Here's a super long chapter for you! Well, comparatively, at least. Enjoy! Oh, and I should warn you, there's some pretty sappy stuff ahead. Well, for Antonin and Alecto's standards, anyway. I hope you like it. (:

Chapter Nine

Because I was to be going into my fifth year and much too old for childish nicknames, that summer I insisted that nobody, not even my family, was permitted to call me 'Ally' anymore. It was an immature, dumb thing to be called, in my opinion.

My father, who had always thought that Alecto was a boyish sounding name, always used to call me the stupid nickname, but even he grudgingly gave it up, claiming that I was "growing up too fast" and all sorts of nonsense. Seeing as he was usually urging me to be more mature, I didn't quite understand what the problem was.

The only one who didn't seem inclined to cooperate was Antonin, who had never called me Alecto and probably never would. I didn't fight him too much on that point except for when he was being frustrating- which was actually most of the time, but he never paid me any mind.

On my fifteenth birthday, he came to our house unannounced. My mother didn't mind- she loved him just as every other woman in the world did- and she didn't even care that Amycus wasn't home that day. I think she was still holding onto the notion that he and I would end up married. After all, he was the only male who I'd ever really befriended, much less showed interest in.

We sat in the parlour, he leaning back in his chair casually, and me sitting on the edge of the sofa with my eyes trained on his handsome face.

"Happy birthday, love," he finally broke the silence, bringing back memories of the birthday so long ago when we'd talked in the garden. It seemed like a different, forgotten world to me now; it had been so long ago that we were children that I couldn't quite recall how it felt.

"Thanks," I returned, smiling at him. There wasn't much that could make me smile unconditionally. Antonin- lucky him- was one of those things that had that capability.

Glancing around the room to ensure that we were alone, he muttered, "I've brought you something."

My eyebrows raised. I couldn't recall an occasion in the past in which either of us had ever given anything to one another. "Really, you shouldn't have gone through the effort," I scolded, though I was really quite pleased.

"I thought that was what made it special. Of course I don't have to, but the fact that I wanted to do something for you... I think the correct response, Ally, would have been 'thank you'." He was smirking, lording his cleverness over me even on my own birthday.

With a light scowl, I replied, "Well then, thank you."

"Better," he answered, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small black box. "There you go."

I looked down at it. It was about eight inches long, and narrow. "What is it?" I queried, not feeling like I should take it until I was certain it wouldn't bite. You never knew, really.

"Open it," he commanded, handing it over.

As I lifted the lid, there was a knot in my stomach. His dark eyes were fixed on my face, watching for a reaction, but I only noticed that by glancing up before I fixed my attention back on the gift.

What I found against the black satin lining of the box was, quite possibly, the most beautiful necklace I'd ever seen. Attached to a thin silver chain was a tiny silver heart, around the border of which were set seven tiny emeralds, all encircling a small, glittering diamond- a Slytherin-approved piece of jewelry if I'd ever seen one.

My eyes were certainly quite wide by that point, but I hardly realised it. All I knew was that I couldn't possibly accept such a thing, particularly from Antonin.

"Do you like it?" he questioned, apparently unable for once to read my expression. I looked at him briefly, then back at the necklace.

"Antonin, I love it," I breathed, and then continued regretfully, "but I can't keep this. It must have cost a fortune-"

"It's rude to talk about the price of gifts you receive, Ally," he cut me off, sounding a twinge unhappy. "And I'm not taking it back."

I frowned. "It's also rude to give jewelry to a girl who isn't your girlfriend, particularly when you know I'd never be able to buy you anything half as expensive in return."

Sighing, he leaned forward on his elbows toward me. "Ally. I never asked for anything in return."

"I know," I told him, "and it's beautiful. But Antonin-" I shut the lid and held it out to him, my mind made up. "I can't take this from you. You know that. I'm sorry."

He took the black box, obviously disappointed. The expression on his face looked foreign, as if he wasn't used to feeling like that. Which, I decided, was probably true.

"Care to stay for dinner?" I invited, trying to make it up to him.

Shaking his head, he stood and made for the fireplace. "I'd better be getting home. Thank you for your time."

I was surprised by the trace of hurt I could sense in his voice. "I'm sorry," I repeated quietly.

He nodded. "I know. Happy birthday, love." And with that, he turned, threw a handful of Floo Powder into the grate, and was gone.

I think I really hurt his feelings through that rejection, which alerted me to two things at the time. The first was that he actually had feelings, and the second was that he might not have been as invincible as he seemed, after all.

And, later on, I realised something else, as well- something even more shocking than my previous revelations.

Antonin Dolohov actually cared about me.

---

By the time the school year rolled around, we'd put the necklace incident behind us and were friends again. He, Amycus, and I spent most of our time together (my brother was about as apt as making friends as I was, and most of his crowd had graduated already), and through many nights in the library reading up on hexes, we became one of the most formidable forces in the school.

