I'm actually concerned with the turn this took. Warnings for: torture and murder on animals (though only mentioned) and human abuse. I probably should apologise for how mental Alice is, but I won't.

Speed Drabble: dodge, kiss, run

Deck of Cards: 7 of Spades: Challenge: Write about losing a loved one. Prompts: (word) pain, (word) zombie, (object) silver cross, (action) throwing knives at a wall

Candy from the Trolley: Pumpkin Pastie: Prompts: knife, squeamish, degree, shade

Gringotts: Hermione/Frank [Hermione - Pairings]

Ultimate Hermione Pairing Challenge: Hermione/Frank Longbottom

Word Count: 851

Alice Brown had officially, gone mental. At first, she'd been angry that the new girl at Hogwarts had captured the attention of her Frank. But now, she was more than angry. It hadn't taken her long after graduating the school, before she realised that all her problems had occurred since the abrupt arrival of Hermione Granger and therefore, her problems would disappear with the bloody bint.

She hadn't considered her Frank being with her.

She'd had no choice but to keep him then, keep them both. She could tell they were scared and had been hoping, in the first few days, that being nice to her would dodge whatever violence she was going to partake in.

They were wrong.

She kept them in her basement, where nobody would ever look, because who would suspect her of harming the man she loved? Of course, the room was heavily warded but she was still fairly confident in hiding them.

She thought back to the first thing that she'd done when Hermione and Frank began their captive journey with her; she'd stripped the witch of everything that was her before dressing her in a pillowcase that barely covered her. She'd melted the silver cross on a necklace in front of them, knowing it was an item of jewellery that her Frank had given her.

Then, she'd left them alone with no food for two days. However, that didn't last long since she was worried that they would eat each other - or she would eat her Frank - and then would turn into a zombie. It didn't matter that she knew they weren't created like that; she was too far gone to realise anything.

She wanted to cause the witch pain, though, and she knew the best way for that to be done would be to hurt her Frank, but she couldn't do that, so she had to think of new ways. It had hit her one evening when preparing dinner and the knife in her hand had slipped and sliced into her finger. She'd felt some pain, and had used to be squeamish at blood, but she decided that this was the perfect weapon.

Of course, she had to hone her skills.

First, she practiced throwing them at walls, repeating the process all day and every day until she was able to hit the target every time perfectly. Then, she had to practice using the blade and so, she'd go out into the woods behind her house and stand in the shade of the trees and draw in animals with bait and some simple spells, killing them when they got close. She'd occasionally keep the larger animal alive, to work on perfecting the cuts.

She knew that she should have taken some degree of caution when entering the basement for her visit with Hermione, knowing that there would only be one living witch at the end, but she was confident, and who was going to visit her at one in the morning? She didn't put her wards back up.

Frank pleaded with her, begged her to let them go. He claimed that they'd run and never come back and that nobody would ever find out what had happened here. She walked over to her Frank swiftly, planting a kiss on his lips and frowning at his disgusted look. That would all change when Hermione was gone. She was sure of it!

She focused on the whimpering, skeletal figure of a woman, turning her nose up at the dirt and grime that covered her body. At least her Frank had been well cared for and that was all that mattered.

She held the sharp knife against the papery skin of her arm before pausing when she heard footsteps and voices coming towards the basement. The crack of light flowing down the stairs, told her she hadn't shut the door behind her either. She had nowhere to hide and no matter what she said or did, the image the room portrayed would always paint her in a bad light. She cursed herself silently.

"Alice?" Sirius Black's voice called, before he came down the steps, accompanied by another person. With the sound of the other footsteps, she'd say he was with Alastor Moody, her boss, and she had no chance of getting out of this innocently. "Are you here? We think we have a lead on Frank's and Hermione's disappearance."

Both of the wizards stepped into the room and saw her with a knife in her hand and Hermione at her feet. Their grip on their wands was immediately tightened.

"Brown? What the hell is this?" Alastor barked.

She held the knife before her, brandishing it like the weapon it was before charging at them. A simple stunner from Sirius sent her flying back, cracking her head on the wall and her abdomen landing on the knife. She lay there, gasping with pain, and watched as her Frank was released and rushed over to Hermione instead of her.

She shut her eyes and allowed herself to grieve her lost love, and her lost sanity, before entering the darkness.