Finally, chapter 22 it out! I know it's been long since I updated; but I've been rather busy. And I didn't want to rush it into something I don't want it to be.

Thank you for being patient and as always; special thanks to you who reviewed! Well, I hope you'll enjoy! :)

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Chapter 22

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Christmas Eve; what do you do on Christmas Eve if you're absolutely bored and no one is there to entertain you? Well it's obvious isn't it? – No, you're right. It isn't. That's why Alice was sitting by the fireplace in the common room, reading an old and very familiar book.

"Are you going to sit there all night or what?" Alice looked up; she hadn't even noticed her newfound company.

"Well, yeah", Alice said, but she closed her book. Harper walked up and sat down beside her on the sofa.

"I've heard of this really awesome thing you can do", he said with a smirk. But not a mean one, he had more of a playful look.

"Oh really? And what might that be?" Alice asked and smiled back in the same way.

"It's called going outside and enjoy the nice weather." Alice looked down on her hands. It was true; this was probably the nicest day they'd had in months. The sun was shining, the snow was lying still on the ground, sparkling from the sunlight and there were just soft breezes, nothing to complain about really.

"Fine, but only because you made me!" She said whilst trying to sound upset as she failed completely a smiled crawled up in her face instead. "Just let me get my things."

As expected most of those who spent the holidays in school was outside. The younger ones playing in the snow and the elderly students enjoying the sun. Alice and Harper walked down the snowy fields towards the lake.

"So…" Harper said, trying to get the conversation started. Obviously he felt uncomfortable with the silence. Alice didn't mind being quiet most of the time. But for some reason people always felt the need to talk around her. "How are you and Zabini doing?" They sat down on a stone far from everyone else.

"Great, thank you", Alice said with a smile. Harper smiled back at her before he looked down on the ground.

"I'm sorry, but, what do you see in him?" Their eyes met. A mixture of disappointment and jealousy was shown in him.

"He's nice, charming, handsome…" Harper interrupted her.

"Do you think you still would have chosen him, if he hadn't been the first?" At first Alice didn't understand what Harper meant.

"He… Um", Alice made a pause. "He wasn't the first", she said, this time it was she who looked down on the ground.

"What? You've had more than one boyfriend since we started?"

"No, no. We were never together… And it was before school started", Alice said. "But it doesn't matter now. I've got Blaise and I'm happy with him."

"Are you saying that to me, or yourself?" Harper asked after a moment of silence. He did have a point and Alice wasn't sure she actually could answer the question. It had felt so simple. Having Daphne, which Alice didn't doubt at all, and then to have Blaise. Blaise, sweet, gentle Blaise who did everything for her without questioning it. The two of them was really all she had.

"I need him", she said firmly. No doubt about that at least.

"Wake up miss!" Alice tried to open her eyes; it was too early to get up already. "Miss Alice!" Alice opened her eyes fully and looked around the oblong room. The bright eyes and pink cheeks and a great smile.

"Beth?" She remembered the elf too well. "What are you doing here?"

"I found out that you had come here, to Hogwarts, to where Beth work now, and I wanted to give you a Christmas gift", Beth said, her high pitch voice and the speed of her words made it nearly impossible to understand anything. The little elf held out a rather big, badly wrapped box. Alice took it, opened it while trying to look happy. It contained something soft, if felt smooth to the touch.

"Oh, thank you", said Alice and hugged Beth. It was a dress, sort of old-fashioned 50's dress, with lace and in a vanilla white colour.

"I made it myself, miss", Beth said in joy.

"That just made the dress even prettier", Alice said and smiled.

"I have to go now, miss", Beth said, still with a smile that reached from one ear to the other. "Come visit us sometime, in the kitchen miss!" And with that she disappeared. Alice looked at the end of her bed. She counted the gifts to fourteen before she lost track and had to start over. She couldn't imagine who would want to give her anything at all. The first box was from a boy in seventh grade she'd spoken to once; it contained a mixture of sweets. Five or six following boxes contained pretty much the same. Then she got a gift from Narcissa; a cosy, fur-vest. After that a small box from Blaise that contained a simple, beautiful necklace, a silver chain with a blur stone hanging on it. She noticed a big, unmarked gift in the bottom of the pile; it was wrapped in a brown paper and rather heavy. She opened it carefully. It contained a pair of ice-skates, white ones, just like the ones she used to have when she was younger. Alice wondered who might know her well enough to know she loved ice-skating. It didn't make any sense at all; it wasn't from Daphne or Blaise, neither was it from Narcissa or her father. Who else could it be?

