A/N: Thanks for all the recent reviews. I will try to make the following chapters a bit longer.
Alice was awoken by a low knock on her door. Still in her bed robes she wearily answered it to find the scrawny house elf Loister standing there nervously fidgeting his hands together. "Master Draco requests you to join him for breakfast in the kitchen in a half an hour."
"Oh, okay, thanks."
"It is my duty as a humble servant of the great Malfoy family to bring the message," he said humbly.
"Right, well thank you anyway," she said before closing the door. For some reason the creature unsettled her along with the notion that there were indeed giants, dragons, werewolves and goblins that existed in this realm. It was as terrifying as it was wonderful.
Shuffling through her clothes she realized she would have to make another trip to her flat tomorrow to get an outfit to wear for the trial. The trial, it was still hard to fathom. She hoped she could ask Draco today about what to expect, since she knew he had witnessed his father's trial so many years ago.
Alice remembered the way to the kitchen thanks to the manor tour she received yesterday from Mrs. Malfoy. There Draco was sitting alone at a square island that was already full of plates of various breakfast goods such as toast, fruit and muffins. Draco, who was dressed in more casual attire, a white linen shirt and dark grey slacks, was reading the morning's Daily Prophet newspaper. This made Alice realize that she hadn't received a paper yesterday or that morning.
"Good morning," Alice said as she propped herself up on the bar stool across from him.
Lowering the paper, Draco smiled, "Good morning, did you sleep well?"
"Thanks to the wine. I hope it wasn't too uncomfortable for you last night," Alice remembered how unexpected and unplanned the dinner had been.
"Not at all. It turned out better than I expected," He wasn't joking either.
"I thought so too." Alice grabbed a small green apple from the fruit bowl that sat in the center of the table. "May I eat this?" she asked, remembering her manners.
"Certainly," Draco replied, amused by her choice, seeing how it was his favorite fruit.
"I noticed my newspaper delivery stopped," Alice said looking at the Daily Prophet on the table.
"Oh that, father caught the owl and is holding it until the trial. He's worried it might be tracked."
"Probably a good idea," Alice was still not completely sure how this whole owl postal system worked. "Any news I should know about?"
"I'm not sure if it's worth reading," Draco sounded concerned and he pushed the now folded paper slightly off to the side.
Curious, Alice picked it up and immediately saw an article by Rita Skeeter, the "author and publisher extraordinaire," entitled, Who is Alice McNally?
Alice McNally is for all intensive purposes a muggle. She was raised in the muggle world by muggle parents, only to get a highly regarded muggle education. That her grandfather was one of the most famous wizards in recent history does not subtract from this fact. Her mother, Albus Dumbledore's bastard daughter, was nothing more than a squib who committed suicide. Perhaps we can assume mental instability runs in the family. We all remember dear sister Ariana and why she was locked up all those years at the Dumbledore's residence. Is Alice McNally on her way to the muggle equivalent of St. Mungo's? This provides a curious new twist to the family's already peculiar history. More details will be revealed in a new edition of my book, Rita Skeeter's Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore, second edition, coming to you in the lovely month of July.
"Wonderful, I get to be immortalized as mentally instable in one of her awful books without even a chance to refute it," but her sarcasm wasn't hiding her true emotions, looking off to the side she continued, "I have no control over anything right now."
Without thinking, Draco slid his hand on top of hers and grasped it lightly. He unfortunately knew exactly how she felt, having lived a life of no options under Voldemort.
Alice turned to look at Draco, the pain in her eyes were evident, but perhaps gathering strength from his touch, Alice composed herself and found a new concentration, "The trial, how can I defend myself? Are there lawyers or representatives? Can I speak?"
Draco slowly removed his hand and started folding up the newspaper, "You won't have a representative. Blaise will present the evidence and the Wizengamot will decide your punishment. Trials are usually short but they may let you speak."
"Good. It shouldn't be so bad," she said gathering some false optimism; "I passed my dissertation oral defense and I even had that philosophy professor I told you about on my committee."
Draco smiled at her remark; he admired her courage to meet this head on even if she was blanketing her fear.
"My mother is optimistic, about the trial that is," Draco said, "I don't know if it means anything, but…"
"You mean like clairvoyance?" Alice wondered if such a power existed.
"Perhaps, or just simple intuition," Draco didn't want to provide any false hope.
"Fascinating what you can do with just one gene," Alice pondered how magic went against all scientifically established laws of nature.
With the mention of genes Draco remembered what Alice said about her mother at dinner last night, "I didn't realize your mother was a biologist."
"Yeah, unfortunately most people only know how she died. When I went to university I gained access to some of the articles she had published. She was a good scientist. When you're a child you don't really comprehend what your parents do, they're just parents. But I'm really proud to say she was my mother, I just wish she could have gotten the right help when she needed it."
"It's rare for magical abilities to develop later in life. Muggle-borns, those born to non-magical parents, are detected by their underage magical use prior to the age of eleven so that they can receive schooling. Blaise did check the records, your mother was never on them."
"One thing has troubled me though. What if she was what you call a squib and it was my magical abilities that affected her? That drove her insane?"
Draco looked curiously at Alice. "It's possible, but you remember nothing?"
"No, but you have the power to erase memories right? I don't like the thought of me being my mother's mental downfall, but," Alice couldn't help but theorize, "What if my detection alerted my grandfather to my existence but he just got there too late."
"These are not easy answers," Draco said, "But what you say is plausible."
Alice's deep concentration was evident on her face, she wondered if her memory was tampered with or if she could blame her lack of remembering details on being too young. Thinking beyond that she wondered, "It's hard to imagine what life would have been like if I did study magic."
