‹ Prequel: Different Letters
Status: Back on for real

Love Made Us Blind

Tea Shop

Everyone got up early this Saturday, excited for their first trip to Hogsmeade. The weather was rather cool but it wouldn't stop anybody from leaving the school grounds for a couple of hours. Alice was sitting at the Slytherin table, her cloak right beside her, ready to leave after breakfast. They were first going to a cute tea shop before joining the rest of their friends at Three Broomstick.

"But Alice, we always go to Hoghead when we head out."

"Nobody ever goes there, Draco."

"It's nice and quiet."

"I know but you already promised to bring me to the tea shop. It's the first time that I can go to Hogsmeade without having to hide the fact that you're my boyfriend."

"If I didn't love you so much as I did, we'd be going to the pub."

Alice smiled, taking a piece of toast from Draco's plate and feeding it to him. Girls sitting near them smiled, finding the scene cute, all except for Pansy, who had yet to find a way to get between them.

"Where am I ever going to find a better boyfriend? I'm starting to feel bad for all the other girls who'll never have you."

"You should feel every bad. Nobody's ever going to have a chance while you're around."

Alice kissed her boyfriend with passion, thinking how happy she was with this boy. Her mind was so concentrated on his touch, when a grape hit her on the head, she jumped up. She looked over where it could have came from and saw Rachelle eating grapes, smiling that she caught her attention

"Courtesy of everyone in the Hall." She said as Blaise looked away, trying not to laugh too hard

Alice blushed and got off Draco's laps, which she was just beginning to climb. Draco still laced his fingers with hers as they finished their breakfast. She looked over at the Gryffindor table where the trio was looking a little uneasy. It wasn't easy to convince Harry to accept in giving lessons to a small group of students. Hermione invited about thirty people, most of who Alice only knew their faces. They went through everyone they knew, excluding those who were known to be too close to the Ministry. Alice was a little disappointed that she couldn't attend the first meeting but bailing on Draco was not a possibility. Obviously she was going to use their weekly off days to go to those lessons but Hogsmeade weekends were their special days and they agreed to spend them always together. While Draco was in a conversation with Theo, Alice looked at her table once more and noticed this time Harry looking back. Alice flashed a smile and winked which seemed to put him in a better mood. She waited long minutes after her Gryffindor friends left before suggesting to the blond that they should also head out. This was technically the first time Alice went to Hogsmeade on the main street since the couple would always hand out in the deserted part of the village where no students were ever spotted. Hopefully it would be empty enough for Harry, Ron and Hermione, Alice thought. Draco made Alice visit all the attractions, Zonko, the joke shop, bought Alice her favourite sweets from Honeydukes, went to look at the Skreking Shack from afar and even stopped at the enormous post office filled with hundreds of owls. When Draco noticed that Alice's hand was shaking from the cold in his, which he had been holding the whole time, he decided it was maybe time to head to the tea shop she had been trying to convince him to take her. Draco didn't mind so much where they would be as long as the beautiful black hair girl would be with him. But he loved seeing her plead and hesitated on purpose to see her work for it. In reality he'd never refuse her anything but he didn't mind getting a kiss between almost each word when she was asking something from him. Ever since their awkward walk from their Care of Magical Creatures class, the one Umbridge inspected, they didn't fight at all. After that walk, Draco has surprised himself thinking of arguments, more like pleads, for Alice not to leave him. But the next day, she sat beside him, in an excellent mood and acted from that moment like a newlywed wife. She would smile all the time when she was with him and didn't comment or seemed affected by anything mean he would say. He had maybe thought and hoped that she got in a fight with Potter after he called him stupid in front of the whole class but still caught her talking to him and his friends on their day offs. He didn't dare to comment, afraid to cause an argument when they were going so nicely. They entered the cute shop, where a lot of couples were sitting together.

"Do you think we were meant to be together?" Alice asked just as Draco burned is tongue with the tea he just received

"And what do you mean by that?" He asked amused

"What if it would have only been the seven year that would have made the trip last year? What if I didn't show up at Hogwarts? Would we have ended up together?" She asked him

"You will never, ever give it a rest will you?" He asked with a smile. Her constant 'what ifs' made her so much cuter

"It just scares me to think that we could have not happen at all. And now I keep thinking that every small decision will affect our future."

"You can stop freaking out, if that keeps you awake." Draco said, never dropping his smile "I think we would have eventually ended up together. Look, when we would have turned, sixteen or seventeen, an age to start thinking about marriage and other stuff, our mothers would have set up a meeting."

"What if you would have been dating a girl that you brought to the Yule Ball instead of me?"

"Don't you listen when I talk to you? Nobody stands a chance compared to you. I would have dumped any girl the moment I would have seen your face."

