HEY! GUESS. WHAT. I own Harry Potter!

Hahahahaha! Just kidding! JK Rowling owns Harry Potter. Yay, JK Rowling!

I can't fight this feeling any longer.
And yet I'm still afraid to let it flow.
What started out as friendship,
Has grown stronger.
I only wish I had the strength to let it show.
I tell myself that I can't hold out forever.
I said there is no reason for my fear.
Cause I feel so secure when we're together.
You give my life direction, You make everything so clear.
And even as I wander,
I'm keeping you in sight.
You're a candle in the window,
On a cold, dark winter's night.
And I'm getting closer than I ever thought I might

-Can't Tight this Feeling by Speedwagon

Al's POV:

It took a while, but things eventually went back to the usual routine. Izzy's stamina built back up, and I regained my confidence around her even as my feelings for her grew stronger. I was sure of how I felt now, but I didn't want to throw away such a strong friendship on the slim chance that she might feel the same way.

"You feeling okay, Al?"

I jolted, turning my attention back to Izzy, who was sitting next to me on the grass by Black Lake. "What? Yeah, fine," I told her absentmindedly, smiling slightly.

"You've been acting really strange lately," she stated. After a short pause, she added wryly, "Is it a girl?"

I was startled, and I looked over to her. There was a sly smile plastered on her face, causing me to panic. Did she know? Had she somehow figured it out? She must have heard James. There was no other explanation.

"Er…no, not really. Not at all," I stammered nervously, but still trying to be cool about it.

Izzy turned to me, studying me carefully. She seemed to reach some kind of decision as she took in a deep breath. "No, Albus, you're lying." I was stunned by her blunt statement. She knew. She had to know. Shit shit shit shit. Shit. She knew.

"Al, I heard you and James talking." I was shocked. No, she hadn't been sleeping. Of course not. She'd been putting this off for so long. She didn't want to confront me because she didn't feel the same way. Shit. I was going to murder James.

"Really? About what?" I inquired, trying to stay composed.

She searched my face. "A girl. I didn't catch the name, but I heard enough to know that this was really upsetting you," she said calmly.

"Yeah, well, it doesn't matter." Good. Maybe she didn't know. I was in the clear. For now, anyways.

"Yes, Al, it does." I stared at her, surprised by the firmness of her remark. "Albus, if you can't trust me, your best friend, with something like this, then who can you rely on?"

Why did she have to keep pushing this? She would only end up unhappy. "It's complicated, Izzy. I don't want to talk about it."

"Please, you know very well that I would never tell anyone anything you didn't want them to know. You can trust me. I won't laugh or get angry. I promise." I saw pain in her eyes; it was clear that she thought I didn't have confidence in her. I knew that nothing hurt her more than the feeling that someone didn't trust her.

"You know I trust you better than anyone else. I just don't want to talk about this."

Izzy's POV:

I stood up to look down on Al. What was his problem? "If you trust me, then why can't you tell me about her?" I cried, stomping my foot. "I tell you everything, and you can't tell me about girl troubles? Merlin knows I'll be more help than your brother!"

Albus was getting angry now, too. He stood up, towering over me. He was completely pissed off. "Izzy, I get that! I have complete faith in you, but you don't need to know about this! Why can't you just drop it?"

I narrowed my eyes. "I'm not gonna drop it, Albus Potter. I care too much about you! I just want to help!"

"Well, you can't!" he yelled at me.

"Not if you don't talk to me! How many other things have you kept from me? Huh? Because right now, I'm starting to wonder how much you do trust me," I hissed cruelly. "I pour out my entire heart to you, I don't keep any secrets from you! Ever! And you can't tell me something as petty as who you fancy?"

"No, Izzy. I didn't want to! Why would I want to strain our relationship? I almost lost you once, and I'm not going through that again!"

It started to rain lightly around us, as if to dampen our spirits even more. "Well, Potter," I spat at him, "you're doing a pretty damn good job of ruining what we have!"

He looked away. "Don't you get it Izzy? How can you miss what I'm saying here? You're so blind!"

