PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE read Mellyssa before you read this. If you don't then Mellyssa in this fic will at first seem extremely MarySue-ish. I honestly didn't mean for her to turn out that way, I just tried to think of what Mellyssa would have been like back when she was 11 according to a couple flashbacks in the main fic and what she was like when she was older. Also, about her appearance. I honestly modeled her after myself, and what I wish I will look like when I'm older. I do honestly have blond hair and blue eyes, am able to sing Celtic style songs, and like my hair long. If anyone ever cuts it then I will hunt them down and make them pay.... eh heh heh...sorry, Gaz moment there. Anyway, please, if you decide to ignore my warnings and read this before you read Mellyssa please DO NOT review and say that she was a MarySue. I already know that she seems like one at the beginning and I truly am sorry.



Friendship
~*~


He was free. Hard as it was to believe, he was free. His father had left him alone at platform 9¾. He picked up his bags and walked onto the train. Well, maybe he wasn't as free as he thought. As he walked down the aisle, looking for an empty compartment, he was pelted with garbage. He finally found a compartment that he thought was empty and walked in, only to find that a girl that looked to be about his age was already in there.

"I'm sorry, I'll leave."

The girl, who had long blond hair, blue eyes, and glasses smiled kindly. "No, it's ok. Sit down."

Looking confused, he sat. Then the girl walked over to him and removed a chocolate frog wrapper from his hair. He looked up at her and they both laughed.


"So, what's your name?"

"Severus Snape."

"Oh, mine's Mellyssa Celes." Mellyssa sat down next to Severus. "Is this your first year too?"

"Yes."

Mellyssa smiled. "You don't like to talk much, do you?"

"No."

Mellyssa started to laugh.

"Don't laugh at me."

"I'm sorry, it's just how you said that. Oh I really am sorry Severus, I just laugh very easily."

Severus grunted.

"Hey, do you mind if I sing a bit? It's a good way to pass the time."

"Go ahead, I don't care."

Mellyssa sat back on the other side of the compartment and began to sing. It was an interesting song, full of tempo and melody changes. When Mellyssa finished singing Severus looked at her.

"What kind of song was that? It's very unusual."

"It's a Celtic style song. My mom taught it to me."

"I bet that I could play it on my guitar."

Mellyssa smirked, it really was a difficult song to learn. "Have fun."

Severus took a guitar case from inside one of his largest bags. He checked to make sure that all the strings were adjusted correctly and began to play. By the time he finished Mellyssa's jaw had dropped open.

"That...that was perfect! You couldn't have heard that song before and yet you hit every note exactly right! You're amazing."

"You're not a bad singer either. Oh, and that was actually exceedingly simple compared to what I'm used to playing."

Mellyssa wasn't able to lose the look of shock on her face until Severus had put his guitar away and a knock on the compartment door was heard. Severus sat and refused to see who was there so Mellyssa got up. On the other side of the door stood three boys and a girl. The girl stepped forward slightly.

"Excuse me, but is there any room in here? All of the other compartments are full."

Mellyssa stuck her head back into the compartment and looked questioningly at Severus. He sighed and moved his bags onto Mellyssa's side of the compartment. She smiled and mouthed 'thank you' before facing the other students again.

"Come one in."

As the four other students walked in Mellyssa sat down next to Severus, who was sitting next to the window. She lightly placed a hand on his shoulder and whispered.

"I'm sorry 'bout this, but all of the other compartments were full."

He whispered back "Just tell them to leave me and my stuff alone."

Mellyssa couldn't suppress a small chuckle. "Alright Sev."

Severus sat straight up and glared at Mellyssa. Mellyssa just giggled.

The girl who had asked if the could come in tapped Mellyssa on the shoulder. "I'm Lily Evans. What's your name?"

Everyone sat down as the train began to move. "I'm Mellyssa Celes. Who're they?" Mellyssa pointed at the three boys that had come with Lily onto the train.

"The one nearest the window is Remus Lupin, The boy next to him is Sirius Black, and the boy who needs to comb his hair is James Potter."

"Hey! You know it does this all by itself, I can't help it!"

Lily giggled. "So, who's he?" Lily pointed at Severus.

Mellyssa looked at Severus and noticed him nod his head slightly. "That's Severus Snape. I would suggest that you leave him alone, he nearly threw me out the train window when I tried to make a joke about his hair."

Sirius, Remus, James, and Lily and slightly backed away from Severus while he just looked at Mellyssa strangely. Mellyssa smiled and sat next to Severus. Now it was everyone else's turn to look at her strangely. She shook her head.

"Oh come on guys, it was a joke."

Sirius looked at Mellyssa. "Well it wasn't a very funny one."

