AN: So this chapter is about Alice Longbottom, daughter of our dearly beloved Neville. She was briefly introduced in my chapter about Dominique as Dominique's one and only friend. This chapter will touch a little bit on their friendship, as well as Dominique's new budding relationship with a certain Eli Davies. Read on to find out more! Also, I'd like to apologize in advance, as this is another fluffy romance chapter (which I hope you enjoy reading as much as i enjoy writing), that isn't really much more than setup for plot lines later on. But don't fret! There is action and adventure yet to come!

Disclaimer: JKR owns Hogwarts and the Wizarding World and (most of) these characters, not me.

Please please review if you like it!

Alice Longbottom's Long-Held Secret

or

I Truth or Dare You

Alice Longbottom's best friend was lying to her. Lying left, right, and center.

Alice was the world's living expert on embarrassing, ridiculous crushes that couldn't be explained. She knew all the signs. Getting flustered, insisting again and again how much you dislike that person, avoiding the subject when it was brought up. She'd done it over and over again, she knew how it went.

And now Dominique was showing all the signs. On Tuesday morning in Defense class, she noticed an exchange that only confirmed her suspicions.

She saw something fly across the room and hit Dominique and land in her hair. She reached into her hair and pulled out the tiny paper ball, smiling involuntarily. And then she glanced over, at where she knew he was sitting. Because she knew he threw it.

And there he was, smiling at her. Smiling a stupidly wide, goofy grin. And something about her expression must have been hilarious to him, because he chuckled when she met his gaze. She pursed her lips and squinted her eyes and shook her head, but in a flirty kind of way, and then she turned back to her notes.

She was just going about her business with her notes when another small ball of parchment flew across the room and hit her. It bounced off her arm and landed on the floor, and Alice could see her wondering if she should ignore it, act like she couldn't feel it. But she didn't. She looked back over in his direction, and he was still smiling at her, and she smiled back, of course. Then he flicked his eyebrows up at her and she mouthed "Can you stop?" followed with a small smile.

This got another chuckle. Then she turned back to her notes. And she pretended that she didn't know he was still looking at her. Smiling at her. And then he turned back to his notes, and that was it.

It was really nothing. Just a small little thing. The kind of thing that shouldn't mean a thing, except for that it did.

When class let out, Alice nudged Dominique on the arm and smiled slyly. "What was that about?" she asked, and even though Dominique knew exactly what she was referring to, she pretended to be confused.

"What?"

"That thing with Davies!"

"What thing?"

"With the flirting and the tiny balls of parchment and the flirting!" Dominique pretended to continue to be confused, but she blushed anyway, giving herself away.

"What flirting? There wasn't any flirting."

Alice raised her eyebrows. "I beg to differ."

"Al, can you please just let this go? There's nothing going on!" she exclaimed, obviously exacerbated over the fact that Alice was continually pestering her to tell her what was going on. Which she really shouldn't have to, seeing as they were best friends.

"Can you please stop insisting that there's nothing going on when there's so obviously something going on! I'm your best friend, Dom- I know you. And I know you fancy him."

"'Monique fancies someone?" came a voice from behind them. A voice that they both knew all too well. The voice Alice heard in her dreams. Oh boy.

They both answered at the same time: "No, I don't!" and "Mind your own business, James."

"Who is it?" he persisted, wedging his way in between them. Alice glared in aggravation.

"No one!" Dominique exclaimed, and Alice shook her head. She understood why Dominique didn't want to admit it out loud to anyone, but she was getting a bit annoyed with the constant denial. She could at least pretend like she disliked Eli Davies a little more if she was going to keep insisting that she did.

"Ooh- a secret! Exciting." They both scowled at him. "So, Longbottom, who is it?" He turned to Alice.

"Go away, James," she said coldly. He put his hand over his heart and made a face like he was wounded. She couldn't stand his stupid face. Like, what was she supposed to do when he he looked at her like that? With those eyes? It just wasn't fair.