Alice finally smile to her boyfriend as they both stayed in silence while an old lady came and offered them some biscuits with their tea.

"Then in that case, I'm happy the way things are. I'm happy sooner than later."

The couple finished with their tea and left for the Three Broomstick. They both walked to a table where Alice was displease to find Rachelle and Pansy talking to each other and laughing, as if they would be long life friends. She looked away, determined not to stay to long here; after all she was curious how it went with Harry and the others. With the exception of her and Hayley who were both Gryffindors and Rachelle who was placed in Ravenclaw, Alice was sitting at a table full of Slytherins. The four Slytherin girls were Hayley's cousin, Pansy, Millicent and a girl that Alice never bothered to know, Daphne. Alice didn't know most of the boys because they were from the Quidditch team. She was only acquainted with Theo and Blaise.

"How is dear Isabelle doing, Theo?" Alice asked, teasing him a little

"She's doing fine. Often checks up on you and Rachelle anyways. It seems that she misses you but with that aside, she seems to be great."

"Wow, so you still regularly write to each other!" The girl responded, a little surprised.

"I saw her couple of times during summer and I hope to see her for at least a day during winter."

"That's great! I'm sure she's so thrilled that this is working out. She was so certain it wouldn't work last year." Alice regretted her honesty moment after but the Nott boy only smiled

"I wasn't convinced much was going to happen after the Ball either. We're not dating, don't get excited. Merlin, you're just like Rachelle."

"But are you going to start dating eventually?"

"If we both finish our seventh year and we didn't found anything else, then I wouldn't see why not. She's nice, pretty and a pure-blood."

Alice kept her smile until the very end. Rachelle eventually noticed her best friend arrive and they walked together, their boyfriends flanking them not far behind.

"Theodore and Isabelle..." Alice started "Any chance of succeeding?" She asked the blond who was more informed then she was

"I hope so." She responded before taking a break. "I mean it's complicated. They don't want to commit to a long distance relationship because they would only see each other during summer and Christmas. But I think that the only problem is that Hogwarts isn't an all boy school. If they would agree to date, Theo wouldn't have a problem: he would see Isa during most of her vacation and then she'd go to Beauxbatons filled with girls. It frustrates her that he's surrounded by girls all year long. Which brings to a frustrated Theo who can't be with someone who doesn't trust him."

"They're fighting?! I thought they were writing and fine."

"They are as friends. But Isa refuses to commit to Theo because she thinks it's unfair that he's with girls all year long. It gets on her nerve that Suzanne doesn't have that problem... Oh, wait you don't know this! Okay so in the final weeks, after you stopped talking to her, she became friendly with a fourth year from Durmstrang and now they are exclusive but you know, all boys school there and all girls there..."

"I just hope Theo and Belle sort things out. They would be good together." Alice said, indicating that she didn't want to discuss about Suzanne even the slightest.

After dinner, it was time for Alice to split with Draco for the night. After a last kiss, the girl walked to the common room and eagerly went in the hole and found the trio, sitting down near the fire place, a little isolated from everyone else.

"So, so, so? How did went, you have to tell me all about it!" She exclaimed, sitting down with them

"We got everyone to sign." Hermione informed her "We had calm to everybody once they saw your name so I would expect a couple of stares next meeting..."

"What do you mean?"

"Well..."Harry started "Some wondered if it was a good idea to include you. The fact that your father is... and you dating Malfoy are not helping your reputation-"

"But this is about fighting against Umbridge and the Ministry."

"That's what we told them. You hate Umbridge as much as we all do. I think that eased up tension a little bit." Ron added

"Good, because I want them to know that even though we're learning to fight the Dark Lord, it's not about... what's wrong?" She said when Addie saw her friend's faces in horror

"I've never heard anyone call... I just expected that it was only Death Eaters that called Voldemort the Dark Lord." Harry said in a dark voice

"I... It, it's a-"

"It's because your family is loyal to him. And so is Malfoy's." Harry stated

"Harry, it doesn’t matter. Not now at least and I don't want to start with this conversation. Draco and I aren't getting involved in anything. You're my friend Harry."

Alice excused herself from the group, hoping she didn't screw everything up over a couple of words.
♠ ♠ ♠
Happy New Years everyone! I hope it was better than mine. I worked from the 31st to the 3rd... which is why I'm posting this so late. I went skiing from the 27st to the 30th :D
So please, I'm trying to enjoy my break a little too :)

Please feel free to comment and say what you think of my story! :)

Thanks to Jinx Killjoy , MeilaKay and FashionLuver101
who are amazing!

And a little preview of what Alice was wearing :)