Alice was sat in the common room, her legs lazily hung over the side of the armchair she was sitting on as she absentmindedly flicked through the pages of one of the muggle story books that Hermione had left behind. Although she had little to no interest in the book, Alice has found herself so horrifically bored recently that she had started reading the stories anyway. They were stupid, and had entirely inaccurate depictions of werewolves in them. Muggles are silly.
Of course she had Draco to keep her entertained throughout the day, but when it got to the evenings and he couldn't join her in the common room for obvious reasons, she found herself fed up without her friends here. As well as that she found herself wondering why Draco wasn't put in Gryffindor, and then began thinking about how much easier that would make everything, plus she wouldn't be so lonely if he were in the common room with her.
Although, she thought, maybe he should stick to Slytherin, green does look damn good on him.
Alice began kicking her feet out of boredom. Her friends should be here right now, and Alice was beginning to grow concerned. Today was the last day of the holiday break, and everyone had returned to school, the Hogwarts express had dropped of those who had went away for the holidays mid-afternoon. The Great hall was just as full as it usually is at dinner, but it was missing the Golden Trio.
It was nighttime now, and it was late. The windows were shut and bolted and the sky was an inky black, not a single star was visible, it almost looked intimidating. Although she was tired, Alice wanted to stay up for a while to see if her friends eventually made an appearance, but she was beginning to lose hope. Slowly, her eyelids drooped shut, her head lolling back in to the soft cushion of the armchair and the book dropping on to her chest as she began to doze.
This didn't last long, however, as she was woken up by the portrait door swinging open and three familiar voices filling her ears.
"I don't know what we're gonna do, I mean, Mum's saying..." Ron trailed off when Alice sat up abruptly, forcing herself out of soft, comfy sleep to be able to stay awake long enough to talk to her friends without it coming out as sleepy gibberish. "Blimey, you're still awake?" Ron asked, sounding surprised.
Although the room was only lit by the fire and the odd candle dotted around, Alice could see that the three of them looked terrible. Hermione's eyes were red, as if she'd been crying, and her hair was all over the place, Ron had large, dark circles under his eyes but by far the worst was Harry. He seemed more pale than usual, his cheeks and eyes looking sunken and a permanent solemn expression was on his face, taking up the place where he usually smiled. He looked like someone who doesn't even know what a smile is, and it was so unlike him that she almost wondered if he were an impostor.
Alice instantly knew that something was wrong, her mind began racing with the possibilities of what could've caused this. Clearly, it was serious. Internally she was glad that she had stayed awake to greet her friends, maybe she could help them feel better.
"I'm sorry, Alice, I'm shattered. I'll talk to you in the morning," Hermione said softly, tears welling up in her eyes again. As Hermione was climbing the stairs to their room, Alice heard her let out a heartbreaking sob. Something was really, really wrong.
"I think I'm gonna turn in too, you gonna be okay, mate?" Ron asked Harry, placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder, Harry simply nodded. He hadn't spoken yet, Alice wondered if he had forgotten how. "Alright, I'll see you two at breakfast." He then left the room, heading to the boys dorms and leaving Alice and Harry in silence.
Harry was yet to move, standing completely still. When he didn't go to talk, Alice placed her book on the table and shuffled over to one side of the armchair, leaving just enough space for Harry to sit next to her. It was a silent invitation of sorts.
When they were in first year they'd always share the armchair, since it was pretty big anyway, but they were also considerably smaller. Harry moved to the chair, sitting down next to Alice. It was a tighter fit than it was when they were children, they were pushed together now, but they still just about did it.
They sat in silence for a few moments, it wasn't an uncomfortable silence, but since Alice knew something bad had happened she wanted to leave it to Harry as to when he was ready to speak about it.
"I shouldn't have gone." He stated, although it came out as more of a sad whisper, his eyes glazing over in unspoken pain. Alice instinctively wrapped her arms around him, which unintentionally opened the floodgates. Harry started sobbing, leaning in to Alice's shoulder as he cried, she rubbed soothing circles in to his shoulder and let him get it all out. It actually reminded her of what had happened the other week with Draco, she guessed she must be good to cry on. Or maybe she just had emotional men in her life.
Although Alice was desperate to know what happened she kept quiet as Harry cried, knowing better than anyone that he had a nasty habit of bottling his emotions up and that he needed to just let it all out, uninterrupted. She could feel a wet patch at the base of her neck from his tears, after a while he calmed down enough to talk, although he was still trembling.
"The burrow... they attacked the burrow," He finally said, voice sounding hoarse from crying. Alice didn't need to ask to know who 'they' were.
Anger boiled inside of her, and a sense of guilt. Her friends were being attacked and she was here enjoying the perfect Christmas, it didn't seem fair. Although there's no way that she could've known, she wished that she had gone so that she could have helped protect the house, and the people in it.
"Is everyone okay?" She decided to ask the most important, and the scariest, question first. Harry nodded, causing Alice to let out a sigh of relief. "Well, that's good then."
