Love Made Us Blind

Alice remembered her last walk to Hogsmeade was a lot more cheerful than this one. Both of them stayed silent a good part of the walk, things still shaky after their rocky week. But once they made it to the main street things seemed to have relaxed a bit between them.

"It's so gorgeous in the winter." Addie let out looking around "Reminds me that small little muggle town near your place."

"The one my mother used to sneak us to because my father didn't want us around muggles?" He asked with a smile. As much as he hated muggles, during their trips they kept to themselves he always ended up having fun with Alice

"Yeah. I loved that one inn that made these weird pastries. I can't remember that they are called but I just remember they were amazing and we have nothing a like that."

"We'll go during Easter break if you want to." Draco offered to which Alice jumped up and down in excitement, making him laugh.

Before going to Madam Puddifoots' they walked on the outskirts of town while talking and laughing and appreciating that things were going back to normal. It had been a tough week for both of them. When it started getting cold, and they both agreed that they'd love some hot beverage, they started heading to the tea shop. Passing by Zonko's, something caught the girl's attention. She stopped dead in her tracks and stared at the window. But she wasn't looking at any product so closely. A wanted poster had been stuck up with ten pictures of the wanted Azkaban prisoners that were on the loose. Yet Alice had no idea how nine of them looked like. Every time she came across the poster, her glance would go straight to only one prisoner.

"Come, people are going to stare." Draco gently whispered into her ear. Last thing he wanted was more trouble for her as people would start thinking she was attached to her father. He laced his gloved hand into her gloved hand and even if there was no skin touching, Alice felt like her hand was burning. After all this had been the longest that they've gone without touching since they started dating over a year ago. Even if it was something as innocent as holding hands, Alice suddenly wanted more. She wanted him to hold her, to kiss her, to never let go of her. But before she could voice her desire, they got to their destination and the last thing Addie wanted was to offer a show to what seemed like the million of couples that gathered there. The place was decorated for Valentine's Day with frills and bows everywhere. The couple sat at a small round table near the back. After they both ordered what they wanted, they took a couple of seconds to regroup their thoughts before speaking. The shop was crowded with couples and the tables were close together but everyone minded their own business as everyone was too busy snogging their own date or deep in conversation. Alice had just thought of a conversation topic with Draco when a couple entering the shop caught her attention. Harry Potter, looking around the place with a face that showed pure panic, entered with his lovely date Cho Chang. Harry had confessed to Alice that he had a crush on the Ravenclaw since the first time he played against her in Quidditch. When he had finally gathered up the courage to ask her out to the Yule Ball last winter, she had already been asked by Cedric Driggory with who she had dated afterwards. Cedrick's death made things a little weird between them but not weird enough for them not to give it a try apparently. Alice had tried to coach Harry the best she could how to behave around Cho but the poor boy was terrible when it came to girls he had crushes on. After catching Harry's eyes she gave him a smile and a thumbs up to which he replied with a small smile and a nod. Draco turned to follow her stare and resisted rolling his eyes when he saw Potter with the Chang girl. He would have made a comment but with things so shaky with Alice, who was anything but predictable, he didn't want to risk saying something that would mildly offend her and send her storming out of here, leaving him humiliated like he was a week ago. At first he had been pissed off beyond words, almost cursing at her in front of his friends to leaving him to hang out with Longbottom of all people after screaming at him. So he took a sip of his tea waiting for his date's attention to be on him again.

"Remember when we were little and your mother convinced us that there was mermaid in the bottom of your lake?" Alice asked him, to which he nodded with a small smile as he knew what memory she was talking about. There is a lake on their land a little further back near a big tree that they both used to love to climb. His mother got worried one day that one of them might fall in and drown so to prevent them from going there without supervision she said that a mermaid lived down there that loved to eat small children. "Of course the plan backfired since we both wanted to see the mermaid."

"Don't twist the story" Draco responded with amusement "If I remember correctly you're the one who wanted to swim down there to ask why the mermaid was so mean."

"We are so lucky your mom overheard our plan." They both laughed for a moment until Draco reached out and took Alice's hand in his and whispered in her ear

"I also remember, when you came over once. You were hearing a blue dress and you looked so relieved to be here. You came out of the chimney surrounded by green flames and you smiled when you saw me. It was the first time that I realized you were pretty. And had I not been a little boy back then and knew what love was, I probably would have fallen in love with you at that moment."

