For the Quidditch League Competition (write about a rare Gryffindor/Slytherin pair); Fanfiction, School of Imagination and Creativity (Marketing - write about an uncommon pair); Camp Potter (Archery - write about someone's first love); the If You Dare Challenge (497. Detection); the Pairing Diversity Bootcamp (35. purple); the 10 times 10 Challenge (Magical Object - Cauldron) and the All Kinds of Love Competition (Non-Canon Love)

NOTE: This is AU in terms of the fact that Snape survived the war - and, of course, there's also the fact that this is a Neville/Blaise :P

"LONGBOTTOM!"

Neville winced as Snape stalked towards him, the glare on his face enough to send first-years running for cover.

"Longbottom," he snarled, "My directions were simple. Make a cauldron of Veritaserum. Would you like to tell me what exactly you have made?"

"W- Well," he stuttered.

Snape cut him off. "This, Longbottom, is decidedly not Veritaserum. For starters, it is purple instead of clear. And how in Merlin's name did you make it so thick it resembles mud?" he asked, voice dangerously low.

Before Neville could say anything in his defense, Snape continued in low voice, throwing Seamus – who was sitting next to Neville – a murderous glare. "I see now that I was wrong in letting you sit wherever you wanted to, Longbottom. The Headmistress and Professor Sprout insisted that you be a part of this class, so I cannot throw you out as I would so dearly like to. But I will make sure that such an incident is not repeated! Nott!" he barked, "Switch seats with Longbottom! Maybe Zabini will be able to stop him from doing something that will kill us all!"

Unable to believe that he had gotten off so easily, Neville quickly gathered his supplies and moved to sit with Blaise Zabini before Snape changed his mind and decided to put him detention for the rest of the year.

"Oh, and Longbottom?" Neville froze at the sound of Snape's voice. "Fifty points from Gryffindor for being utterly abysmal at Potions," he continued. Sighing in relief at the fact that Snape wasn't about to kill him, he quickly took his seat next to Zabini.

As he sat down, the Slytherin regarded him coolly. "I'll stop you from blowing up the class if the need arises, Longbottom," he said as a means of greeting, "But that doesn't mean I'm about to correct every little mistake you make. You're going to have to pass this class on your own."

Blaise Zabini was a mystery.

The son of the woman who was possibly the most famous Black Widow in the wizarding world, it had been expected that, like Malfoy, he would become part of the Death Eaters. Yet he had somehow refrained from doing so, becoming one of the only students who had successfully managed to remain neutral throughout the entire war, even when the Carrows were teaching.

Most of the returning DA members had a particular hatred of the students who had sat on the sidelines while they were being tortured by Death Eaters, but the persistent memory Neville had of Blaise during the past year. He had been running away from the Carrows after painting a wall with "Dumbledore's Army – Still Recruiting" when he had bumped into Blaise. Those few moments had cost him – Alecto nearly caught up with him, and while he had managed to escape, she had held up Blaise to ask him where he was.

He was certain the other boy would give him away. He had no loyalty to the DA, and there was no reason for him to put his neck on the line. And yet, for some reason, he had lied to Alecto, pointing her to the opposite direction of where he had gone.

After that, Neville couldn't find it in himself to hate Blaise.

Working with Blaise was interesting, to say the least.

He wasn't a very talkative person, and beyond preventing him from adding something explosive to his potion, he didn't interact with Neville much.

So it surprised him when Blaise approached him.

"Longbottom?" Blaise asked him during a class where they were working on the Draught of Living Death.

"Hmm?" Neville replied, distracted by the delicacy required while making the potion.

"You're good at Herbology, aren't you?"

Surprised at the line of questioning, Neville turned his attention away from the potion. "Yeah, I am," he answered. "Why?"

To his further surprise, Blaise looked slightly sheepish. "Well…I kind of need help with the essay that Spout set for next week. You know, the one on how Snargluff pods aid in the growth of Venomous Tentaculas. I was wondering if you could-"

"I'd love to help," Neville said, cutting Blaise off. He knew that asking for help was a blow to the pride of any Slytherin, and judging by the smile that Blaise sent his way, he appreciated the fact that Neville hadn't let him finish his request. "We'll work on it after Potions?" he asked.

