Love Made Us Blind

As soon as he saw Alice and Harry, Draco pointed his wand and shot a body biding curse. Without even thinking about it, Alice threw herself in front of Harry and got hit. Robes appeared out of thin air and slithered around her, causing her to fall.

"Run!" Alice yelled to her friend. She could deal with Draco, she knew how. But if Harry was caught, he stood no chance of sweet talking Draco. "Harry, run!"

But the boy was too stunned to move in the moment and immediately after was hit by the same curse.

"What are you doing here?" Draco yelled as he violently pulled Alice to her feet. She stared into his eyes, terrified. She had promised him to stay with Rachelle. And now she was caught in her lie, with the very person she swore she wouldn't associate with. She had seen Draco furious many times before but she had never seen him so mad at her.

"Draco, if you just-"

"I don't want to-"

"Draco, please-" Alice pleaded, her voice feeling hoarse.

"I'm going to let you go. Catching you is worthless, all it will do is embarrass me. But after this we are done blood traitor."

His words paralyzed Addie. She wanted to argue with him but this was exactly what she became. She looked at Harry. If he was caught and brought to Umbridge he would be expelled. At least she could still run away to Beauxbatons, she may still have a place there.

"No." Alice responded.

"No?" Draco repeated, furious

"I can't let you have Harry."

She raised her wand at Draco, thinking over which spell she could use that wouldn't hurt him. But to her surprise, it was Harry who objected.

"Addie you have to go."

"I won't leave you."

"Listen to your friend blood traitor. I won't give you a second chance."

"We're caught. It's over. If you can avoid being in trouble the better. Go back to the common room."

Alice looked at Harry and nodded. She forced herself to turn her back and run away from her friend and boyfriend. She was several hallways away when it hit her that Draco wasn't her boyfriend anymore. 'We are done blood traitor.' We are done. No, no they weren't. She realized that she had betrayed him but if he just agreed to let her explain. The tower, she thought. They agreed to meet on the tower at eleven. She turned around and carefully she made her way to the Astrology tower. She'd apologize and they would make up again. As she drew closer to the tower the more panicked she got. Now that she was on the verge of losing Draco, losing her relationship she was realizing how much she needs him. She couldn't imagine waking up and everything being over. And so she stood there for what seemed to be hours. The wait was getting unbearable and Alice felt her heart breaking with every moment that passed. She tried to get that last moment with Draco out of her mind and think about anything else, like the last time she was here with him. But she kept hearing him call her blood traitor and no matter how hard she tried the anger in his eyes wouldn't leave her mind.

It seemed like an eternity had passed when Marie-Adelaide heard someone climbing up the stairs. Her heart leaped in her chest but once the steps silenced there was no one there. She was beginning to think it was just her imagination when Harry appeared in front of her, his invisibility cloak falling to the floor beside him.

"Harry!" Alice said surprised, trying to keep her disappointment at bay. "What are you doing here? What happened, are you going to be expelled, I'm so sorry I left you and-"

"I'm not expelled." Harry interrupted her. "Dumbledore, he coved for me and now he's gone. The minister was going to send him to Azkaban so he escaped."

"So the ministry has full control of the school?" Addie asked, putting her Draco drama at the back of her mind. With all the changes that were going to happen this should be the least of her problems.

"No one has the power to stop them anymore."

A silence crept between them. Alice tried to think of anything to say to him, something that would make the situation better. But she couldn't think of anything, she didn't have anything to offer.

"What happened?" Alice finally spoke. She didn't have any words of comfort but she could at least find out why tonight's events unfolded. "How did they find out about the DA, who talked?"

"It was Marietta." Alice remained unfazed, not knowing who the girl was "Cho's best friend."

"Oh" Alice replied, biting her lip. "That's going to... I can't see how this will help your situation with Cho."

After the article in the Quibbler was released, Cho forgave Harry for his Valentine's Day faux pas and they saw each other a few times but Harry did confide to Alice that it felt awkward being around her. Harry laughed bitterly.

"It probably won't. I just don't want the relationship to get worst. Marietta has now the word 'sneak' written in pimples across her face."

"What?!"

"The parchment we all signed at the beginning was jinxed. It was Hermione's idea so we could know who was responsible if we had a spy in our ranks."

"But-but I told Hayley..."

"It's different, you didn't rat us out, it wasn't to get us into trouble."

Alice nodded, feeling a little relieved. They stayed once again in silence. The witch walked away from her friend and went to the edge. She looked up at the sky and tried to think of a polite way to ask Harry to leave. If Draco was going to come than the last thing he needed to see was Harry alone with his girlfriend in their spot. But before she summoned the courage to speak, Harry beat her to it.

"Let's head back to the common room."

"Not yet. Draco and I agreed to meet here. And I have to mend this I really do."

"You don't Addie. Hermione advised me against having this conversation with you but it's now or never. I know Lucius Malfoy is a Death Eater, I saw him with my own eyes. And I understand that so is your father but you're not like them. If you stay with Malfoy you will eventually get caught in their business. And I know you're better than that, you don't believe in pure-blood-"

"I know I don't!" Alice interrupted him. "And I know he has his flaws and some of his views are wrong but Draco is not a bad person. But if I'm not there for him... If I don't make him keep his promise that we won't get involved, I'm scared... I'm terrified he will and not by his own choice..."

"You don't owe him anything. If he really is, as you say, not a bad person then he will stay out of Death Eater business on his own. You can't save someone that doesn't want to be saved. Now please Addie, let's head back to the tower."

"But-"

"He's not coming."

"He might, there is still some time before eleven."

