Happy Holidays, Zeldaophelia!
Title: Triosome
Author: Secret Santa
Recipient: zeldaophelia
Rating: PG-13
Length: c.1820 words
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairings: Neville/Ginny/Luna, plus Seamus/Lavender/Parvati
Summary: Set first term of Year 7. Their fellow Gryffindors, among others, have ideas about what Neville and Ginny might be up to.
Notes: Thank you to my anonymous betas, without whom this fic would be much, much less than it is. And thank you once again to significantowl for organizing this!
Triosome
“Look, they’re sneaking off again. That’s the third evening this week.”
“Where d’you suppose they’re going?”
Parvati shrugged. She and Lavender watched from their corner of the crowded Common Room as Ginny, closely followed by Neville, slipped out of the portrait hole.
“They must be up to something though. Hey, Seamus!”
He looked up from the tome he was reading at Parvati’s call, and they motioned him across.
“Seamus, Sweetie,” cooed Lavender, batting her magically extended eyelashes at him, “do you know where Ginny and Neville keep going off to?”
He shook his head. “No idea.” He paused and frowned. “But now you come to mention it, they have both been acting rather strangely in the last couple of weeks. Have you noticed Ginny is sitting next to him at every mealtime now? And how they’re often talking together on the sofa over in that corner?”
“Strange…”
“D’you reckon they’re planning some DA action against Professor Carrow after what she did to Ernie for suggesting that Muggles were just as intelligent as us? I do hope so…”
Seamus looked quite enthused at the prospect, but Parvati replied doubtfully, “I don’t think so. We agreed when we all met up in Hogsmeade in October that all of us should be included in those sorts of decisions. And no messages have been sent.” She fingered the fake Galleon in her robe pocket.
“Perhaps we should keep a closer eye on them?” suggested Lavender.
* * * * *
It turned out it wasn’t just Neville and Ginny behaving strangely. As Parvati and Lavender surreptitiously took note of all their movements over the next couple of days, they noticed that Neville and Ginny were joined by the normally solitary Luna Lovegood at the end of almost every meal, their heads together, talking conspiratorially in low voices, interspersed with an occasional giggle from Ginny.
“They look rather happy and pleased with themselves, don’t they?” remarked Lavender.
Hot on the scent of more clues, Parvati went to see her sister to enquire about Luna. Padma confirmed that Luna, too, had been slipping out of the Ravenclaw Common Room every evening and had deflected any questions as to where she was going. Parvati decided she’d try the direct approach as well. That evening, when Neville and Ginny started making their way towards the portrait hole, she called across to them, “Hey, Neville, Ginny! Where’re you off to again?”
The room went quieter, and heads turned to look, as Neville froze, like a rabbit caught in a headlight’s glare. Ginny stepped in front of him instinctively, protectively.
“Study group,” she said quite sharply. “Not that it’s any business of yours - come on Neville.” With that she slipped her hand into his and pulled him back into motion and out of the Common Room without any further explanation. Parvati and Lavender exchanged glances.
“I don’t believe that for a minute,” said Lavender. “They’re not even in the same school year for a start.”
“Yes, and they didn’t have any books with them either.”
Seamus joined them. “You don’t think they could be… y’know, together?” he suggested, with an inappropriate hand gesture. The girls’ eyes widened in shock at the thought.
“You reckon? I didn’t think Neville would be Ginny’s sort.”
“But then, she’s already tried out most of the other eligible guys in our year,” said Lavender snidely, a sideways glance at Seamus.
“But what about Luna? She’s meeting up with them too, you know,” frowned Parvati.
* * * * *
At breakfast the next morning, Parvati, Lavender and Seamus were sat together and watched as Luna quickly finished her breakfast and joined Neville and Ginny at the far end of the Gryffindor table. Neville looked relaxed and smiled contentedly at Luna as she sat down. The three of them seemed to have a sort of glow around them, a happy, attractive iridescence, not quite tangible or too obvious, but there nonetheless.
“See,” said Seamus, “I told you so. A threesome. Lucky Nev…” His voice tailed off almost wistfully.
