Disclaimer: Okay. You know the basics. I'm not JK Rowling. Otherwise I wouldn't call myself Anna Black. And if I'm not JK Rowling, then I do NOT have the rights to publish this. Don't sue me please!! I grovel at your feet Miss Owner-of-All-That-Is-Good!! Spare me!!

A/N: I'm having a lot of fun writing this piece, BUT I am not the one to be rushed. I'll write at my own pace, and I'm telling ya now, it won't be to please the public. I love all you guys that review me, but please don't say, "Please write more soon!" It drives me nuts. Like with my "Harry Potter and the Ornaments of Power," I print off a chapter, wait until everyone stops pestering me to write more (cough cough, Clarinets) and then I type up a storm. I think the review's for telling me what I did wrong and what I did right. Not to tell me to write more. Just lettin' ya know.

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"You woke up

screaming aloud

A prayer from your secret guard.

You feed off of fears

and hold back your tears.

You give us a tantrum

and a know-it-all grin

Just when the lead wanes

When the evening's thin-"

Sarah McLachlan, Building a Mystery

~

"Alice! Run! Rung like hell was after you! Just run! Don't look back!"

"But Dad!" she felt herself screeching. "I can't leave you! I'm not ready! You can't leave! Not just yet!"

"You can! You know you can! Don't tell me you can't!" Her father looked at her with pleading eyes sparkling with a sickly green light. Alice felt hot tears streaming down her cheeks and she wiped them hastily away.

Alice opened her mouth weakly to protest again, but the strong, muscular hands she had beaten so many times in Thumb Wars grabbed her shoulders. He shook her, and it didn't help Alice's sense of confusion.

"Leave! Now! Before –" A bullet in his back prevented him from going further. He stumbled into her arms and her eyes grew wide with shock and disbelief. Behind his usually strong build stood a girl … what was she doing? … she was …beeping?!

Alice shot up in her bed and the annoying sound of the alarm clock stopped beside her. The sheets were covered in … blood? No, it was sweat.

The dream clung to her like a tick. Like a tick to a dog. She tried to forget it, but it haunted her.

She swung her feet out from underneath the many quilts and they fell to rest on a warm, soft knit rug. Aunt Ginny had always been a genius with knitting needles. Alice looked down at the morning light playing with the many colors of the floor rug. The deep scarlet shone like red diamonds and the gold like a lantern had been dropped in a plentiful mine. It was unfinished as of yet, since Ginny had visited Libya to see her brother Bill before finishing it. Alice had heard of Bill and had seen pictures of him throughout the house, but she had never met him. She had met his daughters, all but one with the trademark Weasley hair. Willy (who had brown hair) usually turned out at the flung end of jokes, being teased about her hair. Alice felt sorry for her, but there was nothing really to do about it.

Alice trudged to the bathroom and shut the door. She didn't lock it, since it had been a rule in the family since cousin Sybil had slipped and smashed her head on the faucet fixtures. No one had noticed her hand on "Mortal Peril," on the clock and though it had merely taken a few seconds to perform the Alohomora Charm, those few seconds had resulted in permanent amnesia.

She had come home from St. Mungo's and was being re-taught, but her skill of Divination was gone forever. Her Uncle Ron had said, "No big loss," when the doctor had given the news. Uncle Ron had never believed in premonitions.

Alice shed her bath robe and lifted her slim, dainty foot into the shower. She turned on the cold water, not the hot. She didn't want a hot shower this particular morning. Everything seemed too dreary and bleak to be able to actually enjoy its warmth. And besides, she needed to wake up.

She heard the door creak open and, out of feminine instinct, she screamed.

"Oh … I-I-I'm … so sorry!" she heard someone stammer. The door clicked shut.

"It's okay, Tucker," she mumbled.

