Chapter One:

I followed him, away from the others. The ivy covered buildings and overcast skies made everything seem timeworn, hushed, and slightly surreal. He was standing next to one of the buildings, back facing me, and I wondered what he wanted. I knew what I wanted, but it was doubtful he felt the same way. We were friends, good friends, but certainly not lovers, and I'd come to care for him that way.

I walked up to him and he turned, staring down at me. I knew the game would be starting soon, and he needed to go get changed. I wondered why he had wanted me to meet him here, now. No one was around; I wished so much that he would reach down and kiss me. I briefly considered pulling his face down to mine myself, then abandoned the idea. It was deeply flawed if he didn't feel the same way, besides, I wanted him to kiss me, not the other way around.

His eyes held mine, deep and warm. He was safety to me, home and love. I was sure of him in a way I hadn't thought I could be, not after all that had happened. He was deliberately reaching his hand out to my face, cupping my cheek. I looked up at him in shock, and his eyes silently asked me if I wanted this. In answer I slid both arms up and around his neck. His free hand settled on my lower back, gently holding me closer.

Slowly, painfully slowly, he lowered his head down towards mine, eyes still locked on my own. Then his lips brushed mine, bottom lip slipping between my own, and my eyes shut. His thumb stroked my cheek bone as he continued to kiss me gently. Then he deepened the kiss, and I pressed closer to him, wanting to savor his warmth and the feeling of complete safety I'd found in his arms, before it was over.

I bolted upright in bed, heart racing. A peek outside my bed hangings showed dawn beginning to steal over the grounds. I flopped back down in bed, wondering if I'd ever get back to sleep, before it was time to get up, after that dream.

This really needed to stop.

It was never my intention to be "One of the guys." But that's precisely what Tyler Lyndhurst had just implied, grinning across the floor at me from his spot playing Wizarding chess.

I sputtered, stuttering over a multitude of comebacks and retorts, itching to reach over and smack him. Albus sat next to me, wisely staying out of it. Logan Elms and Drew Wood sniggered, not even bothering to hide how funny they thought it was. I finally found my voice.

"I'm wearing a dress!" I shrieked. And not only that, but a vintage floral patterned maxi dress, about as girly as it could get. "I have long hair and wear make up!" I continued my rant. "What is your problem?"

"I still just see five guys," Tyler said mildly, prodding a chess piece with an overly casual gesture. I would have considered pulling his hair at this point, but it was cropped so close to his head, it wouldn't have done me any good. My hands twitched, forming a circle and squeezing around thin air as I imagined his neck between my fingers. Now Al smirked, and I grinned back at my best friend.

Logan nudged Tyler and pointed at my hands, grinning broadly. "You got 'er!" he told his friend, and they high-fived, along with Drew. Albus leaned back, away from the celebration, a concerned look flashing across his face as my own countenance grew stormy.

They may have been the Seventh Year Gryffindor boys, and the Marauders IV, but there were certain loyalties within our group that were hard and fast. Albus stayed out of any group drive-Sophie-crazy plots, preferring to annoy me solo. It wasn't quite the same as having an ally, but he was defiantly Team Switzerland, no matter how hard any of us tried to convert him to our cause.

I went back to my book, but was interrupted not a minute later by an insistent poking in my side. Al and Logan were the only two that could get away with doing it. For some reason, Logan had always been like my brother, although with his dark, almost ebony skin, he couldn't look less like my sibling, since I was pale almost to a point of literally being white. Everyone thought the tall African wizard was so tough, but with me, he was just my teddy bear 'brother'. And Albus was my best friend, so he could get away with pretty much anything.

As a Muggle-born, I'd had no idea what to expect when I boarded the Hogwarts express almost seven years ago. All of the little girls had been running around, screaming and giggling and they'd quite frankly scared me out of my mind. I'd noticed Albus, and wandered over. He was strolling quietly down the corridor with an owl cage in one hand and a trunk in the other, and I'd slipped up beside him. We'd introduced ourselves, although he'd hesitated before telling me his last name.

I'd wondered why he seemingly didn't like it, but smiled and nodded along anyway. His green eyes had lit up.

I glanced up into the same green eyes now, glittering with happiness as he drove me crazy. I started poking him back, and before long we'd lapsed into an all-out tickle war. Unfortunately, it was rather one sided, as always, since Al was somehow not ticklish, so all I was really doing to him was smacking him ineffectively.

I laughed until my chest hurt, and remembered that first day on the train again. I'd thought I'd be by myself again when he'd stopped at a compartment and said, "Here's my family." But the then-seventeen year old Victoire had spotted me talking to Al and watching forlornly as he started opening the door. She'd poked her head around the corner as the door opened and asked me my name, then asked me to come sit by her. I had, shyly, and Albus had grinned at me from across the compartment as I was introduced to Rose, and all the other Weasley and Potter kids. A chocolate frog had freaked me out, and also explained why Albus hadn't wanted to share his last name, as I happened to get his father's card.

We'd sat together during the Welcome Feast, and I, "Oliver, Sophie", had been place in Gryffindor moments before "Potter, Albus". Logan and Tyler had expected him to walk straight to them, but he'd plunked down next to me where I'd sat, away from the newly minted-and still giggling-first year girls.

"Al, stop," I gasped, and he shook his head, grinning triumphantly. A groan went up from Drew as Tyler won, and suddenly someone tackled Albus. I never did figure out who started it, because by the time I sat up all four boys were in a pile on the floor wrestling each other.

I sighed in resignation and watched them fondly for a minute, then curled up on the sofa, away from the flailing limbs, with my book. Several pages later, Al flopped down on next to me, pressed against me from shoulder to knee and dropped his head back against the sofa. His warm body was almost a familiar to me as my own, after having grown up side by side with him, practically joined at the hip. I felt safe with him next to me.

But the butterflies, the ones that had been multiplying for the last few years, from just one or two in fifth year, to so many now that ignoring them was about as easy as overlooking a hippogriff.

I glanced up into my best friend's brilliantly green eyes and felt a sharp tug in my stomach and an ache in my chest, suspiciously close to my heart. The other thing I never intended to do had also happened-somewhere along the line, it's impossible to say where, I'd fallen in love with my best friend.