Disclaimer: I wish I owned Harry Potter, but what can I do? It all belongs to the extremely talented J.K. Rowling.

A.N:) Hi! How are you all? I'm fine, tired but fine. I had a stupid math test recently, so that's basically why it took me so long to write the sixth chapter. It might take me a while to write the seventh one as well because I have a huge biology test coming up which I can not afford to fail.
Enough about depressing subjects. I want to say that this chapter is dedicated to Ginny and Hermione. Hermione, for reminding me to write every time she saw me, being as she was in suspense. Ginny because she begged me to mention that Harry and Ginny were together so I kindly obliged. I hope they enjoy but I hope all of you readers enjoy even more!!!


Chapter six:

Over the next few weeks, Neville never knew what mysterious force kept interrupting him and Hannah.
This was the usual run of things:
Neville and Hannah would finally find time to themselves and slip away to the lake, library, empty classroom, whatever. But no matter if they were talking or just walking hand in hand, someone- teacher, student, ghost or Fred and George (whom Neville considered an entity in themselves) would always suddenly appear before they could get any further.
Neville was positive that he was on the verge of insanity.
Seriously! They had already said they loved eachother and they hadn't even kissed yet!
But besides for that, things were very different for Neville since he'd come back to Hogwarts.
First of all, since the whole school had heard about the Neville-Snape incident, he noticed that more people had been greeting him in the corridors and talking to him. He'd become quite popular. But Neville was having a hard time with all of this sudden attention. He was a lot more self-conscious than he usually was and he wasn't sure he liked it all that much. To tell the truth, Neville felt that it had been much easier when he hadn't had to constantly make sure that he wasn't doing something stupid.
Another strange thing- Harry had started spending a lot more time with him. Not that he had ignored him before, he just hadn't been around that much and when he was, he spent all of his spare time with Ron and Hermione. But lately, Harry invited Neville to go with him to the library and talk to him in the common room or play chess, which Neville was actually pretty good at. (His grandmother had been an excellent chess player in her day and had taught Neville everything she knew.) At many times, it seemed that Harry wanted to talk about something in particular but always thought better of it in the end. So they ended up talking about quidditch, teachers and ever so often they touched upon what they thought was going on outside in the wizarding world. Harry seemed to think Neville's opinion of greatest importance in this matter. Of course, Neville had quite a dark past because of Voldemort, but there was no way that Harry could possibly know about his parents.
But the strangest thing of all happened about two weeks after he got back to school.
He had been on his way to lunch when he passed by the History of Magic classroom and someone called him from inside.
"Psst! Neville!"
Curious, Neville peeked inside to find Lavender Brown sitting on one of the desks, pink and out of breath from trying to contain her giggling.
"Lavender!" Neville said in surprise, "What do you want?"
"Hi Neville. How are you?" Lavender slid off the desk and came towards him.
"I'm fine." He said, bewildered. What did she want?
Lavender walked around him, surveying him, still giggling softly. It was unnerving.
"Neville," she began, "You know, I never really paid any attention to you before. You were this short pudgy kid, always in everybody's way."
"Hey!" Neville protested.
"Oh, no offense," Lavender continued, "I just meant that no one ever really noticed you before. But now..." she looked him up and down and giggled again, "Neville, you really grew up over the summer."
Neville had absolutely no idea what she was talking about but nonetheless, her talk was starting to make him very uncomfortable.
"Um, Lavender? I'm really hungry and I was on my way to lunch, so if you don't mind, could I go now?" He said in a very tiny voice.
"Neville! What I'm trying to say is that I think you're cut, and after that whole Snape thing, I mean, wow!"
"Please, don't remind me!" Neville winced as he remembered for about the fifth time that day exactly what he'd yelled at the Potion's Master and the six hours he'd had to spend cleaning every bathroom in the school including the hospital bedpans with both Snape and Filch breathing down his neck as punishment.
"That's not the point." Lavender waved her hand as if to push Neville's thoughts away, "The point is that I'm trying to ask you if you would like to spend the next Hogsmeade visit with me?" She gave Neville a piercing stare. He shuffled his feet awkwardly, but actually, he was surprised. Lavender was considered one of the prettiest girls of the year (besides for the Patil twins) and here she stood asking him from all people if he would go out with her! But his surprise did not keep out a new sensation that he had never felt before. It was a mixture of feeling bad that he would have to turn her down, guilt at having this sort of conversation with anyone but Hannah and being flattered that a popular girl actually wanted to go out with him. Truth be told, Neville wouldn't have agreed to go even if he hadn't already been with Hannah, he didn't really like Lavender that much, but he wasn't about to tell her that. The question now was what he should tell her. Lavender was looking at him expectantly and he shuffled his feet again. Well, he didn't really want the whole school to know what was going on between him and Hannah (not that there was that much, thanks to circumstances!) but telling her would be the equivalent of telling everyone, for Lavender was known for her love of gossip. He decided to stall for time somehow.
"What? You want to go out with me?" He said.
"Yes you silly. Actually, I have to admit, that talk in the Gryffindor girl's dorms has been mostly about you and how much you've, er, changed." Lavender resumed her giggling and Neville sincerely wished she would stop, as he blushed pink with embarrassment. His mind worked furiously at what to answer her.
"Well, um, Lavender, the thing is, er, I'm sorry to tell you this but, uh..." He blushed again as he heard how stupid he sounded. "I've got a girlfriend." There. He'd said it. The world would know in an hour's time, but there had been nothing for it.
"Lavender's eyes grew wide with surprise for a moment but then she looked down at the floor and muttered darkly to herself, "Of course, I should've known. Stupid Parvati, telling me to go ahead and ask you and now I've made a total fool of myself. I'll kill her."
It was now Neville's turn to be surprised. He had managed to turn Lavender from being firm and straightforward to being shy and embarrassed in two seconds. How had he done it? He immediately felt horrible and tried to salvage the situation in any way he could.
"Lavender, don't worry. Actually, I'm quite flattered, no, incredibly flattered that you asked me." Lavender looked up at him and he continued, not believing what he was about to tell her, "You know, I never thought there was a chance of even one girl liking me, because I've always been such a bungling idiot." Neville held his breath. He didn't usually lay out his fears to anyone who wasn't extremely close to him, but he hated hurting peoples feelings and he was willing to do almost anything to keep from hurting Lavender's now. (A.N:) ISN'T HE THE SWEETEST??!!)
"Neville!" Lavender exclaimed wonderingly, "Why ever would you think that?"
"I don't know. That's just how it's always been." He shrugged and sighed a sigh of relief. He seemed to be making Lavender feel better anyway.
"Lavender, don't feel bad, ok? And don't worry, you didn't make a fool of yourself. Believe me, I should know, considering the amount of times a day I fall down the stairs and turn myself into a pile of rubbish."
Lavender laughed and smiled. "Alright."
"Good. Now, can we go down to the Great Hall for lunch? I wasn't lying, I really am hungry." And as if in agreement, Neville's stomach growled loudly, causing Lavender to burst into giggles as she walked out the door. She contained herself just long enough to ask, "So Neville, who is the lucky girl?"
Neville groaned and led her down the corridor.

