Disclaimer: Everything from HP books belongs to JK Rowling
Love At First Sight
She likes to believe in love at first sight. That the minute she laid eyes on him, the minute he saw her that very first day, they instantly fell in love.
She knows her dreams of her true love knowing she was it at first sight have vanished. Sometimes, she dreams about might haves, about different scenarios of the first encounter because whenever she thinks about it she realizes that it truly was disappointing. A love like theirs, they shouldn't have been blind for so long.
It didn't help that when she met him (well saw him) for the first time he was a great big twelve year old and she was a scrawny first year. It didn't help that she couldn't utter a word to him as he sat at the welcoming feast joking with his friends. You know those boys, the famous ones, the jokers. She has to think for a bit before she remembers their group name because in truth, James is the only one she's ever in contact with. The Marauders, he sat there joking around with the Marauders as a pretty redhead sat scowling a few seats away.
It didn't help, their first meeting that is, that she was absorbed in his bright blue eyes. That she noticed, instantly, a glint shining in his beautiful orbs. It was a glint, a sparkle that lit up his eyes like sapphires and put a glow on his honey toned face. It didn't help that when she saw him that night, the newly made Gryffindor thought he was the most handsome boy she had ever seen.
He laughs nervously whenever she recalls the first feast she attended at Hogwarts. He knows that she loves talking about it because of the way it makes him squirm, because of his intense discomfort. He told her this once right before his graduation. They were trying to be brave, trying to ignore the tears welling up in her eyes because in a few days they were going to be separated by school and auror training. They were trying to ignore the intense pain lodged in both of their hearts because the thought of being separated for months at a time was completely unbearable. And she light heartedly tried to joke with him about that night at her sorting ceremony (she claimed it as her own) when he didn't notice her. She laughs when she remembers the tinge of pink on his cheeks and his ears that turned bright red from embarrassment. She laughs it off though, the discomfort she loves to cause him. "It's just the truth, Frank." She would say, "You didn't notice me when I was a lowly first year or even the year after that." Then she'd laugh, "You are such a baby, you know that?" She would say after he would mumble to himself that she was a nuisance, that he was only twelve.
Because it was just that. He didn't see her, didn't realize she existed, and sometimes it is a disappointment to her because their first encounter wasn't the magical tale she once envisioned. Truthfully, it doesn't bother her that much because they've been in love for so many years. What happened when they were eleven and twelve, when they were merely children, isn't important. But it would have been nice, she sometimes thinks, nice to of enthralled him on first sight.
But it didn't happen until she was thirteen and she, along with her best friend Dorcas Meadows, went to hogsmeade for the first time. She remembers that day so…vividly. It was a bit after Halloween and the first snow fall of the season happened the night before. She remembers hardly even caring about the stores, although she stared at a few with wide eyes, just wanting to engage Dorcas into a snowball fight. He remembers that day too. Remembers seeing a beautiful girl with chestnut colored hair laughing as her friend (Dorcas? He had thought) bit into a Fizzy Wheezy. Remembers her cheeks rosy from the cold and her hair tumbling in curls down her back. He saw her, knew in the back of his mind that he'd seen her before although couldn't remember where, and yet knew, just knew that he could watch her like this every day for the rest of his life.
She caught him staring and it was quite a surprise. Since the feast in first year she had somewhat of a childish crush on him quite like those infatuations people get on famous wizards they'll never meet. And he was staring at her. He had noticed her. It was shocking, just completely unbelievable because at every meal, every encounter in the common room, he just seemed to see right through her. And she met his eyes, felt her stomach cramping up, and walked with Dorcas to the Three Broomsticks for a quick butterbeer since their hands were frozen solid. Leaving him staring after her.
He remembers begging his mate, Remus, to go to the three broomsticks because he was getting quite chilly. He couldn't get the image of that girl out of his mind. He didn't know her name, her house, but something about her enchanted him, enchanted him before he even spoke a word to her.
He was never very slick, never the charmer his other friends were. He was the shy pureblood, who never realized he was handsome, who never thought of himself as intelligent. She laughs at him a lot, tells him daily that he's lucky to have her. That if he didn't he would be a very lonely man since he has no talent with the ladies. He shakes it off. "I ensnared you, didn't I?" He would say to her. She couldn't argue with that.
But anyway, he walked into the pub looking left and right for that girl with the chestnut hair, with the musical laughter. And as he walked to the back of the pub he bumped into a dainty girl spilling the pitcher of butterbeer she had just bought over them both. He looked up and it was her, lying on the next to him, covered in the sweet tasting liquid.
She was mortified, shocked beyond belief, because she had knocked into the one boy she liked since she learned she was a witch, spilled butterbeer on him and he was staring at her like she was a moron. Her brain literally shut off and instead of the apology she knew should come, all she said was "Hey". It's all he could say back before he laughed at the clumsy humor of the current situation. And she laughed too because, well what else can a person do after making a fool of themselves but laugh about it.
