I bet most girls that are reading this story (and hell, I'll include guys, too) have dreamed of their charming prince coming to rescue them into a life full of love and happiness…right? Erm, or maybe that was just me dreaming. Regardless, Alice Kennicott (the future Alice Longbottom…) is such a girl. She can't stop dreaming of what her future prince will be like, but doesn't have any problem helping others finding their true loves either. The real problem is, what will she do when her prince isn't at all like the one of her dreams?

Rated PG.

Disclaimer: All that is JK Rowling's property is solely her, and I claim no rights to it. All that is obviously NOT hers is most clearly mine, so please ask my permission if you'd like to use it. Remember that plagarism is a big no-no, people...it's such a boring way of breaking the law, anyway.

One

I've always been that kind of girl who dreams of her future, magical wedding with a knight in shining armor who will someday rescue her from a life doomed to a colorless and mundane existence. I'd be richer than Grandfather Algie if I could get a sickle for every time my mother would shake her head at me and chide, "Alice Marie Kennicott, you best get your head out of the clouds!" Of course, I wasn't paying attention to her since I was daydreaming about what I would be wearing the evening I would meet my knight. I always had a vivid picture of what he'd be like: his dark hair would droop elegantly over his regal forehead and a pair of clear, kind blue eyes that could draw in even the most sternest of fathers, and his smile would light up the room….he and I would dance all night, his deep and resonant voice causing my skin to tremble and my hands to shake from pleasure…

But either he doesn't exist or he's hiding from me, for I haven't found him yet. I promised myself ever since I was old enough to lisp "husband" that I would never settle for anyone less than my true love. My parents' disastrous marriage was exactly what I did not want for me; they had married according to their parents' wishes, as it's customary for a pureblood family line. But I'm fiercely against that grimy tradition – how dare anyone tell me who I could or could not love? My best friend Lily Evans, however, is more practical than I am; she's getting to be more and more like my mum every day with her own chiding about my constant daydreaming in class and forgetting to do my homework (or more specifically, the Herbology homework that she can never understand and always begs me to do).

"You know," Lily said to me, chewing on a Fizzing Whizbee thoughtfully, "I wonder if you'll ever find that guy you're always dreaming about, Alice."

"What do you mean?" I asked her distractedly, drawing a daisy on my parchment and trying to remember the spell that would enchant it to move. We were in the Gryffindor common room, trying to trudge our way through a pile of Professor Binns' History of Magic notes for an exam tomorrow. Though naturally we weren't studying any piece of our notes.

Lily smiled, curling a strand of her auburn hair around her pinky as she usually did when especially curious. "You know – will you ever meet that guy? The one you're always dreaming about? I mean, according to what you say, he just seems too good to be true…"

I rolled my eyes at her. "How do you know? Just because you're taking Divination this year doesn't qualify you as my Seer, Elizabeth," I added, tossing in her middle name that Lily detests for good measure.

Lily narrowed her green eyes and slapped her quill point over my hand. "I'm only trying to help you, Alice. It's great that you have such high ideals – that's one of the things I love about you – but you should…well, you should at least take a look around you every so often, don't you think? What if that 'right' guy is in front of your nose?"

"My nose isn't long enough to hide anyone," I said, patting my button nose and looking over it so that I grew cross-eyed. "Besides, I don't think anyone matching my true love's description could be found at Hogwarts, of all places…"

"True love?" a teasing voice said behind me. "Are you daydreaming again, Kennicott?"

"When isn't she?" Lily said with a smile, patting my hand in comfort as she exchanged a grin with James, who was behind me, and Sirius, who plopped down next to me.

Sirius cocked a thick black eyebrow. Now, you'd think I would immediately fall for him, since he almost fulfills all of the qualities I'm looking for: the debonair air, the cocky stride, and the dark hair, but the one thing that always gets me is – well, here's the perfect example:

"I would've thought Alice was in a trance from that cross-eyed look she had going there," Sirius joked. "Are you trying to summon your knight in shining armor?" he cooed, pinching my cheek.

That's why.

"Maybe she's trying to summon something to hit you with, Padfoot," James said in interest, observing my annoyed glare.

"I don't care what any of you say," I declared, tossing my thin blonde hair. "I know the right guy's out there somewhere, and when I do find him, we'll see who has the last laugh!" Embarrassingly enough, I could feel tears stinging my eyes as I tried to ignore Sirius' hysterical laughter and the snickers that James was vainly trying to muffle by coughing. Whenever I became emotional, my body decided that tears were the best way of expressing myself, unfortunately.

Lily grabbed my History of Magic book and hit Sirius and James on the head with it consecutively. "Maybe that's the only way for you to suck in some brains," she snapped.

James and Sirius promptly choked and rubbed their sore heads, glaring at Lily.

"We were only teasing," James muttered, his face flushed. I bet it wasn't only because he was embarrassed – James' fancy for my best friend was as old as Merlin himself, and even though he and Lily had been friends since our first year, everyone knew what he really felt for her. And Lily calls me blind!

"Yeah, we came over 'cause we thought Alice had been hexed or something," Sirius said, looking defiantly at me. "Your eyes were crossed so bad that I could've sworn someone had put a Confuscious spell on you…"

"It's called a Confundus spell," Lily sighed, "And no, Alice and I were just talking –"

"Which you might've realized if you hadn't come barging into our personal conversation," I added tartly.

