Man to Man

Neville smiled as he walked across the lawn toward the greenhouses. He walked with a bit more confidence these days, and the difference was amazing. An observer could see how his shoulders had become nice and broad, now that he no longer slouched. The smile that would pop out only rarely now seemed to constantly shine out of his face.

But what really surprised the residents of Hogwarts was the difference in his abilities. While it was a fact that Neville would never become a potions master, his class work became more than passable, even managing to surprise McGonagall herself. A few of the nastier students thought it was the extra study sessions with his girlfriend, while most just realized that he never really had the confidence to perform well.

So it was after kissing his girlfriend goodbye in front of her arthimancy class, he left with a bright smile to attend his advanced herbology class.

A bullet with red hair streaked toward him from the direction of Care of Magical Creatures class.

"It's your damn fault!"

"You know, we share a dorm, Ron--I'm sure this could be discussed in private?" Neville tried to reason with his irate classmate.

"We were fine before you stuck your nose where it didn't belong. Hermione was mine!"

Neville continued to walk toward Herbology, but rolled his eyes as Ron trotted beside him. "You broke up with her, Ron. Don't know how that could be considered 'Fine'."

"We were just fighting," he muttered. "We always fought. That's just the way we are. We were." Ron scuffed the ground with his foot. "I miss her."

Neville turned to look at his roommate. "Well you should have thought of that."

Ron snorted. "You're just rebound, Neville. She'll come back to me."

Neville glared at his old friend. "What sort of fool are you?"

"A fool? Did you just call me a fool?"

"If it sniffs like a niffler, and goes after gold like a niffler, it's a niffler," Neville shrugged, letting him make of that what he would.

"Damn it I love her!" Ron screamed, attracting the attention of a few third year students.

"Yeah, way to go then--You bloody well humiliated her in front of the entire school, you ignored her, you didn't listen to her. I've watched for ages how you treated her. You didn't love her, you just took her for granted. If you loved her, why did you make her cry? Did you even SEE what you did to her?"

Ron glared at Neville. "How DARE you. How bloody dare you!" He pulled his wand out.

"Don't be stupid, Ron. I'm not going to fight you for her. She's a grown woman and she made her choice. Are you going to insult her intelligence again?" Neville said these words calmly, but grasped his wand in his robes. No one would ever claim that Ron was the most emotionally stable person in the wizarding world.

Neville watched what happened next as though it were in slow motion. Ron's wand came up, and he heard the beginning of the hex. He answered with his own "Petrificus Totalus!" and Ron fell backward, stiffened, his wand extended.

Neville leaned down to Ron's ear, aware that quite a few people were still watching. "I'm not going hex you into oblivion because for some reason, Hermione still cares for you as a friend. Hell, I still care for you as a friend. But you better let go of this, because next time, I'm going to make Snape look like a pussy cat. I won't allow you to hurt Hermione like that ever again. Now, I'm going to Herbology." The last sentence he said loud enough for the crowd to here.

"Aren't you going to remove the hex?" a fourth year Hufflepuff asked him.

"Nah, he has some thinking to do, and perhaps without his lips moving, he can actually accomplish it."