Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or anything you recognize.

Rating: T

Pairing: Albus/OC

Summary: To Emory Chang, before he was anything else, Albus Potter was her best friend's older cousin. Then, as their lives got intertwined with one another, he evolved into the perfect golden boy who was as annoying as he was enigmatic. She got a closer look somewhere along the way and suddenly, he became less and less perfect, but more and more the person she found herself slowly falling for.

Warning: OC.

One

Emory Chang remembered the night before in perfect clarity. And, seeing as the night before was full of details she would rather forget, it wasn't something that she was particularly proud of. Right then, the dark-haired girl wished that she was one of those people whose memory always mysteriously got wiped off after being drunk.

Serious health hazard aside, at least then she wouldn't have to deal with the fact that she had just snogged her best friend's older cousin barely nine hours ago.

Emory couldn't put the blame on her being too inebriated to control her actions, because she definitely wasn't - she never was. She knew her limits and was fully aware of the nasty effects Firewhiskey had on her body, which was why she never tried to push herself past the too-plastered-to-form-coherent-sentences-and-was-acting-like-a-disgrace-to-society line. And it also wasn't because she made a habit of going around and snogging random blokes on a daily basis. Emory only did that when she was surrounded by others who were either too drunk to notice or already busy making out with someone else, meaning when she was at a party.

Which was where she had been last night. A party in the Gryffindor's common room. Emory remembered collapsing on her bed at one in the morning, but she was sure the party lasted longer than that - she just happened to leave early after having a full-on make out session with the Head Boy and feeling that that was enough for a, if nothing else, highly interesting night. Judging by the fact that it was nine in the morning and she had yet to see any of her housemates (save for Molly Weasley, whose eyes she had trouble meeting), it had to be one hell of a party.

She couldn't be too sure, because she had spent the better part of said party nestled in a far corner of the common room, talking (and snogging) with none other than Albus Potter. Never mind the fact that up until before last night they had never had a conversation that lasted more than five minutes, or that Emory was sure in the world of Albus Potter, she existed only as his cousin's best friend, or that he had always seemed to be so ridiculously unreachable and faraway that she had never spared him much thoughts.

Either way, it remained that Emory Chang, both angry and tired from a too long day, had stumbled upon the same couch as Albus Potter and that she had shared with him more than she ever intended to. There was alcohol, there was music, there was this warm feeling creeping its way into her stomach and one thing led to another.

And now she was pacing around the lake, wondering what the bloody hell was she thinking asking Albus if she could kiss him just because their eyes sort of caught one another and the moment was so, so right!

He hadn't actually said yes, Emory remembered. Partly because he had seem shocked by the request, but mainly because she hadn't given him the chance to reply. As soon as the question was in the air, she had leaned over and pressed her lips to his and any protests he could possibly have had drowned in the intensity in which-

It was hard not to think that she had practically taken advantage of him now that she was recounting the events from last night in great details.

But he hadn't pushed you away, the traitorous voice inside her mind pointed out in a sly whisper. Emory grimaced.

She wished that he had, though, because no matter how embarrassing that might be, it would save her a lot of trouble later on. She could just claim that she wasn't thinking clearly and apologize to him and that would be that. They could both move on with their lives without much concern.

But that hadn't been that, because he had snogged her back and he was Albus Potter, Hogwarts' Golden Boy and she didn't know what to think about that.

Any other bloke and she wouldn't have thought twice about it. this wasn't the first time that Emory returned from a party after making out with someone. But she had always been careful about the ones that she fooled around with. She would never, for example, go anywhere near any of Hugo's cousins, her teammates, or better yet, the bloody Head Boy. It complicated things immensely and she wasn't one to chase after complications.

Which now brought up the question of how she was going to deal with this. Should she avoid him and waited until it was no longer at the fore front of their minds? Emory pushed that suggestion away almost as soon as she thought of it. The Gryffindor had never been one for avoidance and she wouldn't start now simply because of a guy! More than that, she felt that if she didn't address the problem and figure out a way to solve it right away then it would bother her until she gone mad.

