Love Made Us Blind

Tonight was supposed to be a great night. He had caught Potter. Tonight Potter should have been expelled. And then he was supposed to celebrate his triumph with his girlfriend, his beautiful girlfriend, who was so perfect, who was exactly everything that a Malfoy needed in his significant other. His glory lasted for exactly half a second. He had been the one to catch Potter after all, he had been the one to corner him. Along with his perfect girlfriend.

When he had heard from Umbridge about the illegal group that Potter had formed it didn't even occur to him that Alice could be a part of it. Of course not, she knew better. And even if she once was part of the group, she wouldn't still be, not after Potter gave 'that' interview, exposing his own father as Death Eater. And since she didn't come clean in the last few weeks she must have been ignorant about the whole thing from the start. It was Pansy who suggested it that she might not be as innocent as he hoped. And the seed of doubt flowered in him, enough to come and see her at breakfast and beg her to spend the night with Rachelle. He didn't know if he could take it if she was part of this mess. But he wasn't stressed, he knew she was smart and he had repeatedly told her not to go against Umbridge. Surely his Alice wasn't so stupid.

He couldn't fully enjoy any of it. He couldn't enjoy handing Potter to Umbridge, getting personally congratulated by the Minister, getting named to the Inquisitorial Squad. He was feeling sick, dizzy and everything around him was passing as blur. How could he have gotten everything he wanted but lost it at the same time. He had a hole where his heart had once beaten and a knot in his stomach.

The common room was almost deserted. He couldn't go to bed, he didn't want the night's events to replay in his mind over and over. Maybe he made the whole thing up. Alice couldn't have possibly have been there with Potter. She had promised to stay with Rachelle this evening, promised to take his side, to always stay by him. Then why wasn't he heading to the Astronomy Tower like they had agreed to. He kept staring at the entrance to the common room. Alice knew the password. Draco was certain if she showed up now in tears and apologized, he would accept any excuse she would offer. 'Just come to me, Alice. Please come.'

"Draco are you alright?" He heard Pansy's voice. She sat down beside him, looking at him concerned.
When he didn't respond she put her hand on his. He appreciated the comforting touch and tried to smile at her.

"Don't let me leave the common room. Make sure I don't leave..."

He was so tempted to see if Alice was there, waiting for him. He wanted to rush to her, to confirm that this was all a mistake.

But it wasn't. She raised her wand ready to defend Potter. No matter how hard he was trying to suppress it, it had happened. She had been saying all this time that she had chosen Draco's side. That had clearly been a lie. She had raised his wand hoping Potter would escape. Pansy sighed.

"I just don't get you. I know it's a bummer that Potter and his friends weren't expelled but we still-"

"You found the list with the members' names didn't you?" Pansy nodded, looking down. "Then you know why I'm not in a better mood."

"Have you seen her?"

"I dumped her." He said dryly, feeling completely empty.

"Draco..." Pansy said, tightening the grip on his hand. "Draco, I'm so sorry."

"And I want her back. Well, not her, not whatever she's become but, Alice, my Alice. Just a couple of months ago, she was so perfect, but she's become a monster. She said she was on my side. But every time she had to prove it... She chose Longbottom over me, she..."

Draco tailed off remembering the humiliating moment she turned her back on him and ran off to join the blubbering idiot with his ugly plant. He should have left her right there like most of his friends suggested. It was only on Theo's advise that he didn't. He told him to cool down before he did anything to hurt Lestrange. And he loved her. He didn't want to leave her over something so trivial, over 'Longbottom' of all people. So he latched onto Theo's advise and didn't follow common sense.

