He could feel her hands on his chest; her fingers were cool against his burning skin, hot due to the harsh summer weather they were experiencing at present. He pulled her closer and kissed her again, still hardly able to believe this was actually happening. He never expected the two of them to be doing this in his bedroom, especially with his older brother in the next room possibly listening in.
Ew. Not the best thing to be thinking about just now.
Pushing such thoughts from his mind, he ran his hands through her black hair, almost as dark as his own, kissing her again and feeling both elated and utterly at peace with the world all at once.
"Love you, Al," Natalie muttered, breaking away from him for an instant and gazing up into his face, her cheeks flushed and her grey eyes wide and smiling.
"I –" he began in reply, but stopped abruptly as something in the corner of the room caught his eye. Completely without reason or rational explanation, there was a huge, brown dog sat on the floor by his desk, scratching its ear and panting loudly and undoubtedly staring at him.
He sat up with a jolt and stared at it, hardly able to comprehend what he was seeing. There was a dog in his room. A really huge, growling, drooling, dog. Apparently unconcerned by his clear surprise, it continued to stare insolently back at him, its pink tongue lolling from its mouth and its heavy tail pounding against the wooden floorboards.
What on earth?!
"Merlin's pants!" cried Albus, sitting up straight in his bed and looking around somewhat wildly, a frown appearing when he noticed nothing unusual. There was no dog, of course. There was also, rather more disappointingly, no Natalie.
Taking a moment to realise that it had, in fact, been nothing more than an immensely pleasant (if not entirely appropriate) dream, he sighed. Honestly, was it really that unreasonable to allow a guy to dream about his own girlfriend without a stupid demented dog showing up and ruining it all? Apparently so. What was even worse, however, was that he had had a dream about his girlfriend, and managed to get her hair colour wrong.
"Talk about life being unfair," Albus muttered, adjusting his pyjama trousers and getting out of bed.
After getting ready quickly with a practised ease (one had to be speedy and efficient in the bathroom when one had a little sister like Lily who demanded at least four hours in front of the mirror per morning), Albus ran downstairs and headed straight for the kitchen, hoping there was something decent for breakfast.
"You're up early."
The familiar voice made him spin around in a mixture of shock and horror. His fears confirmed upon setting eye on his brother James and cousin Louis, both of whom were sitting at the kitchen table and looking smug, Albus demanded, "What are you doing here?"
James shrugged, smirked in that infuriating manner of his, and took another long mouthful of his Butterbeer. Louis innocently indicated the large plate of biscuits on the table in between them. "We were out at my place," he said by way of an explanation, "and Jamie here said you still had some left, so we thought we'd drop by."
"No, I mean – James, you're meant to be out with Mum and Lily," Albus said accusingly, as this was perfectly true.
"I'm meeting them later."
"And you?" Albus eyed Louis suspiciously.
The blond blinked and raised his hands in mock surrender. "Hey, I'm just here for the food! Nan's cookies defy reason, okay?"
"Here," James threw a biscuit at Albus, who caught it awkwardly, "have one. The sugar will calm you down."
Albus bit into it moodily. This is not how things were meant to be. Dad was at work all day on some big new case, and Mum and Lily were going to spend the whole day in London shopping James's birthday party supplies. And James, who had been insisting for the past fortnight that he must personally choose every item from plates to piñatas himself, was meant to be with them right now.
"What's with you, bro?" asked James, watching Albus curiously. "You seem tense."
"On edge," added Louis.
"Stressed, even."
Albus looked at the floor, willing himself not to blush. The images of his dream came sharply back into focus, and he shivered as he could feel how real it had been, how good Natalie's fingers had felt on his skin.
He cleared his throat awkwardly, eternally thankful that James didn't know Legilimency. "Nothing's wrong," he said, not entirely convincingly. "I was just... looking forward to having the house to myself, that's all. I never get the chance what with you and Lily around all the time taking up space."
"Well, we live here too, you know," James said reasonably. "But don't worry, Louis and I will soon be out of that bird's nest that you call hair. He's graciously agreed to come with me this afternoon. Said he'd give me good opinions on colour coordination."
"That, and seeing Victoire and Lupin snogging all the time makes me want to gag," Louis muttered.
Albus grimaced. "I still can't believe they're together."
