Love Made Us Blind

Marie-Adelaide was relieved to wake up from her nightmare. Trembling she told herself over and over again that it wasn't real. These last few nights she had been dreaming of Azkaban and Dementors, of darkness and despair. She looked around her room and saw that her four dorm mates were still sleeping. It was early morning, the sun was barely up, too early to even think of going to get breakfast. She left her dormitory and went to the common room to change her mind from the visions that were still in the back of her head. She took a book that was lying around to keep her occupied but the tired witch eventually dozed off only to be woken up a couple hours later.

"Addie? Addie, what are you doing here?" The girl's eyes opened as she looked around confused. Harry was standing in front of her, his hand on her shoulder. "Did you sleep out here?"

"What, no, it's long... complicated, I uhm..." Alice mumbled as she regained consciousness "Did I miss breakfast?"

"No, you still have some time left."

Alice nodded and mumbled a thanks. She was about to go and change when a solution to her problem hit her.

"Wait Harry, I have a favour to ask." Harry who was about to leave the common room stopped in his tracks and faced his friend "It's about the, uhm, DA" She said the last part quietly as she sat back down on the couch. She waited for Harry to sit beside her in case someone might overhear them even though the Gryffindor Tower was the safest place to talk about it. "We talked about learning to make a Patronus and I know we said it should wait until further in the year I was hoping you could maybe teach it sooner."

"It wouldn't be a problem with me. Everyone seemed to have mastered the latest defensive spell and I feel they could all use a challenge." Alice smiled and sighed out relieved "Is there a specific reason though?" Harry asked with a tone of concern

"It's just that... This will sound so stupid to you because you have actually faced Dementors while I can't even imagine what they look like or worse how they actually make you feel but..." Alice took a few seconds to regroup her thoughts as Harry waited patiently for his friend to continue "I keep having nightmares about them. I feel so hopeless and terrified that... I would just feel better facing these nightmares knowing that if I ever have the horrible misfortune to cross path with one of them, I could actually defend myself."

"It's not stupid. They are the foulest creatures in the world. I can't tell you not to be afraid of them because I still am. I can't imagine anyone being stupid enough not to be scarred of them"

"I can't even imagine what's that like, facing one. I'm so sorry."

"Don't think too much about it." Harry said while putting his hand on Alice's in an attempt to reassure her. "Don't worry I'll teach you how to make a patronus."

"Thank you so much!"

Alice said good-bye and went to change out of her pyjamas before heading toward the Great Hall. To her complete surprise she found her boyfriend standing near the entrance, looking at nothing in particular. The boy seemed lost in thoughts, he didn't notice the witch coming up to him.

"How long have you been standing here?"

Draco jumped up, startled and looked at Alice. He smiled before giving her a chaste kiss on the lips.

"I waited a while until I got really hungry. So I ate while keeping an eye on the door hoping I wouldn't miss you. After I finished you still hadn't shown up so I decided to keep waiting. Trouble waking up?"

"Yeah I had a good dream and I didn't want to wake up." Alice lied, hoping he wouldn't ask for details about the dream

The couple went inside and sat down at Draco's table. The girl filled her plate up as her boyfriend watched her.

"You Gryffindors are brave and bold right?" Alice looked up from her plate and stared at her boyfriend with an anxious stare after he asked the bizarre question. Not only had he never acknowledged her being in her respective house but the question didn't sound like he was trying to compliment her.

"Yes? I guess?" Alice risked even though she felt like it didn't really apply to her, she was neither of those things.

"I have a proposition for you that should interest you. How about we sneak after curfew? The two of us alone until late. I want to show you something."

"You want to show me something?" Alice repeated, not fully understanding what her boyfriend wanted

"It's a surprise, one I'm sure you'll adore." Draco responded with a smile. "I just have two small requests. Bring a robe and the necklace I gave you for Christmas."

The first feeling that filled Alice was suspicion and doubt which she immediately felt ashamed for. This was Draco, he would never do anything purposefully that would hurt her.

"Yes of course." Alice responded with a smile, trying to feel excited. Wasn't this exactly what she wanted? Draco kissed her before getting up

"Meet me at eleven at the Astronomy Tower courtyard. Don't worry, I know who's on prefect duties and I've arranged everything. See you tonight."

Alice left quickly after Draco, not wanting to hang around her boyfriend's house table. She went back to her common room, thinking about how weirdly Draco was behaving. Why did he want her to wear the Malfoy necklace? Was he breaking up and wanted it back? That made no sense what so ever. Alice loved that necklace so much, what it represented but after she started fighting with Draco she stopped wearing it. She tried to concentrate on her homework, anything to keep her mind off what was waiting for her tonight. As planned she met with Rachelle, Hayley and her cousin in the library to do their homework. She tried to get Rachelle to talk about tonight to see if the girl knew anything. But as OWLs were coming quickly it seemed that the blond had no interest in gossip. Rachelle and Helen, Hayley's Slytherin cousin seemed to be completely concentrated on their notes only breaking the silence to compare notes or to ask questions each other. Hayley on the other hand, hid a magazine in her book and seemed to be reading it. Alice glanced sideways times to times to read what her friend was reading which was working well until the two girls in front of them started panicking.

"It's ridiculous how are we excepted to remember all this stuff?" Helen asked, hiding her face in her hands

"Helen, have you ever gotten something lower than an EE in your life?"

"Right now would be a very bad time to start. I can't believe they expect us to know what we want to do for the rest of our lives this year that it all depends on how well we do in these exam."

"But you know what you wanted to do since you were seven!"

