~Library Lurker~

~Early Saturday morning, Late September.~

Alyona had dismissed her opportunity to sleep in as she had decided to wake up during her usual time.

While getting ready, she heard the sound of someone stumbling into the bathroom. After a brief moment, the source of the noise made itself visable. It was Alden's girlfriend, Daphne Greengrass.

She appeared to be wearing nothing but a Slytherin quidditch jersey with the number five on it. Daphne's dishwasher hair was disheveled and her eyes looked heavy.

"Alyona? What are you doing awake at this hour on a Saturday?" Daphne asked in a groggy morning voice.

"I could ask you the same," The Blossom girl responded sharply without breaking away from styling her hair.

Alyona quickly noticed the way Daphne was walking.

"Are you alright? Why are you limping?"

Daphne shuffled her feet over to the sink next to Alden's sister and splashed some cold water on her face.

"Oh, your brother and I just had a rather…busy night, I'm bit sore," she said. There was a hint of pride in her voice.

Alyona halted her routine and stared at Daphne through the mirror with a subtle look of disgust.

"Um, okay…Thanks for sharing…" Alyona retorted sarcastically.

"Hey, you asked," Daphne said with a chuckle," "Seriously though, what are you doing in here so early?"

Alyona had finally finished polishing her tresses when she responded with, "I wake up this early everyday. I like taking my time to get ready."

"Have to get all dolled up for Malfoy, huh?" Daphne mocked while she ran her fingers through her tangled hair.

Alyona was going through her various headbands, trying to pick one to wear for the day when the door to the bathroom flew open once again. This time it was miss Pansy Parkinson.

"What are you doing in here so early, Blossom?" She spat.

Alyona closed her eyes in annoyance as she sighed heavily, "I am just trying to get ready to go to the library in peace. Am I allowed that?"

"The library? It's not even open until eight-am," Daphne mentioned.

"Pince is letting me in early, I have some…extra-curricular research to do," Alyona said.

Pansy huffed as she walked into one of the stalls to relieve herself.

'I hate her so much.' Daphne mouthed silently to Alyona as she rolled her eyes.

Alyona giggled as she applied a bubblegum pink headband onto her silky blonde locks.

Pansy exited the stall and walked over to the sinks. She took a look at all of the beauty supplies that rested in a bag near Alyona's feet.

"I would never wake up this early to do such useless beauty practices," She said arrogantly.

Alyona turned to miss Parkinson and looked her up and down a few times, taking in her appearance.

"I wish you would," Alyona remarked.

Daphne began laughing uncontrollably upon hearing this sly insult.

Pansy whipped her head away from looking at the mirror to face Alyona.

"Excuse me?!" She snapped.

Alyona, without turning to look at the insulted girl, repeated herself.

"Did I stutter? I said, I wish you would, and I'm sure plenty of other people would appreciate it too," Alyona said plainly.

Pansy was seething, but she knew that if she attempted anything against Alyona, she and her family would be in a world of trouble with the Malfoys.

"Piss off, Blossom!" Pansy barked.

"You're the one thats bothering me, why don't you piss off, you wretch?!" The Blossom heiress snipped back.

"Whatever!" Pansy shouted in return as she stormed out of the bathroom.

Daphne was stunned. She had never seen someone other than Draco stand up to Pansy so confidently.

"Damn…Well done there, Blossom. I see Malfoy has taught you well."

~ooOOOoo~

After her morning routine, Alyona grabbed her wand, a torch and some note taking supplies and headed straight for the school's library.

After pestering the librarian, Madam Pince, for nearly half an hour the day prior, she finally gave in and granted Alyona access to the library before opening hours.

Pince made it very clear that if one single thing was out of place when she returned to open up for the day, she'd ban Alyona from the library for the rest of her time at Hogwarts.

The library was absolutely massive with dark wood bookshelves that went nearly all the way to the tall, seventy foot ceiling. The same wood was used to craft long and decorative desks that resided through out the library, read for quiet study sessions.

The atmosphere of the library was always next to silent, even with it normally being crowded with students and faculty. However, being here alone as the sun had jusy began to to rise was rather chilling and haunting.

Pince had given Alyona a piece of parchment where she wrote down what sections would most likely have information pertaining to the Norman invasion and the soldiers involved in the battle.