"If you insist, your majesty," he bowed and stopped in place while they continued to walk forward. They left him behind, and he called after them, "Tonight, then?"

Alice waved behind her like she couldn't care less. Once they'd gotten a little farther down the corridor, Dominique asked: "Why do you tutor him, again? You hate him."

"To get my dad off my back." The year before, their fifth year, James had needed help studying for his Herbology OWL and had gone to Professor Longbottom for advice. Professor Longbottom then came up with the brilliant idea to have his daughter Alice (who was his little protege and somewhat of a genius in Herbology) tutor him.

Alice had protested, but only mildly, and had then agreed "to make her dad happy." And so she became James' Herbology tutor. And then soon after that, his Potions tutor, because she was also pretty good at Potions. And then his Defense against the Dark Arts tutor, because she wasn't bad at that, either. And then she kind of became his "everything," tutor, because she was good at school, and he could really use some help. They met every Tuesday and Thursday night in the library.

Actually, Alice probably didn't have to tutor James anymore. Sixth year was hard, but James wasn't taking very many NEWT classes, and, besides, they were only in the second week of school. Nothing too difficult had been assigned yet. James could probably handle it on his own.

But the truth was that Alice enjoyed tutoring James. It was the best part of her week.

Because even though she hated him and everything about him, she was also hopelessly, desperately in love with him.

"Ah, yes," recalled Dominique. "Good ol' Daddy Longbottom."

"Please don't call him that."

"Fine." Their next period was free, so they headed out to the grounds. The weather would only be nice for another few weeks or so, and they liked to take advantage of the grounds space while they still could.

Most students went to the library or to their common rooms during free periods. Dominique and Alice did, too, during the winter (though, they mostly avoided the Gryffindor Common Room, as it was almost always too crowded and noisy). During the fall and spring, however, they would go on the grounds when they could. It was a good place to study, if you were Alice, or to sit around and goof off, if you were Dominique.

They lounged under a tree overlooking the lake. Alice read a book for a book report in Transfiguration and Dominique made different colored sparks emerge from the end of her wand. She looked like she was concentrating hard on something, and it wasn't the definitely wasn't the first-year-level spark magic.

Alice got so into her book that she didn't even notice when Eli Davies came out onto the grounds. It only registered in her brain when Dominique suddenly sat up and looked alert, like a cat. She glanced around, looking for what her friend had seen, when she saw Davies across the green. Crossing towards them.

They both watched him as he approached, hands in his pockets, head tilted down, a slight smile playing on his lips. Alice had never known another person who smiled as much as Eli Davies did.

Once he got close enough, he nodded to Alice. "Hullo."

Alice nodded in return, "Davies," but he already wasn't paying her any attention. He was staring right past her, right at Dominique.

"May I speak with you for a moment, Dominique?" he asked very formally, but he was still slightly smiling so the formality seemed like a joke. Dominique looked confused- like, genuinely confused this time, not that "fake confusion" thing she was doing all the time- but she nodded anyway and allowed him to help her up and lead her away from Alice.

Once they were officially out of earshot (Jerks. They could at least let her listen in!), Davies brightened considerably as he launched into what appeared to be an elaborate story. Dominique continued to look confused, and cut him off to snap at him about something, probably. Typical of her.

He seemed to ask her something, and stared at her hopefully, making a pitiful, puppy-dog looking face. She frowned, but you could see the smile underneath, coming through her eyes. Then she sighed and shrugged in what appeared to be reluctant agreement. Davies cheered and wrapped her up in a quick hug, while she stood perfectly still with her hands to her side. She obviously wasn't used to being hugged, and turned beet red in the face. Then Davies said something more and put a gentle hand on her shoulder before running off, appearing to call something out behind him as he went.

Dominique stood there for another moment, staring after him, before she shook her head and walked back over to Alice. Alice sat there in bewilderment, waiting for an explanation that never came. Dominique just sat back down and continued making sparks with her wand, as if nothing had happened.

"DOMINIQUE!" Alice screamed, startling her friend. "What was that?!"

