Rain in heaven

✮ November 14th 2014✮

✮ Alice ✮ 

Alice grew up with Remus and Frank in a small mining town in Wales. It was a gossipy sort of town with a lot of dodgy drug dealers and sheep. She lived with her parents in a tiny one bedroom house. When her mum was pregnant with her she'd converted their sizable attic into a bedroom for her daughter. She hauled herself up that latter everyday until it was painted with light green walls, nice polished wood flooring, and a reasonably large circular window that had needed repairing. Hope and Augusta helped, of course. Hope early on into her pregnancy and Augusta with a one-and-a-half year old Frank Longbottom. They filled nearly half a scrapbook together in that time. They'd taken dozens of photos together in Alice's room as they built it. The rest of that book was filled with photos of her childhood, along with the boys. Alice and Remus in little matching duck onesies from the charity shop. The three of them in dull green rainboots far too big for them splashing around in puddles and trying to fit together underneath a small lady-bug printed umbrella. 

Alice has so many photos of her childhood. So many good ones. 

She only took one to Hogwarts. 

It was of her and her dad. Both of them perched on the wooden countertops in their kitchen. Their legs dangling against the green cabinets. There's tomato soup on the gas stove, the fire below it barely visible. Behind them is a window, opened halfway letting in stray raindrops from the early spring rain outside. Her mum had just made them new curtains that year, sheer white with little flowers embroidered on it. There's dried oranges hung on strings that hang from the bent curtain rod. In the picture they're both smiling. They both have matching gaps in between their teeth. Her dad is smiling at the Iliad on his lap, and Alice is beaming up at him like he's superman. It was always her favorite photo, because her dad is sober in it. He's sober, and he's laughing. 

It's the only photo she had of him. 

A full scrap-book of photos, four inches of pages, and only one photo of him. 

Her mum had always said that it was because he was working all the time. But they both knew that wasn't true. Her dad worked construction, but his schedule was decently lenient. Mostly, he spent his paycheck at the bar two blocks from their house. Her mum tried to pay the difference, but she was a stay at home mum who sold tarot cards and small canvas paintings online. They lived paycheck to paycheck, clipping coupons and spending entire days searching the nearby shops for the cheapest prices. 

Sometimes she wishes that he could hate him. She lives in this state where she misses him when he's gone and immediately wants to leave when he's there. It always felt like her dad was the only one who got her when she was younger. They spoke for hours about Mythology and different types of flowers. Her mum was her best friend, but her dad was cool. 

She's been at Hogwarts two months and he hasn't called. 

She got her first phone a month ago, once they'd gotten her scholarship sorted out her mum saw it fit that she get a cellphone so they could stay in touch. They've spoke every night, and she texts her about the garden and the latest drama with Augusta and her yoga instructor. Before she got a phone she had to go to the payphone across the road from the bar her dad frequented. Remus and Frank would schedules a time with her and they'd haul ass behind the school (usually without permission, mind you) to this tiny phone booth that nobody uses. Alice knows they were happy to do it, but she can tell they're happier now that they can talk in person. 

She'd been jealous at first, that Remus and Frank got to go to the elusive big rich people art school, Hogwarts, without her when they were eleven. Frank's mum had the money, and his grades were fine in primary so his place was garenteed. Remus and Alice however had to apply for numerous different scholarships. Remus got an academic full-ride. Alice qualified for a couple but none of them were enough to be able to cover it. Her mum and her had spoken extensively about alternatives, but taking out a loan for an art school, especially when their future financial prospects looked especially bleak just wasn't an option. So she stayed with her mum and continued homeschooling. Eventually the jealousy dimmed. She split her time between home and her papas ice cream parlor, picking up pity shifts and generally not doing much. 