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Alice took her new skates and walked up the castle. Most were probably heading for the fest in the Great Hall. She didn't mind though, the thought of having to eat alone later on. The thought of having the lake all by herself was much more alluring. She ran down to the lake, though the tick snow. This was perfect, it felt like home. She put on her skates and walked out on the ice. The nice feeling of just gliding, without anything stopping her filled her body and she couldn't help but smile. It was a bit dark though. Alice took out her wand and swung with it ten times. Ten, lit lanterns suddenly hung in the air. Giving the surrounding a warm, cosy feeling. She speeded up, to a leap and made a pirouette and landed perfectly at one foot. How could she ever have forgotten this? In the corner of her eye, she noticed the shade of a person by the shoreline.

"Draco?" She said as she approached him. There was no doubt about his blond hair.

"Sorry, I was just heading up for the fest when I noticed you", he said, he didn't look at her. "You look beautiful up there", he continued and started pushing some snow around with his foot.

"Thank you", Alice said and smiled.

"Do you, um", he paused and looked around, everywhere besides at Alice. "Do you know who gave them to you?" Alice stepped away from the ice and sat down to take of the skates. She patted on the ground beside her and he sat down.

"Yes", she said, still with a smile. "How did you know?"

"You told me, remember?" He said and looked at her for the first time. "Under the willow, when it was raining so badly."

"We were soaked", she said and smiled even brighter at the memory of it. "And I said I didn't want to get wet of the rain..."

"Even though you probably couldn't get any wetter", he filled in.

"I can't believe you remember that." She put a hand on his arm. He smiled nervously.

"I remember everything you say to me..." His cheeks turned brightly pink and he looked away from her again. She wanted to show her affection for the gift to him, but wasn't sure how to do so without him taking it the wrong way and without she herself taking it the wrong way.

"What did Blaise give you?" Draco asked. Alice pulled down her collar so that the necklace was visible. "It matches your eyes", he said. He seemed disappointed, a bit jealous even.

"It's beautiful, yes", Alice said. She hesitated, she did love it and it suited her perfectly. Simple yet stunning. That was the best way of describing it.

"But?" He interrupted her thoughts.

"It's a piece of jewellery. You don't really have to know a person to give them a necklace", she said, trying to comfort him in some way.

"Where have you been?" She asked and leaned her head on his shoulder. He cleared his throat before he spoke.

"I've been around", he said, giving her the most vague answer so far. Alice sat up straight, she just remembered something.

"What's an Unbreakable Vow?" she asked looking him deeply in the eyes. She had forgotten how beautiful they were, the light grey and the stripes of blue going from the black all the way to the edge of the iris. "What happens if you break it?" Draco stiffened; he understood that she must have heard.

"You die, if one break an Unbreakable Vow, they die", he said in a low tone. "Where did you hear that?"

"What's the mission?" Alice asked, her voice was harsh and honest. "The quest my father gave you. What is it?"

"I can't tell you", Draco said. Fear played across his face.

"Why not?" They were now leaning away from each other.

"Because he told me not to."

"Why did he give it to you? Why didn't he give it to... me?" Draco stood up, and so did Alice. They didn't look at one another but the tension between them was tick as stone. Draco sighed and looked away even more, if that was possible.

"Why did he give it to you of all people? I was under the impression he didn't like you very much."

"Does it matter what he thinks of me?" Draco hissed.

"Whose opinion matters then?" Alice put her arms over her chest and starred intense at him.

"Yours does", he breathed out.

"Then you should know my opinion of you has changed", she said and he instantly looked up at her, met her gaze. "You avoid me, you lie to me, you act differently – and not in a good way, you lurk around, taking use of people that shouldn't have anything to do with it..." Alice counted the statements on her fingers.

"I don't lie to you!"

"What is it you do then? Keeping the truth from me? I don't see the difference between those two."

"He gave it to me to punish me", Draco suddenly said. Alice went numbed. "He gave the mission to me, to punish me for being with you and..." Alice took a step forward, initiating him to continue.

