The Courtship of Neville Longbottom

The next morning, Neville was up early, having been unable to fall back asleep. He quickly changed into his robes. Neville noticed that Seamus and Dean had been perfectly able to fall back asleep and didn't want to be around when they woke up. He grabbed his class registration form, along with a Herbology book on Asian Fungi, and headed down the stairs, nearly running out of the portrait hole.

"Well, you're up early, dearie!" the Fat Lady called out to Neville's retreating back.

Neville sat down at the end of the Gryffindor table as breakfast magically appeared before him. He absentmindedly selected a piece of toast and began slowly munching on it. What little of his mind wasn't occupied by the harrowing dream was occupied with his imminent class selection meeting. It was these thoughts that prevented him from noticing Luna Lovegood when she plopped down on the bench beside him.

"Hullo!" said Luna cheerfully. Neville had to drop his toast in order to keep himself from falling off of the bench.

"Good morning Luna," Neville evenly said as he sat up straighter and picked up his toast.

"Nice day, isn't it?" said Luna airily. "Why are you up so early?"

Neville frowned and pretended to inspect his toast, although he would never seriously consider eating something that had fallen on the ground. Luna watched him expectantly.

"I uh...hadn't figured out my class schedule yet," Neville mumbled when it became evident that Luna wasn't going to leave. Luna nodded.

"I forgot. After O.W.L.s you get to choose your own classes," she said. "I'm sure that must be lovely."

"Yeah," Neville said, defeated. "Lovely." Neville almost opened his mouth to politely hint that this was a Gryffindor table, or something else that might have made Luna leave. He decided against it. Not only would it have been rude, but Neville assumed that Luna wouldn't have left anyway. She didn't seem deterred by subtle, or not-so-subtle prodding.

"...to continue with Care of Magical Creatures," Luna was saying as Neville tuned in. "It's my favorite subject, you know. Maybe I'll be a Tamer or something." Luna's eyes lit up as she mentioned becoming a Tamer. Neville turned his head slightly. For a minute Luna had almost looked...pretty. Not anything close to her, of course, but not nearly as batty and distracted as she usually looked.

"Are you ok?" Luna asked, turning her head in the same direction.

"Um...yeah, fine," Neville quickly righted himself and began searching for another piece of toast.

"So..." Luna started, "...what about you?" Neville gave her a confused look.

"What about me what?" he asked.

"What would you be?" Luna said patiently. "You know, why are you taking certain classes. What do you want to do?"

"Well," Neville paused. "I suppose I should want to be an Auror."

"Why?" Luna asked. Neville paused again. "Oh," Luna started. "I guess that was a stupid question. Aurors are really important. But you know, the Ministry has control over them." She leaned over to whisper into his ear, "I've heard they're the ones really responsible for the Death Eaters in the Ministry last spring. You know, they wanted Dumbledore to come so they'd be able to capture him once and for all!" The conspiracy theory gleam was in Luna's eye. It wasn't nearly as attractive as the Tamer gleam. A flicker of emotion had spiked through Neville as Luna mentioned last spring. The dream was still fresh in his mind. If she had actually wished him luck, why did she risk it? Neville shook his head.

"You know, my parents were Aurors," Neville said. He wasn't sure why he said it. For once, he actually wasn't affronted, and he felt no shame in talking about his parents. Perhaps he'd just wanted to see how Luna would respond. As usual, the only thing consistent about Luna was her inconsistency.

"I know," she said coolly. "Mr. Crouch's son killed them." Neville choked on his second piece of toast. Luna patted him on the back sympathetically. "I'm sorry," she said.

Neville smiled. Somehow, it was ok. He didn't know how Luna knew anything about his parents, maybe it was part of another one of her conspiracies, but a flood of relief went through him. Neville might finally have found someone to talk to.

"It's fine," he said, wiping toast crumbs off of his chin and robes. "You know, I actually don't mind. But..." Neville paused. He took a deep breath and looked Luna in the eye, "they're still alive. I mean, alive physically." He looked down at his trainers. "Not mentally really. But they're in St. Mungo's," he stammered, unnerved by the subject and Luna's concentrated stare. "I visit them every year actually."

"Oh Neville," Luna said very gravely. "I'm so sorry." Neville looked up into her eyes once more.

"Thanks," he said. "It's really ok though. I mean, they aren't dead. You should get your facts straight." Neville meant this last sentence jokingly, but Luna still looked serious.

"I will," she said with a completely straight face. Neville shook his head. He supposed this was what happened when you tried to joke around with Luna Lovegood.

"So you never answered," she said. Neville looked confused. "What do you want to do? What courses did you choose?"

