"And so, with the treaty signed, Gutnik the Greedy proceeded to reveal a line he had added, written in invisible ink, to the Norwegian Confederation of Wizards and-"

He could do it after this lesson, he thought as he attempted to listen to Binns. He could see her, on the next desk over to him, following the professor's every word and copying it down in her neat handwriting.

"There was small riot but the events of that brawl are not important so we shall move onto the next day, when Gutnik was made to rewrite the treaty-"

Would she say yes? He hoped so. She was quite pretty in her own way and, while he was a bit scared of her on occasion, she was still kind to him.

"-followed by a short protest after trolls broke into the ministry building-"

Asking one of the other girls would be horrible. They'd giggle and laugh at him… But she was different. She was like him in a way; she was the one that didn't really fit in. Gran had always taught him that it was the girls who didn't try too hard that were the ones to try the hardest for. The thing was that he didn't really know how to try hard.

"-the treaty was signed, only to be broken again two weeks later but that shall be next week's lesson."

As always, Professor Binns ended his lecture exactly as the bell rang, something that took centuries of practise, and most of the students were blinking themselves awake and slowly looking around to check that the lesson had really ended and they hadn't just dreamt the bell.

Normally Neville was one of the students that was somewhere between consciousness and dreams but today he had been too nervous to sleep. Unfortunately, he had been too nervous to take any notes as well so he wasn't likely to do better on the next test but he had other things to think about. He glanced over and saw that Hermione was waiting for Harry and Ron to get up but Ron appeared to have fallen asleep. With a shake of her head that sent her bushy hair flying around her, Hermione headed for the door.

Dodging his dawdling classmates to follow her outside, Neville only bumped into two tables before catching up with her in the corridor.

"Hermione!"

She stopped in the middle of the corridor that was slowly filling with other students and smiled at him.

"Yes?"

Stalling for time, Neville gestured for them to stand by the wall out of the way of the others. As he stopped in front of her, Neville could see the small crease in the middle of her forehead that was usually there when she was thinking. That one thing threw off his plan of action… well, his plan to make a plan of action. Why hadn't he put more thought into this?

"H-how are you?" he stuttered. Small talk. The way to every girl's heart.

"I'm fine, thank you." Hermione was still smiling pleasantly at him. "Is everything all right? You look a bit peaky."

"I was just- I mean-" Neville coughed, hoping to hide his failed attempts at asking her. "We're friends, aren't we?"

He rubbed his nose nervously and hoped she didn't spot the uncertain quiver in his voice. Of course she would, Neville thought hopelessly, she was brilliant. She was smart and pretty and thoughtful… why was he even bothering?

"Of course we are," Hermione said, touching his elbow gently. Neville tried not to read too much into this gesture. "Why do you ask?"

There it was - the look in her eyes that Neville found so endearing. She was simultaneously certain that she was right, trying to convey that she was friendly and even a little bit protective, like she thought someone had been telling him that they weren't friends.

"I-I was j-just wondering if, " Neville mumbled to her left shoulder, "if, like, you-"

Come on, Longbottom! Think Gryffindor!

"I was wondering if you would go – I mean, like to go to the ball with me?"

He looked up at her hopefully to see that Hermione's ever expressive face was suddenly blank.

"Oh."

While he was far from an expert on these things, Neville was pretty sure that "Oh" wasn't a good thing. Suddenly, he felt himself shrink until he was about the size a mouse and was filled with the desire to run away and never, ever be seen again. Hermione was the only girl he had ever really liked that he thought he stood half a chance with and it turned out that he had been wrong.

So now he had no partner and Hermione was never going to talk to him again.

"S-sorry," he blurted out in the hope if he did enough talking now that she would forget he ever asked and they could all go back to five minutes ago when none of this had happened. "I-I just thought that – you're always nice to me and – and we get on so-"

"Neville, stop."

Before he looked at her, Neville closed his eyes and wished for anything other than the horrible things he was about to hear.

"I'm sorry but – but I'm already going with someone," Hermione said in a small voice.

"Right."

"I didn't mean to… lead you on or anything."

"You didn't," Neville said, attempting a smile. "I'm just stupid."

"No, you're not," snapped Hermione. Neville jumped; this was the side of her that he was scared of. "You – you did something very brave and you were very nice about it."

Neville glanced up to see her smiling through her blushing.

"Really?"

"Yes," she continued. "Harry and Ron haven't even asked anyone yet but you took the initiative and – and achieved your goal in a very polite manner."

Even though she was trying to make him feel better, Neville still felt like the contents of his chest was trying to leave him by any means possible. This was what he liked about Hermione – her infallible good nature and her ability to make him feel better about himself. No other girl would turn him down and then compliment his technique.

"You shouldn't ask someone just because they help you with homework."

Neville snapped his attention back to Hermione. He had phased out to feel sorry for himself and hadn't realised that she was still talking. He grinned sheepishly at her and she rolled her eyes at him knowingly.

"Sorry," he mumbled, "I just thought you'd be nice."

"You, Neville Longbottom, are a kind and sweet person and I am honoured that you asked me," Hermione said a bit more forcefully than Neville would have liked. "You shouldn't settle for the girl that you think will let you down gently, you should go after a girl that you really like."

Somehow telling her that he really liked her didn't seem appropriate. Besides, she was the only girl he could really speak to without making an arse out of himself.

"None of the other girls like me."

"Nonsense," Hermione said dismissively. "Lots of girls like you, Neville."

"Like?"

He knew he probably shouldn't ask the girl, whom he had just asked to the ball, who he should ask in her place but that's what he usually did when he didn't know what to do – ask Hermione. Unfortunately, she didn't seem as certain of the answer as she ordinarily did and just blinked a couple of times.

"Well," she said, looking around her, "what about – um – Ginny?"

Hermione nodded to the other end of the corridor to see Ginny Weasley and her friends doing some kind of strange dance towards them, only for Professor McGonagall to come up behind them and tell them to walk in a "manner that suited young ladies in Gryffindor."

"What about Ginny?" he asked, still looking over his shoulder at her in a fit of silent giggles as she walked away from her Head Of House.

"Well, she's lovely, funny and pretty," Hermione listed as Harry and Ron finally ambled towards them, still looking half-asleep. "And she's a better dancer than me," she said with a frown, obviously disapproving of how Ginny was behaving. "They're lots of girls, Neville. We don't attack, you know."

Neville chuckled as Hermione gave him a final smile and left him to follow Harry and Ron, who had walked straight past without seeing them. Thoughtfully, he turned his gaze back to Ginny, who gave him a cheeky grin. She really did have nice hair… Nicer than Hermione's even…

"Ginny, c-can I speak to you a minute?"