Standard disclaimers apply!

I do not own Harry Potter. I have nothing to do with Scholastic, Warner Bros or Bloomsbury. I'm not JKR and I am certainly not making any profit out of this.

Hogsmeade

It looked like it was going to be a beautiful day; the sky was unseasonably blue and the grass seemed particularly green, contrasting shockingly with the last of the autumn leaves being blown about by the stiff breeze. With the huge doors open, it was brisk in the Hogwarts entrance hall.

Huddling into her coat, Hannah found herself trying to suppress her smile to normal levels, as opposed to the current insane grin of glee which was threatening to burst forth. It was an effort not to jump up and down and call out when she saw Neville at the top of the grey stone stairs, but she managed to keep herself contained and just give a small wave. Good job really, because he had his usual bevy of first year Gryffindor boys following him, and she wouldn't want to embarrass him.

Still, when he waved back she couldn't help grinning more.

She couldn't believe her luck, actually.

She'd fancied him since third year, when they'd started working together in Herbology, but she never thought anything would come of it. Sure, they'd gotten on and worked well together from the beginning – and sometimes she'd caught him looking at her and thought that he might like her too, a bit ... but there was no way she could have possibly said anything, because what if she had been wrong?

Last year had really put the boot in for her. He'd been so brave; talking back to the Carrows, and letting the first years out of the detention cages, even though he knew he'd get tortured for it. Then being a real hero during the battle, and arguing with Voldemort and killing the snake; no wonder he had all those kids following him now, he was great, and he was still so nice - and sometimes she wondered if this term had all been in her imagination.

He seemed to actually like her ... and now he was weaving through the crowd in the Entrance Hall, heading straight for her.

"Hannah." He smiled that shy smile of his, the one that made her heart flip-flop.

She bit her lip to stop herself giggling when his hand brushed hers and their fingers linked. "Neville."

"Breakfast?" He was blushing like mad and it made his eyes sparkle.

There was a scuffling just behind them, and she saw Seamus holding his head while Ginny looked murderous.

"What?" Neville frowned slightly and turned to see what was going on.

Hermione appeared over Ginny's shoulder and shook her head. "Nothing to see here, let's go in. Good morning Hannah."

"Good morning Hermione," Hannah said, "everyone."

oOo

"They look pretty excited," Neville said quietly as they all made their way into the grounds to be marked off the roll by Filch.

"Don't they?" Hannah agreed as they watched Hermione pick distractedly at her sleeve and Ginny shift impatiently from one foot to the other. They both chuckled quietly when Dean detached himself from Valerie long enough to mutter some sort of remark; a rather ribald one at that, if the looks Ginny and Hermione gave him were any indication.

Hannah loved the atmosphere of The Three Broomsticks; the ancient creaky furniture that was polished so much it shone, the smell of wood smoke and soup, and all the colourful people congregated there.

It was pleasantly warm after the chill of outside and everyone's cheeks were still pink. She let the excitable chatter wash over her as she sipped her butter beer; silently blessing the fact that their group of 12 was squashed onto one longish table, crowded so close together that they were practically in each other's laps.

"Don't talk so much, Hannah!" George interrupted himself – he was talking to Neville – with a cheeky grin.

She stifled a laugh. As if she'd be able to get a word in, even if she'd had anything to say. "I'm fine," she said.

"Just soaking it all in, eh?" George suggested.

"Something like that," she agreed.

"Fair enough," George winked and turned back to Neville, "it's the quiet one's you've got to watch you know, Nev."

Neville coughed and muttered something incoherent, his face flaming, but Hannah just laughed. "Do you even know what quiet means, George?"

"Touché," George chortled, "I'm aware of the dictionary definition, but that's about it."

But she knew that wasn't true. She'd heard things from Hermione and Ginny – and she could tell just by looking that he wasn't the same George who was one half of the epic Weasley Prank three years ago. Well, no one at the table – or anywhere really – was the same, not really, not after the last couple of years.

Everyone was putting a good face on it though, including herself ... and right now it wasn't that hard to do. Neville was holding her hand gently, rubbing his thumb over her knuckles, as if to let her know that even though he was busy talking to George he'd not forgotten her. That was one of the things she really lo- liked about Neville, he always seemed to want to make sure that no-one felt forgotten; she didn't need it actually, she was perfectly happy to sit quietly and "soak it all in", but it was still a really nice feeling that he cared.

"Would you like another?" Luna, on Hannah's other side, asked. "I'm going up."

"Thanks," Hannah nodded and, as Luna stood, her eyes slid onto Seamus; who was in the middle of attempting to charm the pants off – probably literally – Eva Bones. Hannah knew Eva fairly well and privately thought that Seamus had a job ahead of him if he thought he was going to get past a good passionate snog with Eva.

Hannah thought they'd probably make a pretty good couple, they were both so ... so ... energetic; but under her livewire exterior, Eva was definitely Susan's younger sister. Not stupid in the least bit, and more than a match for Seamus' rakish charm.

It would be fun to watch.

Unlike Dean and Valerie, who were still joined at the hip and really didn't give a damn who was watching. Although they'd progressed to actually talking occasionally, which was a pleasant change.

"Here you are," Luna put a bottle of butter beer in front of Hannah and squeezed herself back into her place at the table.

"Thanks Luna." Hannah sipped her drink and enjoyed the sensation of it sliding down her throat. Glancing over at Luna, she saw her watching Harry and Ginny with interest. Hannah liked Luna. She was weird, but it was a good kind of weird - and Luna didn't particularly care if you were talking or not, which was always nice.

"It's like a mirror, isn't it?" Hannah said suddenly.

