Fatum

*None of the characters in the following story are owned by myself. This world and characters all belong to the amazing mind of JK Rowling. I am merely turning these characters into my own little puppets, and using them as I please. The following story will take place in the Marauders Era, and no, it’s not a Jily fic. This is a story of, what I think is, the most underrated couple in the Harry Potter fandom. Alice and Frank Longbottom. This will take place in their seventh year, in Alice’s point of view. This story does not follow any of the original book storylines. As it is not stated anywhere when Frank and Alice attended Hogwarts, I am putting them into the same year as the Marauders. Please enjoy, and give me feedback *

Oh shit.

Not again. I couldn’t be here again.

The room was white, like always. Why was it always white? Why not yellow? That would make me a lot happier.

My mother was sitting on the chair in the corner. She had made the corner chair her special place since we had started coming here. My father, he was most likely getting coffee, hopefully he would know to get me a coffee as well. “Mum?” I choked out the word, sitting up and propping myself against the headrest.

“Oh! Alice you’re awake.” She hopped off her chair and moved to kneel beside my bed. She looked worried, then again, she always looked worried. “How are you feeling? The doctors said you’d be fine, but you haven’t been taking your medicine. Alice, why haven’t you been taking your medicine?” Her tone was accusatory, but I knew she wouldn’t actually be angry with me. She never was.
“The medicine tastes gross mum. I hate taking it, it makes me feel weak, and everything tastes funny when I take it.”

At that exact moment my father walked in, his face brightened when he saw I was awake. Merlin, I loved my dad. He was such a negative person, but he never failed to be happy around me. “Sleeping beauty has arisen! I brought you coffee.” He pulled my mother’s chair over to the side of my bed and handed me the steaming mug.

I let a smile spread across my face as I took the mug graciously and sipped on the coffee slowly. Hot and black, exactly how I liked it. Father knew how to cheer me up. “Well thank you dearest father. I do love you so.” I tilted my head and smiled innocently over at him.

“Charles! She shouldn’t be drinking so much caffeine! You know it’s not good for her, especially in this condition.” Mother threw her hands into the air, glaring daggers at my dad. She was the responsible one in the family, my father and I acted like children. Children that liked to drink coffee.

“Mum, it is fine. I drink coffee all the time, it doesn’t make my condition any different! Nothing makes it different. It stays the exact same, with a couple bad days, like today.” I gestured around the room. “Wait, are we at the muggle hospital or St. Mungo’s? They all look the same inside the rooms.”

“Mungo’s sweetie. And it hasn’t been a bad day, you’ve been here for three days now.” Father told me, patting my arm.

I sat up quickly. Three days?

“Three bloody days? But that means, tomorrow is September 1st. I need to go to Diagon Alley!” I exclaimed. I still needed to shop for new clothes, supplies, and oh gosh I needed to buy shoes. Shoes were always good.

“Don’t worry. The healer told us you could leave as soon as you woke up. Want to get going then?” Mother asked politely, laying her hand on my shoulder. I nodded quickly, setting my mug on the side table and jumping off the too small bed.