"Nothing," Dominique said, and Alice seriously had to refrain herself from trying to strangle her.

"Cut the 'nothing,' crap, Dom! That was definitely something!" She was yelling, which was rare for Alice, but instead of having the shocking/intimidating effect she wished it would have, Dominique instead just crossed her arms and scowled. So Alice went for the softer approach. "I'm your best friend. If you can't tell me about it, who can you tell?"

Domonique sighed loudly. "It's really not a big deal," she began, "He just asked me to meet him tonight."

"Meet him? What for?"

"That's the part I'm still wondering about. He wouldn't say. He just said he wanted to show me something."

"Show you something? Show you what? And why you? Since when do you even talk to him?" Alice had obviously noticed something different between Dominique and Davies ever since school started, but was still unclear as to when or why it began, as Dominique refused to give her a straight answer.

"We've been talking since school started," she confessed, and Alice just stared at her, awaiting further explanation. Again, she sighed loudly before continuing. "On the first day of school, I was up really early, as I usually am…" Alice nodded in agreement, "and I was down in the common room, reading a book when Eli came in.

"He started talking to me and I asked him to go away, but he wouldn't. And then we had a little conversation, and when he finally went to leave me alone he asked me if I would be there again the next day. And so the next day, there I was again, and then he came in again, and we talked again. And then the next morning, it happened all over. And the next morning…" she trailed off. Alice's mouth was hanging open.

"You're telling me you've been meeting him every morning?!" she exclaimed, and Dominique looked embarrassed. "For over a week?!"

"We have an unspoken arrangement," she shrugged. Alice sat and processed this new information.

"So, you guys are like… friends?"

Again, Dominique shrugged in a noncommittal way. "I suppose so." Alice contemplated this some more.

"Well, I think it's great!" she said eventually, and Dominique looked like she didn't quite believe her. "And, I think he fancies you."

"Shut up. He does not."

"He bloody well does!" she exclaimed, and Dominique laughed in surprise, because sweet little Alice didn't usually say things like that.

"He bloody well doesn't!" she retorted, and they argued like that, back and forth, until it was time to go back to class.

That night, Alice and Dominique split up when Dominique went to go meet with Davies and Alice went to go tutor James. It was so strange- they didn't used to associate with these people, and now they were both meeting up with them? Her best friend meeting his best friend, and vice versa. I guess it would be kind of hard to go to school with people for so long and not cross paths now and again. Especially if they were in your year, and your house, and essentially all your same classes.

Alice was glad that her tutoring sessions with James were a normal thing now. In the beginning, she would get so stressed out about it. She used to worry about what she would wear, and fret about her appearance for hours. Then eventually she realized that after all was said and done, she always just made herself look casual, so she wouldn't look like she was trying too hard. Basically she spent hours making it look like she had spent no time at all. And then she realized how stupid that was, and now she just dressed like what she would do if he was anyone else. Today, it was a light pink sweater with three quarter sleeves, and some dark pink jeans.

She was also glad that she had gotten to know James over all the time she'd spent with him. She'd been hopelessly infatuated with him since she was a little girl, but he had always been nothing more than an unattainable goal. She saw him as the ideal love interest, not as a real person. Getting to know him made her see that he was a real person, with real flaws.

But knowing him, and realizing that he wasn't nearly as perfect as she'd always thought he was, only made her affections for him grow. Now that she knew him as a real person, her feelings felt more real. As far as she was concerned, it wasn't possible to know this boy and not love him.

She got to the library at their predetermined time, 7:30, but he was nowhere to be found. He was always at least a little bit late, so she wasn't worried. She grabbed their usual table in the back by the window. She had only agreed to the window table after realizing that James needed some form of stimulation in order for his brain to work properly. Otherwise, he got too bored and completely shut down, and good luck teaching him anything then.

After fifteen minutes of waiting, she started to get a little worried. He usually wasn't this late. She decided to give him 15 minutes more before she left. Besides, she could use this time to get some of her own work done, because after he arrived, trying to concentrate would be useless. She still found it really hard to focus when she was with him, and so she took advantage of this alone time to continue reading her book.