"I still can't believe you and Natalie are together," laughed James. "How long has it been now? Two, three years?"
"Six months, you tosser."
"Same thing. You shagged her yet?" James asked, and then only just dodged the half-eaten cookie Albus threw at him at him in retaliation.
"Not entirely appropriate, James," Louis remarked, though from his grin it was clear that he was getting just as much pleasure from tormenting his little cousin as James was.
James feigned innocence. "If he can't tell his big brother, who can he tell?"
"I certainly won't be telling you anything now!" snapped Albus, irritated by how casually James could talk about Natalie and sex while he could barely bring up the two subjects in a conversation. An awkward disposition and a general inability to deal with social situations were apparently his curse.
"Oooh, sensitive subject, is it?" Louis teased.
"Don't be ridiculous," he snapped back.
"And so that means no," James said somewhat snidely, as though further clarification was needed.
Albus threw another biscuit at him, while Louis laughed. Stupid gits. "Bugger off," he said irritably.
James threw up his hands in an innocent gesture. "Hey, we were here first. And anyway, it's not our fault you've got… issues with Natalie."
"I do not have issues!" Albus protested, feeling most hounded. "I just…"
Louis raised a sceptical eyebrow. "Yes?"
Albus opened his mouth, and then closed it again very quickly, realising how utterly inappropriate it was that he was genuinely considering discussing sex with his cousin and older brother. Oh dear Merlin, he really needed to get a life.
"Yes?" Louis repeated, now smirking most irritatingly. Git.
"Never mind," he said firmly. "Definitely none of your business." Snatching a final biscuit from the plate, he left the room and hurried back upstairs, having absolutely no intention of talking about that with them.
That was the problem with his family, he had decided. Well, one of many problems: they all insisted on sticking their noses into everyone else's business. Simply being related to a person did not entitle them to be a part of every aspect of their life. Not that Albus would ever dare voice this opinion within earshot of any other Potters/Weasleys. Especially not his Mum. Or his Nan.
Tearing his thoughts away from some of the other problems in his life, he turned his attention to the most immediate one: the fact that his brother and cousin were downstairs and would have no greater pleasure than to ruin his day with Natalie, who was due to arrive in… eight minutes. Oh God. He had eight minutes to achieve the impossible. How the hell was he supposed to get rid of them?!
The thing was, should they so much as suspect that Natalie would be paying a visit, they would instantly turn up the embarrassment factor and do everything in their power to spoil it – not wholly out of spite (though this would certainly play a part in it), but out mostly of obliviousness. James in particular was a master of this. Albus toyed for a moment with a combination of curses, threats, and methods of torture (tickling, stealing the TV remote, etc) but knew that nothing short of Sleeping potions or a sneaky Stunning spell would get them out of his way. Unfortunate, really, that at sixteen he was too young to perform magic outside of school, and also that his sister Lily was going through a 'green' phase, and had recently become highly suspicious of anything mass produced, therefore taking it upon herself to rid the house of anything which she considered to be 'dangerous'.
Ignoring the many eccentricities of his younger sibling, Albus returned to the problem of his elder one. Sighing, he decided that his only choice was to tackle the situation head on, and so stomped dejectedly down the stairs, to where James and Louis were still sitting at the kitchen table. As he entered, they broke off rather abruptly from their conversation.
"Hey," James said. "Back again, are we?"
"Are we forgiven, then?" Louis grinned.
Albus rather felt like hitting them, but eventually decided against it, suspecting that it would only slow matters down. He glanced at his watch again. Seven minutes and twelve seconds to go.
He folded his arms over his chest, attempting to look intimidating. "When are you two buggering off?" he demanded, narrowing his green eyes and hoping he didn't look as stupid as he felt.
"I think he's trying to get rid of us," said Louis, addressing James.
"Planning some romantic evening with Natalie, are you? Planning on seducing her in your room?" taunted James, who was apparently choosing to disregard the pissed off look on Albus' face. Ignoring the sniggers coming from his cousin, Albus walked over to his brother and pointed a long finger at him.