“Let’s get out of here.”

~~~~
Oh, the shoes.

I had bought so many new shoes. They were all beautiful.

I was standing on Platform 9 ¾, having already said goodbye to my loving parents back home. They both had to get back to work today, and I tried to avoid going to any public with her parents. My mother had packed me down with as much medicine as she could possibly find, and Father had nearly filled a duffel bag full of books for myself, so I wouldn’t get bored.

I was grateful for books, but they didn’t compare to the shoes of course.

With students and parents running every which way, trying to collect their belongings, get on the train, and say their final goodbyes, it was a miracle that I spotted that familiar head of hair.
Out of the crowd came a smiling red head, skipping her way over to me and nearly taking out a first year trying to usher his owl into its cage.

“Alice!” Lily smiled and threw her arms around my small frame.

I was ridiculously small compared to most of my year. 5’3, with such a small body that many had asked her if she was ‘anorexic-or something.’ It wasn’t my fault I was tiny, I ate more than the average witch, it’s just because of the whole, constantly sick dilemma that the fat didn’t seem to stay on.

“Lils, I missed you so much.” My words were muffled by Lily’s hair in my face. I never got to see her during the summer. She was always at home with her muggle family, and I spent my summers either at our lake house, or St. Mungo’s.

“Look! Look at this!” Lily squealed, holding up some odd sort of-wait. That was the Head Girl badge.
“Lily! You’re head girl? Oh I knew you would get it!” I gave her yet another hug. It was obvious Lily would get Head Girl. She’s absolutely brilliant and everyone just adores her.

After that we went through the standard reunion talk. With the, I missed you mores, your hair looks so good, and oh Merlin Alice your shoes, oh Merlin Lily your top! It was the same every year, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Lily had been my closest friend since second year when I had been pushed down a staircase by some wanker of a Slytherin and Lily had given the boy a black eye. Lily had become somewhat of a protector over me, and in turn I made sure Lily didn’t hide out in her room at all times, being unsociable.

After we were done with catching up, I gathered up my bags and found my cat Circe. The stupid cat had been stalking up behind a poor, helpless toad. She was a small little ball of fur and evil. Setting everything aboard the train we went to find an empty compartment.
So many people.

Were there no empty compartments? Did the amount of students triple over the summer?
Oh…there’s one.

The rest of our dull, and dreary train ride was spent sharing every story we could possibly think of that happened over the summer.

Lily had spent her summer at home, trying to get on Petunia’s good side-to no avail.

“It’s impossible. She’s so narrow-minded and judgemental. There’s nothing wrong with me. Maybe there’s something wrong with her.” Lily ranted on, chewing on a strand of hair.

I nodded along, knowing it would be nearly impossible to get a word in. Lily didn’t stop jabbering on about the dreadful Petunia until I happened to blurt out my little stay at St. Mungo’s.

“Oh no. Alice is it getting worse? Please tell me it’s not getting worse.” Lily had reached across the compartment and set both her hands on my knees. Her expression was nearly as worried as my mother’s always was.

“It’s fine Lils. Besides, there are some very attractive young Healers down at that place.” I raised one of my eyebrows suggestively.

It was true. They were gorgeous.

I’d love to get a piece of them.

“Oh please Alice. We both know you only have eyes for one person, and one person only.”

“I do not know who you are referring to.” I pulled my knees up into my chest and looked at the floor. I knew exactly what Lily meant. The boy I absolutely loved. He was my soul mate, and I never wanted anyone else but him. I mean, I had almost never spoken to the boy, but that was just a minor detail.

“Yes you do! Alice we both know you’re absolutely infatuated with Sirius. He doesn’t even give you the time of day.” Lily hated the idea of me liking Sirius Black. In her mind he was a player, and would only end up breaking my heart. I told her to bugger off every time she brought it up.

Sirius was incredibly handsome, witty, and dangerous. He was constantly getting into trouble along with his little band of friends. But it worked out, I could have Sirius, and maybe Lily would finally get off her high horse and realize James and her were meant to be.

I was constantly trying to set those two up, but Lily wouldn’t have it.

Poor James.

“Lily, leave it alone. Sirius and I are just in a very complicated relationship at the moment. We have some kinks to work out, that’s all.” I was in complete denial.

“Fine. We’re almost there, get your robes on.”

~~~~
Food.

Food was such a good invention.

I’d like to personally thank the creator of food, which might have been the dinosaurs, or the first micro-organisms. I wasn’t sure exactly. I wasn’t exactly a science prodigy, or any sort of scientist for that matter. To be honest I wasn’t clear on most scientific concepts. Wait-am I babbling in my head again?

After another dull sorting ceremony, and a long speech from Dumbledore himself the food appeared on the table. I piled my plate with as much food as I could, as Hogwarts meals were so much better than at home meals.

I was shoving a fork full of potatoes into my mouth when I noticed him sitting across from me and a couple seats down.

Oh gosh he looked absolutely beautiful.

