(A/N: I literally took like a year to update wow. I started university and got really depressed and very busy I completely forgot about this fic. I apologize for everyone who waited for an update.)

"We'll see you at dinner yeah?" Adrian asked.

"Yeah, see you guys later." Answered Cara.

They had just come back from Hogsmaede, the group had split up at their common room door to freshen up for the Halloween feast. Cara had left for the Ravenclaw's dormitory, Alice and the boys entered their own common room. The green glowing lamps and the scenery of the lake from the window set a cold atmosphere that clashed with the red flames protruding heat from the fire place. This contrast had become so familiar to Alice that it had become homey and comfortable to her. Marcus, Adrian, and Terrance crashed into the leather sofas near the fireplace. Graham had spotted Gemma Farley with her friend Adelaide in the corner of the common room and decided to go flirt with Farley, much to Farley's chagrin.

Alice decided to sit down next to Terrance, who smiled at her.

"So, Alice, does Cara ever talk about me?" Adrian decided to break the silence.

"Oh yeah, she does." Alice smiled innocently as she rested her back on the couch.

Terrance and Marcus looked at her, amused by their exchange.

"Really?" Adrian seemed surprised.

"Mmhmm, she talks alot about you." Answered Alice.

Adrian leaned forward in his seat, a smirk on appeared on his face. "Well, what does she say?"

"Weeell, she talks about how annoying you are, and she talks about obviously flirtatious you are, and-"

Marcus grinned, he had expected that, being the butt of Alice's jokes usually he had come to learn her manners.

"Should I go on?" Teased Alice, she couldn't help but smirk at Terrance's snicker next to her.

"Wait, does she actually say that?" Adrian's face fell.

"Nope." Alice answered.

"Oh, thank god." Adrian seemed relieved.

"She actually doesn't mention you. Like, at all." Alice stated.

Seemingly confused, Adrian replied with "Hold on, I can't tell if that's better or worse."

"Worse." Marcus stated.
"It's Worse." agreed Terrance.

Before Adrian could say anything more to Alice, she decided it was time to save Gemma and Adelaide from Graham.

"I should go freshen up and change, see you guys at dinner." She said as she stood up.

"I quite enjoyed seeing you in that dress Alice." Marcus quickly said before she left.

"All the more reason to change now." She stuck out her tongue at him before grabbing Gemma's arm.

"Why don't you two come with?" She motioned towards the dormitory.

Gemma's face was filled with relief as she agreed a little too fast.
"I was talking to her Alice!" Graham wasn't amused.

"Well, enough talking." She pulled Gemma by her wrist and Adelaide followed suit, sending a glare towards Graham, which he chose to just smile at.

"Thank you" Gemma whispered.

Alice immediately let out a huge sigh and fell onto her bed right as the dorm room door clicked.

Gemma set down her stuff neatly on the desk next to her bed, then glanced towards Alice who had her face planted into her pillow.

"Can't imagine a little outing got you that tired." Adelaide stated as she sat on Gemma's bed.

Alice was actually mentally tired from thinking about her situation with Oliver. She was just frustrated how it ended up this way. Alice turned to lie on her side, her head resting on her palm as she faced her roommates.

"Can I ask you two something?" she wondered if she could get their opinion on this matter.
They both nodded, "Sure" Gemma looked intrigued.

"Is this gonna be about Marcus? Because if it is I really think you two fit each other." Adelaide quickly added, Gemma nodded furiously.

"What? Oh my god no this isn't about him and I can't believe you said that!" Alice exclaimed, her cheeks were heating up as the girls giggled.

"Well? What is it then? Spit it out!" Gemma pushed on.

"Okay Okay, let's say you befriend someone. Someone that your entire group of friends completely hates. But you still want to be friends with that person, what would you do?" She bit her lower lip as her eyes travelled from face to face, carefully examining if they'd gotten suspicious of her.

"So you're not going to give us names?" Adelaide raised a brow. Alice just smiled sheepishly.

"I think I would meet them in secret, atleast until I could come clean about it to my friends." Gemma answered.

"Really?" Alice imagined herself meeting up with Oliver without anyone knowing. That might work our somehow.

"I don't know, I wouldn't do that." Adelaide interjected. "I mean, it's kind if risky. It could start a mess with my friends, I wouldn't want that."

She wasn't wrong. Alice planted her face into her pillow again. This didn't really help.

Alice slid in next to Marcus on the Slytherin dinner table, Cara was joining them tonight for the feast, which Adrian was happy about. Surprisingly, Cara was actually not annoyed with him.
Marcus had noticed that Alice was distant, to the point where when the Feast had appeared she hadn't said anything. And this was Alice.

"Are you still full on sweets?" Marcus whispered to her. Alice jumped at the sudden interruption of her thoughts.

"No, not really." Alice looked him in the eyes.

"Really? then why aren't you eating?" Marcus questioned. He could tell something wasn't right.

"Uh, I'm just-" Alice scrambled for something to say. Tired? Sleepy?

"Oh I know" Marcus said.

"You do?" She was a bit confused.

"Yeah," He leaned in and whispered in her ear. "You're back to your fantasizing."

Alice stared at him in disbelief. and then she burst out laughing and punched his shoulder lightly. "Oh shut up Marcus!"

"That's more like it." Marcus grinned.

"I mean, of course, how would I ever be able to hold myself back." She teased.

"What are you two laughing about?" Graham questioned.

"People whisper for a reason Graham." Terrance said as he chewed on a pumpkin pastie.

"I know that-" Graham was about to shoot back when the doors of the great hall were slammed open and the whole hall went silent In came a running figure shouting.

"TROLL!" Shouted professor Quirrel as everyone looked onto him with surprise.

