Author's Note - Just for reference, Fae or Fey are also known as Sidhe.

Chapter Fifty.

Hermione stared in horror at the lifeless body of her newly reunited friend, slumped, in the crystal next to her.

"Oh, sweet Merlin… Alice…"

Was she going to die here too? Was there any oxygen within these fragile walls? Carbon Dioxide inhalation poisoning. What a way to go.

Hermione's fast paced brain began to race; various facts dashed through her head, ideas, notions, possibilities…

Alice was in here months before I was so there must be some sort of oxygen supply…

But she just collapsed, if it were carbon dioxide poisoning she would've shown more symptoms…

Hermione gave an experimental flick of her wrist. Niente di speciale. Right, obvious. A magical suppression barrier, just like that one that Fae, Cobweb, had circled around Alice at her Aunt's farm…

If I were able to break this crystal… but I can't, or there is a reason I shouldn't, otherwise Alice would've done so already…

A strange tongue resounded throughout the walls of her strange prison, echoed within the strange music. Outside a party must be going on, laughter and cheer had been heard ever since Hermione had gotten there.

Damnit! I knew Alice was a Fae and Draco was at least half-Fae… Why the Dickens didn't I learn Celtic?

Hermione started to scold herself, if she'd taught herself Celtic, than maybe she'd be able to understand the small runes scratched onto the base of the crystal. They looked like the runes she'd had to learn in her Anicent Runes class in Hogwarts, but if she translated them properly, they made absolutely no sense… which've must've been the reason behind Luna's nonsensical ramblings and Alice's amusement at her decipherings.

After all, if Hermione deciphered it properly, it read: Monkey's Bum.

Definitely a Sidhe spell, Hermione concluded as she gently traced the odd figures.

Where was Draco now? Does he know that the person he is with isn't her?

She gasped and looked up when she heard a groan from the crystal beside her.

Alice got up, clutching her head.

Hermione's face, unsurprisingly, paled, "Alice…? Wha-? You were dead!"

Alice glanced at her, confused, "No, I just woke up. You know, in the Aboveground."

Hermione shook her head and muttered, "This is the last time I take a leaf out of the boy's books and don't research something thoroughly before hand."

She sighed and looked up, dismayed at the amused looking Alice and said three little words that, single handedly, could've knocked down The Boy-Who-Lived-To-Be-The-Man-Who-Defeated, his Best Mate, the biggest Pureblooded Prat to ever walk the Earth and all the Professors in Hogwarts, including Dumbledore.

"I don't understand."

"Well, you know how I told you that time passes differently between the Aboveground and the Underground?"

Hermione whacked her head, "How could I be this stupid? Of course! So, every time you wake in the real world, you're dragged from this world, regardless of whether the night is up down here!"

Alice nodded, "Sometimes one can go a whole month down here and barely a minute passes Aboveground."

"So, where are you now Alice? Last thing I remember was your sister's patronus coming, than I woke up here. Luna was going to do this searching thing with this stone and map she got from your… Uncle, was it?... and try to find you that way, but I never found out what it was."

Alice perked and pressed her hands against the crystal wall, staring intently at Hermione.

"Granger, this is incredibly important. Can you describe what my sister's patronus was?"

Hermione stuttered, "W-Well, it was a Swallowtail Butterfly, also known as an Ageha butterfly-"

"'Mione, do you know the difference between a Swallowtail Butterfly and a Swallowtail moth?"

"Well, of course it'd be… no. Not really."

"Was it a large butterfly with a yellow butt?"

"I don't know! All patronuses are blue!" Hermione groaned.

"Hermione, the Ageha Modoki is a moth that disguises itself as an Ageha Butterfly. If what you saw was the Ageha Modoki, than it wasn't a patronus, but was what swapped you around and transported you here."

Hermione's eyes widened, "Jiminy Cricket! By Jove Alice, you're onto something! So if I see it again-"

"You won't."

"What?"

"You won't see it again. You've served your purpose, nothing is going to come save you now." Alice sighed, sat back coolly and stretched her legs as Hermione spluttered.

"A-Alice? What are you going on about?"

"I'm going to be trapped in here for the rest of my natural life Aboveground. I suspect the only reason you're not dead is just to keep me company and vex me for the sake that every time I wake, I will get the feeling I have something important to say and do, which is free you, but will never be able to remember, until I fall asleep and arrive here again. How troublesome."

Hermione looked at Alice, shocked. This cheerful girl could suddenly turn cold?

Speaking of cold, Alice turned her now hard eyes towards Hermione.

"I am a part of this Fae Court. A part of our nature is to be contradictory. Didn't you know that?" Instead of a question, it was definitely a statement and Hermione suddenly saw the hurt that was concealed.

"Alice…"

"My Grandparents didn't care, did they?" Again, another statement.

"Did you know, Hermione? That since I came here, it's only been an hour, but several months have passed Aboveground. My parents are still recovering."

"So it's taken them, how many years? To recover?"

Alice sighed, "Too many. Sorry Hermione I-"

Alice collapsed again and Hermione waited in solemn silence for her to return.

"NO! I want a bigger train! This has to be the Wedding of the Century!" Hermione shrieked at the terrified dressmaker.

"Y-Yes Ma'am."

Luna turned dreamily to Hannah, and not bothering to lower her voice, said, "Do you think Hermione's turned into a Changeling like Alice did? Or do you think it's just her time of the month?"

Hermione's face turned red.

Harry and Draco sat solemnly at the bar of a busy pub.

"Do you think-?"

"Yep."

"How?"

"I've known her for ages, and she never breaks promises. So how come I'm your Best Man and not her Maid of Honour?"

"You really want to get into a dress that bad?"

"Not really. I just thought anything'd be better than having to wear a tux again. Ron's wedding was hell. Tux's itch like crazy!"

"Fair 'nough."

"What brought this up-?"

Draco silently handed Harry a telegram from-

"Australia? But I though Alice was in hospital? Did something bad happen?"

"Nah, one of her old mates saw her. She has complete amnesia, but the sort that can be reversed with a jolt from her past. It nearly returned when she saw Matthew, but it wasn't a big enough shock."

"So…why are we invited to an Aztek Ceremony?"

"Anzac. Anzac Ceremony. It happens once a year and Alice is currently on a Navy ship. They're docking for the ceremony, so this may be the only chance we get. Get it?"

"Got it."

"Good."

Hermione traced the strange symbols on the bottom of her crystal cage as Alice came round for the fifth time since she'd gotten there.

"Say Alice? These runes? Are they the spell that keeps us in here?"

Alice frowned and looked around for a bit, "Where? What runes?"

"The ones underneath us."

Alice's frown deepened as she lifted up her skirt and squinted down on the spot near where she was kneeling. Suddenly she laughed.

"Yeah, 'Mione, I guess you could say that, in a certain context at least."

"So… what does it say? I'm guessing not Monkey's Bum."

"It means-"

"Yeah?"

"Well, it means - Made in China."