His head turned towards me slowly and he gave me a smile.

Oh Merlin…was he smiling at me? What was I meant to do in this situation?

I smiled back and Sirius’ smile quickly turned into a loud laugh. I realized after a second that my mouth was still full of potatoes. I was such an absolute idiot. He was probably laughing at me. It was either:

A) He saw I had my gob full of potatoes and realized what a pathetic fool I am.

OR

B) James or Remus had told a joke and Sirius found it absolutely hysterical.

I was hoping for the latter, but with my luck it was the former. I hid my face, as it was burning red, and turned to talk to Lily.

“Is he looking at me?” I whispered to her, moving my eyes in the general direction of Sirius so it wasn’t noticeable to anyone but Lily. I liked to try and be stealthy, but it usually didn’t work out so well. In my mind, because of my size, it was easy to be inconspicuous. Then again, I was already inconspicuous without trying to be.

Most people did not notice me, unless it was to comment on my size. They were too busy staring at Lily.

Lovely Lily.

With her gorgeous red hair, stunning green eyes and loveable personality, it was hard not to love Lily.
Of course, Lily didn’t see it. She always tried to convince me that I was the one everyone was jealous of. She was crazy.

My hair was average, it wasn’t an interesting color like Lily’s, or a sexy blonde. It was about shoulder length, mousy brown hair. I couldn’t do much with it. It didn’t go into a bun, and all ponytails looked truly ridiculous on me. So it stayed down, sometimes I threw in a clip, just to shake things up.

