Neville and Hannah - part one

Under cover of the loud music, Neville sighed, the Yule ball was always going to be a rather awkward affair, but he felt now that asking Ginny to go with him had emphasized this more than anything. He looked up from a long perusal of his own shoes to see her across the room in an animated discussion with a friend in the year above. No one had even expected him to get a date for the ball, let alone one of the most popular, prettiest girls in school, when they'd walked in there had been whispers and barely suppressed giggles and he just knew that everyone in the room was thinking "pity date".
The worst thing was that, even though Ginny had always been genuinely friendly and open towards him, they were probably right.
He'd felt such a dunce following her around all evening like a sad little lap dog , trying vaguely to make jokes with her many friends , which no one understood, and all the time conscious of the sniggers and snide looks following him. In the end he excused himself to get drinks and got himself an empty table in a dark corner: best to sit it out...
As he watched a tall, dark haired Ravenclaw came out of the crowd towards Ginny. They talked and laughed for a little while and then he led her off to the dance floor, leaving Neville FORGOTTON IN THE DARK.
He felt a sudden rush of heat and knew he had to go outside, the dark shape of so many couples blurring at the edge of his vision as he staggered to the door.
He lifted his face to the cool night air, looking up at the stars and wishing to be anywhere else, he was still conscious of being jostled by a steady stream of students heading out to the grounds and the privacy of the rose bushes. He needed a quiet place, to sit and think , and his feet started to take him there even before he'd consciously told them to.
In the moonlight, the school greenhouses looked like nothing but dark silhouettes from a distance, but closer to it was possible to glimpse the faint glow of light emitting from some of the luminous plants (Aduro Assumus perhaps, or Atra Flamus) or to hear the faint creak of soil as a mandrake turned over in its sleep.
Neville squeezed through the small gap in-between the two largest greenhouses with a practiced air, and half fell into the small triangle of what could scarcely be called a garden. The grass there was long and was weaved in with small white flowers and soft patches of moss , by the light of an escaped fairy he could just make out the small ornamental bench squeezed into the upmost corner , probably conjured from some other solitary soul decades ago , possibly centauries - it was always hard to tell with Hogwarts.
But there was an unfamiliar shadow in the garden tonight, a little quaking wraith curled up on the bench, shaking and gasping for air.
Neville squinted into the darkness.
"Hannah?"  
The crying stopped abruptly and the figure gave a small cry of fright before she realized it was him.
"Oh….Neville….i…. I didn't think anyone else knew about this place."
"Yeah, er …2nd year …" Crabbe and a few other slytherins had been taunting him about his parents.
"Oh, I only found it at the start of the year – Ernie- um- I mean …someone …showed me"
Neville nodded weakly – he knew from some of the conversations he eavesdropped on in class that Hannah and Ernie Macmillan had finally officially got together the previous summer. The involuntary image of them entwined on the bench made him blush deep scarlet – lucky it was dark really. He looked around for something to say and, as always, ended up bringing up the most awkward subject possible.
"So how come you're out here tonight?" he internally shriveled in embarrassment – it was pretty obvious – why else would a girl be alone and crying at a ball?
"It's Ernie – he's been – he's been just horrible to me!" Neville could see the tears resurfacing but could tell when someone had something they really needed to get off their chest. So he resignedly sat down beside her and prepared himself to hear an awful lot of stuff he wasn't going to understand.
"He, well he was really late meeting me and then he didn't even say sorry! And then he just kept kind of ignoring me, you know? A-and he was kind of staring at this Beuxbaton girl all the time and HE DIDN'T EVEN ASK ME TO DANCE! So I told him… I t-told him….."
And she was completely incoherent with sobs again. Neville sat there having absolutely no idea what to do. After about five minutes he started tentatively patting her back only for her to turn blindly and start crying into his shoulder instead.
"Hannah…. "He said again uncomfortably but she was too far gone to hear him and he was reduced to just awkwardly holding her upright until the tears started to lessen and she had enough sense to turn away again.
He pulled a dusty handkerchief from the pocket of his dress robes and offered it to her. And she took it, careful not to brush his hand. She was obviously just as embarrassed by the last few minutes as he was.
"Well I'd er better go…" He said after some time of silence; though he had no idea where.
"Could…would it be alright if you stayed for a little while? I – I'd just feel even more hopeless sitting here on my own."
Her eyes were so pale that they seemed to perfectly reflect the moonlight and the tears still clinging to her eyelashes might have been pearls.
"Of course – for a bit, if you want."
They sat together looking up at the stars and thinking their own thoughts. Somewhere in the darkness their hands linked and there they were, two lonely spirits finding each other.
After what easily could have been hours, Hannah stood up and turned to him.
"Thank you – that was –well…thanks."
And before he knew it she had kissed him lightly on the cheek and left the garden. He touched the small damp patch, still half in his reverie – it tingled.