Being with Neville is fantastic and he always makes her day better. She rushes down to the Great Hall for breakfast every day now so that she can say hi to him before they eat breakfast at their separate tables. Her heart hurts a little bit when she sees him across the Great Hall instead of right next to her as he should be. She is starting to see more inter-house mingling at meals and it makes her think that if people knew about her and Neville, they might be able to sit together at meals. This isn’t the first time she has considered making their relationship public. Every time she walks with him in the hallways and has to refrain from holding his hand, every time she wants to hug him when she sees him outside of class, and every time that she sees other couples around school, her heart hurts knowing that she and Neville are keeping their relationship a secret.
It was seeing Harry and Draco together after dinner that made her want to talk to Neville about making their relationship public. She is scared to bring it up. What if he is ashamed of dating her? What if he doesn’t want to be seen dating Draco’s leftovers? What if people think that she isn’t good enough to be dating him? Her insecurities are raging as she sits in class before dinner. What will she do if he doesn’t want to make their relationship public? Would she keep dating him privately while knowing he doesn’t want anyone to know they are together? Or would she have to end the relationship and go back to the depressing life she lived before? Knowing Neville made her happier than she ever thought she could be.
He smiles at her as she walks up to him. She smiles back nervously and is basically shaking when she reaches him. He trades his smile for a confused look, noticing her anxiety. He takes her hands and kisses them. Her heart soars and she feels less anxious. He showed affection to her in public without hesitation. She pulls him into the nearest alcove quickly before she kisses him. He kisses her back hard and she can feel the passion in the kiss. She tries to keep the kiss going as long as she can to avoid the question she wants to ask. He pulls back and she blurts it out before she can lose the nerve. “Do you want to make our relationship public? I just really want to sit by you at dinners and hold your hand in the hallway and be with you without hiding our relationship” She was talking at the speed of light and was shaking by the end of the sentence. He lights up before taking her chin carefully in his hands and kissing her softly. She melts into the kiss and kisses him back to try to convey the emotion she feels. “Yes, yes I want to show everyone how lovely you are and sit by you at meals and so much more” he whispered to her. Her smile is enormous by the time he finishes his sentence. She smiles when she kisses him and drags him out of the alcove. They walk to dinner hand in hand and with huge smiles. There were a few head turns when they walked into the Great Hall and sat down at the end of the Gryffindor table. She cannot believe that she is sitting with her boyfriend at the Gryffindor table in front of everyone. It is nerve-wracking but she feels a bit more confident with Neville by her side.
The shock of their relationship traveled around Hogwarts quickly but the buzz faded just as quickly. She felt like she was living in the sunlight and dancing in the clouds. Neville seemed like he was also feeling amazing about their public relationship until one night in the library. “Some people have been making rude and disgusting comments about us” he whispered in her ear. “I didn’t want to tell you because I didn’t want to hurt you but you should know before someone says something directly to you” Her body went ridged as he revealed what they had said about her, about them. She had heard people call her a whore before, tell her that she wasn’t good enough to date Draco, that she was an emotionless slut that only wanted people for sex. Somehow hearing it now, from his mouth and knowing that people thought she wasn’t good enough for him and that she was using him broke her heart. Her instinct was to stand up, run, and try to block out what was happening. Try to block out Neville as if he was the source of the problem. But he wasn’t the source of the problem and instead, she buried her face in his chest while she sobbed. He wrapped his arms around her and whispered reassuring words as her body shook with sobs.
As she calmed down, he held her tighter as if he was trying to heal her by holding her. It was definitely making her feel a bit better. He was in this with her and didn’t seem to be leaving her. She cringed at the thought of him leaving because of a few comments. He wasn’t that shallow and he was tougher than that. He could handle a few bad comments even if they were said right to his face. He laid them down on the couch and held her close. Everything faded away into the background as she felt his arms around her and a kiss placed on the crown of her head. She distantly thought that it was a lot easier to handle the horrid comments with him by her side. She also thought that she didn’t mind if someone saw them cuddling when everyone in the school already knew about them.
She woke up to him calling her name softly and rubbing her arm softly. She turned into his chest before looking up at him and smiling before stretching out and getting up. He helps her pack up her stuff before grabbing his stuff and her hand. She followed him as he led them to the Gryffindor common room. She was a bit shy about being seen there as he wasn’t sneaking her in as he usually did. The fat lady still looked at her in disgust but she hoped that the fat lady may be getting used to her a little bit. The fat lady let them in and she was lit up with anxiety. It was as if everyone turned their heads to look at her at the same time. She felt everyone’s eyes on her and she held her head up high because goddamn it, she was Pansy Parkinson. Neville strolled right through there still hand in hand with her before climbing the stairs to his dorm with her in tow. She looked back to see a lot of perplexed faces. Turning back around she went into his dorm like she had done several times before. This time, however, she was met with Ron’s disgusted face and Dean’s judgemental stare. She shrunk back into herself a little bit but Neville pulled her toward his bed. She sat down on his bed and he turned away from her. Her confusion was short-lived when he turned to his roommates and confronted them. “I don’t ever want to see you look at us like that again, You are supposed to be a few of my closest friends and now you are disgusted at who I am dating? I know you have been talking about me and Pansy behind our backs. True friends would be supportive of any relationship I am in, no matter who it’s with.” Neville is almost yelling by the end. They are slack-jawed by the end of Neville's confrontation and he turns his back to them and smiles at her before climbing into bed with her. He pulls her down into his arms to lie next to him. She buries herself into his chest and kisses where his heart is. She whispers “Thank you for standing up for us” She feels him smile against her and his arms tighten around her. He closes the curtains around them and flips them over. He kisses her hard and she kisses him back just as hard. She holds his face as he presses kisses around her face before placing a final kiss on her lips.
He flops onto his back and pulls her up onto his chest. She settles in and as she is drifting off to sleep she hears him say “This is where I belong, with you”.