“I don’t think that quite proves anything, not yet,” replied Parvati, rolling her eyes at his reaction.
The three friends redoubled their efforts in tracking Neville, Ginny and Luna’s steps that day. By a stroke of luck, Parvati and Lavender were on their way to divination just after lunch when they passed Ginny and Luna waiting outside their Charms classroom. The two were engrossed in conversation, and Parvati and Lavender slowed down in order to hear them better.
“… I never through he’d be able to get it so big,” Ginny was saying excitedly.
“Mmm,” agreed Luna serenely, her smile widening, “or make it last so long. Magnificent, don’t you think?”
Lavender grasped Parvati’s arm, their eyes wide, trying to contain themselves, and she steered her round the nearest corner as quickly as she could, where they collapsed in fits of giggles.
“Did you hear that?!”
“Oh, Seamus was right, they really are, aren’t they?”
It seemed Seamus, Lavender and Parvati weren’t the only ones to have noticed something was afoot. Seamus was on this way to Transfiguration later that afternoon, tailing Neville, who was accompanied by Ginny. As they were passing Professor Flitwick and some selected students, who were Charming decorations into place on the enormous Christmas tree just outside the Great Hall, a group of Slytherin lads started catcalling after the pair.
“Hey, Longbottom, have you finally got yourself a girlfriend?”
“Potter’s sloppy seconds is definitely your style.”
Neville turned beetroot and stopped in his tracks. Ginny, however, whirled round to face them, her eyes blazing and her wand out. The boys recoiled slightly, but stood their ground. Neville, sensing the danger, as well as Professor Flitwick’s disapproving gaze, caught Ginny around the waist and forced her to turn away from the sniggering Slytherins and back on track. “Let them think what they like,” he hissed to her in a low voice.
“You’re twice the man they’ll ever be,” said Luna dreamily, appearing from behind the tree almost next to them, as she placed her wand behind her ear. “Ginny dear, would you mind giving me a hand with these candles? The never-ending flames keep sending out blue sparks. Very pretty, but potentially lethal. I suspect Nargles.”
Regaining some of her composure, Ginny nodded, and Neville released her warily before continuing on his way with a rather awestruck Seamus.
* * * * *
“Tonight’s the night,” said Seamus. “We’ve got to find out where they’re going.”
The girls exchanged glances and nodded. Parvati determinedly wrapped her winter cloak around her. “Come on, we’d better wait outside, otherwise they’ll notice us following them out.”
They concealed themselves behind a suit of armour in the cold corridor outside and waited. Sure enough, after about twenty minutes the Fat Lady’s portrait swung open, and Ginny and Neville came out. They turned left away from Seamus, Parvati and Lavender’s hiding place and up the next flight of stairs. The three friends followed at a distance, keeping close to the walls so as not to be seen.
“They must be using the Transfiguration classroom,” said Lavender suddenly, after a few more twists, turns and staircases.
And sure enough, ahead of them, Neville and Ginny approached the door of Professor McGonagall’s classroom, knocked gently seven times, opened the door and slipped inside. As the door opened, a bright shaft of light shone out, meaning someone else was already inside, and the sound of soft music could be heard. The door shut, and the corridor was plunged once more into almost total darkness and silence. Unless they already knew, no one would suspect that the classroom was in use.
Seamus, Parvati and Lavender stayed where they were for a while in the gloom, waiting to see if something else would happen, but nothing did.
“We’ve got to get closer,” said Seamus eventually, “or we’ll never know.”
They edged forward, until they were right outside the classroom door, but not a sound or motion could they detect. There was no chink in the curtain on the inside of the door and no keyhole they could peek through.
“What now?” asked Lavender.
“Well, we either wait here like lemons or we bust in on them,” replied Parvati, her face showing she didn’t relish the prospect of either choice.
Seamus took a deep breath. “Come on.”
He stepped up to the door and knocked gently seven times, exactly the same way they’d heard Neville do it. The door opened a fraction, and Luna’s bulbous eyes peered out at them.
“Oh hello,” she said, “you’re a bit early, but do come on in.”
The friends glanced at each other, confused, but accepted Luna’s invitation and stepped through the doorway.
