This is an experimental piece. I've never written in this style before. It's present tense, first person narrative. Let me know what you think about it. Does it hurt the story or help it? Should I write differently? I'd appreciate your feedback on this one. Hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

One of the Guys

Chapter One: Revelation

I think it's rather ironic to begin a story with a revelation but that is how I wish to begin this narration. I fear that I will have to do a bit of unconventional narrating in order to explain, but I shall certainly do my best to make it as easy to understand as possible or my name isn't Rose Weasley.

Do you have that one guy friend? You know the one I mean. He's the one that you're really close to, the one to whom you can tell everything, the one who can tell everything to you. He asks how you're doing and actually cares about the answer. You look at each other in the middle of a class and you have that look or that gesture that is code for "I have a story I need to tell you. Remind me after class."

He gives you his honest opinion on all the guys you've dated; "You two are an odd couple. I never saw it coming." "He's so random and weird. I approve." "I don't like when he talks to you like that." "If you want me to beat him up, I will." You help him when he has problems with his relationships; "She's a girl, we act like that." "Buy her chocolate." "She probably doesn't mean it, it's just that time of the month." "If you want me to beat her up, I will."

He's your go-to guy, and you're his go-to girl. You cheer each other up when you need it. Not to mention you're honest enough that you can keep each other's egos in check. You laugh with (and at) each other. You're not afraid to be yourself and he's comfortable being himself. You don't judge each other. You're best friends.

Oh, and did I happen to mention that you're completely in love with him? He says "I love you" and you say "I love you" back. With his "I love you" however, you hear the unspoken, yet understood, "but" that mercilessly attaches itself there. "I love you, but I love you as a friend/sister" or something equally as frustrating.

Well, my revelation is that I have this very relationship with Scorpius Malfoy. We've been best friends since one little mishap in our first year. For the first few months that we knew each other, we were rivals in class; always comparing grades, seeing who could make the better potion, who could cast the better spell, so on and so forth. Well, it was around the end of January, we were both sick with the flu, and so we both missed a few classes and had to make up the assignments in the evening.

During one session, due to a bit of miscommunication, Scorpius and I both jinxed the professor that was teaching us petrificus totalus. Oh. We didn't know the counter-jinx yet, either. So there we sat, scared out of our minds that we would get into so much trouble for this, and yet… all we could do was laugh. The teacher (a disagreeable old witch with no sense of humor to speak of) eventually recovered, issued a week's worth of detention to each of us, and sent us on our way. Apparently, we were supposed to have gone and found a teacher to help instead of stay doubled over, laughing, in the classroom.

We've been inseparable ever since then. My cousins and I sort of adopted him into our family. We're all really close now. And I am just one of the guys.

I'm not sure when I first realized that I'm in love with him, it's hard to tell. We're so close that I really can't distinguish when I changed from loving and accepting him as part of my family to being in love with him and (secretly) wanting more from our relationship. It's a tricky business let me tell you. Anyway, it's not important when it happened as long as we've established that it has, indeed, happened.

I sit in the library now with my cousin, Lily. She's smarter than me. Her best friend is a girl, and she's dating the 'boy of her dreams.' I'm trying to help her develop good study habits so that she doesn't stress out for her O.W.L.s later on. Meanwhile, I myself am stressing out over N.E.W.T.s.

I see Scorpius enter the library and I smile. He nods and starts walking toward my table, making a gesture indicating Lily's presence. I catch on right away.

"Lily, can you go grab me The Big Book of Little Ingredients off the shelf?" Lily welcomes the excuse to get up and walk around. She hates doing homework and studying.

Scorpius sits down across from me, laying his bag on the table. "Hey."

"Hey. I finished the charts for Astronomy," I whisper as I place them on the table.

"The textbook exercises are all done for Ancient Runes," he slides the book out of his bag. The scene reminds me of haggling, or maybe gambling. We're raising the stakes. I see your Wednesday night homework and raise you a weekend's worth. "I can't let you copy my essay for Potions but I highlighted all the important points in my book."

Scorpius smiles. "I did the same for the Charms essay." I smile in return.

It is Friday after our first week of class. I wouldn't say that we were assigned a lot of homework for our first weekend back, but it is definitely more than I wanted. Homework is overrated anyway.

