“Can I get you anything?”

Draco looks up from the glass case, greeted by a bright smiling face. His mind draws a blank as all he can see is the man in front of him, leaning against the case. 

“Um,” Draco swallows before picking out a cupcake at random. “That–that one,” he manages.

To his relief, the man doesn’t poke fun at how Draco is acting and grabs the cupcake Draco had pointed to. Of course it’s the bright pink one and he nods as he accepts the cupcake, now in a box with a bow tied around it. 

“Thanks,” Draco mumbles before he rushes out of the store just to catch his breath. 

Then, his thoughts clear and Draco frowns. He doesn’t remember paying. With a groan, Draco takes a deep breath, hoping he can face the man again without making a fool of himself.

-

"Alrighty then, done with the Puffapods. Just... uh just give me a few more moments to s-s-s-set up the Venomous Tentacula. Th-th-then we can get on with it and g-g-get you out of… here." sputtered Neville as he quickly set aside 3 pots and reached for 3 more. He was enormously nervous for some odd reason.

Neville had never been one to take being around Draco easily. Most of his time he'd try his absolute hardest not to be around him, even so far as to go in the complete opposite direction to avoid walking near Draco for fear of being mocked. Now as he was in his own little realm, Herbology, in motion and synch with all the plan life and moving fluidly along with the environment, the constant sneer of Draco did not bother him all that much, and he calmed a bit. Yes he still was a tad edgy preparing the Venomous Tentacula and Puffapods, but that was because he was always nervous of messing up in front of someone; Hermione, Seamus, Professor Sprout, anyone, and Draco was no exception. Neville heard another exasperated sigh come from the direction of his partner and a tiny creak as Draco pressed up against the wooden table and leaned backwards, tilting his head to look out the windowpanes above him at the stars. He noticed something he never had before; Draco had always had long and slender appendages but now he noticed the build and bulk of them. His shoulders were massive, broad, and his back looked as if it was carved. Neville swallowed and inhaled a long breath as he took in the form of Draco, and as he exhaled he found himself having some sort of fascination with these newfound discoveries…. newfound discoveries that could potentially hurt him, pummel him.

"How much more time is this all going to take Longbottom?" sighed, the annoyed Draco, "I would rather not spend my evening in here… with you." He looked down his sharp nose and smirked at Neville, which frightened him, as always.

Draco most definitely did not want to be spending his night in the dingy and dirty greenhouse, especially not with Neville. To him Neville was the lowest of the low, even if he was a pure-blood, he was still considered distasteful. His lanky figure was clumsy as all bloody hell during lessons and fumbling around the Great Hall, yet not now as he was setting up the Venomous Tentacula. He seemed to have a kind of grace and flow as the stems writhed around trying to whack Neville in the face several times. Draco watched as Neville easily kept his cool when one blow left a scrape along his cheek and started to tickle blood down the left side of his face and his respect for him grew a little. His hair was dark, and probably dirty from spending all his time down in the mud, and his clothes were baggy around his frame. Draco thought back, Neville had been pudgy and stout their first few years but obviously his build had evened out with puberty, as he was quite built now in the last stretch of their 5th year at Hogwarts. Draco had some strange urge to be around him, and swiftly pushed that thought to the back of his head as him merely wanting to taunt Neville for his own pleasure.

"There all done. With the Puffapods we're just growing and nurturing them to see who gets the biggest and shiniest beans," Neville laughed "It's actually quite fun, you see we're all waging bets. I bet Seamus that I can…" Neville stopped as Draco was giving him the strangest look he had ever gotten from anyone. Neville coughed and continued,

"Now uh what we learned in class was that the Tentacula are very poisonous and important to…"

"The leaves are worth ten galleons a piece, that's the important part!" Draco moved very closely to Neville to study the Tentacula leaves and reached for one of them.

"Don't!" Neville shouted and grabbed Draco's hand and held it firmly and away from the potted plants. "First off these are venomous plants and another thing these seeds are Class C non-tradeable items! I can't let you have them."

"Are you… holding my hand?" his tone could not be detected as Draco asked this question. He wasn't angry or repulsed, and he seemed a little bit of genuine shock at the fact Neville had taken his hand to prevent him from reaching in the first place. Neville quickly released his grip on Draco's hand and shoved his own in his pockets, which Draco did all well. Both had a tingly warm sensation in their hands.

"Sorry. It's just that I'm very... well I'm very protective of everything in here and I make it a point not to break any rules." Neville said this as if he was reciting from notecards and gave a definite nod at the end of his sentence.

