SMILE » n. longbottom

liv

"DECLARATION"

Neville stood there in between the two tables until Alana patted the seat beside her, signaling for him to sit. He had figured that she had been wanting to talk to him as he sat down beside Alana.

And he figured right.

"I've been meaning to talk with you," Alana stated. She quietly put away the assignment that she had been working on and turned slightly in her seat as to look at him more closely, "About ... well a lot of things."

Neville turned his head in confusion. He had only walked over to her to talk about the guy that apparently she had already seemed to know. But now Alana had her eye on more than that. He nodded, "Go ahead."

The Hufflepuff girl quickly looked past Neville for any wandering eyes, and then behind herself. Alana sat closer, "It's about Brooks, the new student."

He tried to stay calm and conserved so that she could continue speaking but he became utterly confused. Maybe they had feelings for each other, maybe the same feelings that he had grown to have for her. Alana continued on after taking note on his crumpled appearance, "He's actually — a bodyguard that my family had hired. They're protective, to say at the very least."

His worries floated away, but he remembered that Alana had wanted to speak with him about many things. "What else did you want to speak abou—?"

"Oh, nothing else; that was it," she sat up abruptly, and packed up her things. Neville was left their staring at her walking away down the hall when he sat up quickly after realizing that he now had no business to still sit at the Hufflepuff table, now that Alana had left.

A day had passed and it was now in the middle of the night. The two Hufflepuffs, Erise and Alana, were getting ready to leave. Only they shared the same room together, so they had no worry for any other Hufflepuffs to realize the small commotion that they were going to leave their common room very soon.

Alana was sliding on some of her loafers, when her roommate whispered to her, "I'm disappointed about how he had joined the squad. I know its all fake for him, but ..."

"Don't take it personal," Alana slid on her last loafer, quickly pulling a knit sweater over her head. "He's a Slytherin, popular. It would be suspicious if he did not join it."

The other Hufflepuff only frowned, then pat her cat gently on its head as a way of saying farewell. The two swiftly snuck out of their common room down to where they had their meetings. Harry had been trying to teach the lot of students how to cast Expelliarmus, or simply the Disarming Charm, for the past few days. Alana had gotten a hang of the charm at the end of the second day but it had taken a while for Neville to do the charm successfully, as far as she had known.

The two met up with some other students that were attending these meetings, and they walked together to the meeting room. When they entered, all of the students were mingling, waiting for the meeting to start. Harry decided to pair everyone together as a way to quickly teach everyone since he had already went over the basics of the charm for the first couple of days.

"Expelliarmus!" Neville had shouted, resulting in a wand to be shot up into the air. His opponents, the Patil twins, were excited at his success and it seemed as though every student had crowded around him to congratulate him, especially Harry.

Alana had watched from afar. She truly was proud for him, but the conversations between them had became more awkward. He lit up in a great big smile when he had realized that he succeeded in his lesson. But eventually his eyes had found hers, and Alana had become uncomfortable under his stare. Perhaps he had became disappointed at how she had not congratulated him, since his smile slowly lowered and the rest of the students returned to their designated pairs.

The Hufflepuff could feel her cheeks becoming red, so she turned her head and waited for Erise to come back to her.

"I'm so glad that he had finally done the charm," Erise exclaimed once she reached her roommate. "I was beginning to think we would have to go over it until we graduate." Alana had nodded, covering some of her face with her sleeve. She was proud of what Neville had accomplished.

The time began to pass, and the meeting was heading to an end.

Alana had left with her roommate but had quickly told Erise that "she had something to do," after pulling her to the side after exiting the room's doorway. Her roommate simply nodded it off, so Alana hugged her body to the wall that was just beside the doorway.

She risked getting caught more than anything but she had to speak with Neville. Just when she thought she heard Neville passing through, she snuck a peak and realized that it had not been. A few minutes and errors in assumptions had passed as Alana tried over and over at guessing whether Neville was there or not.

The Hufflepuff just sunk to the bottom of the wall in disappointment after a few tries, crossing her arms across her body as if trying to keep warm amongst the cold hallway. She sighed and sat up to leave. Just as she had done this, the doorway to the meeting room had appeared, and Neville had stepped out.

He was surprised to see her, especially after tons of minutes had passed. "Were you ... " he trailed off, pointing to where she was standing.

Neville had figured out that she had been waiting for him, so she decided to terminate any chance for that conversation about it to continue. Alana nodded, "Yeah, I wanted to congratulate you, about your success with the charm. Sorry that I didn't earlier. I wasn't cert—"

Her apology was cut off short when Neville had hugged her abruptly. She remained quiet, letting his embrace chase away the cold that hung onto her from waiting in the hallway for so long.

Alana just stared past and thought about how no one had treated her kindly like this ever since her third year, before she had her disease. She could feel her face become warm and she became slightly dizzy and was uncertain as to whether or not it was from lack of sleep or from other reasons.

He pulled away and smiled, letting down his arms as well, "That's alright, Alana."

She stared at him until she had realized a conclusion. "This might sound odd right now, but I feel like I have feelings for you."

Perhaps she was under the wrong impressions at the moment, but she had not just begun to feel this way just from this moment. Over time she had realized this conclusion time and time again. Perhaps she was wrong to admit it at this time since Neville turned a bright shade of pink, and spoke in a hushed voice, "Are you sure?"

"Of course I am," she had stated. For the past year, he had sacrificed his well-being for her, he had made she that she was tended to with medical attention, and he had worried for her when she was ill. No one had done the same as he had, even when she needed support the most. Alana was beginning to speculate that even if Neville did not have any corresponding feelings towards her, she would decide not to regret the decision that she had to tell him. Her heart sunk when Neville's smile faded and the silence between them grew, "Do you feel the same way?"

The simple nod that came from Neville relit her spirits, and she leaned into him, meeting her lips with his. She could tell that he was becoming nervous, especially since Alana barely acted out like this, not even in a physical way. Alana pulled apart, and realized that she was correct about his nervousness since his face looked like a tomato while he stared at her. She blushed, covering her face with one of her sleeves and turned to leave abruptly, "I should go, it's getting terribly late."