Abby, I think I'm in love with you. I have been since that day you first told me to stop whining like a little child and get on that broomstick and practice so that I could get on the Quidditch team.

I mulled over the words in my head but then decided against them. They were a little too stalker-ish, even if Abby had been my best mate since first day of first year.

Abby, I know you think you aren't sometimes, but you are the most beautiful girl in the world. And before you go off about how beauty is subjective, I just want to rephrase that. Abby, you are the most beautiful girl in the world to me.

Maybe not those words. They weren't… right.

Abby, I know I'm your best mate, and I don't want to mess anything up, but I really like you. And I know that you're just getting over your breakup with Riley, but I'll wait. I'll wait however long you want me to. I just want a chance.

Those were… better, to say the least.

Abby, I –

"Oh Merlin! Albus, they're doing a cover of Hippogriffs in Headlights's song Love You!" The beautiful brunette girl who was sitting at the table beside me shot up from her slouched position and turned her impossibly sparkling brown eyes on me. "Oh I can't believe this! Dance with me!"

The girl grabbed my hand and tugged me out of my seat. The annual Victory Day dance that Hogwarts put on to commemorate the end of the Second Wizarding War was going strong. I had already seen two members of the faculty stumbling about and mumbling nonsense, although that was common considering the amount of stuff they had to put up with during that time. But other than that, everyone else seemed to be having a good time. I saw my older brother James trying to chat up Katy Bones, a pretty seventh year that should have wrinkled her nose at the dark haired sixth year attempting to flirt with her, but who was instead captivated by my brother's charm.

Oh, allow me to introduce myself. Albus Severus Potter, son of the Harry Potter, commonly known as the Savior of the World (at least, that's what he likes to think), and Ginny Potter, ex-chaser for the Hollyhead Harpies turned senior Quidditch correspondent for the Daily Prophet. Also, if you hadn't noticed, I fancy my best mate Abby.

Abby being the brunette girl currently leading me onto the dance floor and placing one of my hands on her waist and the other in her own hand. I didn't know why I was so nervous; I had known Abby for years. First day at Hogwarts, James was picking on me at the Gryffindor Table after I had been sorted. This little girl I had met on the train along with my cousin Rose piped up and shut him down with some witty comment.

I forget what it was exactly, but I knew from that moment on that she was going to be a good friend of mine. Little did I know just how close we would be. Because our last names came right after each other alphabetically (Potter and Prescott), whenever anything came up alphabetically (which was almost always) we were usually together for school work, and even if the professors let us choose our own groups, we always chose each other anyways. Even though the boys in my dormitory were my close mates, and Abby was good friends with the girls in her dormitory, and the whole lot of us were just one big group of pals, she was my closest and best mate and I was hers.

I knew so many things about her – like the fact that she's still really nervous around my mum because she thinks it's amazing that my mum was on the Holyhead Harpies, or that she buys her shampoo from Sweden because she once told me she wanted to smell like apple pie and I bought her a bottle that smelled like apples and cinnamon for her birthday that she completely fell in love with – and she knew so many about me – like how I want to get away from the shadow cast by my dad, my mum, and my brother and make a name for myself, or how the reason I had wanted to get on the Gryffindor Team was to prove to my family that I wasn't some ruddy-duddy nerd kid who liked to read and did well in school like James always said.

And for some reason, I had to mess our whole friendship dynamic up and fancy her. Too bad I never plucked up the courage to say anything to her, because just about two weeks before this very day, she broke up with her boyfriend, Riley Jordan. They had dated for over a year and while I was insanely jealous of him, Riley really was a good boyfriend to Abby. She would talk about him constantly, her eyes shining and her hands flying all over the place like she was so excited and happy that all she could do was flail around instead of bursting. But now her brown eyes only held half the sparkle they normally did. I knew she missed him, but was it bad if I was happy they were over? Obviously I wasn't happy that she was sad, but this meant that maybe I had a shot.

The last few words of the Globular Goblins's interpretation of Love You were mumbled out by their lead singer (I think his name was Gnasty or Gnarly or something), and I looked down to see tears running down Abby's face.

"Abby, what's wrong?" I asked in a worried voice, guiding her back to the table we had been sitting at.

She looked up at me, her brown eyes meeting my green ones and my heart skipped a beat. "I miss him, Al. I know it was mutual, but I really miss him."

Damn you Riley! Even when she's dancing with me, she's thinking of you! I sat her down in one of the chairs and placed myself next to her, placing a hand on her back and rubbing in slow circles to console her.

"It's okay, Abby. I bet there are plenty of guys out there who would fly through Quidditch hoops just for you to glance at them." Namely me, but we can overlook that. For now.

She looked at me and my breath hitched. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail like it usually was, but for the dance she was wearing a green dress with a flower and bird print that looked stunning on her. She looked amazing, although I always thought she looked amazing.

