Harry, Ron, Neville, Dean, and Seamus sat in their pajamas, up in their dorm room, and gathered on Ron's bed. All of them had been quite shocked by Dumbledore's announcement, but were mostly content with their partners. Harry had been paired with Ron, which they were both fine with, and Seamus had been paired with Dean. The one person of their dorm who hadn't been paired with another in it was Neville.

"Who's your partner, Neville?" Dean asked, curious as the other boys.

"Oh, well I was one of the last picked so I ended up with someone from another house," Neville hoped the others would accept that answer and leave him be.

"But who?" Seamus crushed Neville's hopes.

Neville kept quiet. It wasn't that he was terribly upset with his partner. He really didn't mind, it was the fact that the others were likely to get much more upset.

"Come on tell us!" Ron prodded, elbowing Neville lightly.

"Fine!" but Neville only continued in a whisper, "Malfoy."

"Who? Speak up."

"Its fine if he doesn't want to tell us," Harry was the only boy who wasn't nagging on Neville. Neville gave him a grateful smile.

"It can't be that big of a deal!"

"Unless it was a Slytherin."

"That'd be terrible!" Seamus agreed.

"Well was it?"

Neville finally gave, "It was Malfoy alright. Happy now?"

"Malfoy?" Both Ron and Seamus shouted this nearly at once. In response both Harry and Dean smacked them on the back of the head. Both of them then asked, "What was that for?" at nearly the same time.

"Now you see why he didn't want to say. He knew you'd act like that," Dean explained.

"You were curious too," Seamus retorted rubbing his head.

"But I only asked once. See the difference?" Seamus mumbled but said nothing. Dean turned to Neville, "What did Malfoy think? Did he say anything?"

Neville shook his head, "He didn't say anything much. He stared at Dumbledore for a bit, then stomped off sulking."

"Really? No yelling or threatening to tell his father?" Ron asked.

"Nope. He didn't even look at me when he left."

"Right git! Not even acknowledging you!" Seamus found something else to fuss about.

"You ignore him too, ya know," Dean pointed out.

"That's different!" Seamus protested punching Dean's arm, "Right Neville?"

"Yeah, I know you just get distracted."

Seamus almost protested but kept quiet about it changing the subject, "If he's mean we'll beat 'im up for ya!"

"Or blow them up," Dean whispered in Harry's direction.

"I heard that!" Seamus proceed to assault Dean again, though he wasn't trying to hurt the dark skinned boy. Dean only smiled. Once the pair finished wrestling Harry got them back on topic, "Hopefully this won't last long."

"He might not be that bad," Neville commented, rather quietly.

"That bad?! He'll be awful!" Ron did not share Neville's optimism.

"You're not helping Ron." Harry sighed.

"It's true!" Ron retorted.

The group continued to talk until bedtime. Seamus and Dean, as well as Harry and Ron, would occasionally get into brief fights making Neville somewhat like a third, or maybe fifth, wheel. He was used to that so he didn't really mind, besides Seamus would sometimes use him as a shield so he couldn't say they were ignoring him.

Draco wasn't sure what he thought about being paired with Longbottom. It was a heck of a lot better than being stuck with Potter or Weasley and it wasn't as if Longbottom would be that much of a pain, but still. Every time he was asked who he had been paired with he ignored the question or simply said, "You don't know him." He couldn't have anyone finding out, especially from his house.

Please review. Please let me know if there are other groups besides Neville and Draco you'd like to see!