"Are you sure you want to do this? I mean... I can hear the plants, but why would they tell me where her garden was?" Neville asked as he, Draco and Blaise were waiting with their brooms as Harry settled himself on his Firebolt.

"I think with your plant ability you'll be able to recognize anything odd as we fly over the Forest without having to have them actually tell you the exact location... You said that it was rumored to have some of the rarest plants in the world, wouldn't you be able to tell if something was odd about the plants just by listening?" Harry took off and hovered for a moment on his broom before the other three took off after him.

Neville chewing on his nodded as he kept close to Blaise while they headed for the forest. "They have accents just like we do... so I guess one of them from some far off place, would stand out."

It seemed like hours passed, and it might have been with as slow as they had to fly for Neville to keep up. They were flying low, just over the top of the tree line. Harry was just about to call a halt to their search when Neville stopped his forward movement and begin to circle.

"Did you find something?" Blaise asked as they turned to fly back around where Neville was flying in slow circles.

"I don't know... it's just... quiet..." Neville looked very confused.

Draco shared a look with Harry and Blaise. "Quiet?"

"I can see the plants, but I can't hear them." Taking a deep breath Neville landed near where the silent plants were. The others landed beside him as he reached out and touched an invisible barrier. The only way they knew it was there was the ripple effect Neville's touch gave off. "Wow... that's a barrier." Neville said dumbly as he stumbled back.

Blaise caught him and held him while wondering how they were suppose to get past a barrier that was likely put there by one of the school's founders.

Harry sat down on a fallen tree and thought for a short time while Draco paced and the other two stared at the place where the barrier was.

"Okay... Harry when you went into the Chamber, did you have to do anything special? I mean solve a riddle or say a special phrase?" Draco demanded as his mind began to form strategies.

Shaking his head Harry stood and touched the barrier again. "No... All I have to do was say 'open' in parseltongue."

Neville looked at him in a amazement for a moment before pulling away from Blaise to step to the barrier. Reaching out he set both of his hands into the sparkling shield and closed his eyes. The other three watched as he began to move his mouth, as if speaking only to have a high keening sound emerge instead. Then it was as if someone had popped a bubble. The barrier and it's fake image of normal forest plants was there one moment and gone the next. In it's place was a large stone wall with a door.

"How'd you do that, Nev?" Harry asked as he looked at the twenty foot tall walls.

"You said that you opened the Chamber using parseltongue... Well, that was Salizar's language, the language of snakes. Helga's language was that of plants." Neville blushed as he explained his reasoning.

Blaise smiled with obvious pride, though he couldn't say why. "Shouldn't we go in?"

"First! Are there any legends about this garden having any kind of guardians, like the basilisk?" Draco asked as he stared at where Neville was about to open the door.

"Not really... the legends say that there are some plants that can be dangerous if you don't know how to handle them." Neville said as he opened the door.

They stayed behind Neville as they stepped into a herbologist's dream. There were plants everywhere and each was more exotic than the next. Neville was wide eyed as he walked in farther, looking around. "I can't believe this... some of these plants have been extinct for hundreds of year! Others... I've never only ever seen in books because they're the last of their kind."

The other three just stayed behind him and tried not to step on anything that might bite them. Blaise was almost completely focused on the look of joy and awe on Neville's face. Since the other boy had moved into his room, Blaise had felt himself beginning to draw to him. Neville was beginning to lose his baby fat and a handsome man began to show through. His skin had a smooth tan, easily attributed to time spend outdoors rather than beauty charms. His large eyes were always shining, sometimes with happiness, sometimes with tears, but always shining. The rather suave Italian found himself almost... befuddled when trying to flirt with Neville. Blaise always felt like he was trying to flirt with Neville and that Neville didn't seem to understand that was his intentions. It seemed like every time he tried the sweet boy would just smile as if Blaise were just being nice and that would be the end of it. Blaise didn't know what he was going to have to do, but he would find a way to court him. He'd already set his mind to bond with the other boy because no one else had ever intrigued as much as Neville had. He'd already contacted his parents to see if they should have any problems with him bringing home a Gryffindor. It hadn't surprised him when his solidly Slytherin parents had laughed and asked if he were pure blood. That seemed to be all they cared about and they didn't have a problem with having a 230 generations pure-blooded wizard bond with their son. Now Blaise's only problem was actually trying to court him. He'd played the field, but honestly he hadn't found any who'd kept his attention as long as Neville had and he'd yet to find a way into his bed!

"Blaise! Come here! Look at this! Remember when I was telling you about the cousins of your little Midnight Creeper? This is one of them. This is the Violet creeper. It can be used in so many burn medicines it was worth it's weight in platinum before the last ones were destroyed in the first battle with Voldemort." Neville called Blaise to him as he knelt beside a small purplish colored plant something like the plant Blaise had almost killed before Neville's intervention. Harry stared at Neville in amazement. The shy little wizard had said the name of the dark lord without even a twitch of fear.

"Are there enough plants here to repopulate it?" Blaise asked knowing better than to touch. He killed most of his plants and he didn't want to hurt one that might be so valuable.

"Look around, Blaise! There's enough here to replant the whole of England before next year's growing season!" Neville laughed excitedly as he stood and lacing his fingers with his room mate he raced off to see what else was inside of the wondrous place.

"Harry..." Draco left off waiting for the other to look at him.

"Yeah?"

"Is it just me, or did Longbottom almost look... hot... when he was excited about the bloody plant?" Draco shifted feeling strangely dirty thinking about Neville in such a way.

Harry nodded, feeling pretty much the same. "I think he did."

"What the hell is this world coming to? Longbottom looking sexy..." Draco shuddered before he and Harry went in the direction the other two had disappeared.

Neville was kneeling next to a small plant with tiny silver flowers on it. "Isn't it beautiful?" he asked looking to Blaise, who was kneeling beside him, unsure of what to make of the plant.

Unable to help himself, Blaise nodded. "Beautiful," before leaning in to kiss him gently.

For a moment Neville just knelt there, unsure of what to do before he leaned into the kiss. When Blaise pulled back he reached up and cupped Neville's cheek.

"Why did you do that?" Neville asked, wondering if he was dreaming. That seemed the only explanation for all of the great things happening to him that day. First he'd worked up the courage to go on the hunt for Helga's Garden and then they'd actually found it. Now, he had been kissed by the boy whom he'd begin to develop a crush on.

"Because you're beautiful... inside and out... and I find myself growing more attached to you as time passes." Blaise admitted softly.

Neville's blush deepened. "Oh..." was all he could say.

"I know this will seem sudden, but with times as they are it seems appropriate... I would like to court you. I hope that we can get to know each other on many levels and maybe... with a little luck we can bond later." What Blaise didn't add was his fear that their time was running out. That every moment that they let pass without doing something, was just another minute they could be with someone they love, before the end.

Nodding, Neville reached out and threaded his fingers into the hair at Blaise's nape before pulling him close to kiss him. This time Blaise actually allowed his tongue to slip between his lips and tease slightly at Neville's. For his part, Neville allowed it in and shifted closer to allow Blaise all of the room he could need to deepen the kiss more.