1 It turns out that Neville's problem in sixth year had been like so many of his other problems in life. It was all confidence, or in Neville's case, his lack of confidence.

At first, Neville couldn't apparate at all, even with George's help. But George was a patient teacher, much better than the instructor at Hogwarts, and within two days, Neville had managed to apparate about two feet. His success was rewarded with a kiss from George.

Of course, most of his failures had also been rewarded with kisses from George. Neville and George never bothered to talk about what they were doing, what the kissing meant. They just let it happen.

Once Neville managed to apparate regularly, he sent an owl with a request to the ministry to take his exam. He received a letter back the following day noting the date and time of his scheduled exam. Neville had four days.

On the morning of his exam, Neville woke early. He made himself breakfast and left the house before his Gran had even woken up. He left a cryptic note saying he had things to do, which shouldn't surprise Gran, as Neville hadn't been spending much time at home the last couple weeks. Gran never asked him where he was going, as though asking him about it would somehow jinx him back into the safety of his bed. Neville walked to the nearest muggle underground station and took it to the visitor's entrance at the ministry.

He hadn't been to the ministry since the end of his fifth year. It looked much the same, perhaps a little brighter. Or perhaps that was just his imagination.

Neville went to the main desk, where he had his wand checked by a security wizard, and received a name tag. He was directed to a hall located right off the main lobby where apparition exams are given.

Neville made his way down the hall, following signs to the apparition exam room. He was the first one there. He was there even before the examiner. Neville sighed impatiently and sat down on a hard chair to wait. He nervously tapped his wand against the side of the chair, making small red sparks fly out the end of it each time it struck.

Finally, a short balding wizard with dark round glasses and wearing bright red robes approached looking frazzled. "Sorry I'm late," he apologized, rushing toward Neville. "Are you my first exam?"

"Yes, sir." Neville answered.

The wizard unlocked the door and Neville followed him into a large room, about the size of a half basketball court. The room had a dark shiny floor, and almost no furniture save for a desk covered with paperwork and shoved in a corner.

"All right," the wizard said. "My name is Lexeter Broome. I'll be taking your apparition exam today. May I see your wand?" Neville handed his wand over and Lexeter Broome examined it carefully. "Seems to be in good order," he said cheerfully handing the wand back.

Lexeter waved his own wand and conjured a clipboard and a quill. "What is your name?"

"Neville Longbottom."

Lexeter looked up over the clipboard at Neville. "Blimey, are you really the Neville Longbottom? The one who helped defeat you-know-who?"

Neville nodded uncomfortably. "Yeah, that's me."

Lexeter's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Well, it's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Longbottom."

For a moment, Neville didn't realize Lexeter was talking to him. He'd never been called Mr. Longbottom before in his life. "Call me Neville," was all he said.

"All right, Neville." Lexeter seemed thrilled that Neville was there and stared at him with wide eyes.

"Uh...." Neville said. He gestured to the clipboard. "Any other questions?"

"Oh!" Lexeter looked down. He quickly scrawled Neville's name down. "Age?"

"Nineteen."

"Have you graduated?"

"No. I didn't complete my seventh year."

"Are you going to?"

"Is this necessary for the exam?"

"Somewhat. We do need to know if you're still a student. The school requires us to keep track of any student who is able to legally apparate. So if you were planning on going back, I'd need to notify Professor McGonagall."

"Well, I probably won't go back."

"Very well." Lexeter started walking to the other side of the large room. Neville began to follow him. "You stay there." When he got to the other side, Lexeter took out his wand and made a large circle on the floor in front of him. "Your first task Neville, is to apparate to this circle."

Neville concentrated, the way George taught him to focus, turned on the spot and heard a loud pop as he suddenly found himself being sucked through space and reappearing inside the circle.

With that task down, Neville felt much more confident and comfortable. He followed Lexeter by apparition to the edge of London, to the field where the Quidditch World Cup had been held five years ago, to Hogsmeade, and finally back to the exam room. With George's hints, Neville managed them all perfectly.

"Excellent, my boy!" Lexeter boomed. "Really great job! There is no problem, none at all with giving you an apparition license." Lexeter buried his nose in the clipboard once more, signed a few lines and handed the paper to Neville. "Take this to room 120, where you'll be given your license."

"Thank you, sir." Neville said grabbing the paper. He was bursting with happiness. A feeling he'd not felt in over a year. Happiest still, because he realized he had someone to share his good news with.