And then there were my eyes. Not blue, or green, or even hazel. They were brown. Just plain brown, nothing special about them. My mum always told me that my eyes were the color of melted chocolate, but that’s just her being a mom. My eyes were the color of poop and no one could tell me otherwise.
So in all, I was average. Hell, I might have even been below average but I wasn’t sure. I mean…I had nice skin. That counted for something. And good fashion sense…I think.

~~~~

The first night back at Hogwarts was always the same. Everyone was so happy to be back together that we hardly got any sleep. It was a Saturday, so it wasn’t like we had classes the next day. But seriously, I need my beauty sleep. I enjoy sleep, it’s a good thing. It keeps you healthy.

“Come on Alice, stop being such a grouch and talk with us!” My other close friend Livia whined. Livia and Charlotte were two other Gryffindor 7th years. The interesting thing about Livia and Charlotte (We liked to call her Lottie), was that they were identical twins. Well, they would have been if Lottie hadn’t dyed her hair pitch black two years ago. It was the only way anyone could tell them apart, unless you knew them well enough to see the way they act.

Lottie was the more artistic and pessimistic of the twins. She liked to keep to herself, and was really only talkative when around our small group of friends. Livia was very girly, loud and fairly obnoxious. She was absolutely boy-crazy and never stopped talking, even in her sleep she still muttered random words. They were the human embodiments of extroversion and introversion.

The only other girls in our year were Mary and Suzanne, but we didn’t talk to them. Suzanna was a stuck-up bitch. No…that was unfair of me. She might be a very nice stuck-up bitch, I just didn’t give her the time of day, as she was also in love with Sirius. Little did she know, we were madly in love with each other. It would happen. I’m not crazy. At least… not all the time.

“I’m not being a grouch. I’m tired and want to go to bed.” I complained, pulling the blankets over my head.

“If you stay up we can discuss you and your boyfriend.” Lily said in a sing-song voice. She was clearly trying to draw me in with Sirius and his bloody fine features.

I let out a loud sigh, just to show them how ridiculous I found them all, and hopped onto Livia’s bed where they were having their little gossip session. These gossip sessions were at least a weekly occurrence, as we only had a few classes together, and would need to catch up.

The four of us were inseparable when we were together. It had been that way for years now.
Lily was the smart one. She kept us all in check. Lottie was the protector, though Lily could punch people out if need be. Lottie liked to make sure no one was messing with us. Livia was the flirt. She always had a boy on each arm, which was fair enough. She was drop-dead gorgeous with her blonde curls and piercing blue eyes. Which made Lottie as gorgeous as well, people just tended to not notice her. I guess that left me, Alice. What was I? I suppose I was the kind one. Lily and Lottie were both socially awkward. Livia was, to be fair, sort of a bitch. She got what and who she wanted no matter what. If anyone needed to talk to one of the girls, it usually happened through me. I was the messenger, I guess you could say.

The girls were always very protective over me, however. I was their Little Alice, and once while waiting on the platform they had promised my parents to watch out for me, and make sure I was keeping myself healthy. If I got so much as a headache they would hover over me like a swarm of bees until I assured them I was all right.

That’s how it always had been.

I suspected that’s how it always would be.

“Ok good, we got you up! So, I noticed a certain someone watching you.” Livia said with a smile.
My face turned red, like it always did. “He was only looking because my mouth was full of potatoes like the moronic loser I am.”

This caused a ripple of laughter throughout the dorm. They found my pain amusing. What good friends they were, I might just have to replace them. I could put down an ad in the paper:

WANTED

New friends; mine are half-witted and inconsiderate of my inner most feelings.

Must be able to gossip, share clothes, and make a good cup of coffee.

Not for yourself.

All coffee made must come to me.

I will make you pie in return.

Yup. They’d see that ad and realize that they have wronged me. *Cue evil laugh* they won’t know what hit them.

“You know who’s looking absolutely delicious this year?” Livia asked as she licked her lips. What was she planning on doing to the poor soul? Eating him? “That Frank Longbottom boy. I mean, he’s in our year, and in Gryffindor, but I haven’t noticed him before. He’s sort of a badass. Might be more of your type Lottie.”

I knew who Liv was referring to of course, but I too hadn’t noticed him much. I knew Frank was more so of a loner. Attractive in a different sort of way, he spent most of his time either in detention or out on the grounds with a smoke in his mouth-which is why he constantly had detention.

“Oh Liv, leave the poor boy alone. He doesn’t want you throwing yourself all over him.” Lottie said with a sigh, used to her sister’s promiscuous ways.

“You’re ridiculous Lottie. Of course he does. Plus, I know of that Longbottom’s ways. He has a bit of a rep with the ladies.”

Livia and Lottie sat there bickering for a while, and I took it as my way of escape. I yawned loudly, “Well, I’m absolutely worn out. Good night.”

As they continued to argue, they didn’t notice me sneaking away, and Lily didn’t try and stop me, as she was sneaking back to her bed as well.

Lily’s bed was right across from mine, and I mouthed a “Good night,” to her before drawing the curtains shut and falling into a deep sleep.

~~~~

I believe in many things.

I believe that there are an infinite number of worlds, and that we are not the only living beings out there. I believe in divination, and that there are people with the ability to see into the future. I believe that our dreadful librarian Madam Pince may one day find true love and decide to no longer despise me, as love conquers all…Or something along those lines. (She truly does despise me. And I’ve done nothing wrong, she believes I spend too much time in her library, messing up the books, once she caught me eating with a book in hand. Nearly lost her marbles that time.)

But the one thing I do not and never will believe in, is the idea that waking up at 6:30 in the morning, and then proceeding to use your brain for the rest of the day is a well thought out idea. It’s completely barbaric.

How does this school expect me to be able to function on such a little amount of sleep? It would be far more reasonable if we slept until at least 10 and then went to class. At least then I would be able to focus on whatever the professor is attempting to teach us sleep deprived students.
The first week of classes passed by in a groggy blur.

My schedule for seventh year was packed, I only had two free periods in a week, one on Wednesdays and one on Fridays. It gave me extra time to finish up homework and study. Which I needed an incredible amount.

Five essays already in a week? So not only were they trying to squeeze all the energy out of us with this ridiculous time schedule, but now they wanted to get rid of the rest of our sanity? To be fair, there wasn’t much left. I think I ended up on the crazy train around year three.

The only upside of classes so far this year was Sirius was in five of my classes. DADA, Charms, Astronomy, Potions and Transfiguration. Now that I think about it, why was him being in my potions class a good thing? I would only embarrass myself. I only needed that class because I wanted to become an Auror one day.

