Sixth Year

"Is Alice okay?" Remus asked and Mary looked over the stunned looking girl who was making animal noises.

"She's just in shock," Mary whispered casually.

Remus couldn't help form laughing. "Is she still on that Frank thing? Wasn't that like a year ago?"

Mary nodded. "Oh Merlin, yes. I don't know if she'll ever let that go. He looked at her and said hi again in class today so she's still in shock. I swear, she'd marry some other guy, but she wouldn't shut up about Frank..."

"What if Frank doesn't like her and she's just getting her hopes up way too high?" Remus asked and Mary hushed him.

"Don't let her hear that... But yes. I think it's quite unwise and illogical for her to be so happy, but why would I break her spirits? She's so happy and that's the best thing anyone could ever ask for," Mary said with a smile towards Alice.

The students around them were quite overwhelmed with Gryffindor at the moment. First, James Potter was asking Lily Evans out on a date. Perhaps falling love with her. Second, Frank was rumored to fancying Alice. And lastly, their Quidditch team was swooping the pitch with victories. The common room was always full of questioning students and Mary and Remus just couldn't study in that room. Spending their time studying in the library, it was difficult to keep Alice quiet unless they used a number of spells or potions. Of course, they would have to use spells or potions if they didn't know Frank well enough for him to do them a favor.

Frank Longbottom knew Alice had fancied him for quite sometime, but he didn't know Alice very well. Being slightly popular, he had a lot of girls taking interest in him, but he wasn't very interested in return. He liked his studies and learning about defeating dark magic, but among those did not include girls. Don't get him wrong, he liked girls alright, he was just more interested in school. That is, until Frank found out Alice liked the same thing. Alice wanted to become an Auror and defend victims helpless against the dark arts. Frank nearly jumped for joy when he figured out they liked the same thing. He decided maybe he should give Alice a chance. Alice did get him to think differently about girls so he thought why not.

In his investigation of finding out who Alice was, he figured out she was very good friends with Lily, Marlene, and Mary.

Lily was so kind to him the first time they met. She bumped into him in a corridor near the common room and their school books went everywhere. In a frantic hurry, Lily rushed to organize both their papers and books. Even though in such a hurry, she still managed to apologize profusely, ask him who he was, and in what house he belonged to so she could have a proper conversation with him later. Frank just smiled and nodded. She was a nice girl, he just wished he could have talked to her more. There was something about her, the way that he was attracted to her in a friendly way. He had never really been able to talk to girls, or rather want to, but Lily made it easy for him to talk freely with no boundaries. Every time after that, he made sure to get in a word with Lily because she seemed like a friend he could keep. On the downside, he didn't keep up with her as much as he would have liked, but a friendly word and smile in the corridors with her was enough for him.

He was glad he was on such good terms with Lily, but then it came to Marlene. He wasn't sure what was going on between them. One drunk night, Marlene had unknowingly hit on Frank at a Gryffindor party in the common room. She laughed and pushed him around, but of course, Frank had no idea how to react. He didn't know how to talk to girls so he just walked away. When he saw Marlene in the morning, she had no idea who he was and slumped over from the major headache that was pounding in her head. Frank didn't know what kind of terms he was on with her so he just decided since it wasn't bad terms, he would be alright.

And then there was Mary. Mary was all sorts of strange. She was very shy and quiet in class, but whenever he saw her with Alice, he swore she was a five year old again. Alice and Mary seemed to be the best of friends and they always smiled when they were around each other. That was of course when they weren't wrestling. They acted like they were ten years younger then they actually were and he just guessed it was because they were such good friends. Mary was not only just crazy around Alice, she was never in the mood for other people. If you weren't her friend and she didn't know you, she wanted nothing to do with you. Sarcastically mean was how most people described her. Upon meeting, Frank was partnered up with her and she decided she was going to do the worksheet on her own. She informed him that if he wanted to work with her, the most that would happen would be copying down her answers. He replied with, 'no thank you. I think I can manage on my own'. Doing the worksheet and getting done before her, he checked answers and smiled at her. He told her that checking answers was a form of working together and she seemed fine with it so he said she could check answers with him anytime she'd like. Mary wasn't too keen on even acknowledging his existence at first, but this show in kindness changed her attitude about him. She flashed him a smile and told him he was alright. From then on, checking answers was a regular occurrence for the two of them. Their terms weren't perfect either, but at least he didn't have to worry.

Frank saw Alice as a girl who got excited about everything. And if Alice felt like she wasn't doing something quite peppy enough, she'd splash water on herself and make herself become ten times more peppy then she needed to be. He saw it as strange the first time, but the more he hung around her, the more he wanted to jump up and down with her. He admitted, he wasn't the kind of guy who would be caught dead screaming over a cute fish in the lake, but Alice let him step out of his comfort zone. He once called a fish, a fishie. He just couldn't help himself when he was around her. But Frank realized that he was getting distracted from school and Alice was just making it harder for him to become an Auror. He wanted to ignore her and try to stay away from anything Alice until he found out they shared similar interests. He thought maybe, just maybe, he would be able to concentrate on school while at the same time, concentrate on Alice. It was perfect! He just didn't know if Alice still fancied him the way she used to.

"Oi! Longbottom!" Mary hissed and Frank looked up from his studying table. He was with a couple of different friends, reading about plants for Herbology.

"Don't be so rude," Remus muttered to Mary as she waved Frank over.

Frank stood and walked to them. "What's up?"

Remus smiled politely. "Do you think you could do us a little favor?"

"Yeah, sure. What do you need?" He asked.

Mary pointed at Alice, who was loudly fumbling through books and screeching happily whenever she saw the words, 'Frank', 'long', or 'bottom'. "Could you go talk to her or something? We're not forcing you to fancy her or anything crazy like that! I know I never would... But she's just being loud and if the librarian gets back in time to hear her, we'll all be in big trouble."

A smile flashed onto Frank's face as he nodded. "Of course! It's a pleasure talking to her."

"What. Talking to Alice? Alice Prewett? That girl right over there? That girl? The one being louder than a hurricane? That one?" Mary interrogated and he nodded. "You've got to be joking..."

He made a strange looking face at her. "Um... Aren't you two, like, best friends?"

Mary snorted and nudged Remus. "'Friends' is pushing it... Well, anyway... How do you even talk to her? She talks at you, pretty much, and you barely even get two words in!"

"I don't like talking much and her silly nonsense fills the silence I dislike so much. I don't know, I think she's very insightful and smart if you actually listen to what she's saying. It may take her a couple of minutes to get out what she needs to say, but when she does, it means a lot. Her positive energy just helps me through a rough day," he smiled and walked over to Alice.

Mary's jaw dropped as she watched Frank leave with determined and soft eyes. "Um... What did I just hear?"

Remus chuckled at her and opened his book. "A kind of affection that will turn into a great love someday."