A Trip To the Hospital Wing
Author's Note: I think that Frank/Alice is possibly the most adorable Marauder's era pairing ever. After reading a few Frank/Alice fics I had the urge to write my own. It's a oneshot, and I just sat down and wrote, so it's probably not the best it could be, but I quite like it. -Helena
She was never sorry for what she did. She was only ever sorry that she got caught, and even that was rare. Yes, she quite took after her cousins, who were, Sirius Black had once said, the Marauders' main inspiration. Fabian and Gideon, everyone knew, quite differed from their older sister Molly. Molly had followed the rules, been a good student, and eloped right after school. She was a motherly sort, and had three small children, the oldest being just seven. Fabian and Gideon were rule-breakers, and got by on pure luck. They'd graduated a year previously, with seven N.E.W.T.s between the two of them.
Few knew her to be a part of pranks and jokes, for the Marauders were only too eager to accept credit for a large percentage of her handiwork. I often wondered if they had a pact between them, or something of the sort, because Black said that they rarely took credit for anything that wasn't theirs, mainly because of the Prewett twins.
To anyone that didn't know her, she seemed a quiet, studious girl, a likely candidate to succeed Lily Evans's position as Head Girl. She worried constantly for her family, something she and Molly had in common. Fabian and Gideon were well-known Aurors. Molly, she said, had married into one of the biggest blood-traitor families, the Weasleys. You'd have to be stupid, I agreed, to think that her family wasn't in any trouble, but they were all Pure-bloods, obviously not the very first targets.
I'd admired her from afar, there was no way she, who was always reading a romantic novel of some sort, would be impressed by me. Caradoc Dearborn, quite possibly my best mate, aside from Marlene McKinnon and Emmeline Vance, who I didn't understand half of the time, assured me that she'd come around one day. That or she was an idiot. At that point, I'd throw a pillow at him, or failing in that, trip him with a hex. It was obvious that I wasn't the most popular bloke in the entire school, and Marlene liked to joke that I was camp, which I didn't find amusing. (Partly because I was worried that she felt the same.)
They, Marlene, Caradoc, and Emmeline, would abandon me whenever she was near, which was more of a hindrance than a help. I was forever tongue-tied around her, and nothing, no amount of reassurance or time in the Greenhouses, could fix that.
"I don't see why you can't talk to her," Marlene would say. "I mean, people tell me I've got confidence issues." She did. Just of the opposite sort that I did.
"If by some miracle I can manage to talk to her, I'll say something stupid," I would groan. I never could seem to keep even my thoughts coherent around her.
Emmeline would giggle. "I'd think it was rather romantic."
"Neither of you understand."
"You could just up and snog her," Caradoc would suggest. Then he'd get a pillow thrown at him from either Emmeline or Marlene.
"Treat her like a princess," Emmeline would sigh. "Any bloke that treats a girl like a princess has a chance with her."
"James Potter," I would say by way of explanation.
"He's dating Lily Evans now, isn't he?" Marlene would ask, and I'd know the battle was lost.
One day they abandoned me after Herbology, while I was asking Professor Sprout a few questions regarding Aquatic plants, such as Gillyweed. I hadn't noticed at the time, but she seemed to be lingering behind for some reason. As I left the Greenhouses, I heard her call out, "Longbottom! Wait up!"
I spun around, and in doing so, fell flat on my arse, knocking over a pot of soil in the process. In addition to my confidence issues, it was well-known that I had coordination issues as well… also known as falling flat on my arse and tripping over thin air on a daily basis. "What?" After the word was out of my mouth, I winced. I sounded uncouth, the last thing I wanted to be around her.
"Care to take a walk with me? We've both got free period next."
We did, but I needed to work on my Transfiguration essay. "Don't be daft, talk to her," I heard Marlene's voice in my head. "Er…" I began, trying to find the words. "Sure."
"You don't have to if you don't want to," she said, eying me curiously.
I laughed nervously. I sounded more than a bit panicked. "Iwantto," I said quickly. "Really."
"How about we walk around the grounds?" she suggested.
"Er, yeah. Let's do that." There I went, sounding like an idiot yet again.
She went to get the door. "Allow me," I said, holding it open for her, Emmeline's words ringing in my head. "Treat her like a princess."
She smiled. Unfortunately I forgot to leave the door open for myself and wound up getting hit in the face with it.
She opened the door. "Are you alright?" she asked, rushing back into the Greenhouse.
"Fine," I dismissed. "'Sokay."
"We should get you to the hospital wing."
Sitting up, I shook my head, which made me lightheaded. "No, Pomfrey sees me enough as is. Don't want to give her more of a reason to hate me."
"A ceramic pot broke over your head and a door hit you in the face. I think she'll forgive you."
"'M fine," I repeated. I stood up and felt even more lightheaded.
"You look like you're about to fall over," she insisted.