She was on the second to last chapter when he arrived, 35 minutes late and 5 minutes after she said she would stop waiting for him. He shlumped down in his chair, looking frazzled and upset about something.

"You're still here," he commented, but he sounded far less enthusiastic than usual.

"What happened?" she cut straight to the chase, knowing based on his demeanor that something besides his own absent mindedness had led to him being late.

He threw his bag on the table and started rifling through it angrily, occasionally taking out a book or a quill or something and throwing it down on the table between them. "Chelsea," he said, his voice hard. Alice knew from experience that James was a ranter, and so if she just left him alone for enough time, he would start telling her all about it. Even details she didn't need to know.

After he'd thrown all of his supplies down on the table and shoved his bag under his chair, he looked around for something else to move or touch or slam to let out his frustration. Eventually, he settled on breaking a quill in half. Then, he looked at what he'd done ashamedly, and got up to go throw the pieces away. When he returned, he put his head in his hands and groaned. Alice sat there quietly, waiting.

Once again, she was right. Alice was usually right. He looked up at her and then up at the ceiling and launched into the story.

"She said she wants 'a break,'" he began, and Alice tried to look like she didn't care or wasn't exceedingly intrigued by this topic of conversation. "Just out of nowhere, for no reason! She said she thinks we need some time off, to really 'think about what we're doing.' I just don't get it! Like, one second everything's going fine and we're having a good time together and everything, and then the next second she's saying that maybe we should, 'see other people." Who else does she want to see?"

"She's probably testing you," Alice observed, and James looked at her confusedly. Of course he was confused- boys were so oblivious.

"Testing you," she repeated. "She says you're on a break, basically giving you the go-ahead to see other people, right?" He nodded. "But she doesn't actually want you to see other people. She wants to know that you're loyal- that she's the only want you want. She wants to make sure you won't just go right for someone else if you two aren't together."

James made an expression like she'd just said the strangest thing he'd ever heard. "Are you serious?"

"Oldest trick in the book," she replied smugly. She loved being the smart one- the one with all the answers. "She probably just wants you to be 'tortured' for a week or two, and then come crawling back to her."

"So she didn't actually break up with me?"

"Of course not."

"Why in Dumbledore's name did she think that was a good idea?!"

"Because she's barking mad." Alice didn't think she would ever say such a thing under normal circumstances (she was saying a lot of things that were out-of-character recently, she noticed). But such as it were, this seemed like the perfect time to voice exactly how crazy she thought James' girlfriend was. He didn't seem to mind, however. He just nodded like he was thinking the exact same thing.

They didn't get any studying done that night. They were usually only there for an hour or so if they didn't have a huge project to work on or test to study for, and James was already over half an hour late. She let him rant himself out, which took a solid 15 minutes. She loved that he was having relationship problems, but hated how much she loved it. She felt like a bad person- but at least she wasn't going around telling him to forget about her or anything.

Once he was done complaining and pouring out his feelings, she asked him if there was anything he wanted to study or review. He looked at her like she was crazy.

"Let's just skip it for tonight. I couldn't focus anyway," he admitted. She nodded in agreement. Focus was James' main problem. Unless it was on the Quidditch pitch, he had none.

"Alright," Alice conceded, packing things up in her bag. While she did this, James unfolded a large piece of paper and scanned it quickly for something. When he located whatever it was, his entire face lit up like she hadn't seen all night. "What?" she asked, but he didn't reply.

As she got up to leave he quickly shoved his things back into his bag and hopped up to walk with her. They left the library together, walking side by side in a silence that was not at all uncomfortable.

As they made their way up the staircase towards the seventh floor (and the entrance to the Gryffindor tower), suddenly James grabbed her arm and pulled her down a random hallway. "What are you doing?" she asked, her heart suddenly pounding as a list of possible scenarios ran through her mind.

"You'll see," he replied, continuing down the hallway.

"James!" she demanded, stopping her feet and refusing to move any farther. He stopped as well, his smile verging on mischevious. She knew that smile well.

