I shoved my trunk onto the carriage designated "Trunks" by the sign that was enchanted to float right above it.  I sighed and brushed the dust off of my hands onto my kilt.  Let's see.  My mother and sister were driving away from King's Cross station, having said their obligatory family goodbyes.  My gazillion ton trunk was loaded into the appropriate carriage.  I was neatly dressed in my school uniform, my robes folded up in my bag so that I could put them on before the train arrived at school.  Yes, all was in order.  As I watched students mill around the platform, the bottom of my stomach began to churn.  It was almost time for the train to leave – where in the hell were my friends?

            As if my thoughts had been broadcast out loud, I heard a deep male voice, tinged with a distinctively Scottish accent, cut through the crowd.

            "ALICA!!  ALICIA!!  Get over here!  What, do I have to get naked to get your attention?"

            I grinned and began to push aside people as I hurried down the platform.  Sure enough, as I finally managed to struggle through a crowd of confused looking first years, I was rewarded with the sight of Lee Jordan standing in a patch of sunlight.  He gave me a huge grin and opened his arms as I ran towards him to give him a hug.

            "How the hell are you?" he asked, lifting me off the ground.  I was so happy to see him that all I could manage at first was just to smile into his shirt and hug him tighter.  Finally, he set me down.  He folded his arms over his chest and, still grinning, looked me up and down with an appraising sort of eye.  I immediately imitated his behavior, noticing that not only were his dreadlocks a little longer, but that he had gotten even taller.

            "Well, well, well," he said, placing his hands on my shoulders, "Somebody hasn't sent me an owl in a month."

            "I know!  I know!  And I'm really sorry!  I meant to, right after your birthday party.  I had the best of intentions.  Seriously.  Right after I got back from your house, I was all set to grab a quill and start writing.  But then, things began to happen, and I got sidetracked, and before I knew it I – " I was cut off by Lee placing his hand over my mouth.

            "Al, you're doing that thing again. That blabbering thing.  Weren't we working on that?"

            I just smiled.  I couldn't help it.  I was just too happy to see Lee.  Let me explain.  Lee has been my best friend (ok, my best guy friend) since my first day of Hogwarts.  I was only eleven and terrified out of my mind.  While everyone else was becoming friends and having fun, I was sitting in the common room, confused as to everything that was going on.  I had been scared by a giant squid, talked to by a hat, nearly fallen off of a moving staircase, and just as I began to relax in a chair by the fire, some ghost had dropped water balloons on my head.  Just when I thought that I would start to cry, a scrawny kid with the beginnings dredlocks had suddenly appeared in front of me.

            "Wanna see my tarantula?" he said to me.  His voice was quiet, barely above a whisper, but it was the first time that someone had been nice to me all day.  Wordlessly, I followed him to see the tarantula, and since that day, Lee and I had been pretty much inseparable.  There was even a point during our fourth year when we thought our feelings might range beyond friendship, but we had sorted that out pretty quickly.  I can say with all honesty that Lee pretty much made me the person that I am today.  While I'm still shy around big groups of people, he convinced me that it was okay to let people hear me.  He was the one who told me I was a perfectly good flier and that I should try out for the quidditch team.  Lee was the first person in a long time to believe in me.  What did I do for Lee, you might ask yourself?  Well, actually, I did a pretty nice thing for Lee.  I set him up with his girlfriend.  Speaking of which –

            "Where's Katie?" I asked, turning around so I could survey the melee going on behind me.

            "She's coming," said Lee, moving so that he was standing beside me.  "She had to pick up Angelina first, so she'll be a little late."  He paused for a moment, turning his head so he was looking down at me.  "How was your summer?  Seriously."

            "Seriously?"  I looked up at him, trying to read the expression on his face.  "It was fine.  I mean, you know, the usual crap, but fine.  I've had worse."

            "Alright," said Lee, rather quietly.  "Just making sure.  I like to know that you're fine."

            I smiled back at Lee, enjoying our little moment.

            "JORDAN!!!!!"

            So much for a moment.

            "Get your arse over here!!  C'mon, show your best friends in the whole wide world a little love!"

            Lee and I grinned at each other and began to walk towards the voice of Fred, or perhaps George, Weasley.  They were standing there, looking the same as ever, and as we approached them, my breath caught in my throat a little bit.  You see, the thing is, I have a tiny little crush on George.

