After The War (Romione & Hinny fan fiction)

Just. Friends.

TW: heartbreak

They were friends now.

Or at least, that's what they'd agreed. Alice had to admit she quite liked being friends James Potter. To be completely honest, it had kind of begun to be the bane of her life. If they couldn't be anything more, friends sounded good enough to her. At least for now. The times she went outside with Potter were starting to get numerous.

They'd disappear during lunch break. Every time, James had a new place to show her. It was like he knew the whole castle by heart - which, Alice reasoned, was probably true.

They'd half-walk-half-run to whatever secret passageway Potter wanted her to explore. Sometimes they'd sneak through the castle corridors unseen.

James had showed her tunnels, passageways and trick doors in places Alice hadn't even known existed.

And she had to admit, sneaking around the castle at lunchbreak was much more exciting than eating in the Great Hall. Her friends laughed every time someone brought up the topic of Alice's adventures with James, some of them claiming they'd always known Alice and James would end up together.

"We're not together!" Alice always screeched.

"Sure, sure." Her dormmate Jasmine would give her a knowing look. "I assume you keep your distance while spending all that time together, huh?"

Alice still blushed when she thought of the time her friends found out that she'd suddenly become friends with James Potter, the Quidditch hero. Whatever.

He wasn't that when he was with Alice. He was nowhere near to a hero when they tucked themselves behind suits of armour and long-hanging velvet draperies during their nighttime escapes.

They would tell their friends they had rounds to do, put on their badge and disappear into new secret passageways that looked about to collapse and climbing down stairs so small Alice couldn't tell if she was going to fall.

Last week, James had lead ger down to the grounds in the middle of the night.

"This is incredibly risky, James!" Alice had said when she'd stopped to catch her breath after a long run from the Entrance Hall to the pathways that lead down to the little harbour where the boats used by the first years to cross the lake were moored.

James had shrugged her worry away. "The risk is worth the view. Come on."

He'd lead her down the hill until they'd reached the lake, the tip of their wands the only light in a sea of darkness. James had turned back and grinned at her, and Alice had had the strangest urge to pull him close. But she didn't. She never did. She smiled back at him instead.

Merlin, why was she even a Gryffindor?

She kept asking herself that, but she could never find an answer. Not unless you counted the "my father was a Gryffindor when he was at Hogwarts" part.

She had sighed and sat down on the wooden pier, crossing her legs and looking at the surface of the water.

"What are you so thoughtful about?" James had asked curiously as he sat down close to her. Way too close to her.

"I... er... uh... What did you say?"

James had turned his head to look at her, "I asked what you are so pensive about."

"Oh... This is the most beautiful thing I've seen in years." Alice had said, nodding towards the lake. The black night sky was reflected into the water of the lake, making it look almost black. Some of the castle's lights that were still on were reflected like tiny dots on the surface.