"Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and richness to life that nothing else can bring" - Oscar Wilde
Alice grudgingly went to her weeks worth of detention and much to her disappointment Frank was never with her. Professor Mcgonagall had decided that it would be more dull, boring and a better punishment if they served detention alone.
Alice however just shrugged off the memory since this was the first weekend in ages that she was able to get out of Hogwarts. She was more than thankful to escape the pile of homework that was building up on her bedside cabinet. However a slight dampener on her mood was that she was going alone as Jane had been moved to the hospital wing because she was practically cough her guts out now.
The rest of her friends had gotten detention somehow. "I have no idea how their potion caught on fire," Alice thought as she ventured through the great hall. "They followed all the instructions."
Yet no matter how much Alice hated being alone she was utterly desperate to escape anything that reminded her of school. Therefore she was happy to look like a loner or to be a "Snape" as everyone called it, in exchange for at least a few hours of freedom - It was a price worth paying.
Alice hugged her coat closer to her body as she made her way towards the little village. She loved all the seasons even Autumn because when the cold came it was an excuse to huddle up beside a fire with a steaming cup of hot chocolate.
Ahh Hogsmeade. The village looked wonderful with its little thatched roofs. Jack- o- lanterns, skeletons and fairy lights shaped like skulls hung from the windows and doors (Even though it wasn't Halloween yet)
If you weren't already in a festive mood before you came to Hogsmeade you certainly would be when you left.
Alice titled her head up towards the night sky and saw nothing but the almost half moon. "Waxing Gibbous...". She smiled. "See who says astronomy wouldn't come in handy?" She walked past Honeydukes which had giant pumpkins outside the shop and bonfire toffee and soul cakes displayed in the window.
Alice couldn't control her wandering eyes so much so that she did not even notice Frank ,who was standing outside Zonkos joke shop and blatantly staring at her.
"Come on Frank stop leering at Alice like some stalker and just go up to her. I mean she's alone," James commented just before Lily elbowed him in the ribs. His last observation was true though. Alice wasn't surrounded by her friends and it was too good an opportunity to miss. Frank never really understood why girls had this need to travel around in packs.
Lily turned to face him. "Please don't take any relationship advice from James."
Frank couldn't help but look on enviously as both Lily and James bantered for a good few minutes.
"Won you over didn't I," James cut in, grinning as she half heartedly scolded him. Suddenly as if realizing that they weren't the only two people in the world they both turned their attention back to Frank and his problem.
James held Lily under a loving arm as he pointed towards the three broomsticks. "Look she's going in."
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Alice took a seat at the table which was snuggled up nicely in the far corner of the room, under a wide window. She pulled on her woollen scarf, loosening it. Her butterbeer arrived in seconds and Alice found herself staring into the foamy tankard as the fireplace crackled away, somewhere to her right.
"Ahh," Alice sighed as she took a sip. The heat from the tankard warmed her ice cold hands. However her blissful moment was interrupted by someone clearing their throat. Alice looked up to see Frank standing beside her table.
She could feel her stomach do a somersault. "Hi Frank. Are you feeling better?"
Frank nodded whilst rubbing his palms together. " Mind if I sit here?"
Alice shook her head and pointed to the empty chair. "Ooo Peppermint toads," she commented, noticing the open green box in one of his shopping bags.
"Would you like one?" Frank asked as he pushed the box towards her.
Alice smiled gratefully. "Thanks. I eat anything with mint in it."
Suddenly the pub door swung open and a draft came rushing in as well as Sirius and Remus. It was only now that Alice came to notice James and Lily, sitting at the other side of the room.
Remus seemed quite pale and peaky, he had faint but still visible dark circles under his eyes and everything from his posture to his appearance radiated pure exhaustion.
"Remus Is looking a little worse for wear," Alice said more to herself than anyone.
Frank gazed at her face, so full of sympathy. "Yeah he's…ill"
Alice turned back to him. "Is it the same thing that Jane's got?" she asked but Frank just shrugged.