Harry took out a piece of old parchment from his pocket, confusing Alice for a moment before she remembered what the object was. Harry had in his possession a map of Hogwarts like no other, that showed where everyone is the school presently was. He was offering it to her now. Addie reluctantly took it. She stared at it for a while, grateful that Harry wasn't rushing her, and took out her wand. She murmured the same words last time she used the map and watched as the ink danced on the parchment revealing every secret the school kept. Her eyes wondered a little until it located the dungeons. It wasn't hard to find the Slytherin common room, not with the concentration of dots and names in one part of the basement. The Slytherin common room was pretty empty at this hour so it wasn't hard to find Draco's name and his dot, which was stuck to another dot. Pansy Parkinson. Of course Alice thought to herself as cold rage cursed through her, of course Draco would go straight to her. For a moment Alice was tempted to rip the map apart, tear it to pieces and yell at Harry that the map was lying. But she controlled her impulse and concentrated now on not crying.

"I'm sorry Addie." Harry said but in her anger the girl scoffed.

"No you're not. You've been trying to get me to dump him for months."

"I'm sorry that you're hurt." Harry responded and Alice knew he meant it. She tried to let go of her anger but as soon as she did that, she felt misery creeping up on her. She needed to talk to someone. She needed Rachelle. But her best friend was probably getting ready for bed after studying this whole night. She should have gone with her, Draco had knew about the DA since this morning and had begged her to stay with Rachelle tonight. And Alice realized that was exactly what Rachelle would tell her. That she brought this upon herself. And in her state Alice couldn't deal with that kind of harsh reality. "I know there's not much I can do but-"

That's when it hit Alice what she needed. Not letting him finish his sentence, she hugged her friend, which he immediately reciprocated. She let the map fall to the ground, tightening her grip on Harry.

"Thank you" She whispered after a few minutes. She took a step back, her eyes falling on the map. She saw her own dot, right next to Harry's. They were all alone. No one was coming, especially not Draco Malfoy. "Let's go back to the common room."

Foolishly, Alice expected the common room to be empty. As soon as she crossed the hole behind the portrait, she was assaulted by Hayley, who hugged her for dear life. She enjoyed the comforting presence of her friend before realizing they weren't alone. All of the Gryffindor members of Dumbledore's Army were here, watching them in silence.

"When Harry came back without you I got so scared." The redhead witch admitted. "He used a map or something to locate you, it's pretty awesome! I wanted to join, actually Hermione and I wanted to join but Harry convinced us you might feel overwhelmed... Are you okay, feeling any better?"

"A little." Alice said truthfully with a little smile. But then she would remember that Draco hated her now and she felt her heart crumbling all over again.

"Okay so you brought Lestrange here can you now please tell us what happened in Dumbledore's office?" One of the Weasley twin's spoke up for the rest of the group as a murmur of agreement passed through the group.

So Harry obliged. He told the story from the start. He praised Addie's courage and selflessness as he recounted how she dove in front of the binding curse to spare him. He skipped on the conversation that took place right after and told everyone just who betrayed them and what happened in Dumbledore's office. Everyone stared and listened in disbelief as he told them how the Headmaster disappeared in front of the minister's face, in a burst of fire with the help of his magnificent phoenix.

"So we can assume that Umbridge is going to take after Dumbledore now?" Hermione asked. Harry didn't need to reply because everyone already knew the answer.

"There's no point on dwelling on this tonight." Harry said instead. "I think what we all need is to try and get a good night's sleep. Maybe things won't seems as depressing tomorrow."
Most of the students got up and talking amongst themselves headed to their dormitories. Alice stayed in her spot. She was too tired to move, too sad to do anything. She was afraid she would start crying any moment now and staring into the fire seemed to be her only distraction.

"Addie..." Alice looked up and saw Hayley, Harry, Hermione and Ron gathering around her. "Tell us what happened..."

"Draco caught Harry and I. You can imagine he wasn't really happy. He broke up with me." She couldn't bare to tell them what he had called her. 'Blood traitor.' She knew the moment those words crossed her mouth she wouldn't be able to hold back and would break down. "It's over between us. And he's apparently already moved on to Parkinson."

"We don't know that, they could have been just standing really close." Harry tried to cheer her up a little but it failed.

"I don't believe that. He'll want to hurt me for betraying him. And Draco knows that it will break my heart to hear Parkinson boast around how they got together. And how quickly he just moved on..."

"Oh Addie" Hayley said as she hugged her friend.

"Enough about this though!" She said, desperate to change the subject to anything else. "That's not the worst that happened tonight. Harry I'm sorry about the DA"
Alice immediately regretted saying that after seeing this face fall. The DA had been so precious to him, he had put so much effort into it, took so much pride seeing them all improve under his watch...

"It was stupid really..." He started saying

"No it wasn't." Ron interrupted him. "Look it wasn't your fault we got ratted out. I can't believe it though..."

Ron and Harry left soon after to their dormitory, Hermione leaving soon after. It was late when it was only Hayley and Alice left.

"Are you dreading tomorrow" Hayley asked

"Incredibly." Alice smiled sadly at her friend. "You know how Harry said that Parkinson found the list with all the names. You didn't sign it."

"Yeah Hermione mentioned I should but I never got around to-"

"That means that no one outside us know. Hayley I don't want you to take my side."

"What-"

"I don't want you to go against your cousin and your other friends, not for this. If you take my side, if you're seen with me outside of the common room... You might have problems with them.

"If they have a problem I don't care."

"It's incredibly hard to be in the middle and I don't want you in that position, not for me. Hayley, don't do this to yourself. Stay with your cousin and friends that you've known for years."

Hayley nodded, which earned another sad smile from Alice. The girls hugged although they knew it wasn't the end, nobody was going to keep them from spending time in the library, their sacred refuge.