"Harry, please. You can't do that. You'll get horribly hurt," Hermione Granger said to her friend as they walked in the snowy woods near Hogsmeade. Her other companion, Ron Weasley, shook his head in agreement.
"Yeah, mate. You're absolutely mad if you want Black to find you," he stated.
But at that moment, Harry Potter did not care one bit if his skills weren't up to par with Black's. He didn't even care if he was a murdering lunatic. The first one ever to escape Azkaban at that. All he knew was that Sirius Black had betrayed his parents to Voldemort, and he was the reason they were dead. If the man hadn't turned them over, then maybe he would be able to go spend Christmas back home with them this year, instead of having to stay at Hogwarts, as usual...
Harry was in one of the stupors that had been fairly common after he had sneaked into Hogsmeade and heard the truth about Black. Now, here he was in the woods, having sneaked into the Hogsmeade area once again, ranting about hoping that Sirius would find him so he could avenge his parents' deaths. Of course, he didn't expect his friends to understand, but he had to tell somebody his feelings, or else the pent-up emotios would come out the wrong way. Take this summer for instance. After that incident with his aunt and the Knight Bus, Harry definitely could say for sure that he had a temper.
Deep down, he knew he was mad, like Ron had said. He couldn't take on Black and he knew it. He also knew he had to keep control of his temper, but at something of this magnitude, it seemed all but impossible. He also had school to worry about, and his friends, and Quidditch, and the ever-present threat of Voldemort. Really, all Harry wanted to do was to go back under his Invisibility Cloak and go to the town of Hogsmeade again, maybe get a lollipop from Honeydukes like the trio had done in the earlier hours of the day-
Until Harry heard a sound.
It sounded as if it was a great deal of the way off in the distance, but it was filled with agony all the same. Forgetting his own rage and sadness, Harry tried to make out exactly what he was hearing, but Hermione and Ron's jabbering was making it hard to concentrate.
"Guys, be quiet," Harry said, annoyed at his best mates.
Ron and Hermione looked at him like he had gone off the deep end. "What is it now, Harry?" Hermione asked.
He strained his ears even more, searching to identify the noise. He stepped forward through the snow, still hearing the sound and the crunching of snow of what sounded like feet. Harry looked back at his friends, expecting them to hear the same thing he did, but they looked clueless. Then, Ron muttered something about having to run an errand for Fred and George at Zonko's Joke Shop and tried to make a run for it. Harry grabbed him by the sleeve of his coat.
"Goodness, Harry! What's wrong with you? We're already breaking school rules by you coming here, and being so far in the woods! And you want to find Black, not to mention! The man who somehow escaped from Azkaban. And now, you're looking off into the trees at nothing-" Ron began.
"Shush, Ronald. Don't you hear that too?" Hermione questioned, leaning her ear more to the depths of the woods, finally hearing what Harry was hearing. Harry gestured his head at Hermione so hopefully Ron would understand. His friend shook his head, uncomprehending.
Though he wished he could make Ron understand, Harry's curiosity got the best of him as he ran further into the pines. The sobbing noise was sounding louder now, and he could hear Ron and Hermione's labored breathing behind him, trying to keep up with their friend.
Harry stopped as he reached the end of his long run at the end of a tiny stone overhang. Holding Ron and Hermione back behind him in case the maker of the noise was dangerous, he looked down at the snowy ground below the precipice and was shocked at what he saw.
A young girl, who couldn't be much more older than himself, stood crying on a rock. She was incredibly skinny, even more so than Harry after a summer at the Dursley's. Her cloak and dress, which must have at one time looked very royal and grand, were tattered and in shreds. The boy slowly turned back around from the scene to address his friends.
"You won't believe what I saw. It's a girl. She's just sitting there, crying. I think she's run away or something," he said to his friends.
Ron and Hermione looked very unsure of how to react. Finally, Hermione spoke. "Well, if it's really a girl down there, and not just one of your hallucinations, Harry, we have to talk to her and bring her to safety somehow. She'll get hurt if she stays here overnight," she said.
Harry was about to reply when Ron butted in. "But what if she's a Muggle? Where will we take her? It's not like we can just bring her into a wizarding community," he whispered.
Hermione looked ready to retort angrily but Harry did not want to hear another argument. He jumped into the conversation instead to diffuse the tension. "I think we still need to send someone down there, anyway," he said. "Like Hermione said, we can't just leave her in the woods."
"You should go, mate," Ron said, looking at Harry.
Harry shook his head, unsure and maybe a bit frightened about what the girl might do. "I think we should send Hermione."
"No, Harry! I can't go down there!"
