AN: Helloooo, here is the JA story I promised a looong time ago. :)

Time is both essential and irrelevant. Unnecessary as the measurement of years and seconds, but important for when it's the perfect moment… for when a soul is ready for its other half.

They almost met five times before my arrow struck.

…First…

Alice peeked nervously into the empty classroom. Never before had she ever been given detention, and throughout her string of schools, she heard enough horror stories about it. She hadn't heard anything terrible about the ones at this school nor did she ask.

She knew that James kid was going to get her in trouble. She should've never had repeated the joke he told her like he'd asked, especially when her teacher could hear her.

Alice slunked into the room, taking her spot in the front. Because of her small size, teachers always had her moved to the front row. The room was still empty as she looked around, and deciding to be even more daring, she quickly moved back a few desks so that she was in the middle of the room. She laid her head down on the desk still looking around, amazed how different everything looked from that perspective.

She kept her head down when a couple of kids entered the room and made their way behind her. She closed her eyes hiding her face in her arms, wanting detention to hurry up and start already.

She wished that James had been caught and not her.

"Hey... Hey you…" Alice felt small jab in her back.

"Yes?" she turned around nervously, to see an older girl looking down at her.

"Do you know whose seat you're sitting in?"

"No," Alice said in a small voice. She started regretting moving to the back. She should have stayed in the front in her safe zone.

"Can't you read?" she pointed to the desk in front of her and Alice looked down spotting small writing in the lower corner of the desk.

JWH was here.

"JWH?" Alice looked up at the older girl.

"That's Whit's desk, and I would move it quick if I were you," she grinned looking behind her. "Too late..."

Alice stilled when she felt someone moving past her, and her eyes flicked to him as the boy sat down behind the older girl in front of her. The older girl narrowed her eyes at the boy and turned around to talk to him as Alice swiveled back around in her seat.

"Dude, she's in your seat."

"I don't care, Maria. This is my seat." Maria was her name. It did seem to fit her. Dark hair with tan skin and green eyes, she was very pretty.

"But that's your desk."

"I've written on hundreds of desks, plus it doesn't matter since I'm moving..." he told her as she huffed.

"What did you do anyway to get here this time?"

"Dress code violation - three in one day..."

"That's weak. I pulled out Charlottes chair from underneath her..."

"And you fractured her wrist when she fell," he added.

"I would have gotten away with it if Peter hadn't snitched."

"Again, you broke her wrist. You can't do things like that Maria. You shouldn't hurt people because you feel like it."

"Whatever," she rolled her eyes.

Alice gulped thinking about what this Maria girl could do to her tiny size. She sat so still in her seat hoping that she would become invisible.

"So hey you," Maria's voice was directed towards her, and Alice reluctantly turned her head to look at her. "What did you do? Were you late a whole bunch of days? Or you a sissy like Whit and got busted for dress code?"

"Um, I think I called my teacher a toad?"

"What?" the older girl laughed. "What do you mean you think? Who's your teacher?"

"Mrs. Banner, this boy made me tell a joke and I think I called her a toad. I'm not really sure."

"Are you serious? Mrs. Banner? I had no idea you were in 4th grade - 2nd maybe... Whit, how many detentions did Banner give you last year?"

"Lost count...she didn't like me very much. Probably because I got blamed for everything you did."

"So..." Maria turned back to Alice trying to change the subject. "You new? I've never seen you before."

"Yes, we just moved here from Houston..."

"Oh, you an army brat like the rest of us?"

"Uh, no. I'm actually from Mississippi, but my parents renovate houses, so we move around a lot, but usually in the same area so I don't have to change schools so much. But I don't mind it much, I kinda like starting over," Alice finished.

"Wow, you talk too much," Maria blinked at her, and Alice stiffened clamping her mouth shut. Maria turned around to say something to the blonde headed boy but she stopped short when she saw his face in a book.

"You're reading that again?" Maria said in an annoyed tone that Alice couldn't help but peek around her to see what it was.

"It's my favorite," his shrugged.

"Alright kids, sign the piece of paper as it goes around the room, I don't care what you do as long as you are silent."

Alice looked around stunned. All they had to do was sit there, she thought feeling relieved. Other kids laid their heads down while others pulled out homework. Alice pulled out a piece of paper and her pencil and began to doodle thinking about the mysterious boy two seats behind her.

They sat there for an hour having no idea that they would meet again years later - that they had found their other half when they were just ten years old - though the spark had been lit. They would be connected forever.

The teacher opened the classroom door signaling it was time for them to go. Alice looked down at her drawing and chewed her lip. She grabbed her backpack and hurried for the door with a hopeful smile on her face.

The tall gangly boy stood up and stretched watching the tiny girl fly out of the room. He nodded not really listening to his friend as she babbled on about something. He stopped, noticing the drawing the new girl had left behind. He smiled at the dementors looking up at a flying hippogriff with a wild looking Sirius Black riding it. He carefully folded it in half, tucking it in his book before following his friend out of the room.

AN: This is actually only a oneshot but there's more - don't worry. I wrote it some time last year in bits and pieces and I recently found it on a lost flashdrive (bc you know I'm a hardcore closet-writer)... So for my sake and your's, it'll be posted in six chapters instead of one 'long' choppy mess. I guess I'll post one or two chapters a day - one in the morning and one at night - sound good?

Also I just had to put a HP reference in there. I felt the need to mention dementors with the talk about souls...

Thanks for reading!