It was natural, with the amount of time we spent together, that rumours would start flying about me and Antonin. Unfortunately, this was a fact that gave my brother a lot of grief- for some reason, he didn't like the idea of his little sister dating his best friend.

"Alecto, are you and Antonin dating?" he questioned one night for what was probably the ninth time that week.

This time, rather than ignoring him as I usually did, I mumbled, "Ha. I wish."

"I'd rather you didn't, you know," he pressed. "It'd make things awkward."

"You dated Lorraine," I pointed out dismissively. "Besides, I don't think Antonin is interested in me in that way. He prefers the busty, blonde type." Sure, I wasn't anything horrendous to look at, but I certainly didn't feel that I compared to what I viewed as the sort of girls Antonin went for. They all seemed to be destined to become lingerie models.

"Does he?" Amycus responded, as if that was new to him. "I mean, I know some of them have been like that- oh, alright, most of them- but you two spend an awful lot of time with each other. It seems like..."

He'd gone silent. "Like?" I prompted, impatiently, though I didn't need him to finish it. "Really, Amycus, there's nothing happening there." Even as I stated it, I was wishing desperately that my words weren't true.

My brother turned on the common room sofa so that he was laying on his back and I couldn't see his face. "Right, Alecto, right," he returned in a disbelieving tone.

Deciding the conversation was over, I looked back down at the book I'd been studying. Other people were in the Common Room; I wondered how many of them had caught the conversation, and how many of them were thinking along the same lines as he. For some reason, I felt good knowing that people thought that Antonin and I were together. Even if it wasn't true, it gave me a sort of power, and- I hoped- deterred other girls from getting too close to him.

---

Due to pending OWLs, I spent a good portion of that year studying, as well. Antonin offered, with a teasing grin, to help me out in Transfiguration were I to require it. It was hard to believe that so much time had elapsed since our weekly meetings in the library; it felt like only a few days since he'd been laughing at me for mixing up facts.

The way he'd begun to treat me, though, was a far cry from the cruelty of our childhood. Sure, he was the same Antonin- his gloating grin and casual demeanor were enough to point out that fact. Something had changed between us, though. As if he was making up for lost time, he treated me better than I'd ever seen him treat anyone, even those who seemed to be his closest friends.

Most of the time, I attributed it to the fact that we'd grown up together, and he was something of a brotherly figure in my life. Perhaps I thought he was the most gorgeous person on the face of the planet and would have liked nothing better than to kiss him passionately half the time, but we'd grown up together, and he was always somewhat protective of me. It was one of those "he can tease me but he'll punch anyone else who tries" sort of deals. And whereas it frustrated me sometimes, I sort of liked it.

Amycus didn't, though. He seemed determined to keep Antonin as far away from me as possible. It might have been a sweet gesture, seeing as he was trying to keep me from getting my heart broken. However, there were two things wrong with that- one, he was being a bloody hypocrite, and two, I didn't want to be kept away from Antonin.

It didn't exactly surprise me that they stopped talking to each other by the time Christmas break came around, though that did make my social life awkward.

---

Only a week after break did I discover how far gone their friendship truly was.

I'd been out with Lorraine, who'd had a chocolate craving and dragged me along to the kitchens, and was just coming back into the Common Room when I heard voices- familiar, angry voices.

"Leave it, Alecto," Lory had urged me, then disappearing up to the dormitory herself. However, I'd been unable to do so.

Antonin and Amycus were both standing, facing each other and looking murderous. Whereas I'd only caught the angry buzz of their voices before, at a closer proximity, I could make out words- words that I didn't exactly want to be hearing, to be quite honest, but that I couldn't tear myself away from nonetheless.

"--away from her," I caught my brother growling, and assumed he was talking about me. There wasn't any other 'her' he really seemed to care about, after all.

"Make me," Antonin shot back, an extremely dangerous sort of look on his face.

Within the next second, their wands were drawn and pointed furiously at each other, both of them looking as if they would enjoy nothing more than a fight to the death.

"You don't know what you're getting into," threatened Antonin, his voice a low sort of purr that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, though from fear or something else, I was never sure.

"I damned well do," Amycus spat back. "You're not about to go shagging my sister!"

I could almost hear Antonin gritting his teeth, even though I was across the room, standing on the lowest step to my dormitory so I would remain hidden by shadow.

"You think," he hissed, "that I would ever compromise Alecto in any way?"

"S'not like you've given me any reason to think otherwise, Dolohov."

By that time, I wasn't even thinking that my brother sort of had a point there about Antonin's ways with women. I was far too concerned with what was going to happen.

Red sparks fell from the end of Amycus's wand as Antonin took a vicious step forward. I almost felt sick.