"Alrighty then, I won't touch them." He seemed a tad bit ashamed that he had gone against one of Neville's rules.

There was a hissing noise and suddenly the Tentacle's steams went haywire and started slashing about forcing Draco and Neville to duck and dodge as the plant violently tried to strangle them. Neville slipped on some loose soil on the ground, taking Draco down with him, who had just got smacked in the face which resulted in a bloody lip. Neville fell hard and banged his head on the concrete with Draco landing halfway on him even as he tried to grip the edge of the worktable to no avail.

"BLOODY HELL!" bellowed Neville as Draco's elbow jammed into his lower stomach. Draco tried to sit up but the thrashing above continued and swiped at him, hitting his head and making him fall down yet again on top of Neville.

"This is complete bollocks. What a nasty little bugger." Draco sounded exhausted by the events and made an effort to try and roll off of Neville and onto the tiny patch of floor to his right.

"What is the deal with this thing Neville?"

"I don't know. I've never seen a Venomous Tentacula act that extreme."

"How long to you reckon we'll be stuck down here for?

"I don't know…"

"Well, will this bloody plant calm down?"

"I DON'T KNOW!" shouted Neville, he was obviously angry with himself. He didn't let on to Draco that he knew what was going on. He should have known that the Puffapods released an aroma that made the Tentacula react so erratically, that was the hissing. That is why Professor Sprout had made the lessons on different days, and cautioned the class to make sure their Tentacula potted plants were on the opposite ends of the classroom. He was now gasping, sort of hyperventilating, as he estimated when the Puffapods' aroma would thin out.

"Draco," Neville sighed and Draco, who was lying on his side propped up on his elbow, cocked his head to look at him.

"Yes….?", still hesitant since Neville's last outburst.

"I think we're going to be here a while."

"Well then, better get comfortable." Draco nudged Neville and made him scoot so that now both were slightly on their sides, facing each other.

"You're bleeding." Neville began, "Your lip." He cast his eyes down as he had been staring at the now pout lower lip on Draco's face.

"Your cheek has been bleeding for a while." He lifted his hand and came so close to touching the scratch, "There."

Neville quickly went up to wipe the blood from this face;

"Did I get it?" he looked up into Draco's face. Draco smiled,

"No, not at all." he laughed a little, "It's dried on, you didn't even smudge it."

Neville made a face and tried again, but Draco stopped his hand when he reached over and placed the palm of his hand against Neville's cheek, who looked a little frightened. Draco looked into Neville's eyes, moved his hand to the back of his head, gripped his neck and pulled his mouth to meet his. At first it was uncomfortable since Draco had been so aggressive and their noses mashed against each other but once they got into some rhythm it was a pleasant and satisfying experience for Neville. Draco could feel the hesitance in Neville and eased up a little, releasing the back of his neck which he took with such force, yet continued to kiss him even darting tongue to the opening of his mouth. Neville could taste the blood from Draco's busted lip, but continued with the make out session on the floor, legs intertwined, as if they could get any closer and have their bodies pressed up against each other anymore than before in that tight space.

After many minutes of closeness to one another there came a hissing from above. The two boys quickly separated, pushing each other away and looked up towards where the noise was coming from. The Puffapods had finally stopped producing the intoxicating aroma, thus making the Tentacula subside. Neville was the first one who got up, and dusted off his pants, to investigate and make sure there was no more danger to be had above.

"All seems good up here." Neville reported and looked around just to make sure.

"Everything is alright down here as well." Draco was still lying on the floor of the Herbology class in a seductive pose. "Come back down here." and he patted the space next to him.

"Uhh no Draco. I don't think that's a good idea." Neville coughed, and moved to the other side of the work bench when he heard Draco's body shift and begin to get up. "I think it would be better if I just finished up here Draco, and you can go back to the Great Hall."

When Draco got up he moved over to Neville and cornered him, placing his hand on top of his and staring, silently at him. He then moved in and gave Neville a light kiss on the lips but Neville pulled away.

"So what just happened? You just kissed me." Neville was more than a little confused.

"I don't know." was all Draco could muster at the moment. Neville sat in silence as he watched him ponder and come up with something more to say, only to reply with.

"How is it going be after this, do we pretend these feelings don't exist at all?"

"Well let's really think about this. Is it real or is it fantasy? Forever or just temporary? Are we INSANE for doing this?" Neville was on the verge of having a panic attack as he shot out the questions, one after the other. With Neville still panting like a mad dog Draco merely shrugged his shoulders.