They began on the opposite side of the room to Sirius and Harry. Unfortunately that meant they began with the Malfoys who had congregated with the Notts, and the Wilkes. Blaise Zabini stood next to Draco but his mother was thankfully nowhere in sight. Probably stalking Sirius, Neville thought with amusement as his Gran started the overtures of small talk.
"Longbottom." Draco sneered.
"Malfoy." Neville gave him a cautious nod.
"Longbottom Manor is great," Theodore Nott said, "I didn't realise it was so big."
Neville nodded. "All my ancestors added to it except for my Dad."
Draco shifted vaguely uncomfortable with the reference to Neville's parentage, which given his aunt and uncle had been the one to confine Neville's father to a long term treatment ward was understandable. "My father says the grounds here are very extensive."
"We have a good spread." Neville said. "Most of it is farmland; we have a small forest and some deer. There's a freshwater stream and lake with trout – my Uncle Algie likes to fish. And then we have the formal gardens and the greenhouses."
"I had no idea you had so much land." Blaise commented.
Neville shrugged. "We also have a holiday cottage in Cornwall, an agricultural farm in the Peak district and a hunting cabin in Scotland. And that's just the property in the UK. We have more abroad."
Nott and Zabini looked suitably impressed.
"Well, they do say land rich and magic poor." Draco said snootily.
Neville smiled benignly. Draco was just skirting the edges of acceptable commentary; it would be easy for Neville to take insult. "I think you'll find that's not entirely accurate, Malfoy. I've been using my father's wand but I've gotten my own now and my magic is much easier."
"How did you get around the underage restriction?" asked Blaise.
"Lord Black arranged an exemption with the Ministry." Neville explained.
"My Dad does the same every year on the grounds that I'm the last of the Nott line and need to be able to protect myself." Nott commented easily. "Most purebloods can get exemptions, Zabini. Hasn't your Mum applied for you?"
"That would mean her acknowledging my existence." Blaise said dryly.
Neville suppressed the frown. That didn't sound like Blaise had a good home life and Neville's compassion stirred. "Are you going to the World Cup?" He asked Blaise directly.
"He's attending with the House of Black." Draco snapped.
Blaise rolled his eyes at Draco's behaviour. "Draco's father invited myself and Nott to keep Draco company so he wouldn't be surrounded by Gryffindors."
The insult to Draco (for not being able to deal with Gryffindors on his own) and to Neville (that he was a Gryffindor) was carefully hidden by his moderate breezy tone. Very Slytherin, Neville thought with more amusement than he probably should have had for the comment.
"Well, I'll see you then as my Gran and I will also be attending as guests of the Houses of Black and Potter." Neville replied, peripherally aware that his Gran was about to move onto the next grouping.
Three groupings later, they happened upon the Weasleys, the Inglebees, and the Diggorys.
"Oh, hi, Neville," Ginny barely looked at him as she peered around him clearly searching for someone else, "where's Harry?"
"Doing the other side of the room with Simeon and Sirius." Neville pointed at the trio and winced as he realised they were surrounded by Lord Selwyn and Lord Gibbon.
"Do you think he'll get here soon?" asked Lydia, flicking her hair. Her twin brother Matthew sighed and rolled his eyes at Neville in silent apology.
"Probably not for a while." Neville said, wondering whether Ginny or Lydia had any idea how close their behaviour was to insulting him from an etiquette perspective.
Cedric seemed to clue in because he cleared his throat and drew Neville's attention. "It's a shame you and Harry have to do the rounds."
Neville shrugged. "Part of the job." He gestured over to where Hermione stood with Susan and Hannah, the others having been gathered back to their families. "At least we had a mini-break."
"Sorry, Nev. We would have come over but Mum wanted us to stay together as a family." Ron added, a pink tone to his cheeks bringing out his freckles.
"Understandable," Neville said, "you didn't miss much, we were just talking predictions for the World Cup."
"Ireland has the best Chasers; Bulgaria's got the best Seeker." Ron commented with enthusiastic authority. "I'd say Ireland will win but Krum will get the Snitch."
"You're probably right." Cedric agreed. "Krum has a reputation for ending things if the game isn't going their way. I can't wait for Thursday. I really want to learn some new Seeker moves for the Quidditch season."
"Are you thinking of trying out professionally, Ced?" Matthew asked, his face alive with genuine interest and curiosity.
Cedric grimaced a little. "I'd like to but I know my Dad wants me settled into a job at the Ministry."
"My oldest brother Bill says you have to do a job you want to do for yourself rather than what someone else wants you to do," Ron said sagely, "I'm hoping to try out for Keeper this year, get on the team, try out for a professional team and hopefully go into management."
Neville suppressed a smile at Ron's serious tone.
"Wow," Cedric said with a grin, "you have it all worked out! I guess I should do some thinking. I have to admit I love Quidditch but I'm not sure I'm good enough for a professional career."
"I'm going to try out for Chaser." Ginny jumped into the conversation. "Maybe I won't get onto the team for a couple of years but I still want to try out."
"You could try out for Seeker." Cedric suggested. "You have the right build for it."
Ginny blushed. "That's Harry's spot. I want to play on the team with him not challenge him for his position."
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