Melody Vanquer stepped out into the dark hallway, the old floorboards creaking beneath her bare feet. The air hung heavy and thick all around her and she felt her upper lip for sweat. As she made her way down the hall she used the wall as a guide, trailing her pale fingers that seemed to glow in the blackness along the rough edges. She crept down the ancient stairs and into the empty bar of the Leaky Cauldron. Not even Tom was awake at this hour to serve any insomniatic customers. Sighing she resolved to slip into Diagon Alley for a minute or two to relieve her thirst and slipped behind the bar and down another narrower hall.
If she was being completely honest with herself, which she always tried to be, she would admit that she wasn't going out at two in the morning for a drink. She was, of course, a witch and could easily have conjured up something. It was the distraction she craved. She knew she needed to get to bed because tomorrow she would be leaving for Kings Cross to board the train that would take her to Hogwarts, her new school.
Up until last year Melody had attended Hurshire, an all girls school of witchcraft in Canada. She had also lived in Canada until the beginning of the summer, when her mother died and she'd come to London to live with her aunt and uncle. The official cause of death was overdose, but Melody still couldn't accept that. Their life hadn't been perfect. Her dad had never been in the picture and sometimes money was a little tight, but they always managed and her mom had never given any signs that she was planning on taking her own life. She'd seemed happy. Even in the hours before. The last time she'd seen her mom she'd been leaving to go shopping with some friends from school. Her mom had been angry at her for something and they were fighting. She couldn't even remember what it had been about, but she would never forget the last thing she ever said to her mother. She hated herself for it, and even now in this musty hallway, she shivered at the memory.
Pushing the bad thoughts to the back of her mind she stepped through the back door and into the small cramped alley in which Tom had somehow managed to wedge a few garbage cans. Taking her wand out, she tapped the special pattern out and stepped back as the bricks magically shifted and turned to reveal a large archway. As soon as she stepped through it the bricks reformed and the wall stood tall and ordinary, giving no hint of the wizarding city that lay behind it.
She had only visited Diagon Alley a handful of times in the past few months, but it really held no surprises for her. She had visited every store, seen all the items they offered, and even ventured into Knockturn Alley. She had, however, never seen the city at night. It was a totally different place. Most of the stores were closed, their shutters drawn and lights extinguished, leaving the cobblestoned street dark. Dark, but not empty. There were people huddled in groups around fires burning in midair. Most wore dark cloaks that covered their faces, and those that didn't had faces you couldn't bring yourself to look at for more than a few seconds. It was like Knockturn Alley spread out at night. Melody wasn't afraid though and she didn't turn back. Maybe if she had, things would have worked out differently.
We all have that one thing we wish we could change, though. That one bad decision we wish we hadn't made. But we realize that if that had one thing been done differently or that decision changed, so many things would be different. We connect the dots and see how many people we would never have met, how many places we would never have seen, how many experiences would never have been ours had even one thing been done differently.
Those decisions make us who we are, and are the pages on which we write our stories. This is Melody's story.
(Hello my lovelies3 Please do submit a review. This is my first ever fanfic and I'm really trying not to mess it up. I would LOVE some feedback)