"What is?" Luna asked curiously.

"Them," Hannah nodded at Harry and Ginny, and Ron and Hermione.

"Hermione's hair could be black in this light," Luna said agreeably.

They were in their own little world, closer than any four people should be – both physically, at the moment, and mentally. Hannah was almost jealous, and would have been had she not seen Hermione and Ginny simultaneously laughing and crying as they ran into Ron and Harry's waiting arms earlier that morning.

Right now they were laughing though, and it was mesmerising. The firelight was glinting off their hair and colouring their faces, and when Ron leaned forward slightly to whisper in Hermione's ear Hannah had trouble tearing her eyes away.

She wondered if she'd ever loosen up enough to show herself in public like that. Part of her really wanted to, but mostly she just liked being in the background – a feeling only intensified by the fact that she'd really drawn attention to herself a couple of times in the most embarrassing way possible.

Neville didn't seem to care though.

Ron and Hermione seemed to be about to make a move, disentangling their limbs and struggling to get off the bench amid raucous and derisive laughter.

"We're off," Ron announced to the table at large.

"But we'll be back in a couple of hours," Hermione added with a smile as they slid on their coats and pulled on their hats and gloves.

"Yeah, we'll come back for lunch at half twelve, see you all later," Ron draped his arm around Hermione's shoulders.

"Don't do anything I wouldn't do," Seamus chuckled.

Hermione and Ron both snorted rudely and gave a final wave before fighting their way through the crowded room to exit the pub.

"I think they've got the right idea," Ginny grinned and slid of Harry's lap, but stayed close.

George eyed them suspiciously and then shuddered elaborately. "I don't even want to think about what that might mean."

"So don't," Luna advised him, sipping her drink.

"Where are we going?" Harry asked, fighting back laughter.

"It's a surprise," Ginny told him lightly as they too, with a little more grace than Ron and Hermione, got up from the table.

"Excellent," Harry shot an apologetic look at George – who merely shrugged – before saying, "see you at lunch then."

"And on that happy note," George said with an air of importance, "I'm off for a walk. It's been entirely too long since I've had a good look around Hogsmeade." Standing up he held out his hand to Luna. "Take me for a tour, Miss Lovegood, and we'll leave the love-birds to themselves for a while, shall we?"

"That's very nice of you George; they do need some time to themselves," Luna stared at him, clearly surprised, and accepted his hand up. "You can tell me about the shop while we're walking. Ginny tells me you're thinking of buying Zonko's again."

"Well ..." Neville said, as they watched George and Luna walk away.

"You two should go for a walk too," Seamus advised before turning his attention back to Eva.

"You'll be alright here, then?" Hannah caught Eva's eye.

Eva winked and nodded. "You kids go and have some fun."

Dean and Valerie both chuckled at that. "We're off too, see you at lunch."

Neville gave Dean a meaningful look, but kept his tone light. "Behave yourselves."

"I'm feeling a bit bamboozled," Hannah remarked as Neville helped her with her coat.

"We can stay here if you'd like," he said quickly, gently pulling her ponytail from under her collar.

"No, its fine," she assured him, "I don't really want to watch Sir Snog-A-Lot in action with my dorm mate, do you?"

"Not really," he chortled, "let's go then."

The air rushed through her nose and into her lungs, sending a delightful shiver through her, as she squinted into the brightly sunlit street. "Can we go to the post office? I promised Audrey I'd send her a postcard."

"OK. I'll send one to Gran too, just for something different."

They passed Luna and George at Scrivenshafts, who waved at them merrily – Luna looked to be talking a mile a minute, waving her hands expressively, while George listened with apparent amusement.

"What did George want?" Hannah asked. "He looked like he was giving you the third degree for a while there."

"He was. He wants some help setting up a greenhouse, so that he doesn't have to outlay as much gold for some of his ingredients."

"Right up your alley then," Hannah smiled, "are you going to give him a hand?"

"Sure," Neville nodded, and then blushed suddenly. "You could help too."

"Me?" She shook her head vigorously. "I'd be sure to mess something up."

"No you wouldn't," he said quietly.

She looked at him curiously as he tugged on her hand and pulled her to a stop. "Neville?"

"I think you're brilliant," he murmured and took a deep breath.

The look on his face made her stomach do funny things, and her denial died on her lips when he leaned forward to kiss her softly.

"Hannah?" Neville said nervously. "Is that? Say something ..."

But she couldn't. She could only stare at him, shocked, as a smile played around the corners of her mouth and her insides danced with happy amazement. He was starting to look very uncertain though, and that wouldn't do. Forcing down her shyness, she kissed him back – tentatively at first, but with growing confidence when he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer.

The sound of a childish shriek and laughter reminded them they were in the middle of Hogsmeade Main Street, and they both grinned bashfully as they pulled apart.

"Um, the post office then?" Neville suggested breathlessly, leaving one of his arms around her shoulders.

"The post office," Hannah agreed, sliding her arm around his middle as they started walking again.

It really was a beautiful day.

Gaaaaaah, that took about 500 years to post. I've had all sorts of computer fun, sorry - not to mention all sorts of *other* fun with the chapter that WAS going to go here (but totally didn't LOL, I know when to give something up as a bad job).

In the meantime, it seems as though every single little asterisk I've put in ALL MY BLOODY STORIES as paragraph markers have gone bye-bye. Which is, naturally, completely fabulous and makes reading the way I jump around from person to person and place to place thoroughly confusing. I'll fix all that shortly (assuming the little oOo thing is going to work).

Anyway, thanks for the reviews on the last round of postings that I did. Awesome stuff, as usual. :-)