Alyona found plenty of books with information on the battle. Nearly every single soldier had a good amount of space within the pages that had been dedicated to their life before and after the battle. All except Vasily.

None of the books provided any information that Professor Binns hadn't already covered in class that day.

Alyona tapped her left hand down on the desk in frustration. The sound of her diamond snake ring clanged against the hard wood as she read through the pages of the books.

She was about to begin scanning through her twelfth book when a hand reached out and rested itself on her shoulder.

Alyona let out a small whimper as she spun around to see who it was.

"Good morning, Darling," Draco said cheerfully.

"Oh, good morning, Handsome. How did you sleep?" She asked as she came down from her initial fright.

Upon his sudden arrival, she had remembered that she didn't lock the door behind her when she entered the library.

"I slept well, did you?" He asked lovingly

"I did," Alyona quickly replied.

Draco looked down at the open book that laid in front of Alyona and then over to the large pile of books resting on the table next to her.

Alyona paused for a moment to think. Had she told Draco that she was going to be here this morning?

"Draco? How did you know where I'd—"

"Are you studying for a test? Can I help?" Malfoy interrupted.

Alyona shook her head. "I'm just trying to find more information on Vasily, more specifically, his wife. I've gone through almost all of the books that contain information on the topic and I've still found nothing."

"Oh ya, What more are you trying to learn about him?" Draco asked.

"Remember how I was trying to find out more about him and who he married, I sat with the book that Binns gave me for about a week straight?"

Draco suddenly remembered. He recalled the span of time that she wouldn't look up from the book that she had borrowed from her Professor.

"Oh, that's right. Have you found any info on it?" Draco asked

"Not yet, unfortunately," She replied.

Draco furrowed his brow as he thought to himself.

"Wait here." Draco said.

Draco walked quickly down the row of books and disappeared behind a distant bookshelf.

Draco began attempting to search for more books on the topic as Alyona continued to search for answer within the books she already had in front of her.

Draco was a couple of aisles over, inspecting one of the texts that he suspected would the have information that they were seeking when a flash of Purple light illuminated the library as a blasting sound followed.

Alyona turned around to see one of the enormous bookshelves beginning to fall down towards her.

The top of the large bookshelf then hit the next one over like a giant domino and continued to make its downward descent.

Draco saw this and ran back to Alyona as he went to withdraw his wand, but Alyona beat him to it.

She aimed her white aspen wand upward and casted towards the falling shelf, stopping it in its place before it had the chance crushed her.

Although stopped with magic, the bookshelf was still slightly too heavy for Alyona's magical strength.

"Draco!" She called out.

Malfoy's instincts kicked into overdrive at the sight of his girlfriend just moments away from being crushed alive.

Malfoy ran as fast as he could over to her as a sudden cast of Stupify knocked him down.

Fueled by adrenaline, Draco got up almost instantly and surveyed the area. He saw hooded figure with their wand drawn, standing in the shadows of the room about thirty feet away.

He took a clear cast of Expelliarmus towards the unknown assailant and finished his trek over to Alyona.

"I'm here, I'm here!" He announced.

Draco quickly assisted her in raising the toppling bookshelves.

The two students were able to levitate the falling structure just long enough for them to slip out from underneath it.

Draco grabbed Alyona and tumbled out from underneath the bookshelf that had resumed falling.

As they laid on the ground, they heard the loud crashing sounds of the massive wooden structures knocking each other over, one by one.

Alyona sat up in Draco's arms and looked about the mess that had been created. Books and loose pages were scattered about with remnants of glass from the lantern that she had brought with her.

Alyona thought she saw a glimpse of a figure lurking about the side of the library that still had standing shelves. Her suspicions were confirmed when the unknown assailant began levitating one of the near by desks.

The unnamed witch or wizard quickly maneuvered the wooden desk above the two students.

Draco and Alyona looked in horror as the levitation spell ceased and the solid desk began falling towards them.

In one swift move, Draco pulled Alyona back down to his chest and rolled them out of the way.

The wooden desk came down in a loud crash as shards and splinters of wood were flung all around.

"What the devil is going on in here!!!"

The two students looked back towards the entrance to see Madam Pince, who had come to open up the library for the rest of the students.

"Madam Pince, someone—," Alyona was cut off by the enraged librarian.