"Yes, you can! It's not that hard to just slide down a snowy bank!" Ron snarkily replied. The bickering continued until Harry called a halt.
"All right, let's just vote! Who wants me to go?" No hands were raised, and Harry was secretly relieved.
"Okay, who wants Ron?" Hermione's hand shot up angrily.
"And Hermione?" Both Harry and Ron's hands were raised.
Hermione sighed, realizing that she was beaten. "Alright, I'll go. But if something happens to me, I'll tell Dumbledore to place all the blame on you two," she said.
"You're the girl, anyway, you don't matter," Ron said, promptly receiving a smack from Hermione's hand.
The boys watched carefully as Hermione slowly slid down the snowy banks near the girl. Amazingly, the young child did not seem to hear any noise amidst her tears. Silently and almost painstakingly, the girl edged closer to the unfamiliar child.
But Hermione was soon noticed as she stepped on a twig. The young stranger stood up immediately, looking around, obviously scared for her life. She picked up a small branch from the ground and held it up in the air threateningly, almost as if it were a wand, and Harry suddenly had doubts that she was just an ordinary Muggle.
"Who's there?" the girl shouted. "Come out! I'll fight you!" she yelled, obviously a hidden tremor in her voice.
Hermione saved this time to step out of the clearing. The girl dropped her "wand" and started to run away in the other direction before Hermione grabbed onto her cloak and, as gently as she could, dragged the girl to face her. Slowly, she took her over to the rock and sat her on it, still handling the cloak to make sure she wouldn't run away. The girl started to cry again.
"Shh, it's okay. I'm sorry if I startled you, but I won't hurt you. I'm Hermione," she said, holding out her hand. "What's your name?"
The girl looked up and stared at Hermione, as if deciding whether to trust her or not. "Why should I tell you?"
Hermione sighed. "I promise I won't do anything bad to you. I just want to help and take care of you. So, what's your name?"
The child spluttered out a string of words. "My name is Melody, but that's all I can remember! I just woke up on the ground in these woods, feeling as though I'd never be happy again! And I've been wandering for weeks trying to find someone to help me but I've just met horrible monsters and..." she started sobbing yet again and Hermione had to stroke her in a weirdly motherly way to get her to calm down again.
"Well, Melody, you'll be fine with us. We're here to help you. We'll just take you back into town and..."
The girl supposedly named Melody looked up questionably. "U-us?" she stuttered. "You mean, there are more?"
Hermione laughed as she had forgotten all about her friends up on the overhang. "Yes, my best mates, Harry and Ron. Come down guys!" she yelled, motioning for the boys to come down and meet Melody. Unsurely, Ron and Harry came out of their hiding spaces and slid down the snowy slope as their friend had done moments earlier, and came to face the strange girl that they had viewed from a distance.
"This is Ron," Hermione stated, as Ron held his hand out uncertainly for Melody to shake. Smiling at his nervousness, Melody carefully shook his hand.
"And this is Harry," she said, as Harry too held out his hand to be shaken.
But instead of instantly shaking it as she had done with Ron, Melody looked at Harry with a puzzled expression on her face. In a low voice, she whispered, "You have my eyes, you know."
Harry looked into her eyes closely for the first time and realized that she was right. The green eyes that he had so been noticed for in his life in the wizarding world, were reflected back at him in this girl. It was awkward, to say the least.
"Yeah, I guess I do," he wobbly stated back. They shook hands, and Harry, as much as he tried, couldn't ignore the little spark that seemed to flow between him and this Melody.
Hermione, feeling the tension between the two people, cleared her throat and tried to resume control over the situation. "Alright, well, Melody, if you'll follow us, we'll take you back up to the village at the edge of the woods. And we'll talk to the headmaster of our school, Dumbledore, to see if he can accommodate you there or help you find your way back home," she said.
Melody chuckled for no apparent reason as the trio looked at her, dumbstruck. Recovering from her fit of laughter, she glanced at the group's questioning looks. "Your headmaster's name is Dumbledore?" she said and shook her head. "What a funny name."
"Well, I think you'll find that we're a funny bunch of people," Harry said, smiling, looking at the girl as they started to head behind Hermione and Ron, who did not wait to understand the reason of the laughter from Melody. And the pair smiled, yet another spark flowing between the two for whatever reason that they did not fully understand.
YAY! THE SECOND CHAPTER! The trio has now officially met Melody! You like?
Thanks to everyone who has favorited this story! I really appreciate knowing that at least some people like this fanfic. More reviews and favorites will definitely not be minded!
Anyway, hope everyone enjoyed this meeting and is looking forwards to Melody going to Hogwarts and seeing the wizarding world for the first time! You all are the absolute best.