Izzy's POV:

I was in St. Mungo's for the remaining two days of break, but it felt like much longer. I would lie there in bed staring at the ceiling until one of the nurses would come in, have me drink various potions, and then they'd leave me alone again. At noon until 4 pm, my room would be flooded Weasleys, Potters, and McCallums. In those four hours, Trent and Albus never left my side.

When I was finally released, my parents, Trent, and I apparated directly to King's Cross Station. Somehow, our trunks were there waiting for us, and then I realized that Rose's parents had picked them up from our house and were waiting there for us.

"Izzy!"

I turned to see Rose, once again, flying at me to attack me with a hug. I groaned, preparing myself for the worst; I was still so sore. The bruises and scars were gone, but the aches were very much present.

Right as I braced myself for impact, Rose stopped just short of colliding into me. I let out a long breath, thankful she had realized that hugs were not a good idea at the time.

"How are you?" she queried. Without giving me a chance to respond, she continued on. "Albus has been so upset lately. I mean, he didn't talk to anyone until you woke up, and then you were the only person he'd speak with."

I felt a twinge of guilt at Rose's words. If I just hadn't been so stupid and reckless…

"Hey, Rose. Can I talk to you about something?"

"Sure!" she said brightly.

When we boarded the train, Trent scurried off to the rest of the first years, and Rose and I found a compartment.

"Oh, before you say anything," she commenced, "my dad found out about Scorp."

Oh, no. That couldn't have gone down well.

"How'd he take it?" I knew the response before I finished the question.

She took in a long breath and pushed the hair out of her eyes. "He got really upset. Went completely bonkers, actually." She scowled. "He tried to tell me that I couldn't see him anymore, then he got really mad when I told him how nice Scorp was." Rose let out a gloomy sigh. "We didn't talk for most of the break. Well, whatever." Her cheery disposition had returned. "So, what's up?" she asked, smiling again.

"Well, Al and the Healer kind of explained what happened, but some of their story just didn't make a whole lot of sense…" I paused, looking to Rose.

She picked up on what I wanted to know immediately. "Oh my goodness, Izzy! You should have seen Albus! When he heard you scream, he must've had a crazy adrenaline rush or something. He took out the three men he was dueling in an instant! Even Uncle Harry wasn't fighting with that much power! And I'd seen Al earlier when he was dueling, and those guys were not going easy on him." She took in a breath before continuing. "And then, that bloke that was torturing you? Well, Al took him out, too! He was insane, Izzy. Completely mad."

"Oh…Al definitely did not tell me any of this." I said softly, then forced a laugh.

"Of course Al wouldn't tell you any of this!" Rose exclaimed like that was the most obvious thing in the world. "He's always so…humble. You know?"

I nodded at this. Boy, did I know.

"Well, anyways," she pushed on, "he ran up to you to see if you were okay, but you'd blacked out. Your face was completely covered in blood. Pretty nasty picture, that was." Her face lit up excitedly here. "But Albus picked you up anyways, and carried you in the house. He put you in one of the bedrooms and tried to clean you up a bit, but I'm not sure how well that worked, to be honest.

"I had already taken down one guy, and the other one was just some scrawny little git. Not very talented with his spells. All I had to do was send Petrificus Totalus at him, and then I ran inside to make sure Albus didn't do anything too unusually idiotic.

"When I got in there, though, he was going up the stairs. Two of those masked men were in the bedroom with the kids. They weren't really paying much attention, and Roxanne's screams were drowning out Al's footsteps." I cringed. "He ran in the room, and then I just heard two loud 'thumps' and Albus had those slimy gits knocked out clean, too! He put the same charm around Roxy and Hugo's room as he did on yours, then ran back down the stairs.

"When he saw me, he told me to check on you. Told me I was better at healing charms than he was. I tried to patch you up a little bit, but you were beat up good.

"Al went back outside to fight, and then the Aurors arrived later. They were all on some other case, and that's why it took so damn long for them to get to the house-"

I cut her off here. "And then they captured Dúnmharú and took me to St. Mungo's, right?"

She gaped at me in shock, then a wicked grin snaked its way across her face. "Oh no, my dear Izzy. They did not get you to St. Mungo's. Albus flooed you there." I stared at her disbelievingly. Yeah, Al and I were best friends, but I didn't know that being a best friend meant that you saved the other one's life several times in one day.

"By himself?" I squeaked, to which Rose nodded slowly.

I stood up abruptly. "I have to go find him. Er…thanks, Rose."

"Anytime," she said while examining her fingernails. "Izzy," I turned to her as she spoke again, "we all knew Al cared for you…we just didn't know that he cared quite that much."

I nodded slowly, then turned and shot out of the compartment. I flew down the corridor, glancing through windows as I passed. Suddenly, I heard him.

"Izzy!"

I spun around to see him jogging down the hall after me. I stood there, rooted to the spot.

"Izzy, I've been looking all over for you. Where were-"

"Merlin, Albus," I muttered, cutting him off.

He looked at me, his eyebrows knitting together in confusion. "Iz, what are you-"

"Albus! Why didn't you tell me anything?"

"Izzy! What in the world are you going on about?" he cried, finally getting his question out.

I scoffed. "What am I talking about? I'm talking about you saved my freaking life, like, a million times!"

Al blushed faintly. "What? Did you talk to Rose or something?"

