Secrets - f.w.

Chapter 10

Aurora's POV,

I'm counting down the minutes until dinner. 

Currently Neville is taking me through the greenhouse and showing me all of the different plants. It's been two hours of this. Neville's a sweet kid and all, but I don't think I can take another minute of listening to him talk about Gilly Weed. 

Luckily he finally leads us out of the greenhouse and through the halls. 

"Today was fun." He speaks up. 

"Yeah, super fun." I add, hoping that it sounded genuine. I didn't want to hurt his feelings because he's so nice, but it was the most boring date I've ever been on, and I went on a date where we just watched quidditch reruns for three hours. 

We stop at the staircase that leads down to the Slytherin dorms. I turn to face Neville who's rummaging around in his bag for something. I stand awkwardly as he fishes around his bag for whatever he's looking for. Finally he pulls out a little cactus and hands it to me. 

"I got you this." 

I examine the small cactus. It's in a little clay pot that's painted purple with white flowers all over it. 

"Awe Neville thank you. This is so cool." 

Neville scratches the back of his neck. 

"Yeah it's no problem, it's super easy to take care of. You don't have to really do anything to it, just water it occasionally. Nothing super hard, so it should be easy for you." 

Ouch. 

"Well, thanks it's super cool." I give the bashful boy a smile. 

We both look into each others eyes for a couple moments until Neville speaks up. 

"Can I kiss you." 

I'm caught off guard by his question. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for consent but it kind of ruins the mood when the guy asks to kiss you.

I nod hesitantly, and Neville leans down to plant a quick, soft kiss on my lips. When he pulls back, his face is beet red and he quickly mumbles a goodbye and walks away. 

I'm left stunned, trying to comprehend what just happened. I head to my dorm, thinking about the kiss. 

I didn't feel the way I usually do when Fred kisses me. I usually get butterflies in my stomach and it feels like my stomach drops into my butt. I didn't feel any of that with Neville's kiss though. It just felt... plain. 

I quickly packed up some things I would need for the sleepover I was having with Ginny and Hermione tonight. 

A couple hours later, I'm sitting on the floor of Ginny's dorm attempting to paint my own nails. As I concentrated on my right hand, Hermione and Ginny talked about relationships. I wasn't up to talking about boys or anything that I could relate to Fred. 

"So how's you and Luna?" Hermione asks Ginny. 

"We're doing good, although we got into a fight the other night." 

"Oh I'm sorry." Hermione sounded a bit guilty for bringing up the topic. 

Ginny shrugged.

"No worries, we're all good now though. The fight ended with us having sex."  

I halted my movements and looked up at Ginny, wide-eyed. Hermione had the same exact look on her face, but Ginny just sat there eating chocolate frogs, clearly oblivious to our reactions. She finally looked up, and furrowed her brows when she saw our reactions.