You're Safe With Me ( Draco Malfoy )

Part Three- Chapter Thirty-Four

Seven months.

It had been seven, long, agonising months since Alice was separated from Draco at Bill and Fleur's wedding, seven months without him. Seven months of waking up alone. Seven months without his sweet words, his soft kisses and his protective hold.

Seven. Months.

Alice, Harry, Ron and Hermione had been on their quest to destroy Voldemort's horcruxes since the disastrous wedding. Their journey so far had been long and arduous, Ron even leaving at one point, only to come back shortly after. They had even broken in to the Ministry, disguised as people who worked there, using polyjuice potion in order to get a horcrux. As well as that, Alice, Hermione and Harry had visited Harry's family home, only to be attacked by Voldemort's snake, Nagini. It just went to show that he seemed to know what their next move was going to be.

And that was not a pleasant thought.

For the first few months of their journey, Harry had barely slept at all. Instead of sleeping, he found himself comforting a crying Alice until she finally slept, sobbing herself to exhaustion. He would then staying awake to make sure she didn't try anything stupid, such as leaving the group.

There had been multiple occasions where Alice had tried to sneak out to go and find Draco, but everyone knew that that was a bad idea. If Alice went, she would almost definitely be killed, but that didn't stop her from trying to sneak out. Although, after a while she had given up on this scheme, since she realistically knew it wasn't a good idea (and was always caught by Harry anyway).

A week in to the journey, an ever-helpful Hermione had brought Alice away from the boys, with her little bag which was enchanted to be endless. It meant that Hermione had all of the essentials, as well as a couple of extra things.

"I wasn't sure if you'd want this, but I know how much you miss him." She spoke quietly, sticking her arm in the bag and pulling out Draco's green Quidditch jumper, which Hermione had grabbed from Draco and Alice's room at the burrow, with his permission. The hunt for the horcruxes was going to take place if the wedding was attacked or not, and Draco was meant to go with them, so Hermione had grabbed a couple of his essentials too, considering that he was meant to be on the journey with them.

Alice did want the jumper, she had barely taken it off since. It very faintly smelled of him, but that faint smell was enough for her.

Draco was pretty much her every waking thought, and the longer they were apart, the harder it had been getting for Alice. There was one, rather heartbreaking night in particular, where Harry had had to beg Alice to eat, since she hadn't in days.

Although Alice was able to act happy, and she was looking after herself properly again, not a day went by where she didn't cry over Draco, her heart-ache almost palpable to her friends who surrounded her. The four of them were all desperate for the search for horcruxes to be over, but Alice probably more than anyone. Despite it maybe not being the best outlook, she couldn't help but just want the damn war to be over so that she and Draco could be together again.

She hoped they could be together again.

Thoughts of him filled her head as she laid in her bed in the tent that the group had been using on their journey, she often did this. She would put on Draco's jumper and lay in her bed, close her eyes and simply think of him. Since it had been so long, she often liked to try and picture every detail on his face in an attempt to make sure that they never left her memory. The others knew she liked to do this, and tended to leave her to it, but today was different.

Hermione had suggested that the group set off to see Xenophilius Lovegood, as she believed that he could help them find the next horcrux, or at least she believed that he could help them make sense of a mysterious sign that kept seeming to pop up. It was a circle and line, surrounded by a triangle. None of them recognised it, but apparently Hermione saw Xenophilius wearing it around his neck at the wedding seven months ago, which led the group to the Lovegood's house.