She scrubbed her hair completely free of any leaves as results from hiding in a thicket for an hour in order to lose anyone on their trail. She ran her fingers through her sleek, moisturized locks one last time and felt nothing. For the first time since leaving her Godfather's estate, she smiled. She turned off the water and stepped out of the shower. A blue, fluffy towel was resting on the counter and Alice assumed Tucker had brought it. She smiled again, picked it up, and wrapped it around herself. She sat down on the toilet and shivered, as her torso wrapped in warmth while her damp arms were exposed to cold air. She leaned to the front of the counters and opened them. She found the hair-drier and decided, that, this once, she'd actually use one to dry her hair.

It was magical, so she squeezed it and it turned on. The air coming from it smelled like peaches…

Alice dropped the drier and turned towards the side of the counter. Her arms folded themselves without much thought and her forehead fell onto its brink. Tears poured out of her eyes. Warm, hard tears. She had cried last night. Hell, the only reason she had gone to sleep was because she had no more tears to cry. Today was a new day, unfortunately, and one Alice would have to spend away from her dad… a new fountain of tears sprung beneath her eyes.

'What's going to happen to me?' she thought between sobs. 'It won't be the same without Dad around…'

Sure, she had been away from her dad at Hogwarts, but that was different. She knew that Harry was alive and well. Now.. well, she didn't want to think about it. There wasn't any real doubt as to the status of her father's life. He was either dead or he was … compared to the alternative, Alice hoped, for her father's sake, that he had died.

Alice sat crying in misery for twenty-seven minutes without being interrupted. Stealthily and so sharply it made Alice jump, a knock rang clear on the crickety old door. "Alice! I that you in there? Please get out! I need to take a piss!"

"Just a minute Phillip…"

"Peter!"

"Whatever. Just let me get dressed first…"

"Don't bother. You don't have to … just for me…"

"I'd rather, you know. I don't think Uncle Charlie would like to find his youngest son-"

"Only by five minutes!"

"Youngest son on the floor with his niece…"

"He won't mind."

"Just shut-up Phillip!"

"Peter!"

"Whatever. There's too many sets of Weasley twins to even keep the groups right, much less the names." Alice grabbed her robe from the floor, wrapped herself in it, and tied the belt to make it secure. She opened the door and walked past her younger cousin. He ran in the bathroom and slammed the door shut. Alice grinned. Turning the corner, she bumped into Sybil. She looked up at her with large, watery eyes and mumbled, "Miss Potter? What are you d-d-doing here?"

Alice sighed. "I'm here to visit Aunt Ginny, Sybil."

"But Aunt Ginny i-i-isn't here." Sybil said, speaking slowly and enunciating each syllable. In the accident, Sybil had even forgotten most of the English language.

Alice remembered, when she was a second year, right after the accident, her dad had wanted to discuss the Muggle Stock Market with Grandpa Arthur and find out if it was a good idea. Alice had walked into her cousin's room and found her mumbling a different language. "Uncle Ron!" she had screamed. The house came alive and Alice still swore to this day that the supposed ghoul in their attic had given a little moan and maybe even knocked over an old piece of furniture. Since ghouls had become endangered creature, finding one in your dad's friends' attic was very cool indeed.

"Well, I will wait then."

Sybil looked up at her with watery eyes.

"How are your dolls, Sybil?"

The little girl brightened, and Alice wished she had left the topic alone.

"Well, Miss Clydes-Dale has a cold, but it is nothing a little soup won't fix. Miss Wentworth is currently asleep, and she'll be up… oh no! She's crying for me now! Excuse me! I have to go!"