"Don't," he said firmly, disturbed and offended in equal measure. "Don't even say that. I – I would never –'
James looked a little alarmed. "Hey, Al, relax," he said quickly. "There's no need to take it so bloody serious–"
"Well I do take it seriously, okay?" Albus ran a hand through his dark hair, wanting nothing more than to give James a good punch. Stupid, spiteful sibling. With this though, he wondered briefly if, in Lily's eyes, he appeared the annoying older brother whose only goal in life appeared to be to make hers complete hell. More than a little worried by this thought, he vowed to change his ways from now on.
James threw up his hands in a gesture of innocence. "Okay, okay. I'll stop talking about Natalie. And sex. And the fact that as soon as she gets over here you're going to –"
"For Merlin's sake, I'm not!" Albus shouted, losing it completely.
If the situation hadn't been so mortifying, Albus would have laughed at the looks on their faces. For a good two seconds, James and Louis simply sat there with their mouths open, looking utterly shocked at this uncharacteristic outburst. They didn't stay that way for long, however, and both were soon doubled over with laughter, banging their fists against the wooden table.
"We're just going to do some homework, okay?" Albus protested, but to no avail. "And there is nothing funny about that." Unfortunately, this had no affect whatsoever, and the two of them continued to enjoy a good laugh at his expense. Dear God. They were just hopeless.
Sighing heavily at the ridiculousness of the situation, Albus looked at the clock above the archway to the dining room and saw that he only had five minutes now. Bugger. How was he going to get rid of them?! Maybe his mum would perform some kind of miracle and order James to get his arse over to Diagon Alley…
James wiped a tear of mirth from his eye, clapped Louis (who appeared to be choking from laughter) on the back, and finally stood up, apparently deciding he'd had enough fun at his brother's expense. "Alright, alright. We'll get out of your hair," he said. "Jeez, talk about being loved. C'mon, Louis, let's go somewhere we're actually wanted."
"Thank God," Albus muttered under his breath as the other two headed for the living room. He glanced at his watch again. Two minutes to go.
James paused in the doorway, clearly feeling the need to get in one last jibe before departing. "Now, are you sure you have everything?" he asked. "Candles? Condoms? Romantic music?"
Louis gave a snort of laughter, and Albus, letting out a low growl, charged at his older brother and tackled him to the floor.
"What – have – I – told – you – about – mentioning that – and – Natalie – in the –same – sentence?!" Albus panted as he tried to control James, who was struggling underneath him.
Louis was now doubled over with laughter, leaning against the kitchen counter with one hand on his knee and the other pointing at the still wrestling brothers. Outnumbered by females in his own home, he had always been highly amused by the Potter brothers' antics.
Meanwhile, in the living room there was a whoosh of green flame and the sound of footsteps on the carpeted floor, slowly approaching the kitchen and its wrestling occupants. None of the three boys noticed this, however, and so all started as the sound of a female voice came to them over the grunts and scuffles from the floor:
"Maybe we should get you two some oil," said the voice, amused. "Or mud."
Natalie crossed her arms, looking down at the dishevelled brothers with considerable disapproval and brushing a stray lock of dark red hair behind her ear. Her grey eyes followed the two boys as they released each other and clambered to their feet, both looking considerably sheepish.
Albus gulped, and even James, at a good eighteen months her senior, recoiled slightly under the force of her gaze. Despite Natalie's lack of height (just over five feet), she could certainly be intimidating when she tried, and her capacity to freeze hell with a simple look was something Albus had long admired. Her mother, their equally fearsome deputy headmistress and Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, possessed this same ability, much to the misfortune of her various classes.
"Hey, Natalie," Albus said awkwardly, brushing a little dust off his t-shirt.
Natalie chuckled them, shifting the strap of her bag on her shoulder and observing her boyfriend blush under her gaze.
"What was all that about?" she asked, half reproaching, half interested.
"Nothing," Albus replied, his voice slightly higher than usual.
"Nothing," his brother echoed, arranging his expression into one of perfect innocence.
Natalie turned to Louis for support. "Louis, what've they been doing?" she asked in a tone of mock severity, a small smile playing about her lips.
"Oh – er – nothing," he supplied obediently, after a glare from Albus.
Natalie raised a sceptical eyebrow, James's face broke into a smirk, and Albus, deciding that this whole situation was straying into utterly absurd territories, said quickly, "James, weren't you just leaving?"
The eldest Potter sighed theatrically. "Fine, fine." He headed over to the fireplace, Louis in his wake, and both of them seized a handful of floo powder.
