Summer Kids

1977: Auror Trainee Camp

Marley gave Alice an encouraging pat on the shoulder as she padded away to the cubbies. "Don't fret, love. I'm sure you'll get the chance to get to know the lad better this summer."

Alice kept her face in her towel as Dorcas and Marley moved away to continue their conversation. The thought of getting to know Frank Longbottom better was almost too tantalizing to be real. She tried not to think that the fact that the two of them both wanted to be Aurors -- and that they had both been specially selected for this early training program this summer -- put them in a perfect place to spend time together. Things just didn't work out that way.

***

Alice ended up being one of the last of the female trainees to leave the preparatory rooms after one of her favorite pair of sandals had gone missing. After everyone else had left the showers, Alice did a full search and discovered the missing shoe inexplicably resting in the far corner of the last stall. She had no explanation for that, and, as it was now nearing ten, mental as well as physical exhaustion made it hard to think of any. It didn't matter. Alice just wanted to get home and sleep. 

Nodding politely to the nightshift goblins and house-elves outside the preparatory room door, who had been clearly waiting for her to finish before moving in to clean, Alice started off on the long path to the end of the Auror's wing. From tours conducted in her first week of summer training, she knew that this meant a long trudge down the long hallway... back to the shorter hallway... which led to the stairs... which led to the Ministry's main lobby...and the exit. Alice really wished that whomever had been in charge of planning the layout of the Aurors' trainee wing would have made it all just a bit closer to the door, so she could get out and get home before she fell asleep.

As she slogged her way down the long hallway, a door ahead of her suddenly opened onto her path. Alice could hardly believe her eyes when none other than Frank Longbottom, the tall, lanky dreamboat, stumbled out into the hall with a towel around his neck and his training bag over his shoulder. Like Alice, he wore long shorts, and had optimistically rolled up the sleeves of his pale green button-up shirt in anticipation of warm summer weather. He didn't seem to notice her as he strode forward towards the end of the hall, so Alice focused on just catching her breath. She wondered again what the chances were that she and Frank would be leaving their respective showers at the same late hour. It seemed too good to be true. She wondered what she should do with this fortuitous opportunity.

In the end, Alice just stood frozen and watched Frank walk away. Only after he slipped through the open door at the end of the hallway did her legs finally decide to move -- and she dashed down the hallway after him. 

Slamming the door back just as it fell, Alice was surprised to see that it landed straight in a pair of ready hands -- Frank's hands. After skidding to a stop a few feet inside the door, Alice turned around slowly and did the only thing she could think of: offer Frank an apologetic grin. "Wotcher. Just-just..." But Alice got lost in Frank's patient, deep brown eyes, and couldn't even think of a decent excuse for charging down the hallway like a stampeding animal. She gulped.

Miraculously, Frank gave her one of his easy, wide smiles back. "I know what you mean," he responded, granting Alice an answer as if she had actually made some sort of coherent explanation. "I hate being the last one out at night, too. It's just a bit too quiet." Alice nodded vehemently back, keeping her mouth shut for fear of making him stop talking. For a sixteen-year-old boy, Frank already had the low, mellow (and spine-tickling) voice of a fully-grown man, and hearing it at such a close range made her heart beat almost too fast to stay conscious. After a moment of silence, Frank suggested, "Would you fancy walking out with me, then?"

Alice couldn't nod fast enough. "That would be wonderful, thanks." Alice truly would have been alright walking out by herself. There was no way she was going to skip the chance to walk out with Frank, however. It was like something out of a dream.