Hey! Long time no see everybody! It's been a looong time since I've been here at . This is my first attempt at a Harry Potter fic, which took me forever to finish because I kept getting writer's block

This also covers another category here, the Books section. So far, I have written in Anime, Books, and the Poetry section, with an Original story on the way. My eventual goal is to write in all the categories here at .

This story is Fred/Angelina and I may end up adding other ships in at a later point. Reviews are greatly appreciated, as are suggestions on how to make this better.

Disclaimer: Only the plot and invented characters belong to me. Everything else belongs to JKR.

Long Road to Forever

Chapter One

Tap Tap. Tap Tap.

Angelina Johnson opened her eyes and tried to figure out where the tapping noise was coming from.

Tap Tap. Tap Tap.

The sound came again, louder this time, and Angelina sat up in bed and looked around. The clock beside her bed read 7:00. "Too ear-ly.." muttered Angelina. As her room came into focus, she could see a large barn owl tapping impatiently on her window, with a bit of parchment clutched in his talons.

"Oh, it's too early for owl post" mumbled Angelina as she got up out of bed and attempted to open up her window. "It's raining! Oh no..." she groaned. She got the window open, and the soaking wet owl flew in, and shook itself dry, getting Angelina quite wet. "Ah! Watch it!" she cried, getting out of the way. The owl dropped the parchment on her bed and flew back out the open window. Just as Angelina moved to go and close the window, four more owls flew in, all attempting to get in Angelina's room at the same time. "One at a time! One at a time! There's enough time for all of you to get in" she said as the owls settled themselves on her bed. "Hey! You! Off the bed!" said Angelina, moving over towards the owls. "You'll get the covers all wet and your feathers will be all over the place" In response to Angelina's request, the owls obliged and moved off the bed and towards the window, leaving behind a flat box and some envelopes. "I hope none of the neighbours noticed..," mumbled Angelina. Finally, she closed her window and went over to examine the boxes and envelopes the owls had brought. She sat down and reached for the first bit of parchment, brought by the barn owl that had woken her up in the first place and began to read.

"Angelina,

Happy Birthday, sis! How does it feel to be the big 2-0? Having a good day so far?-"

"If you call being woke up at the crack of dawn by owls and getting soaked, 'good'" mumbled Angelina darkly.

"-I wish I could be there with you, but of course, my job says otherwise. I'm sure Robert and Danielle could handle the work between the two of them, but obviously the boss doesn't think so and so I'm stuck here, digging though piles of paperwork. I'll probably get down to London to see you and mum and dad (and Hannah and Adam if they're home from Hogwarts) during Christmas. I'll bring you your birthday present then. It's too big to carry by owl, so you'll have to wait for it. Sorry about that. I'm going to have to end this here, because Danielle is starting to look over this way (heh, not that that's a bad thing, mind you), but she's got that Look on her face. Like I said, hope your birthday's great and welcome to your twenties, the best years of your life!

I'll talk to you again soon (I hope)!

Jeff"

Angelina's mood brightened a little bit, after reading that letter. She hadn't heard from her older brother in almost two months, and she was beginning to get a bit worried about him, so this letter was a good sign. He was working with the Ministry, in the Department of Magical Transportation, but he was on a special assignment in Switzerland, working with their Magical Transportation department.

"The best years of your life? And how would you know that, Jeff? You're only 24." wondered Angelina, as she reached for another bit of parchment. "I'd bet anything you haven't even gotten my gift yet. You just like making excuses" She began to read the second piece of parchment, which she noticed had a package attached to it.

"Happy Birthday, Angelina!

How's life at 20? I bet not much different than when you were 19. Ha ha. Anyway we just wanted to write and tell you Happy Birthday and send along our gift for you. Adam blew most of his money in Hogsmeade the other day I did not! Stop telling lies! Whatever you say, Adam. Anyway, I had to buy most of this present. Adam thought it was too girly, but last time I checked, you were a girl, Angelina. :) Hope you like it! We'll see you at Christmas!

Hannah and Adam Hey! Why does your name have to go first?"

Angelina had to grin. Her younger sister and brother were always at each other's throats, even though they were sixteen years old and twins. Fraternal, as they always emphasized. Hannah, a Ravenclaw, was shorter and stockier than Luke, and had long, wavy black hair that she was always doing up in creative ways. She looked like her mother, and had her mother's dark brown eyes. Adam, on the other hand, was in Gryffindor, like his older siblings had been, and was taller and skinnier than his twin. His hair was short, and he liked to dye it. Angelina remembered the latest colour as bright red. He looked more like his father, and had a lighter eye colour.

Angelina reached for their present and opened it up. It was a book, entitled No More Fuss! 1001 Hair Spells - Volume III.

"Excellent," said Angelina, leafing through the book. "I was going to pick this up in Hogsmeade on my next visit, but now I don't have to" She laid the book back on the bed and reached for another envelope, with very familiar handwriting on it.

"Happy 20th, Angel!

We're so sorry we couldn't see you on your birthday, but the resort doesn't have any Portkeys available for use until next week, which is when we're coming home. The Caribbean is brilliant, you should come down here sometime if you get the chance. You already received part our gift, and your mother wanted to bring you back a few things from down here, so you'll get that when we return. Wish you were here, or wish we were with you! Have a great day, sweetheart!

Love, Mum and Dad"

Angelina's parents were gone to the Caribbean for three weeks, as a 25th wedding anniversary present from Mr. Johnson's rather large family. Before they had left, they had opened a Gringotts bank account for Angelina and had deposited some money in it for her.

The next couple of letters were from Angelina's best friends, Katie Bell and Alicia Spinnet. They, like everyone else, wished her a happy birthday and said they would be by after supper to give Angelina her gifts.

Angelina moved the parchments around, looking for a letter from Fred Weasley. He was the one person who Angelina wanted to hear from today, but she didn't see a message from him. Their relationship was a bit uncertain these days, as one day they'd be perfectly fine, and the next they'd be biting each others head off for one thing or another. Thursday, three days ago, was one of those days. They had been fighting over the fact that Angelina thought Fred was too involved with his work at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes and didn't see enough of her. They hadn't talked since. Angelina was hoping he had sent something to her, as a way of moving in the right direction to making up from this current argument, but nope. There was nothing from Fred.

"Figures," Angelina muttered, heading into the bathroom for a shower. "He'd expect me to send something to him on his birthday, but obviously the thought that maybe he should send something -a letter, a card, anything- to me on my birthday never crossed his mind."

After she had finished showering and dressing, Angelina headed into the kitchen to make some breakfast. She waved her wand around, muttering words under her breath, and in a few minutes she had a cup of coffee and some slices of toast with orange marmalade on them, on a plate in front of her. She carried her food into the den and flopped down on the couch. She fumbled around for the TV remote, found it, and clicked on the television. Angelina was a half-blood (Muggle mother, wizard father) and had a fair number of Muggle items in the house, the TV being one of them. But unlike a Muggle TV, this one was run on magic, and it picked up all the Muggle channels anyway.

After flipping through channels for a few minutes, the doorbell rang, causing Angelina to spit out the mouthful of coffee she had in surprise. The coffee went over her lap, and after Angelina had muttered a few spell words, the stain was gone. She placed her coffee cup on the table and went to get the doorbell. "Please be Fred, please be Fred" she murmured over and over again. She desperately wanted to see him, even though the last time she had seen him had ended in a fight. She took a deep breath, and opened the door.

End Chapter One