Magical Menagerie || Drarry

Part 6

The air was almost hazy with moisture, yellow light filtered through the old leaded glass and all around Harry was green and smelled like damp soil.

"I've almost finished," Neville said carefully maneuvering a floating plant the size of a bear to an isolated corner of the greenhouses. As the heavy ceramic pot bumped against the ground the curling branches writhed, grasping out at the open air. "There." Neville said with satisfaction, "Won't be causing any more trouble over here."

"What is it?" Harry asked, watching the plant stop moving and go back to looking as harmless as any other plant.

Neville carefully roped the plant off and hung a few warning signs that would inevitably be ignored by some student who thought they knew better, "Stranglevine, from the south american rainforests. I was lucky enough to secure a sample from a research team that just returned. They're planning a return trip next year and I'm hoping to join them over the summer hols," he grinned excitedly.

Harry echoed his smile and asked, "So it... strangles things?"

Neville nodded, "The plant photosynthesizes like a normal plant but it also grabs and strangles anything that walks too close to it, a bit like a snake does. The current hypothesis is that because the soil is so poor where it grows that it creates its own fertilizer with what it catches. I'm going to have the sixth years grow cuttings and experiment with different soil types and additives to see what we can learn about it. "

"So the first year of being the Herbology Professor went all right, you think?" Harry asked.

Neville scrunched his nose, "Oh, come off it. You've heard all the stories at pub nights; it was a mess. I had no idea what I was doing half the time and the other half Professor Sprout had to come rescue my arse."

"So pretty well then," Harry said.

Neville rolled his eyes and Harry laughed.

"Here's a question for you then," Neville said, pulling his gloves off and chucking them inexpertly at Harry's head, "What's with the pet shop thing?"

Harry grimaced, his good humor draining out of him like a pulled plug, "Who'd you talk to? Ginny? Luna? I suppose you want a perfect pet as well now? Or maybe just to meddle?"

Neville's brow pinched, "What? There was an article in the Prophet, about a week ago or so?"

"An article?" Harry asked, feeling some of the tension leaving his shoulders.

Neville nodded, "All about the pet craze among the Potter Gang, their words not mine, and there was a picture of Ron leaving the shop with a basket and another of Ginny and some of her teammates around a broom with a little cat balanced on the bristles."

Harry shrugged vaguely, "I don't read the Prophet. Sounds almost like real reporting, for them anyway."

"That means you've been to Malfoy's shop?" Neville said uncertainly.

Harry wanted to groan, "Yeah."

"Do you think he's alright now?" Neville asked toying the leaves on a small purplish plant that turned an electric blue where his fingers had been, "This year he's come up and helped out with Hagrid's classes and he seems..." his nose scrunched, "Dunno. He's very patient and careful. He speaks to everyone very formally. Does he do that with you?"

Neville glanced at Harry but went on without waiting for an answer, "He calls Hagrid, Professor Hagrid and me Professor Longbottom. I even asked him to just call me Neville but it's either Professor or Mister, if classes are out."

"You talk to him outside of classes? You talk to him?" Harry asked despite himself.

"Not at first, but he talks to animals and the kids the same way he talks to adults and it's... funny, I guess. It's hard to be angry at someone who will look a niffler in the eye and tell it," Neville put on a cheesy posh voice, "kindly refrain from such impulsive behavior."