A/N: This chapter should be posted with another chapter after it. They're both kind of short, but I had planned for them to be a little short. I could have made them into one big chapter (with chapter six added in too), but I decided to break one big chapter into three shorter ones. Enjoy! Read & Review. -Mac

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Chapter Four

I Remember Just Fine

No I didn't forget Ian. I could never forget Ian. He had been such an important part of my life, once. How could I ever forget him?

Ian Winchester was my best friend back when I was in school. But we went further back than even that. I had known him practically since birth. The Winchesters were my parents' closest friends within their social circle. Ian and I would have been in close proximity, even if we hadn't been friends. We were the same age, only separated by a couple months. Ian always hated taht I was older than him. We shared a common disinterest in society life. Although his parents weren't quite as involved as my mother was, we both would rather be anywhere but in the middle of a socialite ball. We were bound to be friends.

We did everything together. We were inseparable, people would say. I couldn't have had a better friend than Ian. I didn't really have any friends besides Ian. I didn't need any. My mother was never happy that I only spent time with a guy--and noth a gaggle of giggling girls--but she couldn't complain that I was spending all my time with someone from a family with social status equal to ours. We were so close. We were constantly bombarded by questions on whether or not we were a couple. And we would constantly deny that we were any more than just friends. That was until seventh year.

We were entering our final year of school. We were heading for the beginning of the rest of our lives. We were one step closer to the real world. And suddenly everything we were together was different from everything we once were. We saw each other differently. Suddenly a relationship, that was by definition constant and unchageable, was now changing. It was one of those moments when you're unsure of whether it's a good thing or not.

We were suddenly a couple. Not just friends. A couple. Dating. No longer single and best friends, but spoken for and boyfriend-girlfriend. It was a big change, and yet not much changed.

We still did everything together, the only thing that changed was the activities we pertook in. We were still the same people we had always been. We were just a couple. But we weren't just any couple, we were the couple.

I was the daughter of two of the most influencial people in the known world--an exaggeration, but close to true--and he was the heir to the Winchester throne. It wasn't technically a throne, but it might as well have been. Ian's family is one of the richest--and I mean rich rich--in the country. He is the direct descendent of his great-great-great-great grandfather's fortune. A fortune that was still growing today, under his father's control. Individually, we were a big deal in our community. Together, we were the center of attention.

We were the IT couple. We were the people, other people wanted to be. He was the guy, guys wanted to be and girls wanted to date. And the same went for me--but the opposite. It didn't help that we were perfect together, perfect for one another. I was once told we were the essence of the perfect couple. I don't know it I believe that, but we had something all the other couples in our school wished they had.

Then it ended, almost as suddenly as it had started.

I've never been able to really explain it. We just stopped being perfect for each other. It happened so quickly it was hard to tell where it all began. He lied, I lied. We went from the people who never fought about anything, to the people who fight about everything. Everything changed...again. This time it was definitely a bad thing, I lost my boyfriend and my best friend.

It made me realize there is no such thing as perfect--everything has flaws. When flaws are ignored or overshadowed, they become problems. Problems can tear everything apart. Soemthing that was once good can fall apart without warning.

A couple of years after graduation, Ian moved out of state to head up a different division of his family's company. He took his girlfriend with him. Then a year ago I moved out of the country. Everything fell into a normal routine...minus one thing.

And here I am today. Sitting at the breakfast table with my entire family, being told that someone who had been absent from my life for so long was walking back in. I wasn't exactly ready for it. And it showed.