"Have I ever told you that you're beautiful?" asked Frank, with his chin in his hands across the table.
"Hmm," said Alice, turning the page of her Astronomy textbook. "I believe you may have told me that once or twice."
"Did I mention that you're more beautiful than the stars in the sky, or the sunlight reflecting on the ocean?"
Alice blushed deeply, and smiled bashfully at her boyfriend. She carefully dog-eared the page of her book, and pulled out the library directory again to look another book up.
Frank watched her, his eyes soft. "Do I get to go find another book?"
She chewed on a strand of her hair thoughtfully. "Yes...Can you go grab..." She frowned at the directory. "Phenomena of the Night Sky, I suppose. By J. L. Gemini."
She pointed to it in the directory, and Frank nodded. She continued to read through her own textbook. Who knew Astronomy could be such an interesting subject? But she supposed there was no future with it - what could one do with the stars, anyway?
Frank returned with a beat-up old book which was much too thin for Alice's liking.
"Are you sure it's this one, Ally?" asked Frank. "It looks like a Muggle book."
She flipped to the index, distressed. "This is the only book that might have something about Dark Matter in it."
"About what?" Frank looked bewildered. "I know NEWT level Astronomy is like, really serious and all, but I haven't even heard of that."
"Neither have I," said Alice. "Wow, this book is useless. 'Dark Matter has been postulated to be the invisible force that affects gravity throughout the universe, and consequently makes up most of the universe. It is, however, invisible, and anything accepted by the scientific community is based on educated guesswork rather than fact-based knowledge.' What a load of..."
"What's 'scientific'?" asked Frank.
"It's like Muggle magic. Come on, let's go up to Professor Sinistra and ask her about it."
Frank shrugged good-naturedly and pulled on his jacket. He held up Alice's as well, and she wriggled into it after putting her books in her bag. They walked to the front desk and checked out the Muggle book, and then set off across the school. They held hands; Frank's hand was callused, but warm and safe. Alice walked close to him.
"Do you want me to carry your books?" he asked.
"No, I'm fine. Thanks, though." She smiled at him. He bent down and kissed her cheek gently, and she reached up with her hand and turned his head to kiss her properly. He laughed softly, and Alice did too.
"So, have you decided where you're going to apply for an apprenticeship for?" asked Frank.
"No, not really," said Alice. "I think I might just be an Auror, you know? I mean, nobody expects you to be an Auror forever. Everyone's very welcoming to ex-Aurors looking for an apprenticeship."
"It's rough, though, Ally, you know that."
"Oh, you know I could do it, Frank. I'm not scared."
He chuckled. "That is one thing, Alice Caldwell, that you are not."
She sighed and pressed her face against his shoulder. He frowned. "You okay, Al?"
"Yes, I'm fine. I just feel..."
"What?"
"I feel like everything's going to change, Frank. Like everything that's happened up to this year has just been a game. This is the year everything changes."
"If you say so," he said doubtfully.
They didn't say much more as they huffed their way up the Astronomy tower. As they reached the top, Frank slowed to a stop as they neared Professor Sinistra's office.
"It doesn't look like she's in there," he said.
Alice knocked anyway, and pressed her ear against the door. "Yeah, I think you're right. I don't hear anything, and she usually has a fire going. It's so drafty up here."
"You'd think the Divination room would be the same way. Hang on, do you hear that?"
Alice frowned at him, her ear still against the door. "I just said I didn't hear anything, Frank."
"No, not there," he said, turning around in a slow circle. "It sounds like it's coming from...here?"
He placed his hand on an old, faded tapestry of some hunting scene. Alice stared at him in shock. Had her boyfriend gone mad?
Suddenly, he moved the tapestry to the side. Alice gasped. There was a passage behind it.
"This must be the entrance to that bridge thing," said Frank.
"Want to explore?" asked Alice.
"Hang on, don't you have studying to do?"
"Oh, don't be so uptight, honey. Come on!" She grabbed his hand and tugged him down the narrow hallway.
He swallowed as he glanced out one of the small, dingy windows. "You know, I don't think even the house elves come up here."
