Love Made Us Blind

Marie Adelaide was feeling rather anxious and anti-social the evening she was supposed to hang out with Rachelle and her friends. She didn't want to admit to herself but Rachelle and the prospect of better study notes were the only thing that were pushing her to even join the group of girls in the study hall. In the end she realized that the notes these girls took had nothing on Hermione's. At least she was seated between Hayley and Rachelle and kept to mostly to herself.

"Nervous for your game Saturday?" Hayley asked, waking Alice from her day dream.

"Incredibly so. And when I think of Gryffindor's lousy prospects of winning even more so." Alice didn't feel as bad admitting this to her housemate as she did to Draco and Rachelle. She wanted to maintain Gryffindor's illusion of greatness, after all they were the defending champions even though most of the team members have changed. There was no use in deceiving Hayley, she first handily saw Angelina's foul mood in the common room.

"If you lose it's not the end of the world."

"I know that but..."

Alice knew that her team had no chances of winning unless Ginny caught the snitch before the other team had time to bombard Ron with the Quaffle. If only he stopped being so afraid of screwing up, he would screw up a lot less. Unless a miracle would hit their team tomorrow the team was doomed. Alice wanted her team to win tomorrow because she was terrified what would Draco say if they didn't. Of course he would mock them, she had no doubt about that. And unless she was ready to put their relationship on shaky grounds yet again she would have to endure it. She spend the rest of the evening chatting away with Hayley, ignoring the icy attitude from everyone else. She had always found that you could easily divide Ravenclaws into two categories: those closer with Slytherins and those who stayed with the rest of the school, a lot like Luna, Cho and other DA Ravenclaw members. Rachelle and her friends belonged to the first part, the group that Alice would have belonged to had she been sorted with her best friend. These girls would have been my friends Alice realized giving the table a short glance. She felt mostly relieved, she never quite bonded with Rachelle's new group and would pick Hayley any day. She returned all her attention to her red haired friend who was talking about the mysterious disappearance that happened near her parent's town.

"I'm just a bit worried."

"Don't be, I'm sure it's nothing. You shouldn't have to have anything to worry about, no?"

"That's the thing I don't know." Hayley lowered her voice and looked around to see what the other girls were talking about. All of them seemed to be well occupied so she looked back at Alice but kept her voice down "They've never been followers just, well never opposed. What if these escaped prisoners take it as a sign of cowardice or what if... Alice... do you think he is back?" She whispered terrified

"I... I don't know, I really, I don't..."

"I've been thinking about it, what the Prophet writes, what people whispers, what Potter says happened... why did Diggory die?"

"Hayley I don't know-" Alice mumbled, terrified. She couldn't have this conversation, she didn't want to, she was scared

"You're close to Potter has he said anything, given you any proof, explained everything?"

"Harry and I don't really talk about it, you know me being a Death Eater's daughter and all."

"Well what do you think, who's telling the truth."

"Hayley, I don't know."

"Then guess, just tell me which side you think is more plausible." Hayley responded, a bit louder and luckily no one was paying attention to the Gryffindors' conversation. Yet Alice didn't want to take any risks. She nodded to her housemate and turned to Rachelle.

"Hey, Hayley and I are going to head back."

"What, so soon?" Rachelle asked, a bit distraught

"It's curfew soon." Alice explained, which was true. They didn't have that much time.

She said her goodbye to Rachelle as Hayley saluted her friends. Everyone else ignored Alice. Going back to the tower the pair took a small detour and stopped in an abandoned hallway.

"About the Dark Lord..." Alice started, wasting no time when she decided no one could eavesdrop on them "Harry tells me one thing, the Malfoys tell me one thing, the Prophet says another and my father... Well my father didn't tell me anything..." She quickly realized that she probably had no idea what that meant but continued on. "Each side gives good arguments but also have flawed logic... I mean if he was back, wouldn't there be a war? What's the point of coming back unless he makes an attack. I doubt he revived himself to enjoy life all of a sudden. And exactly how does a dead person come back to life, everyone knows magic can't bring back the dead but at the same time what would Harry have to gain with lying unless the maze left him scarred or completely messed up his head but he seems so normal when not talking about this-"

"I think he's back." Hayley interrupted Alice's endless mumbling. The statement stunned Alice so the girls stayed in silence for a couple of seconds "I know it makes no sense but it makes less sense that he's not."

"It's a brave thing to believe in"

"I'm going to ask you this once Alice. I'll believing anything you respond because I trust you." Alice was trying to hard not to shake and keep the most neutral face possible. "Are the Malfoys Death Eaters?"

Million things ran through Alice's head, millions of responses. She wanted to automatically respond no but the word got caught in her mouth. Her heart was pounding and she was scared her voice would betray her.

"Draco and Narcissa don't have the mark. If Draco's father is still an active Death Eater, they haven't told me." She felt terrible of lying. Well not completely. Narcissa and Draco weren't Death Eaters. But she knew Lucius was. She knew who they were, she had seen them all during the summer.
The response satisfied the red head. She nodded and mumbled something about heading to the common room.

"I'm sorry I had to know." Hayley broke the silence as they neared the tower.

"It's okay, you have a right to ask." Alice responded neutrally

"You chose a rotten time to come to England. Wouldn't you be safer in France?"

"Probably. But Draco wouldn't have been. I need to keep an eye on him. If he starts to get interested in the dark arts I'll be able to stop him. Hopefully... hopefully he doesn't get any stupid ideas."

"You'll keep it between us, right?" Hayley stopped dead in her tracks as she asked the question. Alice knew what she meant. Believing in Harry was dangerous. Hayley ran closely with a group that believed that Potter belonged in St Mugos'. It was a very unpopular thing to support Harry and even most of the DA did it in secret. Last thing anyone wanted was to be an outcast.

"Of course Hayley. Look I wasn't even going to tell Harry."

"Thank you Addie."

Alice's housemate smiled, relieved. Clearly she had wanted this off her chest for some time. Alice hugged her friend for a few seconds, trying to reassure her the best she could. She wondered what will happen once the Dark Lord would eventually reveal himself. If he wants to take over, he would have to come out of the shadows. What would happen to the school she wondered trying to ignore a more pressing question: what would happen to her. Unlike Draco, who's father wasn't a public Death Eater, hers was. She was a Lestrange now, daughter and niece to dangerous wizards. Once in the common room, the girl went straight to her dormitory and went to bed.
"Why did I change my name?" She asked herself as she was falling asleep "Why was I stupid?"
That night, Alice had nightmares of Azkaban prison.