This story is slightly AU. Once Snape killed Dumbledore, Snape's cover was blown so he was forced to live in the Order HQ to keep safe from Voldemort. Harry, Ron, and Hermione left school before their seventh year to search for the Horcruxes. Noncompliant with Deathly Hallows.
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"Thank goodness for Sundays," Melissa said to Susan, her waitress, as she brought over her coffee. "I slept in until nine today."
Susan rolled her eyes as she set down the mug and the stack of creams. "Sweetie, if you're waking up at nine on a weekend that means you didn't party late enough last night," she said with a wink. Susan had been working at the little restaurant that Melissa always had breakfast at for ten years, and they had similar conversations often, much to Melissa's annoyance. Susan was in her early sixties, and nothing was more interesting to her than every detail of everyone else's lives. "Is Jake out of town?" she asked in an off-handed manner, though she was clearly digging for information.
"Susan, you know full well that we broke up. I don't know why everyone keeps wanting us to get back together!" Melissa exclaimed, opening a cream container and pouring it into her steaming coffee.
"Ah, but you were so cute together," Susan shrugged, pursing her lips. "Besides, you need to get married soon. You're 31 now."
"Yes, I am. And your point is…"
Ignoring Melissa's rude tone, Susan continued stubbornly, "My point is you're running out of time."
"Maybe I don't think marriage and popping out kids are the most important things in life. I've got a steady job where I'm making a difference, and I'm happy."
"Being a vet isn't making a difference, not like having kids does," Susan said matter-of-factly. Some of the patrons around them started looking in on the conversation, most of whom knew Melissa. None of them seemed to be considering sticking up for her—in fact, some were nodding with what Susan was saying.
"You didn't say that when it was your dog who was on the operating table," Melissa snapped. "I think you've got other tables to wait," she said pointedly, picking up her coffee and looking away.
Susan gave her a steady look, and then left her alone. Melissa sighed into her cooled coffee, and picked up the newspaper. She had been amused that the local paper had been interested enough in the old teapot she had found to put her in the paper the other day. Sometimes she felt she should move to a place that was a bit more interesting… Someplace people would stop telling her she needed to get married before she got "too old."
Once Melissa finished her coffee, she left the restaurant quickly, not meeting anyone's eye as she left. She could feel their stares, and knew that news of her argument with Susan had already spread to everyone in the area.
She drove quickly back to her small house, which was located just outside the main area of the town. When she walked in the front door, she was overcome by the strange sense that something was wrong. Nothing was obviously different about her house, but something wasn't the same. When she walked by the living room, she jumped to find that two people were sitting on her couch.
The two stood up when they saw her, and Melissa found herself looking at an extremely odd couple. The man was very tall and black, wearing long blue robes, and the woman was younger, with bright purple hair, and a matching outfit. "Melissa Blackmore?" the woman said urgently. Though their appearance was foreign, her English accent was smooth and native.
"Yes, I'm Melissa. How can I help you?" she asked, trying not to stare at the woman's strange hair.
"We need to talk to you—it's very urgent," the man said quickly.
"Where is it?" Melissa asked, turning back towards her door.
"Where's what?" the woman asked, watching her with a strange expression.
"Your animal," Melissa said, confused. "What happened?"
"We're not here for anything like that," the man said. "This is about you. We have reason to believe your life is at risk."
"Is this a joke?" she demanded, blue eyes narrowed. She didn't like having the two odd people in her house, especially since her sweet guard dog, a burly German Shepard named Ibo, had died. Melissa had a gun, but it was hidden in a drawer in her kitchen.
"No," the woman said earnestly, looking around anxiously. "I promise that you're in very real danger."
"From who?" Melissa asked suspiciously. At the moment, the only people who Melissa felt threatened by at all were the two strange people talking to her in her living room.
The man and woman exchanged an uncertain look. "This is hard to explain," the man said. "You are a Muggle, right?"
"Excuse me?" Melissa replied, feeling more confused. Was Muggle a codeword? Maybe these people were with the government. In the strange-dressing, breaking-and-entering section of the government. Melissa began wishing she kept her cell phone with her at all times of day, no matter how many pet owners disturbed her at all hours.
"That's a yes," the woman said. "Okay, well, my name's Tonks, and this is Kingsley Shacklebolt. We're… in a certain group, and there are these other people in a different group—evil—and, well, they don't like people like you, and they're going to single you out because you might be related to the leader of the group."
