The Potter Twins and the Innocent Ex-Convict
Chapter Six: Hiding and Hinting
"How did you do that?" Melanie heard Ron ask, somewhere farther down the hallway.
Oh, they're onto Hermione, thought Melanie. She sped up to try and catch up with them to save Hermione from being interrogated.
"What?" said Hermione, a bit too sharp to sound confused.
"One minute you were right behind us, the next moment, you were back at the bottom of the stairs again."
"What?" Hermione opened her mouth in a small 'o' and closed it abruptly. "Oh, I had to go back for, um, something-"
"Hermione!" Melanie called out, pulling out a spare quill from her pocket. "Did you drop this? I saw you looking for something just now."
Hermione gave her a thankful look and took the quill. "Oh, yes. That's what I dropped. That's – Oh no." Her bag split from a seam, spilling out a dozen large, heavy books onto the ground.
"Why are you carrying all these around with you?" asked Ron.
"You know how many subjects I'm taking. Couldn't hold these for me, could you?" Not waiting for a response, she piled enough books into his arms to distract him for the moment. The red head cursed as the books tilted over and did a sort of lean-dance to keep them from falling.
"Hermione," whispered Melanie, handing a book for Ron to hold. "You could just put them in some secluded areas when you use the Time Turner instead of carrying them with you."
"How do you know about that?" asked Hermione sharply. Before Melanie had a chance to reply, Ron stopped talking.
Phew. Saved again.
Though, this was really all her fault, wasn't it? Sighing, she resolved to try and be quieter about these future and present events that she knew about.
"Oh, um, yes." Hermione shoved all her books back into her newly repaired bag, obviously hoping that what she said was an appropriate response to Ron. "I hope there's something good for lunch, I'm starving." As she passed Melanie, Hermione muttered, "Don't think I'll forget that you know about the Time Turner."
Oh, why do I do this to myself? thought Melanie as she felt Steven's urge to face palm (How does that even work?).
~.~.~.~.~
It was the first Defence of Dark Arts class that would be taught by a competent professor and worth paying attention in. Their class was right after the Gryffindor and Slytherin DADA class, meaning that they'd managed to get some opinions from those students.
Most of them had enjoyed the class (yes, even the Slytherins had admitted to it and had dropped their cold exteriors for a few brief moments to enthuse about their new teacher). Those that hadn't were judgemental about Professor Lupin as a person, mainly was due to his shabby appearance.
Melanie clapped in excitement, much to Hermione's amusement. They arrived in the Defence Against Dark Arts classroom, watching as Professor Lupin cleared away some sheets on his desk and stood up.
"Good afternoon," he said. "Today's class will be a practical lesson. You will only need your wands." His instructions prompted another round of excited whisperings around the class.
Just what I need; to mess up a spell on the first day of Defence Against Dark Arts with a proper professor.
"I hope it's not another pixie accident," Hermione whispered to Melanie.
"Don't worry," Melanie assured, "no pixies in this lesson." She saw Professor Lupin half-turn in their direction, as if he had heard them talking.
Hermione shot her a look. "How would you know?"
"I can't-"
"I know, I know, you can't tell me. But you can hint, can't you?"
Before Melanie could try and form a sentence to get Hermione to understand, Professor Lupin spoke.
"Right then," said Professor Lupin. "Follow me." They were led through a deserted corridor and around a corner, where they saw Peeves. Amazingly, although the poltergeist had spotted Melanie and shot her a smirk, he retreated after seeing Professor Lupin.
"How'd you do that?" asked a curious Ravenclaw, who'd noticed that Professor Lupin was the cause of Peeves' retreat.
The werewolf smiled innocently. "Do what?" Before any of them could specify, he continued down the corridor and led them into the staff room for their lesson, explaining about their lesson on the way.
I am not looking forward to this lesson, thought Melanie.
What would her Boggart turn into? The Mirror of Erised hadn't worked for her, so perhaps the Boggart wouldn't either. Darkness, closed spaces, and being submerged underwater weren't exactly fears that a Boggart could turn into.
Maybe it'll turn into a small, dark closet filled with water and trap me in there. Shuddering slightly, she pushed the thought out of her mind.
