I'M BACK! (after over a month). I'm so, so, so, so, so, so, SO sorry for leaving you so suddenly! I have exams this week coming, so I'm stressed, and then the school year's almost over! Woo!

I had a shitload of schoolwork to pass in, including a valedictorian speech, so fingers crossed that I'll be chosen! And if not me, then ErynPotter for sure ;)

Here is chapter 18 of this story! Thank you all so much for sticking with it! :D

"You absolute ARSE!"

Rose's rarely shrill voice echoed throughout the corridor, followed by a yelp of pain. Any passers-by quickly spun on their heels and left before they'd be held accountable. Most of the school was bright enough to know that when Rose was angry, you steered clear until the storm passed. Unfortunately, her wrath was aimed towards a certain individual. One that was currently getting a beating.

"You fucking think –" She kicked him in the shin hard. "– that you can fucking call –" Her fist made contact with his shoulder. "– my friend a SLUT –" As he was doubled over, she shoved him to the ground, pulled out her wand, and pointed it straight at his nose. "– and get away with it?"

Ron was sprawled on the cold stone floor, his limbs aching, pain written on his face. He lifted his hands by his head in a sign of surrender to which Rose simply narrowed her eyes further.

"I'm sorry!" he called, his low tone quite a contrast to her higher one. "I didn't mean it! I swear!"

"Then why the fuck would you say it?" she hissed back.

Motioning to her that he was not going to fight back or run off, he slowly got to his feet, and now towered over her, making her feel less menacing, but really not changing the amount of fear she struck into his heart at all. Her wand remained raised, very close to his freckled face, keeping deadly still.

"Well, when the girl that sleeps with half the population of the school just up and gets chlamydia, the first word to pop into everyone's mind is slut," he said carefully, hoping not to raise her temper any more.

"Even so, you decided to be a bloody dumbass and say it to my face," she replied. "Besides, why is Sam a slut and Lavender isn't?"

It was now Ron's turn to let his blood boil. He pushed her wand away from his face and stalked away, but a small hand on his shoulder spun him back round to her. She didn't look the least bit remorseful at her words.

"You can't deny that she's snogged the majority of the blokes in school," she added, fuelling his anger intentionally, feeling herself becoming more satisfied with each insult. "You're just another one to add to the list."

"Go to hell, Carson," he grumbled. She smirked and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Has the told you she's slept with a professor for extra credit? Or is she pretending she's 'saving herself' for you."

"Oh, who the hell are you to judge, eh?" he snapped over her as his ears and cheeks flushed a horrible red color. "You're the fucking opposite of Sam! You're a completely straight-laced prude, worse than Hermione I'd reckon! You go round acting all high and mighty, like nothing can bother you, but I've got eyes, Rose! I can see what gets to you!"

She hid her shock at his outburst well, just glaring at him steadily behind the blonde hair that had fallen out of her ponytail and into her face. "And what 'gets to me', hmm, Ron?"

"I do."

Shit.

"Keep dreaming, Weasley. The day you get to me is the day that your hair goes blue."

"You know I'm right," he said. He was panting slightly, his blue eyes trained on her brown ones, trying to see if he was right. He'd gone out on a limb when he guessed she was bothered by his and Lavender's relationship. And if it wasn't true, he'd never hear the end of it. She'd probably never speak to him again. That thought shook him to his core.

"Like hell."

"Every time you see me and Lav in the halls, or snogging in a corner, or just talking, I can see the fires of hell burning behind your glasses. I know that you hate us for being together. You know it too."

She started to shake her head near the middle of the sentence and let out a derisive laugh at the end. "You're so fucking full of yourself, Weasley. You think I care about you? I don't give a flying fuck what you and Lavender Brown do between the bed sheets, or in a broom cupboard, or behind the fucking Quidditch Pitch! You two can go be happy together and live happily ever after like all the fairy tales depict, and just leave me the fuck alone!"

