Disclaimer: Just frolicking in the world of HP, own nothing!
A/N: I'm very humbled by the great reviews. It's nice to know people are enjoying reading this.
Alice had been in the library the whole day reading, taking notes and enjoying the company of her new companion, Fritz the dog, who remained contently curled by her feet. In more ways than one, Alice felt alive in that library. It was like diving into a Pandora's box of new knowledge. She couldn't believe the cover-ups that had taken place in history in order to keep the magical world secret. Just reading about the witch hunts made her reevaluate the hallmarks of religious history. In a way, it made her feel incredibly naïve, foolish to be on the side of the history takers, not the history makers. The divide was great indeed, yet it was there. And while it had been breached several times, it was the magical world who maintained the knowledge of the breach, and her world that had been denied the truth. Part of her wanted to believe it was for the greater good; the power inherent in the magical world was beyond dangerous and having two separate world orders would be preferable to one that would undoubtedly place a hierarchy of magical persons over non-magical persons. Though, was a wizard without its wand the same as a muggle without its technology? Could the shared knowledge have created a more progressive world for everyone? These were among the many questions she wrote in her notebook.
Draco had returned home early to find Alice relaxing in one of the library's reading chairs, her pair of heels placed neatly next to her and his father's dog, Fritz, curled in a ball below. The scene made him smile curiously.
"Oh hello," Alice said, noticing Draco entering the room.
Draco walked towards her, with the box under his arm. "I'm not even going to ask," he said, looking at Fritz.
"He seems to have taken to me," Alice replied, patting the dog on the head as she stood up and slipped her heels on.
"I was able to get what you requested," Draco said, placing the box on the nearby table. He noted the books and notes Alice had taken that day. She must have pulled several more from the shelves.
"Ah, that's great news," Alice said as she excitedly made her way next to Draco, stopping to meet his eyes with a smile. She had just remembered that last night he carried her to bed; she blushed slightly before saying, "Thank you so much."
Pulling out her mobile phone she pressed the button to turn it on, but it wouldn't respond. "The battery's dead," she said, a little disheartened. The phone had not been charged since the previous weekend.
Draco crossed his arms, "Won't work?"
"No," Alice shook her head. "Could we go back to my place? For just a little while?"
Draco looked at her curiously, "What for?"
"I need to charge it there," Alice said, "I promise it won't take long…I'll even take you out to dinner after." She realized she sounded a bit eager, and did she just ask him out on a date?
"Alright," he said, feigning suspicion. "Blaise warned me to keep an eye on your doings with this stuff."
Alice smiled mischievously, "Did he?"
With that, Draco picked up the box of muggle gadgets and offered his hand to Alice, who took it without hesitation. With a quick flash, the pair disapparated into Alice's third story flat. The place remained exactly as she left it, cluttered and disorganized.
"Sorry about the mess," Alice said embarrassed, "I didn't bother putting anything back after they went through my things." Not that Alice owned many "things." She had spent most of her money on books and journals, which cluttered most of the open space. She only spent frivolously on fashion, which poured from her tiny closet space. She cleared some books off a nearby chair for Draco to sit before finding the various wires she needed to plug-in her technology.
Draco watched her curiously as she plugged in several cables to her gadgets and into the wall. She turned on her mobile phone first to check and see if there were any messages. Sure enough, there was one from her father, who she would talk to at least once a week to keep in touch.
"I better give my father a call," she said to Draco, who had already begun reading a random book from her collection. He nodded in approval. At the same time, Alice had turned on her laptop so she could later check her email inbox. She noted her body's relief from the withdrawal symptoms she was getting from being away from her technology for a few days. Internet really becomes an integral part of your connection to the world.
Waiting through two rings, her father picked up the phone.
"Hey Dad, it's Alice," she said, glad he was available.
"Oh Alice, I tried calling you yesterday, is everything alright?" He said, slightly concerned, noting that Alice typically returned his calls sooner.
"Of course, my phone has been acting up. I actually didn't receive the message until today," she lied easily, not one of her favorite traits.
