Love Made Us Blind

The next day when Alice woke up, she felt like this was one of the worst nights she ever had. She didn't feel rested and wasn't in a mood to go through her classes today. The only thing that kept her going was that she knew that she would feel all better once she would have a cup of coffee at the Slytherin's table sitting besides Draco.

"I need you to sit at the Gryffindor table this morning." No hello or good morning waited Alice once she sat down to eat breakfast. Draco quickly eyed the teacher's table before looking back at his girlfriend. "You heard about the new degree?"

"New degree?" She repeated, too tired to make any connections

"All teams and groups are disbanded. After History of Magic I'm going to go and ask for permission to get the Slytherin's Quidditch team reformed but I'm going to need to be on Umbridge's good side. So when she comes in I'm going to wish her a good day and ask if she's available during the day, and blah, blah, blah. And Alice, it's no secret she's not your biggest fan so I wouldn't want to kill my chances if she looks in this direction and sees me with you."

You're so bloody ridiculous! and Are you kidding me? rang through Alice's head. But instead of speaking how she felt, she got up in silence.

"You're not mad, are you?" He asked, with a worried face

"Obviously I'm okay with this. I would never want to hurt your reputation by my presence, Draco. Enjoy your breakfast."

Alice didn't give the boy a second look. Draco watched his girl walk to the Gryffindor table, knowing that he pissed her off. He sighed, mostly to himself. He had to deal one problem at a time and for now he had to think how he could convince Umbridge to reform the Slytherin Quidditch team. He knew that the teacher liked him because of his father but he couldn't understand this random degree to break up every single team and club like that. Alice sat down in front of Hermione looking discouraged, back to the Slytherin table so that Draco wouldn't see her face.

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked her friend who was clearly hurt.

"It's nothing." The girl lied but knew she wasn't successful as Harry and Ron took interested in her too. "It shouldn't be anything. I swear I'm fine, I'm over reacting."

"We all do it sometimes." Harry said "Sorry about yesterday, by the way. I didn't mean to snap."

"Its fine" Alice reassured him. "So what are we going to do about this new degree?" Are we still going to continue?" Clicking that it meant that their new group wouldn't get approved

"Obviously we are. It's just one more challenge. But until we find a place to practice, we have to hold off the meetings."

Alice only heard half of what Harry was saying. She was so sadden by Draco pushing her away. It was stupid to get upset over that, she knew that much but it hurt none the less.

"Are you sure you're alright." Hermione asked again

"I will be." Alice tried to reassure her friends

Harry smiled lightly to the girl and gave her a half-hug, putting his arm around her shoulder and pulling the girl slightly towards him. Draco Malfoy, who didn't stop staring at the girl since she left his table, stood up and took out his wand. He was thinking about the spell that would throw Potter the furthest from his girlfriend before Blaise pulled him down so he'd sit down.

"Control the jealousy before you get expelled." He warned him

"How can I watch that filth touch her and not do anything about it? How dare he...?"

"Umbridge just walked in." Blaise told him "Go ask for permission and then win her back with sweet words. It always works on her doesn't it?"

"Yeah you're right..."

Just then Alice felt the small object in her pocket warming up. She took it out and noticed the little glass heart shinning. The trio who knew what it meant, looked at Alice who turned and looked at Draco staring at her, the duplicate of the heart in his hand. Addie gave a faint smile but didn't do or say anything, just turned and continued to eat her breakfast. Draco knew at this point, it would be safe to walk to Umbridge without Alice throwing a peek at him.

Alice was talking with her Gryffindor friends standing before their History of Magic class. Hermoine was scolding Harry and Ron about their attention span in that class and threatened them that if they didn't take any notes, she wouldn't bail them out. Suddenly her voice trailed off and the three friends were looking in Addie's way, glaring more precisely. Before the witch with the long black hair and hazel eyes could ask what was going on, she felt arms wrap around her body and a beautiful familiar voice whisper to her ear.

"I'm really sorry Alice. Don't be mad at me."

Alice looked at Harry, Ron and Hermione, who were trying to look away, very uncomfortable by the situation. She sighted but didn't turn to face her boyfriend.

"I'm not mad at you Draco. Just hurt."

"And I'm sorry, I really, really am. I didn't want to hurt you and I didn't know it would hurt this much. If I knew how upset you would be I'd ask Blaise but I-"

"But since you're her favourite so you're the one who volunteered."

"If I could go back in time an hour ago I would have asked you to stay. I won't hurt you again."

Alice smiled but Draco didn't saw it. She closed her eyes and enlaced her fingers with his. The golden trio entered the class as soon as it opened and everyone else followed but the girl didn't move.

"Do you love me?" She asked the boy, happy to get some privacy

"I do. I will always love you. Please forgive my mistakes."

And on that Alice turned to face her boyfriend and looked him right in his eyes. He still had his arms around her, holding her possessively. He hoped that Potter saw that she was his and if ever will have the luck of bumping into him without Alice around; he was going to remind him of that fact.

"You forgive my mistakes don't you? And I might be blinded by love but you're perfect. I won't ever stop loving you."

"Thank you." He said, kissing her right before they entered class together

He held her hands and didn't let go, even if they were sitting together. He smiled as he listened to her talk but he wasn't doing much listening. Blaise was right: the moment he would say something that appeared sweet and romantic, she would forgive him. But it didn't mean he wanted to use that too much. As their hands parted, Draco already missed her contact. No, he didn't want to ever hurt her again. When class ended he walked her outside.

"Meet me in front of the potion's class. I need to do a quick detour and get Umbridge's permission slip to reform the team. You can come with if you don't mind the detour."