"Stop lying to yourself, Rose! Just admit that you like me!" he yelled, horribly frustrated.

"I won't admit something that's bullshit!"

"Rose!"

"Stop thinking that I'm in love with you! Just because I have some miniscule, tiny, almost non-existent crush on you! Or because I think I might be falling for you, with your eyes and your hair… Why can't you just ignore that I think I'm in love with you?"

Silence was thick in the air as she suddenly realized all she'd said. Ron's eyes had widened to the size of Galleons, his mouth gaping, and his ears turning red in embarrassment. He moved his lips up and down like a fish out of water for a moment, and seemed like he would say something when someone else showed up.

"WON-WON!"

Rose let out a wince at the pitch of Lavender's cry, and stayed incredibly still when she jovially bounced over to them, latching onto Ron's harm in an instant. She smiled widely at him, to which he couldn't return, his gaze still fixated no Rose as she kept her eyes determinedly on the ground.

"I have to go," she said quickly, and turned round hastily.

Ron took a step towards her. "No, don't –"

"Let her leave, Won-Won," Lavender soothed, hissing out her in contempt. Rose would've socked her in the jaw if she wasn't already running out of the school.

The next time Sam spoke to Neville was almost three weeks after the condom incident. And she didn't even initiate the conversation.

As she was wandering out of Potions class to dinner, a hand wrapped round her arm and pulled her aside, through a rarely used corridor that led directly to the fifth floor. Meaning no one would use it, as the stomachs of every student were rumbling with hunger.

She let out a squeak, but he hushed it with his lips, shocking her beyond words. But, as was her nature, she slid her arms round his neck and drew herself closer. She felt his hand resting gently on her hip, his thumb massaging the skin, as her blouse had a tendency to ride up when she moved (something no one felt was unfortunate).

For some reason, she knew immediately who it was, and she murmured gently against his lips, as she had when she snogged him in his bed so long ago, "Neville."

She expected him to pull away, but instead, he moved closer, pushing her gently against a wall, his other hand cradling her head so it didn't smack into the stones. He broke the kiss first, but only a bit, so their noses brushed against each other and their lips were barely a breath apart.

"How'd you know?" he muttered back. She smiled small.

"Had a hunch," she replied. She felt his own lips contort into a slight grin as his fingers brushed through her hair gently. Looking up through the shadows of the corridor into his eyes, she felt herself melting.

Maybe seducing him wouldn't be too difficult.

"So, why the sudden snog in the dark?" she asked with a breath of laughter. He looked down at her a bit more seriously.

"I heard about your…affliction," was his reply, to which the corners of her lips sagged. "And I thought you could use some comforting."

"I thought you were deathly afraid of any human contact whatsoever," she countered. She always felt a bit touchy on the subject of her sexual health. And as it was the talk of the school, it was hard to avoid.

"With most people. But you make me feel…safe… if that makes sense." There was a pause, in which he kept his pupils down and grumbled something. She quirked a brow.

"Say again?"

He sighed a bit but didn't remove his gaze from the ground. "I said…is chlamydia contagious through snogging?"

She looked at him for a long moment before biting her lip hard and shoving him away. His warm hands immediately left her skin as she stormed out from the corridor. She could hear his footsteps behind her but didn't slow.

"Sam, I'm sorry –"

"The fact that you made me feel so loved in the start is bad enough!" she moaned, hugging her books to her chest. "But to ask that? How do you think I'm feeling, Neville Longbottom? The school acts like I'm a diseased creature who you can't touch without getting some horrible illness called whoritis!"

"I didn't mean to sound so harsh –"

"Well don't worry. I won't go near you again. Not after I'm clean again, or ever."

She stormed off faster, leaving him to stand in the cold hallway with a pain in his chest.

So much drama! I'm sorry that it's short, but I wrote it all in one afternoon because I was feeling inspired!

The pairings up for next chapter: Annabelle/Blaise and Harry/Eryn. What can I brew up for them?... Wait and see! ;D

REVIEW! :D