~O~
"You taste like honey." Neville panted as they lay back together on the wood bench, naked in each other's arms, Hermione's head rested on his chest. "Merlin, I'm going to be addicted to you from the rest of my life."
"What do you mean?"
Neville sighed, wondering how such an intelligent witch could be so obtuse and blind to the obvious sometimes. "You don't think we're just going to remain really good friends after this?"
She shook her head. "No, but this was sort of unplanned. I don't expect you to stay Neville if you don't, I mean, I'm sure this happens with you all the time..." she stammered and stumbled over her words, yet he didn't miss the sad glint in her eyes. She didn't really mean her words, did she? Neville wondered if he should hurry things along and tell her how much he liked her, but he didn't want to scare her off either.
"No, Hermione, this doesn't happen all the time, at least not with someone as special as you." Neville grabbed her perfect backside and pressed her body closer to his to he could taste those lips again. "I insist on staying."
Hermione smirked. "Okay, but you do know, we can't stay in this greenhouse forever...They'll be coming back in the morning."
"You don't say," Neville grinned and found himself pressing against her again. "Well, we better hurry now before we no longer can use this bench." He flipped them around so that he pinned Hermione beneath him on the wood bench, he smiled down at her. "Though you do know I have a greenhouse myself? It even has a house attached," he teased.
"Do you?" Hermione liked the sound of that. "Back home?"
"Yes, in Scotland. I'm a respected herbologist."
"Are you?" she played dumb, with a smile on her face.
He found her playfulness adorable.
"Yes, though, as a rule of thumb," he stroked her lips, "you know what happens in the greenhouse, stays in the greenhouse..." He lowered his lips to hers. "We can't let non-herbologists know what we get up to in here...they still think herbology is a boring subject for fuddyduddies."
"Your secret is safe with me," Hermione promised and grinned up at him.
"Good." He slipped his tongue into her mouth. She tasted like honey of a rare flower. He planned to water her for the rest of his life. "Very good."
They made love for a second time that night and fell asleep on the wood bench, which Neville magicked to be wider and with pillows and sheets.
~O~
The next morning, they woke up snugly wrapped together but then suddenly Neville screamed as he felt something with sharp claws and long sharp teeth start to bite his hair.
"Argghhh! Hermione there's something in my hair!" he yelled as he raised a hand to his read to try to get the beast off of him.
Hermione awoke from her sleep with a startle. "I'm awake!" she yelped and reached for her wand. "What's going on?!"
"What kind of monsters are you keeping in here!" Neville winced as the animal began to chew at his ear and he resisted the urge to wave his wand at it and blast it off. But he knew Hermione wouldn't appreciate blasting one of her wild rescues, so he allowed the biting to continue.
Hermione burst into laughter and reached for Neville's head when she saw the furry creature who had startled them both from sleep.
"That's no monster, that's Snowball!" she cooed as she brought the white ball of fur into her arms.
Neville blushed when he saw it was only a small creature the size of a squirrel. Though with much bigger eyes and nasty sharp teeth. He waved his wand at his head to get rid of the scratchmarks Snowball had left.
"Quite a biter," Neville muttered.
"Nah, he's just cranky, he must want breakfast," Hermione said and cuddled up to the sugar glider.
Neville got up from the bed and stared out the window. "Uh oh we should've slept in so late, the volunteers are coming in."
"Merlin, what time is it?"
"8 o clock," Neville winced. "Harry's out there. He looks like he wants to come in the greenhouse. Bugger it."
Seeing Harry waiting outside the greenhouse, they both got dressed and hurried out to seem normal and prepared for another day of wildlife rescue.
Hermione headed out first to greet her friend, while Neville followed behind.
~o~
"Harry!" Hermione said nervously. "You're up early."
"Had to see what you two were up to."
"Well, we had some more rescuing to do," Neville coughed from behind her and handed Hermione some fruit.
Hermione shoved the fruit towards Snowball who greedily began to chew on it.
"I'm sure you did," Harry chuckled.
Neville and Hermione wondered why he was laughing like that. Had he taken a cheering potion or something. Hermione shook her head.
"Harry, I have to tell you something," Hermione began, crossing her arms while feeding Snowball sugar some more fruit.
Harry's face immediately broke into a wide, beaming grin. "Finally, it's happened hasn't it?"
Harry reached down to pick up and cuddle the adorable marsupial from her arms.
"What's happened?" Hermione's eyes widened. "Why do I feel like you already know what I'm going to say?"
Harry narrowed his eyes for the shortest of seconds. "You were going to tell me that you and Neville are a couple right?"
"How?" Hermione mouthed. "How could you even know? It just happened!" She pointed at the greenhouse flabbergasted. "We just came out of there, you had no way of knowing how long we were in there or what we were doing."
Harry gave her messy hair and wet clothes an up and down look. "Trust me, I know what you were doing, and I just hope you used protection." Harry beamed and he patted Neville on the shoulder when he passed by. "Well done mate."
"Any way I can help down under," Neville said rather slyly, though he didn't kiss and tell. "For the wildlife and cause of course!"
Hermione face turned red. "What do you mean? You knew this, that me and Neville, this would happen?"
Harry laughed at his best friend's surprise. "Don't act so shocked, it's been bloody obvious to everyone here, except apparently you, that you've two have had a thing going on." Harry shook his head. "You can thank me later, okay?"
"Thank you for what?" Hermione asked.
"I sent Neville to the greenhouse yesterday after hours. You didn't think that just happened, did it?" Harry gave her a cheeky smile and then yelped when the furry sugar glider bit her finger. "Ouch!"
"Unbelievable! I'm not sorry Snowball bit you!" Hermione said affronted but began to laugh too. "I can't believe you Harry that you of all people would start meddling and trying to be matchmaker to people without their consent, especially since we're supposed to be friends, you should've ran this by me first, don't you think?"
Neville decided to calm her down before she got anymore upset. Hermione Granger truly was brilliant but she had her blindspots at times. This was one of them.
"Now now I think Harry's right, I don't know why we didn't see it earlier. I feel pretty hardheaded myself." He paused to shake Harry's hand and take the sugar glider from him . "Thanks Harry."
"No problem," Harry said.
Hermione blushed.
"Neville stop!"
"I see my work here is done," Harry said and picked up back his digging shovel and gear. "I better go back to the other work. You can thank me later in your wedding speech."
Hermione blushed even harder. "Harry please, you need to stop meddling in other people's lives! We've barely started dating...we are not uh-"
"Uh I was right wasn't I?" Harry chuckled over his shoulder as he walked back over the hill.
Hermione and Neville were left standing there, trying to comprehend how they could be so blind to something that was so obvious to everyone else.
Neville chuckled.
She clearly didn't like discussing her love life or sex life so publicly but Neville couldn't help doing their first official PDA by nuzzling her with his lips...now that they were officially out of the greenhouse, he felt no harm in kissing her in public as much as possible.
"It's been a long time coming, truthfully," Neville breathed heavily. "And I intend to make up for lost time."
"What do you mean?"
"We could've been doing this all summer. Every night in the greenhouse." Neville grinned.
"Oh Merlin, you're right."
"It's alright." Neville chuckled. "We have plenty of time ahead to make up for it...And I still haven't introduced you to my greenhouse in Scotland, it's got this great wooden bench..."
~o~
THE END
~O~
a/n: Sequel maybe? Idk if you haven't read my other Nevmione story 'The Remembrall' please check it out. That story got a lot more readers for whatever reason but I loved writing this shorter story too and hope everything's regrowing and heals in Australia.
btw factoid: Sugar gliders are these super cute marsupials from Australia. Very cute amazing critters!