"That was amazing," Neville breathed when they parted. Alyssa nodded. She could not believe that she had just kissed him. And won all that money! She smiled widely and got up to go find Chris. Nevertheless, part of her did not want to leave Neville.
"Stop being silly," she told herself, "He was just a way to get money for charity…" and she walked off to collect her earnings.
The next day she was sitting in Potions, learning how to make who knows what when she realized she was staring at Neville. She could not understand why she had become so obsessed with him lately. I mean, she couldn't actually like him, could she? She copied down the homework and was on her way after class was over. Alyssa decided to take a quick walk before Transfiguration. She passed a notice on the wall on her way. Next weekend was a Hogsmeade weekend. The next thing she knew was she was tripping over someone's book bag in the clearing near the Quidditch Pitch.
"Oof," she said, landing on the ground. Neville turned bright red and grabbed his book bag, which was the thing Alyssa tripped over.
"I'm sorry," he said and helped her up. "That was my fault."
"Oh, no problem," Alyssa said, dusting herself off. "Hey, Neville," she caught the sun's sparkle reflecting in his eye.
"What?" he asked. She then invited him to come with her to the Hogsmeade village this weekend. Afterwards she slapped herself on the head. Why did I do that for? She wondered, even though secretly glad inside to be going with Neville. Alyssa then proceeded to be late for her next class.
When she told her friends who she was going to Hogsmeade with that weekend, they nearly had a hippogriff.
"Calm down, guys" she told them. "Its not like I'm actually dating him or anything, we're just friends…" They rolled their eyes, not believing her. Alyssa flopped down on her bed. The rest of the night was filled with dreams of her new infatuation.
It was Saturday morning, time for Hogsmeade. Alyssa woke up at 5 am to pick out her outfit, do her hair and her makeup. At last she settled on tight jeans and a big, fluffy pink and yellow striped turtleneck, curled her long hair into little corkscrews and put on mascara and pink shimmery eye shadow.
"Just friends, huh?" her friend Mary said and raised an eyebrow.
Neville, in contrast, had excitedly told all his friends it was a date. Even though they all exchanged looks and knew it was too good to be true, Neville did not seem to notice. He was wearing a winter jacket and his nicest jeans when he walked down to the Great Hall to meet Alyssa. His jaw dropped when he saw her and from that moment he just knew it was a date. Unless, of course, she was planning to drop him and meeting up with someone else later. They headed out together, planning to stop at Zonko's first.
But when they got there, however, they were absolutely freezing. Alyssa, especially, from her lack of jacket. They had to stop at the Three Broomsticks just to get warmed up. They found a cozy little booth in the back where Alyssa hoped no one would see them together and Neville went to get the butterbeers.
"Hey, Alyssa," she heard a voice say a minute after Neville left. She looked and saw that it was Wilson, a kid she knew that was in Ravenclaw, but a year ahead of her.
"What are you doing in a romantic little place like this all alone?" he asked her. She winced. Wilson was the rudest and ugliest person she knew.