At last, Albus thought, briefly allowing himself to let his guard down. Louis stepped in and disappeared without causing further damage, but James was apparently unable to leave without dealing one final blow:
"See you lovebirds later," he said cheerily, winking at Natalie, and stepped into the fireplace, vanishing in a whoosh of green flames.
Oh bloody hell.
Natalie was still staring into the fire, her expression something akin to disturbed. "Did your brother just wink at me?" she asked uncertainly, sure her senses must be failing her.
"Probably." Albus scratched his ear self-consciously. "Sorry. You just have to try and ignore him. I always do."
Natalie chuckled and shook her head, walking over to join him at the kitchen table, perching herself on top of the wooden surface.
"You think dealing with James is bad?" she said. "At least you've only got one brother to deal with. I've got three to fight if I want to eat the leftover food in the fridge or nick the TV remote or whatever." She sighed. "The TVs the worst – all they put on is wrestling. You know all that WWE stuff? I bet it's only because they only like the skimpy suits, though."
For a moment she seemed absorbed in thought, and then, with a jolt, she returned to herself. "Sorry," she said, grinning, "just ignore my rambling."
Albus grinned back. Despite the references to her brothers' love of men in skimpy suits, listening to Natalie ramble wasn't exactly torture; in fact, he rather enjoyed listening to her talk about her family and their mundane daily activities. Albus was used to everyone gossiping about his family and acting as though they were the best bloody thing since sliced bread, and so he found it bizarrely fascinating to hear about people who didn't appear regularly on the cover of The Daily Prophet or (as on one mortifying occasion) Witch Weekly.
Wait a second. Why the hell was he thinking about that stupid Witch Weekly articleat a time like this? 'Enough of those thoughts, Potter,' he told himself firmly. 'Return to the subject at hand: i.e. greeting the girlfriend you haven't seen in two bloody weeks.'
Actually listening to his brain for once, Albus took two quick strides over to the said girlfriend, wrapped an arm around her waist and pressed his lips to hers in a soft kiss, strengthening it as she began to press her body oh-so tightly against his.
She broke away for a moment, murmuring, "Nice to see you too," and began to reciprocate with equal enthusiasm. Though she was unused to him behaving this way, she loved it when Albus acted so spontaneous around her (she was a soppy romantic to the core). Spontaneity not being one of his more frequent suits, however, it was something of a rare occurrence. It certainly made her feel special, however, and she was sure he never did that for anyone else. Of course, not that Al had actually dated anyone before her... that she knew of.
Romantic and spontaneous as she found it, however, she couldn't help but feel it was rather inappropriate to be doing something like this in his kitchen of all places. It was probably unhygienic. Not to mention, of course, the worrying fact that any one of his numerous family members could floo in at any moment and walk in on them. Oh God. Not a nice thought.
"Al..." Natalie muttered, trying to regain some control over the situation, though it was rather difficult when he kissed her ohgodjustlikethat.
"Yeah?" Albus grunted in reply, too preoccupied to produce any more articulate response as he now moved his affections down her neck.
"No offence, but you're pretty heavy."
In Natalie's opinion, at least, having a six-foot-something boy bending over you and being squashed again a hard wooden table wasn't exactly the most comfortable position to be in. Albus apparently wasn't completely aware of his own strength, either, and was causing her rather more pain than, she assumed, he intended.
"Ow," she muttered, pushing him off her and standing up straight again, placing her hand to her back.
"You all right?" Albus asked sheepishly, flattening his hair down. Apparently, attempting to be romantic was considerably harder than he'd thought.
"Yeah," she said, still rubbing her back and not looking hugely impressed.
"Sorry," he said awkwardly, feeling more than a little guilty, and he looked so endearingly bemused that she decided to forgive him.
"Don't worry about it," she replied, smiling, and even leant in to kiss him again, though rather more briefly and somewhat less passionately than before which, considering the results of their previous attempt, was probably a good idea. "My fault really."
After another moment or so of fussing over her, Albus deduced that no lasting damage was done, something which he couldn't help but be eternally grateful for. He didn't exactly want word going around that he had hurt his girlfriend while trying to shove his tongue down her throat... not that he really cared about what people thought or said. Well, he tried not to, at any rate, although like many normal teenagers he suffered from large (and probably unhealthy) amounts of self-consciousness. Over the many years he had been exposed to it, however, he had become better at blocking out that kind of gossip as he grown accustomed to his family's fame, something which was an occupational hazard of being a Potter.