When she was thirteen she started taking her 'job' seriously. Her mum picked up a job as a substitute teacher, dusting off her uni degree, which meant more money. They'd still qualify for financial aid scholarships so- maybe- maybe- if she chipped in they could just make it. Working for her papa wasn't an official job, obviously, she was thirteen. But she worked whenever she could and he payed her as much as he could afford to. Eventually, when she was fifteen and her friends were home for the summer, she informed them that she'd been accepted into Hogwarts. She'd worked that entire year on her musical portfolio and just barely made the cut. 

Remus and Frank were ecstatic. They went on and on about their respective friend groups and how great the school was. Alice was excited too. Scared maybe, but excited. 

What she hadn't accounted for, though, is that she'd been homeschooled her entire life. 

She knows how to talk to people, she loves it. She spoke to customers all the time at Florian's. But after about two days at Hogwarts Alice realized that she has a very loose grasp on social cues. Most of the time she's just felt embarrassed. Like she's dressed herself funny, or she's said the wrong thing. Even though she turned sixteen at the end of the summer she's felt like a toddler. She'll get lost, because Hogwarts is apparently a fucking maze, or she'll say something and not understand why everybody's laughing. 

It's the first time that she's really paid attention to herself, or thought how others might see her. It sounds stupid but she genuinely never put much thought into her appearance before Hogwarts. She was friends with the same two people and her mum her entire life. Is she- pretty? She thinks she might be. Or she thought so? The girls at Hogwarts are definitely pretty. Especially her roommates. Remus' friends- lovely girls really. The only people who didn't immediately make her want to throw up from nerves after one conversation. She'd heard small snippets about them in passing before, but it didn't do them justice. 

There's Lily, Lily Evans. She's got possibly the brightest red hair you'll ever see and striking emerald eyes that glow with equal intensity. She has rather large brown freckles all over her face and shoulders. When she smiles it crinkles under her eyes. Alice has noticed that she wears a lot of green, despite them being placed in Gryffindor. The 'red and gold' house. It suits her nicely though, complimenting her eyes and all that. Lily's got this energy about her- like she knows things. Or more that you can ask her anything. She seems like a very natural leader, even if she's definitely balancing far too much. She's also in Hogwarts' music program, they all are. She says she doesn't sing, but Alice has heard her and she's rather good at it. Mostly though, she can play almost every instrument and she's a brilliant lyricist. Generally, she gets along with Lily the best. She's already friends with Remus and they'd spoken on the phone a few times before she came to school so they're the most familiar. 

The second roommate of hers is Mary Macdonald. Mary is, in a very genuine way, stunning. It's the first thing she noticed. She's beautiful in a way that demands attention. When you walk into a room your eyes naturally go to Mary. Her smooth skin and soft ringlet curls that fall down her back. She has big brown eyes and flattering curves. In a distant way, she reminds Alice of how people describe Aphrodite. Persephone- maybe. She mostly wears pink, white, and occasionally purple. The only time she's seen Mary in their house colors is during lessons when she's in uniform. (Even that looks good on her, by the way.) She finds, though, that people don't expect Mary to be smart. Maybe because she's pretty, or because she has a penitent for dresses and short skirts. Whatever the reason, people tend to look through her. She's dismissed as a party girl, or a 'good lay', which she's heard more than once. In reality though Alice thinks Mary's very smart. She can debate almost as well as Lily can, all of them seem to be argumentative by nature, and she can read people like a book. She's strong willed and very much her own person. Like Lily- she can play most instruments. With less range, though, mostly she plays classical instruments like piano and the harp. She has a lovely choir voice too because her voice has that ethereal tone to it. 

Her last roommate is Marlene McKinnon. Marlene is interesting, to say the least. She's never really met anybody like her before. She had almond-shaped eyes with consistent eyeliner smudged around them and fluffy blonde hair that falls in layers to her shoulders. She wears the most red out of all of them- red and black. She's into soccer and cars. What makes her different is that Alice has never met somebody who just doesn't get sad. Obviously Marlene must get sad, but when she does she doesn't show it. Or it manifests differently. She doesn't seem like an angry person, just reckless. She out-drinks everybody else, she plays the hardest, she brushes off deadlines. If there's a disruption in the class, Marlene's involved. She never hurts other people. Not really. Mostly it just affects her. She has this passion, like she's got to much inside of her that it bubbles to the surface. Alice has heard that Marlene's been through a lot. Which she supposes explains it. Marlene is possibly the best guitar player she's ever seen. Like it's genuinely insane. She plays the drums too, and her singing is quite good, but the guitar is her calling. 