"I offer you time in my library alone and unsupervised and this is how you treat it!? Pince shrieked.

Draco tried his best to stand up for his beloved. "Madam, please! It wasn't her fault! There's someone else in here that shouldn't be!"

Pince narrowed her eyes at the sight of Malfoy.

"Oh, I can see that. Who told you that you could be in here, mister Malfoy? Because i sure didn't!" Pince scolded, "I only granted miss Blossom early access to my library, no one else!"

The young couple looked at the furious Pince for a brief moment, completely unsure of what else to say.

"Get out! Both of you!!"

Draco helped Alyona up and they both ran out of the severely damaged library as fast as they could.

~ooOOOoo~

"Professor, we were attacked! We wouldn't vandalize the library, someone else was there!" Alyona pleaded to Dumbledore.

Madam Pince, had tracked down the two blonde Slytherins shortly after the incident, had promptly escorted them straight to the headmaster's office.

The librarian rolled her eyes and gave an accusatory look towards the two students.

"Rubbish! Miss Blossom probably snuck mister Malfoy into the library with her for some unauthorized alone time," Madam Pince scolded.

Draco scoffed, "We're we behaving just fine until some lunatic tried to murder us!"

Dumbledore raised his hand to show a request of silence to this squabble.

"You said that you saw someone else in the library with you, miss Blossom. But you didn't see a face?" The headmaster asked.

Alyona shook her head, sadly. "I didn't see their face. They were cloaked with their hood pulled over their face. It could have been a school uniform, but I'm completely not sure."

Dumbledore gently nodded at this information before turned to Draco, "And you saw nothing more, mister Malfoy?"

Draco shook his head, "No, sir. I saw no more than she did. I just did my best to protect her from the attack."

Madam Pince stepped forward to protest, "Professor, you're not actually buying this story?! Surely they are just covering for their egregious destruction of my library!"

"I do not believe that either of them had malicious intent, Madam Pince. I shall have your library restored to its original state, and whilst doing so, we shall see if this unknown person left behind anything that could help us identify them," Dumbledore said.

"Thank you, headmaster," the students replied as they made their exit from the grand office.

Madam Pince held a viscous stare as they waltzed out of Dumbledore's office without punishment.

~ooOOOoo~

Later in the great hall, lunch time was in full swing as students filled their faces with delicious food. Most of them had slept in quite a bit and were waking up to lunch being their first meal of the day.

Draco and Alyona were enjoying their meal as another letter fell in front of Alyona. It was a rosy pink envelope with the the signature rose wax seal.

"At least I know that this one is from my parents," Alyona chirped. She was happy to hear from them after so long.

She opened up the decorative casing and began reading the letter silently to herself.

Draco was busy filling his mouth with food as he heard the slight sound of gasping come from his darling.

"Is everything okay, Princess?" Draco asked.

Alyona looked a mix of irritated and worried.

"Alex is missing," she replied.

"What?" Draco was suddenly more alert after Alyona shared this news.

"Ya…I guess he's been missing for weeks, and I'm just now finding out about it," Alyona said as she brought her hands together to cup her face while her elbows on the table supported the weight.

Alden and Daphne had just walked into the dining hall as Alyona spotted his curly black hair.

She got up with letter in hand and walked over to where they had chosen to sit. Alden barely had time to look up before his sister was practically shoving the letter in his face.

"Alex is missing, he's been missing. Dad is just telling me now. Did you know about this?" Alyona asked bluntly.

Alden nervously shook his head, "No, dad never sent me a letter about this. How long had he been missing?"

"Weeks," his sister replied sharply.

Daphne chimed in, "Well, he's an adult. He could have just ran away to start a new life somewhere else. He probably wanted to get out of the spot light."

Alyona shook her head immediately, "He's always been a family person. He wouldn't just up and leave like that. Something's wrong. I know it."

Alyona looked back over to her Slytherin Prince. He was looking at her from across the room with worried eyes. She headed back over and sat down next to him.

"What did your brother say?" Draco asked.

"He didn't know about this either," Alyona responded.

Draco put an arm around her for comfort, "I'm sure he will be found, Darling. Don't worry too much."

Alyona sat there, staring blankly at the letter in front of her.

"Draco, let's be honest with ourselves…someone's kidnapped my brother."

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