Love Made Us Blind

After Monday night's practice, Marie-Adelaide felt absolutely crushed. It had been a disaster. It seemed that half the team couldn't play Quidditch. Worst part of it was that Ron had potential, she could clearly see it, but pressure always got to him and he never pulled through with the save. Kirke, the other beater was absolutely lousy and it seemed that she would have to do all the work herself. Angelina and Alicia were stuck with a Chaser that could barely pass and everyone knew you needed three Chasers to win not two. Basically, Alice noted that it all depended on Ginny to catch the snitch early on and so did Angelina.

"Listen" Angelina was telling Ginny and Alice in private after the practice was over "I realize it is a lot of pressure but we will not win if the game is prolonged unnecessarily. I hate to do this but Ginny, find that snitch fast. Addie," Angelina continued looking at the half-French witch "I don't want you to care about the Chasers. Make sure Ginny is not distracted by any bludgers. Concentrate on her and only on her. I'll tell Kirke to look after Ron. I can take care of myself and so can Alicia. The other Chaser... I can't imagine it will change much whenever he is in the air or on the ground."

Alice walked back to the school with Ginny and Ron in silence. They were all nervous for their game and it didn't seem like they had much chance to win it. When they finally got to the Great Hall, she split away from her teammates and dropped on the bench at the Slytherin table besides Draco.

"You're all dirty and muddy!" Draco exclaimed with amusement in his voice

"And tired and hungry..." She whined as she started filling her plate.

Yesterday morning, which was the day after the most awkward Valentine's day ever, Draco had waited at the door of the Great Hall before breakfast for Addie. When she came up to him, expecting coldness from him, he kissed her and asked whenever she had a good night sleep. They had spend the day doing homework together and he had remained civil and even affectionate towards the end of the day as if he had decided to reset their relationship over night. Nothing could have pleased Alice even more especially when she saw that her little heart glowed that evening, something that it had not done in weeks. They spend a wonderful day in class together and Alice was convinced that the worst was over for their relationship.

"So how was practice?" He asked, trying to keep his enjoyment to the minimum

"I think you have an idea to how was practice..." She responded "It's just so frustrating."

"I take it Weasley is not getting any better?"

"I'm not going to tell you because it's Gryffindor team secrets."

"A secret everyone will know at your next game."

"Just shut up so I can eat" She replied to which Draco chuckled and kissed her on the side of her head

"Well you look horrible!" Alice turned to see Rachelle coming up to her with Blaise "What did you do, roll in the mud all day?"

"You're funny Rach" Alice replied stuffing herself with food

"You need a bath Alice... Come, I'll join you and then we can hang out for a moment."

"Can I join?" Draco asked as both girls gave him a dark glare. "Never mind I didn't say anything."

Alice finished her supper in her own little bubble. She didn't participate in any conversations near her, didn't even listen to them. Sadly enough, she found herself not caring. Yes she still loved Rachelle but at this point she didn't care much for what she had to say to Blaise or what Draco was talking about with his housemates. She quickly glanced at her own table. Harry was talking with Hermione, Dean and Neville. She couldn't see Harry's or Hermione's faces but Neville and Dean both looked excited. She wondered what were they discussing. She decided not to give it much thought, assuming it was about the DA. When she was done eating, she gave her boyfriend a very chaste kiss on the cheek and left with her best friend.

"So I was surprised to hear that you and Draco had problems recently." Rachelle didn't waste any time as she asked what was bothering her all day the moment the girls left the Great Hall.

"We worked it out." Alice responded

"And why did I have to hear it from Blaise? You didn't come to me at all last week. Do you know how bad I felt when Blaise came to me this morning and said "so I guess Draco and Alice are back on?"

"Well technically we never broke up so he wasn't exactly saying the truth."

"I didn't believe it either but Blaise said that Draco wasn't acting like he had a girlfriend anymore."

Alice felt a knot in her stomach and had to calm herself by repeating in her head that the fight was over and it didn't matter. Yet somehow being reminded how easily Draco could move on wasn't a great feeling.

"I didn't come to you because I was afraid that you would try to intervene."

"Well of course I would have intervened!"

"I needed time away from him. I was busy with everything and distancing ourselves from each other was the thing we needed."

"Alice if you need time away from him so badly, maybe you're-"

"No, look Rachelle, we took some time far from each other and in the end we both missed each other. It was a lesson that we both needed to grow from it all. We're good, all is good. We came to a perfect understanding."

"And what was with you running after Potter after his girlfriend ditched him? You abandoned Draco in the middle of your date."

"He's over reacting! First of all Cho is not his girlfriend and I told him I would be back right away I just wanted to see whenever Harry was okay, Cho threw a fit and-"

"Yeah what was that about?" Rachelle asked as both girls entered the bath room. "Apparently he's dating like five other- ouch what was that for?"

Rachelle stopped in the middle of her sentence when Alice elbowed her. Ginny Weasley was looking at both half-French girls, in the middle of her own bath. Rachelle just smiled and shut up. She didn't want the redhead to run to her brother and tell them that she was gossiping about Potter.

"Tired?" Alice greeted her with a smile

"So tired!" Ginny answered "I honestly thought Angelina was going to make us spend the whole night training!"

"Same! Nervous though that it's our last practice before the game."

"What can you do. It's as good as we're going to get and practicing more would only be more frustrating than beneficial."

"I suppose you're right." Alice said "I believe in you. You will catch the snitch."

The support made Ginny smile a little but didn't relief much of her worries.

"Just make sure a bludger doesn't knock me off my broom and I might have a chance."

Ginny left soon after and the bath room was empty except for the two former Beauxbatons students. Once in the water, Alice submerged herself completely in for a few seconds. Once her head out of the water she gave a long sight of relief. She had just needed that.

"As much as its sad for me because I see you less, I'm still glad you are finally getting along with your housemates."

"Took me just half the year." Alice said making the blond laugh

"Better late than never." Rachelle and responded and continued after a few seconds "Would you be free to hang out tomorrow though? A lot of us girls are meeting to study a little, though its mostly to exchange and compare notes and to talk. Hayley is coming."

"Is Pansy coming?"

"No but even if she was, would you really not come if she was? Oh come on Alice!" Rachelle said after her friend remained quiet "Don't be stupid!"

"I prefer to spend a nice evening not in her company if I get the chance."

"You can still spend a nice evening-"

"I forgot your friends with her now." Alice interrupted her bitterly.

"No, I'm not... we have mutual friends and hang out with the same people. And she's nice to me so while I don't have to like her, it doesn't mean I can't be nice to her."

"Well she's a monster to me and will do anything for me to lose it and will go straight to Draco and tell him just how horrible his girlfriend is."

"Anyways, she is on prefect duty tomorrow so will not be joining us. Just some of my Ravenclaw friends, Hayley and her friends."

"Her Slytherin friends."

"Yes exactly!" Rachelle said cheerfully

While not that long ago, hanging out with Slytherins that weren't Pansy was not a problem to Alice, it was slowly becoming one. After that Alice stormed out on Draco in front of his friends, she had became invisible to the ambitious house. Not that she was ever very close to them but Alice felt that they weren't seeing her as Draco's girlfriend but as a Gryffindor. Every once in a while she heard some snickering and whispers when she was around.

"Well I'm not busy" Alice responded, smiling so her friend wouldn't ask her any questions Alice didn't want to respond. The blond clapped her hands before hugging her

"I'm so happy you'll come! We don't spend enough time together these days"

"I know and I'm sorry Rach."

And yet Marie-Adelaide didn't feel as sorry as she should have felt.