"Albus, maybe I just want one boy, I don't care about the rest."

My heart sank. "You know what you need?" I asked. She shook her head, wiping the tears from her cheeks. "Some punch and some chocolate if they have any. I'll be right back."

She smiled and grabbed my hand as I got up. "Thank you Albus."

"It's no problem," I said, smiling back at her.

Walking over to the drinks table – which was no easy task considering it was on the other side of the dance floor, I bumped into James who grinned and slung an arm around me as I tried to move past him.

"Baby bro! How are you? You finally tell Abby you're madly in love with her?"

I scowled. "Shut it, James. No one knows. And anyways, no I haven't told her yet. She's still hung up on Riley."

"Oh yeah, Jordan," James said pursing his lips. "Right foul git, isn't he?"

I threw his arm off of my shoulder and glared at him. "Don't talk about that. Riley's a good guy. Albeit, he's lucky to have Abby, but that doesn't make him a bad guy, much less a git."

I finally reached the drink table and poured two glasses of punch, though James grabbed one so I hexed his tongue to the roof of his mouth and poured another. As James mumbled some gibberish about how I was a minger for not telling Abby how I felt, I grabbed the two glasses and looked around for some sort of chocolate. All they had was some form of crisps so I turned around and tried to make my way through the dance floor. This was made especially difficult because I now had two glasses in my hand and James was trailing after my mumbling like a delusional rabbit.

"Mmphmm Abby, mph grgmph fancy hergmph."

I swore and turned around to face James in the middle of the dance floor. "James, if you ever tell Abby I fancy her I'll tell mum that it was you who broke her Nimbus 3000 last year."

That shut him up, although he did keep following me. The music was still playing and someone bumped into me, almost causing the drinks to spill. When I finally emerged from the sea of people, I straightened up and began to walk over to our table only to stop dead in my tracks. There, in the seat I had vacated, sat none other than Riley Jordan. Abby had done something and it looked like she hadn't cried whatsoever. They were both smiling and Abby giggled at something Riley said. James crashed into me at my sudden stop and by the time he realized what was happening, Abby and Riley had hugged and the latter had gotten up and walked away.

"Hey, Abby," I said forcefully as I set the drinks down on the table.

She looked at me with more sparkle in her eyes than I had seen in the past fortnight. "Riley said he misses me too. He wants to know if it's possible to restart everything. We're going to Hogsmeade next weekend."

I felt my heart drop and my face fell. "Yeah, that's cool. Sorry there's no chocolate. There were just crisps up at the table."

She smiled and shrugged. "No matter. Thanks for the punch!" I nodded and then she suddenly realized James was behind me. "James? What are you doing here?"

My idiot brother just sat down next to her and began talking about something or other, although my hex made it nearly impossible to decipher anything other than 'Albus,' 'Abby,' 'tell,' and 'fancy.' My heart dropped even further as I waited for her reaction.

Abby seemed to have gone white and her gaze quickly flickered from James to me. Then she burst out laughing.

"James, I don't know what you're talking about, but you should unstick your tongue. Bloody impossible to tell what you're saying. Isn't that right Albus?"

I nodded quickly. "Oh yeah. There's also that problem where James has word vomit that just spews out. Random words, isn't that right James?"

My brother frowned at the both of us and sighed dramatically. Speaking gibberish once more (the only comprehensible word being 'hopeless'), he got up and walked away. I sat in his vacated seat and looked at Abby.

"So you and Riley are back together then?"

She smiled at little hesitantly. "Kind of. We're seeing how things go."

I nodded as the songs switched. I recognized a remix of Magic Works by the Weird Sisters and I saw Abby's eyes go wide.

"Go find Riley," I told her, trying to ignore the sharp pain in my chest. "Go have fun."

She gave me a sad smile. "Are you sure? I kind of pressured you into being my quasi-date and I feel bad leaving you here alone."

I smiled and shrugged. "If I get bored I can always count bricks in the walls or see how long it takes for one of the Professors to get drunk and charm a suit of armor to dance with them when no one else will." By the way, that had happened at the Victory Day dance two years previous when Professor Longbottom had been going through a rough time.

Abby smiled and took my hand. "Thanks Albus. I owe you one." She squeezed my hand and let go to stand up.

"That's okay," I replied, grabbing one of the glasses and letting my finger circle the edge of it. "Just get me on the Quidditch team and we're square."

She grinned and threw her hair back over her shoulder, eyes dancing. "Already did."

"Then I guess we're even," I said, raking a hand through my messy black hair.

She laughed and turned, walking away to search for Riley. I sighed and dropped my head down. This just being friends was killing me, but I was scared. Because what if I told her and it just got so awkward that we never hung out anymore? I couldn't bear it.

I saw her on the dance floor with Riley, her head thrown back as she laughed.

I could never make her as happy as he does, I thought. But I will never stop being her best mate.