"Sure," Blaise replied. "Oh, you might want to powder your asphodel a bit more. It's still a bit too thick for it to really affect the potion."

Neville turned back to his ingredients, a smile playing on his lips. It seemed that the two of them might be on their way to becoming friends.

"Why are you taking Herbology in the first place?" Neville asked curiously as he searched the Herbology section of the library for the required text-books. "I've never had the impression that you're particularly interested in it."

"I could say the same about you and Potions, you know," Blaise countered.

"Sprout's thinking of retiring in a few years," Neville revealed, grabbing the book he needed. As the two of them walked towards a free table, he continued, "She asked me if I was willing to train under her to replace her when she does leave. But you need at least an A in all the core subjects in your NEWTS if you want to teach, plus an O in the subject you plan to become a Professor for, of course, so I had to take Potions."

Blaise looked flabbergasted at Neville's explanation. "That's – a surprise," he said. "I'm taking Herbology for nearly the same reason you are – Snape offered me an apprenticeship under him so that he can finally retire from teaching like he's always wanted, but as you noted, I need an A in the core subjects."

Neville let out a soft laugh at the coincidence. "Well, as we're both working towards similar goals, what do you say we help each other out? You stop me from failing Potions, and I'll explain whatever you want me to in Herbology," he offered.

"It's a deal," Blaise smiled at him.

"I just don't understand it!" Neville exclaimed, pacing the length of the room.

After returning to Hogwarts for another attempt at their ruined school year, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Dean, Seamus, Parvati, Lavender, Ginny, Luna and Neville had all agreed to meet up at least once a day after classes were over. It was sometimes difficult for the eight seventh years to make it, but their friendship was important to them, and none of them wanted to see themselves drift away like so many Hogwarts friendships had, so they always made it.

"Have the Nargles gotten to you again, Neville?" Luna asked him calmly. "They make your mind fuzzy, you know. It makes it hard to understand things if you've got a bad infestation of Nargles."

"It's not Nargles, Luna," Neville said, forcing himself to stay calm. It wasn't Luna's fault that he hadn't told her – or anyone, really – what was happening to him outside of this room. "It's Blaise."

"Zabini?" Ron asked, suddenly interested in the conversation. "What's he gone and done now?"

"Nothing!" Neville said sharply, annoyed by Ron's accusing tone. "Nothing," he repeated again, this time calmer. "You know Snape's partnered me with him for Potions, right? Well, I've been tutoring his in Herbology in exchange for his help in Potions, and now – argh!" he exclaimed, throwing his hands up.

The girls exchanged knowing looks. "Why have you been tutoring him, Nev?" Hermione asked gently, "I didn't know you knew him that well."

Neville sighed. "We both want to teach at Hogwarts," he explained, calmed down by Hermione's gentle tone. "And to do that, we need to get at least an A on all our NEWTS apart from the required O in the subject we want to teach. Since I have problems with Potions and he has problems with Herbology, we both agreed that helping each other was the best solution."

"So what's the problem?" Ginny asked.

"It's – every time I see him or talk to him- I don't know, I just want to smile," Neville struggled to explain. "And when I hear his voice…" he trailed off, but he didn't need to say anything else.

The boys were sporting matching smirks, and the five girls looked like they were holding in giggles. It only served to annoy Neville.

"What?" he snapped, irritated by their knowing looks.

"Have you ever been in love, Nev?" Parvati asked.

"What does that have anything to do with this?"

"Close your eyes," Luna said, ignoring Neville's question, "And picture Blaise. Picture his smile, picture him talking to you, and tell me what you feel."

Looking suspiciously at Luna, Neville did as she asked. He knew her well enough to know that nothing would deter her once she was fixated on an idea, and he also knew that she had decided that he was going to as she had asked, and nothing would change her mind.