They all got on well, almost immediately. The other girls already knew one another, obviously. But if they didn't like Alice's presence in the group they didn't show it. She finds that she can't tell, or that she's constantly worried she's intruding something. She constantly feels this compulsion to live up to them. Like she has to be different, or less of herself, to be their friend. It's not them, really. It's just that Remus, while his friends are nice enough, are his friends. His best friends, apparently. Which she tries really hard to not let hurt her. But they're his friends. Alice obviously can't fit into their group. And Franks friends are all older. So she really wants the girls to like her. And most of the time she thinks that they do. But there's always this voice in the back of her head, what if they don't? Would you know? Would you be able to tell? 

Alice thinks she's trying too hard. 

She's been trying too hard for the past two months. 

And now she can't sleep. She usually can't. She's struggled with it since she was a kid. But it's been worse since she got to Hogwarts. 

Alice has always hated the night time. 

Most of the time she's fine. She is. She can control her thoughts, and for the most part her anxiety. Usually because she's distracting herself, but small victories and all that, right? But there's not much to do when you're trying to sleep. She's more stressed than usual, so that doesn't help either. She just- looses track of her mind a bit. Her thoughts spiral, becoming increasingly worrisome and far-fetched. It'll start with trivial things, like her coursework. Football. The girls. Her appearance. Then her hands start to tremble, because she wants a cigarette. Eventually she drifts, in and out. Tonight the first thing that her mind comes up with is the dorm catching fire. She wakes up from that one rather quickly, breaking into a cold sweat. Then she's gone again and she swears her mums called, there's paperwork she has to fill out- and if only Alice could just find her birth certificate- she wakes up from that one ten minutes later. Before she can catch it, her minds gone off without her. Like it's a frog. Bouncing about in the little enclosed space of her bed. She's half asleep, having a conversation with herself about something she said at breakfast the other day. She can't remember all the details- but she'd made somebody uncomfortable. She thinks. 

When Alice wakes up an hour later she didn't even realize she'd fallen asleep. 

She wakes up to her phone ringing. 

She cringes, immediately, because her ringer is almost at full volume. She scrambles to silence it, vaguely hearing Mary slurring half-lucid curses at her from under her blanket.

"Sorry!" Alice whispers to nobody in particular as she leaves the dorm. She swears under her breath when she sees a couple cooped up on a chair in the common room and makes her way outside, not really knowing where to go. It's the middle of the night, so patrols are already done. If she can just get to-

She looks down, and just barely misses the caller ID before it goes to voicemail. 

INCOMING CALL...

DAD

Alice full-on sprints to the astronomy tower. Her hands are shaking as she redials the number twice. The phone rings twice before her dads voice rings in her ears. 

"Bug?"

She leans her head back onto the stone wall and lets herself slide down it. Her breath comes out in sharp wisps, visible in the cold autumn air. She's wearing an oversized tee-shirt that she thinks is one of Frank's dads hand me downs (?), so she's freezing her ass off but there's no way she'd miss this call. Alice smiles to herself as she replies. 

"Hi dad." She swears she can hear him smile through the phone. 

She sees it in her head, him outside their house, on the rickety makeshift porch cross-legged on the ground. His curly brown hair is in his eyes, the same green ones that she has. He's probably drunk, but she tries not to think about that. In her mind, she imagines him as if he's permanently stuck in the photo she keeps in her pocket. 

"I saw an ad on the tv," He says. "Of this singer girl. Forgot her name, but it made me think of you and that posh school of yours. You meet Remus and Frank there?" 

