Love Made Us Blind

"Don't you think it's amazing? I mean I've been told that he cared but to have him tell me this himself..."Alice had been talking about her father for the last ten minutes and it had been nine minutes since Draco stopped listening. The couple had been hanging out with a couple of his Slytherin friends but they all seemed to be busy doing something else. Crabbe and Goyle were comparing chocolate frog cards (who collects them anymore, Draco thought) Theo was reading a book while Blaise, Rachelle and Pansy were in the middle of a conversation that seemed a lot more interesting then Alice's monologue. A bit further he noticed Montague trying to woo a girl in his year, surrounded by seventh year Slytherins. So when Draco saw Neville Longbottom passing by, he was grateful for the distraction and his chance at some fun.

"Hey Longbotton, where are you headed with that big ugly plant of yours? Hoping if you show it off long enough to Sprout you'll have a chance to pass one OWL?"

As expected, the large Slytherin crowd burst into laughter. Neville didn't even look Draco's way and ignored him. Over the years he learned to tune him out. What nobody in the hallway expected was to hear a female voice defend the Gryffindor boy.

"What was that for?" Alice asked, furious

"What does it even matter to do?"

"He is my friend and I forbid you to insult any of my friends."

"You forbid me?" Draco repeated amused. "Well then, why don't you go and hang out with your friend instead?"

"I will be glad to." She answered, walking in a quick step to catch up to Neville without even glancing back to look at everyone's reaction. When she reached the boy she smiled

"So what are doing?" She asked him in the most upbeat voice she could possibly muster.

"I'm brining my Mimbulus Mimbletonia to Professor Sprout. She wanted to see it as it grows." He answered a little ashamed that Malfoy was right. Besides Herbology, he wasn't sure if he could get an OWL in anything.

"I'm not that surprised it's a pretty rare plant." Neville smiled, happy that she wasn't rolling her eyes
"Are you going to try to breed it?"

"Yeah I was thinking about it!" Neville said with a little more confidence then before and started to explain its numerous qualities.

When they arrived at the Greenhouse where Professor Sprout was tending to whole different species of plant, Alice hung in the back as Neville went and talked to his favorite teacher. She observed a plant that she had studied in her second year. She tried to keep her mind focused on something else but all of her thoughts kept going back to Draco. They seemed so perfect for each other last year. Happy to be reunited, they were a couple in less than three months. But sadly last year she rarely saw her boyfriend interact with other people. And even if she was able to turn away when he talked down to others, how could she do it anymore when he was hurting her friends. Was she picking them over him even thought she promised that he would always come first? Did she still have a relationship anymore or what she did was enough for Draco to throw away everything they worked so hard to preserve. Neville was done with Professor Sprout sooner than she expected, and she hoped that the boy didn't cut his trip short on her account. On their way back to the common room they spoke about the DA, quietly of course, their favorite subject.

"You mastered that Shield spell so fast!" Alice complimented him from his yesterdays exploit. Neville has been getting better every single meeting, it was almost incredible. "I still can't believe I wasn't able to hex you even once."

"You learn quickly when you're always against the best." Neville answered, trying to dismiss the compliment. "Thanks for what you did back there."

Addie's smile disappeared. She would have been happy continuing talking about the DA, the only part of her life that Draco wasn't in, one where she could completely forget him and leave him behind.

"I owed you." It was her turn to dismiss the comment.

"Yeah but all I did was defend you. I'm pretty sure he took it as a great personal attack for coming with me instead staying with him."

"Good. He should know that he's not the center of my world and that he can't get away with anything." But Alice wasn't sure how much she meant it. Sure she couldn't stand it when he insulted her friends but he was still the most important person in her life. Was she really going have to cut one? Her housemates or her boyfriend?

Neither Draco nor Alice spoke to each other the following week. Every say that past, Addie kept getting sadder and sadder and it was becoming harder for her friends to cheer her up. She avoided Rachelle the best she could, the girl would probably try to mettle and fix this. Luckily for Alice, it wasn't difficult as she hid in her common room or dorm as much as she could. In fact she spend her evenings doing her homework as her little heart sat on the pile of books besides her. She kept waiting for it to glow, for a message to appear. She wasn't angry at him anymore but was too stubborn to make the first move. She missed him more than anything. Their second outing to Hogsmead approached and she wondered if they would make up by that time. Of course they would, she figured. They swore they would spend those trips together... and it was Valentine's Day. Addie was brought to reality when her house mate sat beside her.

"Quidditch practice on the fourteenth." Angelina Johnson announced. "I've booked the pitch for the whole day and we'll-"

"But it's Valentine's Day."

"I know. That's why it was easy to get it for the whole day."

"Look I may be-"

"It's no secret from anybody that you're barely dating anymore. Here's my advice: you seem miserable and he's an ass. Move on, you're doing yourself a huge favor by not talking to him. Well that's that and remember, I'm kicking you off the team if you don't show up on Saturday.

There were only two days before Valentine's Day and there was still no progress towards fixing their problem. At this point Addie was ready to talk to him the moment they made eye contact but every time Alice walked into class, she'd find one of her friends sitting where she used to. She didn't want to go up to him and start a conversation since she didn't put it past him to completely ignore her and then she'd be completely humiliated. The whispers about her changed. No one was talking about her father anymore; they were all exchanging gossip about her and Draco. Some of it hurt the brunette a lot, especially hearing the names that Draco was calling her behind her back. The girl convinced herself that those were vicious lies spread by people who hated her and her main suspect was Pansy. After all, people said that during the fight she had slapped him while he had apparently accused her of shagging with her Gryffindor housemates, namely Neville and Harry.