“Oh wow!” Lavender gasped.
The class room was unrecognisable: the wooden desks were gone, and instead there were neat little round tables and comfy chairs all around the edge of the room, a sprig of mistletoe hovering over each. A long table heaped high with every kind of festive food replaced Professor McGonagall’s desk, and a tree surrounded by presents stood in the bay window. But the piece-de resistance hovered in the centre of the room, high up near the ceiling. A large star with a soft, iridescent glow turned majestically on an unseen axis, small sparkles emitting and cascading down from each point as it turned. Parvati recognised it as a much larger version of one of the glass stars Professor Flitwick had charmed onto the Christmas tree on the ground floor.
Neville bounded up to them, beaming.
“You got my message already? That was quick - I only sent it five minutes ago! We did say nine-o’-clock, but never mind. Make yourselves at home.”
Parvati, Lavender and Seamus exchanged puzzled glances, but sat down at one of the tables as Neville went across to the tree to rearrange some of the gifts.
“What d’you suppose he means?” Lavender whispered. Parvati shook her head, but her hand automatically reached down into her robe pocket. The fake Galleon was unusually hot to the touch.
“The message!” she whispered back, pulling it out for Seamus and Lavender to see.
The back of the Galleon bore the rolling inscription 'You are cordially invited to the DA Christmas Party. Tonight 9pm, Transfiguration classroom. Knock 7 times for entry.'
“Lovely decorations, aren’t they?” said Ginny, appearing beside them. “All Neville’s idea. Can I get you all a Butterbeer?”
Soon the other DA members started arriving, and the transformed classroom was full of the sounds of merriment that had been so lacking at Hogwarts that term. They ate and drank, danced, chatted and laughed, and the evening flew by. Luna, Neville and Ginny raised their glasses and lead a toast to absent friends and to the aspiration that the next year might be filled with hope.
As they raised their glasses in return, Parvati commented to Lavender and Seamus, “See, no threesome here.”
Seamus returned her gaze appraisingly and grinned. “Ah, but there could be,” he said, refilling first her glass and then Lavender’s. “There could be…”
* * * * *
Author: Secret Santa
Recipient: zeldaophelia
Rating: PG-13
Length: c.1820 words
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairings: Neville/Ginny/Luna, plus Seamus/Lavender/Parvati
Summary: Set first term of Year 7. Their fellow Gryffindors, among others, have ideas about what Neville and Ginny might be up to.
Notes: Thank you to my anonymous betas, without whom this fic would be much, much less than it is. And thank you once again to significantowl for organizing this!
Triosome
“Look, they’re sneaking off again. That’s the third evening this week.”
“Where d’you suppose they’re going?”
Parvati shrugged. She and Lavender watched from their corner of the crowded Common Room as Ginny, closely followed by Neville, slipped out of the portrait hole.
“They must be up to something though. Hey, Seamus!”
He looked up from the tome he was reading at Parvati’s call, and they motioned him across.
“Seamus, Sweetie,” cooed Lavender, batting her magically extended eyelashes at him, “do you know where Ginny and Neville keep going off to?”
He shook his head. “No idea.” He paused and frowned. “But now you come to mention it, they have both been acting rather strangely in the last couple of weeks. Have you noticed Ginny is sitting next to him at every mealtime now? And how they’re often talking together on the sofa over in that corner?”
“Strange…”
“D’you reckon they’re planning some DA action against Professor Carrow after what she did to Ernie for suggesting that Muggles were just as intelligent as us? I do hope so…”
Seamus looked quite enthused at the prospect, but Parvati replied doubtfully, “I don’t think so. We agreed when we all met up in Hogsmeade in October that all of us should be included in those sorts of decisions. And no messages have been sent.” She fingered the fake Galleon in her robe pocket.
“Perhaps we should keep a closer eye on them?” suggested Lavender.
* * * * *
It turned out it wasn’t just Neville and Ginny behaving strangely. As Parvati and Lavender surreptitiously took note of all their movements over the next couple of days, they noticed that Neville and Ginny were joined by the normally solitary Luna Lovegood at the end of almost every meal, their heads together, talking conspiratorially in low voices, interspersed with an occasional giggle from Ginny.