Too much thinking, Albus, he told himself sternly as he poured two glasses of pumpkin juice and headed towards the living room. Natalie was already in there, organising the various pieces of homework they had arranged to do together. As he reached the doorway to the room, however, he cursed himself as he almost tripped over the family dog who, lolling in (and therefore completely blocking) the entrance as he was, had apparently decided it would be a good idea to inconvenience them as much as possible.
To those who had known Sirius Black and the dog he had become, Snuffles was often jokingly considered to be some sort of reincarnation of their old friend. To those who had not been so blessed with his acquaintance, such as Al and Natalie, the dog's name was merely thought to be something of an oddity.
"Stupid Snuffles," muttered Albus, placing the glasses on the coffee table and trying not to smile as Natalie giggled at him.
The pile of homework that was spread across the living room was daunting. It was a good thing he had sent his homework to Nat's, since James would probably burn everything and blame it on something else (as had happened on one horrendous occasion in his third year).
"I like your hair, by the way," Albus told her as he sat down on the floor next to Natalie, who was sitting with her back resting against the couch and a collection of textbooks and bits of parchment fanned out in a circle around her.
"Thanks," she said, in that slightly self-conscious way that people do upon receiving a compliment. "I wasn't sure about the fringe at first – I thought it might be a bit too Muggle and 2008 – but I quite like it now. What d'you think of the colour?"
"Very nice," he said truthfully. "You suit red."
"My dad hates it," she said. "But then again, he hates everything. I think he prefers it to the purple, though. Anyway," she continued, suddenly businesslike, scanning the list of assignments they had to do, "what should we tackle first?"
"The hardest would be best," Albus replied without enthusiasm, and there was no question of what that was.
The education system at Hogwarts had changed considerably over the years, and not always for the better, in Albus's opinion at least. There were many subjects that had needed modifying and History of Magic was one of them. It had been renamed 'History of the Wizarding World', which covered the wizarding community in England as well as various other countries, and it was generally considered to be one of Hogwarts' more difficult subjects, especially with the horribly tedious essays that the Professor seemed to enjoy giving them.
"Explain why Durmstrang settled in Bulgaria," Natalie read off a piece of paper and glanced at Albus, who raised an eyebrow and wrinkled his noise.
"Oh joy," he replied dryly.
"Yup, not the easiest of subjects," she agreed.
This was an assignment that certainly promised to be as dull as possible. Teachers could be cruel, sometimes.
Barely fifteen minutes later and with less than half a sheet of parchment written, Albus was already bored beyond description. At this moment in time he couldn't even remember quite why he had even taken the stupid subject in the first place. He did, as a general rule, get rather good marks, it was true (he had, for example, achieved a perfectly respectable E in his OWL), but just now, with another two scrolls to churn out regarding the dreary lives of Bulgaria's early wizarding community, that didn't really seem a good enough reason anymore.
He glanced over at Natalie, who was scribbling away almost frantically on her parchment, apparently desperate to force out as many words as possible in the shortest amount of time. She was too clever for her own good, as he often took great pleasure in informing her, although at least she could always be relied on to give assistance to anyone who needed it (something Albus had taken advantage of more than once – sometimes, it really did pay off to have such a ridiculously intelligent girlfriend).
Tearing his eyes away from her, he gazed aimlessly around the room, taking in the still crackling fire in the grate, the mismatched assortment of photographs on the walls, and the dog still lounging inconveniently in the doorway, currently scratching his ear and looking considerably gormless.
Now grinning at this rather endearing sight, Albus turned back to Natalie, who was now looking up at him in return; her expression one of mild disapproval, apparently having noticed that he was not as absorbed in his essay as she clearly was. Oh dear.
"Fancy a break?" he asked innocently, thoroughly bored of Bulgarian history and simply unable to take it anymore.
"Al, we've been doing this for about ten minutes."
"Fifteen," he corrected a little defensively, endeavouring to look as though he hadn't actually been counting down the minutes. "Oh, and now sixteen."