And to this day they still laugh at the mess they made that day in the Three Broomsticks. Still laugh at the butterbeer in her hair, at the stutters he couldn't but speak. And to this day she could hardly fathom the reasons of his nervousness, how it took him at least ten minutes to put out a shaky hand and quietly say, "I'm Frank, Frank Longbottom." And of course she knew who he was, of course, in some ways, that day in the Three Broomsticks was her dreams coming to life.
He could never describe the feelings when she folded her hand into his own and introduced herself as Alice. It felt as if his heart, his body and brain were screaming that this was the one, the one who he would be with forever. He looked into her dark brown eyes that day, looked passed the butterbeer stains on her white camisole, and felt at home. A feeling that hasn't left them since that day.
Of course it wasn't as easy as them just meeting and falling in love. After the first meeting, after the blinding haze left her eyes, she was angry. Angry because she had noticed him since the minute she arrived at the ancient castle and it took her spilling a pitcher of juice on him to make him notice her. She was angry, not angry enough to hate him or despise him, but angry enough to want to make him squirm. So she, the type that never likes to make anything easy, decided to make him beg, to play hard to get. And she did for nearly a year.
It wasn't all a courtship during the year. They did in fact become inseparable, tight knit friends. He became her best friend in fact, even to the fury of Dorcas who quickly realized that their duo was suddenly an unwanted trio. And during that year a love blossomed each individual was blind to. She had no idea that when she set her eyes on him that day of her sorting that she was looking at her husband. And he, not one to look into a future that doesn't include books or employment, never once realized that he actually would spend his life with the girl who so easily works him up into a frenzy and yet, embodies everything he's sure an angel would be. But for a year he chased her and for a year she ran away until one night when she was fourteen years old she pulled his face to hers and passionately kissed him as if there was no tomorrow. He would be lying if he said he wasn't a bit surprised.
It was actually a very humorous night when that happened. Most nights between them were when they were in Hogwarts because, well because she's a bit of a klutz and he used to be a bumbling idiot when around her. And she just decided one night, out of the blue with her random, spontaneous style, that she was tired of running, tired of him chasing her, and just kissed him. Just pulled his face down to hers and kissed him as Dorcas, James, and Sirius sat beneath a tree nearby. He remembers the catcalls and her cheeks turning rosy from the audience. It was quite embarrassing and may have been one of the more embarrassing moments of his Hogwarts career if it wasn't the most miraculous.
He tells her all the time how she gave into his looks and charm. Says that he's such a girl magnet with amazing skills that she just fell into his arms. She smacks him when he says that. She smacks him then turns away laughing at how delusional age has made him. She says her falling into his arms was not how she recalls it at all, but a night of begging on his part is very vivid. And he blushes, because really he remembers that night too, and romantically says, "It doesn't matter how we got here, just that we're here." She always melts when she hears that.
They've been together since she was fourteen and now she's twenty years old. It's been six years and most of the time she doesn't realize it's been that long. In two weeks they'll be married, she'll be Alice Longbottom, Mrs. Frank Longbottom. And her cheeks always tinge pink as she says that out loud to herself, as she thinks about their future together and the children they'll have. She puts her hands on her belly, she's already started showing signs. Lily, her friend Lily Potter that is, is pregnant now too. She knows she'll laugh if they give birth on the same day. It would be… well actually quite strange now that she thinks about it. But cool, in a very odd way.
She hasn't exactly told Frank that she thinks she may be pregnant. She tells him things purely on a need to know basis and she's not completely sure she is pregnant yet. But if she is she has her names all picked out. Sarah if it's a girl and Neville if it's a boy. She hopes it's a boy because Frank has always wanted a son to teach quidditch to, a son to follow in his footsteps as an auror and Hogwarts Head boy. He's pretty obsessive about it, has the poor unborn child's life all planned out, from birth till her husband's old age when their son will charitably take care of them. Or daughter, but really, she wants a son as well.
She smiles slightly, even as the phone begins ringing incessantly as it's been doing for the past few months. She smiles, even as her mother-in-law starts ridiculing her clothing and how nothing will be done on time for the actual wedding. She smiles as he walks into the room, as her dark brown eyes rest on his bright, sapphire blue ones, and realizes, for the hundredth time, that they will spend the rest of their life together. It's a realization that never gets old.
"Frank, remember that day in first year when…"
"When you started obsessing over me and I didn't know you were alive. Yes, I remember. I think half the wizarding world remembers." He says sarcastically.
She slaps him, "You never let me have any fun."
"It's usually at my expense."
"Frank?"
"Alice?"
"I wanted to tell you before the wedding. I'm… well you see…"
"Alice, you're beginning to sweat."
"Stop making jokes, this is serious, Frank! I'm pregnant."
"Pregnant?"
"Yes."
"I'm going to be a father? I'm going to be a father!"
Months later the memory of that night will still be fresh in their minds. She'll remember his happiness, how he twirled her and twirled her and than celebrated into the morning. It was the moment she knew, just knew, that her life became the fairytale she always envisioned it would be. When she knew they would be this happy until the day they die.
End
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