"Oh!" I sneered. "So now you're going to insult my intelligence, is that it?"

His eyebrows narrowed as a look of bewilderment flickered over his features. "Of course not! Fine, I'll tell you. You're going to be angry, but I'll tell you."

"Angry? How shallow do you think I am?" Why would he think that? I respected him, and I wouldn't hate him because of his monstrous choice in girls. "You think I'll be angry over who you-"

"Izzy!" he cut me off. "Izzy, listen to me." Al was pleading with me now, trying to calm me down, but I was fuming. "Izzy, on the train," he paused and took a deep breath. "On the train, I was talking to James about you!"

I stared at Al, now dazed into silence as the rain started to pour harder. Finally, I let out a strained laugh. "No. You weren't. You were talking about someone else. Someone you fancied. Not me. It was probably a redhead, right?" I was panicking now. "You just said that to make me shut up, didn't you?" My voice had turned pleading.

Albus swallowed, pursed his lips, and shook his head.

"Albus. No. You don't feel that way about me. We're best friends, remember? We don't think about each other that way." I stated this as an apparent fact, but Al only looked back at me resolutely.

"Izzy, when I saw you in the hospital, when I thought I had lost you…I realized that, maybe, I did feel this way about you."

I locked gazes with his shimmering green eyes, searching for something that would tell me that this wasn't real. This couldn't be real. "No, listen. You've been under a lot of stress. Like you said, you were worried about me. You're just confused. I mean, who wouldn't be after they nearly lost their best mate?" I let out a high pitched laugh "You…you're recovering from the shock, that's all." Al didn't like me. He couldn't like me. I couldn't handle this.

"That's not it, Iz. That's not it." How was he staying so composed? Here he was, professing his love to me, and he was calm as ever.

"Damn it, Albus! Stop it!"

"Izzy, please…"

"No, Albus. Al, stop it. Please, stop." I felt tears threatening at my eyes. My breathing became shallower, and my words came out as a whimper. "Please. Stop it."

Al just stared regretfully at me, his lips pressed together. "I'm not faking this. I promise. I…I don't want to hurt you, Izzy." He tried to reach out to touch my arm, to comfort me as he had done so many times, but I jerked away. I saw the pain evident on his face "I didn't want to tell you," he murmured.

I slowly backed away from him, shaking my head as I went. "No," I muttered under my breath. "No, no, no, no, no."

He merely watched me, and his bright eyes filled with sorrow, pain, remorse, and so many other things I couldn't read.

"I'm so sorry, Izzy."

With these words, I turned and raced away from him, finally letting the tears break through as the pouring rain pounded around me, stinging my face. I couldn't handle this; this was too much to take.

Al's POV:

I watched her retreating form as it flew across the grounds. I stared after her long, sopping hair as it flew wildly behind her. I watched her until she disappeared into the grayness, the rain finally swallowing up her shadow.

I stood fixed to the spot, staring at the place where she had finally disappeared. My brain and body went numb, but whether that was from the pain of losing her or the cold, I couldn't tell.

I had no way of knowing how long I stood there; all I knew was that I was rooted to that spot, looking hopelessly into the distance, as if I could bring her back to me by waiting there. The rain was slowly letting up, but I stayed in my spot. I thought I heard someone yelling my name, but then figured it was probably my imagination. I was simply wishing that it was Izzy, that she was calling for me, coming back to talk to me.

Of course I had gone and screwed this up. I had messed up everything, and now nothing could ever be the same. I had lost my best friend and the girl that I might have loved, all in one short fight.

"Albus?"

The voice came again, and I could make out a tiny form through the haze. I stayed resolutely in my place, turning back to the direction in which Izzy had ran off.

"Albus!" the voice called again. When I glanced back, I could now see that it was a girl's figure. My heartbeat increased. Was this it? Was she coming back so I could set things right? Then I saw the short brown hair bobbing as she ran towards me, and I faced back away from the girl.

"Albus, I know you can hear me!" she shouted, but I ignored her.

A moment later, Celeste was standing in front of me, gazing up to meet my eyes.

