A banging noise on the door stopped all activity in the greenhouse.
"Neville?" a voice outside called. Neville recognized it as Hermione's. "Are you in there?"
He cleared his throat several times before he could make a response.
"Yes."
His voice sounded more strained than he'd been going for.
"Why is this door locked?" Hermione called through the door.
Muffled curses were whispered inside the greenhouse before Neville called out his reply.
"No reason!"
That sounded unconvincing even to him.
"Neville? Is there someone in there with you? I thought I heard noises before."
More muffled cursing.
"It was just the plants, Hermione."
Again, he didn't sound at all convincing.
"Can you let me in, Neville? Or I could just unlock it myself to save you the trouble."
Her voice proved she didn't believe his lie any more than he did.
"No," he cried out quickly. "Just give me a minute and I'll get it."
There was some mad scrambling for discarded things. Then, Neville did a double check and finally opened the door.
Hermione pushed past him and looked around quickly, obviously searching for the other person, who she was sure was in here. Her sharp eyes scanned the greenhouse and finally settled on something under one of the tables.
"What's that?" she asked, pointing to the offending object, though she clearly knew what it was. Neville inwardly cursed. He innocently squinted in the direction of her point.
"Why, it looks like a Slytherin scarf."
Hermione narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously.
"I wonder how it got there," she said, giving him a look that said she clearly had her own ideas on the subject. He hoped she couldn't see him swallow nervously.
"Probably got left there after class."
"It was warm out today. No one would need their scarf," she pointed out logically. Again, Neville cursed silently.
"Yesterday was windy though. Maybe it's from yesterday."
He applauded his quick thinking.
"I suppose," she said slowly, obviously not believing him.
After a pause, she continued, "I was supposed to tell you that Seamus' birthday party was starting, but I can tell you're busy down here."
Neville could tell from the way she said 'busy' that she knew exactly what he was 'busy' doing, despite his lies.
"Er, yeah," he said. "I'll be up later though."
Hermione once again fixed her eyes on him. She seemed to be searching his features. Searching for what, he wasn't sure. Whatever is was she seemed to find it because she smiled.
"Don't be too long. Seamus will expect you."
She began moving back to the door and Neville moved along with her. As he was shutting the door behind her, she whispered, "Don't keep Blaise out too late. We wouldn't want him in trouble."
Then she smiled again and walked quickly back towards the castle.
Neville closed the door in shock and locked it again. As soon as the latch clicked, a shuffling noise came from underneath one of the far tables.
Blaise Zabini's face poked out from under it. He crawled out and stood up.
"Finally," he said, as he brushed dirt and leaves out from his light brown hair, "I thought she'd never leave."
Neville frowned slightly. "She's my friend, you know."
"I know," Blaise reassured, with one of him rare grins. "It was nice of her to get you for the party."
Neville smiled and began to cross the greenhouse.
"Are you going to go to that party?" Blaise asked, when Neville was standing in front of him.
"Later," Neville said softly. Then, he pressed his lips against the deliciously pink ones in front of him.
Blaise moaned slightly when Neville pulled away to look at the boy in front of him.
"Much later," he whispered, before tangling his fingers in the light brown hair and pulling Blaise in forcefully for another kiss.
~ * * * ~
Forty-five minutes later, they were straightening their clothes when Blaise bent down to fish his scarf out from under the table.
"Why did you bring that? It's warm today, plus it almost got us caught," Neville asked, slyly leaving out the fact that Hermione knew anyway.
Blaise just straightened and smirked before wrapping the green and silver scarf around his neck.
Neville just rolled his eyes good-heartedly and moved to the door. When Blaise was ready, Neville opened the door and the boys stepped out onto the grounds.
The first thing Neville noticed was the drop in temperature. Then, he was hit by a blast of wind. He brought a hand up to his collar and held his cloak closer to his neck, trying desperately to keep the cold air out of his clothes. When Blaise spoke, his tone was light and slightly mocking.
"Bet you wish you had a scarf now."