"Whatever," Sirius grumbled, patting the back of his head and grimacing.

"Anyway," James went on, sliding onto the window seat next to our table, "The real reason we came over here was to ask if you have the latest issue of Witch Weekly."

"Since when do you want to read a teen magazine?" I asked in surprise.

"And, more specifically, a teen girl magazine," Lily pointed out.

James gave her his most winning smile. "How else can we know how to be the ideal wizards for our beloved witches?"

"Plus, no one we've asked has a copy of this bloody magazine," Sirius said shortly.

"We're flattered," Lily said dryly.

"Tell us why you want it, and I'll go get my copy of the magazine," I said, smiling sweetly at the disgruntled look James and Sirius exchanged. Payback time!

"We're…er…writing a report on the…erm…nocturnal acts of witches," James said lamely, grinning.

"In order to better our manly sensitivity," Sirius offered, looking quite blank.

I peered at them incredulously. "….Right." Shrugging, I quickly summoned my issue of Witch Weekly from underneath my bed. As it came flying through the noisy common room, James deftly caught it in his right hand and jumped off the window seat, Sirius following after him.

"You're welcome!" I yelled at their retreating backs.

"What are they up to?" Lily said curiously.

"Something that we don't want to be a part of, that's for sure," I said, going to back to my daisy drawing. Suddenly remember the spell, I said it under my breath and watched with delight as the daisy started to move gently, as though flowing with a current of the wind. I touched the end of my eagle quill to each soft petal, counting off each one.

"He loves me, he loves me not, he loves me…"

-/-/-/-

Yawning, I stumbled into Potions class the next morning and plopped down on a random seat near the front. Lily and I had stayed up so late last night studying for our History of Magic exam that I was barely awake. Lily, who could sleep despite a Chinese Fireball roaring in her ear, ignored my attempts at trying to wake her up this morning, and I knew she'd hate me when she woke up and realized she had accidentally skipped her morning classes, but at this point I was too sleepy to comprehend the extent of her wrath.

"Careful," someone said, quickly taking my arm as I almost fell back in my chair against the desk behind me.

"Oh, thanks," I said in surprise, opening my eyes for the first time that morning. I looked up to meet Frank Longbottom's warm brown gaze. "Hi, Frank."

"Alice, you really need to watch where you're going," Frank said good-naturedly. "I'm not that good at healing potions – you could've split your head if you had fallen back."

"But you saved me," I said cheerfully, patting him on the shoulder. "So if I just sit next to you every time, I'll be fine, right?"

"Sure," Frank said, shaking his head.

I think this was the first time I had sat next to Frank in any of our classes; we had never been the closest of friends, per say: Frank was the type of guy whom everyone could say something nice about, but whose best color or favorite Quidditch team no one knew could remember. He was a bit of a loner whose only close friend was Edgar Bones, a seventh year and one year older than us, and I was always running around with Lily and being followed by James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter (whether Lily and I wanted them to or not). I could never understand him, and I guess that's why I never bothered to be friends with him. I, who had a permanent sunny smile and couldn't stand being depressed for a minute, was kind of scared of Frank's impassive face, which wouldn't show what he was feeling even if he was at a point of inevitable death.

Yet what made me give Frank a second look that morning was the tiny frown between his brown eyebrows that marred his otherwise stoic face. Could it be? Was Frank Longbottom actually exhibiting emotion?

"What's wrong?" I blurted out without thinking. "You look so sad."

Frank glanced at me and shrugged. "Why would anything be wrong? I'm fine."

"No, you're not," I said, crossing my arms and looking at him straight in the eye. "I can tell when people are not themselves – I have a special talent for that. So you might as well tell me what's wrong, or you'll have to endure my nagging you to death," I added seriously.

Sighing, Frank nodded after a long pause. "I guess you're right," he said, smiling. "Well, it's just that my mother is getting quite…determined at making me…erm…" He became uncomfortable, rubbing the back of his neck. "Never mind, it's too embarrassing."

"Tell," I demanded, elbowing him.

"Mum's pushing me to date girls," Frank spilled, his neck flushing brightly. "And I – well, I don't know what to do about it."

"Is that all?" I laughed. "I thought for sure your mum was forcing you to steal Dumbledore's phoenix or something." Catching Frank's awkward look however, I promptly shut up.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have laughed," I apologized. "I know how it feels when people laugh at you when you're embarrassed…look, if you want, I could help you."

"How?" Frank asked incredulously. "You don't mean…" He stared at me blankly.

"No!" I protested hastily, shaking my head as I realized he thought I was talking about he and I dating. As if that would happen!

"I mean, no," I said more calmly, seeing Frank's surprised look at my outburst. "I'll help you date other girls. You know, prep you for going out with them and helping you pick out the right girl."

"I don't know…"

"C'mon, who else could help you? Edgar would rather stuff himself inside a tomb than ask girls what they think about you. And you are looking at the resident romance expert of Hogwarts," I grinned, tossing my blonde hair.

Frank smiled back and held out his hand, which I promptly shook. This is going to be interesting…