Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, it belongs to J. . I only own the OC's in this story.
"You're what?" Both exclaimed at the same time. It was such a shocker to the two girls, they couldn't help but give that kind of reaction. Melinda bit her lip and looked away.
"The rumors, they're true...I'm the one who got pregnant." She said in a low voice. Andrea and Valerie stared at her, at a loss of words after receiving such news. Their silence made Melinda even more nervous than she was before telling them.
'Did I do the right thing? Will they be mad at me now? Hate me? Not be my best friends anymore?' All sorts of things went through her head in a time span of two seconds. The two girls finally looked at each other, and Andrea was the first to speak.
"Oh Melinda...how did this happen? I mean...why didn't you tell us before?" She asked, her voice much softer now.
"I don't know, I was scared and nervous and...I just didn't know what to do." She blinked back tears that threatened to come out. Andrea frowned and leaned over, putting a hand on her shoulder.
"Hey now, it's okay. We're here for you." She looked to Val, who snapped out of her short daze to look at Melinda.
"Y-yeah. We wouldn't be best friends if that wasn't the case." She got up and sat next to Melinda, wrapping an arm around her with a small smile. Andrea did the same on the opposite side of her. Melinda was so relieved that they were giving her support, she didn't know what would've happened it they had just turned against her.
"So, how long have you been, you know...?" Mel paused, before mumbling the answer.
"What? I couldn't hear that." Val said. "Four months...this is the fifth one, actually." She gasped a little.
"That long? Why didn't you tell us before?" Andrea gave a light slap to Val's arm and a look that shut her up.
"I was afraid you guys might turn your backs on me. I didn't plan this, it just happened...and we used protection too..." Andrea nodded in understanding, rubbing her arm a little.
"I see, it's alright Mel. You didn't have to be afraid of that, you know us better than that, right? We'd never abandon you because of that. But either way, that's that. You told us now and we're going to help you get through this, won't we Val?" The other Hufflepuff instantly nodded. Melinda smiled and hugged them both.
"I'm so happy to have two amazing friends." The other two grinned. "Yeah, we know." They said together and the three chuckled afterwards. About a minute later, Andrea dropped the question she was dreading to be asked about.
"So, who's the father?" Melinda once again tensed up. "Promise you won't yell or hate me or anything like that?" The other two looked at each other.
"Is it that bad?" Val mumbled uncertainly and Andrea rolled her eyes at her. "We promise we will do no such thing to you, no matter who they are. Now tell us." She pressed and Melinda sighed a bit.
"It's Draco Malfoy..." Hearing that name, both girls fell into dead silence. Mel slowly looked at both of them, and if she didn't know better she would've thought both had been hit with the Petrificus Totalus spell.
"C-come again? I think I heard you wrong. Did you say Draco Malfoy?" Val questioned and she slowly nodded. "Yes."
"The Draco Malfoy?" She kept on persisting until Andrea hissed for her to stop. Mel knew this all was very shocking to them, but might as well come out with the entire truth.
"So," Andrea began now. "How did this happen, exactly?" It took a little while for her to answer that, since it was about four months ago, and now she could barely remember anything.
"Well, it was one of those nights when I felt lonely, you know. Martha had gone home early to take care of her mother who was sick; I said she could. I didn't think I was going to get that bad." She mumbled, staring off at the fireplace where the burning wood would sometimes give a crackle.
"I got some floo powder and went to Diagon Alley. I don't know how, but I think I managed to enter a pub and order a few drinks...since I was drunk, I don't remember a whole lot, but I do remember Draco being seated opposite of me, him saying something, and then we were somewhere sort of dark and..." She didn't think she needed to finish off for them at that point. The girls stared at her still, digesting the information they had just received.
"So, it was like a one night stand? And with Malfoy on top of that.." Valerie mumbled. "...Was he good at least?"
"Val!" Andrea hissed and she shrugged. "What? I'm just curious." Melinda shook her head. "Even if it was, I wouldn't be able to remember it. It's just, blank." Andrea then looked at her with a serious look on her face.
"Mel, could this be the case in which he might've raped you?" She asked, startling Melinda a little. "What? No no, I don't think so...we were both drunk from what I recall, and I don't think I struggled against it either." She gave a hesitant nod when she said that.
"If you say so...does he know about it?" Mel shook her head. "No, and you won't tell him either." She instantly added with urgency. They both raised an eyebrow at that.