"Don't worry," reassured Professor Lupin as the old wardrobe at the end of the classroom wobbled. "It's just a Boggart in there."
All the Ravenclaws, who'd obviously read up about Boggarts, and the non-Muggleborn Hufflepuffs stared at their DADA professor in astonishment. A Boggart was never 'just a Boggart.' Besides, nobody really wanted their worst fears shown.
Professor Lupin went into his professor mode, rather than his Marauder mode, and began lecturing. "Boggarts like dark, enclosed spaces. Wardrobes, like this one, cupboards, and I've even seen one in a grandfather clock. This one moved in yesterday, and I've asked to use it to give you all some practice, which the previous class already had. So," he paused, looking around the class, "what is a Boggart?"
Hands shot up around the class.
"It's a shape-shifter," said Hermione, clapping a hand over her mouth in realizing that Professor Lupin was about to choose somebody else. He smiled, slightly amused, and gestured for her to continue. "It, uh, it takes the shape of whatever it thinks will frighten us the most."
"Couldn't have put it better myself," nodded Professor Lupin. "So the Boggart in the wardrobe has not yet assumed a form. He does not yet know what will frighten the person, or people in this case, on the other side of the door. Nobody knows what a Boggart looks like when he is alone, but when I let him out, he will immediately become whatever each of us most fears."
What if they x-ray the wardrobe?
"That means," continued Professor Lupin, distracting Melanie from her idea to bring a Boggart to an x-ray machine, "that we have an advantage over the Boggart. Have you spotted it, Melanie?"
"Oh." Why did he pick me? She could practically feel the repressed Ravenclaw nature of her classmates. Not entirely sure of the answer, she sifted through her memories until she found Harry's response. "There are so many of us that it won't know what shape it should be."
"Precisely." He beamed even more than when Hermione answered her question correctly. "It's always best to have company when you're dealing with a Boggart."
Here Melanie stopped listening, back to thinking about her x-ray idea. Somebody, she had no idea who, only that it wasn't her or Hermione, was chosen to give a demonstration with the Boggart.
"Padma!" yelled Professor Lupin, gesturing her to go forward to the Boggart, which turned into a zombie. A quick 'Riddikulus' made the zombie start dancing, cueing a round of laughter from the class.
Oh, what am I supposed to do? Not knowing what her fear was greatly hindered her ability to be able to counter it. Crack after crack sounded, bring Melanie closer and closer to the Boggart. Finally, it was her turn.
"Melanie, finish him off!" Reluctantly, she stepped forward to the clown wrapped in balloons.
For a long moment, she just stood there, waiting for the Boggart to change into a small, dark, water-filled cupboard. Maybe it won't change. Her hopes were crushed as the Boggart changed into a person.
A person? Almost laughing at her fear, Melanie raised her cypress wand and pointed it at the Boggart.
"Ridi-" Her spell cut off as she noticed what the person was wearing; a dark blue robe decorated with blood-red stars.
Fear coursed through her, making her feel as cold as when the Dementors were close. Wand arm shaking, Melanie looked up at the person's face only to see that it was changing. There was something distinctly familiar about every face, though she wasn't able to match any details with each person. The face finally settled on a brown-haired male with a malicious smile on his face.
Realizing that the entire class was silent, watching her reaction to whoever it was, Melanie squeaked, "Riddikulus!" in a voice much too high. Thankfully, the spell worked, partly due to panic and partly due to her having spent last year learning the theory of spells.
The stars floated off the robe, twinkling around them in a friendly matter and seeming more of a soft orange than the blood red. The person's robe turned into a waiter's outfit, and he was holding a tray of food. Though not exactly funny, it was a good enough distraction from her (completely confusing) fear.
Professor Lupin stepped forward, and the Boggart turned into a full moon. Calmly, he banished it and distributed points to everybody in the class, telling Hermione that she deserved hers for answering his question at the start of the class.
"Homework, kindly read the chapters on Boggarts and summarize it for me… to be handed in on Monday. That will be all." Before she could retreat, Professor Lupin tapped her on the shoulder. "Melanie? A word?"
Sighing, she waited for the rest of her class to file out of the room. "Yes, professor?"
