Lavender was waiting for Neville in the entrance hall. She was a little surprised that he had asked her to meet. Even though they had been a couple for a while now, they hadn't really done anything romantic—it was mainly studying together and kissing. A lot of kissing.

She remembered when they had first started going out. It had been after the first task. She had always thought Neville was cute in a bumbling, cuddy teddy bear kind of way. But his skill during the first task had showed he was much more than anyone had thought. The way he had gotten past the dragon.

Parvati had been surprised, Lavender recalled. "You're really going out with Neville?" she had asked. "But aren't you worried about what others will think—Padma and Lisa and Sue are definitely going to laugh."

"Neville's a triwizard champion, Par," Lavender had explained, trying hard not to roll her eyes. "He just beat a dragon! Nobody is going to laugh—Neville has changed from our first years."

Lavender had been right. People had been surprised. But nobody had laughed. Indeed, Neville's stock had risen throughout the school and he had become one of the most respected students almost overnight.

Neville had started off a little bumbling and awkward around her, but he had soon loosened up and had been quite the gentleman during the Yule Ball—if not a good dancer. Now, she wondered just what he had planned for tonight.

"Hi, Lav," he said, appearing. "Sorry I'm a bit late—Peeves," he said.

Lavender nodded. She understood all too well the disruption that Hogwart's resident poltergeist could cause. She had been late on a few occasions because of him.

"Where are we going?" she asked, taking his hand. She had wrapped up in a thick coat and scarf, expecting him to take her outside and, sure enough, he opened the door and led her in to the cold, evening air.

"I'm going to show you something—it's NEWT level stuff, but Professor Sprout gave me permission."

Lavender felt her face fall. Sprout meant herbology. Neville loved the subject but Lavender hated it. It was so … dirty and grimy. Her hands and nails were always a mess after that class.

Neville must have noticed because he smiled reassuringly. "I'm going to show you why I love it so much. Trust me."

He led the way towards Greenhouse Six. It was one they had never used before. He fumbled with the lock for a minute before opening it.

Lavender shivered. Some of the plants used in herbology had always creeped her out … with their long tendrils and grasping leaves and some even had teeth. The mandrakes had especially been freaky.

She followed Neville to the back of the greenhouse where a large, flowering shrug sat in a big pot. It looked like a normal shrug except it had flat, red flowers the size of dinner plates.

"Bullaimbre!" Neville announced proudly, as if showing off a solid gold crown or a pile of jewels. "They're rare, Professor Sprout only got this in a few weeks ago."

Lavender was unimpressed.

It just looked like a normal plant to her.

"Watch this!" Neville said, excitedly. He waved his wand in a circle and immediately, the plant convulsed. Lavender stepped back, expecting it to explode or spray a bunch of slime everywhere like an ugly plant that Neville owned did.

Instead however, a large, pink bubble burst from one of the dinner-plate sized flowers.

Neville waved his wand again and more appeared. They were the size of beach balls and bounced off the floor and off the ceiling. Lavender tentatively poked one, it was soft and warm.

"That's not they all they do," Neville said, excitedly. "Now, think of something … your favorite animal. Rabbits."

"Ok …"

"Now look at the plant and draw a rabbit in the air with your wand."

Lavender had a sudden idea of what was going to happen and, feeling much more enthusiastic now, did as Neville said. Sure enough, a large bubble shaped like a rabbit burst out of the plant.

"Wow! So cool!" she said, meaning it. She did it again, this time tracing a heart and laughed when a heart bubble burst out.

"See!" Neville said, grinning. "This is why I love herbology so much! Magical plants are so cool and interesting and can do lots of interesting things if you give them a chance. Plus, they have so many uses."

"You seem to really love them," Lavender said, tracing her wand to make as big and as long as bubble as possible appear.

"I do—it's definitely my best subject. My Uncle Algie grows rare plants, I guess I get it from him."

"I think I'd like it more if we studied cool stuff like this!" Lavender said, tracing a teapot in the air. "You know … rather than horrible things like Devil's Snare and bubotubers …" she shuddered, remembering collecting the bubotuber pus.

Neville laughed. "Yeah, Sprout definitely prefers stuff we can use in potions rather than things which are just … well … cool."

Lavender looked at him and grinned. "Thanks, Neville—I enjoyed seeing the …"

"Bullaimbre," supplied Neville.

"Bullaimbre," Lavender finished. "More than I thought I would. Next time though, I'm going to take you to enjoy something I like."

"I look forward to it," Neville said with a grin.

NOTE FROM AUTHOR

I meant to post this before the Yule Ball but forgot all about it. There will be another Lavender/Neville interlude to come later, too. And I also plan a Ron/Cho one.