"It wasn't meant to be. She was simply trying to get you to do what I had asked of her in the only way she knows how. Badly."

"Hey! That was mean Sev!"

"It was meant to be. And please refrain from calling me 'Sev'. It's annoying."

Mellyssa stuck her tongue out at Severus. "I don't have to do what you tell me to 'cause you're not the boss of me."

Severus glared at her. "If you do that again I will curse you quicker than you can pull your tongue back into your mouth."

Mellyssa pouted and folded her arms across her chest. She stayed like that until a quiet hooting was heard. She sighed and took a cage from her luggage. She removed the cover and took out the owl that had been sitting inside it.

"What is it now Tomite? You still have plenty of food and water."

Tomite hopped off of Mellyssa's hand and perched on her shoulder, rubbing against her cheek. Mellyssa snorted as she petted the owl.

"Spoiled creature."

Remus looked at the owl curiously.

"What kind of owl is that, it doesn't look like any that I know of."

"Tomite? Well, let's see if I can remember...he was a gift from my father so it's gonna be a weird name....Oh yeah! It's a pygmy owl!"

Sirius chuckled.

"Pig? It looks more like a ball of fluff than a pig."

"Pygmy!"

"Oh, so you're the pig. That certainly makes more sense."

Before Mellyssa could reply, Severus had pulled his wand out, aimed it at Sirius, muttered something, and put his wand away. Mellyssa looked back to see that Sirius was trying to speak but no sound came out.

"He was getting annoying."

"Woah, what was that Severus?"

"Mute curse, very simple actually."

"Think you could teach me? I know a couple people that'll start picking on me as soon as they can find me."

"You? Why would anyone bother you?"

"You don't know me. Just 'cause I look like little miss perfect doesn't mean I am, just like you looking like you came from a poor district doesn't mean that you're a bad person."

Sirius started chuckling.

"I wouldn't be too sure of that, girl."

Mellyssa glared, first at Sirius, then at Remus, who she figured undid the curse.

" Y'know, it's people like you who made me what I am. The kind of people who can't comprehend anything beyond their needs and amusement. If it weren't for people like you, I might actually have friends! But no, all anyone could see was a little girl who didn't do what was 'cool'. Oh how I hate that word. I didn't do what they liked to do so they labeled me as 'weird' and told everyone to ignore me. The others were too afraid of the cool people and obeyed them. And every single one of those kids who ruined my life acted just like you!"

Severus placed a hand on Mellyssa's shoulder, trying to get her to calm down. Unfortunately, it didn't work.

"No Severus, he deserves this. Sirius, have you ever met a child who had no friends? Have you seen how miserable poor children are, sitting on the streets? Have you seen how having one single friend cheers them up? Well I didn't have any friends, I was the poor child sitting on the corner, poor in that I had no friends. My parents tried to help me, gave me attention, but it just wasn't the same. I needed friends that were my age, that could wholly understand me. You, Sirius, have no right to judge. You have led a normal life, these people that stay with you, defend you, are proof enough of that. You don't know what it's like for other people, different people. Until you've lived our lives Sirius, you have no right to judge."

A quiet, deliberate clapping was heard from the door of the compartment. A man, probably in his early forties was standing in the now open doorway. His brown hair was combed in a neat part and he looked very well groomed. They all had a sinking feeling that he was a teacher.

"Very eloquent for an 11 year old. Though it is interesting, Miss Celes, that you consider yourself poor. If my memory serves me, which it always does, your parents are rather wealthy, are they not? Therefore it could only be due to a fault of your character that you have no friends."

The man turned and left, closing the compartment door behind him.

Mellyssa was torn between chasing the man down and beating him up or sitting down and crying. She chose that one that wouldn't possibly get her expelled. Severus sighed and rested his hand on her back, hoping that it would help calm her.

She acts like my baby sister, and yet seems to think on an adult level. I could almost pity her, if I wasn't in a worse predicament.

James, Remus, and Lily started to get up, but Severus signaled them to stay back. Lily didn't pay Severus any heed. She sat down on the other side of Mellyssa and patted her on the shoulder.

"Hey, don't worry. That jerk had no right to blame you for that. He obviously believes that having money means having friends. That's not true, and I'm sure that you could have plenty of friends, if you were given the chance.

Mellyssa didn't look up, and spoke low enough that only Severus and Lily could hear her.

"That's not the only reason I'm alone. There's something wrong inside my head. I know that there's something wrong, because normal kids don't wish they were dead, do they?"

Lily smiled, she was afraid that it would be something that was actually bad.

"Oh don't worry, everyone feels like that sometimes."

Still speaking in the low whisper, Mellyssa started shivering, she didn't like remembering this, and yet couldn't stop remembering it.

