without me getting angry or hurt, and I sometimes wonder if he even cares about me," she explained.

While part of Neville was on Cloud 9 right now listening to her talk about what a rubbish boyfriend Ernie was, part of him was also terrified. What was he supposed to say? He was afraid to agree with her—you could never tell with women what their next action would be. What if she suddenly changed in her mind in the middle of the conversation and blew up on him, saying that Ernie was a GREAT boyfriend and how dare he accuse him of being a git?

Wow. He had an overactive imagination, that was for sure.

"Hannah if…if what you're saying is true then you deserve so much more than that," he told her softly.

She rested her head on his shoulder once more, and to his relief he saw that most of the tears had stopped for now. "I don't know what to do," she whispered.

He began to rub her back again. "You don't have to decide on anything right now," he reminded her. He just hoped that, when the time came, she'd end up making the right choice. Which was breaking up with Ernie. Obviously.

"I know," she muttered. He could sense that she was calming down, and after a few moments of silence he even wondered if she had fallen asleep right there on his bony shoulder, when suddenly she sat up and swiftly kissed him on the cheek.

"You're awesome, do you know that?" she said with a small giggle.

Neville's breath caught in his chest when her lips connected with his cheek. He had been right, her lips WERE petal smooth as they touched his rough cheek, and the place where they had made contact seemed to be burning on his face. He momentarily forgot to speak, and he cleared his throat awkwardly before saying anything.

"Oh, erm, thanks. I try," he said with a small laugh. She chuckled and finally stood up.

"Come on, the exam must have started up again…we don't want you missing your practical portion now do we Longbottom?" she asked. As they walked back to the Great Hall, Neville couldn't help but feel proud of himself. She was in a much better mood now, and it had to be because he had been there for her, and been her shoulder to cry on, right?

Even if that wasn't true, he'd continue to think that. It made the butterflies in his stomach go mad.

"Wow!"

"I know!"

"Wow!"

"Hannah, please say something besides WOW!" Neville exclaimed, laughing as he spoke. He was just so giddy and excited—he couldn't help it!

"But Neville you're in the paper! You're like a hero!" Hannah said with a grin, reading over the article in the Prophet once more.

"Yeah, and I've just counted ten people walking by in the last three minutes to stare in our compartment," Dean added with a wide smile. "You're seriously a fucking legend now, mate."

Neville blushed. "Nah, just watch, in a few weeks it will all blow over and Harry is going to be the only person they think of when they think of the whole ordeal."

Hannah shook her head. "Well, they shouldn't! Didn't you say you were one of the few left standing when it all went down?" she asked.

He chuckled awkwardly. "Erm, yeah, but…that was probably just a fluke or something…"

"Come on Neville, be proud of yourself!" Hannah insisted. She rolled up the newspaper she had in her hands and smacked him on the arm with it. "Can't you just admit that for once you did something right?"

His mouth fell open. "What does THAT mean Abbott? Are you saying I never do anything right?" he asked.

She looked speechless. She blinked for a few times as her cheeks turned beet red. "What? No, I never said that!"

He grinned. "Hannah, I'm joking!" he exclaimed with a laugh. He was just so giddy right now!

Dean burst into laughter and Hannah stared at him in shock for a few minutes before grinning and smacking his arm with her newspaper roll once again. After they calmed down a bit, she leaned back in her chair and looked at the article in the paper again. "How did your Gran take the news?" she asked him.

Neville chuckled. "She's…ecstatic. I'd bet anything that by the time we arrive home, she'll have been interviewed by the papers already. And since my wand broke in the fight, she already told me a get a new one this summer! One that actually works for ME, not my dad," he added with a proud smile. He couldn't help but wonder how that would improve his spellwork—after all, he'd made tremendous progress this year already, so what would happen when he got a wand that was made for him? He could hardly imagine!

Hannah chuckled. "That's great Neville…although I have to admit, even with your dad's wand, your charms weren't too shabby this year!"

"Agreed, Neville," Dean told him with a nod.

"It's a shame you weren't with us earlier…we really could have used you when Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle attacked," Hannah said with a mischievous smile. "They'd be even worse off than they are now if you were there!"

Neville let out a good laugh. He had seen the aftermath of their encounter with some DA members, and it was not a pretty sight. That seemed like a good punishment for them, though. After all, their parents had gotten themselves landed in Azkaban—they didn't need any more humiliation.

They remained silent for a few moments, and Neville decided it was time to go find Harry and the others. After everything that had happened he felt—closer to them. Before Harry, Ron and Hermione had simply been his classmates, but after the ordeal in the Ministry, he felt there was some strange sort of bond that had been formed between the six of them. He, out of all the others in the DA, had gotten a taste of what it was really like to be there in the thick of the fight. He was one of the only ones who really knew how it had felt that night and, every once in a while, he felt the need to be with people who understood that just as well as he did.

"I think I'm going to go find Harry and everyone else. I want to make sure Ron and Hermione are feeling better too," he added. Hermione was STILL taking potions daily, and it was scary to think how close she had actually come to dying.

"Ok," Dean said, pulling a comic book out of his bag. Hannah smiled and waved as he left the compartment, and as he walked towards Harry's carriage, he heard someone get out of the carriage to follow him.

"Neville, wait!" It was Hannah, hurrying after him as he walked through the corridor of the train. He stopped and turned to face her, and only had a second to register that she was running at him before she threw herself into his arms, squeezing him in a gigantic hug. Before he could hug back, she had let go, grinning broadly before kissing him on the cheek.

"I never got the chance to tell you that…well, I'm proud of you, Longbottom," she said in a rushed voice. Her cheeks were heating up, and Neville was almost too shocked to realize it at first. He chuckled after a few moments, though, and gave her a proper hug back in return.

"Thanks Hannah. And erm…thanks for, you know…always telling me I wasn't worthless. I never really believed you up until this," he added with an awkward chuckle. For some reason, this particular moment seemed more…personal than all the other compliments she had given him throughout the years.

"I know you didn't," she confessed with a laugh. He chuckled as well, and finally began to realize that his cheek was burning where she had kissed him. After a few more moments of silence, and a few shoves from people trying to get past them, they were brought back to reality, and Hannah cleared her throat.

"Umm, yes. I just wanted to tell you that, in case I didn't get a chance before we left," she told him with a smile.

"Oh. Well, thanks," Neville responded. With another wave, she bid him goodbye before returning to the compartment with Dean, and Neville finally opened the door to the compartment where Harry and the rest of the gang sat. Everyone seemed to have ignored what had just happened outside their door, but Ginny was smiling at him as he blushed and sat down amongst the group.

As the train chugged on towards Kings Cross, Neville couldn't stop himself from feeling giddy and light headed. He knew perfectly well that he might be looking into this way too much—his brain had trained itself to think like that all the time now—but part of him still had hope. It was a small part of him, only a sliver but it was there.

That part of him still had hope that things would change for him and Hannah. All he had to do was wait—and clearly, he was very good at that.