"We're going to meet up with our friends." This only confused her more.

"Our friends?" They didn't have any mutual friends.

"Ok, fine. My friends," he admitted, "But your friend will be there."

"Dominique?"

"Who else?" he said like it was obvious, which it was. She only had the one friend. "Davies is bringing her." Alice suddenly remembered that Dominique had been around with Davies night.

"Bringing her where?"

"To hang out!" he exclaimed, starting to walk again. He still had hold of her arm, and began dragging her along again.

"Where?!"

"You ask too many questions."

"But what about curfew?!" Curfew was at 9 and it was already nearing 8:30. James just laughed and shook his head.

"You're such a goody-two shoes, Al," he teased.

"Don't call me Al!" she reminded him. She hated that. He only laughed some more, happy to have bothered her.

They finally stopped in front of an abandoned classroom. The hallway was dark, and the classroom seemed dark inside. James knocked some sort of rhythm on the wood, like a secret code. His cousin Roxanne came to the door, flinging it open with a look of exasperation.

"You know you don't have to do the secret knock anymore," she told him, ushering them inside. She seemed surprised to see Alice there, but got over it fairly quickly. Alice scanned the room to see what kind of situation she'd been dragged into.

Sitting on the floor in a circle were all of James' closest friends. Roxanne Weasley, Michael Wood, Grayson MacMillan, Eli Davies. And sitting next to Davies was her best friend Dominique, looking a little bit like she was being held there against her will. Very similar to how Alice felt.

There were also a few other Gryffindor sixth years around, including Alice's other roommates: Grace Chamberlain, Cynthia Doolittle, and Nora Cleary, and their male counterparts Nate Thomas, Albert Griffin, and Lewis Joyner. People she was friendly with, but wouldn't exactly call her friends. That made her feel a little better.

But then she noticed someone sitting next to an extremely uncomfortable-looking Grayson MacMillan. None other than James' unofficial ex-girlfriend Chelsea Creevy herself. When she saw James come in, she fluffed her hair and batted her eyelashes and pushed her chest out. God, Alice hated her. Why was she here?

James definitely noticed her there- how could you not- but he played it cool. He took his seat in the circle next to Roxanne, patting the floor next to him for Alice to sit down. She did, even though she really wanted to sit next to Dominique, who was a few people down from her. Chelsea shot daggers at her with her eyes at Alice.

Once they were settled in, James asked what they were doing in a nonchalant "what sort of debauchery shall we get up to tonight" kind of way. An enthusiastic response went around that they were playing truth or dare.

Alice thought they were joking, at first. And when she realized they weren't, she was stunned. In her mind, these were the cool kids. Surely they were always getting up to all kinds of cool and interesting things! Not a silly game she used to play as a second year.

She thought for sure James would agree with her. That he would say something along the lines of, "C'mon, mates, isn't that a little second year?" Instead, he just agreed enthusiastically and launched right into the game with the rest of them. He was more of a 'let's do it,' kind of chap anyway. No matter what "it" was.

At first the game was boring. Since these weren't really her friends, they never picked her. All the girls who were picked said "truth," and would have to answer stupid questions like: "Have you ever fancied anyone in this room?" or "Who was your first kiss?" or "If you had to shag one of the professors who would it be?" She really didn't need to know that Cynthia Doolittle would totally shag Alice's dad if she had to.

The boys all went for dares. Grayson and Roxanne had to switch shirts for the rest of the game, which she wasn't too happy with at first but laughed her butt off after she actually saw him in her purple crop top. Lewis Joyner had to lick someone's foot (he got to chose whose). Eli Davies had to steal some pudding from the kitchens and bring it back, which resulted in he and James running off for about 15 or so minutes.

Since the rules of the game went that the last person who got dared (or truthed) would ask the next person, they had to wait for Davies to return to get on with the game. This, at least, gave Alice and Dominique a chance to sit together. They knew each other well enough to communicate only through looks, and right now both of their faces were asking: "What are we doing here?"

