I know this isn't getting many reviews, but I am just brimming with ideas… so without further ado… here is the second chapter!

-x-

By the time Alex re-gained her consciousness, she knew her surroundings were different, even without opening her eyes.

"Alex, my love, get up," a gentle voice soothed her and a cold hand caressed her forehead.

The cold hand. It was way colder than the river she tried to drown herself into. She knew right off the bat, no fact, it was Harry's hand.

"Harry? Is this, is this all a dream?" Alex rubbed her stinging eyes and forced them to open.

"Yes, it is me and no it isn't a dream," Harry said, caressing Alex's face.

"No… you're lying, this isn't real, you're lying and this is all a big fat joke!" Alex whispered, crawling away from him in fear.

"Alex please-" Harry said gently, reaching towards her but Alex just crawled just out his reach.

"No, please! Please don't get near me!" Alex yelled, grabbing the quilt around herself, wrapping it around her like it was a barrier to protect her from him.

"I thought you would be happy to see me!" Harry yelled, astonished.

"No, it isn't you! Please, please leave me alone!" Alex yelled, curling into a ball and wrapping her hands over her ears, trying earnestly to shut him out.

"Why would you even think I was an illusion? Alex, it really is me, I really did come back for you!" Harry pleaded, crawling near Alex. He was about to place his hand on her knee but seeing her flinch, he kept his space from her.

"No, please… please leave me alone. Mom set you up, I know it. Even if it isn't true, I am far beyond insane enough to care," Alex cried into her hands, "Please, no."

Alex raised her hand and grew vines around her, making something that would be either considered a shield, a shelter, or a cage. But vines intricately crossed around her into a cube. Too fine woven for a person to slip a finger through, but the gaps were wide enough for someone to see her figure inside it, and her facial expressions.

Harry knew that Alex knew that the vines were so weak and provided no protection for her against him. He could easily break it if he wanted to. Knowing she is the goddess of spring, he knew she couldn't fight against him and actually last.

"You aren't the Alex I knew," Harry said slowly, resting his hand on one side of the vine cage.

"Then just get rid of me," Alex wept bitterly into the palm of her hands, "Mom disowned me. Why should you want such a disgraceful and pathetic girl like me?"

Harry's world seemed to stop. He knew that Theresa never treated Alex right, in the way a mother should treat her daughter. But she never crossed the line to do such a bold action. Somehow he hated himself for waiting 7 years to save her.

"What happened?" Harry growled, almost wanting to break the cage and force her into his embrace, but he held himself back. He didn't want to make the wrong impression on Alex.

Alex scooted to the other end of the cage, making Harry's heart sink.

"It started with…" Alex began.

She told him about how she found about her engagement to Mason Greyback from her best friend, Harper, meaning Theresa had done this behind her back. She told him about how Mason rejected her and chose Taylor instead. So Theresa disowned her, and pretended Taylor was her daughter, which meant Alex was enslaved by her own mother. Harper told her to escape and told her how much she would miss her. And how Alex lost all hope that she jumped into the river to end her life. Alex left out the part that Harper gave her a vial of poison. That she didn't want him to know.

"I'm sorry, you got what you wanted to know," Alex cried into her hands, "Please leave me alone."

Harry knew that she knew what he was capable of doing. Her powers were nowhere near his, but he didn't want to use coercion to reconcile with her. He knew she loves him and she knows he loves her. But Alex is shocked from years of child neglect to even return his affections with those of her own.

Harry slid his hand down the vine cage and reluctantly let go of it. Slowly getting up to his feet, he walked towards the door and stopped. He turned to Alex who was still silently crying.

"I know you are in shock, and I won't force you to do anything you don't want to do, because you know I love you. But, you are not allowed to leave this room. If you need anything, you can call for either me or my servants. I think you know them," Harry said, "Especially Hermione."

"Whose bedroom is this?" Alex timidly asked.

"Mine," Harry said, "If you are uncomfortable with sharing a room with me, there are curtains that divide the room."

With that being said, he left, leaving Alex alone in the vast spacious room she just became conscious of.

-x-

Alex had spent the whole day just walking around in the room and sleeping. Lots of sleeping. Though she felt like she wasn't getting the rest she should have been receiving. All of her naps were plagued with her mother.

It felt so surreal that she is in the Underworld with Harry, to the point she didn't want to even believe it. But even if this was fake, and if in reality she was in a coma, she didn't want to wake up. She didn't want to go back being a servant to her mother, the one cruel being that disowned her.