"You should get that checked…I talked to George and Marla, they were delighted to have you over the other night. They should have left for France by now."
"Oh that's right, they're going to be gone quite a while…" Alice talked to her father for about 15 minutes, while also going through her flat picking up misplaced items and putting them away. Even though Draco was there, she didn't feel uncomfortable talking freely in front of him. Draco simply listened to the conversation, noting that Alice seemed to have a good relationship with her father.
"Are you sure everything's going well. You're eating enough aren't you?" Her father asked before the end of the conversation; undoubtedly Aunt Marla had mentioned how thin she looked to her.
"Of course I'm eating Dad!" Alice said defensively. Despite being an adult, Alice's father always worried about his daughter, having been her primary caretaker since the loss of her mother. And now that she was out of school, living alone in London, and jobless, he worried more.
"If you need anything, especially money, you make sure you let me know." He said reassuringly.
"Don't worry Dad, hopefully a teaching position will come through for the fall," she said, knowing such a thing was uncertain in this economy, but of course, at the moment the concern felt far removed.
Hanging up the phone, Alice sighed slightly. Without her book being published, money could become a problem. Draco looked at her but said nothing.
"Mind if I check my email?" She asked, and Draco nodded, not really knowing what she meant by "email."
Sitting at her desk, Alice scanned her inbox, deleting less important messages, such as ones from academic list serves, while reading anything more directly sent to her. There was nothing overly pressing, which was a relief. A student in her graduate cohort had emailed her for an article reference, which she quickly looked up in her dissertation bibliography and sent it in a reply.
Draco watched as her hand moved with a detached piece of technology next to its main component; also noting the quickness with which her fingers moved over the keys that had letters on them. Alice noticed his interest.
"You've used a computer before, right?" She asked looking at him.
"Never had a need to," he said.
"Ah, this is considered a modern muggle necessity," she said rising from her seat with a smile. "Come here for a sec," she motioned for him to sit down in front of her computer.
He hesitated slightly, but his curiosity got the better of him and he sat down looking curiously at the bright screen in front of him. Alice had opened the London Times homepage to see if there was any news worthy events in her absence. Lifting his right hand, she placed it properly on top of the mouse.
"This is your cursor, you can open, close, scroll," she spoke as she assisted him through the motions, her hand gently placed on top of his as she leaned in by his side.
Draco noted her soft touch and realized she smelled like citrus and tea. Moving their hands in unison, they clicked on articles and played news video. "Most people get their news online now, versus by paper," she said.
"Online?" Draco asked.
"The internet, it's a vast database you can find almost anything on," she said, opening another internet browsing engine. "Of course, with varying degrees of relevance…Go ahead, type in anything you want to find."
Draco slowly typed out the word "quidditch" in the search engine and clicked the search button. Nothing came up except for possible alternative spellings.
"Might want to try something more general," Alice suggested. Then, Draco typed in the word, "wizard." Numerous links filled the screen. He clicked on the "Wikipedia" option to find text about wizards as fictional characters in television, movies and literature. "Fictional characters? That's ridiculous," He mocked, also noting the equally ridiculous photos.
"I guess it proves a point not to trust everything you read on here," Alice said jokingly, noting how true that statement really was now.
After a few more amusing attempts at searches including Alice's name, which brought up a few articles and mentions of her, Alice asked, "Are you hungry? I know a great Vietnamese Pho place down the block."
"A what?" Draco didn't catch the name.
"Asian noodles. It's good, trust me," she said as she went to grab her spring coat from her closet.
"Alright, I'll try it," He said, willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.
"We can walk, it's pretty close," she added, once out the door. The sun had gone down and the street lamps were on, outlining the London block in shadow. It wasn't the best area, but for the price it was adequate and centrally located to everything.
Alice noted how Draco walked with his hands in his pockets, exuding a sophisticated demeanor. He felt dangerous in a cool way.
"It's right over there," Alice said pointing to a small family owned restaurant with Vietnamese writing on the sign. The place was packed with customers but they were able to sit at a table for two on the side.
"It's pretty busy," Draco said.