“They look rather happy and pleased with themselves, don’t they?” remarked Lavender.
Hot on the scent of more clues, Parvati went to see her sister to enquire about Luna. Padma confirmed that Luna, too, had been slipping out of the Ravenclaw Common Room every evening and had deflected any questions as to where she was going. Parvati decided she’d try the direct approach as well. That evening, when Neville and Ginny started making their way towards the portrait hole, she called across to them, “Hey, Neville, Ginny! Where’re you off to again?”
The room went quieter, and heads turned to look, as Neville froze, like a rabbit caught in a headlight’s glare. Ginny stepped in front of him instinctively, protectively.
“Study group,” she said quite sharply. “Not that it’s any business of yours - come on Neville.” With that she slipped her hand into his and pulled him back into motion and out of the Common Room without any further explanation. Parvati and Lavender exchanged glances.
“I don’t believe that for a minute,” said Lavender. “They’re not even in the same school year for a start.”
“Yes, and they didn’t have any books with them either.”
Seamus joined them. “You don’t think they could be… y’know, together?” he suggested, with an inappropriate hand gesture. The girls’ eyes widened in shock at the thought.
“You reckon? I didn’t think Neville would be Ginny’s sort.”
“But then, she’s already tried out most of the other eligible guys in our year,” said Lavender snidely, a sideways glance at Seamus.
“But what about Luna? She’s meeting up with them too, you know,” frowned Parvati.
* * * * *
At breakfast the next morning, Parvati, Lavender and Seamus were sat together and watched as Luna quickly finished her breakfast and joined Neville and Ginny at the far end of the Gryffindor table. Neville looked relaxed and smiled contentedly at Luna as she sat down. The three of them seemed to have a sort of glow around them, a happy, attractive iridescence, not quite tangible or too obvious, but there nonetheless.
“See,” said Seamus, “I told you so. A threesome. Lucky Nev…” His voice tailed off almost wistfully.
“I don’t think that quite proves anything, not yet,” replied Parvati, rolling her eyes at his reaction.
The three friends redoubled their efforts in tracking Neville, Ginny and Luna’s steps that day. By a stroke of luck, Parvati and Lavender were on their way to divination just after lunch when they passed Ginny and Luna waiting outside their Charms classroom. The two were engrossed in conversation, and Parvati and Lavender slowed down in order to hear them better.
“… I never through he’d be able to get it so big,” Ginny was saying excitedly.
“Mmm,” agreed Luna serenely, her smile widening, “or make it last so long. Magnificent, don’t you think?”
Lavender grasped Parvati’s arm, their eyes wide, trying to contain themselves, and she steered her round the nearest corner as quickly as she could, where they collapsed in fits of giggles.
“Did you hear that?!”
“Oh, Seamus was right, they really are, aren’t they?”
It seemed Seamus, Lavender and Parvati weren’t the only ones to have noticed something was afoot. Seamus was on this way to Transfiguration later that afternoon, tailing Neville, who was accompanied by Ginny. As they were passing Professor Flitwick and some selected students, who were Charming decorations into place on the enormous Christmas tree just outside the Great Hall, a group of Slytherin lads started catcalling after the pair.
“Hey, Longbottom, have you finally got yourself a girlfriend?”
“Potter’s sloppy seconds is definitely your style.”
Neville turned beetroot and stopped in his tracks. Ginny, however, whirled round to face them, her eyes blazing and her wand out. The boys recoiled slightly, but stood their ground. Neville, sensing the danger, as well as Professor Flitwick’s disapproving gaze, caught Ginny around the waist and forced her to turn away from the sniggering Slytherins and back on track. “Let them think what they like,” he hissed to her in a low voice.
“You’re twice the man they’ll ever be,” said Luna dreamily, appearing from behind the tree almost next to them, as she placed her wand behind her ear. “Ginny dear, would you mind giving me a hand with these candles? The never-ending flames keep sending out blue sparks. Very pretty, but potentially lethal. I suspect Nargles.”
Regaining some of her composure, Ginny nodded, and Neville released her warily before continuing on his way with a rather awestruck Seamus.