"That may be true, but they don't actually try to make it happen, do they? They wish they were, but they don't try to make it happen. Normal kids don't do that. Normal kids don't like animals, especially birds and snakes, better than humans. Normal kids don't try to pretend that they're something else all the time. Normal kids are scared of death. Normal kids don't try to make the wish come true!"

They last sentence was shouted, and of the boys, only Remus knew what she was talking about. He also walked over to her and kneeled in front of her.

"Mellyssa, please try to calm down. You're among people like you now. None of us are normal, including Sirius, believe it or not."

"How so? There's no way that you could be like me, you're happy."

Severus tapped her shoulder.

"I'm not. And I do understand how you feel. I know what that's like, but I don't have to try to make it real, my father does that for me."

Mellyssa was the only one who understood what he was saying, and gasped. Then, realizing the irony of the whole situation, giggled.

"Severus, you are stronger than I. You are able to keep from exploding at nothing. You have reason to explode and you don't, I don't have reason to explode, and I do."

Severus gave a slight grin.

"You're right. So, stop exploding at nothing and eat a chocolate frog or something. The snack cart should be here soon."

Mellyssa smiled at Severus.

He knows me. He actually knows what it's like to be me! He understands me. No one's done that before, even my parents. They don't even know what I tried to do to myself. Only I, Severus, Lily, Remus, and the old man that saved me know.

Brought out of her musings by the arrival of the snack cart, Mellyssa bought three chocolate frogs for everyone. James was shocked.

"Wow, Mellyssa, where'd you get so much money?"

"Well, my parents gave me enough money to buy brand new stuff. Y'know, books and such. But I went to the second hand store instead. They had all of the books I needed for almost half the price, plus they weren't in very bad shape. Plus there were notes written in some of them, so they might even be more helpful than new books."

"Neat. Hey, are you gonna eat your last chocolate frog Lily?"

"Of course I am James. But you could have the card if you want, I'm not really into collecting them."

The foursome turned to face each other and began chatting about cards that they had, with Lily simply listening. She wasn't a collector but the cards did have interesting information on them.

Snape turned to face Mellyssa.

"So, what kind of wand did you get?"

"Me? Let's see, it's 10 inches, willow, with a dragon heartstring core."

"Willow and dragon heartstring? That's an odd combination."

"How so?"

"Well, willows are generally characterized as being calm and peaceful, while dragons are fiery and ill tempered. The two are almost complete opposites."

"True, but because of that it suits me well. A volatile wand for a volatile person. What kind did you get?"

"Rowan wood, 12 inches, phoenix feather."

"Hmm, let's see. Phoenix's are often a symbol of power, and rowan is usually considered to have special properties, though they vary greatly. A powerful, unpredictable wand, for a like person. That's also fitting."

Severus gave a partial grin.

"If you say so. What house do you think you'll be put in?"

"I don't know, probably Hufflepuff. Oh, I hope I don't get put in Gryffindor."

"Why not Gryffindor? They're supposed to be the best house."

"Scarlet and gold? Their colors are too gaudy, too self-proclaiming. Hufflepuff at least has slightly more subdued colors."

"I guess. What about Slytherin?"

"Oh, I wouldn't mind it too much. I feel rather comfortable in dark places, plus I rather like snakes."

"Really? That's interesting."

"I guess. Well, what house are you going in?"

"Probably Slytherin. Oh well, at least I won't be picked on as much."

"You sound as if you don't want to be in Slytherin."

"Well, with you-know-who going around, and him having come from Slytherin, it isn't exactly in good standing right now, and I don't even want to think of what the headmaster will be like."

"Oooh, yeah. He'll probably hate Slytherins or something. It's probably really hard for the headmaster to find people willing to fill that position."

"Hey, I just had a rather bad thought."

"What?"

"What if you get put in Gryffindor and I get put in Slytherin? We would almost never get to see each other, and when we do, there'd be others around, and they wouldn't take very kindly to our friendship at all."

"Wait, you consider us friends Severus?"

"Well I don't know what else to call it."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. Now, back to my question."

"I don't know what I'd do if we were kept apart. But I have an idea."

"Oh really?"

"Yes. And it is this: No matter what houses we are put in, we will not let others try to keep us apart. They couldn't possibly understand us, or how much we need this friendship, or at least I do. So, what do you say? Promise?"

Mellyssa held out her hand. Severus shook it.

"Promise. No matter what they say, they won't keep us apart."

From the other side of the compartment, the foursome watched with interest. James turned to Remus.

"Is it me, or does Severus seem a whole lot friendlier now?"

"It's not you. Mellyssa also seems much happier. I guess that they really do need friends."



Whew, that took MUCH longer to get finished than I thought it would. Well, please review if you like it.