"Whatever. The point is we haven't been working long enough to stop, so we can't."
"We could just go and have a drink or something?" he persisted. "Or maybe a snack? There might still be some of Nan's biscuits left; I can't remember whether or not James and Louis ate them all…"
"Albus," she said firmly, and he knew that he must be in trouble if she was full-naming him, "we have to get this done."
"But we have the entire summer –"
She smacked him on the arm. "You're such a procrastinator, Al!' she reprimanded, sounding genuinely shocked, before returning to her own essay with a renewed vigour, clearly more fascinated by the history of Bulgaria than he was.
He glanced down at his own parchment again, wondering in bewilderment how anyone could find this even remotely interesting. Natalie was too much like her mother, that was her problem. It worried him sometimes how much mother and daughter were alike, actually, and he could only hope that over the years Natalie wouldn't grow to be too much like the aforementioned Defence teacher. After all, it was said that all women turned into their mothers eventually, and the idea of dating a next-generation Professor Black was not one that particularly appealed to him.
For another three minutes or so, they both ploughed on valiantly with their work, at which point, to Albus's great surprise, Natalie threw down her parchment and let out a deep sigh.
"Oh, who am I kidding? This is complete crap and we both know it." Scooping her possessions into her bag in one fluid motion, she grinned up at him. "Let's go out or something," she said excitedly. "It's such a lovely day outside. And it's not everyday the sun actually deigns to show itself, so it's seems a shame to waste it."
Shocked as he was by this utterly uncharacteristic display of impulsiveness, not to mention the fact that she was actually abandoning her homework in favour of fun, he leapt at the opportunity nevertheless. "Yeah, why not?" he said quickly. "Want to go to Diagon Alley, or something? Or maybe Hogsmeade, I'm always up for a visit to Honeydukes…"
Natalie wrinkled up her nose slightly. "Maybe… but Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade are a bit too much about Hogwarts and as much as I love it, I'm not really in the mood for anything school-related just now."
Nothing school-related? Well, that explains why you were so determined for us to finish all our homework in the first week of the holidays, then.
Albus voiced none of these thoughts, however, deciding to ignore the fact that she had completely contradicted herself and deeming that it would be safer to just keep his mouth shut. "Well, what about the beach or something?" he suggested. "Minehead beach isn't that far from Godric's Hollow, and grab some food, have a picnic or something…"
The more he thought about it, the more the idea of visiting the little bay appealed to him. He had lived in Godric's Hollow from a very young age, his dad having settled the family back in the village of his birth shortly after Lily was born. It was a small, rural village that was a twenty minute walk from the nearest Muggle town and another ten minutes to Minehead beach. Harry had spent most of his time during his early Auror years restoring the village to its former glory with the help of his friends. The village still had its pub, post office and the church, as well as a couple of more modern retail stores (not that these received an awful lot of custom from the village's tiny population). The Potter cottage, also restored, had been turned into a museum dedicated to the Potter family and the wars that they had served in. Harry, Ginny and the three kids decided to live in a large cottage overlooking the village to preserve their privacy as much as possible.
The three kids had also been brought up in a Muggle surrounding, the only magic going on in the house was restricted to the kitchen, the fireplaces and the small Potion lab that Albus had set up in his room since that was his favourite subject, much to the amusement of his parents.
To his surprise, Natalie looked thrilled by the proposition. "Al, that's the best idea you've come up with in ages!" she exclaimed. "Let me get some things at home and I'll be right back over."
Without further ado, she pushed all their homework into her bag and stumbled towards the fireplace. She disappeared in a whoosh of green flame, leaving Albus feeling slightly alarmed at how quickly things were happening. Shaking himself slightly, he leapt into action a moment later, quickly ran off towards his bedroom, jumping over the dog (who was busy washing his paws) and stomping up the staircase. If his mother had been here, she would have yelled at him for running and then would hit him on the back of the head for a smart arse comment that she would normally receive in return.
"Okay, swimming trunks...where are you?" Albus muttered, pulling open the drawers and moved bits of clothing back and forth as he looked for his favourite pair of dark green swimming trunks. Thinking how much easier all of this would be if he could just do magic out of school already, Albus proceeded to mentally curse his age, curse his parents for having him so late in the year, he curse the shorts when he couldn't find them, and then take it all back when he finally found them. Naturally, as is the way with these things, he had managed to overlook them in a place he was sure he had already searched thoroughly.