That had been three days ago and since then everyone had discovered the fact that Neville had a girlfriend although who the "poor" girl was (according to the fifth year Gryffindor boys) still remained a mystery. That is, until the gossip reached the ears of one Fred Weasley who so kindly mentioned it to his brother, a Mr. George Weasley.
Things went downhill for Neville from there.
Owing to the unnatural amount of times Fred and George had walked in on him and Hannah, they had quite a few juicy tidbits to dish out.
Eventually, needing someone to turn to besides for Hannah, Neville had confided in Harry, surprising even himself by telling him the entire ordeal. Apparently, Neville had never realized how much he needed a guy's perspective on things, and besides, Neville knew he had a lot in common with Harry even if Harry didn't know it. On top of everything, Harry had finally found some girl who'd take him. ;) It was now common knowledge that Ginny Weasley was spoken for by the Gryffindor Quidditch Team's seeker and new captain. They'd been together since the summer and Harry seemed to be enjoying himself immensely. Neville supposed that Harry and Ginny managed to find time for themselves (though how that was possible was a complete mystery to him.) Harry was very understanding, and told him to try and ignore everyone. That was what he always did. But he couldn't help pointing out how grateful he was that Neville had taken the spotlight off of him and Ginny for a while.
"Glad I'm useful to someone." Neville had replied acidly.
Harry had just laughed and invited him to a game of chess, which Neville had won spectacularly, leaving Harry staring, baffled, at the chessboard.

The next morning, Neville was on his way to breakfast alone (Harry had gotten up much earlier and was at quidditch practice) when Professor McGonnagal spotted him and called him to her. She seemed very worried and her eyes were bloodshot. Neville looked at her apprehensively, wondering if he'd done something wrong.
"Yes Professor?" He asked her.
"Neville, I don't know how... I mean, I have to tell you..." McGonnagal trailed off nervously.
Fear gripped Neville and he felt the ground sway beneath his feet.
"Professor, what is it?" There was a note of panic in his voice now, as well as desperation. These types of things had been happening all year since Voldemort had come back, the teachers always wore the same expression. Students finding out that someone they loved was... No. Everything was fine, Neville reassured himself.
"Neville," McGonnagal took a deep breath, "You'd better come with me."
Neville was shaking as she led him down the corridor to her office.
"Sit down." She said gently once inside, as she placed herself behind her desk. Neville sat, aware that his heart was beating so fast that he thought it would jump out of his chest, and he was clenching his fists in fear, his nails digging into his skin.
"Neville, I received a letter last night informing me,"
He held his breath.
"It's your grandmother." McGonnagal's voice was strained.
"What?" Neville breathed, "No. Don't tell me she's..."
"No. She's not dead. She suffered a heart attack last night. She's alive, but barely." McGonnagal looked at the floor, or at least, Neville thought she did. It was simply too much for him and he found himself falling... falling... falling...
And then, everything went black.



To be continued.