Harry Potter One Shots (Vol. I)

Not So Typical Fairy-tale (Frank Longbottom)

"Ignore them," Katarina piped up, rolling away as I continued to look over the five boys, my eyes routed to one in particular. "Did anyone find the idiot that decided to make so much noise last night in the common room? They woke me up at bloody 3am - I barely got any sleep after that."

Frank, one of the taller boys in the small set, easily caught the frisbee Lupin threw his way and tossed it back to the Prefect, the enchanted toy flying over the head of a perturbed Black. He let out an easy laugh, one that I had realised I missed hearing and it was that realisation that had me shifting uncomfortably and turning away.

"No clue," I admitted, smiling slightly when I realised that Leslie had fallen asleep. "It was one of the seventh-year boys and when I find out which one it was, he's going to find himself facing the strongest stinging hex I can manage."

"I'll join you," Kat offered around a yawn. "It's bound to hurt more if two of us cast it together."

"Oi!" The sudden examination had me glancing sharply towards Potter who pointed to something, "Watch out!"

Just like that, my eyes were fixated on the bloody frisbee that was heading straight towards me. And because my mind always worked faster than my body did, I began to wonder why they didn't attempt to cast magic to stop it. But the answer dawned on me just as quickly; if it was enchanted chances were it could only be caught and was impossible to stop with magic. Only when I had come to the conclusion that using magic on it was useless, did my body begin to move. Salazar, I needed to speed up my reactions.

It proved pointless as Frank had sprinted towards us in a heartbeat, catching the frisbee easily with that stupid laugh of his. Holding the frisbee with two hands, Frank glanced over his shoulder at me and unable to look away, I held his eyes for a long moment. It was only when he looked away to throw the frisbee back to Pettigrew, that I turned as if to leave. But once again I was too late; he turned back towards us, crossing his arms over his chest. Silently I counted my lucky stars that both Kat and Leslie were too sleep deprived to question me about what was going on.

"It's been a while," he greeted with a smile curling at the corner of his mouth.

"What do you want, Longbottom?" I asked bluntly, arching an eyebrow.

"To talk," he said simply.

"Well get to the point," I muttered, drawing a little into myself as I watched him tuck his hands into his pockets with a grin. He rocked on his heels slightly, looking down at me with obvious amusement and I forced myself not to fidget nervously. "You're not - you're not trying to ask me out again, are you?"

"You didn't even let me finish my sentence the last time," he reminded me.

Narrowing my eyes, I pointed out, "That means you are planning on asking again."

"Well would you look at that," he drawled, his grin growing even more. Merlin, why was he always smiling; who could possibly have something to smile about so often? "It looks like I've been caught."

"In that case," I mumbled as I hurried to my feet with a sigh, "I'm heading inside."

Turning on my heels, I called out a goodbye to dormmates before heading back towards the castle. I almost expected Frank to follow after me, to make me listen to what he had to say. But doing that would be so out of character for him; he wasn't that sort of person. He didn't push past the line that I had so clearly drawn between us and I begrudgingly respected him for it. He'd said so himself that he'd rather wait for me to choose to cross that line myself than to risk putting more distance between us by forcing things. Now if I could just remember the list of reasons for why I couldn't cross that line.