When the boys eventually did return, puddings in hand, the game resumed with Davies asking Dominique truth or dare. She went for truth, trying not to let on how terrified she was of the whole situation, Alice could tell. Dom hadn't had a crush since 3rd year, as far as Alice knew, and didn't really know how to handle herself. Davies contemplated for a while, and then asked her if she'd ever gone skinny dipping, followed by a cheeky wink. She scowled at him and didn't reply.

"I'll take that as a yes then," he joked, and everyone laughed good-naturedly. Then it was Dominique's turn to ask the next person. They all kind of assumed she'd pick Alice- even Alice assumed so- so it was a surprise when she asked Michael Wood instead. Perhaps she had seen Alice's pleading eyes and known how much she didn't want to be called on.

Wood said he'd take the dare, obviously, and so Dominique had to contemplate what to give him. Davies pulled her to the side and whispered something to her, making her smile wickedly. They were all a little worried.

"I dare you to read everyone a chapter of your Twilight fanfiction," she said, causing about half the room to burst into laughter. The other half looked amused, but also confused. Michael Wood, on the other hand, looked mortified.

"Isn't that that Muggle vampire thing?"

"Yes!" Davies said enthusiastically, and Wood scowled at him.

"I am never telling you anything ever again!" he shouted at his friend, causing another wave of laughter.

Because it was too late to deny that this thing existed, Wood was forced to read a chapter of his Twilight fanfiction. He stated over and over again that he wrote it when he was 12, and he only did it to impress some Muggle bird, but it was still hilarious. Not very well written, though.

When he was done being wholly embarrassed, it was his turn to ask the next person. He chose James, who was all too excited to pick dare.

"I dare you…" he paused to think. Roxanne whispered something in his ear, and he nodded enthusiastically. He then began looking around the circle again, pretending to still be thinking about it, until his eyes landed on Alice, "...to kiss Longbottom!"

Alice turned a bright crimson while the group whooped and cheered, excited by this idea. Well, everyone except Chelsea Creevy and Dominique, who both looked disgusted.

The next thing Alice knew, she was locked in the abandoned classroom next door with James. On the other side of the door, they were all chanting: "Kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss!" They weren't allowed out of the classroom until they kissed one another, with photographic evidence to prove that it really happened.

"We're not doing this, mates!" James shouted at them. "Let us out!" Alice stood behind him as he pounded on the door, fuming with anger for multiple reasons.

The first reason was that she really really wanted to kiss James Potter. The second reason was that he obviously didn't want to kiss her. The third reason was that James' friends were very persistent, and probably would definitely not be letting them out until they kissed. And she did not want to kiss James Potter against his will. She wanted him to want to kiss her. And so she was angry.

"Just kiss her, James!" a voice they both recognized as Eli Davies shouted back at him.

"C'mon, Davies, open up!" Alice shouted. She decided that her best tactic would be to act like she really didn't want to kiss him either. That way she'd be safe.

"Kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss!" the chanting continued. Why had she even agreed to this game? And why hadn't James picked truth? And why did Wood have to say her name? Why her?!

James sat down on the floor with his back to the door. He was looking at her, and she was praying to Dumbledore that the lighting was too dim for him to see how badly she was blushing.

"This isn't hard, mates!" Roxanne shouted at them. They could both hear the smugness in her voice. This dare was her idea, after all.

James was probably worried about what Chelsea was thinking. Even though they were technically "on a break," and she had basically given him her blessing to kiss whoever he wanted, he knew that if he kissed Alice now, he would fail her little test.

Not that Chelsea (or anybody, for that matter) actually saw Alice Longbottom as any sort of threat. On the outside, she was the sweetest, most innocent and average girl in the whole world. She had a cute round little face- with freckles and warm blue eyes- and curly mouse-brown hair. Kind of short, and very slightly chubby. Nothing spectacular, nothing that any boy's girlfriend (or un-official ex-girlfriend) should have to worry themselves over.

