Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Summary: Despite both of them being pureblood, Frank and Alice's families did not like each other. And yet the children caught up in it all seem bound together from childhood. Read & Review please.
What Is A Fairytale?
It all started when we were kids. Like with most families who live off their land, growing and selling, supply and demand, fields and the exact amount of land is everything. My family, the Quinns, had been lucky and settled down at a large villa with a working farm and the right squares of earth to go with it in a godforsaken place in England, at least according to me, before the Longbottoms came along.
Their family was larger and had less money than us, both living and working at their farm, their crops leading up to ours, but none it mattered and for years our families got along. I'll never forget how absolutely adorable I found their youngest son Frank even from a young age, but how could I not? He had blonde angelic curls falling into his piercing blue eyes, and the freckled face that was always tanned from playing outside too long.
Me and Frank were the same age, but sometimes I felt older when we were at my house and my mother, Emily, would have me sit perfectly still on a chair, sipping tea as ladylike as possible. I much more enjoyed running free at Franks house, it seemed more homely to me and as I got a bit older I thoroughly enjoyed the way his mother would gush over my beauty. My own mother too often complained about the dull brown colour of my hair, matching my eyes and I started to agree with her.
But it all started when we were kids, about nine years old, and I was hiding in the closet of my older cousins' room (My aunt and her two daughters had been staying with us since the death of my uncle). I'd been in there to try and steal their brooms as me and Frank were anxious to fly and neither of our parents would let us try yet, when they'd entered and in pure panic I had jumped into their closet.
"Come on, tell me!" whined Nadia, the youngest of the two, to her sister Penelope before closing the door. I was scared to even breathe, and praying they wouldn't notice the closet door being slightly ajar.
I watched Penelope sit down on her bed with a smirk, still silent, until Nadia tugged at her sleeve and begged once more "Please Pen, what happened? Did he kiss you?"
Nadia's obvious excitement and the grin threatening to break through on Penelope's face confused me; my father kissed me on the forehead every night before I went to sleep, what was the big deal about a kiss?
Penelope nodded to answer Nadia's question and her squeal was so loud I nearly covered my ears; not exactly sure I wanted to know how it had all happened in case it led to more squealing. But Nadia had jumped up on her sister's bed demanding to find out everything about this apparently so infamous kiss, and Penelope sat up straight in her eagerness to share.
I listened carefully to the story, getting more and more curious about the whole deal as Penelope seemed so affected by it that she was off in her own, happy world.
"But don't tell Mom or Auntie Emily." Penelope had raised her fingers warningly at Nadia who nodded seriously and I stored the information that apparently kissing had to be kept secret from adults, which I found very strange as I'd seen my parents kiss from time to time.
Nadia kept on asking questions, but Penelope apparently felt she had shared enough and got up from her bed, rushing her sister "We have to get downstairs Nadia; the lunch has probably already started."
To my horror I remembered we were hosting a rather large lunch, the Longbottoms were included in the guest list and that's why Frank and I had thought this the perfect opportunity to sneak off for a fly.
But for an even bigger scare Nadia was now moving towards the very closet I was hiding in and her hand was on the knob to the left door that was completely closed as opposed to the right. I didn't let my breath out until after Penelope at the last moment had told her it was too hot outside for a sweater and they had left the room.
When I finally made it downstairs and outside to the yard it was filled with people, but I still didn't manage to escape my mother who with a loud screech, "Alice!", pulled me aside to scold me for being late and not changing into the dress she'd had Tulip, our house-elf, lay out for me on my bed. I put on my best apologetic face, but rushed out to find Frank as soon as she'd let go of my arm.
"You didn't get the brooms!" was the first thing Frank said to me, disappointment written on his face and I rolled my eyes with annoyance, as if he'd had to go through being stuck inside a stuffy closet, with a sweater sleeve constantly dangling in his head.
"I couldn't, Nadia and Penelope walked in and I had to abort the mission." I grabbed Franks hand and dragged him along, out into some of the fields where the tall crops would hide us. My family grew Muggle vegetables to cover for the magical plants we grew at the very back of our fields, and that's how we earned all of our money as there was a large market for both.
Finally we reached the destination I'd had in mind as Frank had ranted on about how much he wanted to fly, both of us easily climbing the old apple tree, with thick branches reaching over a small pond. We were sitting across of each other with a leg on each side of the branch, Frank with juice from an apple he'd plucked trickling down his chin.
