This chapter's a bit heavy, but I hope you'll like it anyways! :)

Sorry for taking such time with this chapter as well, I just wanted it to be great.

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xXMizz Alec VolturiXx: Thanks! :)

RonHermione7: Thank you! And super-thank-you for the opinion on the houses! :)

NegligibleNaina: Yeah, I think we all are! ;)

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Chapter 9

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It'd been four days. Alice had a hard time deciding whether she was to confront her father or if she should look for her mother and ask for her side of the story, maybe even do both. She had to decide if she was strong enough to hear the truth, whatever it was. It was raining outside, the big drops pattered against her window created a rumbling noise. It felt cosy and comforting; Alice loved the sound of rain. Just like that it came to her, she knew what she needed to do. Without hesitating she stood up from the sofa, put the book in her hand on the table and vanished with a bam. The air tightened around her, she was spinning around and then her feet took ground again.

"Excuse me, miss", the voice came from a tall, dark man with a vague expression, his face seemed almost twisted and the sleepy, grey eyes. "I think you're lost", he said. Alice looked around, it was an old house, spider web and dust covered most parts of the hallway they stood in.

"How come?" She asked, trying to look past him and in to the room behind. He took a step to the side and completely covered her sight.

"This is not the place for a little girl like you." Alice raised an eyebrow to the man before her.

"Little girl?" Alice said with a smirk. "I bet I could take you with no wand." Before the man had any chance to react, Alice put her hand out and the man flew backward in to the door that swung open. Alice straightened up from her bent position and walked in to the room, stepping over the fainted man's body.

"I'm sorry to come barking in", Alice said, directly to her father who sat at the far end of a long table. "The man was insulting me." Voldemort smiled brightly and clapped his hands.

"Dolohov is a strong wizard; I am impressed that you took him out without much more of combat", he said and stood up. All the men around the table gazed over from their Lord to the unknown girl.

"The underestimate of your opponent is your greatest weakness", she said; proud over how wise it sounded.

"Well spoken, my child", Voldemort said putting his arms around her shoulders. "Do you mind waiting outside for a few minutes while I finish this off?" Alice smiled at her father and walked out the room. The man, whom Alice now knew was named Dolohov was still lying knocked-out on the floor. He was probably going to be left lying there until he woke up. It didn't take long before the door was opened again, this time a large, blond man stepped over Dolohov's body.

"The Lord is ready for you now", the man said, before leaving Alice and the house. Alice walked with fast light steps in to the room and sat down beside her father on the sofa.

"I need to ask you something", she said. He didn't look at her; instead he was preoccupied with the snake, Nagini. "Why did mother leave you?" He instantly turned to face her.

"It was in July", he said softly. "Up until then times had been god. We were progressing and everything seemed to fall in place. But then a friend overheard something, a prophecy."

"What is a prophecy?" Alice asked, unfamiliar with the term.

"It's a foretelling of something that is going too happened. This prophecy told of my death. Although I do not fear death, it is a very unpleasant thing to hear. So I went to our house, we had to leave so we could live together. But the two of you were missing. It broke my heart. I feared that someone might have taken you away from me. I searched, but no one knew anything. The prophecy was right in front of me and I needed more time, so I tried to prevent it. But something backfired…" Alice understood this was the end of the story. She felt horrible. How worried he must have been.

"Mum just left?" Alice said, mostly to herself.

"Your mother left me when I needed you the most."

"And you were hurt?"

"It turned out that she wanted me dead", her father whispered. "And I fear, she might try getting me killed again."

"Bu-but I've just met you, you can't go away, you can't be killed", Alice said. She understood why her mother never told her about her father now, she hated him.

"She also confessed, she wished you never been born."

"What are you going to do with her?" Alice didn't know what to feel anymore. Anna, her mother, her loving mother, wished her dead? Both of them dead? It didn't feel like her, but much had changed recently. How could anyone be sure of anything anymore?

"We have to eliminate the treats against our being."

"When?"

"Tonight."

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"Dinner's ready." Alice looked up from her book. It was the first Draco said to her in days. She smiled at him, but he looked away. He turned and started walking down the hall. Something was wrong and Alice couldn't bare it anymore. She missed him, couldn't he see it? With only a few steps she ran to him and grabbed his wrist.

