Title: Blessing in Disguise
Author name: Darkforest214
Category: Comedy, Romance
Spoilers: None really,
Rating: PG-13 (as always)
Summary: Katie wishes to tell Lee she likes him. Can the girls talk her out of it? What happens when she does finally break the news to him? Read on to find out.
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. Aka… I own nothing (except the deranged idea that descended upon me in the middle of the night to write this thing)
A/N: This is a one shot inspired by a conversation with a friend about followed by a phone call at two in the morning, with a few text messages thrown in. Although inspired by my friends this is not a real life situation, nor am I trying to turn my friends into HP characters. As always, be gentle with your reviewing…

Blessing in Disguise

"I almost told him tonight."

"Katie, have you lost your mind?! Why would you want to do something like that?" said Angelina, staring at her friend open mouthed.

"I know, I know… I said I almost told him…that doesn't mean I did," Katie said, rolling her eyes.

"I thought you didn't want him to know, and that you didn't want to hurt your friendship," said Angelina.

The three girls sat in the seventh year girls' dorm, discussing the latest antics of their boyfriends and crushes. Super secret discussion sessions like this were required when the Weasley twins and their friend Lee were involved. Angelina Johnson and Fred Weasley had finally hooked up—to the relief of their friends—but that still left Lee, George, Alicia and Katie.

"I'm just saying. Tonight seemed like the right time to tell him," said Katie as she stood and began pacing around the room.

"It's up to you, Katie. Do whatever you feel is right," said Angelina.

"Are you nuts?!" Alicia said, throwing her pillow in Angelina's direction. "She can't do that! It will scare him off!"

"How do you know it will?" Angelina asked in a 'wise-beyond-her-years' tone of voice.

"How do you know it won't?" Alicia shot back.

"Uh, girls…can't I make my own decisions?" Katie asked quietly.

"No!" both Alicia and Angelina said as one.

"Well at least you two agree on something," Katie said, rolling her eyes. She stopped pacing and faced the door. "I think I'm going to go for a little walk. I need some fresh air to clear my head," she said.

"Just don't do anything you'll regret in the morning," Alicia called out after her.

"Think she'll tell him?" Angelina asked Alicia once Katie was gone, the door shut firmly behind her.

"Nah, she'll chicken out. It's not an easy thing to do, telling your best guy friend that you have a huge crush on him," said Alicia, grabbing for a book by her bed.

As the night dragged on, one by one the girls in the dorm blew out their lights, closed their curtains and went to bed. Alicia, entranced by the book she was reading still lay awake at two in the morning when she heard an all too familiar sound outside her window. Putting her book down, she saw an owl sitting on the ledge staring at her expectantly.

Uncertain of what to expect, Alicia crawled out of bed and opened the window. The note in the owl's beak simply said "Spinnet, I need to talk to you—Lee." "What? Now?" she wrote. The reply came with a very big "YES" on it. "Fine, I'm coming," she wrote, letting out a sigh as she grabbed her bathrobe and slipped silently down the stairs.

"Spinnet, is that you?" Lee asked, his normally cheery voice sounding melancholy and sad.

"I have a first name you know," Alicia said sarcastically as she sat in an armchair across from Lee.

"I know, um…look, er... I know," said Lee, his eyes glued to the floor.

"About?" she asked, playing dumb and fearing the worst.

"I know."

"Did she…? Did Katie—?" Alicia stuttered.

"Katie told me," Lee said. "At first I thought she just needed some advice, 'cause when she ran into me she said 'Hey, can I ask you something?' I told her of course she could."

"She told you? I can't believe… I thought… I mean we had talked about it, but I didn't think she'd do it so soon," she stammered out.

"She said she liked this guy but she didn't want to ruin their friendship, and she had asked all her friends and most of them told her to tell him. She then asked what I thought. If I thought she should tell this guy…" said Lee, his voice starting to sound tired. Alicia sat quietly listening and he continued, "I told her that I thought he deserved to know, then she said, 'Well, the guy I like is you.'"

They sat there in silence for several seconds. "Wow…I mean…I can't believe she did it…" Alicia said.

"I don't want to hurt her, but this isn't exactly the greatest time," said Lee. "I just started seeing that Hufflepuff girl—"

"And she's still getting over her ex," said Alicia.

"I just… I don't know what to do! Normally I would talk to her about something like this but— I didn't know who else to talk to," said Lee.

They were silent again, secretly Alicia was glad he had turned to her, had talked to her instead of Angelina or any to any other of their friends. Katie was her best friend, and she was glad he had come to her when Katie's welfare was on the line.

"I don't know, I guess I need time to think about it. I don't want to lead her on though," said Lee, breaking the silence.

"I'll talk to her," she reassured.

"Thanks, I'm sorry I owled you so late," he said quietly.

"It's all right, I was already up," Alicia said.

Lee let out a sigh. It was one of those sighs that start at the bottom of one's toes and spreads all the way through the body; a sorrowful sigh that holds so much meaning in a simple exhalation of air. A sigh that lets another know that the soul within is torn. "I should get some sleep," he said simply.

"Yes, go to bed, try to sleep and maybe things will be clearer in the morning," Alicia insisted.

"I hope so."

"Goodnight, Lee."

"Goodnight." And with that they parted ways. Not long after Alicia had returned to her bed another owl flew in through the now open window. With an aggravated sigh she got up again and took the parchment from the owl. 'I told him.' was all it said. Alicia closed her eyes and took a deep breath. 'Meet me in the common room,' she quickly wrote and sent the owl back out the window.

Alicia was waiting when Katie showed up, walking bleary eyed across the common room to where she sat. When Alicia saw her she stood up and gave her friend a big hug, then she took a step back, looked at her and said, "What on earth were you thinking?!"