Alice feels a wave of sadness. Because, truthfully, she hasn't seen that much of them. Frank especially. He's in his sixth year, a year ahead of them with his own group of friends she never really sees. And Remus, of course, has his boys. She always had this idea in her head that when she got to Hogwarts she'd see them everyday, like they were kids again, or like they'd been during the summers. They try to make time but it isn't the same. 

"Yeah, I see them well enough," Which isn't an outright lie. "I'm doing good in my classes. Joined choir too, with my roommates. Apparently were going to start a band." 

"A band!" Her dad marvels. 

She smiles again at this, because she knew he'd be excited. She's doing it all for him really. Her dad went to an art school too. Ilvermorny, while studying abroad in America. It's not as 'posh' as Hogwarts, apparently, but her dad always spoke highly of it. When he graduated he tried to start a band with a couple of his friends, it never took off though, and eventually they just stopped trying. But her dad always made a point to show her his love for music. One of the only things he ever bought for her was a guitar to practice on. He gave her so much love for it that she convinced Remus and Frank to save up with her so they could get guitars too. By the time they were ten years old all of them had dreams of being in bands, and going to the most prestigious art school in England. So naturally she jumped on it when Marlene had jokingly said that they were going to form a band, because four members is perfect. 

"Yeah," She replies softly. "That would be nice, wouldn't it?" 

Alice fumbles in the pockets of her sweatpants for her cigarettes. She forgot her pack, but luckily she finds a stray one at the bottom. She presses the phone to her shoulder with her cheek as she lights it, shielding it from the wind with her hand. 

"It'd be bloody brilliant is what it'd be. Does Hogwarts have a band? For the school? Or is it just choir?" He says, and she rolls her eyes through the smoke at his obvious distaste. 

"There's a band. Remus is in it with his friends. I just decided to do choir. I'm better with my voice than anything else." Which was true. Although she can play several instruments decently, she knows the only reason she even got into Hogwarts in the first place was her voice. It's not even that she's this brilliant singer with the voice of an angel or anything, but she has one of the widest ranges you'll find. She knows that she sounds good, but it's her control that makes her stand out. Her voice fits every genre. 

Her dad is silent for a beat, and then, "Are you smoking?" 

She doesn't answer.

"Bug..." 

"Don't be a hypocrite dad." Alice knows that they'll hang up soon. Because this is how it always goes. It's nice, until it isn't. She sighs, far too tired for this. 

"Don't tell your mum, okay? She'll throw a fit, kick me out onto the street again." 

She fumbles and pulls at a string on her shirt. Her fingers are numb and the hand that's holding her phone is shaking. He's breathing on the other line, and even though she can't be sure she just knows that he's drinking. Alice always felt like she had some kind of sixth sense with it. He doesn't slur his words when he's drunk, but she doubts that he'd have called her this late if he was sober. Her dad always was an early sleeper. 

"I'm going to go, okay dad? It's late and I have classes tomorrow." 

"Okay bug-" She cuts off his response and hangs up the phone. 

Alice doesn't get much sleep that night. 

✮ November 15th 2014✮

✮ Narcissa✮ 

There has not been a single moment in Narcissa's life where she hasn't felt the incessant need to be perfect. 

She used to think that it was her upbringing, which to say was strict would be an understatement. But sometimes she thinks that it’s just her. Andromeda and Bellatrix always had this understanding that she didn’t. They were annoyingly good at everything they tried, excelling in their studies as well as everything else on the planet. Bellatrix managed to balance ballet and figure skating, simply because she wanted to, and Andromeda pioneered the Head Girl position in her time at Hogwarts. Despite their brilliance, they seemed to have the shared goal of wreaking havoc on their family whenever possible. They were loud and outspoken. And although they didn’t do anything to harm their families public image, they enjoyed starting as much fights as possible. 

Narcissa never understood that need. She often thinks that her entire life has been her trying to be better than them. She’s not a natural at things they way they are, which is annoying, but she makes up for it. 

