Disclaimer: I don´t own Harry Potter.

A/n: Lately, I´ve become abnormally obsessed with rain. Whenever it´s raining, I´ll go outside and stand there for a long time just to feel the air. It´s very refreshing.

This chapter is dedicated to my best friend Lily. Remember that I´ll always be there for you, even though I might not be too good at showing it.

I have fallen in love

I see the famous pink clouds

I have fallen in love

No matter how much I try to shake it off

I have fallen in love with my best friend's baby

-Nathalie Nordnes

Alicia´s PoV:

The day after The Incident At Dinner´, Katie, Angelina and I were sitting in the common room doing homework. My friends were still teasing me about the whole me-going-to-the-ball with-George thing.

"We told you so!" Katie exclaimed happily. "But did you believe us? Oh no. Why should you listen to your best friends?"

Actually, I wasn´t listening very closely to her now either. I was too busy replaying the entire Felicity-scene for the fifth time that day. Why did George choose me over her? I mean, she´s about a hundred times as pretty as I am. Was it just because we´re friends and he´d already asked me, or could it be...

Could it really be true that he fancied me?

And if he did, what the hell was I supposed to do about it? I mean, George is a very nice guy, and one of my best friends. Not to mention that he´s totally hot, come to think of it. He´s one of the most popular boys at school. So I suppose I´m a very lucky girl. If he fancies me, that is. But the problem was that I did not have those kind of feelings for him. It´d probably be a lot easier if I did, but Fred´s the only one I want.

However, at the moment I had more pressing matters to attend to, such as what I was going to wear. I still hadn´t got a dress robe, so the following weekend I went to this great clothes store in Hogsmeade with Katie and Angelina. They had already gotten robes, and therefore were free to help me. Katie was really enthusiastic, seeing as her speciality – apart from Quidditch of course – is clothes. She kept finding new robes and insisting I try them all on. Angelina was a bit more relaxed, but in the end she found the robe I wanted. It was blue, the shade of the sky on a summer day, and I loved it from the moment I saw it.

"You look gorgeous!" Katie exclaimed when I tried it on.

Looking in the mirror, I had to agree that she had a point. The robe really looked good on me. I still wasn´t beautiful, but I didn´t at all look bad.

"George is so going to love that robe," Angelina stated, grinning.

I scowled at her. Why do they always have to drag in George? I wasn´t going to wear the robe for him or anyone else.

I kept wondering what Fred would think of it, though.

"Leesh! Wake up!"

I groaned at the sound of Angelina´s voice. How can people sound so bloody cheerful so early in the morning?

"Go away! I´m sleeping!"

"No you´re not, you´re talking," she kindly pointed out. "And I don´t think you really want to go to sleep again. It´s Christmas!"

"Christmas?" I sat up, instantly awake. Tonight I was going to the Yule Ball with George, who is my best friend, but not the one I love. And I´d have to endure seeing Fred, whom I love, with Angelina, my other best friend. Life´s just not fair.

"Aren´t you going to open your presents?" Angelina looked at me expectantly.

"Of course I am. But can you please let me wake up first?" I tried to scowl at her, but she had turned her attention towards her presents instead of me. I did the same, eager to find out what I´d gotten.

The day went by quickly, much quicker than I wanted it to. At five Angelina, Katie and I left the snowball fight we were having with the boys to get ready to the ball, much to the boys´ surprise ("You´re going already? The ball´s not starting for three hours! Girls are weird.") Back in the dorm, I showered and put on my robe. Angelina helped me with my hair, and Katie did my make-up. I was ready for the ball.

George sat in front of the fireplace, his back towards me.

"Hi, George." He turned to me, and his mouth fell open.

"Leesh! You´re looking... beautiful."

"Thanks." I smiled at him. "You look great too." It was true. He was wearing a navy-blue robe, and for once his hair wasn´t a mess. It actually looked like he had used a comb on it. However, my attention was dragged away from him when Fred, who was looking even more handsome than usual, came in. He nodded at me.

"Nice robe, Leesh," he said, and my heart did one of its stupid flip-flops. He liked my robe! His next words dragged me down to earth again, though.

"Has Angie come down yet?"

"No." I shook my head. "But she´ll be down here any minute now." And she´ll be looking so pretty that you won´t notice me again tonight, I added silently.

I was right, of course. The minute he saw Angelina coming down the stairs in her dark red robes, looking fantastic, I might as well not have been there. I turned to George.

"Shall we?" He offered me his arm, and we went down to the Great Hall. There we met Katie, who had gone down before us.

"Hi!" she greeted us. "We´ve saved you seats! Come on!" We pushed our way through the crowd, over to the table where Lee was sitting.

"What took you so long?" he complained. "We´ve been waiting forever!"

"If I know you two right, you probbly haven´t wasted your time," Angelina commented wrily. Katie proved her right by blushing and giggling. She was looking beautiful tonight too, dressed up in pink robes and with braided hair. If she weren´t my best friend, I´d probably hate her guts.