"Nothing out of the ordinary," I assured her. "I've horrible coordination, you see. I always fall, run into things, break bones, you know, that stuff. It's just how I am. Dunno how I'm going to manage to be an Auror," I added. Now I was talking too much. "Mum wants me to, and I think I want to, too. I mean, I do want to. Saving lives sounds noble, heroic, Gryffindor-ish," I finished clumsily. "Plus, fighting Death Eaters sounds like a fair bit of fun." Oh, Merlin, Longbottom, shut the hell up, already. I looked at her, willing myself not to keep on ranting.
"We can take a walk another time, Longbottom. I think you might have a concussion."
"Nah, I don't. Least, it doesn't feel like the several I've had before. I think Pomfrey's about to have a bed set up just for me in the hospital wing, I'm in there so much. I can tell you loads about people, really, from what they've been in there before. Um, I think the Slytherin Quidditch team uses Dark Magic to test how tough their possible recruits are. I mean, I've seen some Slytherins, future Quidditch players, come in with some seriously nasty stuff that I don't think I'd wish upon anyone. Except Crouch. I hate that bloody bastard. Would you think less of me if I said that taking him out would be fun?" I asked. I laughed nervously. She looked at me like I was off my rocker. You've done it now.
"No, I don't think I would. He's particularly nasty to me. Almost as bad as he is to Lily Evans. Or, was, before she started dating James."
Anger flooded me. He was going to get it, then. "I can beat him into a pulp, if you'd like?"
"Come on, Longbottom, let's get you to the hospital wing. We can talk in there."
"Frank," I said.
She cocked an eyebrow. "Pardon?"
"Call me Frank."
"Then you've got to call me Alice."
I nodded and took a step. Dizziness hit me. Alice caught my arm before I had the time to fall. "Let me help you with that," she said.
"Yeah," I agreed, feeling that nodding would only make my dizziness worse.
Alice escorted me to the hospital wing, never letting go of my arm. To distract me, I'm sure, she began talking. "I'm sure everyone knows about my family," she began, "no siblings, three older cousins, the oldest of which has three children… My mum and dad live in Godric's Hollow… So, what about you?"
"Me?" I asked, confused. Maybe I did have a concussion.
"Your family," she clarified with a laugh.
"Er, right. I have three older female cousins, who used to make me dress up, which Marlene insists makes me camp…" I turned red. "Er…"
"I don't think you're camp," Alice laughed. She had the most beautiful laugh.
"Er, thanks. I've a mum and dad, obviously, but I don't have any siblings either. Mum treats me like I'm still in first year," I said, "it's embarrassing. Both my parents want me to be an Auror, and my grandmum's Sirius Black's… second or third cousin, I don't remember… she's really aristocratic, worried that I'm not behaving like a proper young gentleman at school, hanging about with the likes of Sirius rather than that of his brother… which annoys me to no end, seeing as I don't hang about with either of them, Sirius is just in my House and chooses to annoy the hell out of me and my friends… especially Emmeline and Marlene, as they're both female, and we know how Sirius is." I stopped. "That's it, really."
Alice smiled. She had a beautiful smile, too. As a matter of fact, she was completely beautiful, everything about her. Her eyes, her hair, her face, her personality… All of a sudden, I was aware that I was staring.
"We're nearly there," I said, "Just the next right."
She laughed. "Thanks."
An idea seized me. I was going to sound like an idiot, but I knew I'd hate myself for Merlin knows how long otherwise. We were nearly at the doors of the hospital wing. It was now or never.
"Go out with me."
Alice froze. What had I done? "And you're sure you don't have a concussion?"
"Well, no, not really. But…" I swallowed. "I've been thinking on this for a while now. You haven't noticed my friends' odd way of 'helping'? You know, abandoning me whenever there's a chance to leave us alone together?" She had to have. There was no way anyone could miss that. I mean, even Regulus Black had asked me what was up with that. And he was a Slytherin, a friend of Crouch's, and I'm fairly certain he hated me, or at least highly disliked me.
Alice bit her lip. "I hadn't noticed, to tell you the truth. But I have been trying to talk to you alone. Get to know you? Er… and you don't think you have a concussion?"
"I don't think so," I said. But I was becoming more and more unsure by the minute. "So…" I began again. "Would you want to go out with me, next Hogsmeade weekend? That is, unless I've landed myself in there," –I jerked a thumb towards the door– "for the weekend. Then it'll wait until the next time we venture into Hogsmeade."
"You're really determined, aren't you?"
"Yeah," I said. I was starting to doubt my sanity and I was resisting the urge to rush into the hospital wing by myself and leave Alice there.
She smiled. "I'll go with you."
If I knew that I wasn't going to get horribly dizzy and fall down, I might've actually jumped for joy. I know I had the urge to. Instead, I grinned. "Great!"
"But," she started, "if I find out that you've forgotten about this or if you had no idea what you were saying, I will hex you, Frank."
I loved the way she said my name. "Yeah, that's good."
She cocked an eyebrow, probably convinced that I was completely insane. "Let's get you checked out, hmm?"
I had never been happier to go to the hospital wing in my entire career at Hogwarts.