"It's usually like this, but that means it must be good," Alice winked, which made Draco smile.
After ordering, Alice said, "So I met your father today," thinking she wanted to say something to him before Lucius mentioned it.
"Oh?" Draco said a bit worried.
"Yeah, you definitely look like him," she said with another smile.
"Did he say anything rude?" He asked half-expecting what it was.
"Only that I'm the muggle bastard child of Albus Dumbledore, which pretty much is the truth. But not much more than that," Alice said, "He sort of just let me be."
Draco's face showed a look of mild surprise.
"He actually reminded me of my former philosophy professor; he used to rip up people's papers in front of the class if he didn't think them worthy," Alice said laughing, getting Draco to crack a smile.
"I apologize for him though," Draco said sincerely, knowing his father's incredibly condescending attitude.
"Oh, I can't blame him. I've read the newspapers, I know what my place is," Alice said unconcerned.
"I use to think I knew those things to, but realized how wrong I was," he said. "My parents perhaps have a harder time understanding that."
"I think that's true the world over with parents," Alice said.
"How about your father?" Draco asked, feeling a desire to get to know her better.
"He sometimes treats me like I'm still a child, but I think it'll always be that way. I'm lucky to have a close relationship with him though…"
Their order of two streaming bowls of pho arrived. They ate and talked, enjoying the food and the conversation, exchanging smiles along with more personal information about the lighter side of their lives. There was never an awkward silence or an uneasy topic; they simply enjoyed each other's company that night. In many ways they didn't feel like they were from different worlds at all, just different circumstances.
While walking back to Alice's flat to disapparate, they continued to converse, now discussing the oddities of their grade school education. "…Nah, we never were separated into different houses, but kids typically divided themselves into different social cliques, nerds, skaters, jocks, etc." Alice said, after Draco explained the four houses of Hogwarts, "That seemed to create enough conflict within the school. I bet you can't guess which one I was in." Alice put a few more of her clothes in a bag, along with her newly charged mobile phone and portable netbook. Then, intertwining her arm with Draco's, they disapparated back to Malfoy Manor.
"You know, that actually gets easier each time," Alice said, noting that she didn't feel as disoriented as usual.
"It does, doesn't it?" Draco agreed; his arm still intertwined with hers as they walked into the foyer.
Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy were at the drawing room entrance just off the foyer witnessing the entire scene. Draco noticed their eyes on him before Alice did and he stood motionless, promptly removing his arm from hers.
"Aren't you going to introduce us, Draco?" Nacissa said; while looking as if she was sizing up Alice's worth.
Alice noted Draco's reaction and quickly gathered her poise.
"Mother, this is Alice McNally," he said, "Alice this is my mother, Nacissa."
"It's nice to meet you Mrs. Malfoy," Alice said, with her hands clasped in front her; she figured a hand shake would be overstepping the bounds.
Nacissa nodded to Alice, but her eyes turned back to her son.
"And you've already met my father," Draco added.
"Yes, good evening Mr. Malfoy," Alice smiled to Lucius, who was less than amused.
Suddenly, Fritz the dog pranced out of the drawing room towards Alice, practically tackling her with excitement. Lucius's eyes went wide before they narrowed angrily. Alice steadied her balance and calmed Fritz down with a quick pat to the head. The dog's tail was on turbo but slowed down with her touch.
The scene, specifically Lucius's reaction, made Draco consciously muffle his laugh. Fritz was not known to be this friendly with guests, but obviously he had an affinity for Alice.
Noting the awkward silence, Alice looked at Draco and said, "I'll go to my room. Thank you for allowing me to use my things," referring to her technology. Then she turned to his parents and said, "It was nice meeting you Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy; it's incredibly kind of you to let me stay here." Before making her way up the staircase, she told Fritz the dog to stay. On her way she noticed a few of the framed paintings on the upper walls moved and she thought she heard muffled voices coming from them. She ignored it and promptly went to the guestroom to retire for the evening.
Lucius and Nacissa returned to the drawing room and Draco followed, knowing he wouldn't be able to avoid the lecture.