Drabble Session, Round 3

[idleleaves]

Harry/Seamus -- lessons in brandy
Neville/Fleur -- "Do they have Chocolate Frogs at Beauxbatons?"
James/Sirius -- firewhiskey

That's all for tonight!

Comments

Hope I'm not too late...

[bluejeanphoenix]

"Do they have Chocolate Frogs at Beauxbatons?"

"Mais oui," Fleur replied, sweetly, "But we say een French, Grenouilles au Chocolat."

"Gren...grenny..." Neville stammered, feeling his cheeks burn.

Fleur gave him an impatient little grin, and then turned back to her group of friends.

The parcel grew heavier and heavier in Neville's hands...he wasn't even sure if she'd noticed he was carrying it. Her friend had noticed...the one with the curly red hair...but she'd just given him a look that seemed divided between pity and disgust, flipped her hair back over her shoulder, and rejoined the very rapid, undecipherable conversation. Every once in a while he caught a word with his rudimentary French..."Boy." "School." "Teacher." But he couldn't hope to begin to follow them at their dizzying pace.

Neville stood there for another three or four seconds, and then did an awkward little nod to Fleur's back, as though to say, "Well, nice chatting with you, take care then," and turned and walked away.

"Don't feel bad," Loony Lovegood said dreamily, startling him. He looked over to discover that she was sitting cross-legged on the stone floor, just behind the heavy oak doors of the Great Hall - that's why he hadn't noticed her...every time the door of the Great Hall opened, she was blocked from view.

Neville didn't know Loon - err, Luna very well. He knew she was a Ravenclaw, and that she was one of Ginny's friends, but that most people thought of her as kind of a joke.

"Then again," he thought to himself miserably, "Most people think of you as kind of a joke."

"The frogs were a clever idea."

"Really?" Neville asked, a last bubble of hope rising in his chest, quelling the dank cold that had settled there.

"Oh, yes," Luna said, her pale blue eyes wide and serene, "I got it. French girl. Frog's legs. Chocolate frogs. Very clever. But I don't think she'd really fancy you. You're not nearly popular enough for her to notice you. Or handsome enough."

Neville was so surprised that anyone would actually say this to him outright, that he wasn't really bothered by it...he just gawped at Luna in disbelief, until finally, she pointed a slim finger at the red-cellophane lilypad he was still clutching.

"Are you going to eat those?"

"Err...no," Neville replied, still shocked.

"Wise idea," Luna said, nodding sagely, "The hopping charm they put on those is very disruptive to the gastrointestinal tract. If you eat one, and then eat a Fizzing Whizbee, it makes your stomach explode. Do you have any Fizzing Whibees?"

Neville was distracted, mid-insanity, by Fleur's tinkling laughter. When he looked over, he saw Fleur and the red-head glance over at him, and then look away quickly.

"I think they might be laughing at us. Or maybe just you. Then again, it could be me. But they're certainly laughing in this direction," Luna concluded.

Neville sighed, and turned his feet towards the Gryffindor common room.