George was still asleep. Actually that wasn't technically true, he was at that point where he was drifting between being asleep and awake. He wasn't ready to wake up, but knew he probably should. He wanted so badly to stay in the dream he'd been having. By the light he could see from behind his closed lids, he guessed that he'd need to open the shop in about an hour.

Suddenly, he was jolted awake by a loud "pop!" sound. George sat up quickly and looked around to see Neville standing at the foot of his bed, a big smile on his face.

"Neville!"

Neville held out a small card. "I did it! I passed my apparition exam!"

George gaped at him, "You didn't even tell me you were going to take the exam!"

Neville smiled, a little shyly. "I wanted it to be a surprise. You know, in case I failed."

George threw back the covers and patted the bed next to him. "Come here."

Neville kicked off his shoes and jumped in to bed next to George. He gave George a kiss on the lips, "Thanks for helping me."

George returned the kiss enthusiastically. "Glad to do it."

This is how the last few weeks had been. Neville finding reasons to come visit George. George finding reasons to sneak up to the flat during working hours where they'd spend time kissing passionately. Of course, they also talked and joked and ate lunch and dinner nearly every day together. But it was the kissing that Neville looked most forward to.

It was something they'd never talked about. It happened organically. Neville wanted to talk about it, to ask George what, exactly, they were doing - what they were to each other. But he was having the same problem with self-confidence, not wanting to rock the boat. In the meantime, he was perfectly happy to go about kissing George.

This time though, this was different. They were in bed, laying down. Both Neville and George were aware that this thing that they'd started, this relationship or whatever it was, this messing around was suddenly becoming more serious.

George slept in pajama pants. That was it. No shirt, no socks, no underwear. Just pajama pants. Neville, on the other hand, was obviously already dressed. Underwear, socks, trousers, t-shirt with a sweatshirt over top of it. Neville was terribly overdressed, a situation which he was attempting to remedy. He kept his mouth glued to George's as he pulled his sweatshirt up, breaking the kiss just to remove it. George pulled anxiously at the hem of Neville's t-shirt, lifting it over his head. Neville kicked his socks off and settled in next to George, kissing him fervently.

Neville tried to keep his hips several inches from George's. He was intimidated by George being able to feel just how turned on this kissing made him. But Neville didn't need to worry long, when George suddenly pressed his hips into Neville's, he (Neville) had no problem with feeling George's erection. And that suddenly made it all right.

Neville gasped when George pulled at the waistband of Neville's trousers. "Is this all right?" George asked in a whisper.

"Yeah," Neville said. "I've just..." he trailed off.

"What is it?" George asked.

"I've never done this before."

George got a sly smile on his face. "It's all right. I taught you to apparate, right? Maybe I can teach you something else."

Neville giggled, then realizing how much like a girl he sounded, clapped his hand over his mouth.

George laughed loudly. "God that was cute," and he leaned in and kissed Neville's neck.

From out in the hall, Neville heard a toilet flush. He sat straight up. George groaned. "Ron. He stayed here last night. We were up late stocking shelves and he crashed in Fred's room."

Neville and George listened quietly to Ron's footsteps walking down the hall. He tapped on George's door. George pushed Neville's head under the comforter and threw a few of the many pillows on top of him, as he called out, "Yeah?"

"Can I come in?"

"Er...no. I'm naked." Neville stifled a giggle.

"What? So? Like I've never seen you naked before." Ron paused and George didn't answer. "I just wanted to get you up. Shop opens in a half hour. I'm leaving early today to go out with Hermione."

"All right, I'm up." George listened to Ron's footsteps heading in to the kitchen before pulling the covers back. He looked down at Neville and smiled. "To be continued?" he whispered.

Neville nodded and stepped quietly out of bed. He dressed himself, gave George a kiss goodbye and apparated back to his house with a loud 'pop.'

George watched Neville go, and walked into the kitchen to have breakfast with Ron.

"Did someone disapparate?" Ron asked.

"What? No."

"Yeah," Ron nodded his head, shoveling a huge spoonful of oatmeal into his mouth. "I heard the noise. Someone just disapparated from your room. Who was it? Did you have a girl in last night?"

George ruffled Ron's fiery red hair. "Oh little brother. If I did have a girl in last night, you'd never know about it."

"C'mon..." Ron goaded. "Tell me."

George looked at Ron appraisingly. "Tell me about Hermione."

Ron spluttered. "What about her?"

"You want me to kiss and tell, but you won't?"

"Hermione'd kill me."

George just smiled and poured himself some tea.