He went then to the bathroom to grab some towels from the cupboard, stuffing them in his backpack before running back down the stairs, then running back up when he forgot his wallet. He wasn't sure exactly what they would need money for (ice creams, maybe?) but he took a reasonable sum nevertheless, just in case. Albus knew he was acting like a right girl who was going on his first date but it had been a while since he and Nat had done anything Muggle. It was hard to do anything with her when her mother was the Headmistress, her father one of the best Aurors around and three older brothers who could kill anyone with a mere glare. Well, perhaps he was taking that a bit too far, but it was true that they could be very scary.
Albus made it back in time to see Natalie stepping out of the fireplace, wearing a lovely pale yellow sundress that came just to her knees. From experience Albus knew that she would also have a pair of shorts under there in case it got windy and, if he looked close enough, he could see the outline of a bikini... Oh lord.
Coughing awkwardly and keeping his thoughts well in check, Albus made his way over to her and took the bag in her hand, attempting to be chivalrous. She gave him an amused glance then looked towards Snuffles who was sitting in front of them, tongue hanging out the side of his mouth and emanating small, pitiful whines. Albus rolled his eyes at this blatant attention-seeking, but Natalie played right into his paws, leaning down at once and stroking the beast's soft black fur.
"Do you think we should take him with us?" she asked eagerly, smiling fondly down him.
"Well…" Yes, Natalie. This is the first real date we've been on in ages and I would like nothing better than to bring my lunatic of a dog along. "Or maybe we should leave him?" Albus suggested. "He's a real handful, anyway – always insists on going swimming, then gets stuck and can't get back to shore so someone has to go and rescue him."
She laughed, apparently not realising that he was serious.
"All right then, he can stay." She gave Snuffles' head one final stroke and then stood up, holding out her hand to Albus. "C'mon, let's go then."
It was only a short walk from the Potters' home to the beach (no matter how much Lily complained that it was a 'bloody hike!') and so the couple arrived there in next to no time.
For the next few hours, they busied themselves with wiling away the afternoon to the best of their ability, building sandcastles that vaguely resembled Hogwarts and other Hogsmeade landmarks, attempting to push each other into the less-than-warm sea and kissing under the cover of sand dunes. Exhausted by this productive afternoon, they proceeded to eat all the food they had brought with them (though in fairness most of this was down to Albus), before spending some more time in the lovely water of the South of England and wasting most of Albus's money on ice-creams. Time simply flew by, as it always does when one is having fun and not actually achieving anything in particular.
Some hours later found Albus and Natalie lying side by side on the sandy ground by one of their sand constructions, observing a small girl chasing her intrepid little dog that was scurrying away from her across the beach, apparently determined to escape. An elderly woman was tottering in pursuit of the pair of them, shouting orders and warnings to both, though with no apparent success.
The sky was a mixture of bright reds and oranges, looking very much like scattered flames from a log fire. The clouds were fluffy masses of pink and purple, strongly resembling discoloured candyfloss, and Albus couldn't help but think that this had been an utterly perfect day. Despite James, Louis, their mounds of homework and his weird dreams, everything couldn't have turned out better.
"Maybe it's time we were getting home," Natalie sighed, though she made no movement.
Albus gave a noncommittal grunt, and also remained motionless. She slipped her hand into his, and he smiled. It was just so nice, being with her like this. It felt so good, so natural. The two of them had known each other since they were little and moving into this kind of relationship had always seemed that way to him – so right, almost as if it was meant to be. And they weren't just boyfriend and girlfriend, either, they had remained the best of friends all this time, and so probably loved each other more than most couples anyway because they'd had that great friendship beforehand…
Wait a second. Loved each other?
Albus felt his cheeks flush a furious shade of scarlet at the very thought of it, and he gulped audibly. Natalie tore her gaze from the sky and glanced over at him questioningly, but he forced a smile and brushed her concerns away. He took several deep, slow breaths in an attempt to calm himself down, though doing his best to be a surreptitious as possible. But it wouldn't work, his heart and his brain was telling him one thing and one thing only.
He was in love with Natalie Dora Black, probably always had been and hopefully always would be.
