A/N: This is movieverse and a little bit of left-off scenes: a little bit AU. This is for Darthluna01, changing what happens in the sixth movie slightly.

I saw her lying the in the Chamber of Secrets, ice cold and slowly dying. As her brother's best friend, I felt it was my duty to save her. Once the basilisk had been slain, I realized the only way to save her: destroy the diary. It wouldn't be for several years that I learned of how much she talked about me in it, increasing my delight of her safety long after the incident. The basilisk fang plunged into the diary, destroying something that brought me closer to the final battle. Her face twisted with the knowledge of my death, but the phoenix allowed life and the closure she and I would be able to have in four years. I felt like she would be a close friend in time. Did I know it then? No.

Then a year and a half passed, allowing time for proper reflection. While looking into the crowd for another, I found her glowing face of admiration…and fear. She knew it wasn't me who put the name in the Goblet, and she stuck by it, given the chance of proving everyone wrong but never laughing at them. I began understanding the true nature of her heart. How pure and innocent it felt to me at a time when others were pointing their finger at the supposed guilty. I knew it was the perfect balance of the story of our lives. But it wasn't it.

Another year came when precision was necessary. She took the corrections politely during our short time in the Room of Requirement. Her already aptitude for defensive magic increased under my care. I almost smiled when I could feel her trembling hand under mine, or being able to see her shaking shoulders as she attempted to produce a Patronus while I watched. It was then I saw the fighter she was, instead of the honey-sweet girl - woman - she was. The Ministry trip proved her learning improved beyond most as she fought off the enemy without a second thought. Mulling over the fact caused a mutual admiration of the same thing, but neither of us knew it. I'm still not there yet.

The sweetest girl was next to me through all of it, but only in my mind. Our feelings that had taken four years to cultivate were known, most importantly by us. Those few moments flashed through my mind when I wanted sleep. The time when I knelt down when she tied my shoes, so it wouldn't seem like she was obliged to do it. Just before I had to save her in the meadows near the Burrow; that was inevitable for me to feel that way with her. Comforting her without caring about the stares when her (and my) home burned, feeling every fiber of anger flow through her body and mine, knowing that the entire family would make her pay. The kiss in the Room of Requirement wouldn't stay up there. We both knew it shouldn't stay hidden at all, but we kept it like that until his death. It's the way it will always be, the balance: one death, one life.

But it's her, and it took my five years to realize that she's the love of my life.