He hastily searched for a change of subject. "Would you like to get out of here?" Frank asked, hopeful. The room had become stuffy, slightly smokey and was now awfully crowded therefore Alice nodded eagerly.
She and Frank left the inn and the sudden change of temperature made her shiver as they began to walk straight ahead.
"So…you and Jane seem pretty close," Frank stated out of the blue.
Alice smiled. "Yes, since my two older brothers and her older sister moved out we've become even closer." Frank just nodded.
With no idea were they were going they continued to venture through the darkness but Alice stopped when the shrieking shack came into view. The abandoned house sat towering on a hill and constructed of dingy old wood. She gulped silently as Frank continued to stride towards the building [that not even ghosts entered]. He was completely unphased as if he did not know that it had been dubbed the most haunted building in Britain.
Alice silently chided herself for being such a baby but she, like the majority of the Hogwarts students had heard the wild stories about what inhabited the shrieking shack.
A understanding smile spread across Frank's face. "Your not scared are you?"
"No of course not," Alice replied. Yeah like I'm going to tell the guy that I like that I am frightened to death.
She could feel her skin crawl as she remembered that time when her brothers had watched a muggle horror movie about Zombies when they had been babysitting her. I was only eight! Alice tried to justify why she still had a silly fear of all things associated with Halloween, down to being scared at a young age.
"I hope Snape hasn't been bothering you anymore?" Frank asked, his eyes narrowing at the mention of the Slytherin.
"No…" Alice's eyes swept around her surroundings as if she was half expecting something to pop out and scare her. "Thanks to you." she finished, beaming up at Frank.
They had now reached the wire fence that surrounded the house and there was not a single soul insight, no lights and Alice could only hear her and Frank's breaths. On the second floor of the shack their was one curtain that wasn't drawn and she found that her eyes zoned in on it. What the…Alice felt her lungs constrict because for a second she swore she saw a white figure. She strained her eyes and caught a glimpse of the moving form.
Suddenly Alice heard a scream nearby and she jumped, biting back a cry.
The scream was followed by laughter and she immediately knew that someone must have been playing a joke on his or her friends. Alice breathed a sigh of relief.
"Em…" she heard Frank start. His voice cut through her fog of panic and it was only then did Alice come to realize that in her fright she had wrapped her arms around Frank's body and was hugging him. She could feel her heart racing in her chest.
Alice looked up into his sparkling eyes and a blush crept across her cheeks as she opened and closed her mouth repeatedly like a fish, expecting words to come out but nothing did. She jerked away from him but Frank just held her arms in place and unable and unwilling to stop the impulse he kissed her.
Alice stood unresponsive from the sheer shock of what was happening ,which caused Frank to pull back . Her eyes were wide and round as she tried to register the fact that he had just kissed her but she couldn't seem to. By now his cheeks were blazing red and he was about to speak but Alice grinned, quickly jumping up to bridge the distance between them.
Frank touched Alice's arm, sliding his fingers up to her shoulder and then under her hair to the back of her neck. He made her shiver and she leaned further into the kiss.
Alice's eyes fluttered shut as her lips moved in sink with his and Frank pinned her against his body but she didn't complain. She could feel a spark of heat surge from her heart and travel through her entire body as her arms snaked around his neck. Instinctively her lips parted so he kissed her harder and the smell of his hair and the heat of his skin was all Alice could comprehend.
When they parted she breathed hard as did Frank and they both just stared at each other.
Alice was pretty sure that she was blushing like mad because her entire face felt like it was on fire. "Em…I…"
Frank chuckled softly as he watched her struggle to speak. "I …I…guess you want to go out with me then?" Alice asked which only caused him to laugh harder.
Frank grinned down at her. "You've got that right…"He then extended his hand for Alice to take, which she readily did. "I guess your scared as well?"
She smiled, sheepishly at Frank who just kissed her scarlet cheek before leading the way back up the slippery path and away from the shrieking shack.
