wanderlust ☆ n.longbottom

.:14:.

Daisy had stopped interrogating Neville about his greenhouse visits. She knew he was with Vivienne and she tried not to let it bother her. It did bother her though, an awful lot, but she couldn't quite figure out why.

Her and Neville were currently on their way to Umbridge's lesson. The whole class shared a reluctant, slow trudge towards her classroom. The room was as frosty as ever and the toad like teacher was desperately trying to diffuse it with her sickly sweet grin. Umbridge drawled on and on and her voice sounded like nails on a chalk board. Daisy did her best to zone out completely; it wasn't like she was teaching them anything useful anyway. Eventually,  the lesson concluded and the class charged out. Daisy was exhausted after spending a whole hour repressing her opinion of Umbridge. She didn't want another detention as she wanted to spend that evening with Neville. Harry had also kept quiet to avoid detention and Daisy found it peculiar considering he was so angry in her previous lessons. How could one detention suppress all that rage? She shuddered to think what spending extra time with that monster did to Harry. 

She did not expect the bespectacled boy to approach her in the Gryffindor common room later that day whilst she was waiting for Neville. He looked almost as anxious as he did the day Flitwick covered Umbridge's detention. He was fumbling with a stray thread on his crimson tie and his structured face was gleaming in a sheen of sweat. 

"So, I was thinking..." he began, clearly struggling to find the right words. He glanced at Ron and Hermione, who were sat behind him. Hermione gave her bushy brown hair a nod of encouragement. Harry tore his eyes away from his friends and readjusted his panicked gaze onto his shoes.

"For goodness sake, Harry! Just ask her!" Hermione cried.

Daisy's preened eyebrow arched. "Ask me what?" 

"We are thinking of starting some extra Defence Against the Dark Arts lessons," Harry said. 

"You're making it sound so boring!" Ron piped up. 

"I don't want to join your nerdy homework club," Daisy said, in a tone that implied that would be obvious to them if they knew the girl at all. However, a tiny part of her did relish in the idea of joining another revision group to rival Neville and Vivienne's Herbology sessions. 

"It's not a homework club!" Hermione insisted desperately. 

"We're starting an army," whispered Ron. His blue eyes were glimmering with mischief and excitement. 

"An army to defeat Voldemort," Harry elaborated in a strained but stony tone.  

"Okay, now I'm listening."

The trio had explained, in hushed exchanges varying in emotion, about their new idea. Harry had agreed to teach his friends what they actually should be learning in their classes. Things that would actually help them in a dangerous battle against evil. They had begun suggesting the idea to students who they knew would be trust worthy and eager to learn. Daisy scrawled her name on Hermione's bewitched sign up sheet, agreeing to meet them at the Hog's Head for a meeting later that week. Out of curiosity, she scanned the list and felt an unease unfold within her. Neville's name was written on the parchment, and fairly close to the top. Why hadn't he told her about this already? She voiced her concern to Hermione, who was struggling to stuff the sheet back into her overflowing bag. She expected the brunette to reply with a logical explanation, like they had asked him not to repeat it until they had spoken to Daisy first. But, Hermione said nothing of the sort. In fact, she was almost as surprised as Daisy was that he hadn't already told her. 

She found Neville, just outside the common room, tending to a bulbous, plum coloured plant. 

"Were you ever going to even tell me?" she said.

Neville whipped around, nerves lacing around his whole body. Something had happened between him and Vivienne last time, right? He wouldn't make up a connection, he had feelings for Daisy and not Vivienne. But something had certainly shifted in the dynamic and how did Daisy find out about it? Neville snapped out of his thoughts and registered a red faced Daisy, blinking hard in anticipation for an answer. "I didn't know how..."

"You could've started with 'our friends are starting an army against the geezer who murdered my sister' or something along those lines?" 

"What? Oh, right, Dumbledore's army."

"Yes, what did you think I was talking about?" Daisy felt too betrayed to let her mind ponder what else Neville was clearly not telling her. 

"Nothing. I didn't know whether to tell you or not. I didn't know if they would ask you-"

"Of course they'd ask me! Are you saying I'm not good enough, is that it? I'm not good enough for your cosy Herbology club and now I'm not good enough for this?!"

"I literally invited you to study with us! And of course you're good enough, I just know you're seeing Dean and I didn't know if he was going to be asked-"

"I can keep a secret, Neville! And for your information Dean was asked already, I saw his name on the list. It appears everyone besides me and Umbridge herself has been asked to join. We're best friends and I thought we told each other things like this!"

"I was going to tell you but I couldn't find the time! You're always with Dean!"

"Because you're always with Vivienne!"

Neville's voice shrank. "You're only with Dean so much because I'm with Vivienne so much?"

"Yes. No. It's just lonely, when you're with her. I'm not very good at tolerating anyone who isn't you."

Neville exhaled, unsure how to absorb this information. "You are welcome to come, Vivienne has changed."

"I don't care, Neville. She could be the next coming of Christ and I'm still not going to sit in a greenhouse talking about gillyweed, ignoring everything she's done. You can defend her until you're blue in the face, I'm not going to change my mind. And it does hurt, seeing you helping her. Because she's up to something and she's going to hurt you." 

"I don't think she is."

"You're too trusting."

"Maybe I am."

"Can I ask you something?"

"Yes."

"Do you like her?"

"Yes."

"No, I mean, like like her?" Daisy squirmed and was hoping he would respond with the answer she wanted to hear. Neville could date who he wanted, it just didn't sit well with her that he could fall for someone so cruel. 

"No."

"Okay. Because girls like that will break your heart." 

Something snapped within Neville. Daisy didn't get to control how he felt. Girls like Daisy had broken his heart. She didn't know Vivienne like he did.  They had bonded and he felt like she understood a part of him Daisy didn't. At first, Neville just wanted to avoid seeing Daisy with Dean. Everytime he saw them kiss it felt like a part of him died. And he only had so many parts left. But then he actually enjoyed Vivienne's company. He had began to enjoy her company a lot."Even if I did fancy her, you don't think I stand a chance with her, do you?"

"No, that's not what I said-"

"You think she's too pretty to be talking to me!"

"No, I just know she's manipulating and wouldn't be speaking to you if she wasn't getting something out of it!"

"She is getting something out of it! A friend! And she likes me for who I am, which seems to be a crazy concept for you to gather. A pretty girl wanting to talk to me because I'm me."

"Nev, you're twisting what I'm saying."

"No, you think she's too good for me."

"Actually," Daisy's voice was now raised twice as loud as Neville's. "I think it's the other way around." And, without saying another word, Daisy stormed away wondering why it hurt her so much that Neville found other girls pretty.