Distracted
Gabrielle/Neville
Neville couldn't look away.
It wasn't the first time he had met her of course, but it was the first time he had truly noticed her.
It didn't matter that they were there to celebrate her sister's second child being blessed. All Neville wanted to do was find out more about her.
"My sister, she insisted I wait until I was eighteen before drinking alcohol," Gabrielle said, smiling at him. Neville gave a slow nod, trying to form words as she sipped the glass of champagne in her hand.
He had stood up to Voldemort.
He had cut the head of a snake.
He had run the D.A in his last year.
After all that and so much more, he had grown up and grown very confident, but this girl was reducing him to the younger Neville, the one before the Neville he became the moment he signed his name on the list for the first D.A.
He was the shy stuttering Neville again and he didn't like it. He wanted to be confident and impress Fleur's younger sister.
...oOo...
Due to the effect she was having, Neville found himself distracted. He called Luna's new boyfriend by the wrong name. ("No, it's Patrick,") and suddenly became as clumsy as Tonks was.
Finally Gabrielle approached him, taking his hand, leading him to dance.
"Ginny tells me that you are training to become the Herbology Professor?" she said. Neville could only nod.
"That is wonderful. I wonder if I had a teacher as handsome as you, maybe I would have learnt more about the subject."
Handsome?
"I do find Herbology rather facinating though," she said, smiling up at him. "You must tell me about your favourite plants."
Suddenly his voice came back to him. There were only a few things that gave him confidence and one of those was his plants.
Gabrielle listened patiently to Neville talk, watching him light up as he spoke about the subject. Ever since the birth of Victoire three years previous, she had her sights set on Neville, but he had barely glanced her way except for a polite greeting.
It hadn't stopped her following him around though, not that he even noticed.
But now she was eighteen and her sister couldn't tell her not to do anything. Gabrielle was determined to know everything about Neville Longbottom.
Written for the Ring of Fire challenge: Prompt Neville/Gabrielle.