Melissa paused, trying to digest the information. "What sort of group?" she asked, picking one out of one hundred questions racing through her mind.
"Wizards," Kingsley said bluntly. "And witches. The evil wizard, who cannot be named, has already killed off everyone else related to him, and you're next."
Melissa met his eyes icily. "I'd like for you both to get out of my house," she said as calmly as she could. The pair exchanged a glance, and Melissa's eyes narrowed. "Now or I call the police." She took a step to the side where her phone hung on the wall.
Kingsley pulled out a stick, and waved it. The phone flew to the other side of the room and smashed against the window, breaking both the phone and the glass. "Now, listen, if the other group gets here, that," he said, gesturing to the broken phone, "will be your head. You have to trust us. We can take you somewhere safe."
Melissa looked at them levelly for a moment, then suddenly darted out the room, running for the kitchen. She heard the woman swear, and heard them following her. Panting, Melissa slid into the kitchen and scrambled for her gun in the cluttered drawer. There was a loud noise outside, and she looked through her sliding glass door at three figures in black robes who had just appeared by her house. They saw her, and strode purposefully up the door, drawing sticks similar to the man's weapon.
Melissa quickly cocked her gun and held it firmly in her hand. "Don't come closer," she shouted, aiming the gun. Her voice was shaky, but her hand wasn't. The three figures were already at the door. A sharp movement with one of their weapons and the glass imploded. Melissa screamed, and fired at the leading figure. Somehow, the bullet stopped in midair and fell to the ground.
Suddenly, there was a strong arm wrapped tightly around her waist, and Melissa felt her world turn inside out. She felt as though she was being crushed to death, and thought for one wild moment that she was dead, before her senses came back to her and she found herself in the middle of an empty street.
She was half-carried and half-dragged up a set of stairs, though she was still so confused from the strange experience she had just had that she couldn't focus on any of her surroundings. A door clicked open, and Melissa was dragged inside somewhere.
Shakily, Melissa fell to the ground when the arm suddenly let go. She was dizzy, nauseous, and extremely disoriented. She stared at the swirled pattern of the hardwood floor inches from her nose, trying not to throw up. As the dizziness began to fade, Melissa became away of biting pain in her arms, face, and legs. Realizing that her right hand still clutched her gun, she used her left hand to reach up and hold her face. Her hand met something sharp jutting from her skin, and came away bloody. Overwhelmed, Melissa let out a shaky gasp and sat up on her knees, though her knees were searing with pain and it brought on another wave of dizziness.
She was in what appeared to be a hallway, decorated simply with generic colors, and smelled sharply clean. In front of her, the man who had been in her house, Kingsley Shacklebolt, was at the end of the hallway, then went through a door, leaving Melissa alone. Melissa took a deep breath, and tried to stand up. She didn't know where she was or how she got there, but she didn't plan to stick around long enough to find out.
It was difficult for her to get onto her feet, and she had to steady herself against the wall, leaving a faint smear of blood. Cautiously, tugged on the sharp point on her face and pulled out a bright red piece of glass. When the glass door had shattered, it must have sliced her badly. Though she wanted to pause and take stock of where she was injured, she could hear footsteps in the direction Shacklebolt had gone, so knew she had to leave quickly.
There were several doors in the hallway, and Melissa looked at them quickly, trying to find the one that would help her escape. The calm veterinarian part of her mind told her that she needed to get to a hospital as soon as she could. The blood-loss and shock alone could cause her to lose consciousness soon, and she did not want to get trapped here. The was a coat rack near one of the doors, so Melissa chose that one, limping quickly towards it.
The door opened suddenly, startling Melissa. The woman, Tonks, hurried through, and snapped it closed behind her. Her pink hair was tousled and she was out of breath, but was grinning triumphantly. Melissa raised her gun, and aimed it unsteadily at the woman. When she saw Melissa standing in the middle of the hallway, aiming a gun at her, her face fell. "Blimey, the glass got you good," she said worriedly. To Melissa's confusion, she hardly gave the gun a second glance. "Where did Kingsley go?"
Melissa didn't answer, standing unsteadily and waiting for Tonks to make the first move. Paying no attention to Melissa's stance and loaded weapon, Tonks went calmly past her down the hallway. "Kingsley!" she called. "I, uh, I think Melissa might need some help." When there was no immediate answer, she looked back at Melissa. "Um, just give me a few seconds to get…" She trailed off, already hurrying down the hall and going through a different door than Shacklebolt had earlier.
