Set during Order of The Phoenix
I was unbelievably ecstatic about leaving the Manor and returning to Hogwawarts. I was required to endure 12 death eater meetings. I had accidentally spoken out of term in 4 of them and still had the bruises and cuts to prove it. Draco had asked to heal them but wasn't allowed to. The dark lord insisted that keeping my bruises would help me learn to behave in the future.
I'm sitting in the Gryffindor compartment with Luna and Ginny. Ginny is going on about how everyone is making Harry seem nuts and Luna is reading the Quibler while nodding. I look to the hallway to see Serenity pushing through students and almost tripping a few times, she sees me and huge grins appear on both our faces. She drops everything and jumps into my arms completely knocking me to the ground.
"Oh Nev I missed you." She says
"I missed you too Ren." I say smiling. I look to see Ginny rolling her eyes but I just smirk at her. Someone grabs the back of Serenity's jumper pulling her into an upright position. It's Draco and he looks grumpy, he is holding a large potted plant, he pushes it into her arms, whispers something in her ear and then storms off. I watch as she shrugs it off and offers me a hand to help me off the floor.
"What was that about?" I ask
"Oh he was just annoyed I made him carry this." She says while motioning towards the plant she is holding.
"Wait that's not a?"
"Yes it is Nev my boy. A Mimbulus mimbletonia." She says Handing me the plant, I admire the plant as she goes on.
"I got it on a work trip to Assyria, I mean a work trip I accompanied Lucius on that is." She corrects herself.
"I got it for you!"
"No, I can't take this from you Ren, it's too rare!" I exclaim!
"Don't be silly Nev, we have a good thing going here, you study the plants and I sketch them." She says while brushing off her skirt and sitting in the seat across from Ginny.
"What happened to your face?" Ginny blurts out. I look towards Serenity's face and see the bruises and cuts I didn't notice earlier.
"Oh, Bowtruckle incident. No big deal." She quickly remarks. I have a feeling she is lying but I promised Draco I wouldn't pry about their home life. I take the seat next to her and listen as she goes on about her garden at the Manor that Narcissa had allowed her to start. I missed hearing her talk with so much passion.
Her hair is cut shorter than the last time I saw her and her eyes are just as emerald as the last time I stared into them. I watch her pink lips as she talks about how her devils snare had held Draco upside down for so long he couldn't walk for an hour after words. She giggles at this and that's when I blurt out
"I love-"
Everyone looks up at me waiting for me to complete my sentence.
"Plants." I blurt out.
"Oh, well yeah me too Nev." Serenity says. Ginny's eyes are wide and she jokingly holds one hand up to shield her view from me.
"Neville, it almost sounded like you were trying to tell Serenity that you lo-" Luna starts saying
Serenity stands abruptly.
"Well I better get back to Draco!" She proactively yells, interrupting Luna's sentence. She leaves quickly and I'm left facing Luna shrugging it off and Ginny shaking her head in disappointment.
What the bloody hell was that? I thought to myself. Was Neville about to tell me he loves me? No, he was probably just being his awkward self as usual. But it was almost like I could hear it inside his head?
I lied earlier, I wasn't meeting Draco, I was looking for Harry. I had a mission, and I couldn't let a silly boy distract me. Even if that silly boy was the love of her life. Even if I wanted nothing more than to make him proud. For them to graduate together. Have a future together. There wouldn't be a future if I failed the Dark lord though, he didn't seem the forgiving type.
I finally find Harry. He of course is with Hermione and Ron.
"Hi, can I come sit with you guys?" I ask
"Serenity!!!" Ron says happily!
"It's so nice to see you!" Hermione exclaims while pulling me into a hug.
"Are you alright?" Harry asks after looking at my face, he of course knows what actually happened, but I stick to my lie.
"Bowtruckle incident." I state, while taking a seat next to Hermione.
"If you says so." Harry says.
He doesn't sound happy. I know the papers have been talking about him non stop, saying he is crazy for saying Voldemort had returned. I worried about the tone in his voice though. It was suspicion. Ron and Hermione argue about who the defense against the dark arts teacher is and I take the opportunity to begin my task. I close my eyes and muster up visions of Voldemort, I then put the Legilimency lessons Draco gave me to good use by placing these images into Harry's head. I open my eyes to see him tense up. I would feel pride for accomplishing this if it wasn't for the situation I was in.
All I could feel was my heart breaking, I wasn't giving the Loyal Locks a good name.