Melinda Echoes glided down the halls of Ilvermorny. It was a beautiful day outside as the vibrant light shot through the windows within the castle. Melinda had been in good spirits for the past couple weeks despite predominantly spending most of her time alone. She was finally getting comfortable with her routine, classes and all the work it entailed. However, every so often, she'd pass by pockets of students she couldn't help but feel judged or watched by. The snickers usually came just as she was exiting earshot and she wondered what she had done to anyone else to deserve such treatment.
"Is it because I appear alone so much?" She whispered to herself under her breath.
Melinda was the type of girl that should not have lacked confidence in any capacity, yet there she was questioning things once more.
"Maybe all they're talking about is the sorting phenomenon I endured?" Melinda tried to create some sort of justification to herself.
Surely, all the other students had the same amount of homework and other things to concentrate their time on, right? Or was she the only one who was lambasted with more work than she knew what to do with. She feared she was missing something. She hoped the attention she was getting wasn't because of her looks, either. She wasn't the prettiest girl in the castle, but she always tried to take care of herself. She stopped in the middle of the hall by the water fountain and watched some foolish young boys use their wands to play with the spout. Droplets flew every which way but it suddenly didn't become the object of notice to Melinda's gaze.
"What the..." Her voice trailed.
She looked beyond the boys and down the adjacent hall where she could have sworn she thought she saw smoke emanate out from under the crack of a closed door. There was no way it was a potions class as those rooms were on the other side of the school. She blinked a few times, completely confused at what she thought she was seeing. Her eyes consistently gave her conflicting reports. One moment she thought she saw smoke, the next she saw nothing.
"Come on Melinda, get yourself together. Move along now," She scolded to herself.
She swung her chin forward and decided it was best to carry on. The thought that it was the Ghost of Time trying to contact her crept into her brain, but she simply refused to succumb to its allure or that notion. She clutched her books closely to her chest and attended her next class.
"Hey, is this seat taken?" A friendly voice sang.
Melinda peered over her shoulder and noticed a familiar faced girl inquire about the seat next to her. Melinda shook her head no and helped pull the chair out for her new desk mate.
"I've seen you around class a few times before, haven't I?" The new girl asked.
"Yup. I'm Melinda," The young wizard introduced.
"And I'm Hilary Norbert. Thanks for letting me sit next to you," She replied back.
Melinda was near flabbergasted at the mere thought of gaining a new friend that she made extra effort to get to know Hilary throughout the duration of their Introduction to Patronus Channeling class. They chatted during appropriate moments in the class both about the subject matter and their personal upbringings to point where Melinda couldn't wait for the class and opportunity to hang out again to pop up on the schedule.
"What house are you in?" Melinda asked.
"Oh, I'm in Wampus," Hilary said.
The first thought that shot through Melinda's mind was that of Blake Lostwoods gallivanting around happily with Caroline Carder.
"What's wrong?" Hilary questioned.
Melinda's face obviously shrunk with sourness at the sound of hearing Hilary say the name of the house that is comprised of the girl who seemingly wrecked her friendship and its potential for anything more. Hilary had very analytical eyes. She had a cute face to go along with the rest of her petite complexion. She had long, straight hair similar to Melinda but she was definitely not as tall nor as pretty but her outgoing nature made up for all of that.
"Oh! Nothing," Melinda replied as she seemed to snap out of it, "Hey, listen, how well do you know everyone in Wampus house?"
"Pretty good, I'd say, why?" Hilary inquired.
"No reason, just curious," Melinda sidetracked.
Melinda made no further effort to converse about that topic with Hilary but the thought of having her gain information about Blake and Caroline lingered in her skull just long enough to cast any sort of future plan. The conversation between the two didn't die but Hilary was left wondering with intrigue just what bothered Melinda about her being from Wampus. It was nearing the end of the day when the expert Patronus Professor wrapped up the lecture but not before taking a quick gaze out the window. The gong sounded and the students busily gathered their belongings and headed for the exits. That was, until, a few students surrounded the window alongside the professor. More and more students crowded the window to get a good look outside as all the extraordinary commotion eventually caught Melinda and Hilary's attention.
"What's going on?" Hilary subtly pondered.
"Not quite sure. It looks like everyone is looking outside at something," Melinda responded.
The girls cautiously motioned towards the group of people but they couldn't get a good enough vantage point to look out the window. All they could hear was the odd gasp and whispering. They noticed everyone's heads tilted upwards as if something was in the sky.
"I can't see anything, can you?" Hilary indicated.
"Nope," Melinda agreed, "Hey wait, come with me!"
Melinda hastily grabbed Hilary by the hand and sprinted out of the classroom. They darted down the hall, past some oblivious students and eventually caught up with a school of students all heading down the stairs and out to the courtyard. It was as if multiple classrooms caught a glimpse of whatever it was outside in the sky and massive amounts of students were jockeying to take a look.
"Whatever everyone is looking at; it sure has everyone's attention," Hilary shouted between breaths of air.
The two stumbled outside along with a slew of other faculty and students. They all peered at the sky, some sheltered their brows from the setting sun with a saluted hand over their brows. Melinda still couldn't see what all the fuss was about. The towering points of the castle seemingly blocked her view of anything until Hilary focused her in the right direction.
"Do you see it?" Hilary asked.
"Nope!" Melinda replied.
"Look! There!" Hilary pointed.
Hilary gently guided Melinda's head to look at a certain spot in the sky. There, floating rather randomly, appeared to be a pair of some sort of dark clouds that formed what looked like the number three and a capital M.
"What do you think it is?" Hilary begged.
Melinda turned away from the sky and Hilary all at once. She couldn't fathom another moment looking towards it as a realization of exactly what she had been looking at settled in.
"It... it looks like a three and an M," Melinda stated.
"3.M. Hmmmmmm... I have no idea what that could mean," Hilary thought.
"Uhhh, me neither," Melinda fibbed.
Melinda tried to calmly brush her hair back behind her ears but noticed her hands shook with fear. She knew what it was. It wasn't 3.M., it was M.E. just backwards, lingering in the sky. It was a clear message directly to her, from the Ghost of Time; a message that no one could simply ignore.