"I reckon Dumbledore made the right choice. It was not a good time to grow up at Hogwarts," Draco said assuredly; though it did make him wonder about this alternate reality, as she would have been around the same year as him. Perhaps sorted into Gryffindor like her grandfather, or Ravenclaw, which would seem to be a better match for her intelligence. Would she have been an enemy of his? Would his mission have been to kill her also?
"Most likely clairvoyance on his part," Alice reckoned, taking another bite of her apple. "You know, I haven't seen enough magic to deduce whether it is indeed a preferable existence."
"You haven't come to that correct conclusion yet?" Draco scoffed. Then taking his wand out, he charmed the empty dishes to levitate over to the sink and wash themselves.
"Now that's definitely useful!" Alice laughed. "No wonder you guys don't use electricity. The best we can do is the dishwasher, but you still have to put them in manually."
Smug as ever, Draco placed his wand on the table and he grabbed a green apple from the bowl to eat. Curious, Alice picked up his wand to inspect it.
"But this is just a piece of wood," she held it as if it was a rare specimen in a laboratory.
"It's not just a piece of wood," Draco shifted in his seat a bit; no wizard was entirely comfortable with others handling their wand. "It acts as a channel for magic to go through. Wands are quasi-sentient, they choose the owner. And the core contains a magical substance; this one has a dragon heart string inside."
"Do you always have to use it? Can't you do something magical without it?" Alice implored, pointing the tip of the wand towards Draco.
"Well, advanced wizards can," He retorted, crossing his arms at her gesture.
"Prove it," Alice replied mischievously, wondering if he would take this challenge.
Arms still crossed, Draco's eyes narrowed curiously on Alice who was still pointing his wand at him, "You think I'm advanced?"
After a moment, Alice shrugged, "I guess not then."
Suddenly, Alice's tea cup burst into flames and began hovering and spinning in circles. Startled, Alice jumped from her seat, almost knocking the barstool over. "I stand corrected," she blurted and as the flames extinguished and the tea cup landed on its saucer, she calmly handed the wand back to Draco.
Draco took his wand quickly and smiled smugly, noting his amusement at her reaction. Alice sat back down and couldn't help but smile, even if her heart was racing a bit at that moment. She felt heat rushing to her cheeks, a bit embarrassed by it all.
Suddenly a loud buzzing and musical noise sounded. This time Draco shot up from his barstool. It was Alice's mobile phone, which she had placed in her pocket in case someone tried to contact her.
"It's just my phone," she explained, amused by his reaction. Pulling it out, she noticed that no name or number was listed and she debated whether or not to answer it. She looked at Draco who wasn't concerned with Alice speaking to her relations like Blaise might have been. Hesitant, Alice pushed the answer button.
"Hello."
"Is this Alice McNally?" an older man on the other end inquired
"Who's asking?" Alice was already suspicious and Draco could notice her growing uneasiness.
"Why Miss McNally, this is Barnabus Cuffe, editor of The Daily Prophet," he crooned in confidence of his title.
"How did you get this number?" Alice asked nervously, she tapped on the newspaper lying on the table to alert Draco who it was.
"No worries Miss McNally, it's not often I get to use muggle technology to conduct an interview."
"Interview? Consented by whom?"
"Ah Miss McNally, no need to be shy. We are quite enjoying your story and would like to get your opinion on your upcoming trial."
"My opinion?" Alice looked for approval from Draco, who shrugged his shoulders as if saying to go ahead.
"Well yes, what are your feelings about the upcoming trial? A brief statement would do lovely for this evening's paper."
"Okay, I'll be brief," Alice composed herself and gathered her thoughts before beginning her tirade, "My emotions aside, Mr. Cuffe, it's the principle of it. To be tried for intellectually theorizing is to go against all the tenants of my world; but for your world, it is a crime for muggles to know too much. It is not a matter of simply a mind being erased, but a human right taken away. The same goes with rights to intellectual property. I know of my book making its rounds in the wizarding world and I suspect you are behind it. If I do manage to bypass punishment, I will fight to get the rights to my book back. That's all I have to say. Good day sir." With that Alice hung up the phone, her tone was sharp and precise and she felt slightly vindicated.
Draco couldn't help but admire her clever shrillness, "Well, I think you had your say."
Alice smiled slightly embarrassed, "Too much huh?"
Draco shrugged, "You're right about your book. He is making a profit off of your work. Now," he paused while rising from his chair, "Go get your things, there's somewhere I want to take you today."
Alice looked at him curiously, "Where?"
"I'm not going to tell you, go and I'll meet you in the foyer," he replied firmly but with a slight smile.
Going back to the east guestroom, Alice checked her hair in the mirror, and then grabbed her spring coat. She had no idea what Draco had in store, but she was excited to leave the confines of the manor.
Draco had finished off his outfit with a black vest and light blazer. Alice liked how sharp he always looked, not many young men looked that put together these days. He was also carrying a long black hooded robe.
"Here," Draco said handing Alice the black robe. "Put this on."
Alice draped the fabric over her, putting her arms through each of the wide sleeves. She noticed the green and silver emblem sewn on the front. It had a snake and said "Slytherin."
"Are these your school robes?" Alice inquired, but before she heard a reply Draco had pulled the hood up to conceal her head.
Inspecting her like a self-made work of art he proclaimed proudly, "This should work." Then sliding his hands from the sides of her hood down to her arms, he disapparated them both out of the manor and right outside the entrance of Hogsmead.