"Why are you always losing stuff, aren't you supposed to be a Hufflepuff?"
In which Nia Thomas is a gossip-loving and extremely forgetful Hufflepuff that doesn't know where her hearing aids keep disappearing to.
[Intro inside]
[Goblet of Fire...
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There had never been a time, until now, that Nia had been thankful the doors to the kitchens were so thick. Her and Neville had been hidden in the kitchens laughing and chatting away for the past two hours. In the back of their minds they both knew that someone had to be looking for at least one of them, but neither cared. They were on their fourth hot chocolate and second platter of cookies with no intention of moving. Nia had warmed up 30 minutes ago and now she was sitting with a cup of warm coco in her hands and a warm smile on her face. Neville had been telling her the story of a time when two Cornish Pixies left him hanging from the chandelier.
"Wait, wait, wait," she choked out through her laugh. "I think I heard about that," she pointed her finger rigidly in his face, "Lockhart, right?" Neville nodded his head and pulled his lips together as if he was slightly regretting bringing up the memory. Then he looked up at Nia, and all regret dissipated. Seeing the girl laugh the way she did made his night even more enjoyable.
"Oh come on your turn! Most embarrassing moment, out with it." Neville laughed and Nia just stared, awestricken.
"Ok, ok! Ummmm..." She ran her fingers over her chin in thought until Justin butted himself into the conversation successfully scaring the life out of both students.
"Nia!" Justin shouted, his tense features relaxing when his eyes landed on the pair. "Merlin, we've been looking for you guys for hours!"
Nia chuckled and was about to say something when Justin's loud and dramatic gasp cut her off. "Nia what happened to your twist out?! My God!"
Throughout her day with Neville, not once did the drying girl consider how she looked. With one quirked up eyebrow Nia lifted the platter that once held her and Neville's treats and checked out her reflection.
Her hair was dry and matted (there was a leaf and a clump on mud in there), the eyeliner she had spent 10 minutes on was smudged and had somehow ran upwards into her hairline, and her lipstick had been smudged onto her teeth and up onto her nose. "Neville!" She gasped, "Why didn't you say anything? I look horrendous."
The boy looked shocked, he raised his hands in surrender, "I-I-I-I I thought you looked nice, your hair's a mess and your face stuff is smudged but you still look very....pretty." Nia sat up straighter and opened her mouth but she failed to speak.
She was aware of how more outspoken the boy had been throughout the day and she couldn't lie, the girl was loving it. In the hours since her fall at the lake, when he had been so nervous and shy, he had begun to get comfortable with her. Nia didn't know if it was their hour long conversation, or the fact that maybe he felt bad for inadvertently pushing her into the lake. Either way, now he had no problem complementing her, a task that once took a lot of mental preparation.
What Nia couldn't understand thought, was how this had all happened in the span of one day. He went from 'I'm going to stumble over my words and blush' Neville, to 'I think your beautiful and I'm going to let you know' Neville. She would have to ask Dean or maybe even Ginny about it, because the boy had her head spinning.