"Draco, I've always been your friend and I wouldn't want to hurt you but I need to be honest with you. You're better off without her." Draco looked up and looked at his friend, debating whenever he wanted to hear what Pansy had to say or not. "I know she's pretty and pure-blood and all of that but you were 'miserable' with her! Your relationship might have been good and nice a long time ago but you just admitted she transformed into a complete monster! When's the last time she showed any interest with hanging out with you and your friends? You had to give her an ultimatum to stop hanging out with Potter after those vile things he said about your father and she still didn't ditch him! She kept turning her back on you, offered you no support against Potter... I know her surname is perfect but look at her, look at who she hangs around with... If she thinks Longbottom is better company than you than she can go-"

Pansy had a lot more to say about Lestrange but was caught completely off guard by Draco hugging her. Draco needed this so much. He had forgotten what it was like for someone to 'agree' with him. Not someone like Crabbe or Goyle, but someone on his level. Theodore should have been a stronger ally against Potter. Instead he shrugged the whole ordeal off after a day, like it didn't matter that Potter announced his father should be in Azkaban. He didn't agree about Alice either, kept taking her side, reminding Draco that he was making life hard for her. And he couldn't talk much to Blaise these days except about school and mundane gossip. While he was completely onboard with Draco's ideals, he was not a Death Eater's child. His family reputation wasn't endangered in the slightest. And he didn't risk talking to him about Alice these days, the risk of it getting back to her was too great. And then there was Alice. Nothing had been easy with her recently. Everything had been a fight, an argument, she never seemed to be on the same page as him, even when she was pretending she was.

But here was Pansy. There wasn't any buts or on the other hands with her. All he wanted was an ally, someone to be by his side when he needed it. And Alice didn't want to be that person, she wanted to stand against him. Pansy wouldn't it.

"Thank you" Draco murmured into her ear, grateful that she embraced him in return. He pulled away after a few seconds and looked at the small smile on Pansy's lips. "You never really liked her did you."
Pansy ran her hand threw her long black hair. Like Alice's hair, Draco thought with a pang of hurt. Why did everything always lead to Alice?

"I never minded her, to be honest. I tried to be nice to her, a long time ago when she first came to this school but she never wanted to my friend. I think she was jealous." Pansy responded, shrugging her shoulders.

Draco nodded absent-mindedly. No, Alice had never seem to keen on befriending Pansy or any of the other Slytherin girls. Not like Rachelle did, Rachelle tried to talk to them and while they weren't best friends Rachelle held conversations with Draco's housemates, exchanged compliments on occasions and greeted them in the halls. Alice never started conversations and couldn't be bothered to ask Draco's friends an 'how are you'. Except for Theo.

"She never had any reason too." Draco responded, wondering why had Alice decided to make everything complicated. If only she had been nicer to Pansy, the Slytherin girl could be now convincing him to make up with her. Despite liking having her on his team he loved Alice more and wanted nothing more for someone to urge him to make peace with her. I'll lose her if I don't go, he thought. But something kept him grounded, a feeling that was growing in him stronger with each passing second. Betrayal.

"Didn't she?"

"What do you mean?" Draco asked, looking a little confused.

"It's just that, I always thought that you and I had something special, something different. In our third year, I thought you liked me a little..."

"Merlin, Pansy, we were only thirteen back then!" Draco did have some feelings back then, he remembered but that was only a boy's crush. Alice had changed all that when she came.

"I know we were! But that's not the point, I just wanted to remind you that there was something and there could be something if you wanted to" Draco was about to say something but Pansy interrupted
"Look, I'm not throwing myself at you or anything right now, you 'just' left Lestrange but I want to remind you that there is a world beyond her. You had a life before her and you can have one after her. I know you love her but maybe you shouldn't. You shouldn't devote yourself to someone who doesn't care, someone who can't meet you halfway. You've always followed her ridiculous demands and wishes. She couldn't respect one of yours."Draco watched her silently as she stood up, still holding his hand. "It's not my place to stop you if you want to go and fix it with her even if I don't approve. I'm going to bed. You should too Draco."

She bent down and kissed him lightly on the cheek. That seemed to wake him up from his daydream. He jumped off the couch, straight into Pansy's arms. He hugged her again, he didn't know why, mostly in gratitude that she found him tonight and reached out to him.

"Thank you." He repeated once again, still holding on to him. "Will you help me destroy them?"

Pansy didn't need to ask who the 'them' was. She nodded vigorously, her hands on Draco's back, squeezing him harder. Alice had betrayed him. He had trusted her with everything and she still chose Potter of her. She hurt him. And he was going to get back at her.