"I don't know! I wasn't going to tell him, I swear, but I was taking a walk, ran into him and it just sort of blurted out!" said Katie, plopping heavily into the nearest chair and hiding her face behind her hands.

"Tell me what happened," Alicia said patiently.

"Well, I asked him for advice. I told him I liked this boy, but that we're really good friends and I didn't want anything to ruin our friendship. I also told him most of my friends knew, and thought I should tell him. Then I asked him what he thought," she said.

"And he didn't catch on that you were talking about him?" Alicia asked, sounding astonished.

"First of all, he's a boy. Boys don't catch on to things like this. And second, he's Lee bloody Jordan!" Katie said.

"Well, what did he say?" Alicia asked, of course she already knew, but she wanted to hear the story from her best friend's point of view.

"He said that maybe I should tell this guy, because it would be the right thing to do or whatever… And then I just sort of blurted out, 'Well, it's you,' and he went quiet," said Katie. She let out a moan and curled up in a ball in the chair. "Why did I have to open my stupid mouth? He'll probably never talk to me again."

"I'm sure he will. Katie, I'm so sorry…" Alicia said. She stood and moved over to her friend's chair. She sat on the arm and wrapped her arm around Katie's shoulder. "It's just a bit of a shock for him, he needs time to digest this."

"I was shaking of nerves then, now I'm trying not to cry," Katie said weakly.

"He truly values your friendship, Katie. He doesn't want to hurt you, or to lead you on," Alicia said.

"Wait, did you talk to him? Did he already know before I told him?" Katie asked, looking up, tears glistening in her eyes.

"He owled me, just before you did… I came down and talked to him," Alicia admitted quietly.

"But he told me he was going to bed! This is just perfect, now he's lying to me! I've ruined everything!"

"No Katie, he didn't lie he went to bed after we spoke. He's confused Kate—I, I don't know what else to say," Alicia finished lamely. She felt awful for her friend, but the memory of pain and contradiction in Lee's eyes made her heart cry out to him too. "He just got into a relationship with that Hufflepuff girl, and he doesn't want to hurt her before they get a chance to really know each other."

"But what if he's the one and I let him slip away?" Katie asked her voice quiet and full of despair.

For that, Alicia did not have an answer, she could only sit and rub her friend's slumped shoulders. "Would it make you feel better if I told George?" Alicia quietly asked.

"I couldn't ask you to do that, not after what just happened with Lee…" Katie said.

"If boys were meant to know we liked them, they'd be girls," Alicia said. Katie smiled and let out a small laugh. "See, everything will be all right."

"Thanks," Katie said, reaching up to give her friend a hug.

"Try and get some sleep," Alicia said, a loving look in her eyes.

They climbed the stairs and hugged again before going to their separate rooms. At first Alicia couldn't fall asleep, she kept expecting another owl, but eventually she drifted off.

In the morning the girls awoke to a gloomy, foggy morning. The air was heavy with the prospect of rain. Alicia had the pleasure of informing Angelina of the previous night's events. She was shocked, felt sorry for her friend, yet slightly angered that no one woke her up to partake in her friend's misery. The two were very careful about what they said around Katie that morning at breakfast, they didn't want to tread on her toes and bring up sore subjects.

Fred and George on the other hand seemed to be teasing Lee mercilessly. He hadn't got much sleep the night before and looked absolutely dismal. "I think I should talk to him," Katie said quietly.

"Katie, no! Haven't you learned your lesson?!" Angelina said.

"You were the one that wanted me to tell him in the first place," Katie shot back. "Since it's out there it's not going to hurt to talk about it."

Angelina looked from Katie to Alicia with a mixed expression on her face. Her eyes held resentment towards her two friends who left her out of their little discussion the previous night.

Thunder rumbled and the clouds on the enchanted ceiling began to darken, the morning sun hidden by storm clouds. Katie stood up and left the Great Hall, she didn't feel like eating anyway.

Lee looked up and watched Katie leave. Once she was gone he looked over to Alicia and found that she was watching him. She nodded her head toward the entrance hall, indicating he should go after her. Lee shrugged his shoulders as if asking "What should I say?" Alicia in turn rolled her eyes and nodded toward the exit once more.

With a sigh Lee stood up. "Oy! Where you goin' Lee?" Fred asked.

"To get away from you two blundering idiots," he said with a forced laugh.

"Go after her, Lee," said George, his eyes meeting his friend's. Lee smiled and gave a little nod, then turned and literally ran out of the Great Hall.

"What's eating him?" Fred asked.

"I'll tell you later," George said, rolling his eyes.

Angelina, not feeling very friendly to her female friends at the moment, got up and moved to sit by Fred. George, feeling ignored got up and plopped down beside Alicia, draping his arm lazily across her shoulders. "Why are you so quiet this morning?" he asked, giving her that lopsided grin that always quickened her heartbeat.

"I've just been thinking about last night," said Alicia quietly. She had a hunch George knew something but didn't want to say anything without knowing for sure.

"Could it be that those late night owls are keeping you up at all hours of the morning?" George asked, removing his arm from her shoulders to dig through his pocket. "Ah, here it is," he said pulling out a crumpled bit of parchment. "That's your handwriting, is it not?" he asked.

"Yes," she said, recognizing the note Lee had owled her that very morning.

"Don't worry, I know," said George. Alicia turned bright red. Had he found out that she liked him?! "Lee told me last night when I confronted him after he came up to bed. I haven't told Fred yet," he said. Alicia tried to hide her embarrassment, but she needn't bother, George was oblivious.

"I still can't believe she told him," Alicia admitted.

"I'm surprised he didn't tell her first," said George. She looked up at him in amazement and he winked.

A/N: Lemme know what you think. R&R please!