She knew from a very young age that she had to be perfect. 

The perfect daughter. 

The perfect sister. 

The perfect student.

The perfect girl. 

She knew that that’s what her family needed from her. They couldn’t take another daughter who couldn’t handle the heat. They didn’t need another angry person in the house. She studies harder, she never talks back, her posture is perfect and she get's more modeling gigs than anybody in her family. She's not a multi-sport athlete, but she's widely considered a ballet prodigy. 

Narcissa cannot remember the first time she met Lucius Malfoy, but she always knew they were the same. She met him in her childhood, under her father guidance. Their friendship has always been highly photographed. They were hand crafted for each other. Perfect carbon copies of the other, always together. They went to the same schools, partnered in ballet recitals. To her fathers credit, it was quite genius. If Narcissa Black and Lucius Malfoy are doing something together, people will love it. Because people love them. It's the expectation of it all. People feel like they watched them grow up, like they know them. She's seen people online say that you can feel their love for one another. 

And she does love him. Truly, and wholly, Narcissa Black loves Lucius Malfoy. He's all she knows. Her best friend. The only person who can rival her love for Chanel, or her 20 step skincare routine. He's an awful gossip and genuinely cruel when he means to be but he's the only person who's ever been hers. He can't leave, he wouldn't. His entire life is planned around hers. He's just as stuck as she is. 

She loves Lucius, but she isn't in love with him. 

When she was younger she'd figured it would come with time. That eventually she'd wake up with the graceful realization of her love. It never came, obviously. 

She's known who she is for a while. Maybe she always knew. She used to think she could pray it away. Now, it's simply something she cannot be. She will marry Lucius, eventually. They'll have a grand, public wedding after years of relationship rumors. She'll produce an heir, a male one, so her father is happy. And they'll live their life together, the same as they always have. She's convinced herself that whether she loves him is irrelevant. Narcissa is the best actress she knows. 

She acts everyday. She's acting now, pretending that the voice of Violet Parkinson in her ear doesn't make her want to fling herself out of astronomy tower in broad daylight. That the rain pouring down against the window, fighting with the wind outside, isn't distracting her from whatever Cerci is saying on their way to Binn's class. 

She's pretending that she isn't thinking about how it's been a year since she's seen her sister. 

The thing that nobody tells you about grief is that a lot of the time the person isn't even dead. Sometimes you grieve the living. A lost love, a beautiful stranger you see across the street, a sister who went somewhere you couldn't follow. Nobody tells you that instead of a grave, you have to watch their lives through photos. Or a stupid sitcom with laugh-tracks that you hate. And you can't call, or ask them why they chose to do what they did. You can't change your mind when you already made your choice. 

Nobody understands how it feels to grieve for the living. Nobody gives you space, or pity. She just has to move through her day. She has to pretend that she doesn't feel like throwing up when she hears somebody gossiping about the elusive Andromeda Black. 

Narcissa is granted some peace when she parts with her friends, who both have chemistry with McGonagall. Her hair is still tied up too tight, and the black headband she wears itches behind her ears. She feels bloated in her light green jumper, but she would've rather died than worn the uniform option with a tie instead. Button-downs make her feel boxy and masculine, which always makes her headache worse. She forces herself to walk anyway. Quick, mechanical movements. She only stops to put her headphones on, loathing the chatter in the crowded hallways. 

She doesn't actually mind Binn's class. He teaches history. Primarily English history, and not entirely accurate, but it's an easy class to work ahead in. Aside from projects he hands out the entire unit's worth of guided packet notes during the first week. Which means that she can either use the block to work on other classes, or if she's lucky and finished with everything else, put her head down and stare out of the window with her headphones hidden under her hair. 

She sits down at her spot in the second row to the back. It's an empty table at a relatively quiet part of the room. It's also higher up, so she can see the board easier. 

