Amortentia// Neville Longbottom

Prologue: Sugar Quills and Gossip

Neville sat in the midst of his friends, reaching in to grab a wrapped sweet. While the other Gryffindors seemed busy telling lame jokes or discussing something else entirely, Neville hardly seemed to be listening to any of it.
As he slipped the wrapper into his pocket and popped a Sugar Quill into his mouth, Neville lowered his eyes to the long grass covering his toes.
They were sitting in a large circle on the Hogwarts grounds; it was a lovely day outside and everyone seemed to be taking advantage of it.
His closest friends, Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas, were sat beside him, arguing over whether or not Vincent Crabbe was part gnome. Neville thought it was the most absurd thing he'd ever heard (he was far more like a troll, gnomes were too intelligent.)
Despite the amusing conversations his friends were having, Neville seemed preoccupied and distracted with something else entirely.
It wasn't Seamus or Dean who noticed, though. Ginny Weasley plopped down on the grass beside Neville, long red hair billowing with her movements.
Despite Ginny's beauty and feminine aspects, she could definitely kick any anyone's ass if need be. Her bat-bogey hexes were something to be proud of; well, not if you were on the receiving end.
Ginny, a close friend of Neville's, cocked an eyebrow at him, plopped an Every Flavor Bean in her mouth, and laughed. "Hey, Nev! You there?" She laughed a bit, waving her hand in front of his face.
"Hm," he said, brought back from whatever little trance he'd been in previously.
"Day-dreaming about plants again?" she teased.
Neville rolled his eyes and playfully pushed her shoulder with his.
"Oh, shush, Ginny," he laughed.
"Was it a girl, then?" She smirked.
Neville silently cursed Ginny for her intelligence. Or maybe he was just really bad at hiding what he was thinking. Yeah, probably that one.
"Er, no," he stammered, his words coming off far more like a question than he'd meant for them to.
Ginny laughed softly and clapped her hands together. "Who is it, huh?"
The thing about Ginny that bothered Neville in that moment was that she probably wouldn't leave him alone until she found out whatever girl she thought he'd been fantasizing about.
He wouldn't call it fantasizing; it was more like wondering how she was doing.
Yeah, like that's any better.
Neville grimaced a bit, accidentally biting into his sugar quill and breaking it in half.
The boy sighed and pulled it from his lips before responding, "no one."
Ginny laughed a bit, shaking her head. "Mhmm, sure," she said.
Neville groaned, wishing he was in he greenhouses instead.
At least the plants won't ask me a million questions about my love life that doesn't even exist.
Neville took to nibbling on his lower lip instead of the candy, still nervous.
"Ugh, leave me be, Ginny," he uttered.
She complied, but not before ruffling up his combed hair, calling him a "dork," and running off to talk to her boyfriend, Dean.
Neville finished off his current Sugar Quill, grabbed another for later, and stood to sneak off to the greenhouses for real.
He made it a few feet away from Seamus and Dean and Ginny before he was interrupted again.
This time, though, it wasn't a Gryffindor at all.
"Hey, Luna," Neville stopped walking, stuffing his hands in the front pockets of his blue jeans.
"Hello, Neville. The nargles bothering you today?"
"Er," he blinked. "No, I'm alright this time, Luna. Haven't lost anything today"
When he was met not with Luna's whimsical voice, but with another girl's giggle, Neville's eyes picked up.
That laugh.
A bright smile worked its way onto Neville's cheeks as his eyes landed on a girl not much shorter than him. She was wearing her Ravenclaw skirt and her honey-colored hair had been tied back into a loose braid.
She looked lovely.
"Oh, Sugar Quills," the shorter girl remarked, referencing to the stick poking out of his front pocket. "They're my favorite," she said sheepishly.
"Here, have it," Neville handed her the green Sugar Quill and smiled.
Prue, the shorter girl, thanked him and promptly unwrapped the candy.
She took it from her lips again, said, "What are you doing alone on a Saturday afternoon, Neville? You know you're always welcome to talk to Luna and I," and replaced it.
The boy smiled, faced with an odd urge to fix his hair that Ginny had probably messed up earlier.
"Thanks, Prue. I was just headed to tend to some Puffapods in the greenhouses. Professor Sprout's given me a key," he mumbled.
"Oh, well if you change your mind, Luna wanted to pet the Thestrals," she said with a smile.
Luna added, "They are rather beautiful," her tone thoughtful.
"Oh and Neville," Prue spoke up. "Don't forget we've got potions homework," she said, knowing he'd probably forget if she hadn't mentioned it. Maybe he still would, what did she know?
"Is that all you ever think about, Prudence? Classes?" Luna added, mindfully.
Prue narrowed her eyes at Luna. "I actually want to do well," she sighed.
"Oh, c'mon, Luna. Leave the poor boy alone," Prue pulled Luna off by her elbow, seeming a bit embarrassed.
Neville said goodbye to his friends and made his way to the greenhouses, but not before he picked up a snippet of their conversation:
"You're my best friend and I love you to death, Luna, but if you call me Prudence one more time, I'm going to hex you into next week"
"That is your real name-"
Neville chuckled to himself, trudging further up the hill to the greenhouse. Somehow, he wished he'd get to spend more time with the Ravenclaw girls- Prue even more so.