"You'd think these people had better things to do and more to worry about." Alice angrily murmured to Harry in DADA, finishing telling him the latest lie she heard. Apparently Draco had caught Addie making out with a third year student.

"You would think so" Harry agreed "Don't worry this will blow over soon enough" He tried to encourage her but he knew from personal experience that when one was in the eye of a storm, things seemed like they would never get better. "I mean no one has commented about your father for over a week now."

When class was over, the trio and Addie didn't linger, they hated being in Umbridge's presence longer than necessary and left for dinner. In the rush of getting out of there as quickly as possible, Alice forgot the scroll with her notes on it. Copying that stupid book that the toad was making them read was not on Addie's to redo list so she announced that she would catch up to them as soon as possible. Entering the class she almost bumped into Draco and for the first time in almost two weeks, their eyes met. Addie's heart started to beat incredibly fast as she held her breath. She wanted to look away but something in her kept her eyes fixated on his. They didn't know how long it had been but none of them moved, none of them said a word. Addie noted that the boy looked shocked, an expression that probably mirrored her. Silence weighted in the air until, out of nowhere, words escaped the witch.

"Hi."

"Hi" He answered, sounding as breathless as she did. "We... we should talk."

"Yeah" There was another moment of silence as neither of them moved. "Just let me get my, I forgot the you know..."

Alice didn't complete the sentence. She walked in and found her scroll but wasn't even relieved by that. Her heart wouldn't stop racing and she felt a little dizzy. In a few short moments her relationship with Draco might be done. He tried to chase that thought away. She still loved him. Seeing him just now confirmed it. She missed him. She didn't want to fight anymore. She didn't leave the class in a hurry and took her time, just as Draco took his time when he lead her to a more deserted part of the castle, where they once used to sneak away to make out when they had still been hiding their relationship. The thought made Alice nostalgic and she wondered if they would ever be as happy as they used to be. Draco stopped, finding the part was secluded enough and turned to face the brunette. He didn't say anything though, just studied her face, wondering if this was the last time he could be able to do that.

"Do you still want this?" He finally asked. Draco had thought for a long time what he would say to her when they would finally talk but finally it was only now he decided he didn't want a conversation. He just wanted to know if this was still worth saving. A minute ago Alice didn't think her heart could beat any faster. A huge knot in her stomach appeared, she felt like she was going to be sick. The best thing in her life could get shattered at any moment.

"I won't want this . I want you. I don't want what's been going on for the last few days. Look Draco..." She tried blinking the tears back but they somehow still found themselves on her cheek. "I've been in hell. I heard so many things, things I couldn't know for sure if they were true or false-"

"I wouldn't disrespect you."

"No I can't know that! All year long I've heard you insulting, bullying people who you didn't agree with or really for no other reason than them being in a certain house."

"I wanted to. I thought about what I could say to get back at you for humiliating me in front of my friends."

"Why didn't you?"

"I couldn't get the words out of my mouth. You'd never forgive me and I'd lose you forever. And once the anger passed and I thought clearly I was so ashamed of what I had wanted to say. I felt terrible that I wanted to hurt you. Alice..." The girl never heard his voice so weak, so fragile. "The thought of me hurting you, it was hard facing you."

"Did you miss me?"

"You have no idea."

"I think I might have." She answered and a shadow of a smile appeared on both their lips

"I want things to go back how they were. I want to forget this whole thing ever happened."

"So do I" Alice responded and felt a weight lift from her shoulders, a weight she hadn't realized she'd been carrying for days now

"We'll go to that tea place you loved so much Saturday. We'll make it work from there, and everything else will be okay."

"I actually have practice that day Draco, I can't-"

"Please Alice. Remember what we agreed at the beginning of the year. Hogsmeat is ours. I know we have to change to make it work again, but there's no point in changing the things that used to work. It's Valentine's Day..." He pleaded and the Lestrange heiress couldn't take it

"It's a date then." She said, smiling for the first time in over a week

The boy responded with his own smile and kissed his girlfriend but ever so gently. The peck lasted for only a few seconds but it was all what Alice needed. They walked back to the great hall, this time in a comfortable silence and when they arrived they shot each a smile before splitting up to their respected tables. Alice tuned out the whisperings and walked to Angelina. Normally she would be dreading to have this conversation, she hated letting people down but after her exchange with Malfoy this talk was a breeze.

"I'm so sorry Angelina." She said sitting down besides her soon to be former captain. "But I won't be able to make it to practice. Thanks for giving me a chance though."

Alice was getting up when Angelina grabbed her arm and forced her to sit down.

"Look I'm really not happy about this but I'm desperate. The other beater doesn't know what the hell he's doing and you're actually decent. Well you're more than decent you're good. So I'm going to let this one slide. But you need to be more involved with the team. Before the game, I want you to take Kirke and practice with him just the two alone. Discuss strategy or whatever. But this is the last time I allow you to ditch practice. Especially since your reason is actual- you know what never mind. We have a practice in a couple of days. Be there "

Alice was so ecstatic; she almost let out a squeak and hugged her. To think she had been so depressed when she woke up today, now she felt that everything was slowly falling back to place.