"Oh, someone must. Look, the dust on the floor is all turned up - and you heard something down here, so someone must be here."
As they reached the end of the bridge, they saw a large oak door hanging ajar. As they got closer, they heard voices. They exchanged a glance, and Alice poked her head through the door.
It was a strange mix of people. Marlene and Matthias McKinnon, sixth-year twins from Ravenclaw, were sitting on the floor playing a strange game that appeared to be balancing old wands on top of each other, and avoiding the sparks they emitted when they touched. Joey Fawkes was lounging in the middle of a circle of fire on the floor, and Fabian Prewett was hastily stacking boxes against a wall, which he appeared to have just knocked over. Lily Evans and Mary Macdonald were sitting on a sofa chatting with Septima Chase and Seph Greengrass, both Slytherins. Professor Ezana, the African wizard who was their new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, was sitting at a desk reading a book, apparently unconcerned by the students in the room.
Marlene glanced up from her game, narrowly avoiding getting caught by blue sparks. "Alice, Frank! I didn't know James invited you. That should be everyone, though - except the boys, of course. Have you seen them? It's nearly eight o'clock."
"I'm sorry?" said Alice, bewildered.
"Here they come, Mar," said Franny Walters, who was sitting by the door.
Frank and Alice stared at each other, completely baffled, as James Potter, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, and Remus Lupin came into the room.
"Oh, hullo, Frank, Alice," said Lupin. "I didn't know you were invited. More the merrier, though, eh?"
"I don't -" Frank began to say.
"Is that everyone, Potter?" said Ezana.
"Should be," Potter replied. "Alright, everyone, sit down, sit down!"
"Why should we listen to you, Potter?" said Evans crossly.
"Because I made this club up," he replied irritably.
"Should we stick around?" muttered Frank, as they bickered and everyone tripped over each other to find seating.
"It seems like a pretty good group of people," Alice whispered back. "I'm curious. Let's hang around."
"What about your Astronomy essay?"
"It's the weekend. I have plenty of time to do it."
Frank gave her a stern look but she shrugged innocently. He shook his head and rumpled her short brown hair, and they took a seat next to Fabian, one of Frank's roommates.
"I didn't realize you'd been invited," Fabian said, "we could have walked up together."
"It's fine," Frank replied.
James Potter cleared his throat, standing up front with Sirius Black. Alice focused her attention on them, but held Frank's hand in her lap.
"Now, uh, well, you were all there on Halloween," Potter began, scratching the back of his head and making his hair stand up on end. "And, uh, Sirius and I were wondering, well, what happens when You-Know-Who really does attack, you know? Which is why we started this club. The Defense Club. And we thought that maybe we could just, like, meet and practice defensive skills and whatnot."
"We could set up our own defenses around the castle, in case anything happens," suggested Marlene McKinnon.
"Yeah, that too," said Black with a nod.
"Why's it so secretive?" asked Fabian crossly. "I mean, I'm sure everyone would support it."
"Because we're Hogwarts' secret weapon!" said Potter enthusiastically. "We don't want any - er - spies going to the Death Eaters and telling them about us, because then, if the school is attacked, we'll have the element of surprise."
"Which is admittedly very useful for a bunch of teenagers as they battle well-trained evil wizards," said Ezana darkly. They were the first words Alice had heard him say all evening.
Sirius nodded to him. "Ezana is our esteemed teacher sponsor," he said in introduction. "He has graciously agreed to oversee our meetings and make sure everything goes smoothly."
"Essentially making sure you kids don't kill each other," Ezana added. There was collective laughter. The professor raised his eyebrows. "I wasn't joking."
There was more nervous laughter, and Fawkes emitted a few sparks. Potter laughed hesitantly.
"Anyway, as long as everyone's in agreement, we can start actually practicing defensive spells next week," Black said, lacing his fingers together and lounging back in his chair, simultaneously flicking his hair away from his face. Alice thought she distinctly heard someone sigh, though she couldn't tell whether it was male or female.
There was a chorus of agreement, and a scraping of chairs. It seemed the meeting was over. Alice glanced over at Frank, expecting him to have a bored look on his face, but there was something that surprised her in his eyes.
Excitement.