"Why not? If he's the father then he's got to take responsibility, Mel." Val then said, but Andrea was the one unsure now.
"Although I agree with that, we are talking about Draco Malfoy. One who thinks we're beneath him, whose family's all about preserving pureblooded witches and wizards. I can't even think about his reaction if he knew he got you pregnant at 15." She sighed. "I hate to say this Mel, but you really couldn't have chosen a worse person to get laid with."
She knew this all too well, because she has already thought of the things he might say to her, the things he might do; more than half of them were negative by default. Valerie was pursing her lips, thinking to herself now.
"I know he's horrible, but is it really fair to keep it from him? I mean, even though you both were drunk and didn't mean for it to happen, it happened. You have a baby inside of you. He has to know at least." Andrea was surprised at that.
"I didn't know you were capable of wise thoughts." She joked, earning a small glare from Val. Mel was in conflict on what to do again and leaned back with a heavy sigh.
"I'm so lost on what to do..." The other two tried to comfort her, seeing as they seemed to only make the matter worse for her.
"First thing's first, you have to take care of this baby growing inside you." Andrea said, looking to her stomach. "What about the rest of the school? They'll find out sooner or later. I can't hide my stomach for too long..." That was true, and neither of her friends knew the right answer to that.
"Well, for now let's just keep it between us. We'll figure something out after the Yule Ball's ov-" She cut herself as a thought came to her mind and she groaned. "Oh no." Valerie blinked and looked at her.
"What's the matter, Andrea?" She asked, and the brunette looked at her. "Two words, Val: George Weasley." At that, both Melinda and Valerie tensed up, but Mel seemed to have expected that to be a problem; she's been trying to deal with it for a while now, after all.
"Oh yeah! Gosh, that's why you were so hesitant on liking him, right? What he'd think of you if he knew, what if he-" Andrea leaned over and covered her mouth with her hand. "Quit blurting things out without thinking!" She growled, feeling irritated with her friend's ill sense of sensitivity towards Mel.
"I know, that's why I said I didn't want to go to the Yule Ball. I'd be exposed to the entire school like that..and he would no doubt hate me then." She sighed and looked down at the gift George had given her.
"I feel so guilty about it, George is a great friend, and I don't want to ruin the night for him..." The other two looked at her, feeling her distress and regretting not being able to give her any better options.
"Well, I think you should stick with that plan you had, to say you're sick and exempt yourself from the dance. We'll explain it to George, I'm sure he'll understand." Andrea smiled a little. "Don't you worry Mel, we've got your back." Valerie nodded to validate that, and Mel smiled a bit.
"Thank you." She conscious felt a lot lighter now that she had told the two, and they were willing to help her get through this.
'It's what friends are for.' She thought.
Melinda had a hard time avoiding George the week prior to the Yule Ball, especially since they were already on holiday break. Wherever she went, he seemed to be there at the same time. Andrea and Valerie couldn't figure out for the life of them how he was doing that. It was as if Melinda was being completely set up for this.
"He's everywhere!" Valerie exasperated, leaning her head against the table. Andrea shushed her and she blushed a little in embarrassment.
"Sorry." She mumbled in a lower tone. Melinda didn't say anything as she mindlessly ate some toast with jelly on it, only half listening to them.
'The more I see him, the less courage I have to ditch him. There's only a week left, but I don't know if I'll last until then...' She thought, taking another bite of her toast after sighing.
"Mel, you're smearing your face with the jelly." Valerie mumbled, trying not to laugh at how she looked. Blinking, Melinda quickly took a napkin and cleaned her mouth. She had been doing a lot of spacing out since the minute she found out she was expecting, but lately it had gotten worse as problems began to increase for her.
After breakfast, they headed off somewhere where they could talk with more privacy. Once again, Pansy Parkinson and her Slytherin gang of girls went by. It would've been a gift sent from God if she had just left the three Hufflepuffs alone, but luck was not on their side today.
" Well, look who it is: The Three Stinky Badgers." Pansy called out with a smirk and the other girls snickered. Valerie glared and Andrea rolled her eyes.
"Get lost Parkinson." Val suddenly smirk she had on suddenly disappeared and she stalked up to her, getting defensive. "What did you say, Thompson?" She asked with a hiss. Melinda and Andrea looked at each other, worried that something might happen.