Neville sighed. "I guess I'd really like to be a Healer," he said. As Neville said this, he realized that being a Healer was exactly what he wanted to do. He smiled broadly to himself. For a moment, Neville was perfectly happy to have a goal, even an unattainable one, in mind. "I don't have the grades for it though," Neville quickly added before Luna could congratulate him or tell him something bizarre about Healers.

"I'm sorry," she said simply. And to Neville's surprise, she abandoned the subject and grabbed a bowl of porridge from the center of the table. After studying it for a moment she stood up.

"Well," she said. "I'd better be going. More people are coming in and," Luna leaned in to whisper again, "this is a Gryffindor table, you know." Neville stifled his laughter and nodded seriously. As he watched Luna walk away, a thought struck him.

"Hey Luna," he called out. She turned around and walked back to his table. "Ummm...that night at the Ministry," Neville began, "did you...uh." Neville stopped and cleared his throat. "That is," he began again, "when we were in the Hall of Prophecy, you know, when the Death Eaters were talking to Harry?" Luna nodded in comprehension. "Well," Neville said, "I just wanted to know if you might have wished me luck. You know, before Harry's signal?" Neville quickly shoved the last of his toast into his mouth to prevent more words from coming out of it, especially since she had walked in, the girl Neville had liked for about a year.

If Luna noticed the source of Neville's distraction she didn't show it. "Not that I remember," Luna said. "You know, now that you mention it, I think I did. I tried to whisper to Ginny too, but I'm not sure if she heard me." Luna looked thoughtful as she tapped her free hand against her chin. Neville nodded absentmindedly in response.

"Why did you want to know?" Luna asked. Neville turned his attention back to Luna.

"No reason," he said shortly. Luna nodded and then started to walk away again. Neville blinked and realized how rude he sounded. "Hey Luna!" he called out again. She turned around. "Have a good morning ok?" he said. Luna smiled dreamily and nodded, her turnip earrings swaying madly in her ears. Neville smiled and then turned his attention to the breakfast table. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had sat a few seats down from him along with Lavender Brown, Parvati Patil, Seamus, Dean, and Ginny. Neville quickly pulled out his Asian Fungi guide to avoid meeting Dean or Seamus's eye. The book also provided a cover for Neville to occasionally glance up and study her.

Currently, the object of Neville's affection was nervously running her fingers through her slightly bushy hair.

"But he can't really think we'd continue Care of Magical Creatures!" she was saying to Harry and Ron. She looked very upset. "I mean," she continued, "when has any of us expressed...you know...any enthusiasm?" She shook her head in distress, briefly glancing in Neville's direction. Neville quickly hid himself between the pages on the Japanese mizukaze, an underwater fungus, as he listened to the rest of their conversation.

"We were the ones who made the most effort in classes because we like Hagrid," Ron said in between mouthfuls of fried eggs. "But he thinks we liked the stupid subject. D'you reckon anyone's going on to N.E.W.T.?"

Neville shuddered a bit as he thought of Care of Magical Creatures classes with Hagrid. Although Hagrid was enthusiastic about animals, Neville had never really felt any affection to the creatures Hagrid had chosen to teach about. Neville shuddered again at a brief memory of the Blast-Ended Skrewts. He far preferred plants over animals.

Suddenly, Neville was reminded of Luna. He supposed after Luna took her O.W.L.s she might continue to N.E.W.T.-level. In that brief moment, Luna had seemed so happy, thinking of a job that would allow her to look after animals for the rest of her life. Neville shook his head. Plants were obviously easier to understand, although he hadn't minded Professor Grubbly-Plank's lessons all that much.

Professor McGonagall's voice quickly cut through his daydream and brought him back to reality. She had left the staff table and was now attending to each sixth-year student, making sure that their schedules were prefaced with the appropriate O.W.L. grades.

"You seem to have everything in order, Miss Granger," Professor McGonagall said to Hermione, awarding her with a rare smile. She tapped her wand to a blank piece of paper and handed it to Hermione. "Now off to your Ancient Runes class, Miss Granger. I wouldn't want you to be late!" Hermione beamed at her Head of House before dashing out of the Great Hall. Neville swallowed nervously as Professor McGonagall skipped over Dean Thomas and went straight to him.

"Let's see your schedule, Longbottom," she said. Neville sighed at the exclusion of 'Mister' from his name and nervously handed her his schedule. He resisted the urge to cover his ears and cringe to drown out what was sure to be a lecture on why he couldn't take Transfiguration. Neville was acutely aware of Harry's eyes on him, and there was no telling what Harry would tell Hermione.