Thorn | Neville Longbottom

Chapter 19: Excuse Me?

Briar sat with her back against the base of a tree by the lake with her knees pulled up to her chest. She was faintly smiling and watching as Neville waded around in the water, finding some cool aquatic plants and excitedly showing each of them to Briar. She was beaming the entire time, feeling an unusual joy spreading its warmth through her body.

Neville's passion for plants was simply adorable, and she felt spoiled since she got to see him like this so often in their tutoring sessions.

After a few moments, Neville found a dandelion at the edge of the water and excitedly cheered, "There's a dandelion! Briar, I found a dandelion!"

She chuckled softly and murmured, "That's wonderful, Neville. Where is it?"

He beamed at her positive response to his enthusiasm, and he quickly plucked it from the ground. He waddled over to Briar with the bottoms of his trousers soaked through with lake water, but he didn't seem to even notice. He approached her with the little dandelion cradled in between his fingers as if it were the most precious thing in the world.

Briar watched him with curiosity as he shuffled closer. He stumbled when he neared her but managed to steady himself before he fell. He slightly blushed and stuck out his hand with the dandelion in it. He murmured, "For you."

She felt something odd happen in her chest. It felt like fluttering, she thought. She tried to push these feelings away and beamed up at Neville, "Thank you so much."

She reached up to take the flower, but he slowly retracted it and stammered, "Um, well, would you ever like me to put it in your hair? ...It would look so pretty next to your black hair is all... I'm sorry. I don't know why I asked that. I'll just-"

Briar beamed and interrupted, "No, Neville, I love that idea. I've never had a flower in my hair before. Where do you normally put it?"

He stared at her with eyes wide in shock that she agreed. He stumbled forward a couple steps and silently slipped the dandelion in Briar's hair, the long stem curling around her ear as the yellow head hung outside her raven-colored hair. In the process of this, his slightly wet fingers brushed her ear, and he immediately rambled, "Sorry! Sorry!"

Briar didn't know what to say. A warmth had begun to spread up her neck and onto her cheeks as she stared at Neville with wide eyes. His cheeks were pink, but this was something Briar was used to. He seemed to blush a lot around her.

Swallowing the shock and flurry of feelings she tried hard to ignore, she just whispered, "Your hand is wet."

"Oh, I'm sorry! I should have wiped it off," Neville panicked as he now frantically wiped his hands on the dry part of his trousers that hadn't been exposed to the water.

Briar just shook her head and gave him a meek smile. She was starting to feel far away, and she needed to escape. She whispered, "I'm going to go lie down. Does the same time tomorrow work for you?"

Neville nodded with wide, worried eyes as Briar shoved her things in her bag and hurried away. His mind raced with all of the things he must have done wrong. He didn't mean to drive Briar away, and he felt terrible about it.

For Briar, the world was starting to cave in, and she just needed to talk some sense into herself. These reactions meant nothing. Right? It didn't mean anything. It couldn't mean anything.

She made it back to the dorms and found Pansy lounging on her bed lazily there. Briar ignored her instincts and blurted, "What does it feel like to fancy someone?"

Pansy shot up like a rocket and choked, "Excuse me?"

Briar tried to keep her face neutral as she explained, "Well, I just don't understand it. I want to know what it feels like."

Pansy narrowed her eyes at Briar but slowly explained, "It feels exciting and...energizing. It makes me feel giddy, and I just can't stop thinking about wanting to snog them when I fancy them. That's how it is every time."

Briar twisted her face up in disgust. She didn't fantasize about snogging Neville right? No, no, she hadn't done that. She must not fancy him then. She felt herself sigh with relief before plopping back on her bed.

"Are these questions because of a certain person?" Pansy wondered with eyebrows wiggling suggestively.

"No. Of course not."

Pansy trailed, "Well, because I've heard some rumors..."

Briar sat up immediately and snarled, "What rumors, and who's saying them?"

Her brown-haired roommate widened her eyes and knew that there was no way she could tell Briar who was responsible for these rumors. She figured that they wouldn't make it through the rest of the day without incurring at least a black eye and a broken bone or two. Briar wasn't exactly one to keep her cool.

Pansy gulped, "Well - you're going to laugh - but people are saying that you fancy Neville."

"Why are they saying that? And who? I'll make sure they don't forget to stay out of my business in the future!"

Briar was shaking with anger, and Pansy noticed, slowly taking some precautionary steps backward. She suggested, "Well, you do spend a lot of time together."

"He tutors me, and we're friends," Briar fired back.

Pansy echoed incredulously, "Friends?"

Briar blinked. "Yeah. Friends. Do you have a problem with that, Parkinson?"

Pansy shook her head silently before sliding back down onto her bed. Her silence comforted Briar, who assumed that this meant that the conversation was over now, but Briar was unaware of Pansy's curious expression upon spotting the dandelion tucked into Briar's hair.

Briar grabbed her sketchbook to try to draw something to return her nerves to a more normal level, but she realized too late that she had absent-mindedly begun to sketch Neville again.

Her breath caught in her throat, and she tore the page from her sketchbook, crumpling it up into a little ball. She shoved it into her bag before she fled the room, knowing that she needed some time outside to clear her head.

She couldn't think straight. That's all this was. She just needed to clear her confused thoughts.

But really, she was terrified of her suspicions being correct because if they were, her life was in utter danger.

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