Love Made Us Blind

Marie-Adelaide and Draco had been broken up for three days before Rachelle finally cornered Alice. She was walking from Charm class with her new full-time clique when she heard her longest friend's voice behind her.

"Marie-Adelaide!"

"Go on ahead. This might take a while."

She turned and saw her blond friend walking towards her. She looked mad and tired, a rare sight for the normally immaculate witch. OWLs were clearly getting the better of her, as they did with everyone else in their year.

"Is it true?" Alice immediately knew the girl was frazzled as her French accent appeared when she lost composure. Normally Rachelle paid attention to how she enunciated words, making sure her diction sounded the same as everyone else around her.

"That Draco and I broke up?" Alice smiled weakly, trying to showcase strength where there barely was any.

"That you betrayed Draco?"

"That I-" This caught Alice by surprise. She wanted to defend herself but no matter how she looked at it, she did go behind his back. "I did."

"Alice... why?"

Marie-Adelaide bit her lips. Why did she do it? Knowing that whatever she said might get back to Draco via Blaise, she chose her words carefully.

"Because what I did, what I was doing with the DA in no way should have been considered a betrayal. We were just practicing some spells, learning to defend ourselves."

"You think that's the worst of it? That you were a part of some illegal merry band? Alice that was Potter's group!"

"I know that Rach, I-"

"I can't believe he was right, Alice..."

"Wait, you think Draco's right?"

"You don't know what it takes to be in a relationship! All you do is take and take, never expecting to sacrifice anything in return."

"He was trying to isolate me from my friends!"

"I'm your friend Alice! I've been your friend for years! And after he asked you to spend one evening with me you took the opportunity to bail!"

Alice remained silent. She never meant to hurt Rachelle with her lie. In truth, she never meant to hurt Draco but here she was.

"I'm sorry I lied to you. I'm not sorry I was there."

Rachelle let out a scream of frustration.

"You're not even sorry you lost your boyfriend over this?

"Maybe you're right, Rachelle, and in the end I was a terrible girlfriend. But I am done being a terrible person. I am not a child anymore that can be indoctrinated with hate against people with a different heritage. Maybe I should have broken up with Draco a long time ago. But I loved him and I was selfish. So sure he had every right to break up with me. Are you happy now Rachelle?"

"What happens now, Alice? What happens to us?"

"I think just the fact that you need to ask this question means that you know the answer. I'll tell you what I told Hayley. I mean you no ill will. But I won't make you chose Rachelle, between them and me. I hope that things won't be this tense and ugly forever and that years from now the situation will be different. But until then it's goodbye Rachelle."

"So you've made your choice. You're turning back on your family."

"I guess I am."

"You'll be disinherited for this you know."

"My fugitive father and uncle aren't in a position to legally take anything away from me."

Rachelle let out an ugly laugh.

"You really think it's just about the money? My family turned their back on me. It's a hurtful process but I was lucky enough to have Blaise to get me through it. And I had you. Sure you can make fun of it now but when you're ostracized from your family, even if you hadn't had too many pleasant memories it still stings. Good luck getting through that alone."

Alice thought Rachelle's last words over and over again. The Voltaires might quietly welcome her back as long as she didn't make too much noise and stayed out of the public eye. Maybe match her to a wealthy husband overseas and in exile. The Lestranges were a different story. There used to be more branches but it was down to the four of them. Her uncle and his wife, her father and herself. She was the only living Lestrange who wasn't a convicted Azakan prisoner. Alice tried hard not to think about who she considered, or used to consider, her real family. But Draco had already cut her out and she was slowly getting used to the sting. She walked to the nearby bathroom, grateful Rachelle took her to a more isolated place in the castle. She was alone there and she decided she would stay here until she gathered her thoughts. Knowing she did the right thing, siding with those that didn't advocate for the expulsion of Muggle blooded wizard from the community was helping her deal with the predicament. But thinking that she lost Draco, whom she had loved nonetheless, was still very much on her mind. She was about to leave when she heard loud voices. She hid in one of the stalls, waiting for whoever it was to leave. To her annoyance, she recognized a voice quickly enough.

