/𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒\ [𝒔. 𝒃𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌]

𝟓.𝟜.𝟤

"I don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them." ~ Oscar Wilde

~october 1975~ (continued)

A few days after the party in the common room, Alice and Frank finally got a moment alone together. The autumn leaves crunched under their feet as they strolled over the grounds, both bundled in warm coats over sweaters. Things had been weird between them in the last few days. After the party, they'd both been too busy with other things like quidditch, homework, and a dramatic crisis involving Dorcas and a Ravenclaw girl to get even a second to discuss what had happened on the drunken night after the match.

Frank brought his hands to his mouth and blew into them, his breath forming a little cloud in the air that Alice watched intently until it faded. Her eyes met Frank's and she gave him and awkward little half-smile. He returned it, but there was a burning in his chest and a bad taste in his mouth. He hated how things had changed since he'd told her he loved her. He shouldn't have done it. He should've just gone on being her friend like before, when things were good between them.

But no. He didn't fully regret it. She knew now, and she was still there, wasn't she? He cleared his throat. "So..."

"So." An amused look glimmered in her eyes as she stared up at the red and orange trees around them.

Frank sighed. "Look... we've been friends forever, right?"

"Right..."

"And I know you, Ally," he said, his confidence building. "I know you like the back of my hand."

She gave him a skeptical look. "Oh yeah?"

He grinned down at her, then looked up at the sky with a far-off expression in his eyes. "I know you like to write fairytales but you don't think you'll ever get a relationship like that. I know you fall for people, but never go for them because you think they'll ruin your expectations. I know you care about the people you love so much you'd die for them, and I think that's the most honorable notion a person could have. And I know a lot of people say that, but you're... I know you'd do it. You'd do anything for the people you love."

"Of course I would," said Alice, innocent light spreading across her face.

He stared at her, reveling in how pretty she looked framed in front of the colors of fall. "I know that," he said softly. "But I want to be that for you, Al. And I can't give you a fairytale story and I think you know that, but I'd do anything for you. I meant it when I said I loved you, and you don't have to respond to that, but I still mean it. And I don't think that's going away anytime soon."

"You mean it?" she asked, her voice rising an octave in excitement.

"I mean it."

She blew into her hands to hide the ecstatic smile spreading across her lips. "I don't care that you can't give me a fairytale," she said at last, when she'd regained her composure. "Frank, I've loved you for five years now without even knowing it. I was running around with, like, Fabian Prewett while you were right there for me the whole time."