"I said get lost." Valerie repeated, more firmly now. It seemed she had had enough of Pansy's insults at that point.
"Hah! Look at you, sticking up for yourself all of a sudden. You'll do well to shut your mouth and learn your place, you dirty half-blood!" Andrea's eyes widened and quickly grabbed Valerie before she tried to attack Pansy.
"How dare you! I doubt you'd be saying something like that if you knew what your dearest Malfoy did-" Andrea quickly covered her mouth before she could go further and pulled her away. Melinda tensed up and Pansy raised an eyebrow.
"What Draco did? What did he do? Tell me Thompson." She demanded now. "N-Nothing, she's just saying that out of anger." Andrea quickly excused before taking a struggling Valerie away, Melinda following after them.
Andrea only let go of her once they were alone again. "What are you, crazy?" She questioned, her tone of voice dripping with irritation and some anger.
"What? I couldn't just let her insult me like that, I've had enough!" She said, frustrated herself.
"Yeah well, because you stupidly decided to act before you thought, you almost blew Melinda's secret to Parkinson!" She hissed back, and Valerie suddenly went quiet as realization hit her.
"Oh god...M-Mel I'm so sorry, I didn't meant to..." She frowned, feeling ashamed of herself now. Melinda sighed and shook her head.
"Forget it, at least Andrea stopped you before you said too much." She dismissed, though she was still a bit upset with Valerie's careless actions. The three girls just stood in silence for a moment, until Andrea spoke again.
"We best watch out with what we say now, especially near Slytherins like Parkinson. If word got out it will make things much worse." She stressed, and both girls nodded. Melinda didn't have a problem with that as she has been keeping this secret for months now. This was for her and her baby's own safety. It wouldn't be a far stretch to say that Pansy might try something if she knew about Melinda and Draco getting together one night, and the result of that was him getting her pregnant.
The girls then headed off to their Common Room, where they were at least safe from any confrontations with Slytherins. Arriving there, the three sat near the fireplace and tried to relax a little, but it was a difficult task for Melinda. After what almost happened, her mind wouldn't let her have a second of rest on the matter.
'Had Valerie blurted out the whole thing, she would no doubt have told the professors and tried to get me expelled. Thank god Andrea jumped in at that time.' She thought and closed her eyes. As before, she thought about how Draco would react if he knew about his baby growing inside of her. She tried to have better thoughts than the previous time, but it was nearly impossible given his attitude.
She opened her eyes as a memory suddenly came back to her from her second year.
It was late November, and Melinda was strolling outside school grounds. There was a bit of snow already on the ground from last night. She was just walking with no real business to tend as she had just finished all her homework, when suddenly she heard soft crying coming from behind one of the pillars nearby.
'Who could it be?' She thought curiously, then slowly neared the pillars. Peeking around one, she was surprised to find a crying Draco sitting on the ground against the the third pillar down. He had his knees hugged close to his chest as he bowed his head down. She could see he was trying to be as silent as possible.
'Why is he crying? Did something happen?' Before she knew it, he had noticed her there and quickly got up while drying up his tears.
"W-What are you doing here?" He asked in a defensive tone. Melinda didn't know what to say at first, she just stared at him.
"I um, was just walking by and heard someone cry-"
"You keep quiet about this, I mean it! If you tell anybody you'll regret it!" He threatened before rushing off past her. She blinked and turned, watching him walk off. He took one quick glance back at her before he was gone from her sight.
'It probably wasn't anything serious.' She thought and sat up. The other two looked at her as she did.
"I'm heading up to the dorms to rest a bit. Can you make sure to get me up before lunch if I'm not awake until then?" The two of them nodded. "Sure thing Mel, have a good rest." Andrea said and Val waved a little to her, still embarrassed for almost having revealed her secret.
Melinda then headed up the stairs and to the girls' 5th year dorm door. Going inside, she went to her bed and pulled over the yellow curtain around her entire bed. She then got into her bed and pulled the covers up. She wasn't exactly sure why, but every year since Draco Malfoy started attending Hogwarts, she had managed to stumble upon him at a moment of weakness at least once.
'It's odd, now that I think about it.' She turned on her side and closed her eyes to get some needed rest. All that's happened that morning just left her exhausted both physically and mentally. She hoped that, when she woke up for lunch, things would go a little smoother for her.
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