a/n: Written to bring awareness to the Australian wildlife fires, please do send your love, prayers and support to Australia. May the koalas, kangaroos and other beautiful wildlife and plants never perish from this earth. Koalas are too cute! Also I had been planning for awhile to write another nevmione story after finishing my other Neville/Hermione story "The Remembrall". Do check out that story, it's much better than this one I think lol!

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Rain Down Under

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[What Happens in the Greenhouse, Stays in the Greenhouse]
[Neville/Hermione.] [Nevmione.]
[Song: Senorita - Camila and Shawn Mendes]

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Neville wiped at his brow, feeling the sweat gathering there, as the sun beamed hotly down upon his body. The Australian sun was incredibly harsh and unforgiving, and the heat was only made worse by the recent bushfires that had scorched most of the land. Witches and wizards had came in to provide relief and put out most of the fires by now, however, there was still so much damage to the important habitats and wildlife...some of which could not be found on any other part of the planet.

Having a sincere appreciation for any and all plant species, Neville was more than happy to help out for a good cause. Even if the work was grueling.

Moisture trickled down his bulging arms and sweat trickled down across his washboard abs, making him feel so slick and dirtied, yet there was little time to rest. Time was of the essence to save some of these rare species before they extinguished forever. Digging up and replanting gigantic Magical Dragonskin Eucalyptus trees particularly, in order to save the endangered species, was rewarding but no easy be told, it was some of the most brutal work Neville had ever tried. Luckily, the Herbology grad had more than enough muscle to meet with the task...for there were some tasks in life that required more than just magic. Some plants needed a human touch to flourish. Every true gardener and herbologist knew this, you needed a green thumb to truly succeed.

It helped too that—the ever philanthropic and willing to spare time to any cause worth a damn—Hermione Granger had volunteered to help with the Australian fire relief effort. Though she wasn't as quite as handy with a shovel, she had a wicked talent with her wand...and her mind was just as sharp as a tack. Together with some of the other Hogwarts grads, they had helped salvage a whole forest and even created temporarily artificial habitat pens for the rescued animals and plants...until such time as the Australian habit got restored and they could be returned to the wild. That last bit had been Hermione Granger's brilliant idea of course. Using her immense knowledge of creating expanding-shrinking spells, she shrank as much wildlife as she could and placed them each in separate tiny containers complete with mini forests and mini ecosystems.

"Making progress?" Harry asked as he saw Neville lifting some dead branches.

"Oh Merlin's tits, I hope we are. This country is so huge...the work never ends!"

"I know, I wish we could save it all," Harry said. The heroic boy-who-lived was an Auror now, but under Hermione's encouragement, he and Ron had joined other Hogwarts grads to come here for a month. Neville respected Harry greatly for all he had done to help both in Britain and abroad on many fronts.

"Here, let me give you a hand," Harry said and both men worked hard to lift the last of the trees into a container before they shrunk them down and put them in a tiny container where it would be cared for in the meantime and restored back to vitality.

After a couple more hours, the likes of which had both Harry and Neville literally wet with sweat, Harry patted his old classmate on the back. "I think we should call it a day, the sun is setting, and it wouldn't do to wear ourselves out and not be full back at it full speed tomorrow."

"Right. Well done," Neville grunted in exhaustion and picked up his discarded shirt.

Harry stared at Neville a bit in shock. "Nev, I think you've burnt yourself to a crisp, your back is as red as a lobster."

"Oh great." Neville thought he felt his back burning, he didn't realize how much his skin had been burnt however til Harry mentioned it. He thought it had simply been the heat affecting him.

"You better take that to Hermione, she's brilliant with burns," Harry said and took a sip of water from his jug. "She should be in the greenhouse still. I've got to go back to Ginny, she wants to go the Sydney Opera! I think the other healers already went home." Harry seemed to imply it would only be Hermione and him left at the camp grounds.

"Good. Okay, will do. Goodnight Harry." Neville scratched at his beard and walked in the direction of the greenhouses as Harry apparated away and soon most of the relief grounds were empty...Well, save one person, who never went home (even though her parents now apparently lived in Australia). Hermione was always the last to leave the grounds and usually worked tirelessly, day and night, in the greenhouse and in any other place she could be of help.

Feeling too tired to be self-conscious—not that he had anything to be ashamed of, his body was in the best shape of his life now—Neville was still shirtless, his abs and burnt back showing, as he held his soiled white cotton shirt like a rag over his shoulder.

"Knock knock," he spoke at the entrance of the Greenhouse though he knew full well Hermione had to be in there. The lights were still on and he could hear the hum of a radio tune she was listening to.

Hermione called back from somewhere behind some indoor bushes she was tending to. "Hold on I'm coming. Neville is that you?"