He closed his eyes, imagining Blaise the way Luna had asked him to. And as he did so, his mind constructed the image of the two of them studying in the library, Blaise telling him little anecdotes of his childhood. He couldn't stop the smile that spread across his face, and he could feel his heart start to beat faste- oh.

He opened his eyes to see Lavender smiling at him. "There you go!" she exclaimed cheerfully. "You've finally figured it out."

"B- But he's a Slytherin!" Neville stuttered in protest. "I can't-"

"Theo's a Slytherin too," Luna interjected, "And none of you batted an eye when I told you I was dating him, did you?"

"Yeah, but he fought on our side!" Neville argued.

"And Blaise did what he could to help," Ginny countered calmly. "You said so yourself last year."

"You can't help who you fall in love with, Nev," Hermione murmured, putting a supportive hand on his arm. "No one's going to hate you loving a Slytherin."

Looking around the room, all he saw were supportive faces. "We're behind you no matter what you decided, Neville," Harry said. "But if you want my advice, I'd say go for it. Don't throw a chance at love away."

"Besides, if you do ask him out, you'll win me ten galleons!" Seamus exclaimed.

Neville turned to look at him. "What are you talking about?" he asked, confused.

"Seamus and Terry Boot have a bet on which way you swing. Shay thinks you're gay, Terry thinks you prefer girls," Dean explained. "I told them you're bi, but they wanted to keep the bet going, so they decided that depending on which gender you date first, they'll decide a winner."

Neville threw Seamus an unimpressed look. The other boy just grinned back at him.

"So!" Hermione announced. "That's settled then! Neville, you'll tell us if you decide to make a move, right?" she asked.

Neville nodded in agreement.

"Brilliant!" Parvati chimed in. "Now that we're done with that, why don't we talk about Seamus and Dean's love lives!"

As the two boys started to protest, Neville smiled. No matter what happened with him and Blaise, at least he knew that he wasn't going to lose this, the easy camaraderie and friendship he had with these people he had known for what felt like his whole life.

Neville walked into the library, textbook in hand, trying to control his sudden onset of nerves. After a lot of cajoling, he had finally decided that he was going to ask Blaise on a date today, and the prospect terrified him. He didn't know what would happen if he was rejected – at the very least, it would probably mean the end of their friendship, which he didn't know if he could stand. And if they continued to be just friends, he didn't know how he'd manage to see Blaise every day, knowing that the other boy felt nothing more for him than friendship.

But- that was something he refused to think about until he had to. Taking a deep breath, he strode forward towards the table Blaise was sitting at, waiting for him.

"Hey!" the other boy smiled, looking up from the book he was buried in as Neville approached him.

"Hi," Neville murmured back, nerves back in full force. "Shall we start?"

"Of course," Blaise replied, putting away his books and pulling out a sheet of parchment and a quill and ink.

Putting all thoughts of what he was about to do aside, Neville buried himself in Herbology and the feeling of Blaise at his side for what could possibly be the last time.

After an hour of study, Neville reached out and closed the books. "I think that's enough for today," he murmured, anxious all over again.

Apparently, it was evident on his face, because he reached out to cover Neville's hand with his own, and asked, "What's wrong?"

Neville sighed and gathered up all of his courage. He was Gryffindor! He had defied Voldemort and killed his snake and run the DA in secret for a year, he would be able to do this and face any consequences that arose as a result of it.

"I was wondering," he mumbled, before wincing. He had to sound more confident than that. Taking one more deep breath, he tried again. "I was wondering if you would like to go to Hogsmeade with me next weekend?" he asked, trying not to sound too desperate.

Blaise smiled, a slow, gentle smile. "And here I was trying to get the courage to ask you," he murmured. "I guess we know why you were the one who was sorted into Gryffindor and not me, don't we?"

Neville looked at Blaise, unable to comprehend what the other boy was saying. But as the other boy's words sunk into his brain, he felt a matching smile start to form on his face.

And as he smiled at Blaise, Neville thought that this might just be what love felt like.

I hope you guys liked it! As always, please don't forget to drop a review on your way out :)