Not to mention, Albus didn't struck her as the type to snog a girl and pretend it never happened after.

So really, there was only ever one answer to how she was going to deal with this.

It was in her intention to seek out Albus right after she returned to the castle. However, what Emory actually did was returning to her dorm, stalling about by pretending to rearrange the books on her nightstand in alphabetic order and then went down for an early lunch, honorable Gryffindor that she was.

Emory was sure that some day when reflecting back on her actions, she would feel properly ashamed of herself.

But at that moment, all she could think of was how Albus would respond and if that wasn't scary then she didn't know what was.

"I haven't seen you all morning," her best friend, Reese Thomas, said casually as she sat down next to Emory and helped herself to some mashed potatoes.

Emory pointed out through a mouth-full of pork chops, "You were in bed all morning."

"Probably because I didn't sleep until five a.m."

"What did you-"

"I saw you snogging Albus Potter last night." That effectively shut her up. Reese smirked before continuing, "Don't worry. I'm pretty sure I was the only one. Everyone else was-well, you know how it is. You are lucky Tori Anderson wasn't there last night."

Tori Anderson was a sixth-year Ravenclaw and had made it her life mission to make sure that everyone knew that Albus was hers. Never mind that Albus himself did not seem to be aware of the fact that they were boyfriend and girlfriend.

"She's harmless. Most of the time." Emory didn't care much for Tori or her questionable antics, but she would gladly discuss Tori with Reese for the rest of lunch if it meant distracting her from what she had seen. The last thing she needed was Reese gushing about how adorable it would be if she and Albus started dating, because her friend was a hopeless romantic like that.

"Nice try. Now does this mean-"

"No, we are definitely not going out. Honestly, Reese, I have flings all the time. Why should this time be any different?"

"Because this time it was Albus Potter," the blonde replied without missing a beat, "And you know what I think about those flings of yours. But we are not here to discuss that. So spill. How in the bloody hell did you two end up snogging like there was no tomorrow?"

Emory shrugged.

"We were just talking and then you know-it's just one of those caught-up-in-the-moment kind of thing. It didn't mean anything." Then she narrowed her eyes, "And what did you mean 'it was Albus Potter'?"

"Come on, Em, you know exactly what I mean. I know you are slow-"

"Hey!"

"But you can't be that slow!" Reese wrung her hands about for good effect and Emory had a sneaking suspicion if she could do it, Emory would slap her after each word just to get her points across.

"Ok, first of all, that shit that you just spew, that's offensive, alright? That hurts my feelings." Reese rolled her eyes. "And second, I'm not going to pretend that I understand whatever you have just implied, because I don't. I also don't understand why Albus Potter snogged me back or why that ever happened in the first place, but I would just have to live with that and figure out a way to untangle this-this bullocks, because honestly it is driving me crazy that I couldn't have been smart enough to choose some uncomplicated guys so it wouldn't be any different and now I have to talk to Albus sodding Potter!" Emory was breathing heavily by the time she was done. She could feel her face flushing from whatever overdramatic emotion she was experience and she didn't like it.

Reese just stared at her. Emory took a deep breath.

"Let's just pretend I haven't said anything, alright?" The dark haired girl half expected for her friend to push it - because that would be an incredibly Reese-like thing to do - but surprisingly Reese let the matter drop with a light-hearted "Sounds good to me."

The day was getting weirder and weirder.

The conversation settled back into a comfortable normalcy after that, with Reese telling Emory about her latest crush and the perfect life they would eventually have together. Undoubtedly, her romantic fantasy would not amount to anything more than that and would crumble to dust by next week, but Emory let her friend have her say. In a way, she could understand why they were close in the first place - they were both hopeless when it came to matter of the hearts. Reese, because she was preoccupied with chasing after too many ideals and Emory, because she had no ideals to begin with.

And she was dead afraid of commitments.

With bellies full of pudding and pork chops, the two Gryffindors got up to find their other friend, Hugo Weasley, and, afterward, to head down to the lake for a rare afternoon of sunshine and light breeze. Just as they were about to approach Hugo, Emory caught sight of a mop of messy black hair and knew that she could no longer put off what she had to do. She told Reese to go ahead before she made way toward Albus Potter.