Todays a lucky day. Ballet was cancelled yesterday because her instructor was ill so she practiced with Lucius for a couple of hours and then had the rest of the day to finish up her coursework. Narcissa takes out her notebook and rests her head atop it. She watches the raindrops chase each other to their eventual fall. The ribbon that was in her hair is now tied around her wrist, letting her snow-white hair fan around where her arms rest. 

Professor Binns goes about his lecture. He never tells her off for resting, mostly because she's nearly every teachers favorite. (She's yet to crack her physical education professor, unfortunately.) 

Narcissa is rudely brought out of her peace when a hand taps her shoulder. She forces a blank stare and resists the urge to reprimand them, she'll probably complain about whoever it is to Lucius later-

Or not. 

She hasn't seen her before. The girl must be in this class, obviously because she's here but- 

The girl mouths something at her. Narcissa realizes that she has her headphones on, she often forgets about them. Slowly, she takes them out and sets them on her empty notebook. The idle chatter in the room floods her senses. She barely even notices. 

She just plops down next to her, setting her bottle of Sunkist down next to her extremely full notebook. Narcissa moves her diet coke out of the way as if it will spill by the presence of another human being alone. Out of habit, she peaks at the label on the side of the girls drink. 

230 calories. It isn’t diet. Looking at how much sugar is in it makes her feel a little ill. 

"Pardon?" 

She smiles at Narcissa, flashing the tiniest gap in her front teeth. 

"I asked if you wanted to be partners. Did you hear Binns?" Shit. "Ah- sorry. I'm Alice Fortescue." 

A little frantically, Narcissa looks around the room. There's instructions written on the blackboard, and Binns is asleep at his desk with his laptop open and his head against the wall. Everybody else seems to have gotten into pairs. 

Alice. Alice. Alice. Alice. AliceAliceAliceAliceAliceAlALiceALiciaalical- 

"I don't have much of a choice, do I?" She says, surprising herself. She's never rude, not with strangers anyway. Her French tounge slips through a bit, she can't put a finger on why she feels anxious. 

Undeterred, Alice smiles again, that insane grin that brightens her entire face. Her face. Large brown eyes the color of sunlight with long eyelashes, planes of tan skin peppered with golden freckles. Alice has the kind of face that brings out the beauty in the room, because she fits so flawlessly into it. All at once, Narcissa sees it. The way the large willow tree that covers the landscape outside of the window lets rays of sunlight slip through. And the way it catches in the raindrops. You can't even really see the rest of the world beyond the green, and she never thought of that as beautiful until now. 

She can't see anything beyond Alice. 

Her auburn hair just a touch lighter than her skin that falls past her shoulders in puffed out waves, where she's wearing the uniform white button down and a crimson-gold tie, that she apparently hasn't bothered with because it hangs untied from her neck. She's a gryffindor, so she likely doesn't come from wealth. 

Narcissa is itching to get her in front of a camera. But she doubts it would capture her the way it does Narcissa. People like Alice can’t be contained in a photograph.

"And you are?" There's a coy smile on her lips. Narcissa feels the mental urge to wipe it off. 

"You don't know my name?" Because apparently she's in an incredibly vain mood today. Her father would take those words right out of her mouth if he'd heard them. She shakes her head when Alice tilts hers to the side, as if Narcissa is incredibly amusing. "Narcissa Black." 

Alice looks incredibly happy at this. She perks up like a dog. "Like Sirius Black? I know him!" As if this is something to be incredibly proud of. 

"You know my name from my cousin? The mutt?"

"Is that surprising?" 

Narcissa shrugs, "I'm more famous than he is." 

She is, technically. Sirius and Regulus Black are famous. They were co-stars on a children's sitcom when they were younger, and they've done a couple of commercials since. But Narcissa and her sisters have been on the cover of vouge since they were 13. Narcissa is the face of a perfume brand that caters to rich teenagers with little qualms about spending their daddy's money.

That doesn't even cover her ballet career, because she's relatively notable and well on her way to becoming a prima. She knows that it's incredibly vain of her, but that doesn't make it any less true. In any case, Alice's eyebrows furrow. 