Oh God. Damn him and his truthful subconscious.
But, having been enlightened to his apparent feelings in this way, what should he do now? He had to do something, of that he was certain – he could hardly just ignore news as earth-shattering as this, after all. The most sensible thing to do seemed to tell Natalie herself about it, he supposed, though how exactly he should go about such a thing he had no idea..
"Nat…" he began tentatively, but then trailed away feebly, his powers of speech suddenly ripped away.
Tilting her head up, Natalie raised an eyebrow and looked up at him, noting instantly that he was a red as a tomato: a sure sign that he was either lying or faced with some form of social situation with which he was incapable of dealing. She rather hoped it was the latter.
"What is it, Al?" she questioned, shifting her position to get a better look.
"I…" he tried again. "Well… I…"
He really was horribly socially inept. It was a curse, really.
"Nothing," he said eventually. "It… doesn't matter. But thanks for coming out with me today, Nat. I've had a really great time."
She was looking at him a little oddly now, but then sat up and leant in to kiss him briefly on the lips. "My pleasure," she smiled. "It really has been a great day, though it's a shame we won't be able to do anything like this when we get back to Hogwarts."
"Yeah," he agreed, mentally kicking himself all the while. "Sitting by the lake in the grounds, generally in the rain or sleet or a bloody thunderstorm, just isn't the same as this."
She smiled again. "True. Anyway, we really should be getting back now. And I've only just noticed the time!" she exclaimed. "I can't believe you roped me into spending an entire day out here, you evil thing, we haven't got any homework done or anything!"
She continued to blabber on about homework and his 'bad influence' on her for a few minutes more while they packed up their various paraphernalia, and then finally the conversation returned to more pleasant topics as they began the walk back to Godric's Hollow. Albus, ever the gentleman, nobly carried her backpack for her all the way, and she slipped her hand into his free one.
"It really was a nice day," she murmured. "Thanks, Al."
He smiled, but now found himself unable to answer. His mouth felt very dry, he couldn't manage to say anything at all, not to say that he'd had a brilliant day too, and certainly not to let her know just how much she meant to him.
He really was rather pathetic. And much more sentimental than could be considered appropriate for a person of his age and gender.
They continued to walk together, along the coast and through fields and finally reaching Godric's Hollow, until eventually the Potter house came into view. The lights were on, showing that his parents or possibly James had returned home by now. They would probably be angry with him, he realised far too late, for not having left a note.
At this thought, and on the topic of Potter males and romance, he wondered how on earth they'd even got together – his dad, for whom defeating Voldemort was a piece of cake, had apparently found it a considerable ordeal to actually ask Ginny to marry him (assuming that her stories and complaints on the subjects were true).
They reached the doorstep, and Natalie turned to face him. "D'you want to come in?" he asked quickly, sensing that her intention was to leave. "Mum and Dad would love to see you, I'm sure."
She shook her head. "I probably shouldn't, my mum's expecting me home. Thanks for offering, though, and say hi to your parents for me."
Disappointed, he said, "Okay," and returned the smile she was giving him. "Well, I'll – er – see you soon, then."
"Of course you will. It may be the holidays, but there's no getting away from me," she informed him cheerily.
Then, with another shy smile, she leant in and kissed him. But it was all over in an instant, and then she was gone, walking down the garden path away from him and disappearing with a small pop as she reached the end. He sighed, his eyes fixed on the spot where she had vanished.
"I love you, Natalie," he said out loud, experimentally, to the empty night.
That hadn't been too hard, he supposed, though only because he was alone and there was no chance whatsoever of her, or indeed anyone else, overhearing.
"I love you, Natalie," he repeated. "Natalie, I think I love you. Natalie –"
"Er, Al," came an amused voice from behind him, and he spun around, startled, to see his dad standing in the doorway to the house. "You do know she isn't here, don't you?"
Oh bugger.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Anne- Dedicated to Cath (who wrote a Teddy/Victorie story for me) and to Tara (also known as wacky_tarz who gave me the idea for this story). Thank you to Liz, my wonderful co-author, who spent her time writing this with me and has turned into an amazing friend. We do not own the HP characters and I own Natalie, who is part of an AU series (coming soon...in the next five years). If there are any mistakes then we are truly sorry. Thank you for reading!