* * * * *
“Tonight’s the night,” said Seamus. “We’ve got to find out where they’re going.”
The girls exchanged glances and nodded. Parvati determinedly wrapped her winter cloak around her. “Come on, we’d better wait outside, otherwise they’ll notice us following them out.”
They concealed themselves behind a suit of armour in the cold corridor outside and waited. Sure enough, after about twenty minutes the Fat Lady’s portrait swung open, and Ginny and Neville came out. They turned left away from Seamus, Parvati and Lavender’s hiding place and up the next flight of stairs. The three friends followed at a distance, keeping close to the walls so as not to be seen.
“They must be using the Transfiguration classroom,” said Lavender suddenly, after a few more twists, turns and staircases.
And sure enough, ahead of them, Neville and Ginny approached the door of Professor McGonagall’s classroom, knocked gently seven times, opened the door and slipped inside. As the door opened, a bright shaft of light shone out, meaning someone else was already inside, and the sound of soft music could be heard. The door shut, and the corridor was plunged once more into almost total darkness and silence. Unless they already knew, no one would suspect that the classroom was in use.
Seamus, Parvati and Lavender stayed where they were for a while in the gloom, waiting to see if something else would happen, but nothing did.
“We’ve got to get closer,” said Seamus eventually, “or we’ll never know.”
They edged forward, until they were right outside the classroom door, but not a sound or motion could they detect. There was no chink in the curtain on the inside of the door and no keyhole they could peek through.
“What now?” asked Lavender.
“Well, we either wait here like lemons or we bust in on them,” replied Parvati, her face showing she didn’t relish the prospect of either choice.
Seamus took a deep breath. “Come on.”
He stepped up to the door and knocked gently seven times, exactly the same way they’d heard Neville do it. The door opened a fraction, and Luna’s bulbous eyes peered out at them.
“Oh hello,” she said, “you’re a bit early, but do come on in.”
The friends glanced at each other, confused, but accepted Luna’s invitation and stepped through the doorway.
“Oh wow!” Lavender gasped.
The class room was unrecognisable: the wooden desks were gone, and instead there were neat little round tables and comfy chairs all around the edge of the room, a sprig of mistletoe hovering over each. A long table heaped high with every kind of festive food replaced Professor McGonagall’s desk, and a tree surrounded by presents stood in the bay window. But the piece-de resistance hovered in the centre of the room, high up near the ceiling. A large star with a soft, iridescent glow turned majestically on an unseen axis, small sparkles emitting and cascading down from each point as it turned. Parvati recognised it as a much larger version of one of the glass stars Professor Flitwick had charmed onto the Christmas tree on the ground floor.
Neville bounded up to them, beaming.
“You got my message already? That was quick - I only sent it five minutes ago! We did say nine-o’-clock, but never mind. Make yourselves at home.”
Parvati, Lavender and Seamus exchanged puzzled glances, but sat down at one of the tables as Neville went across to the tree to rearrange some of the gifts.
“What d’you suppose he means?” Lavender whispered. Parvati shook her head, but her hand automatically reached down into her robe pocket. The fake Galleon was unusually hot to the touch.
“The message!” she whispered back, pulling it out for Seamus and Lavender to see.
The back of the Galleon bore the rolling inscription 'You are cordially invited to the DA Christmas Party. Tonight 9pm, Transfiguration classroom. Knock 7 times for entry.'
“Lovely decorations, aren’t they?” said Ginny, appearing beside them. “All Neville’s idea. Can I get you all a Butterbeer?”
Soon the other DA members started arriving, and the transformed classroom was full of the sounds of merriment that had been so lacking at Hogwarts that term. They ate and drank, danced, chatted and laughed, and the evening flew by. Luna, Neville and Ginny raised their glasses and lead a toast to absent friends and to the aspiration that the next year might be filled with hope.
As they raised their glasses in return, Parvati commented to Lavender and Seamus, “See, no threesome here.”
Seamus returned her gaze appraisingly and grinned. “Ah, but there could be,” he said, refilling first her glass and then Lavender’s. “There could be…”
* * * * *