In the comfortable silence between us my eyes were drawn to his mouth as he kept biting into the apple, and Penelope's story was floating around the back of my mind.
"We have to try something." I said, surprised to find my heart beating a little faster, and the slightest blush creeping up on my cheeks.
Frank sighed deeply "Alice, I don't want to see who can jump into the water from the highest spot again, you always win." I tried not to look too pleased with myself, but it was true.
I shook my head at him "No no, that's not what I meant," biting my lip unsurely I hesitated, but Frank seemed interested to see what new thing we could get up to "I think we should kiss." I told him sombrely.
And to my surprise he looked very thoughtful about my suggestion "I heard my brothers talk about it they seemed pretty excited, do you really want to try it?" I nodded eagerly, apparently Frank's three older brothers knew something about this as well and if Frank and I just tried it, the older kids in our life wouldn't have this mysterious secret from us anymore.
He shrugged and gave me a crooked smile "Alright, let's try." there wasn't a hint of awkwardness between us until we'd both inched closer to each other on the branch and our faces were almost touching. He smelled like clean laundry and I smiled before we both pressed our lips tightly together and let them brush against the other's in an attempt at a kiss before pulling back, staring at each other with confused eyes.
Both of us were silent for a while before Frank said "Do you feel different?" with the same almost professor like tone he'd used the time we'd split his parents alarm clock to pieces to find out what made it tick, and he'd inspected each piece carefully.
I frowned in concentration before shaking my head "Not really, what about you?" he shook his head as well, staring at me like I was the busted alarm clock and he had to find out what was wrong with me.
I licked my lips, tasting apples, and lay back on the branch, disappointed that the kiss hadn't had more of an effect on me, but not really bothered by it as rays of sunshine tickled my face through the confusing mazes of trees.
Frank on the other hand was determined to get to the bottom of his "Maybe it doesn't work on friends? Did Penelope kiss a boy she was friends with or not?" truthfully I answered I hadn't a clue, and closed my eyes as Frank went through countless of theories.
When I opened them again I was staring straight into Frank's blue eyes, his face hovering above mine "Merlin!" I exclaimed loudly, my hands gripping tight around the branch as my startled movement almost had caused me to fall off.
"Maybe we just did it wrong." Frank said hurriedly, taking my hands and pulling me up in a sitting position, before stroking his thumb over my lips, lightly parting them just a bit "Stay like this!" he commanded and I rolled my eyes at him as I enjoyed to do, but never the less stayed.
When Franks face was suddenly moving towards mine again I instinctively closed my eyes and he just barely caught my bottom lip between his own before we parted for the second time, only now a delightful tingle had still made its way through my body.
Frank raised an eyebrow at me and I answered his unsaid question with a nod; this time I felt different.
"Me too." he said, breaking our silent conversing and we grinned at each other, but then didn't know what else to say or do. I was twisting my hands uncomfortably, careful not to look at Frank for too long at a time, until he said "Fine, we can jump, but I'm not even going to bother with climbing all the way to the top of the tree."
I laughed out loud at his sulky expression and took his hand when we jumped together, as always landing safely in the pond, the cold water welcomed at such a hot day.
We had been swimming around for a long time before we made our way back to my house, both of us dragging a wet trail behind us, our soaked clothes hanging heavy on our bodies, but we smiled in happiness to see all guests besides Franks family had left in our absence.
Not until we were up by the house could we tell something was very wrong, as our parents were in a loud fight. The reason was so absolutely silly to me, a guest today had offered a good, steady contract, but our parents couldn't decide if the field to be used belonged to the Longbottoms or the Quinns.
Frank and I held each other's hands tight as we listen to the adults lashing out at each other, sad, but not really too worried until my father tugged at me and Frank's mother pulled him over to herself as well.
"Alice you won't be seeing Frank anymore, is that understood." my usually calm and kind father was talking so strictly tears welled up in my eyes at this unimaginable demand. Nobody noticed because drops of water were already trailing down my cheeks and I stared into Franks eyes who was told exactly the same. It all started when we were kids.
A/N: Good? Yes or no? Please review and let me know. Also if anyone would be interested in being a beta for this story I would very much appreciate it.
X X X LolaCherryColaGirl