"It's my fault." Harry muttered, "If I wasn't there... The burrow wouldn't have gotten burned, the Weasley's would have a home." His voice was a horrible mix of angry and crushed, making Alice's heart hurt on his behalf.
"Harry, you can't blame yourself for-"
"Then whose fault was it? Mrs Weasley? Fred and George? Ginny? No. It was me. Because of me some of the only family that I have are homeless, and everything they've ever known is gone. It's all my fault." Harry wasn't making any sobbing noises, but tears were streaming down his cheeks rapidly. Alice turned to face him, cupping his face in her hands. Tears were falling freely from his bloodshot eyes, his lip was quivering, and Alice had never seen her best friend look quite so broken.
"Listen to me, Harry. It is not your fault. None of this is your fault, you didn't choose any of this. You can't blame yourself for what these twisted, horrible people do." She said it with such authority that Harry couldn't even argue back, he simply collapsed back on to her shoulder and resumed sobbing, she let him.
It took a good few hours, but eventually he had exhausted himself and was ready to sleep. They bid each other goodnight and went their separate ways, Alice not being able to shake the feeling of guilt in her chest.
-----
The next day, Alice could barely drag herself out of bed. Since she had stayed up most of the night comforting Harry, she was absolutely exhausted. The kind of exhausted where her legs felt weak and she was convinced she could collapse any second and her eyelids weighed a tonne. She looked it, too, with dark circles under her eyes and her hair a mess.
Sadly, classes resumed today. Despite not being hungry she ate as much as she possibly could at breakfast, knowing she'd need the energy if she was going to make it all the way through the day. All of her friends looked rough, but Harry was still looking the worst, hardly talking to anyone but her. When he did talk to her it was quiet, his voice still sounded hoarse so Alice assumed he hadn't slept, just cried.
On the way out of the great hall to her first lesson Alice ran in to Ginny, who she hugged tightly, not knowing exactly what to say but knowing that she wanted to show that she cared. Ginny hugged her back, before going to sit with Ron. Although they were usually play-fighting or making fun of each other, there was none of that this morning, Ron simply put his arm around her, both with solemn expressions on their faces.
Surprisingly, Alice managed to make it through all of her classes without slipping in to a nap. Potions was by far the worst to sit through, though.
Although Draco and Alice essentially sit back to back in potions, since it wasn't like advanced potions and their tables were next to each other, not them on one table. They both knew they couldn't acknowledge one another without their friends getting suspicious, ignoring one another was horrible. When Alice was absolutely shattered and emotionally drained from being everyone's support and she just wanted a cuddle. Specifically, one from the man sat behind her.
Draco was worried, when Alice walked in she almost looked like a zombie, he couldn't tell if she was going to faint or cry. Without meaning to, he moved to get up and go to her, but Pansy's shrill voice interrupted. Although he wanted desperately to check on Alice, and although he hated Pansy with a passion, he was glad she interrupted or he would've walked right over to the Gryffindor and kissed her in front of the whole class.
And, although he wanted to, that probably wouldn't have been the smartest move.
Reluctantly he sat back down, but not before making eye contact with Alice who gave him a small nod. It wasn't the most comforting gesture in the world, but it was the best she could do and he was grateful for that.
After dinner that evening, where she just about managed to keep from falling asleep and slamming her face in to her mashed potato, Alice was so tired that she considered just climbing straight in to her soft, warm bed and going to sleep. The only thing stopping her was the image of Draco sat in the library waiting for her for hours, which made the guilt she was already feeling worse.
Rubbing her eyes to try and wake herself up she entered the library, weaving through the now familiar bookcases to get to where Draco was, already waiting for her. Not that she knew this, but he had practically ran here straight after dinner, desperate to know that she was okay.
"Did you know?" She asked, knowing it was abrupt but being too tired to care. Draco stood from his chair, one of his eyebrows raising. It wasn't what he was expecting her to say.
"Did I know what?" He asked, searching her face for any kind of a hint of what she was talking about. He'd been worried sick all day, now confusion was added to that which made him worry even more.
"About the burrow." She nearly snapped, lack of sleep getting to her. Draco was taken aback slightly, but kept his composure. Something that he had been practising.
"What's the Burrow?" He questioned, now completely lost. Alice saw the genuine confusion on his face and sighed, rubbing a hand over her face.
"Sorry, I'm being rude. The Weasley's home was attacked by death eaters, I didn't know if you knew it was going to happen or not." She admitted, Draco chuckled gently.
"Darling, I hate them and they know it. No one tells me a thing." He opened his arms and she moved in to them, hugging him tightly. He only broke from the hug briefly to kiss her forehead, before wrapping his arms around her again. He knew that right now, this is what she needed.
"I'm sorry, it's been a rough day." She murmured in to his chest, he kissed the top of her head.
"It's okay, you're safe with me." He murmured back, hugging her until she decided to move, which wasn't for a while.
Despite still feeling horrible about everything that happened, Alice couldn't deny that being in Draco's arms made anything feel ten times better.