"Ally, you must eat something," Hermione pleaded, when Alex turned down the lunch. It was painful for Alex to reject breakfast, and now lunch was clear she was going on a hunger strike.

"I'm sorry, but the food is just coming up," Alex was only half-lying, "Even before at my mother's house, I never was able to hold down food too well. I don't think I want to eat for a while."

"Define, 'while', please," Hermione begged.

Alex looked lost. Years? Decades? Centuries? Millennia? She didn't want to bring her down with her answer, but she didn't want to lie either.

"I don't know," Alex buried her face into her palms, "I am so sorry, I am truly sorry, please don't be mad at me."

Hermione, Ron, Harry, and Alex all used to play with each other. Before meeting Harper, Alex was extremely close with Hermione. But after she was parted from Harry by her mother that was the last she saw of her and Ron. Last thing she heard was Ron had a crush on Hermione. She could only hope they were in a relationship now. Or else she would hit Ron upside his head.

Hermione averted her eyes. She understood. She knew. Alex truly did change. Not into someone she would hate, not someone totally unrecognizable, someone evil. But she significantly changed. Gone was the brave Alexandra Margarita Russo who no boys could bully. And now the sight of a man could have her in hysterics.

"Alright, it is okay," Hermione said softly, "Just get better."

Hermione wheeled the cart out of the room and closed the door to hear Alex's soft sobbing as she cried herself to sleep.

Hermione shook her head and wheeled the cart to the kitchen.

Harry was waiting anxiously in the kitchen, ignoring the astonished looks the other cooks gave him. It was almost unheard that a god would step into the kitchen.

"Did she eat anything?" Harry asked.

"No," Hermione gestured to her cart, "She said she can't eat a single bite because the food would come up. She doesn't feel hungry at all."

"How would you know she was hungry or not?" Harry asked.

"I don't. She just told me that even at her mother's house she had the horrible loss of appetite," Hermione said, "That it wasn't due to being in an unknown place."

"This place isn't unknown to her," Harry said, "She used to come here all the time."

"I think you are forgetting the woman who is her mother," Hermione said.

"You would suspect that she…?" Harry asked, dread filling his body.

"Oh, I think she would. You see, Ron and I never liked her mother. Theresa was always spying each and every one of her moves. I think after Theresa forbade Alex from seeing you, she altered with Alex's memory in such a way that she would selectively remember only some things," Hermione said, down casting her eyes, "It took her a long time to remember me."

"Oh Mione, I'm so sorry," Harry said, drawing his best friend into a hug. He knew how close Alex was with Hermione, to the point that she declared herself as Hermione's little sister – a decision made without Hermione's consent, not that the older girl minded.

They broke the hug when they heard Ron come on and give Hermione a quick kiss. Jealousy ran through Harry – not because he had feelings for Hermione, rest assured his heart was in Alex's grasp – but at the display of affection between his two best friends. Had Alex's mother not played with her sanity like it was a toy, she would have warmed up to him already.

"So is she alright? I only heard that Harry saved Alex," Ron said with a smile.

"Oh at least you heard the truth. The rest of the world thinks I wrongfully kidnapped a girl and separated her from her 'loving mother'," Harry gritted his teeth.

"Why would I think like that? Mrs. Russo was a psycho," Ron shrugged his shoulders.

"And she still is," Hermione grimaced.

"Why, what did she do now?" Ron's face filled with dread.

"How about the fact that the evil witch messed with the girl's sanity? To the point she thinks Harry is an illusion to play with her mind? Or the fact that the wretch messed with her memories? So that she remembers some things and not the others?" Hermione said with a casual tone.

"Does she remember me?" Ron asked quickly.

"That's what you got out of the whole explanation?" Hermione asked, astonished.

"Well, excuse me for wanting to still be her friend! I don't want to go back to base 1, a stranger!" Ron yelled.

"Ron, she remembers you," Harry sighed, massaging his forehead, "It is specific things that she can't place her finger on. For example, she forgot that we used to hang out here in the Underworld when we were younger."

"Does Alex love you?" Ron asked.

"What?" Harry asked, dreading the question for anyone to ask.

"Does Alex love you? You say that there are only certain things she remembers. Thankfully she remembers all of us as her friends, not complete strangers or even worse, enemies. But does she remember how and why she loves you?" Ron asked.

"I just hope she does," Harry murmured.

"What was that?" Hermione strained her words to hear.

"It was nothing," Harry said quickly, leaving the kitchen, "Just murmuring to myself."