Except that, to Chelsea Creevy, Alice was probably one of her biggest threats. Because Alice actually knew James, and understood him. James and Alice, despite how much Alice denied it, were friends.

Besides, Alice was just an all-around better friend to James then Chelsea had ever been. Alice knew that James' favorite color was blue, and that his middle name was Sirius, and that when he was little he had a stuffed bear named Apple, because apples were his favorite fruit. Chelsea knew none of that stuff.

And Chelsea wasn't the one trapped in a room with him. And Chelsea wasn't the one he was dared to kiss. Alice was.

James was yanking on the doorknob, trying to force the door open, when some part of Alice's brain short-circuited- or maybe just broke altogether- and she blurted out: "Let's just do it James!"

She tried to make it sound as casual and as much like she didn't want to do it as possible.

"Al…" he said apprehensively, not sure if she was really thinking this through.

"Do not call me Al," she reminded him for the millionth time. Then she repeated what she'd said, "C'mon, let's just do it. What's the big deal? It doesn't mean anything, and then they'll let us out!"

"We're gonna do this?" he asked, checking with her to make sure it was really okay. He absolutely wasn't gonna do it if she didn't want to. That's the kind of guy he was.

"We're gonna do this," she replied, trying to keep her tone as calm as possible. What was she saying?!

He stood up and walked over to her. They maintained eye contact with each other, probably making the whole situation even more uncomfortable.

"Yeah, we can do this! It doesn't mean anything!" James reassured her, but actually it was more like he was reassuring himself.

"Nothing at all," she agreed, but her voice came out sounding a little softer and more breathy than she'd intended. He suddenly looked frightened, and James rarely looked frightened. "Let's just do it, let's just do it, let's just do it," she said rapidly, in a more normal tone.

"Alright, let's do it. So I'll just…" he stepped even closer to her, and now they were the closest they'd ever stood, their faces within inches of each other. "And then put my hands…?" He placed his hands awkwardly on both sides of her face.

"Maybe stop narrating," she suggested, and he nodded in agreement.

"Fine."

"Do it."

"I'm doing it!"

"Fine. Then do it."

"That's what I'm doing!"

"Just kiss me, James!" she insisted, and again he nodded.

"Right. Great. That's what I'm gonna do!" He started to lean in, and just as he closed his eyes she got extremely nervous and yanked away. His eyes shot open and he stared at her in confusion.

"Don't make that face!" she demanded, and he looked shocked.

"What face? This is just my face!"

"Then make a different face!"

"Fine, I'll make a different face!"

"Alright, great."

"Good!" They stepped closer to each other again, but at this point they'd built it up so much that there was no way it could not be extremely weird.

"Let's just get it over with!" Alice insisted, and James took her by the waist this time. She didn't want to think about how bloody nice that felt. He started to lean in again, but again she panicked and yanked back. Again.

"No, I can't do this-" he said, shaking his head "Okay, you know what-" He marched back over to the door and began banging on it. "Let us out of here, guys! Open the door!" he yelled, as she stalked away towards the back wall of windows. The chanting had stopped, and presumably they had all moved back to the room next door, so no one was listening. She sat down on the windowsill, and after a few minutes of futile banging on the door, James came over and joined her.

"I'm sorry," she began, and he shook his head at her. "I don't know what happened. I panicked, I guess."

"If I hadn't thought you were gonna panic, I probably would have panicked," James admitted, and now it was her turn to shake her head.

"Oh, please. You're James Potter. You don't panic." But Alice knew this wasn't true. Her ideal, perfect James that she'd been in love with all those years- he was the cool guy. He was the one who never panicked. The real James, the one she'd become friends with over these past few months, panicked just as much as the next guy.

"Of course I do! I thought you knew me better than that," he said, nudging her with his knee. She smiled a little bit before she thought of what she needed to ask him next, and her smile vanished because her question made her nervous.

"But why would you panic about kissing me? It's just me," she said looking down at her feet instead of at him.

"I suppose I could ask you the same question," he nudged her again, and she blushed brightly.

