A one time thing {Severus Snape}

Chapter 45: Confrontation

Usual disclaimer; I don't claim to owe anything, least of all the Harry Potter universe

And as always, a huge thanks to Camille for working so hard at beta-ing this chapter.

Oh and a warning about the chapter length. It's rather long. Sorry, but there was no easy way to break it up without either making no sense or just giving you a cliff-hanger, which I hate.

Anyway.... I really, really hope you enjoy this.

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Neville was just finishing off the last row of seedlings; his back was close to breaking, and the sweat was running into his eyes.

A pair of black boots came into his line of sight as he bent over the neat row of plants.

He looked up and saw Senga standing over him, her pose very much like her uncle's, with her arms folded and her face completely blank.

"Senga!" He smiled at her and sat back on his heels wiping his dirty hands on an even dirtier cloth.

"Mr. Longbottom." A tiny smile appeared on her lips as she gazed down at him. "You have a smudge of dirt across your top lip," she pointed out quietly, "looks like you have a moustache; it's not you at all!"

He grinned and wiped it away with the back of his hand and then looked back up at her.

"Better?" he asked her.

"Much, if you were trying for a full beard," she replied and crossed to sit on the bench that ran along the side of the greenhouse.

He shrugged and stood up, his hands going to the small of his back as he stretched the ache out of his muscles.

"What can I do for you?" he asked her as he came to sit beside her.

She looked at him and shrugged.

It was two days since Hannah had left. Two days where Senga had nothing to do except kick her heels and avoid the catty smirks of her Ravenclaw roommates. Two days to do some hard thinking without emotion to hinder the results.

"Bored of the holidays, already?" he laughed and sobered when he remembered that her friend Hannah had left.

"You must be missing Hannah," he said quietly and summoned two mugs of hot chocolate.

Senga shrugged again and took the mug with a quiet word of thanks.

They sat in silence drinking the chocolate and eating a packet of biscuits Neville had brought out with a grin.

"About that time at Christmas..." She broke off waiting for him to silence her, but he merely munched on another biscuit and nodded encouragingly at her to continue.

"I... wasn't. I mean I didn't..."

"I know," he sighed. "I meant it when I said I was sorry for attacking you like that." He contemplated another biscuit, easily won over his 'inner voice' and picked it up quickly.

"Yeah ... but that wasn't what I meant. I mean I didn't really believe you. Well I believed you but I.... well..." she faded off with a frown, not knowing how to say it to him.

"Go on," he urged her, offering her another biscuit. She took it and examined the chocolate chips that seemed to cling on with barely anything keeping them there. She flicked one with her finger and it flew off straight towards him. He caught it and popped it into his mouth with a grin. She couldn't help but smile back.

"I went shopping with Aunt Meg and we stopped for a drink... well, the long and short of it is I said something mean to her; she was just trying to help with Hannah leaving, and I told her she wasn't my mother. I didn't mean it and she believed me and said, 'we all say things we don't mean.'"