I've always wanted to know more about the life of Alice and Frank Longbottom but I've had a hard time finding fanfics about their lives during their early years at Hogwarts. So here is my attempt to tell their story and a few other wizard folks stories as well. Warning! This story doesn't only focus on Alice Fortescue. There will be specific chapters with her friend POV's as well.

I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters except the non-canon ones. Everything else belongs to J.K Rowling. Enjoy!

Chapter 1

On a hot Wednesday afternoon Alice hears the chime on the front entrance door signaling a new arrival. She tucks the thin bookmark in between the pages of a muggle book that she found in a flea market with Gwendalyn Perkins and Dorcas Meadowes. A book that she was currently struggling to finish whilst her friends moved on to other books on their self-made summer reading list. Alice was still bumming around on page 83. She just couldn't get into the style of it…

"Just a moment," She called out to the stranger as she retightened her apron and then shuffled out to the front to help the waiting customer.

Upon entering, the first thing she noticed was the brown bowl cut hairstyle and knew instantly that it belonged to none other than Frank Longbottom.

"Frank! What a surprise!" She said in dull voice. It wasn't a surprise. Frank made it his mission to come to the shop at least 3 or 4 times a week since school let out. For this reason alone was why she tried to make her schedule as random as possible. To avoid meetings like this. On a good week Alice saw him once or twice.

She knew exactly what he was doing. Always showing up to the shop when she was working, buttering her up with sweet smiles and compliments. He saw her more often than Fabian Prewitt and her best friend Valerie Vance saw each other and they had been dating for months now. And frankly, that scared her. She knew what Frank was doing because she read all about 'the signs' in Wandgirl. She still had the article tossed somewhere in her room. Now she wished she would've brought it to work because for the life of her she couldn't remember how the magazine said she should respond when only wanting a friendship. For an odd moment she wondered if Frank had read it too. It did have a section on how to pursue a love interest.

"Alice..I-I was hoping you would be here." Frank blushed deeply before amending his previous statement, "I me-a-an…because you've always given me tons of samples." He said in a rush, stumbling over words.

It wasn't that Frank was ugly. He wasn't anything to sweat about or the most handsome guy she ever met. He was just Frank, the semi-adorable guy that lived across the hill from her. It was something in his personality that turned her off. She treated Frank the same way she treated her close friend Scott Diggory. Scott was attractive but he just wasn't for her. He was too nice, too sweet and too thoughtful. Alice wanted something exciting and spontaneous. Frank was anything but that. In his light blue shirt, green plaid pants, brown belt, predictable visits to the shop and sometimes her house. He was everything she didn't want. He was ordinary when all she wanted to be was extraordinary.

But today was a bit different than usual. Later on when she saw her friends during the weekend, she would tell them that the only reason she agreed to have ice cream with the guy was because he offered to pay for the largest dish for them to share, with a flavor that he didn't like very much. Plus it was always so boring and slow in the shop when she worked in the evenings.

If she was honest with herself she would admit that Frank was nice, attractive and available and maybe she was a tab bit jealous of Valérie's far out boyfriend. Val always had a steady or someone in love with her.

That's how Alice Fortescue found herself sharing a large dish of strawberry ice cream with Frank Longbottom one evening, talking about their future and friends.

"I'm thinking about becoming an Auror, you know, like my grandfather." It took everything in Alice's power not to spit out her ice cream. Frank as an Auror was almost laughable if it wasn't so sad. He was clearly the softest and nicest boy she knew. Definitely wasn't cut out to be an Auror, especially during times like these when they were on the brink of declaring war.

Alice once fancied the idea of being an Auror. She liked the idea of protecting others who couldn't, being the hero and making the world a better place. But her grade in Defense was barely an 'Acceptable'. She didn't have the energy or the ambition to improve it. Plus who needed Defense anyways when you had the Magical Law Enforcement to save you?

"Hmm." She mumbled around her spoon. Frank looked at her imploringly, waiting for her to comment. She didn't want to hurt his feelings so she added, "I always thought you would want to be a Quidditch player like every other person on their house team." Before scooping up the last bit of ice cream.

Frank made this odd sound as though he was gasping for air. For a brief moment Alice wondered if he was joking, but what if this was a life or death situation and he was literally choking in front of her. She wondered if she should help him but she had no idea how to help Frank without magic. He began to loudly bang his fist against the table, most likely trying to get her attention so that she could save his life. Maybe this was one of those times that qualified as life threatening enough to use magic? She thought. But the real question that kept circling around in her head was to risk it or not to risk it? But then all thoughts of helping Frank evaporated from her mind when his head came up and she noticed his huge smile. Only Frank would have a laugh that sounded as though he was choking...

So being an Auror was definitely off the list for Alice.

Anyways.

He continued on like nothing had even happened, like Alice hadn't been contemplating saving his life. "I'm not nearly that good of a Quidditch player where I would consider going pro." The funny thing was that he was right. Frank Longbottom wasn't a good Quidditch player, at times she didn't understand how he even managed to get on the team in the first place. He wasn't terrible but he wasn't good either.

"And what about you? What do you want to do?"

She shrugged. "Me? The hell if I know. I barely know what I'm going to do this evening." She laughed uncomfortably.

