Morose.

Alicis could fall over from exhaustion- she had found sleep to be a rather shy and distant stranger to her for many months. Instead, while lying in her warm, yet unfamiliar bed, she would close her eyes, picture the two sharp, shimmering pieces of steel, and open them again, staring up at the dorm's floral ceiling as it lightened with the opportunities of the new morning.

Her first day at Hogwarts had been simple- exciting, even more so. Alicis was sent to platform 9-3/4, helping herself find the hollow brick wall and the Hogwarts Express as her parents were burdened with other priorities. Unphased, however, Alicis climbed proudly onto the scarlet steam engine and found a seat in the very last car, filled with only two boys- one with mop-like dark hair and green, eager eyes covered by broken, circular glasses, and the other with flaming red hair and freckles bridging his dirty nose.

"Ron Weasley," the ginger boy introduced proudly.

"Harry Potter," the other stated with a grand smile.

"Alicis Legend," Alicis offered, struggling to raise her solid, oak trunk into the overhead compartment. After hours of endless chattering and even more laughter, the Hogwarts Express stopped just beside a massive, black lake spreading toward a lit castle that invited all in. A shaggy man towered over them kindly.

The ride across the obscure, somber lake was jumpy and cold, causing Alicis to quiver and become queasy, though she laughed along with Ron and Harry as they discussed the wild and surprising events that happened at Ron's home often. Once on land, the first years were led inside and pushed against a stage, sporting an old, wooden stool with a browned, patch-work wizarding hat sitting on top.

"Legend, Alicis," a tall, solemn woman bellowed across the giant room, voice most likely echoing toward and beyond the starry ceiling. Alicis pranced eagerly up to the stool, sitting confidently and awaiting her fate to be screamed across the great hall.

"GRYFFINDOR!" shrieked the Sorting Hat, sending Alicis bounding toward the erupting gold and red table farthest to the left, receiving many hello's and welcomes's from the older years as she sat down between two red haired twins.

That had been simple- exciting. But the days seemed longer and the temperature outside grew colder as the hatred and bitter feelings of Winter clung thoroughly to the frosting trees. A month passed, and then another, and still no letters from her parents came as she sat studying wlidly at the Gryffindor table, skipping lunch for the fourth day in a row. School was supposed to be fun; Hogwarts was supposed to be her escape from the ones who had no trouble showing her that she did not matter, that she was not even slightly loved, just tolerated.

But, Hogwarts seemed, Alicis decided, to be a sort of prison of its own, making Alicis once again a burden to people who didn't want her. She found herself thinking that she would just like to run away to no where and never return to here nor there. And, moreover and much worse, the unrecognizable longing feeling deep in her stomach had gotten even deeper, some moments fluttering like a thousand mocking bird wings, other moments hammering against her ribcage like careless construction work, but, at all moments, making sure Alicis knew it was there, all the same.

I need a break, decided Alicis on a warmer day in late November, shoving her books and parchment into her already packed satchel, grasping a hand full of ripe, green grapes and stepping swiftly over the table's occupied bench. In her rush for fresh air, Alicis ran head first into a short boy, both students falling to the ground with a thud and a groan, school supplies and grapes sprawling across the stones.

"Now look what you've done!" Alicis howled, feeling harassed from the pressure of her classes and the constant, monstrous piles of homework.

"Watch where you're going!" the boy hissed at the same moment, looking just as burdened, but twice as irritated as he brushed dirt from his Slytherin robes. In an instant, their glares pierced each others, both predators ready to strike and fight for their prey. However, just as soon as these sneers appeared, they vanished, both now doe-eyed and looking curiously frightened.

The boy, white hair slicked back, showing off several frustrated lines on his forehead, stared incredulously at Alicis, recognizing her now bug-like green eyes as two shimmering emeralds. And Alicis, gazing deeply at the boy, noticed his two silver spirals almost immediately, both orbs resembling the sharp, glittering pieces of steel she had dreamed of so many nights before. The longing wrapped tightly around Alicis' heart like a snake, constricting any blood flow, though, somehow, her face burned tremendously, turning a color she's never witnessed before. The boy in front of her looked as she felt, the reds and pinks of his face contrasting cruelly with his white hair and pale skin.

"Have we...met before?" inquired the boy hoarsely, light eyebrows furrowing into one straight line.

"We must have," breathed Alicis, head tilted askew into curiosity.

"I remember your eyes," they said together, emeralds and steel expanding impossibly wider.

"Draco?" called a dark boy from behind Alicis, seemingly amazed by the scene in front of him. "What're you doing...?" Draco seemed to snap out of his trance instantaneously, though his sneer did not reach his prodding eyes.

"Watch where you're going!" he hissed harshly, gathering his books and standing abruptly, eyes still much to wide as he followed his sniggering friends from the Great Hall. Alicis wasn't so lucky, however.

She now understood where the tremendous, taunting steel -now revealing themselves as extraordinary eyes- had come from, but still could not figure out how or, much more importantly, why they taunted her in her dreams. Had she seen this excellent boy, Draco, in passing while one of the many prissy, pompous families visited their establishment? But, even so, how could she remember those eyes to vividly and bitterly clear? The rush of swirling silver twirled in her spiraling mind; she felt the terrifying snake cling tighter to her heart, the wings fluttering ferociously in her stomach, and she just sat on the Great Hall floor, blurring faces gathering around her now, concerned expressions growing fuzzy...

Alicis was in a forest, surrounded by dark trunks and blackening leaves falling too slowly from the grey canopy above...

She felt light headed, ready to fall over, but instead kept her feet under her teetering body, eyes sprinting desperately through the disturbing and twisted branches for any sign of life...

An owl shot from the trees, crumbling into a hundred grains of sand that rained down to Alicis' bare feet and vanished...

'Alicis!' she heard a boy's clear cry, but looking out into the devastating and suffocating blackness, one puny shadow with metallic set, frightened eyes was being dragged away by two much taller, broader beings, bright, sinister smiles receding with the boy who, despite the struggles, repeated his cry for Alicis over and over...

A haunting feeling swept over Alicis as she began running for the boy, screaming 'Draco!' through rivers running unruly down her raw cheeks...

'He's no good for you!' echoed with harsh clarity as Alicis was snatched back through the twisting trees...

Alicis sat struggling in a hard, oak chair set up in an overgrown kitchen, her parents, towering over her, screamed incoherently at her...

Her father's wand was in her pained, red face...

'...your own good,' her father's voice echoed through her blood-red ears, shattering her hearing with pain and sorrow...

With one word she couldn't understand, Alicis drew a blank, all but two pieces of cold, sharp steel receding from her memory...

"Alicis?" her name brings her into reality, now staring up at a high, bland ceiling unlike the Great Hall's, though she remembered that's where she had been last.

"Wh-Where-?" was all Alicis could get out through her hoarse throat and dry mouth.

"Hospital wing," Alicis set her eyes upon Harry's narrow, concerned face, looking relieved as Alicis grinned at him.

"Worried about me?" Alicis whispered mockingly. Harry chuckled, sitting down at Alicis' side with a soft grin.

"Madam Pomfrey told me to tell you just to rest," Harry explained as Alicis began to sit up from the blinding, white sheets.

"But..." Alicis started only to be thrown into a fit of mucus-filled coughs.

"Lie down. You'll most likely just fall asleep,"

Then I need to get out of here thought Alicis mildly, leaning back onto her hospital bed with great effort as she wondered where the boy, Draco, was and whether he was thinking of her, too, before drifting into the silver mist of his cool eyes.