Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. (really now?)

I would like to mention that writing an Alice- centric ficlet was inspired by Twisted Biscuit's Watching Raindrops.

Alice Longbottom remembers the pain.

It's buried.

But it's buried in only a half-inch deep layer of snow.

Or is it sand? She can't remember.

Sometimes she can put together pieces of the life she used to know, the life she should have lead, should be leading.

Sometimes she catches in the eyes of the boy who she swears she can remember having visited before, in the face of the man who is always beside her, in the quiet snippets of bird song that reaches her ears, something- someone? somewhere? more, but it fades just as quickly, like trying to recall a dream that was vivid just a moment ago.

But it always brings her back to the pain.

The snow (or sand) above the hurt sometimes freezes to ice, but ice is easily shattered and the flying shards only hurt more.

So she sits in her still window day after day, remembering, because only the past is worth saving. It's not like she has any living to do. Right?

But oh, she had once lived. Once, in another reality, she had lived as Bellatrix Lestrange cursed her and her husband. Once, she had clutched desperately at the information she would not-could not- give. Once, she had been part of something more. And she had felt so alive.

And she had lived as the pain had broken down each barrier, weathered each old block, flooding her world with terror. She had lived as she was left with only one last small pocket of sanity that told her to keep silent and moments later, gave itself away, in return for Something More.

The broken remnants of her mind now lay about her in ashes, reflected in the smoke, twisting in grotesque and unforseeable ways.

Yet it was a battle not completely lost. Bellatrix Lestrange hadn't left with the secrets. Even if there was a price- a steep price, some would say- Bellatrix hadn't won.

And now she sits by the window on sunny days, and Frank sits by her side, and they reflect on a life done and gone.

And so it ends :( Review, please!