"That's not the point, it's that..."

Alice tuned out the cousins for a while thinking about what Helen just stated. She was going to have to make a choice what she wanted to do. When it came to OWLs, you could easily take a handful of classes and still get top grades. But when it came to NEWTs, you had to narrow down to classes that would be necessary in getting the job you wanted. What did Alice want anyways? Did she wanted to follow her mother and Narcissa's path and raise her children. Yes of course eventually but Alice did not want to become a mother in three years. She wouldn't just sit around her house while Draco worked. She could kiss away a job at the Ministry. Marrying out of the Lestrange family wouldn't undo the stain she created. But if the Dark Lord would rise would there even be a Ministry? Alice thought about the Dark Lord and her father, hiding somewhere out there. Since her dream Alice didn't hear from her father. She always wore the bracelet he gave her, always hoping to see him again and talk to him. Was he with his master right now? Was there going to be a war and if there would be, would anyone care how many OWLs she got?

The girls only left the library when it was time for supper. They all ate together at the Gryffindor table. Hayley and Alice tried their hardest to keep the other two from further stressing about their future by keeping the conversation as fun and light as possible. Alice eventually said her goodbyes to prepare herself for her surprise. She changed into a nicer dress and readied her favorite robe. She also put on the necklace right away as to not forget it later. It had been a while since she wore the gorgeous pendant with the emerald surrounded with many black diamond mostly because it had been too painful. When Draco gave it to her he told her to think how much he loved her every time she wore it but with recent fights it was a rather hard thing to do. Alice grabbed her robe and went to the common room. She still had a lot of time before her rendezvous with Draco so she decided to distract herself yet again with a book. This time around the common room was much more crowded and soon enough she found herself in the company of the trio.

"You seem oddly dressed up for bed." Ron commented as Alice put the book aside

"It's a long story..." The girl started

"We have time" The redhead replied, sitting down besides her

"I'm supposed to meet Draco tonight."

"You really don't seem happy about that." Harry stated and Alice could tell he was amused by it

"Well..." The girl took a pause to think before what she was going to say. Last thing she needed was to give them more ammunition against her relationship. "I'm just nervous. I've rarely been outside past curfew hours and he wants to meet in a pretty far place and the last thing I need is to get caught."

"Then don't go Addie." Hermione said "It's against the rules anyways."

Alice laughed.

"After what we've been doing for the last few months, you're going to need a better argument."

"You don't think he's trying to trick you? He has pulled that one on us a few years ago." Ron suggested

"No." Alice responded but she wished she could be more confident about it. "He knows I wouldn't forgive him."

"Maybe that's the point?" Hermione blurred out. Of course Addie never knew but she had stated at the beginning of the year that Draco wouldn't break up with her but would rather drive his girlfriend insane until she did. And in the last few weeks it seemed that Addie was becoming less patient with her relationship. Hermione couldn't tell for sure but from an outsider's view it seemed that their bond had more bad moments and good ones. "What if he plays it off as a joke and makes it look as if it's all your fault?"

"Draco... Draco wouldn't..." Actually she knew that he could but always believed that it would never be against her. He would never hurt her.

"Wait a second." Harry interrupted her as he got up and sprinted towards the boy's dormitory. When he came back he was holding some parchment and an old silvery cloak. "Here, I'm lending you these."

"What are these?" Alice asked confused

"The Maurauder's map and my invisibility cloak."

"You have an invisibility cloak?" Alice asked shocked. They were extremely rare and she was suddenly really curious how one of them got in the hands of a fifteen year old.

"It was my dad's" Harry replied with a hint of sadness in his voice. Alice didn't push it further. She knew the pain of not knowing her father too.

"What about the map?" She asked instead

As a response Harry took out his wand, pointed it at the old parchment and murmured "I solemnly swear I am up to no good." At once, lines and words started to appear and turned into a map.

"It's a map of the school." Harry responded, amused by the look of surprise on his friends face. "It also tells you here everyone is. Like here, you see Dumbledore in his office, looks like he's sitting or reading as he looks pretty still. Filtch is for now in the east part of the castle. You better watch out for him, he knows every single secret passage way and moves unbelievably fast across the school. And here-"

"Harry this is simply amazing!" Alice interrupted him as she couldn't hide her excitement "Wow this is just so clever. Did the three of you make this?"

Harry, Ron and Hermione exchanged amused glances and a smile.

"No. Prongs, Patfoot, Moony and Wormtail did. They graduated many years ago and left this behind. George and Fred found it a couple years ago and when they didn't need it anymore they past it down to us. Make sure you don't lose it. Or show it to Malfoy."

"I'll defend it with my life." Alice smiled to Harry "And it looks like Draco just left his common room. I should get going too."

"Oh wait Addie, very important, when you're done use it, tap your want and say mischief managed. It will close the map so that no one can read it."

"Okay understand! Thank you so much Harry I owe you big time" Addie exclaimed as she hugged her friend and gave him a quick peck on the cheek out of excitement.

She wished her friends a good night and headed out. When the portrait closed Ron and Hermione gave Harry a disapproving look.

"Why did you tell her about the map and the cloak? You realized you made it sneaking around to snog Draco that much easier for her! Are you suddenly for that?"

"No of course not. It doesn't matter whenever she has the map or not, she was still going to go see him. At least she'll be safe this way, she won't get caught and she won't fall into a trap."

"Do you think he set her up?" Hermione asked, looking where their friend disappeared just moments ago.

"I don't know." Harry answered. "What worries me is that Addie didn't know."