"Well, Rose did the extent of the talking, but yes! Al, you were like a friggin superhero and you didn't even tell me anything that happened!" I yelled, causing Al to stare confusedly at me.

"Oh…well, sorry, I guess. I just didn't think that was important." His eyes were suddenly drawn to his feet. "You were what was important," he muttered so quietly that I almost missed what he had said. "I didn't know if you were going to be…all right, you know? Those details didn't seem significant…" His voice broke off.

"Albus," I grabbed his shoulders, "of course I was going to be all right, you dolt. Nothing was, or is, going to happen to me." He glanced up at me, and our eyes locked.

"I know," he said simply as he pulled me towards him to engulf me in a hug.

I rested my head against his strong body, holding onto him tightly, trying my best to be comforting.

Al pulled away slowly, still looking down at me. I giggled softly to myself.

"What?" he asked me, slightly panicked.

"It's just that…well, Merlin, Al. You're so protective." He shot me a perplexed glance, and I laughed again. "I don't think you would allow anything to happen to me!"

His face reddened deeply at this and he grabbed my hand, leading me into an empty compartment.

The rest of the train ride was spent as usual; Al and I played Exploding Snap, made fun of each other for stupid reasons, and chatted with his various family members who dropped by.

Suddenly, I realized how tired I was. I yawned, causing Albus to look down at me. Lines of worry were etched into his face. I laughed softly. "I'm fine, Al," I reassured him. "Just a little tired."

"Well, of course you're tired! The Healer told us that you wouldn't have all of your energy back immediately. You've had a long couple of days, so you need to rest," he reprimanded as I snorted.

"Yes, Mother," I said sarcastically, but leaned against him anyways. I felt his arm wrap around me as I closed my eyes, instantaneously falling into a calm sleep.

Al's POV:

I held Izzy against me, which was slightly awkward now. I didn't like that I was acting differently around her now. I mean, we were still best friends, and nothing more. I maybe just wanted something more…

It was all so strange; I had been in this position countless times. Izzy fell asleep on me most nights in the common room, but now…it was different. I loved being close to her, but without her knowing how I really felt made me a little bit uncomfortable.

After listening to the faintly labored breathing of the small figure in my arms for a while, the door was pulled open. To my dismay, James walked in. When he saw Izzy in asleep against my chest, a smug grin worked its way onto his face.

"So, I see you're making your move, loverboy," he teased.

I frowned. "Shut up, James. You'll wake her." Then, processing his accusation, said, "No, nothing's happened between us. Nothing probably will…"

"Why not? I thought your feelings had changed," he asked softly, almost a whisper.

"Yeah…well, I don't think now would be a good time…I'll wait a bit. I want to make sure I really want something more before I risk our friendship," I said hesitantly.

Izzy's POV:

I came to rather groggily, then realized I was still laying against Al. He was talking to someone now, so I kept my eyes closed. Al didn't usually keep things from me, but it never hurt to make sure.

"If you really like her," I recognized this voice as James, "then you should just tell her," he whispered. Hm? What was this?

Now it was Albus that spoke. "I just don't know that she feels that way about me," he said dejectedly.

"Not like you?" James was disbelieving. "You're Harry Potter's son, Albus. You've gone to school with her for six years. Of course she feels that way about you."

Albus was having girl troubles? This was interesting.

They stayed silent for a while, then Albus spoke up again.

"I don't think she'd like me because of Dad. At least I hope not," he said the last part quietly.

"I didn't mean it like that, Al. She would love you for you," James reassured his brother.

I was still feigning sleep, waiting for a name of this mysterious girl. Alas, I had no such luck.

"All right, Al," James sighed, breaking the long silence. "I should go find Celeste." I heard James stand up and the compartment door slid open. I waited a moment, trying to keep Al from being suspicious. I chanced a quick glance, and saw Albus running his hand through his hair distractedly.

I yawned and stretched my arms out, trying to make this convincing. Al's head jerked towards me and he plastered a smile across his face. I gave him a drowsy grin, then pushed away to sit up.

Beneath the façade, I could see that Albus was deeply troubled and confused. And, seeing as I was his best friend, I decided to be sneaky and find out what was going on.

Al's POV:

My mind was far away when Izzy stirred beside me. She smiled tiredly at me, and I tried to return the gesture. Her timing on waking up seemed a bit to convenient for me…had she been listening?

I watched her a bit longer as she chatted away happily. No, she hadn't heard James. Surely she hadn't; she would've said something by now…right?

Yes. She would have. I was just being paranoid.

But, boy, if Izzy had heard James, I was seriously going to kill him.

So…do you think Izzy will find out that Al was talking about her? Oh, goodness, I'm oh so very excited for these next few chapters…hope you like reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them.

Ok. To whom it may concern, I'm planning my next story. I'm extremely torn right now, so I'm in dire need of audience participation. It will be about Al and Izzy (take that however you want…) but I'm not sure if I should make it about their seventh (and final) year at Hogwarts, or if I should just skip ahead to where they have jobs and do boring grown-up things. Only joking, it wouldn't be about "boring grown-up things." If you guys decide you want one about the seventh year, I can probably make it a trilogy and use both of the ideas to write two more stories.

Thoughts? Hate it? Love it? Review, cause I don't read minds! (Yet…)