Neville found himself indulging into the mystery genre of books lately, which surprised the wizard greatly due to that fact that he usually inflicted some type of biography upon himself, and captured information about a historic wizard or witch - he adored trivia, a characteristic he didn't exactly share with his peers. Caressing the ancient pages of his latest read, he sat himself comfortably into the plush seat hidden between rows of couches - his long legs crossed, as his neck craned his head between the text, he bit his lower lip until it stung at the anxiousness for actually pages away from finishing the hero's accomplishments, and fulfilling his curiosity if the young mate would ever repel the evildoer of his nemesis.
Turning the rustic page, he inwardly frowned deeply at his sight of the pages torn out of the spine of the book.
Sighing melodramatically, settling himself quite easily with the contemplation that he wouldn't know of the ending, he automatically presumed the best for the characters and tossed the book sluggishly to the pile whereas he found the tease of a read.
"He dies" hearing a faint, somewhat bell-like voice, he ran a hand through his hair while he perched his head to the side of the book shelve to find Winifred blandly reading the titles of the Alchemy section with a very stoic facial expression donning her ever-soft features, Astronomy textbooks clasped lovely to her chest. Neville crossed his arm and leaned back fully into his chair, "you're wearing glasses?" His voice came out as more of a statement, although she huffed in a puff of air at his realization of the specks hanging lightly on her nose, "I'm near-sight blind" she confessed rather quickly, and out stretched her arm above herself, spotting the Alchemy textbook she feverishly searched for in the span of an hour, her reach elongating her body as she stood on her tip toes, grazing the spine of the book lightly.
Neville unknowingly directed his gaze at the skin she exposed unwillingly, the tanned skin tempting Neville to sinfully touch the soft appearance of her back, although he composed himself, just indulgingly intaking the sight of the intangible waist of Winifred Jessamine.
Finally, she decided to take the wand from her slipper-boots and whispered a spell under her breath to claim the book.
Once she spun towards his direction with a somewhat smug smile, she paused as she noted Neville's wide, deer-like eyes as his large hand covered a majority of his face, pathetically blocking the view of his abashed, red streaked cheeks, "you're odd, Longbottom" Winifred plainly said monotonically as her smile was wiped clean from her face.
Neville returned from his trance, and shook his head softly, ignoring the mild insult and settled into a silence as Winnie took a seat next to Neville.
A though occurred to him as he mentally imagined Hannah's frown, and he boldly confronted the intimidating Ravenclaw that sat a distance away from him, "why do you bully Hannah?" His voice was above a whisper, although it still held a strong sense. Winifred piled her books into the space between her and Neville and gave him a questioning glance, knitting her eyebrows in a confused state at his inquire, "Abbott? I don't talk to her.." Her sentence trailed off as she peeled open a thick book that greeted the reader with a mist of dust, ".. Ugh, it fogged my glasses" she seethed, removing her black rims to clean.
Neville broadly shifted his body so he was fully facing the Ravenclaw and studied every movement she made, every tint to her wavy brown hair, the beauty marks that claimed every inch of her body, her green eyes that scanned the letters swiftly with ease. She was a machine, built with strong bolts and steel, to perform highly, strategic tasks. This slightly scared him, though he shown no hint.
"Don't change the topic" his voice was dripping with masculinity, dominance radiating from the mere spoken sentence, it was odd how the meek, docile creature he was a year ago simply vanished, leaving a brooding, confident gentlemen as a replacement. Winifred whipped her now sharp glare at Neville, and suppressed the need to gulp, he regretted the tone of voice, and was met with the witch that broke her ankle on the stairs a week ago.
"Hannah Abbott is a piece of furniture, I do not speak, nor acknowledge her existence, she's a stranger to me, this is the only time I became involved with her" she explained spitefully, as if she were scolding a younger child. Neville turned his body to lean against his knee's and ran a hand through his tousled locks thoughtfully, "it's amusing to think I'd speak wrongly of her when I barely know her. People gossip inaccurate news, Neville. I thought you were the last to engage in such conversations" and with that, she slammed her book tightly and shuffled them around. Neville couldn't look at her while she walked away, although he heard an evident 'clunk' as one of her books fell to the floor. That witch was clumsy.
Neville sighed out of pure confusion as to why Hannah would simply lie to him, he was worth the truth, wasn't he?
The doubtfulness pitched itself into the depth of his stomach, he grew uneasy from the disquiet feeling and listening intently as he heard the library's clock, and the books fly from shelve to shelve. His head was perched into his hands, pondering the thought insecurely.
Blinking slowly as he came to the conclusion as to tossing off this useless burden of a confrontation, he blanketed the act as if nothing ever happened and left the library in the need of a coffee.
Although before he could even make it out of the library, he was tugged to the side and was face to face with his possible love-interest.
"So you're dating Winnie?" Her voice was a hoarse whisper that earned a loud 'shush!'. He blankly searched his mind for an excuse from the delirious accusation, "dating? Since when?" He muttered, attempting to be hushed. Felicity flickered her gaze from Neville towards their surroundings to avoid the intense eye-to-eye conversation they were experiencing, "I-I didn't think you were like that, Neville" he voice wobbled slightly, as Neville felt guilty for ignoring Felicity's advances, and came to a realization he was wrongfully judged for the second time in the span of ten minutes.
"Like what?" His voice was gentle, soothing, and Felicity held his gaze for what seemed to like forever to Neville, "there's a... There's a cruel rumor going around about Winifred" she hesitated to tell Neville as he stared intently at the girl, leaning himself against the bookshelf. Neville hated rumor's. They were inaccurate.
"Every guy that Winifred fell for died" Neville felt the urge to laugh at the idiotic information, it was be known to him that an individual would cause such an unintelligent assumption, Felicity could tell by the humor in his eyes he wasn't taking the situation seriously, "she's had a lot of boyfriend's, Felicity" Neville said matter-of-factly. Felicity shook her head stubbornly, "Cedric, McKenzie.. She's only fell for two guys" she stared up at him with concern written across her face, although he could exactly place a finger on why the hell he was still playing the boyfriend role. Then an image of the Slytherin melted into his mind, and he cringed.
"She won't fall for me" he dismissed, leaving the dejected Ravenclaw standing alone as he finally left the library.