"Don't you dare even think to suggest that I would ever treat Alecto badly." I could hear murder in Antonin's voice. He'd never, in my life, sounded that angry- and he'd gotten pretty nasty in some of our arguments, too.

"What am I supposed to think, Dolohov? That you're not going to treat her as if she's a whore, just like you treat every other girl?"

It seemed as if Antonin was trying very hard to keep his temper in check. "She's not like every other girl to me, Amycus," he insisted, shortly. "And you know it."

"Oh?" my brother sneered. "Do I, then? I was under the impression that, and I quote, 'all girls aren't much more good than a shag'. Or have you had some divine revelation since then?"

"Shut up," was all Antonin seemed capable of. I was pretty sure that had he possessed the capability to breathe fire, he would have been doing so. My heart was fluttering against my ribcage, and I shifted my weight from foot to foot nervously.

Amycus really didn't seem to be afraid to cross any lines, because rather than doing what was advisable before things got nasty, he answered, "What, Dolohov? Afraid to hear the truth? Face it, you're not good enough for her."

"Maybe I'm not," he returned, though not nearly as bitterly as I'd expected him to be.

My brother, however, seemed intent on picking a fight, even though Antonin had assumed a less hostile stance. "You aren't and you know it. You stay the hell away and keep your filthy hands off her. Or else."

"Are you threatening me?" Antonin chuckled incredulously.

"If you touch Alecto I am. I'm not going to stand by and let you turn my sister into another one of your whores."

"I've told you before, I'd never-"

"So you say, but you have yet to act in a way that would suggest that."

Shaking his head, Antonin replied, "Oh, shove off. It's not any of your business anyway. Ally can make her own decisions."

With a scowl, Amycus answered, "It's my business to protect my sister from you. We both know full well that she's desperate enough to whore herself off to anything that offers."

I might have been offended that my brother had accused me of such a thing had Antonin's fist not collided with Amycus's nose, making a sickening crunch that indicated it had broken. Unable to stop myself, I cried out loudly, but by then the blow had been returned and I doubt either of them heard me.

In horror, I watched the two wrestle with each other. Antonin seemed to have the advantage, seeing as he was far more muscular than my lanky brother, but Amycus had more experience fist-fighting.

Their wands were forgotten for the moment, but mine wasn't, and in a moment of sanity I pulled it out and shouted, "Petrificus Totalus!"

The incantation, which had been an impromptu attempt to stun them both, hit my brother. He fell rigidly to the floor, and Antonin disentangled himself, looking at me interestedly. "How much of that did you catch?" He didn't seem to mind that I'd heard anything; his tone was more that of polite curiosity.

"A bit," I admitted. There was a slight tremor in my voice. Then, I changed the subject abruptly. "You're bleeding, Antonin."

Wiping the back of his hand across his lip carelessly, he muttered, "That doesn't matter. Are you alright?"

My eyebrows raised. "Why wouldn't I be?" It astonished me that he could have just been in a fight and still his full concern seemed to be for me. From what I knew of his character, he wasn't typically a caring-for-others type of individual. Strange, really; maybe he'd gotten hit a bit too hard in the head.

With a shrug, he stated, "You know I wouldn't have hit him had he not insulted you, right? I didn't want to hurt him-"

"I know," I cut Antonin off, glancing at my brother. His already forming bruises seemed much worse than Antonin's, and his nose was bleeding profusely. "But why?"

His mouth forming a thin line, he waved his wand lazily at Amycus' still form before saying anything. I remembered that the hex I'd used didn't impair hearing, and was glad for Antonin's quick thinking as my brother's ears glowed an odd orange color that I was almost sure meant temporary deafness. Anything Amycus heard, he liked to use against whoever had said it.

"Because, Ally," Antonin sighed, coming toward me and putting a hand on my shoulder gently, "No one has the right to talk about you that way. You're the best girl I know, and..."

I didn't even prompt him when he trailed off. I'd heard enough to discern two things- one, that he was being completely honest, and two, that he'd actually just given me an honest-to-Merlin compliment.

For a second, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. I couldn't help myself but to wrap my arms around him and kiss his cheek. "Good night, Antonin," I told him simply, deciding it would be best to get to bed before I did something stupid.

He smiled, and I felt my insides turn to mush. "Good night, Ally."

So long as he would smile that way at me, I didn't even care that he'd just given my brother a black eye and a broken nose. I didn't care about anything in the world.

Aww, young love. Don't worry, they aren't going to sit around being sappy for the rest of the story, I promise. Please review! I'd love to hear what you think! Thanks so much for reading, and a special thanks to the user Jacalyn Hyde for recommending that I update my fic description and for inspiring me with her reviews and her own writing. Seriously. It's awesome. Go read it. Now. (:

Until next time,

Caroline