"Oh, c'mon, James! You're a 10, and I'm a solid 5 ½." She didn't know why she said it, and didn't really think about it until the words were already out. She glanced up, and saw that James was staring at her incredulously.

"You, Alice Longbottom, are not a 5 ½," he insisted, and she smiled shyly. Then, the part of what she'd said that she was actually worried about seemed to occur to him. "Wait, you think I'm a 10?"

She hesitated for a second before accepting that it was a little too late to take this one back. "Of course," she said quietly, and James beamed.

"Out of 10?" he joked, and she laughed a little bit.

"Of course," she reiterated, with more confidence this time.

"So you'd actually want to kiss me?" he asked, catching her completely off guard. Figures he'd make the connection.

"I never said that," she said, hoping he'd just let it drop.

"No, but you thought it!" he said, poking her in the side and making her giggle.

"Did not!" she insisted, and he poked her again, moving in to tickle her.

"Did so!" he mocked as she squirmed away from him. He caught her wrist and suddenly they both stopped moving and sat perfectly still- looking at each other. They both had soft smiles on and suddenly a crazy thought popped into Alice's mind: He's about to kiss me. And, just when it looked like he might make a move... there was a bang at the door.

"Have you done it yet?" Roxanne yelled to them, and James seemed to suddenly remember himself, releasing her wrist and moving away. Suddenly there were a ton of voices right outside the door, and then the chanting started up again.

"Kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss!"

Alice groaned and flipped back to casual/nonchalant mode she'd had before. "They're never gonna leave us alone," she pointed out, and he gave her a look that read "not helpful, Alice."

"Well, they're going to have to, because we are not kissing!" James said, pacing towards the door and back.

"Oh, c'mon, James, it's not that big a deal." Even though she was the one who panicked and didn't kiss him before, she was still a little insulted that he was so insistent on not kissing her now.

"We're not!" he yelled at her, and she crossed her arms, frustrated again.

"I don't see what-"

"Not like this, Alice!" he cut her off. "Not like…"

Then, they both seemed to realize what he'd just said.

"What?" Alice asked, and James just stared at her, rendered speechless by his own words. "What does that mean?" Though she had a pretty good idea; she just wasn't ready to let herself believe it.

"Nothing. I just- It's not supposed to- I mean we're not- I mean it can't- we..." he was getting flustered, and she smiled a little bit at him (because it was rare to see a flustered James) which only seemed to make him more so.

He suddenly walked over to one of the windows and flung it open, as if desperate for air. Then he got up on the ledge like he was about to jump out. Alice gasped.

"James, what in Dumbledore's name are you doing?! Get down from there!" He didn't look at her, and acted like he couldn't hear.

"Accio broom!" he cried, using a tactic that his dad had had used to escape a Hungarian Horntail during his time as a champion in the Triwizard Tournament. In less than a minute, a flying broomstick appeared- one of the ones they trained the first years with, by the look of it. They were being stored in the remains of the shed he'd obviously blown up over the weekend. That's probably how it could get to him so easily.

"Are you serious, James?" she asked as he mounted the broom. He looked regretful, but it wasn't enough to stop him.

He took the broom and with one more regretful backwards glance, flew out the window with it, leaving her alone in the locked classroom with people still chanting on the other side of the door. "What just happened?" Alice asked aloud, stunned and upset and even more confused than ever about her feelings towards James Potter.

I hope you liked this chapter! Please please review if you did. In the name of full disclosure, that last scene, with Alice and James in the classroom, was based off of a scene in season 2 episode 15 of "New Girl," where Nick and Jess are forced to kiss each other and he accidentally maybe confesses feelings for her. When I saw that scene I just knew I had to write it, and I wanted to give it to these two, who I think are just adorable. I mean, Alice is in love with one of the coolest guys in school (which, I'll be honest, I've totally been there before), even though she really doesn't want to be, and I just think it's always nice when unrequited love starts going both ways, however unrealistic that idea may be. Read on for more of these crazy kids, and feel free to write me a review letting me know what you make of these two and their relationship! -Maddie