"I told you, you'll see later it tonight" Pansy sounded smug and happy, Alice felt her satisfaction radiate.

"Come on Pansy, you've been looking at it every two minutes."

"Do you expect it will just disappear or something?"

Those were the voices of two Slytherins in her year; Daphne Greengrass and Millicent Bulstrode.

"Okay first, Milli make sure no one's here."

Alice sat down and brought her feet in the air. As the girl was in a hurry she passed by Alice's stall quickly, not bothering to check whenever the door was open or not. When Millicent gave her okay, everyone got quiet as Pansy reached for something in her bag.

"So you know it was my turn to read through and inspect the mail today. New duties by the Headmistress to the Inquisitional squad. Sure it's a lot of work but I'm sure I'll get a splendid recommendation from her when the time is right. So anyway, we have to read through every letter and look through every package. And look what I found addressed to Draco's mother.

There was a silence as Alice felt her heart about to explode. It couldn't it be the necklace right? What right would Pansy have to intercept that package? She must have simply found Draco's letter to his mother explaining the breakup and Pansy had copied it to gloat in it with her friends. That must be it.

"Merlin's beard is that?"

"It's gorgeous! Wait, wasn't Lestrange wearing that until recently?" Daphne asked

"His mother must have lent it to her. Green and black, those are the Malfoy colours. At least Lestrange was smart enough to know her blood traitor's skin isn't worthy enough to wear such a splendid."

"You're not going to steal are you Pansy?" Daphne asked, worried. "Cause that would be a little..."

"Desperate." Millicent finished

"No, I'm not going to steal" Pansy responded, anger in her voice. "Despite the show Draco is putting on, I know he still cares for the spiteful creature. What he doesn't need is to go back home and listen for the entire Easter break his mom's plea to get back with her. For all I know she'll shove the necklace into his hands and tell her to pin it on Lestrange's neck. So I'm going to bring this to Draco tonight and tell him I found it discarded in the bathroom. It was in a stall Draco! I think she tried to flush it. Your mother's beautiful necklace ."

The girls laughed as Alice felt her blood boil. If given the time to think about it, she would have gone to Draco immediately and explained the situation to him. Of course, he might not have believed her but she would have regained control over the situation. Instead, Alice emerged from her stall her wand pointing at Pansy.

"Give me my necklace back."

Pansy, who was definitely taken aback by the ambush tried to remain as nonchalant as she could.

"It's not your necklace if you're sending it back to Draco's mother days after being dumped."

"You're right it's not mine, it never really was. But Narcissa doesn't deserve this."

"She didn't deserve you."

"I did my best to be a good daughter to her. Pansy we both hate each other but I'm not the one who's going to be hurt. If she thinks I would do such a thing to a gift-"

"She'll hate you."

"She'll be heartbroken."

"I think you think too highly of yourself. She'll despise you as soon as she hears you've betrayed her son."

"I heard you before. You know that's not true."

Alice saw the conversation was lost. She sent out a jinx, knocking Pansy out, making her drop the package. Daphne and Millicent had their wands out but as they both spend their year without any sort of practice in dueling while Addie had once a week, she quickly took care of them. Calling the package to her, Alice ran for it.

She realized she was in so much trouble. Pansy and the girls would head straight for the new Headmistress and twist the story. As far as Addie knew her expulsion was already pending. As she had nothing to lose anymore, she did what she had tried to avoid these last few days. She made her way to a familiar passage down in the dungeons, heartbreaking thinking it was the last time she was going to go this way. As she arrived at a familiar wall of stone she whispered the Slytherin password one last time knowing it hadn't been changed just because Draco Malfoy broke up with his non-Slytherin girlfriend. At least that's what she hoped or else this trip would be futile and potentially dangerous and humiliating. As the wall opened up she realized her delicate position. She was about to walk into a pit full of unfriendly snakes. Summoning all of her courage she walked in. All chatting ceased when the students spotted her. She made a few steps forward, walking down the stone stairs, not daring to go too deep. She didn't need to enter just to make her presence known. She looked around hoping to quickly make eye contact with Draco and get out of there but he seemed to be absent. Theo walked toward her.