Lily is on her way back now. I shove the Ancient Runes book into my bag as Scorpius gathers up the Astronomy charts.

"Hey Squid," Lily greets Scorpius in the nickname we (Albus, James, and I) gave him in our third year after a rather embarrassing encounter with the giant squid in the lake. It bothered him at first, but he's friendly about it now. Besides, 'Squid' is a lot easier to say than 'Scorpius.' "Rose I can't find it," she reports.

"What were you looking for?" Scorpius asks.

"The Big Book of Little Ingredients," she sighs, sitting down again.

"Oh, look," I pick up the book in front of me. "Here it is. Sorry, Lily. I'm a bit flustered." I abuse the poor girl.

She shrugs and returns her attention to Scorpius. "You still dating that Hufflepuff? What was her name? Rachel?" Scorpius nods. "How's she doing? She's a sixth year now, right?"

"Yeah, and she's doing alright. How about you and that Zack kid?"

"Going on one year," she says proudly then regrets it immediately. I'd just recently broken up with Connor, and today would have been our first anniversary. Okay you found me out. I just got out of a long relationship, I'm sad, and that's why I think that I'm in love with Scorpius.

At least, that's what I'm trying to convince myself. That would make things much simpler. Besides, Scorpius has a girlfriend. As his friend, I have to respect that.

They look at me pityingly and I barely notice. Tears are starting to line my eyes. I can feel them, and they are not welcome. Lily puts her hand on mine.

"What are you doing this weekend?" She asks.

"I don't know yet," I admit.

"You should come out with Zack and I. We're going with a bunch of other people to the Shrieking Shack," she suggests. "Al, Hugo, Fred, and a bunch of others. We're going to hang out on Saturday."

I shrug. "I might show up." James, Al and I were the first ones to find out about the Shrieking Shack. James had stumbled upon the Marauder's Map, smartly went to Uncle George instead of Uncle Harry, and learned how to use it. Uncle George always urges the lot of us to create mischief at school. We just go there to get away for the weekends; we get away from the professors, from the prefects, from all manner of annoying people.

The discussion ends, Scorpius leaves, and Lily and I stay to finish our work. We get done just before we have to hear Madame Pince (who's an old bat anyway) and her irritated foot tapping, heavy sighs, and not-so-discreet and rather elongated looks at the clock. The students that stay longer than us, however, I believe will have to suffer her wrath of impatience. It's late. We get back to our dorms and say goodnight to each other before going to our separate rooms.

My roommates are already asleep. I cast lumos, change into my pajamas, and climb into bed. I can't fall asleep. Thoughts of Connor race through my mind. I miss him and the tears to mourn the end of that part of my life finally come. I hadn't cried yet. I'd been holding back. Even right when it happened, I couldn't produce a single tear. They're coming now. They're soaking my pillow. I let my emotions loose.

I'm so angry with Connor! I'm so angry with myself for being so stupid! I thought he cared about me, and I made him to be this wonderful person in my head. I just couldn't see him for who he truly was. I ignored the fact that he wasn't considerate when it came to me and I made excuses for him when he didn't put me first before other things. Why couldn't I see it?

This passionate maelstrom of feelings continues for a while until I successfully exhaust myself.

When the tears slow, and the convulsions cease, I get up to blow my nose. As I do, I hear a light tapping on the window. An owl? Who would send an owl at this hour?

I recognize the brown eagle owl immediately and crack the window open to retrieve the message.

There is a rose drawn at the top of the page.

You're beautiful. I mean what I said the other day. I know it hurts now, but keep your chin up. I truly think you'll be happier in the long run. I'm here for you.

Love,

There is an M at the bottom drawn so that the line furthest to the right curves upward into an arrow.

I smile to myself. I climb back into bed and fall asleep, the note still in my hand.

XXXX

Disclaimer: I do not encourage cheating, got it?

So what did you think? The story itself is a bit sad, but I am trying to have an underlying humorous tone with it. Let me know if the balance is okay, please.

Oi, I've become an insomniac, staying up writing Harry Potter fanfiction all night long on the weekends. This is seriously the third story I started working on in the past three days.