He watched as she lent down, placing her head in the pensive. He stayed, waiting, even though he was missing lunch. She had told him not to wait up, but he wanted to stay. Five, ten, fifteen minutes passed. She moved, coming back up, tears in her eyes. She saw him still standing there and smiled.

"Thank you." She wiped her eyes but the tears kept coming. He pulled her into a hug, enjoying the feeling of being there for her. She sobbed into his shoulder, holding onto him. They stood there, embraced, until Headmaster Tonks came in.

"Oh hello. I thought you would have left by now. But please stay if you need more time." Tara jumped apart and wiped her eyes furiously.

"No. We were just leaving." She walked towards the door, Al following after her.

"Thank you, Professor." She headed out the doorway. Al nodded to her while passing her, giving a slight smile.

"Tara, are you okay?" She turned back towards him, tears welling in her eyes again.

"Can we go somewhere? Preferably where no Ravenclaws are?" He nodded, putting his arm around her.

"But really, are you okay?" She nodded.

"Yeah. It's just I haven't seen my mo-" Stopped, shaking while trying not to cry.

"Hey. I'm taking you somewhere we can be alone. We can talk then." She wiped her eyes again and took a deep breath. They walked up stairs, through corridors, until they stopped at a seemingly empty one. Al took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He opened them again and looked over at Tara. Her eyes were wide at the sight she was seeing. A door was appearing.

"It's the Room of Requirements. It's somewhere where no one will find us." She smiled and walked inside. He followed after her, the door disappearing after them.

James and his friends sat, looking over the map he stole from Al.

"Wait, there!" Jeff pointed to the two dots standing together. They watched as they disappeared.

"They're gone!" Dan turned to James.

"Is this thing fucked up or something? Bloody hell mate, you told us that we could get him today." James rolled his eyes.

"This is the floor that the Room of Requirements is on. They probably went into there." Jeff raised his eyebrows and grinned.

"Hmm. You don't think that he's- you know." James pushed his face the other way.

"Al is too, Al. He would never get a girl like that to do anything with him." Matt raised his eyebrows.

"They have gotten pretty close, especially since he punched you." James frowned.

"I told you not to mention that. But still, I bet he hasn't even kissed her, let alone boned her." Dan snickered.

"Shut up." James turned back to the map.

"If he is, then it's a better time to get him. Remember, we got to get something to blackmail him with." Matt wrinkled his forehead.

"I'm still not sure about this. If we take it too far, and you're dad finds out, he'll be pretty pissed." James rolled his eyes.

"My dad is harmless." Matt raised his eyebrows again.

"You're talking about the guy who took down the most powerful wizard in the world." Jamed huffed, bored.

"You're talking to a guy who doesn't care." Matt shook his head.

"If he or your mum finds out, it's your fault."

Al held her as they sat against the wall together. She looked up at him.

"Thank you." He looked at her, confused.

"What for?" She smiled and wiped her eyes.

"You gave me a better picture of my mom. I got to actually see her. And then, you sat here holding me, even though you're missing you're classes." He smiled.

"I've only missed my classes twice in the five years I've been here. I can miss a few more." She smiled again.

"I basically miss all of them." He frowned.

"Why?" She shrugged.

"I read the textbooks. I know all the spells and history. I show up for the tests and hand in the essays. The teachers don't even notice I'm not there." He looked over at her.

"I think people should start noticing you more. I think they would be glad they did." She looked up at him and smiled.

"Can I do something really crazy?" He looked at her, intrigued. She leaned up and pulled his face down to hers, and kissed him. He melted into her, putting his hands on her face. They pulled apart and smiled.

"Can I ask you something even crazier?" She looked at him puzzled.

"Can you be my girlfriend?" She looked away.

"What? If you don't want to, then that's totally fine. I mean-" She put her hand up and started to laugh.

"What?" She looked back at him. She stopped laughing and grinned.

"It's just, it's kind of cheesy, right? I mean, we spend time together, we kiss, and then we're dating." He looked away.

"Look, if you don't want to, that's fine." She smiled at him.

"I just thought it was cheesy. And I did say that we were dating, didn't I?" His eyes grew wide.

"So we are boyfriend and girlfriend?" She laughed.

"What, I'm not your first girlfriend, right?" He shook his head.

"I had two others in like, my second and third year. I'm not like my brother or anything, it's just, I'm not like my brother." She grinned.

"I'm happy that you aren't like your brother, otherwise I would have slapped you and walked away the second you came up to me." He grinned. She leaned into him, and kissed him again.

"Alright, if a teacher passes by, we say that this is a free period and that we're waiting for our friend to hang out." James was holding a camera in one hand, the maurderer's map in another. Matt, Dan, and Jeff nodded. They we're waiting for Tara and Al to come out of the Room of Requirement. They had all tried to get in, but something Al had thought made impossible for them to get in. They had been waiting for around 10 minutes, and waited another 20 until something happened.

"The door!" Matt whispered excitedly. James nodded, and they got into their designated spots for when this happened. The doors opened, and Al and Tara came out, hand in hand.

"Haha!" James shouted, taking multiple pictures. Al drew his wand and almost blasted him backwards before realizing who it was.

"James? What the bloody hell are you doing?" James grinned.

"Well, I was going to get something to blackmail you with, but before I do that, I might send these pictures to mum and dad." Al rolled his eyes.

"James, give me the camera." James grinned even wider and started walking backwards. Al looked at Tara and she looked furious.

"James Potter! Give us that camera or I'll punch you so hard you won't wake up until next week!" James laughed and walked away. Al ran after him, but was blasted backwards.

"Sorry mate. James told us to stop you." Dan looked really guilty as Tara ran to help him up.

"Fucking hell!" Al shouted, taken aback with himself, as he rarely cursed like that. He looked at Tara, who had helped him up.

"Well, might as well make the best of it. I'll meet you outside of the Great Hall before dinner." She turned and walked away, leaving the four boys to deal with their problem.

'Dear Mum and Dad,

I hope you get this before Al or Lily writes. I've included a picture that Al wanted to send you two of him and his girlfriend that he has been hiding. I personally think you should embarrass him as much as possible, maybe come to the school and make him introduce her to you guys. I'll see you at Christmas in a few weeks.

James'

James snickered. He called down an owl and sent his letter out. He wanted to embarrass Al as much as possible for giving him a black eye. He walked back to the common room, quite proud of himself.

As Al walked to the Great Hall alone, he wondered what Tara had meant about making the best of what James was planning to do. He walked down the hall and saw Tara standing there, her hair cascading down one side of her head. She was wearing her same school clothes, but somehow looked extravagant. He walked towards her.

"So what did you mean by making the best of it?" She grinned and grabbed his hand. She put her arm entwined in his and pulled him into the Great Hall. They walked in together, Tara leading them straight passed James. People were staring, but she didn't care. When she got to her seat, she turned to Al and kissed him, in front of everyone.

"Hope you get that one on camera also, Potter!" She called to James, who had turned towards his friends. Al looked at her and raised his eyebrows.

"Just go with it." She turned, and sat down, where she was engulfed by five Ravenclaw girls. Al glanced at James, but sat down with his friends, who were all surprised that he actually got close to Tara, let alone kiss her.