Melissa waited until the second she was out of sight before turning and lurching towards the door. As she scrambled with the knob, a voice behind her like frozen velvet calmly said, "And who are you?"
Melissa whirled around and found a slender man in black robes watching her coolly, leaning against the doorway he had just entered through. His black hair was tied back in a short ponytail, accentuating his sharp, pale features. In his hand was the wooden weapon that the rest of the dangerous people she had encountered during the day had wielded, and he was wearing the same strange outfit.
Melissa didn't know who he was, but if he was in the company of the other lunatics then she didn't want anything to do with him. She raised her gun and said, "Stay b-back." Unlike the woman, this man acknowledged the gun, but also, if the sneer on his face was anything to go by, clearly believed she would not use it. "I'm dead serious," Melissa warned, cocking the gun.
"I'm sure you are," the man said calmly, not perturbed a bit. "Tell me who you are."
"Just let me go," Melissa replied as levelly as she could. The man looked at her calculatingly for a moment, and then waved the wooden weapon. Suddenly, Melissa found she could not move a single muscle. Her mind struggled fiercely, but she was completely frozen.
Eyes narrowed, he looked around the hallway for a second, and then turned back to Melissa. With another wave of the strange item, Melissa's head was unfrozen. "Who brought you here? You obviously didn't get in by yourself."
"A man and a woman, dressed like you. They said they were Tonks and Shacklebolt. I was in my house, and they had broken in. They said…" The man was looking at Melissa with such an expression that she couldn't figure out if he believed her or not. From what she had seen so far that day, she didn't want anyone with that weapon of his getting upset with her. "There were other people too, but with black robes. They blew up my door." Melissa trailed off. She hadn't thought about the other group of people again. Were they also with the first two? Was this man one of them? They had all been wearing masks….
The man held his wand to his throat, and when he spoke his voice was magnified with surprising clarity. "Tonks and Shacklebolt, get back to the main hall now." His voice was authoritative and agitated.
It took only a minute for the two other people to join them in the hallway. That minute was spent in silence between Melissa and the man. Melissa tried to form a plan to escape, but she knew she'd have to get that weapon away from the man first. He watched her with unnerving intensity, calculating black eyes taking in every aspect of her appearance.
"You'd think we'd have thought of that charm while we were looking all around this house for you," Tonks said as she emerged from her doorway. "Hey Melissa, I see you've met—"
The man ignored Tonks, and watched as Shacklebolt entered from his doorway. "What is she doing here?" he snapped immediately. "Why would you bring anyone here?"
Shackebolt spoke calmly, "We found out that she's related to You-Know Who. We got her out just in time—Death Eaters did that," he said, gesturing to her bloodied appearance. "Right now I need you to heal her."
The black-haired man sighed and said, "How are you sure it's not a trap? They could have placed her there. Isn't it ironic that they showed up at the same time you did?"
"A coincidence, but not unbelievable," Shacklebolt replied.
"Hey, did you immobilize her?" Tonks asked confused, looking at Melissa with her eyebrows furrowed. "Really, Sev, she's not dangerous." She waved the weapon at Melissa, and she could move again.
Plan ready, Melissa raised her pistol and shot at the black-haired man, who was closest to her, turned, and pulled open the door. There were angry and bewildered shouts behind her while her adrenaline helped propel her pained limbs through the door. A bright jet of red light flashed over her head as she jumped down all three of the front steps and hit the ground sprinting.
She had no clue where she was, but didn't waste any time taking her bearing. Her plan was sketchy, but she knew she had to find a telephone and call the police as soon as she could.
However, she quickly noticed that she was in the middle of nowhere, and not in the normal sense. She was running through a field, completely unoccupied by humans. Glancing behind her, there was no house, no anything, that she could have just come from. Suddenly, out of midair, Tonks appeared in the field behind her. "Melissa!" she shouted. "Wait!"
Not stopping to talk, Melissa ran faster forward, eyes down so she would not stumble in the long grasses. There was a flash of light near her, but Melissa jumped sideways before continuing to run.
With a loud crack, Tonks was right in front of Melissa. "Stupefy!" she exclaimed, pointing the weapon at Melissa. Before she could react, red light engulfed her and she lost consciousness.
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