"And for my father's failure." He looked down on his feet, as if he was about to cry. This couldn't be true, none of it. But her earlier experience with her father, it did not surprise her too much.

"I don't know what to do... And I'm just so scared", he whispered. He would probably kill him if he didn't do it, what ever it was. Alice stepped up to him, leaned her head against his chest and put her arms around him. Her heart took more than one extra beat when he did the same.

"You could have just told me", Alice whispered in to his chest.

"No, I couldn't", he replied.

"What do you mean by that?" She pushed herself away from him. "Don't you trust me?"

"It's not just me who have changed", he said, as usual, he avoided her gaze.

"I cared for you, I would have done anything for you", Alice said and started backing away from him.

"When it's real, you can't just walk away", he said and reached out for her arm. "Don't leave me."

"Well… I guess it wasn't real then", she replied and turned from him. Alice picked up her skates and hurried away from the scene.

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"What's up with you? You're all grumpy and down today", Daphne said and pushed Alice gently in the side. Daphne had come back earlier that morning, like a sunray as always. Alice looked around in the room, they were pretty much alone.

"I spoke to Draco yesterday", she said quietly. Today was much chillier than the day before. The temperature had gone down probably 15C and the sun was nowhere to be seen. "It felt too good, Daph", Alice said just as Daphne was about to inflict.

"What did he say?" Daphne moved closer to Alice on the sofa.

"Well, first he was being all nice and so", Alice stared.

"And then you had a fight", Daphne continued.

"How did you know?" Alice looked at her friend with big eyes.

"You always fight, it's like you have to so that you can stay away from each other", Daphne explained. "The tension when you two are in the same room is so thick you could probably cut in it with a knife."

"He asked me to not leave him", Alice said, ignoring Daphne's very true statement. Daphne reacted to her words; she straightened up and looked at Alice with confusion.

"He was the one that left you", Daphne said firmly. A cough not three feet away caught their attention.

"Miss Gaunt, it's time", professor Snape said. His eyes were moving quickly from Alice to Daphne and back again. Alice stood up, took her bag and walked passed professor Snape.

"Where are you going?" Daphne yelled after her.

"I'll be back tonight or tomorrow morning!" Alice yelled back before she stepped out from the common room. They walked under silence, professor Snape in the lead and Alice following him as a tail. They weren't heading for the main entrance but for professor Snape's office. The room they entered was rather big, bookshelves filled with jars of different unidentifiable objects. Professor Snape walked over to the lit fireplace and stopped.

"The plans have changed, you're meeting your father at the Malfoy Manors instead", professor Snape said slowly. "Have you used floo powder before?" Alice shook her head. "Take a hand full", Snape said and held out a jar filled with some sort of gray dust. Alice did as he said and took a handful of the floo powder.

"Toss it in the fire." Alice did so as well. "And speak the destination."

"Malfoy Manor", Alice said clearly. The flames went emerald green and higher than before.

"Just step in to the fire and it will take you there", professor Snape said and gave Alice a gentle nudge towards the fire. Alice did as he said and stepped in to the fire. She started spinning around, seeing loads of different rooms before her feet finally took ground again. She stumbled a bit from the hard landing and walked out in the familiar room slowly.

"Alice, excellent", her father said to her left. Alice looked up at him and smiled. "Did your travelling go well?"

"Well, I'm here", Alice said and brushed of some ash from her clothes. Then she turned serious. "There's something I need to ask you."

"Anything", Lord Voldemort said and gave her a smile.

"What mission did you give to Draco?" She asked quickly and firmly.

"It doesn't matter. We have more urgent matters to attend to", he said, completely ignoring her.

"It matters to me!" The two of them starred at each other for a long moment.

"He shouldn't mean anything to you", Voldemort finally said.

"Well he does and it's not like you can just change it", Alice said softly, trying to win her father over.

"Love only makes us weak", Voldemort said. Rage filled him, his own daughter, taking liking of someone like Draco Malfoy. Unacceptable!

"Tell me what you ordered him to do!" Alice demanded. Voldemort took out his wand and pointed it towards Alice. "What are you doing?"

"Teaching you a lesson", Voldemort said. "Crucio!" The light hit Alice. Her legs couldn't carry her anymore and she fell to the ground. Pain radiated intensely from her heart and out to her whole body. She couldn't control her muscles. Before she could stop herself a yelp of pain slipped between her lips.