Getting straight to the point, Professor Lupin asked, "What was your Boggart?"
A shrug. "Dunno. But why are you asking only me? I wasn't the only one to go up against the Boggart."
"The others could be easily explained. Childhood nightmares and fears, dark creatures lurking at the edge of our memory." He stopped here, looking at her still pale face. "But you weren't just scared. You were terrified."
I'm getting really tired of repeating myself… "Sorry, professor, but I really don't know what it was."
Still not looking satisfied with her 100% correct answer, he sighed. Professor Lupin looked at a point past her, hesitantly saying, "I don't know if anybody ever told you this but… I'm your godfather."
Oh, that's nice. Godfath- Wait, what?
Melanie could feel Steven's amusement in her mind as she mind-babbled random syllables. "What?"
"Your parents made me your godfather," said Professor Lupin, smiling. His smile faded slightly as Melanie asked if he was also Harry's godfather, despite her knowing the answer (if she couldn't have fun with being omniscient, what was the point?).
"Maybe it's best you get to your next class," he said, not meeting her gaze. "If you remember what your Boggart means, come to me first."
After promising that she would tell him, which she had no intention of doing (if anything, she could always go to Hermione, who would no doubt be waiting to ambush her about how she knew about the Time Turner), Melanie left the classroom. However, she couldn't resist asking, "What was your Boggart, professor? I think it kinda looked like the moon."
Stifling snickers, she closed the door behind her and speed-walked to her next class.
~.~.~.~.~
"Melanie, I know you're avoiding me," panted Hermione, who had just managed to run down the corridor before Melanie had gotten away.
Darn, she caught me. "No, I haven't," Melanie denied, quite uselessly as the Ravenclaw just rolled her eyes.
"Yes, you weren't avoiding me. You were just purposely not being in the same area as me when you knew that I wanted to talk to you."
Touché, thought Melanie. When did Hermione start being so sarcastic? "Well… Maybe I was avoiding you."
Her look turned to one of concern. "What's wrong, Melanie? You know you can tell me."
I want to, but I can't and I'm getting really, really, really, really irritated at having to repeat myself. Still, she tried anyways. "I know what's going to happen to-" Here she had to stop talking as her voice literally stopped working.
"To who?" urged Hermione. "Yourself? Ron? Me? Harry?"
Melanie felt her head shake against her will.
"Then who?" repeated Hermione. Melanie's mouth moved, but no sound came out.
"Are you being possessed?" Hermione asked sharply. Melanie shook her head earnestly.
"Not possessed. Just… I don't know how to explain it without it sounding like I'm being possessed."
"If you don't know how to say it without it sounding like that, I think it's safe to assume that you're being possessed."
"I'm not though! I just can't… say anything about it." Hermione raised a doubtful eyebrow but chose to stop pursuing the topic.
However, just before leaving the library, Melanie managed to say one word to Hermione.
"Us." She cast her friend a meaningful look before feeling herself start to walk away.
Thanks to…
Guest: Thank you for taking the time to R/R!
Cookie Spasms: Thanks a bunch!
shin obin: Glad you're reading!
Brownies for all of you!
Dun dun dun dun… She told Hermione! :O Well, kind of.
For the classes, I'm going to say that: Slytherin&Gryffindor (Care of Magical Creatures, Potions, Defence Against Dark Arts), G&R (Divination, Astronomy, Transfiguration), G&H (Herbology, History of Magic), S&R (Same as G&H), S&H (Same as G&R), H&R (Same as S&G).
Other than Divination and Care of Magical Creatures, I won't write who has classes with whom other than the fact that Hermione has Ancient Runes with Melanie.
Did this make any sense? XD (I use that emoticon a lot. In fact, I use emoticons a lot because I think it's harder for people to tell what emotion I have online.)
Let's just pretend that, in this universe, the classes are like that.
Like it? Hate it? Either way, read and review! :3
On a different note, however, I might not be able to get a chapter out next weekend just because: 1) My teacher's giving a bunch of homework for this week and I won't have time. 2) I kind of have writer's block. Noooo, my streak of updating once every week will be ruined…
Question: Least favourite canon pairing?}
~ScaleneGalleons~