"Alice it's not a good idea for you to be here." There wasn't any warmth in Theo's voice, not that she could blame him. He was Draco's friend first and demanding loyalty would be ridiculous. She was thankful he didn't call her Blood Traitor and that was affection enough.

"I need to speak to Draco"

"Now is not a good-"

"Theo," she said gently. "I wouldn't be here if there was any other way."

In that moment Draco came from the dormitory. He stood grounded near the back, a hard and cold expression on his face, as he stared at her, not moving. Alice simply lifted the velvet box, refusing to beg him to talk with her. If he wasn't going to move she would just leave the box on the ground or with Theo and leave. But Draco started moving towards her, so she left the common room, confident he would follow. The wall closed in after Draco left. Without so looking at her, he started walking down the hall. They made their way to an abandoned classroom before either said anything.

"Talk."

"I'm giving you back your mother's necklace." The one that was supposed to remind me how much you allegedly loved me. She extended her arm, but Draco didn't move to grab it.

"You could have just sent it to her."

"I did but it got intercepted by the Inquisitional Squad."

"Why would they bother with a necklace?"

"You tell me Draco. I send it out yesterday morning and by this evening it found its way into my possession again via an Inquisitional Squad member."

Alice didn't want to drag Pansy into this because she knew she would deny the whole thing and it would just make her seem like she was trying to through a wedge between her ex-boyfriend and a potential new girlfriend.

"Why did you do it?" Draco asked, catching Alice off guard and confusing her. "Why'd you join Potter's group or Dumbledore thing or whatever it was called?"

"The idea at first was to find a way to practice Defence Against the Dark Arts to prepare for our OWLs. But the idea evolved. It soon became about defying Umbridge and preparing ourselves for what was out there, away from Hogwarts."

"What is there out there that has you so scared? The Dark Lord?"

"Doesn't he scare you?"

"Of course not, my father is his loyal subject as is yours!"

"And so what, I'm supposed to bet my safety on whenever my father stays in his good graces or not?"

"I would have protected you!" The declaration took her by surprise. "We were supposed to protect each other..."

"Maybe we wouldn't have to protect anyone if there was no threat in the first place."

Draco snorted.

"You're truly gone to their side. My father warned me that you might have a foot in ours a foot in theirs but this... What's next Alice? Are you going to testify against my father in the Quibbler as well?"

"You know I would never do that to Narcissa, I would never do that to-"

"To me? You've already betrayed me, Alice. I begged you to stay by my side-"

"I was wrong to do that Draco. The truth is I should have broken up with you that night on the Astronomy tower."

The confession took him by surprised as he felt another knife pierce is wounded heart.

"Why didn't you?"

"Because I love you, I-" Alice stopped in her sentence and closed her eyes. "I loved you. It's what I meant to say. On the Astronomy Tower."

She lied, but it was a lie she had to voice. The truth was that her feelings didn't vanish overnight and probably wouldn't anytime soon but he had to be made aware that she was trying to put those feelings behind. Draco nodded, seemingly unhurt by those words.

"So... this is it."

Alice took a few steps forward, handing over the velvet box.

"Thank you for giving this back. You could have kept it, it was a gift after all."

"It was a gift for a future spent with you. Without a doubt given out by you and your mother sincerely and a calculated move by your father."

What Draco said about his father believing she was one foot with the enemy was revealing. She had long wondered why Lucius Malfoy who had for many years cultivated a reputation away from Voldemort and his followers risk it by embracing a convicted Death Eater's daughter for the sake of his son. She believed Draco gave her a clue but she would have to think it over.

"You were a part of the family."

"Here's the thing about families Draco. They're not supposed to leave you when you do or think something they disagree with."

"You're even speaking like a Blood Traitor now."

"Thank you, Draco for making this easier."

Alice turned her back on him. Without another word she left the dungeons and walked straight towards the Gryffindor common room. She avoided all eye contact with anyone and made her way to her dormitory. Upon arriving she jumped on her bed, drew the curtains, cast a silencing spell so her dormmates wouldn't hear her and for the first time since Draco told her they were done, cried herself to sleep.