"Aren't you coming to eat?" He pulled his arm to himself and looked down in the floor.

"I've already eaten", he said, leaving her standing in the hallways as a fool. Alice didn't feel like eating anymore. All afternoon she'd been thinking about what her father had said. She needed to speak with Anna and a strange intuition told her she should go look in the basement. If Draco was in his room and Narcissa and Bellatrix was eating no one would come looking for her. She ran downstairs as quiet as she could, her footsteps were damped by the carpet. She turned and looked down the dark stair to the cellar. Could she really be there? Alice walked down the stairs slowly. The iron gate was shut tight.

"Mother?" No response. Alice didn't give up though, she knew Anna was here. "Mama?" Something moved, something to her right.

"Alice?" Anna crawled to the gate that parted them.

"Father told me", Alice began, she wasn't sure what to say really. "Father said…"

"Alice, sweetheart, don't believe a word your father tells you", Anna said, reaching out through the gate toughing her daughter's cheek. "I left because I noticed that every word he told me was a lie, I didn't want you to grow up in such a home. What kind of person would you be then?"

"Mama, he's going to kill you", Alice said, hugging her mother the best she could. "Tonight, he-he's…"

"My darling, it's alright", Anna said trying to calm her crying daughter down. "You have to do it."

"What?" Alice pulled away. "I can't!"

"I've seen what you can do, you have to kill me and then take it back." Alice backed up a few steps.

"If he finds out he will kill both of us", she said.

"You'll find a way, sweetheart."

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"Father?" He looked at her, with eyes red of anger. "Are you going to kill her now?" For a moment it seemed as the older man wasn't going to answer his daughter. But when a glimpse of a smile played across her lips he couldn't help but smile himself.

"Yes", he said.

"Can I do it?" Alice asked. Proudly the man stepped aside and gave his daughter room. She took a wand from inside her robe and looked down on the broken body before her.

"Please, sweetheart", her mother sobbed. She didn't get to finish her sentence before Alice raised her wand and a green flash appeared. Lord Voldemort started laughing.

"Well done, Alice", he said and kissed her on the head. Alice couldn't take her eyes away from the lifeless body on the floor. Voldemort raised his wand towards the body, but Alice stepped in between.

"You have much to attend to, let me dispose of it", she said. He lowered his wand and smiled.

"Very well", he said. "You are leaving for Hogwarts soon."

"Why?" Alice said. "Why can't you teach me?"

"It would be best for you to make some friends. But choose them wisely", he said and Disapparated. Alice turned to her mother's lifeless body again. She had to move her. Luckily, Anna was a small woman, it was no problem for Alice to pick her up on her back and carry the body to her room. She put her down on the bed and looked over it. There were no signs of a fight, which was good. It would be less painful then. Alice put her hands on her mother's chest, she focused. Nothing happened.

"Mama, you have to let me", she said, trying again. Still, nothing happened. Tears started streaming down Alice's face, it couldn't be too late? She'd only died minutes ago. She took a grip on her mother's shoulders and shook her.

"Mama, wake up, you're supposed to wake up!" The door was opened.

"Alice, I heard you screaming..." Draco dropped the things in his hand and ran over to the bed, pulling Alice away from Anna's body.

"She's gone", he said, holding a tight grip around her. He backed away from the bed, Alice tried desperately to get back to it and it resulted in them falling on the floor.

"No she's not!" Alice said with her voice tick of tears. "I was supposed to wake her up, but I can't do it. I promised!"

"Mum!" Draco yelled, clearly something wasn't right. "Alice, there's nothing you can do; you can't wake up the dead!"

"I promised", Alice whispered. Narcissa entered the room with her sister right behind.

"Take the body away", Draco said, still holding a tight grip around Alice that sat quiet in his arms, crying.

"What happened?" Narcissa said, looking from the two of them on the floor to the bed. Bellatrix walked over to the bed and started laughing.

"I don't know", he said, stroking Alice on the head. "She's breaking down." Narcissa turned to the bed. "It's going to be alright", Draco whispered in Alice's ear.