"You can go without me." Alice said "You were right, she's not my biggest fan but I don't like her very much either. I'll be happy to meet you before class."

"You're the best." Draco said to his girlfriend as he kissed her quickly before running off the get the permission slip.

Alice walked to Potions alongside Blaise and Theo. Blaise and Theo were talking about the new degree while Alice played dumb wondering with them, why would Umbridge issue such a problematic rule. This only meant more work for her since she had a whole bunch of groups ready to go and ask whenever they could be formed again. But Alice knew what it meant. Harry, Ron and Hermione had discussed the possibility that they were over heard at the pub and this degree promised expulsion to whoever was in a group unauthorised by the High Inquisitor. To Alice's dismay, Pansy joined in the conversation as they waited in front of Potion's class, moments before Draco showed up with a scroll in his hands and a huge grin.

"So Draco, did you get consent from Professor Umbridge?" Pansy asked with a flirty voice that made Alice cringe.

At this point, Draco stood besides Alice and the girl was suddenly surrounded by Slytherins.

"Yeah, Umbridge gave the Slytherin Quidditch team permission to continue playing straightaway; I went to ask first thing this morning." Draco said, much louder than necessary. Alice guessed that it was so that Harry and Ron, who were a good couple of meters away, could hear "Well it was pretty much automatic, I mean, she knows my father pretty well, he's always popping in and out of the Ministry... it will be interesting to see whenever Gryffindor are allowed to keep playing, won't it?"

Alice was very much aware that his boyfriend often forgot that she was a Gryffindor and didn't take insults towards her house personally. But it frustrated her that Pansy looked her way with a smirk.

"How long do you think it's going to take before they are allowed to reform?" Pansy asked, clearly enjoying this Gryffindor bashing in front of Alice, who was growing more and more attached to her house

"If it's a question of influence with the Ministry, I don't think they have much of a chance." Draco continued, now looking in Harry and Ron's direction "From what my father says they've been looking for an excuse to sack Arthur Weasley for years." Alice knew that was true and started to worry when she realized that three out of seven members from the Quidditch team were Weasleys. What if they really couldn't reform? "And as for Potter... my father says it's a matter of time before the Ministry has him carted off to St Mungo's. Apparently they got a special ward for people whose brains been addled by magic."

Draco made a misshapen face, his mouth open and kept rolling his eyes, looking demented. Alice was prepared to simply pretend that she didn't see anything until she heard Pansy's screech of hilarity. This was the last straw for Alice, who had a terrible morning and knew that she had to intervene.

"Don't do that face, Draco." Alice said in a calm, controlled and seductive voice, taking his face in her hands. "I wouldn't want that handsome face to stay like that."

Draco smirked, very satisfied of himself, not only did he have a chance to make fun of the Gryffindors but his girlfriend seemed totally fine with it, and was beginning to lean to give Alice a kiss when she turned at the sound of Potter's yell.

"Neville, no!"

Neville, who was being held by Harry with difficulty, was glaring at Draco trying to get to him. It didn't take long before Crabbe and Goyle stood in front of him and Alice who was still in his arms, shocked beyond belief. Snape eventually came to the scene and split Harry and Ron, who were trying to make sure, Neville wouldn't get in trouble. Alice sat down at her place and didn't even notice Umbridge who was coming here to inspect Snape. She felt so terrible: Draco insulted in front of everybody people who were in St Mungo because of magical damage to their brain and two of them were Neville parents because of Alice's father and all she did was flirt with him to make Pansy jealous. That must have been Alice's worst period in Potions since she was too distracted to follow instruction and messed her potion to Umbridge's and Pansy's delight.

Classes were over, Alice's mood improved. She had loads of fun time in divination with Rachelle and decided to spend her evening with her too in Ravenclaw's common room. When it was starting to get very late, the two girls gave a hug to each other, sad that they don't spend as much time as they used to.

"You should sleep over one night. Maybe a Friday soon enough, you're always invited." The blond suggested

"That would be a lot of fun. You're also invited to stay at my place."

When Alice arrived to her common room, Harry was the only one left, doing his extra work for Potions that Snape had given him. Alice went to sit down with him.

"How's it going along?" She asked him

"Did you know Neville never told anyone what happen to his parents? I found out by accident. Only we knew why Neville got so mad at Malfoy when he insulted St Mungo's patients. Even Ron and Hermione don't know why your father is in Azkaban in the first place."

"Where are you going with this, Harry?" Alice asked

"What can you possibly see in him-"

"Harry, I am going to tell you this only one time: you and I don't see the same Draco. You see him as... as a mean, snobby, obsessed with blood purity..." Alice took a breath, calming down "I see him as a caring boyfriend who's been in my life since I was a little girl."

"So you're completely blinded to how he acts with others around him?"

"I don't love him for his flaws; I love him because of the way he makes me smile and his qualities. No, he's not perfect but neither am I or you. So I would enjoy one night where you wouldn't talk endlessly how much you hate Draco or how my father is evil or criticise the way I was raised."

Alice walked out of the common room with a little tear in her eye. She retraced her steps and found herself in the Ravenclaw common room. To her luck, Rachelle was still awake, a little surprise to find her black hair friend here again after only a couple of minutes.

"You don't mind, right? I want a change for an evening. Spend the night with my friend."

Rachelle walked up to her and gave her best friend a hug.

"Of course. Is there anything you want to talk about?" The blond asked concerned

"Not really. You know next Hogsmeade trip, we have to double date. We should at least once a year."

"That sounds great! It's been a while since I haven't talked to Draco."

Alice smiled, happy that everything was how it should be.