When Emory approached the Slytherin table, he was sitting among a group of whom she assumed to be his friends, one of which she recognized as Quidditch captain Scorpius Malfoy. They were in the middle of a discussion about one thing or another, so the fifth year waited patiently for the conversation to die down a bit before clearing her throat and stepping closer.

"Albus, can I talk to you for a second?" Everyone turned in her direction, including him, but he didn't stare at her the way his friends did. Emory reckoned it must be rather weird for them to see her here, asking for Albus of all people, mainly because she had never talked to any of them in her entire life.

Except Albus, for obvious reason. And Scorpius, because they had ran into each other once or twice being best friends with Rose and Hugo.

"Sure. I'll see you guys in a bit," he said to his friends and stood up. Emory had to crane her neck up to look at him, because she was a midget while Albus happened to be among the tallest in his year. "Outside?" he asked, gesturing towards the entrance of the Great Hall.

"Yeah," she nodded and started walking, all the while contemplating what she should say next. It was fruitless doing, seeing as she had the bad habit of blurting things out before she had the chance to censor them and when she wasn't busy doing that, she tended to talk in a horribly blunt manner that was no less worse.

This was proven true, as as soon as they were out of earshot, Emory turned towards Albus and said, "I snogged you last night."

"I rather like to think it was a joined effort," he replied easily, leaning against the wall in a relaxed manner. His manner made Emory wondered if her reaction had been a bit overdramatic, seeing as he didn't seem to be bothered by it that much.

"Yeah, but I started it."

"I know what you are going to say."

The dark-haired girl blinked, "You do?"

"Yeah, I mean, I have heard about you-"

"You have heard about me," Emory repeated flatly. Why did she ever think he was a perfect golden boy again?

Albus' eyes widened in alarm, "No, I mean-well, that came out wrong. I didn't mean it like-"

"-like it's a bad thing?"

"Not like that, no. What I meant to say is that, I understand that it was a one-time thing. It was like that to me, too. We were just-"

"-caught up in the moment," Emory finished and he smiled.

"Exactly!"

"Wow, phew, thank Merlin!" Albus raised his brows at that, looking mildly amused.

"Why do you seem so relieved?"

"I was-well, I was just afraid that you would start suggesting that we go out or something," she said, and then she realized how that must have sounded, "Not that you are repulsive-or anything-or that the idea of dating you disgusts me that much-"

"-wow, you sure know how to chat up a bloke, don't you?"

"-it's just, I'm not looking for something like that right now. So that's that, I guess." Emory finished and he laughed. Right then, she reckoned there was some truth to all that talk about how attractive Albus Potter was.

"I'll try to restrain myself then."

"You should. Otherwise I can't make any guarantee over my reaction."

"Dully noted," he said in a solemn manner, "Is there anything else?"

"Well, I'm not sure if you remember them or not but about the stuff that I said last night-"

"My lips are sealed."

"Just forget about them, ok? They are just-well, they are nothing." Many of them weren't nothing and Merlin, she couldn't believe she babbled about it to Albus without a care in the world - when not even her best friends were privy to some of those information. "Sorry you had to sit through that."

"You don't have to apologize. I can't even remember what you have said last night anymore," Albus grinned, before adding with a mischievous light in his eyes, "You know, when I really think about it, you have practically taken advantage of me-"

Emory made a face. "Urgh! Don't say that! That-that sounds like-like I'm some sort of molester or something…" she spluttered. Albus practically doubled over at her words and he was attracting a few too many odd glances from the other students for her comfort. "Hey! Cut it out! What's so funny about it anyway?"

"Molester-that's a good one!" He leaned against the wall, still smiling as he took in the scowl on her face. "Relax, I'm just messing with you, alright?"

"Whatever," she mumbled, before checking her watch. "I have to go now, or my friends will start looking for me. I'll see you around."

"Yeah, you too, Emory," Albus gave her a lazy wave.

Emory turned away before it became apparent that the way Albus said her name was doing weird things to her stomach.

Tbc.