Alice leaned in and kissed him gently, feeling as if her heart was going to explode. They continued talking about their childhood as Addie glanced times to times how Harry's date was going. From the quick peeks, it seemed not so well. From her view it didn't seem like they were talking much. She was pretty close to their table and had the place been quieter she could have overheard what they were talking about, well what their small talk was about. Deciding to ignore them for now and drill Harry about it later, she glued herself to Draco as the couple started kissing again. Until a fight broke out that captivated their attention as every other couple's in the tea shop.

"Oh, you'll talk to Hermione Granger!" Cho snapped harshly "But you won't talk to me! Perhaps it would be best if we just paid and you went and met up with Hermione Granger, like you obviously want to!" Cho was now crying now and Alice opened her mouth, shocked. What in Merlin's beard was this about anyways? She glimpsed at Draco for a second and noticed he was focused watching the scene before him, lips bitten as if to repress an inappropriate smirk. "Go on leave! I don't know why you asked me out in the first place if you're going to make arrangements with other girls right after me... How many are you meeting after Hermione?"

At this point Draco had to cover his mouth so he wouldn't start laughing but Alice tuned him right out to try and understand what was going on between Harry, Cho and apparently Hermione

"It's not like that!" Harry replied a bit louder than Alice thought he meant to and to her surprise, as well as the entire tearoom that was now observing them, he laughed. Alice hid her face in her hands knowing just how much he messed up.

Cho was not going to take any of it so she stood up, coldly said her goodbyes and walked out. Harry called after her but the door had already shut. The whole room was silent and everyone was staring at poor Harry. The poor boy paid and ran after Cho.

"Wait a moment" Alice said as she stood up. Draco caught her wrist before she sprinted after Harry

"What?" He asked, completely in disbelief. All amusement from the scene that just happened vanished from his face

"Just for a second, I want to make sure he's fine."

Without giving her boyfriend a chance to reply, she pulled her wrist from Draco's grasp and left the shop. She looked around and noticed Harry's messy hair from the back.

"Harry!" She yelled but the noise around them probably made it hard for Harry to hear her so she ran after him. "Harry!" She yelled again only this time she was close enough and the confused boy looked around

"Addie?"

"I just wanted to ask if you're alright? What was that back there?"

"I don't even know..." He said and Addie heard the irritation in his voice "One moment we were talking about Quidditch than she was telling me that Davis asked her out and then she started asking questions about Cedrick and Hermione and I..." He rambled but then started trailing "And I don't know, it just happened so fast I didn't know what to say or what to..."

"Hey, hey" Alice said, caressing him on the shoulder "You'll tell me about it in details in the common room later, okay? I better go back to Draco before he gets annoyed. I just wanted to make sure you were fine."

They hugged for a moment and after he thanked her, Alice started walking back, in a fast pace to the tearoom. She just realized how much this was going to make Draco angry and was beginning to think he was going try and make her regret it once she sat back down. Looks like he wasn't even that patient. Once she was a few steps away from Puddifoot's she saw her blond boyfriend step outside.

"You were leaving?" Alice asked, feeling frustration rising in her "I said I was going to be back in a moment!"

"I had no idea how long that moment was going to be for you. Last time you ditched me to talk to one of your friend you didn't speak to me for the next week."

"That was a completely different context and you know it!" She replied, louder, getting more riled up

"Listen Alice, I want this last fight to be behind us for good." Draco started "And believe me or not but I thought about it a lot. And as much as I hate your taste in friends, they are who they are and it looks like you are not going to listen to my advice and chose other people. So this is my deal with you. I will not make you chose between your friends and me. I will never put you in a position that you must chose side. But I want your word that if a situation does come you will always chose me over them. Is that okay with you?"

"Yes." Alice responded after a few seconds "Yes. That's seems completely fair. I love you more than anything Draco."

He didn't say it back instead he nodded.

"Can we go back? I'm cold, it's wet and there's not much to do in this stupid ugly town."

Draco started walking back and didn't notice his girlfriend was trailing a bit behind him.

"Happy Valentine's day to you too." The girl said, mostly to herself as she felt her heart sink deeper and deeper.