A/N: Another short story :) Hopefully you'll like it!
Disclaimer: I don't own the world of Harry Potter.
He watched her hovering near the hoops, almost without moving, in utmost concentration. She was fierce, yet graceful at the same time. She was funny, yet serious about the things that mattered most to her. She was smart, yet tremendously oblivious to his affections.
Albus Potter tore his gaze away from her and looked around for the Golden Snitch instead. There it was, speeding around the pitch, now flying almost straight at his brother James. Had this been an official match, Albus would have sped after it without another thought. Now, however, as it was just another practice, he waited a little longer.
As the Snitch proceeded towards the hoops, Albus started moving as well. His eyes briefly left the Snitch to make sure that she was still there. Since that was the case, he concentrated on the little golden ball again. He felt his fingers grasp around it the second before he crashed into something, or rather, someone. Swiftly steadying himself, he looked up, grinning.
"Oops, sorry, Megan. Didn't notice you there."
Megan, having steadied herself as well, glared at him. "I have been here the entire time, Potter. You'd think that, as the Seeker, you'd see everything on the pitch." Before she could continue, the rest of the team had come over.
"What's going on here?" James asked, trying to sound strict.
"He," Megan said, pointing accusingly at Albus, "decided that it would be funny to crash into me again in his hunt for the Snitch, claiming again that he hadn't seen me, hurting my arm again, and again acting as if I should be lucky that he crashed into me." She folded her arms and continued glaring at Albus.
James ran a hand through his hair, and Albus knew why. He had heard it countless times. James wanted to win that Quidditch Cup. So did Albus, and everyone else on the team. James was trying to make something of the team, while Albus was, presumably, doing nothing but fooling around and crashing into their Keeper at least once every practice just to attract her attention.
"Al, stop crashing into Megan for no reason, please," James said exasperatedly, emphasizing the last word. "Both of you need to be in top shape for the game next week. I can't work with a Keeper and a Seeker whose arms and shoulders are full of bruises before the game has even started, thus making them less able to play."
As they continued the practice, Albus kept sneaking glances at Megan. She was concentrating again, but there was a hint of irritation in her eyes that Albus was sure only he noticed. It wasn't discernable for the untrained eye, but Albus, who had been watching Megan quietly (and recently, not so quietly sometimes) for over two years, could easily see it, even from this distance.
After practice, James cornered Albus. "I know," Albus said before James could even open his mouth, "you want that Cup. I do too."
"Yes. So I really need you to stop sabotaging our Keeper, no matter how much you want her to notice you."
Albus gaped at his brother. Sure, he hadn't cared too much this year to hide his obvious affections for his teammate, but James usually wasn't the most perceptive person in the world when it came to those things.
"The only feelings she'll develop towards you will be negative ones this way," James continued, and Albus wondered when, where and how he had gained that knowledge. "Why don't you just try to act normal around her for once?"
Albus shrugged. "That seems to be impossible to do. I can't behave normally around her nowadays."
James smirked. "Don't you think I should be the one to do all that?" He shook his head. "It's in my name, Al, you're stealing my life goal!"
"Right, James, sorry," Albus said, grinning slightly, "the next time I decide to become an obsessive stalker, I'll remember that that was what you've always wanted to be. I'll keep it in mind."
"Obsessive stalker?" James echoed. "I had no idea that it was that bad already…"
Albus snorted. "It's never been anything else, James. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some homework to do."
As he walked away, he heard his brother call after him, "And a girl to stalk!" Rolling his eyes, Albus walked inside. That goes without saying, he thought to himself. Although at times he was frustrating himself to no end because of Megan, he had come to terms with his slightly strange obsession ages ago.
Sitting down on his favourite couch in the common room, he took out some parchment to at least look like he was studying. Needless to say, it was only his favourite couch because it provided the best view of Megan as she sat in her usual spot at one of the tables.
After five minutes of trying to write his Potions essay, Albus settled for doing something far more pleasant. He grabbed one of his books, lay down on the couch, and started watching Megan over the top of his book. Somehow, on the Quidditch pitch, he was much more confident. There, he was able to do stupid things in order to catch her attention. Off the pitch, it was a different story. He'd love to just walk over to her, sit down and chat with her for a bit. Instead, he was lying on the couch, feeling sorry for himself. What a Gryffindor he was.
Before he knew it, two hours had passed, but Albus didn't feel bored at all. How could one become bored while watching such a fine creature? he wondered. Her head was supported by her left arm now, which meant that she was having no trouble at all writing whatever she was writing. Suddenly her hand moved up, into her hair. Albus knew that she had, most likely, come across something she didn't understand at first glance. When her right hand joined her left one, he became alarmed. The book she was reading must have been rather difficult, for she didn't seem to get what was in it. If only he knew which book it was…
"Having fun?" a voice, coming from behind him, asked quietly. Albus yelped and turned over, falling onto the floor.