            Ok.  To be perfectly honest, I have a Very Big Crush on George.  Picture this:  six foot two, red hair, freckles, brown eyes, muscles (I knew Beaters existed for a reason!), slightly baggy jeans, and a striped rugby jersey.  Yeah.  Plus sweet, charming, intelligent, funny – I could go on and on.  Last year, when Lee and Katie were dating, and Fred and Angelina had finally hooked up, I admitted to Katie and Angelina my feelings for George.  They were ecstatic.  They assured me that they had noticed so many signs that he felt the same way about me.  That he constantly flirted with me.  That he was just too shy to ask me out.  That I should just tell him how I feel.  So one day, I saw him in the library, and getting a flash of inspiration, I decided to tell him how I feel.  I walked up behind him just in time to hear him ask out Elise Glancy, a Ravenclaw in the year below us.  Luckily, I was able to escape before either one of them saw me.  Katie and Angelina were supportive friends, stealing me ice cream from the kitchens and making vows to hate George if I wanted them to.  But to be honest, I didn't want them to.  First of all, George was still all of our friends, and being cold towards him just would have made things awkward.  And second of all, despite assuring Angelina and Katie to the contrary, I still harbored feelings for George.  Seeing him standing there next to Fred, grin plastered on his face, all of those feelings came rushing back.
            "Jordan!  Smashing to see you!" yelled Fred as he pounced on Lee.  George immediately followed suit and soon the three of them lay in a tangled heap on the ground.  I just watched as Lee attempted to push his way out. 

            "Alicia?  A little help?"  I heard his voice from under Fred's elbow. 

            Before I could respond, Fred and George had jumped up and were facing me with slightly evil grins on their faces.  Oh crap.  Now I knew what was coming.

            "Alicia!" cried George.

            "How could we be so rude as to not even say hello?" said Fred, as the twins began to advance towards me. 

            "In fact – " George paused as his grin became even wider.  "I think Alicia deserves a Weasley Bludger hello." 

            Oh this was not good.  Not good at all.  A few years ago, Oliver Wood, our old quidditch captain, had begun to refer to the twins as a "pair of human bludgers."  The twins, rather than being insulted, had taken this name to heart quite literally.

            "Guys, it's ok, really, a handshake would suffice…." My frantic stuttering was interrupted be Fred and George charging either side of me and crushing me with the force of well, bludgers.  Granted, I didn't mind George's arms wrapped around me, but I sure as hell could do without Fred's. 

            "Uh guys?  I can't really breathe," I managed to choke out.  A few moments later they released me, still grinning. 

            "So how was your summer?" I asked, before they could ask the same of me.  I didn't mind talking about that sort of stuff with Lee, but Fred and George were a different story.

            "Not too shabby," began George.  "Weasley's Wizard Wheezes is off to an excellent start due to an unexpected acquisition of funds.  We sabotaged Percy's work reports six times.  And Fred continued to either dream about Angelina, talk about Angelina, or snog Angelina."

            Fred grinned, not denying anything that George had said.  "Well, what George is omitting, is that his love life this summer was rather – "

            "ALICA!!!"  I heard my name screamed for the third time that morning, saving me from horrible mental images of George and Elise.  I turned and saw a beaming Katie sprinting towards me.  I began to jump up and down and scream.  Oh, come on, I'm allowed to be a girl sometimes.  Before I knew it, Angelina, Katie and I were all engulfed in a screaming, giggling huddle.  As we finally broke apart, we turned around to see the boys mocking us by doing the exact same thing.

            "Lee!  Is that a new lip gloss?"

            "Fred, you noticed!  And George, don't lie!  You've been getting high lights!"

            "Alright, I admit it!  You know they bring out my eyes!"

            "Humph!" said Angelina, as she linked her arm with one of mine.  "Just for that, Fred, you don't get a kiss!"

            "Same with you, Lee," said Katie, taking my other arm.  "We're going off to get a compartment and catch up on gossip with Alicia.  You three can get me and Angelina's trunks loaded onto the train and then come find us."  And with that, the three of us gracefully strolled off towards the train.

            By the time we plopped down in the carriage, we were giggling uncontrollably. 

            "Did you see the look on Lee's face!" yelled Katie.  "Oh this year is going to be amazing.  I can tell already.  I wonder if we'll have quidditch again this year?  And who'll be the captain?"

            "Yes, we will, and Angelina will be captain," I blurted out, before I could stop myself.  Angelina and Katie looked at each other and nodded.

            "So," said Angelina, crossing her legs Indian style and turning to face me.  "I take it your… special talent is still going strong?"

            I took a deep breath and decided to tell them about what had happened during the last week of summer, something I hadn't even told Lee.

            "Guys, you won't believe this…"