"TROLL IN THE DUNGEONS!" Quirrel exclaimed before stopping at the end of the hall.

"Thought you ought to know." He passed out. The second his unconscious body hit the floor, the whole great hall erupted into chaos.

"A troll? in hogwarts? How did that happen?" Cara questioned.

"I don't know and I'm not waiting around to find out, let's get the hell out of here." Adrian said, Graham and Terrance nodded.

"ALL PREFECTS GET YOUR HOUSE STUDENTS BACK TO YOUR DORMS. PROFESSORS COME WITH ME." headmaster Dumbledore's voice boomed through the hall.

Alice didn't like this at all. It wasn't just the troll situation, it was the chaos. The screams and people pushing and everyone being clumped up just made her feel trapped.

She had lost her group of friends in the crowd, she couldn't see Cara nor Terrance, nor anyone. She just knew she wanted to be out of the great hall. As she got through the gate of the hall, she got shoved and things were starting to blur.

Everything seemed so far away.

Suddenly, a hand pulled her out of the crowd, and she inhaled sharply. How long was she holding her breath for? She didn't realize it.

It was like coming our from underwater. She looked up to see Marcus, with his hands on her shoulders, and as much as she hated to admit, she was very glad to see him.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

She was breathing heavily, but she nodded, "I just want to get away from this." she whispered.

"Let's get out of here then." He grabbed her hand and led the way. They went the opposite way of where everyone was headed.
Marcus led her through a secret passage, and up to the first floor.

"Where are we going?" Alice asked.

"Quirrel said the troll's in the dungeon right? I thought we should get away from there then." Marcus stated. He had a point.

His pace slowed down now that they were away from the crowd, and the pair started walking side by side, hand in hand.

"Our common room is in the dungeon.." Alice started. "Do you think the others are alright?"

"Of Course they are." Marcus reassured her, "have you seen Adrian and Graham? They could probably take the troll out in a fist fight, I reckon." he grinned as Alice giggled as she imagined that.

"I guess, and Cara could handle herself, would probably curse the troll or something." Alice said.

"Oh she wouldn't have to, just one of her icy glares would be enough." Marcus joked. Alice laughed at that, "Well you're not wrong."

They passed by the storeroom where Snape kept most of his supplies.

"I'm worried about Terrance though."

"Yeah?" Marcus looked to her.

"I mean he-" The sound of something being dragged made Alice stop mid sentence.

Her widened eyes immediately shot to Marcus, who also seemed alarmed.

"What was that?" He whispered.

Then, the sounds of huge heavy footsteps followed, and they were very close.

It sounded like it came from right around the corner.

Alice immediately tightened her grip into Marcus's hand and started running back where the came from. Marcus stopped her suddenly, "In here, quick!" He motioned towards the store room. They swung the door open and practically jumped in it.

The store room was smaller than it looked, they were basically stuck to each other. Marcus could feel Alice's frame, she was shaken.

"I didn't bring my wand." She whispered.

"I didn't either." He whispered back. They both looked at each other in slight panic.

THUD

the foot steps were getting close to the store room, and the dragging sound followed.

Alice held her breath again. She unconsciously clutched onto Marcus's shirt. Seeing how nervous she was, Marcus put his arms around her, and that seemed to make her relax a bit as she started breathing again.

They were both completely silent, eyes fixed on the door.

THUD

THUD

THUD right in front of the door. Alice buried her head into Marcus's chest. He put a hand over her head. His brows furrowed.

THUD

THUD, thud, thud..

It faded into utter silence.

Marcus's chest fell as he let out a deep sigh, Alice looked up at him.

"Is it gone?" She whisperd

"I think so." Marcus answered.

She took a deep breathe, and ran her fingers through her hair.

"Oh my god." she exclaimed.

"Well, atleast now you know Terrance is fine, cause the troll is here." Marcus said.

Alice looked at him, and she started laughing.

"What?" Marcus questioned, brows furrowed.

"It's just, this brings back memories." She motioned to the closed store room.

"Oh, yeah you're right." Marcus grinned. "Good times."

"Oh shut up." She couldn't help but grin back.

"Yeah? Well why don't you make me?" Marcus leaned in slightly. They were already practically stuck together.

"Maybe I will." She teased. She felt as if she was being pulled in by an unseen magnetic force, they were both leaning in. She bit her lower lip, he could feel the warmth radiating off her skin, and she could feel his warm breath.

Their lips almost touching, the door of the store room slammed open.

And there was professor Snape.

They had immediately pulled away from each other, both bewildered by the sudden interruption. Snape's eyes went over them quickly, then he said in his usual pissed off tone.

"Out. Now."

Marcus and Alice quickly scrambled to get out of the store room, Alice noticed a wound on Snape's leg. He seemed to be in a hurry as he grabbed some bottles and containers without even looking, as if he knew where everything was by heart. Then he turned and gave the both of them a stern look.

"Get back to the common room, I will deal with you two later." he commanded. Then with his usual cloak flip, he walked away.

Alice looked over to Marcus.

"So, where were we?" Marcus said as he turned to her.

"We were going back to the common room." she smiled at Marcus, he noticed her cheeks were red.

"Really? Because I seem to remember specifically that we-" Marcus was interpreted by the feeling of soft lips on his left cheek.

His face broke into a dumb grin.

"Did that refresh your memory?" Alice asked, her cheeks were even redder now.

"A bit, yeah."

Alice turned on her heels and was about to leave for the dungeons.

"If you don't come with, the troll might eat you Marcus." She said in a sing song tone.

She felt his hand slip into hers, Alice turned to see him next to her, holding her hand.

"You're not getting rid of me that easily, love."