"He's friends with my friend. What do you do?" Alice says, and Narcissa blinks. 

"I'm a model." 

Alice hums non-committedly and tilts her head again, leaning back in her chair to the point where the front legs hover above the ground. "That makes sense." Narcissa raises a quizzical eyebrow, and Alice laughs, "You look like a model." 

"Oh so you think I'm pretty." She tries to joke, resting her head on the palm of her hand. 

"You know that you're pretty," She replies, catching her of guard. 

Narcissa's been called pretty her entire life. Beautiful, stunning, majestic, even. But there's something in the way Alice says it. The other girl pushes herself upright and takes a pen that's hidden in her hair. 

"Well, better get started then." 

Oh right. She thinks stupidly, The project. 

She turns her attention to the blackboard, hands clasped firmly in her lap. It's a presentation, they're in their Greek unit. It seems easy enough. Tedious, but easy. They're supposed to present information about a myth they studied during the course of the unit, and write an essay on it as well. 

Wordlessly, she begins to write down the different myths they've done. Any of them would be easy. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Alice jotting down the myths as well. She's taking notes in sloppy but not unreadable handwriting. Narcissa notices that her notebook has several tabs down the side, and the pages that she flips through are covered in notes. Organized chaos. 

Narcissa organizes her notes, flipping through the ones she's already taken. She reads the words she highlighted, deciding which one she wants to do for the project. She stops for a brief moment, taking out her headphones and putting on the song they're preforming for their next ballet rehearsal. She puts it on a loop and decides that if Alice wants to speak to her she'll let her know. 

They’re silent until Alice bends over and grabs her bag, a beat up brown leather satchel embroidered with flowers and covered in pins. She takes out an orange.

Narcissa watches, rather half-mindedly, as Alice turns it over in her hand. She nearly starts when Alice digs her chipped-black thumb nail into it with a little too much force. Through her earbuds she hears Alice yelp when the citrus sprays her.

She watches for a little more until she decides to put her out of her misery. She abruptly holds out her hand when Alice starts to chip away at the peel, literally, taking tiny pieces of orange down with her. Alice slowly hands her the orange and she peels it cleanly, leaving four chunks of the peel behind. 

Alice smiles that bright, sunflower smile at her and pops a slice between her plump lips. She passes one to Narcissa.  

She stares intently at the piece of fruit in front of her. She knows it’s irrational, she does, but things without labels make her skin crawl. Even though she knows that there’s 40 calories in it, just off the top of her head, she always has the fear that she’s gotten it wrong. She feels the need to check, to know. To know everything that goes into her body, to know that it won’t ruin her.

Alice mouths the lyrics to whatever she's listening to under her breath, and, very suddenly, takes an earbud out of Narcissa's ear. 

"Were you raised in a barn?" 

"Worse, Wales." She winks, taking one of her earbuds out as well. "What are you listening too? It sounds French." 

"It is. I am French." Alice's eyes widen and Narcissa feels the smallest smile tug at her lips. "Je te laisserai des mots."

Narcissa's jaw literally drops when Alice takes one of her earbuds and puts it in Narcissa's, now free, ear. Her music isn't loud. It's the kind of music that Bellatrix always hated, she said that Radiohead was for horny adolescent boys. 

"It's 'Bulletproof, wish I was'." 

"I'm aware." 

Alice takes Narcissa's earbud and puts it in her ear, saying something about how they'll concentrate better if they listen to both of their study songs at the same time. She sighs and resigns herself to her fate. 

So, for the next thirty minutes they listen to Radiohead and Patrick Watson at the same time as they brainstorm their essay, because Alice wanted too. She's tugged out of their silence, again, ten minutes before the bell when Alice taps her on the shoulder. 

"I know what we have to do!" Narcissa stares at her, unimpressed, so she rolls her eyes and continues. 

"Narcissus and Echo!"

Alice says, like it's obvious. 

Narcissa's head hurts.