"Rose!" he whisper-shouted. "What did I tell you about sneaking up behind me?"
His cousin raised one eyebrow at him and in the meantime, Albus pushed himself up and instinctively looked over at Megan. She was eyeing them curiously, but when she saw Albus staring back, she quickly turned back to her homework and Albus felt himself flush.
"I think my sneaking up behind persons is rather minimal compared by your sneaking around, Al," Rose responded. "Honestly, do you really think you're being subtle in stalking her? Do you really think she hasn't noticed?"
"She noticed?" Albus asked, allowing his voice to sound slightly panicking. "How? Why? I'm – "
"Too obsessed with her to control your own movements? I doubt that there's a single person in the school who hasn't noticed. Well, James perhaps – "
"No, he noticed as well," Albus said sullenly. So his covering up wasn't as good as it had been before. Just great.
"He does?" Rose asked surprised. "Well, then, I don't have anything to say but this: you're an idiot, Al. Stalking a girl night and day – "
"How do you know about that?" Albus asked, astonished.
Rose shot him a look. "I don't think I want to know what you're talking about, Al. Anyway, stalking a girl doesn't usually make her like you. It makes her creeped out by you. Which isn't good." Rose was now talking as if Albus was a little baby, so he turned his attention back to Megan, only to find that she wasn't there anymore. He glanced at his watch and knew why; Megan always went to her dorm at ten o'clock precisely. Shame he missed her going upstairs now. Maybe she would've bade him a good night in passing.
Albus had completely stopped listening to Rose as she went on and on about girls not liking obsessive boys. "Rose!" he shouted at her suddenly, most likely interrupting her mid-sentence, since everything Rose said usually came in one enormous sentence. "I get it, alright? So yes, maybe I'm a bit over-obsessed with Megan, but it's not as if I chose to be. Maybe that's difficult to believe, but it's the truth. I never asked to become a stalkerish person, no one gave me the choice, it just happened. Do you think that if I would have the possibility to stop obsessing over her and have a normal life, whatever you want to call normal, of course, that I wouldn't do that? It's just – she's so perfect, you know? She's perfect in every single way." He sighed, looking at his cousin, who looked quite alarmed. Not at him, though. Faster than he would have thought possible, Albus whipped his head around and found himself staring at the girl he had just been talking about.
He looked back at Rose, absolutely mortified, and then he grabbed his book, his parchment and his quill, and flew upstairs to his dorm. A stalker he might be, but that didn't mean that he wanted to shout his feelings for her from the rooftops. Needless to say, he couldn't sleep that night, tossing and turning, wondering where it had gone wrong. Even at night, she didn't leave his thoughts. Deciding that staring at the ceiling wasn't going to help him, he went back to the common room at about two in the morning.
Since he couldn't sleep and there was nothing (or rather, nobody) to distract him now, Albus started his Potions essay which, to his surprise, was rather easy to complete without Megan around. When he had finished the essay, he suddenly felt uneasy. Almost as if someone was watching him. He looked around the common room, until he found the culprit. Sitting on the stairs to the girls' dorm and staring at him with a blank expression on her face was Megan, and Albus felt like a tomato once more.
"M-Megan?" he asked in a higher voice than usual, "w-what brings you here?" Once confronted with Megan, there were two options for Albus, between which he couldn't choose. The first option was stuttering and stammering and not knowing what to say to her. The second option wasn't any better: it mostly consisted of him becoming some sort of macho, making all kinds of innuendo's to her which she usually didn't appreciate, and flirting shamelessly with her. So in general, he was used to making a complete fool out of himself when around Megan. He also suddenly understood how she, and everyone else, had noticed his obsession with her. When he thought about it, he had to come to the conclusion that he was rather bad at hiding it.
"Showing you what it's like to have someone constantly watching everything you do," she replied quietly. She stood up from the stairs and walked over to where Albus was sitting. "It's unnerving," she added, "knowing that you can't do a single thing – move a single limb – say a single word – without somebody else noticing and recording it." As she continued staring at him, Albus indeed felt uneasy, and yet, it felt completely natural to just sit there, gazing into her eyes without anyone near.
All of a sudden, too soon for his liking, Megan broke the eye contact and walked back towards the stairs. Albus twisted in his chair to catch a last glimpse of her. "Stop stalking me, Potter," she said softly, before heading towards her dorm, leaving a very silent Albus behind.
A/N: Well, what did you think? Just for the record - there will be only one other chapter. Let me know what you think, please review! =)