When Alice failed to elaborate Frank swooped in to make her 'feel better' about her indecision or thoughtlessness. Alice rolled her eyes. She didn't need anyone to make her feel better and especially not Frank Longbottom. "I know. How are you supposed to know at 14 what you want to do for the rest of your life? That's a lot of responsibility." He gave Alice a smile before continuing on with his pep talk. "Maybe I'm a little more prepared because I've always known that I wanted to be an Auror. Or maybe because it's OWL year for me and I need to have some semblance of a path I'm heading down, you know?"

She nodded but what she wanted to say was 'no.' Frank had gotten it wrong. It wasn't that she hadn't thought about her future. What school age child hadn't made unrealistic plans for their adult lives? But how do you even begin to tell someone that you want to live life like a bohemian. The only reason Alice continued reading the book with an unclear plot is because she envied the characters' lives. On more than one occasion Gwen and Alice had discussed the idea of traveling around in a station wagon making their way around the country. Maybe crossing the pond and traveling around and living wild and free while Gwen wrote about their adventures. When they asked their other friends if they wanted to come along, they had laughed at them and changed the subject. But to Alice it was a lot more appealing than getting a job in the Ministry and settling down with someone ordinary.

"So how's your friends? How's Val doing?" Why was it that when asked about her friend's people usually only wanted to know about Val?

"They're solid." Alice said while gathering their bowl and silverware. "Val's in France." She took the bowl and spoons behind the counter and put them in a bin. She could hear Frank's footsteps behind her and then veering off towards the trash can to throw away their napkins and paper place mats.

"Oh! I didn't know she was traveling this summer. That must be why she hasn't been responding to her letters."

If she was asked later on about the burning sensation in her gut at Frank's words, she would say that it must have been from all the ice cream she ate that day. She would fervently deny that her body's reaction was in any way connected to the thought of Frank sending letters to Val. Nope, not at all. But it did make her think. Alice couldn't remember Val stating in her letters about her conversing with him and for some reason this made Alice see green.

"She didn't go traveling." She blurted out, "She's in Charmed School taking a remedial course for the class she failed." As soon as the words left her mouth she regretted them. She knew that Val wouldn't want anyone to know that her parents had made her take a remedial course during the summer. But she hated the thought of someone else falling for Valérie and stealing the only guy that really liked her away.

He was quiet for a moment before replying, "What a drag."

"Yeah." She agreed and then added, "Don't tell anyone."

"Of course not." He said smiling sweetly at her before tucking his hands in his trouser pockets and looking towards the ground. "My friend has been sending mail to her for a month or so but she hasn't been answering." Her stomach unclenched a bit at hearing of his friend. She had some inkling of who he was speaking of.

"Lovegood?"

He smiled but didn't confirm or deny anything. Of course, because he was a good friend while Alice was a sucky one. She understood it. The comparison was loud and clear.

She smirked at his non-admittance of Lovegood sending letters to Val instead of Frank. "Any decent owl would have been able to find Val in France." What she really wanted to tell him was that Val probably threw Lovegood's letters away. Val couldn't stand the guy.

"The thing is he doesn't use Owls. He calls it animal cruelty or some funk."

Alice snorted, "Merlin! He's such a ditz."

"He isn't so bad when you get to know him. Anyways he's been sending her mail through the fire."

"You mean to tell me that she's going to have a stack of mail in her parents manor when she comes home Friday?"

"Yeah something like that." He said with a lopsided grin. Alice smiled back at him. She glanced up at the clock above the door and saw that it was already 7pm. If she didn't leave now her parents would go ape.

"Well I guess I should head home. It's getting late and my parents tend to worry if I'm not home by a certain time when I'm closing up." She explained.

He nodded and grinned. "Oh yeah, of course….well…it's been a blast. I'm really happy that I came. I wasn't planning to at first but then I thought what the hell." In a way she was happy that he had shown up too. If he hadn't, she would have been forced to continue reading that plotless book or try every flavor in the shop again for fun.

When Frank didn't make a move to leave Alice began to pick up on his nervous behavior. She noticed how his hand came up to scratch the back of his neck while his eyes darted around anxiously. For the first time Alice really looked at him. She noted how tall he was compared to her and lean. She remembered the chubby baby face he had last Christmas which he obviously outgrown. His face was now angular with his almost too far spaced out brown eyes and neat brown hair. He was far from ugly that's for sure…

Frank cleared his throat. Alice must have been staring at him too long. Her face began to heat up in embarrassment and her fingers danced around nervously at the hem of her apron. Now it was Frank's turn to stare and she hated it. It felt like every single one of her flaws were out on display for him to see, though she would swear that she didn't like him. She hated the thought of her imperfections turning him off and deciding that she was just too ugly for him to fancy.

But of course that didn't happen at all. This was Frank and he probably believed in inner beauty or some jazz like that. Instead he said to her, "So I was thinking maybe we could do this again soon, you know? Get ice cream together or go out to dinner, if you wanted?"

Now it was her turn to choke. Merlin, she wished she would have brought that damn magazine.

Thank you for taking the time to read this! I hope to have another chapter up soon! One day an idea came to me for this story and I just needed to write it down. Though I love the idea of this story, I've been in a bit of a funk when it comes to actually writing it. So I hope posting it on here will push me to write more or get the creative juices pouring... Umm I don't have a beta. So if there were any mistakes, please point them out and I will try to fix them immediately. If you are interested in being a beta for this story please message me. Thanks lots!