-x-

By the time Harry came back to his room, he knew that Alex was asleep. He knew that because Alex decided to use the transparent dividers to divide the room. (Think of the dividers in Jodhaa's room in Jodhaa Akbar)

"Alex?" Harry called out.

Alex didn't respond. She clutched her eyes shut. She actually wasn't sleeping, but rather resting. But when she heard Harry come inside, she pretended to wing it, even though he would know otherwise.

"Alex," Harry called out again, climbing onto the bed. He was tired, and it didn't help that Alex didn't want to see his face at the end of a tiring day.

Sitting down, Harry raised the curtain to see Alex sleeping, though he knew she was faking it. Not wanting to force her into anything, he settled for kissing her on her lips chastely, not intruding her privacy too much and scarcely satisfying his deepest desires.

-x-

Alex woke up in cold sweat, one of her memories of her mother taunting her. Except with each passing night, they were altered worse and worse.

Taylor would mock her and Mitchie would laugh. It was same old, nothing new. But this time she had a nightmare in which Harper turned against her. And who was the puppet master to all of this? Her mother.

And at that moment, Alex didn't care if this was a reality, whether Harry was a reality or not. Although she would have to admit, she partly claimed him to be fake imposter because she hadn't seen him in ten years. 7 years, and adolescence has changed Harry Potter to someone she couldn't recognize from youth.

With a flick of her wrist the curtains were tied to their posts on the side and the room wasn't divided anymore.

Alex felt like a little girl at the moment. Selfish and hungry. Selfish in the sense of always craving attention and willing to steal from others just to obtain it. Hungry in the sense of not being satisfied with how much affection is being poured and always craving more.

She didn't care if she felt like this was a dream. If it was merely a dream, she would have an intention of enjoying it before her mother pulled her head out of the water and thrust reality not too kindly in her face.

"Harry?" Alex whispered, reaching out a hand and touching his shoulder timidly, just to make sure he was real.

In an instant, he woke up, just by the slightest pressure of her hand. Harry had instantly recognized that it was Alex's hand. And oh, how he would love to just draw her into his arms out of reflex. But after remembering her hysterics that morning, he held back.

"Alex, my love, what's wrong? You look like you were pranked," Harry whispered quietly, gently brushing the hair from Alex's face and tucking it behind her ear.

"Much, much worse than a mere prank, Harry. It was the worst," Alex's eyes filled with tears, "It was too horrible."

"What happened?" Harry asked.

"I had a nightmare that mother poisoned Harper's mind. And then Harper became one of her sick minions along with Taylor and Mitchie," Alex wept into her hands, "Harper was all I had left after mother separated us, Harry. She was the only one I could trust. And if she truly turns on me I think I might lose my sanity."

Alex covered her face with her hands and wept. She didn't want him to see her as hideous as she looked when she woke up with a nightmare. And she certainly believed he shouldn't get the displeasure of seeing her after she cried.

But Harry was the same 10-year-old she had been parted from. His affections were the same, at least towards her, it was.

Harry didn't care if she went into hysterics about him being an illusion. He couldn't stand to see her cry. He drew her into a hug, making it tighter when Alex cried harder.

"It was a nightmare, love. Nothing more and nothing less," Harry whispered, resting his chin on top of Alex's head, "You are obviously worn out. Come, let's go to sleep."

Alex looked like she could disagree. Her eyes were wide awake and bulging, her reactions to the nightmare would take some time to wash away.

"I think if you go to sleep you will feel much better," Harry whispered, "You look so tired."

"I-I'm not," Alex weakly protested.

"My love, you have bags underneath your eyes," Harry whispered, tracing Alex's tired eyes with his thumbs, "You need to go to sleep."

"But you will be gone by the time I wake up," Alex whispered, "You have other things to attend to."

"I will be here and I won't leave until you wake up," Harry kissed Alex's forehead, "They will understand."

It took a lot of coaxing, but it was enough to ease Alex back into the warm depths of the blankets, soft pillows, and the arms of her childhood love.

-x-

A paper crumpled. Glass shattered, and a chair was thrown at the wall, right next to Harper.

"What did you just say?!" Theresa snarled.

"S-She escaped, mistress," Harper stuttered.

"When did this happen?" Theresa bellowed.

"Last night," Harper whispered quietly, down casting her eyes.

"Well then, let the Earth feel my wrath. I am Demeter, and I will destroy all forms of life until Alexandra Margarita Russo is safely returned to me," Theresa cackled evilly and stormed out of the living room.

.

.

.

TBC