Disclaimer: I am not J.K.R.

My special thanks go to my two faithful beta-readers, ER Monkey and Sheen Rox. Love ya!

Love Is Not A Game

Chapter 1

The Date

Today Angelina Johnson was happy. She had a date with a nice young man who she had just met a few days ago. The doorbell rang right on time.

"Hello, Alan!" she said, pleased, and smiled at the dark-haired man.

"Hi, Angelina, are you ready?" he asked.

"Yes, come on, let's go." She took her handbag, locked the front door and together they went out to dance.

When they were tired, they took a seat in a more quiet corner.

"Angelina?" he asked.

"Mh-hm?"

"Tell me something about you."

"What?"

"Well, actually I don't know anything about you. I know your name and that you graduated from Hogwarts last summer, but that is all." He pouted, making her smile.

"You have forgotten something," she reminded him.

"What is it?"

"Come on, you know what I'm working as!" she said triumphant.

"Well, sure, that's because I've found you a place with Mr. McGee. Oh, talking about him, what do you think about the work in a lawyer's office?"

"Hm, to be honest, I have no idea! I've just been there once! But I think that he is a fair lawyer, and until now I think that he is pretty nice, so..."

"That was a compliment, wasn't it?" smirked Alan. "But I want you to tell me something about your past, Angelina!"

"Hmm... Well, I used to play Quidditch a lot and I still adore the sport, but unfortunately I was too bad for the professional league... But after three months of waiting I've found a job because of you... My parents have nearly gone crazy because they worried so much..."

"I already knew that before, Angelina!" he complained.

"Hm, what don't you know yet? At school I used to be one of the best in Charms. Flitwick absolutely was my favourite teacher."

"Yeah, Flitwick was okay," Alan said slowly.

"Didn't you like him?" Angelina wanted to know.

"Well... Once he caught me cheating, and from that moment on I was always extremely nervous when he was present."

"I didn't think that he was so bad. We played quite a few tricks on him, and he always took it with humour. Well, I wasn't that good at creating pranks – Fred, George and Lee were the great pranksters – but Katie, Alicia and me, we always helped the boys."

"Oh, really?" Alan asked with interest. "You don't look like you would play tricks on teachers."

"Really? Would you like to hear an example?"

"Sure!" he said enthusiastically.

"Okay... Once Flitwick wanted to show us a new charm where you could make a pillow and other things disappear for a short time, but Fred secretly moved his wand under his desk so the pillow hopped away and Flitwick's charm hit his own desk. Of course the whole desk disappeared and the pillow fell down. Flitwick lost his balance and fell from his pile of books, landing with his bottom exactly on the pillow! That looked so awesome!" Angelina couldn't help laughing at the memory.

"And?? Didn't he get angry?" Alan asked.

"Well... In the end Fred and I got detention. Fred because he had manipulated Flitwick's charm, and I, because I laughed so much that I had to hold onto Fred, and then we fell off our chairs..."

Now Alan had to laugh too and Angelina got a slightly pink colour in her face.

"When did this happen?" Alan asked eventually.

"Hmm, let me think... It must have been in my sixth year..." Angelina admitted.

"What?" Alan's eyes became wide.

"What?" asked Angelina sceptically.

"Then you were... Let me count... 16?"

"Yeah, and?"

"Well, you behaved like little children..."

Angelina had to laugh again. "Yes, Fred absolutely was pretty childish, and his childish side couldn't help but rub off on us..."

"Better funny than sad, isn't it?"

"I totally agree with you, Alan."

The two of them spent a nice evening together, and Alan accompanied Angelina back home. In front of the door to Angelina's house – there was no more light to be seen, so Angelina guessed that her parents were already asleep – Alan took her hands in his and looked deeply into her hazel eyes.

"Angelina?" he asked quietly.

"Yes?" she whispered back.

"I have to tell you something very important, but I don't know how to tell you and I don't know if it is right to tell you now and-"

"Just tell me!" Angelina said.

"Really?"

She nodded.

"Okay." He took a breath. "Angelina... I love you."

He looked pretty nervous, but when Angelina smiled, he relaxed. "Alan... I don't know yet if I love you, because from my point of view it is much too early for a statement like that, but I like you very much."

"Does this mean that I'm allowed to kiss you or not?"

"You may kiss me," she said and closed her eyes. She felt his lips touching hers, but a short time later she backed away from him. "Let's meet again soon?" she suggested.

"Okay, I'll owl you," he answered and kissed her once more on her cheek.

She went – no, she hurried back into the house and gazed through the window, watching Alan disapparate. Then she headed upstairs through the dark house and into her room, laying down without pulling off her dress, her mind and heart racing.

Alan. He had kissed her. He had told her that he loved her. He wanted to see her again. She also wanted to see him again. But she didn't want him to kiss her. Yet, she wanted to be kissed actually. But from somebody totally different. From Fred Weasley.

Fred. Since he and his brother had fled from Hogwarts, she either saw him or heard from him. She wanted so much to go out with Fred, she even had asked him if he would go with her to Hogsmeade the next time, and he had said yes! But because he wanted to get away from Umbridge and fled with George, he couldn't fulfil this date. Every day she had awaited a letter from him, every morning she had waited for an owl to bring her a message from him, telling her that he was fine and why they had had to go. Well, Angelina knew he would be fine, but she would have loved just to hear it from him.

Thinking of Fred, she fell asleep.

A/N: I wrote this nearly a week ago because of a chaos of feelings and yes, it definitely helped. This week nearly everything changed somehow. However, if you want to have a second chapter with some Alicia and Katie in it, please review! I'd love to hear your opinion!