Love Made Us Blind

After a miserable week, Alice had finally something to look forward to. It was easier to ignore her friends knowing she would talk to them in their next meeting. Once she was finished with her talk with Harry she went over to Neville who was overjoyed to see her. They shared a quick hug before he started showing her what they were seeing today. Hayley came over to them soon after, saying that Hermione gave her a list of the spells she missed so far and enlisted Addie's help since it was her fault she wasn't in the group earlier. Neville helped too, saying he could use a revision and wanted to see how far he came along. Alice was so glad that she had Hayley on her side once again. The days and classes were much more enjoyable as they chatted, giggled and joked around.

The morning of their next meeting, Alice was eating breakfast at the Slytherin table listening to Rachelle's plans for Easter break. Alice's birthday was right in the middle of it and Rachelle wanted to see her best friends and spend the day with her.

"We can do something at the manor." Alice suggested "My mother wrote to me saying she will try to see me so I thought that my cousin might want to tag along."

Draco sat down besides her, kissing her on the cheek.

"I have unexpected prefect duty tonight." Alice tried to hide the smile she felt coming .She wouldn't have to come up with an excuse to elude her boyfriend who was desperate to keep her as close to him as possible. "Do you have any plans for tonight?"

"Not really. I'll probably do some revisions and go to bed early."

"Maybe you'd like to revise with Rach" She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She saw what he was doing, making sure Rach supervised her in the library so she wouldn't be hanging out with Harry in the common room.

"Oh yes" Rachelle exclaimed to Alice's dismay. "We can study with my friends and continue your birthday plans."

Alice agreed, planning already on cancelling at the last minute. Rachelle left soon after that, Blaise right behind her so it was just Alice and Draco.

"And how about later when I'm done with whatever I'm supposed to be doing, we meet up at our special place at eleven?" Draco suggested, which earned a genuine smile from Alice this time. "We won't stay long this time if you don't want but just a few moments to ourselves to talk?"

"Yes, yes I would love that!" Alice exclaimed, beaming as she gave a quick peck on her boyfriend's month. "I'm going to go join Hayley before going to class. I'll see you later!"

Alice was about to take off but Draco grabbed her wrist. The girl gave her boyfriend a confused glanced and was about to tell him off that she didn't like to be handled this way when something stopped her. She had rarely seen Draco so insecure, worried almost.

"I beg you Alice. Promise me you'll spend your evening with Rachelle in the library. Please." She couldn't believe it, Draco was actually begging. And over something so banal as this.

"If it means so much to you." She said lightly, trying to figure out what had gotten in him.

"Just promise me you'll be with Rachelle tonight."

"I promise" Alice lied, kissing her boyfriend to comfort him.

She could easily get away with it. He had prefect duties so he wouldn't know that she cancelled on her best friend until later tonight she would tell him that she was too tired to study and socialized and that she stayed in her dormitory. No harm in that, she thought as she went to join Hayley. She would not miss their last DA class before Easter, not one where they finally covered Patronuses for a boring revision session in the library.

"It has to be a very strong feeling. Try to remember a moment when you were not just happy but truly overjoyed. It has to be something that overtook you with emotions," Harry was talking to the group as everyone was trying and failing to produce a patronus. But little by little they seemed to be getting it. Some were producing a sliver glittering shimmer. Hayley let out a scream when a silver vapour was shooting out of her wand. Alice looked around. After over an hour people were starting to produce animal shapes of out their wands. She saw a swan swimming through the air near Cho, a dog running after an otter, a horse galloping. "It's normal if you don't succeed right away. This is very advanced magic... It's also much more difficult to make one in this kind of environment, we'd really need a dementor shaped boggart that's how I learned..."

Alice felt her heart sink. She hadn't been able to make even a small silver puff. She kept thinking about all the moments she had been the happiest.

When she first rode a broom.

Expecto Patronum.

Nothing.

When she learned she would be going to Hogwarts for a year with her closest friends.

Expecto Patronum.

Nothing.

When she first kissed Draco.

Expecto Patronum.

When it first hit her that Rachelle and she would be both transferring to Hogwarts together.

Expecto Patronum.

Nothing.

When she first saw her father.

Expecto Patronum.

Nothing.

When Draco told her she was a part of his family when he gave her the emerald necklace.

Expecto Patronum.

Nothing.

Alice was getting discouraged quickly, which didn't help with conjuring happy thoughts. She closed her eyes. She tried to think about peace and calm and when was the last time she truly felt that nothing in the world was wrong. She thought of Draco and the astronomy tower and then another memory surfaced. It was the last day of winter break. Draco had a habit of sneaking into her room while she was still sleeping and waited, laying next to her, for Alice to wake up. Sometimes he would fall asleep but that morning he was wide awake. It had taken her a few moments to shake off the last remainder of sleep but as soon as she did she smiled. She stared into his beautiful grey eyes but neither of them spoke until Draco broke the silence.

"You're beautiful." he said in a whisper

He had told her she was beautiful a thousand time before but never so genuinely and with so much tenderness. The way he said it filled her heart with so much love and happiness, it felt as if he told her that he loved her for the first time. She felt his love thought the tone and voice. He took her hand in his and brought it to his lips and kissed it so softly. She never wanted to leave her bed, she just wanted to live in that moment forever. Focusing on the memory of those eyes looking at her as if she was a marvel to behold she whispered Expecto Patronum. Her patronus wasn't big but it still took shape, the shape of a dragon. Draco, she grinned as she realized. Of course he was her happiest memory.

"I did it." She whispered to herself as her smile grew bigger.

She searched for Harry to tell him the good news when she noticed Dobby walking across the room to reach the leader of the DA. She ran up to them to see what was going on.

"Harry Potter... Harry Potter must be..." The elf started with difficulty. Dobby seemed terrified, much more than he ever seemed when she knew him at the Malfoy's Manor. "Dobby can't say, the elves were warned not to say... She... She..."

"Dobby who do you mean by 'she'?" Harry asked. Alice was just about to suggest the obvious answer but Harry spoke first. "Umbridge?"

Dobby nodded, struggling to say something else but he couldn't bring himself to.

"Is she coming here, does she know?" Alice asked, terrified.

"Yes, yes, yes!" Dobby yelled.

Everyone was staring at Harry in a stunned silence.

"Well you heard him, get out of here RUN!" Harry screamed in a panic.

Alice who was in the back of the room with Harry stared as everyone ran towards the door, clogging the entry. She stayed petrified next to Harry. There was no point of moving not when everyone was blocking the door.

"They are going to get caught if they all go towards their common rooms." She noticed as the last student left.

"Come on" Harry said, nudging her toward the door.

She was about to suggest to head towards the dungeons and ask whenever he had his cloak when they took a turn and found themselves face to face with no other than Draco Malfoy himself.