"Yeah." He helped himself to a bottle of water she'd left laying on her desk and patted the rescue koala Hermione had adopted. The cute little koala had almost died in one of the fires but Hermione had used her excellent healing skills to bring the creature back to full health. Then, growing attached to the koala, Harry and Hermione had named him Winnie-the-Poop since the koala looked like a cuddly teddy bear and he also happened to poop a lot.

"Hey! You're drinking from my water jug," Hermione said rather absentmindedly when she stumbled to the front of the greenhouse and locked eyes with him. Neville grinned at her, something about Hermione Granger always struck him as particularly pleasant to be around.

"Sorry. I'm thirsty and sunburned," he raised his eyebrows dramatically. "I promise you won't catch anything from me," he teased.

"No, I didn't think I would, Neville. I mean to catch something, I'd have to...uhm... nevermind!" Hermione stammered and she lowered her eyes to search his broad bare chest and abs, apparently looking for the sunburn. "I don't see the sunburn," she said a bit anxiously.

Was Hermione blushing? Neville chuckled. "It's on my back, luv," he said and turned around. Why did Hermione seem nervous around him just now? He shook his head, probably just imagining things...although she probably hadn't seen him without his shirt before. Neville noticed now, ever since he'd started working out at uni, that women gave him much more lingeringly looks and were more willing to hold long conversations with him over nothing, seemingly just because they were attracted to him. Not Hermione though, Neville thought. The bookworm had more substance than to objectify him and their conversations were genuinely mutually gratifying.

Mutually gratifying, Neville shook his head. Bleeding hell. What a way to say 'we both enjoy each other's company'. Why was he beating around the bush to admit he liked Hermione a lot?

He was startled as he felt Hermione's hand on his back. It was a shock because she crept up on him and a shock because the burnt skin had now blistered and hurt to touch..even with such a gentle touch as Hermione's fingertips.

Hermione cooed. "Oh I'm sorry, I'm just out of the last batch of our burned salve potion." Hermione swore. "But if you stay a bit, I can prepare one in less than half an hour. You know I'm adept with potions."

"It reeally isn't necessary," Neville began. "I may just go home, you're already busy as is..." He noticed then she was wearing short jean shorts and a tight shirt under her black lab robes. The robes hung loosely open showing her sexier body hidden underneath the unflattering robe. What a body she had, though she kept it well-hidden in unflattering clothes most of the time he had known her in Hogwarts. A modest witch.

"No, Neville I insist, I always have a cauldron going. besides you've done so much to help the relief. It's the least i could do to personally repay you."

Neville raised his eyebrows at her. An impure thought had crossed his mind just then of how else he would've liked to see her try to repay him. But he scolded himself quickly for even thinking it: longbottom get your head out of the gutter.

"That would be grand, Hermione, thanks," he said instead. "I'll help you water anything that's dry in here."

"Dry?" Hermione coughed. Now it was her turn to raise her eyebrows. "No there's nothing dry in here. In fact, everything's wet!" She coughed and looked madly around the greenhouse ceiing as if searching for the right words to say.

Did Neville detect some discomfort on her end too? I mean she couldn't be thinking what he was thinking was she? Nah it must've been the heat driving them both mad. His skin bloody burned. She just wanted to help him.

but then he felt himself staring strangely at her. before they both looked away at the same time and shook their heads.

"I mean—" Hermione continued and Neville wondered why she was being defensive as Hermione stammered more. "I mean I just watered everything using the automatic sprinkler system I set up," she laughed a bit too fakely and waved her hand. "I could hardly let our plants dry out after they'd survived a bushfire!"

"I didn't mean to imply you did, Hermione," he said apologetically.

"No, you didn't."

"Well, is there anything else I can feed?" he asked.

"Feed? Feed, hmm. Uhmmm..." Hermione mumbled to herself. "You can feed Winnie his supper instead? He has a particular koala diet of only Eucalyptus leaves and is a picky eater. Maybe you can coax him to eat his greens?"

"No problem." Neville flashed her a wide smile and leaned over to pet the fuzzy koala. "Good as done."

Hermione, this time, unmistakably blushed.

"Thank you," she said and disappeared back into the posterior of the greenhouse. "I'll be back here, working on the potion," she called over her shoulder. "If you need me for anything. Anything at all."

"Right." Neville found his cheeks burning. Was he actually blushing now too? Or was it just the sunburn?

He hoped Hermione could fix that burn potion soon, so things didn't get too awkward. The sun was going down and it would be night time soon.

"Winnie! Suppertime!" He waved a tasty eucalyptus branch at the fuzzy grey furball. "Come over here boy!"

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a/n: btw i was inspired by a little quote by David Suzuki, 'What happens in the forest, stays in the forest' that always made me chuckle. Yes, while he's a environmentalist and darling hero of wildlife, I'm sure he get's up to all kinds of trouble in that forest ;) Just teasing. So I wondered what a herbologist might get up to in a greenhouse... please review/fav/follow if you want to read more, thanks!