Parvati flinched at the smell of rotting soil, but said nothing... for once.
He led her over to a secluded back corner of greenhouse three where two giant pots were resting in the corner, edged beside each other with a gap behind them.
"My experiment is just behind there" he whispered to her with excitement.
She tried to peek but he was already bending over to retrieve the mysterious object behind the pots.
What Parvati saw was small and tiny, and well, itsy-bitsy, but whatever it was, she wanted to look at it. It was glowing pink from the inside. A small vine was twisting its way up a narrow stake in a DNA type pattern. The outer layer of the vine was fuzzy and pale green, but from the inside, a bright pink core shone out from the inside.
"What is it, Neville" she asked with ill-disguised excitement.
He caught her tone and smiled.
"Well, I haven't named it yet, but it has a useful ancestors, and should have some sort of purpose when it matures."
"Ooooh!" She was watching it move up and down slowly, almost like a spring in slow-motion.
"That's how it grows Parvati, by stretching and bouncing."
"It's beautiful." They stood there looking at the pink coils for a few moments, and thinking about each other.
She is so cool. He thought biting his lip.
He is gifted. She thought, looking up at his defined jawbone against what used to be a round face.
Parvati was one for a public display of affection as well as a private rendezvous. Either way, she was usually the initiater of a kiss.
Neville didn't have much experience with feelings for a girl his age. But he knew one thing. That he wanted to stand closer to Parvati Patil. Right now. And he did.
"Parvati, can I, can I... would it be all right if I kissed you?" He asked nervously, looking at her squarely.
She had never been asked this question before. It had always just happened. She was nodding consent as he was leaning it. A tear was falling down her cheek and she didn't know why.
Their lips touched, surrounded by their eager young faces, surrounded by the moist, empty atmosphere of greenhouse three at Hogwarts.
Neville didn't know what to do with a kiss. Just as he was pulling away with embarressed cautiousness, Parvati's eyes twinkled and she smiled, pressing her lips once again against his, pushing her mouth up to his and slipping her tongue inside the warm heat of Neville's lips.
She found his tongue hiding behind his teeth and rolled hers around and around his, realizing how completely new to kissing Neville was. But she didn't care. She had always been dominated by the boys in her life and for once, she was taking the stage, and he was honoring her with his now embracing arms.