Thorn | Neville Longbottom

Chapter 28: You're Beautiful

Briar and Neville were in the greenhouse that afternoon to look at his mimbulus mimbletonia. It had grown substantially over the holiday, but Briar wouldn't have thought to look if not for Neville. She was distracted as he rambled about it excitedly, slightly rolling back and forth on his feet as he discussed how tall his plant could get eventually. Briar was drawn in to him, and she donned a small grin as her eyes contentedly drifted over his beaming face.

Neville's eyes were bright and shining when he looked down at the mimbulus mimbletonia and gushed, "Can you believe it?"

Briar distractedly nodded as she kept scanning his face.

His cheeks were flushed from excitement and from his lack of air after how rapidly he had been talking. Briar felt warm inside as she noticed how comfortable he seemed around her. She knew first hand that this was huge, especially for a shy boy like him.

Neville's nose was adorably scrunched as he ranted about obscure facts about his plant before looking to Briar with round eyes to wonder, "Did you know that?"

Every time he did that, she politely shook her head and sent a soft grin his way.

As he kept talking rapidly, knowing more than Briar realized there was to know about a single plant, her eyes trailed down to his lips. They were pink and probably soft, and a thought began to leak to the forefront of her mind that made her really want to know if her suspicions were correct.

Briar didn't realize that she was still staring at his lips until Neville twisted his face to look at her. His words died in his throat when he realized that she wasn't looking at his mimbulus mimbletonia or his eyes. Pink splattered across his cheeks, and not from talking too fast this time.

He realized that Briar was staring at his mouth.

Briar noticed his reaction, and the reality of what she had been doing caused her to stumble back a few steps. She felt a shame slowly washing over her like a thick veil, and it was all she could do to grab her bag from the floor and sprint out of the greenhouse.

Neville didn't call for her. He couldn't. He was absolutely speechless, but Briar assumed that he was horrified.

Why would an angel like him ever fancy a girl as broken as her?

-

Briar crashed into her dorm room like a bull in a China shop, making all three of her roommates jolt at the rough way their raven haired roommate had entered the space. They all glanced at one another curiously when Briar dumped her bag on the floor and flopped face first onto her mattress. They had never seen her do that before.

Pansy scrambled to her feet and hurried over to Briar to ask, "Are you okay?"

Without lifting her face from her duvet, Briar loudly groaned, "No."

Daphne padded over to Briar's bedside and nervously played with her blonde hair. She questioned, "Did Malfoy do something again?"

Millicent piped up, "If so, we weren't part of it!"

Pansy vehemently nodded and confirmed, "Yeah, we wouldn't ever join in that foolish git's cruel jokes on you."

Briar just groaned into her bed and grumbled, "It wasn't him...for once."

Pansy cautiously lowered herself onto the mattress beside Briar and wondered, "Then what happened?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Briar pouted into her blankets, feeling like she was about to feel the shame all over again.

Somehow her words seemed to trigger something in the other girls. Daphne realized, "Weren't you just with Longbottom?"

"Yeah, she was!" Millicent agreed with an amused giggle.