Chapter 2:
Friendly Advice
Neville couldn't concentrate the rest of the day. In Herbology, he almost forgot to put on his earmuffs, thinking of her smile, just when they were going to and repot the Mandrakes.
And in Potions, Neville's least favorite class of the day, while creating a potion absentmindedly, he was thinking of the way she laughed. And a real laugh, not some fake laugh that some Hufflepuff girls give him. And her laugh had nothing to do with his appearance… or did it?
While he was thinking of these things, he accidently put a wrong ingredient in his potion, causing it to catch fire just as Professor Snape walked on by with his long cloak trailing behind him and over Neville's fiery potion. And let's just say, Neville not only got detention, he also got a taste of Snape's more colorful vocabulary.
Nobody seemed to notice that Neville was acting strangely. No one, that is, except Hermione Granger.
Hermione managed to corner Neville after Potions and get to the bottom of his strange behavior.
"Ok Neville, what's going on?" she asked a scared looking Neville as she sat down in front of him at lunch. He shifted in his seat, knowing that when Hermione Granger was on the job, she simply would not take no for an answer.
"W-What do you m-mean?" he stammered, afraid she'd find out sooner or later.
But she wasn't buying his ignorant act. "Oh please, don't insult my intelligence. You usually worship every word that comes out of Professor Sprout's mouth, but today, you were barely paying attention. And you nearly killed Professor Snape with that fire! Now, what is going on!?!"
Neville gave her a tortured look, which wasn't all that hard, telling her to lower her voice. She got the hint and leaned in. Then she whispered, "What's wrong Neville? Are you ok?"
He nodded.
"So what's wrong?" Hermione persisted. "Is it Snape threatening to expel you again?"
He shook his head.
"Did he turn your toad Trevor into a pig?"
He shook his head again.
"Is it a girl?"
Neville blushed and he suddenly became very interested in the silverware. "Um… no?" It came out as more of a question than a response.
When he looked up, he saw Hermione wearing a giddy, triumphant smile. "Well? Are you going to tell me her name?"
Neville considered this. She had always been there for him. He trusted her throughout his four years at Hogwarts and usually always came to her for help. She had been his first friend and saw him for the person he was. He decided.
"Luna Lovegood, her name is Luna Lovegood," Neville said, in a hurry, with his eyes closed.
Hermione shot him a quizzical look when he opened his eyes. "House?"
"Ravenclaw."
She started drumming her fingers against the table with her fist under her chin. "Luna Lovegood?" she said, half to herself half to Neville. "Hmmm… sounds familiar, but I don't think I've met her before." She got up and walked away muttering, "Luna Lovegood…"
He looked down at his plate, wondering what he'd just got himself into.
When Neville returned to the common room that evening, he saw Hermione talking to Ginny Weasley. He wanted to turn around and retreat, but Hermione spotted him.
"Neville! Come here!" she shouted across the room.
He had been dreading this all day, he was probably going to have to sit down and talk about his feelings for Luna. He wasn't even sure what they were! But, this was Hermione. He slumped his way through the room, getting ready for his interrogation.
"Guess what, Neville?" Hermione asked him as he sat down next to them. She didn't wait for his answer. "Ginny knows who Luna Lovegood is!"
That bit of news almost made him fall out of his chair. "Really?" he asked, surprised, puzzled, and a little amazed at the speed Hermione worked at.
"Yeah," Ginny said. "She's in my year. I talk to her sometimes, not often, but I do. She's kind of cool, a little weird though."
Acids in Neville's stomach were churning, at the sound of Ginny calling Luna weird. He couldn't stand stereotypes like that. He felt like yelling at Ginny, telling her, "She's not weird, just misunderstood!" He then regained control of his emotions and said, "Oh, ok."
"Why are you guys so interested in Loony Lovegood anyway?" she said, and then looked at Neville with her eyebrows raised. "Neville?" she continued, "Is there something you're keeping from me?"
He looked down and muttered something that sounded like, "Maybe…."
Ginny reached over to where he sat and shook his arm. "What? What is it?"
He didn't feel like answering but thankfully Hermione saved him.
"Neville… is having… certain feelings for, uh, a certain girl."
"Oh…," Ginny said, nodding like she understood. Then she started to giggle. "You could have just told me Neville."
Neville wanted to tell her it wasn't as easy as it sounded, but then she kept going.
"You know, I can go talk to her. I can find her and ask her some questions." She smiled and looked at Hermione and Neville. "Great idea, don't you think?"
Neville was so tired of girls and their codes. He was about to give up and ask them what was so good about that. That was until he saw where this was going.
"No, no, no, no, no!" he said, grabbing the nearest pillow to stuff his face into. He said something muffled into the pillow that sounded like, "Wa shoo I do?"
Hermione exchanged a smirk with Ginny, and then said, "That's really easy Neville. You should just be yourself. Luna will get to see the real you."
"Yeah," Ginny said, siding with Hermione. "I've met her Neville, and she's not really all that hard to get along with."
He said another muffled statement that sounded a bit like, "House dat conna elp." Which they figured was, "How's that going to help?"
Ginny gave Hermione a wink and said, "She'll get to know you better for you, and don't worry about it, I have a feeling she's going to see the real Neville Longbottom really soon."
Neville looked up from his pillow, thinking that when God created women, he should've written a set of instructions to go with them.