"Al, what's wrong?" When she was met with silence, she continued on more sensitively. "You've been gone for two hours, and Izzy came into the common room a little while ago, soaked and crying. She wouldn't talk to anyone, she just ran up to her dorm." She grabbed my hand, leading me towards the castle. I stared blankly ahead. What was the point? I had lost my entire life as I knew it, and there was no way to fix anything.

"You must be freezing, Al," she said sympathetically as we reached the doors. We entered the castle, and she met me with a serious gaze. "Did you get into an argument?"

I sighed quietly. "Kind of," I muttered.

She nodded her head. We continued in silence as she led me through the corridors. My mind was still blank, and all I saw was her face. Izzy's sad, frightened expression as she backed away from me as if I were some disgusting creature.

'No. No. No no no.'

I could still hear her voice as it echoed around in my head.

"Al?"

I looked at Celeste, who was still pulling me along by my limp hand.

Seeing that I was once again coherent, she continued gently. "Did you try to tell her?"

"Huh?"

She blushed. "Jamie told me…about you and Izzy."

I stiffened. "There is no 'me and Izzy' anymore. There never was."

She sighed, then stood in front of me, causing me to stop abruptly.

"Al, listen. I'm not sure what went down today, but it obviously wasn't very good." I snorted irritably, but she ignored me. "You probably just shocked her. She might not realize she likes you like that, and she was just scared when you said something. She's probably scared of losing you, Albus. She cares so much for you. Just…give her some time, okay?"

I bit my lip and stared at her. I sighed, pulled my mouth into a wry smile, and nodded. "Okay."

She smiled at me and said, "Good. Well then, blast-ended skrewt."

I hadn't realized that we had arrived at the portrait, but Celeste pulled me through after her.

Rose saw me and yelped. I didn't even care that she was sitting too close to Malfoy than I usually would have been comfortable with. Honestly, I didn't care about anything at the moment. However, Rose pulled herself together and trotted over to me.

"Albus, where were you? We were all so worried," she cooed, grasping my arms.

I muttered an incoherent response and pulled away from her. As I started towards the staircase, I saw James crossing the room. Changing my path, I made my way to my brother and stopped in front of him. He looked at me in confusion before he addressed me.

"You're back…and you're soaked."

I blinked and nodded slightly before pulling my arm back and punching him in the face as hard as I could. Rose and Celeste gasped as James stumbled back a few steps, holding his nose. He started to open his mouth, but I spoke first.

"Stay out of my life from now on. You've never done anything but ruined it."

With that, I turned back to the staircase, leaving my brother as he stood in pain and shock.

Rose ran up to me again, but I shrugged her off. "I'm tired," I said flatly. "See you in the morning." My cousin nodded faintly and let me go. I climbed up to my dorm, my feet feeling like lead, and when I fell down on my bed, I stared at the canopy above me.

Even if I had been tired, I wouldn't have slept one bit that night.

Well.

Honestly, I felt pretty good about this chapter. It was sad-ish, but not awful. But it's not what I think, it is what you believe, my dear readers, that counts.

I feel REALLY bad about taking soooo long to update! I've had so much going on lately! Also...and I know you'll hate me for this...I'm going to St. Louis in 2 days, and then the VERY NEXT DAY, I'm going to New York for my Grandma's birthday, and THEN, it's the PREMIERE OF HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, PART TWOOOOOOOO! Whoooo! (Anyone else going to the midnight premiere?) So basically, what this means is that I won't be updating...sorry?

So…ONLY TWO REVIEWS! What happened, guys? Thanks soooo much to chocolate fish and AliS256 (who has been regularly reviewing most every chapter!) for being those two reviewers!

I've come to a conclusion about the sequel: it will not, in fact, be a sequel. It will be a trilogy. Chocolate fish suggested to have seventh year flashbacks (good idea!), but with the plot I have in my head for seventh year, I don't think that'll work…so a trilogy it is!

By the way, sorry if you find any horrid spelling or grammar mistakes…I'm usually really good about those things, but I'm typing on possibly the world's smallest computer (like, 9 inches wide) so it's a little bit more difficult…

So…review?