*NOTE - I've realized a big mistake I made in the first few chapters. I put Seamus in Alice's potions class, but he's a sixth year and she's a fifth. Oops. well, I'm not going to go back and change it because this is all just for fun anyway, but please use the willing suspension of disbelief. That is all :c)



"Draco," Alice replied coldly. "I should have known."

"Not running off with any mudblood Gryffindors, I assume?"

"Of course not," she answered without hesitation. One thing she prided herself in was her ability to lie masterfully and believably when necessary. "Just off on a little walk. couldn't sleep because I slept all through dinner, you know."

"Ah," he said sarcastically. "So THAT explains the guy I saw you leaving with a half an hour ago. It makes PERFECT sense to me now." His disregard for her was sickening. But she supposed it was the expected behavior of an older sibling.

"You must have had one too many glasses of pumpkin juice, because I left ALONE," she said sniffed, knowing that the key to making a lie seem valid was to act as though you believed it at ALL costs. With a triumphant "Hm!", she turned away from him and walked haughtily out of the room, gone in a flash of flickering, fire-lighted strawberry blond hair.

.

Alice woke up tired the next morning. All through the night she had been debating with herself - first euphoric and oblivious with thoughts and fantasies of Seamus. and once she had finally began to drift away into a pleasant sleep, she was interrupted by the harsh reality - Draco KNEW. No matter how well she could lie, he knew. and even if she could cover it up temporarily, she knew the truth would surface sooner or later. It always did, and it therefore would not do for her to continue lying to herself.

She sat up in bed, rubbing the sleep (or lack thereof) from her eyes, yawning rather loudly. At the present moment, she had no desire whatsoever to do anything but sleep all day - sweet, innocent sleep. Sanctuary from the torments of waking life. Simplicity. OH GOD. she fell back onto the bed, welcoming the caress of the silken sheets and warm, cloudy down comforter, cool against her skin.

The other girls were already getting dressed, shoving homework into bags, buckling shoes. "Alice! Wake up!" came a voice from across the room. Claire.

"Yeah, hurry up or we'll leave without you!" Hypothia.

"Just let me sleep. I'll meet you guys in first period." she manage to say, but the very effort of speaking drained her energy and even the sound of her own voice irritated her ears. Remembering something important, she called "Claire!" with the last of her breath.

"Yeah?" she came up beside the bed, looking at Alice concerned.

"Tell Seamus I'll see him later. Don't give him any more. ideas," Alice smiled weakly and Claire chuckled, "Sure."

.

After a nice nap (she'd been making quite a habit of these lately), Alice woke up at least slightly more energized. She rolled off the bed and got dressed and ready in less than ten minutes (another thing she prided herself in was her talent for getting ready quickly, unlike most girls.). Giving Clive a kiss on the nose, she was gone - walking purposefully to Professor Snape's potions class.

Most of her classmates were already seated and ready for class, with parchment and quill pens prepared for notes. Toward the right side of the room, Claire sat with her chin in her hand, staring dreamily at Snape, who was heating up some jars of multicolored liquids over a small portable fire. Taking the seat next to her, she waved to Hypothia, who was seated a few rows back next to Ginney Weasley.

Claire came out of her trance, almost knocking over her little bottle of ink that had been dangerously close to the edge of the table in the first place. "Oh, hey Alice. have a nice nap?" she asked, and then, pulling a piece of paper that had been folded several times out of her bag and handing it to Alice said, "Seamus told me to give you this."

Alice snatched it eagerly, like a hungry squirrel would, having had a nut dangled before its eyes. Unfolding it, she saw black letters scrawled across the page, uneven spaces between the lines. She realized that she'd never seen his handwriting before, and examined it more carefully. It was something between cursive and printed letters. he crossed his Z's and sometimes let the tails on his Y's and J's extend down a little to low, as if he'd simply forgotten to pick up the pen. He had obviously been rushed - the lettering was a little sloppy and stretched out, with little drips of ink splattered throughout. 'Its beautiful' she said to herself, knowing that it was one of those letters she'd keep for a while, regardless of what it had to say. After the handwriting analysis, she finally read it:

Alice-

You're not at breakfast. and I was so looking forward to seeing you. I wake up

happy because of you, you know that? Well anyway, Claire says you were just

tired, and no, I'm not allowed to visit. As much as I'd like to, I don't' thing it would

be wise even if she had said I could. I'm doing an herbology project with your

brother today (I must admit, I'm not exactly looking forward to the "quality time.")

I guess I'll see you at lunch then, and if you're not doing anything after classes

today, I was wondering if you'd want to go do something with me. I guess I'll talk

to you later about that.

I really do love you.

-Seamus.



Ahh. if THAT didn't give you the warm fuzzies, chances are NOTHING could. thought Alice to herself, folding the paper up smugly and unaware of the smile spreading slowly across her face.

.

After Snape's class (lots of boring notes, review for the final, nothing incredibly interesting except when some Slytherin boy in a back row accidentally dropped his wand and turned his chair into a giant sea turtle for a moment, until Snape turned it back.) As usual, Claire stayed behind to help him "put some things away" in the storeroom, and Alice and Hypothia began to walk toward the greenhouses for herbology. Alice, for some reason, was particularly fond of this class. maybe because all the hands-on practice was a nice contrast to Snape's boring notes. She often go so immersed in her planting projects that she stayed through the break following second period to finish them up. Professor Sprout had even had a mandrake named after her, shortly before it was sliced up for use in some potion.

As they reached greenhouse five, they joined their classmates in a huddle around Professor Sprout, who, seeing that all her students had arrived, began her daily lecture about what they would be doing in class that day, and what not to touch if they wanted to maintain their original number of appendages. (Claire had Defense Against the Dark Arts second period. and although she didn't attend the class regularly, she seemed to believe that her little rendezvous with Snape should qualify her for full credit.) Devenoming poison dart flowers today. 'Hmm.' thought Alice. 'Sounds like fun.'

They got into pairs and were each given a pair of leather gloves that extended almost to their elbows and a pair of clear plastic safety goggles. Alice and Hypothia waked shyly over to their flower. It was huge, larger than Alice's head, and its petals seemed to have every shade of purple in them somewhere. Its thick stem, as big as a rather large person's leg, was coated in curly tendrils and tick, waxy dark green leaves. It had a hulking posture and seemed to be breathing heavily, swaying back and forth menacingly. A strip of duct tape covered its. mouth (although Alice was sure that wasn't the technical term, it sounded right somehow) and it seemed very eager to have this removed. Alice had just began to put on her gloves when she looked up to see that the tape was gone, and the flower was facing directly at her, it's stem arched and the tart in its center plainly visible, its sharp point glittering in the filtered sunlight. The next thing she knew, she was hit in the left shoulder by something sharp, and she spun around just in time to notice a cloaked figure running off outside the greenhouse. She fell to the cold, wet concrete floor and blacked out before she could even manage to ask Hypothia why she'd taken the tape off.