"Look! There are the champions!"

We all turned to look at them. I could see Harry, who looked too embarrassed for words. Poor boy, he´s so shy. Cedric Diggory was going with Cho Chang, the Ravenclaw seeker. That snobbish French girl, Fleur Delacour, was going with Roger Davies, and Viktor Krum was accompanied by a girl I didn´t know. At least that´s what I thought, until she passed our table. When I realized who she was, I jabbed my elbow into George´s ribs.

"Ouch! What are you doing, Leesh?"

"Have I finally lost it or was Krum´s partner Hermione Granger?"

He stared after them. "Damn, you´re right! What´s happened to her?"

"I have no idea. Perhaps it´s the lack of books," I suggested.

He grinned at this. "Yeah, that´s possible. Bet Ron´s noticed it too."

I nodded. The poor boy´s crush on Hermione has been obvious to everybody except themselves for a long time. I wondered when they´d realize it.

The dancing started. The champions were first on the floor, looking a bit awkward. But pretty soon they were joined by others. Fred dragged Angelina into a wild dance, which scared everybody, while Lee and Katie danced so close that it almost wasn´t decent. That left George and me alone at the table. For a while we sat in silence. Then, suddenly, he turned to me.

"Wanna dance?" He looked very determined, and I couldn´t refuse.

"Sure," I said. We moved onto the floor and started dancing. It felt surprisingly nice to dance with him, to have his arms around me. It made me feel safe.

Afterwards I danced one dance with Lee, and one with Fred, which left me completely out of breath. I decided to sit down for a bit. Pretty soon George joined me.

"Want something to drink?" He handed me a glass of cold pumpkin juice, which I accepted gratefully.

"Thanks. It´s quite exhausting to dance with your brother, you know. He´s really energetic."

"Yeah, I guess so. Wonder how Angie can keep up with him. Seems like they´ve slowed down a bit."

I turned around to take a look. True enough, they were now dancing much slower. And closer. I wasn´t sure if I liked the way this was going.

"Listen, Leesh..." George said.

"Yes?" I answered, still staring at Fred and Angelina.

"There´s something I need to talk to you about." I nodded. What was going on with them? It looked very much like Fred was... He was...

He was kissing her.

"I have to go!" I interrupted George, who was still speaking. Then I ran out of the Hall and into the first empty classroom I came to. Once there, I gave in to the tears.

For the first time I realized how strong Fred´s feelings for Angelina were. Maybe I should just give up. But he´s so gorgeous! I sighed, trying to push the image of him and my best friend out of my head. A voice interrupted me.

"Leesh? You here?" It was Katie.

"Yes. You shouldn´t be. You should be out here with your boyfriend," I replied, trying to sound convincing, even though what I really wanted was for her to stay and comfort me.

"Don´t be silly. You´re my best friend, of course you go before him." She sat down next to me. "How are you feeling?"

I shrugged. "Actually, I feel stupid. I shouldn´t have run away like that. After all I knew that he liked her." I felt the tears coming again, but I fought them back.

"You´re not stupid, Leesh. You´ve just fallen in love with the wrong guy." She hugged me comfortingly. "George really likes you, you know."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, he´s even admitted it. Took him a lot of effort."

I smiled. Katie´s always been good at cheering me up. I felt much better already. All I needed to do was to be alone to think over the whole situation.

"You can go back now, Katie. I´ll be fine, I just need a moment alone."

"Ok."

She got up and left. For a while I just sat there, trying to get myself together. Then the door opened again.

"Leesh?"

"George?"

"Can I come in?" His face appeared in the doorway. I nodded, and he came in.

"Katie told me you were in here," he explained. I smiled briefly. That´s just like Katie.

"So, what´s wrong?" He sat down and put his arm around me. "Anything I can do to help?"

"It´s no big deal, really." I shook my head. "And no, there´s nothing you can do about it."

"Try me."

I looked at him. Perhaps I should give him a chance? He´s funny, and smart, and sweet... The perfect guy. And he looked so much like Fred... Before I knew what I was doing I leant forward and kissed him. It felt good for a moment, until I realized what I was doing. I was kissing my best friend!

"No!" I pulled away from him. "This is wrong. I can´t do this."

He looked at me for a long time. I could see realization dawning in his eyes as he understood what I had done.

"It´s Fred, isn´t it?"

"George..."

"Answer me, Alicia!" he hoarsely demanded.

I nodded, unable to think of anything I could say to explain.

"I can´t believe this!" He stepped further away from me. "You´ve been using me to get over your crush on my brother, right?"

"Yes, but..."

"Don´t try to excuse it! There is no excuse for this."

"George, I´m sorry." I moved closer to him, but he pushed me away.

"Don´t." The look in his eyes made me want to cry. "I don´t want to talk to you now. Or anytime soon." With those words he left. I was alone with my thoughts.

What had I done? I´d just used my best friend to get over my silly little heartache and now I´d hurt him worse than I ever thought was possible. He´d probably never forgive me for this. How could I ever make it up to him?