A/N: Short and sweet...Please Review! Thanks.
Disclaimer: Do not own Harry Potter or associated characters/story lines. I do however own Melanie, her friends, family and the plot of this fic. Yay me!
Chapter Two:
Happy Birthday?
It was my fifteenth birthday, just over a year before I stepped into that building and my life came to a grinding halt to wait for my final decision. I was fifteen. Fifteen. Does it even hit home how young that is? How your life so far is barely a blip—a small stretch—on the timeline of your life? It does with me. I definitely understand that I was way too young to experience such a life changing consequence. It's just crazy.
I should have seen it coming. I should have known. I should have been prepared. But I didn't see it. I hadn't known. And I wasn't prepared, not in the slightest. I should have been, but I wasn't. And that in itself was crazy.
I was never unprepared, ever, until that day.
I was never at a loss for words, ever, until that moment.
I was never surprised, ever, until I opened that envelope.
I vowed to never feel that helpless, sinking feeling ever again. But that didn't happen. I felt that same gnawing, gut-wrenching feeling just over a year later as I stood in the crowded entryway of that building. And it was crazy.
I was going crazy.
Perhaps it would be best to elaborate on what exactly happened that day...
Usually I can sense when something big is about to happen, as part of the advantage of being a seer. I'd wake up with an anticipating feeling and then something happens, but I was braced and on guard that day because of the feeling. I was waiting for that something big to happen. That morning I should have felt something, but I hadn't. That was crazy.
It was like any other of my birthdays. I woke up and had the traditional breakfast with my parents and Dani, just like every year. Kaya, Cam and a few of my other friends caught a movie and lunch in the afternoon with me. The guy I had been dating then, Kian Atkinson, one of my good friends as well, had to work that afternoon so he hadn't come. He was going to meet me later. We got back just in time to get ready for the party my parents had put together for that evening. Nothing that seemed out of the ordinary. Nothing that had never happened before.
Everything seemed to be going great. I should have seen it coming.
The party started out great...just like always. All of my enormous family was there and even more of my friends. Even then it wasn't the largest party I had ever had. I was already anticipating my sweet sixteen for the following year. My mom has always loved to plan parties for Dani and me. Sometimes she tends to go a bit overboard but the parties were always wonderful. They always reserved one of the hotel's banquet or conference rooms for any family parties. This time was no different. It started and went quickly and uneventfully. Except for the slight scene my Uncle Joey caused when he slipped past that one-alcoholic-drink-too-many-mark and proceeded to jump on top of a table, dancing and charming anyone, who walked within a foot of him, hair to flash random neon colors. But believe me it was not the first time that had happened. It wasn't until most people had left that it happened.
It had been decided that I would leave any presents until after the party. Later I had been convinced to join Kaya, Cam and Kian at a late party at a classmate's house and then stay the night at Kaya's afterward. When my mom agreed, I decided to leave all presents for the next day. But my mom had another idea for me. She set me up.
The present from my parents was placed in my hands and I was urged to take a moment to open it before I left. I remember my response: just an uncommitted shrug as I sat down in the nearest chair. I don't know exactly what I could have done to award it but I should have done something.
I absentmindedly tore at the paper and revealed the hardback cover of what turned out to be a magnificent book. I could barely hold back a smile at fist. With the entirety of my mother's side of my family basically full of seers it wasn't odd that I'm so interested in Divination. While most of the seers in my family are devoted to one part of it, their calling, I tend to excel in all aspects of the subject. The book was all about Divination, an advanced study, and it was wonderful. But it was the surprised it held within the pages that would change my life and it had nothing to do with what was written in the book itself.
I had started to flip the pages, just to get a feel of it. Then it happened as I flicked past a certain page it fell open and something slipped through the pages and landed on the ground near my feet. I frowned slightly as I reached for it. It was a plain vanilla colored envelope with only my name scrawled across the front in my mom's neat, loopy handwriting. Curiosity got the best of me, as it always does and I began to break the seal. I was left with two sheet of our hotel letterhead on the first a short paragraph, and on the second a much longer letter signed with my mom's name at the bottom. As I glanced over the first I realized just what it was and nearly fainted. I was going crazy inside.
I had never been caught so off guard, ever, until that minuscule moment of time.
And it was a crazy feeling.