Alice frowned after the ten-year-old's retreating back. She had been so assured of her speech when she was talking about her dolls, but before that… Alice just shook her head and finished her walk to the guest bedroom, aka Ron's old room. The walls were a loud, terrible orange, and it made Alice sick, but she'd be out of here by tonight. She'd have to go back to the manor, naturally. Maybe call some of her dad's friends; they were the trustworthiest. She had to get clothes, food, valuables, necessaries… Alice chewed on her lip as she dropped her bathrobe around her ankles and walked across the room to the robes that uncle Ron had cleaned for her last night. She'd slept in his old Cannons t–shirt (Ginny had taken a regular Muggle one and had littered the front with Bludgers, Snitches, and Quaffles.) which was so large it went down her thighs. She lifted the hanger off the hook on the door and slipped the robe on it over her head after she had adorned her undergarments. She bent down to grab her shoes when she heard someone knock on her door. "Hello?"

"Alice, is that you honey? Ron told me what happened…"

"Come on in, Aunt Penelope."

"Thanks, love," Aunt Penelope whispered as she opened the door and walked through. "You know, ever since my Percy died in that attack on the Ministry, I've been thinking I could never relate to anyone –"

"Aunt Penelope, if you want to unload your troubles on me…"

"No! No, dear. I'm not so stupid! I just wanted to let you know you have a shoulder to cry on."

Alice hugged her aunt. 'She may seem rather silly every now and again,' she thought, 'but she's really all right.'

"Breakfast! First come, first serve!" a strong female voice echoed down the hall.

Penelope grinned at the door and said, more to herself than to Alice, "I hope it's pancakes. What I wouldn't give for some of Ginny's pancakes…"

Alice smiled weakly as her aunt stood up and walked out the door. 'She's really all right…"

As Alice jumped the rest of the stairs, she smacked straight into her uncle. His blonde hair quivered as he glared at her. "S-Sorry. Won't happen again…" she stammered. in her gut, she was sort of afraid of him. His grim frown wavered slightly as his eyes flickered. Alice grinned at him, knowing very well that that would completely disarm him.

He smiled warmly. She was the only one she knew that got a solemn kind of respect from Uncle Draco. Aunt Ginny got a warm love of course, all her other uncles shared a sense of restrained hatred, and her own dad was very open with his feelings (except when young kids were around), but Draco always had admired Alice's eyes for some odd reason. He told her once that if she dared to try colored contacts, he would blind her. "Hello Alice…" he said smoothly and bowed with a half-formal, half-comical air.

"Err… hi, Uncle Draco. How's work at the Ministry?"

Draco frowned and Alice knew she had hit a tender subject. "Krum should've stayed with Quidditch. The Ministry belongs to those with brains."

Alice smiled to dismiss herself and left before her uncle began to growl too much. She strolled into the dining room and grinned widely at the enormous, steaming plate staked high with Aunt Ginny's secret pancakes. Alice knew she couldn't truly smile ever again, but at least she could pretend to. She sat down and looked up with puppy eyes at her aunt. "Aunt Ginny?" she lied sweetly. "Do you think you might fix some food for me to take with me to Hogwarts? The elves have lost their touch…"

"Sure… honey? How much do you want?"

"Oh, about two weeks worth. Light though, so I can carry it around. I won't eat too much every meal."

"I'll see what I can do."

At the dead of night…

Alice slipped the pack of food onto her back. She pressed the note to the table and kissed it to leave a lip print. She opened the door and whispered quietly to every sleeping body, "I'll miss you. I really will. And … thanks for everything…And sorry Tucker, but I have to take the broom. You'll just have to use Floo Powder."

The screen door shut with a snap behind her, making Draco Malfoy stir, and he woke up. He shot up straight in bed, breathing heavily. "Ginny," he hissed, shaking her. "Ginny! Did you hear that?"

Ginny sat up slowly, rubbing her eyes. "I didn't hear anything. Come on back to bed." She placed her hand on his cheek and kissed him sweetly. Draco's eyes closed, and he began to lie back down without letting his lips part from hers.

He pulled away for just a moment, saying so it blissfully happy that the words didn't seem to come from his mouth, "But I really did hear something…" but Ginny just pulled him into a tighter kiss.

A/N: Krum lovers, don't murder me! I luv Krum just as much as you, but it's just something Draco would say…