But still, being able to nonchalantly stare at his beautiful head of hair more than once a day made my life worth living.

It was the first Saturday at Hogwarts and Lily and I were curled up in the common room studying Transfiguration. I had on a large woolen sweater that my mom had knitted me for Christmas last year. It still smelt like home so I tried to wear it as often as possible. Lily had once told me it made my eyes look lighter, so of course I had to wear it.

“This is ridiculous! How am I supposed to remember every single method to improve non-verbal spells?” Lily exclaimed, letting herself flop back onto a large red chair.

I was sitting in front of the fire place and had to awkwardly turn to see if Lily had attempted to kill herself yet. “It’s only because you’re rubbish at Transfiguration.” I said with a smirk, it was one of the few subjects I was actually better than Lily at.

“If it was potions I would have this down already, you know that.” Lily kept complaining. I knew she hated the subject, but other than Herbology it was the one thing I was skilled at.

“Stop complaining. He already offered to tutor you, but you turned him down.” The ‘he’ I was referring to was none other than James Potter, who was absolutely, 100% in love with Lily. It was so blatantly obvious to everyone but Lily.

“I turned him down because he is an irresponsible twat that only wants to get into my pants.” Lily turned her nose up like she always did when the topic was about James.

She was ridiculous, I knew she liked him back.

Lily and James.

It just seemed right.

At that exact moment I heard someone plop themselves down into the other chair. “Who wants to get into whose pants?” A low voice asked with a laugh.

Oh Merlin. It was him.

I spun around quickly. Yep. It was Sirius.

“Oh um, James wants to get into Lily’s pants.” The words came flowing out. Why didn’t I have a filter? WHERE WAS MY FILTER? Bloody hell he looked good.

Lily shot me a look as if to say, “What the fuck is wrong with you, you were supposed to make something up!” I sent her a look back to tell her I had no idea what was wrong.

Sirius laughed again, his laugh was absolutely beautiful. I could fall asleep listening to it. Wait- was that weird?

“Hey now, James isn’t like that. He doesn’t get into girls pants.” Sirius always had been defensive over his friends, especially James. Just another reason I absolutely adored him.

“Does he get into guys pants?” I blurted out, stammering on my words. Clearly Sirius didn’t notice how shaky I was though, or the fact that I hadn’t been trying to joke. The words just wouldn’t stop. He laughed again and shot me a wink. He just winked at me. Hell.

“No love, James is more of a relationship type. If you needed someone to get into your pants, it’s me you come to.” He rose his eyebrows suggestively, and even though I knew he was only being his regular, flirtatious, playful self, I had to turn around to gather my thoughts.

“You’re disgusting Black.” Lily shot back, and even with my back turned I knew she was sneering at him. I could recognize the tone of voice.

“Oh come off it, I’m only joking. Little Alice knows I’m joking.” I felt his foot poke my back and I froze again, this was the most he had interacted with me since that time we were partners in potions and I had spilt the potion on his shoe, sending him to the Hospital Wing.

“She doesn’t like to be called Little Alice.” I heard Lily slap Sirius’ arm. She was so much better with guys than I was. Guys liked Lily, they always had. I was the opposite. They ignored me, it was like I was invisible to them.

I needed to get out of there before my word vomit came back and threatened to unleash all my inner most secrets. “Well, this has been lovely, I’m going to the library.” I informed Lily, just so she would know where to find me in case something happened. I liked to think Lily found my company absolutely thrilling and that I made her life a bit better. I nodded at Sirius before gathering my books and hurrying out of the common room.

I got to the library without any more embarrassments and sent a smile at Madam Pince as I walked in. Pince rolled her eyes at me, clearly she had just missed me too much over the summer break.
I took my books to my special little corner and contemplated my first official moment with my future husband. Our children would be beautiful. Well, so long as they looked exactly like him.

There would be many more of these moments in the near future, I could see it now.

But first, I needed to be able to finish my essays.