Harry Potter and the Mysterious Sibling

Chapter Nine: Bad Luck


Melanie scowled. I'd like to see if Peeves is resistant to fire.

That was the tenth time that week that Peeves had pelted her with various items, including ones that he had stolen from her dorm.

"PEEVES! GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW!" The other students in the hallway froze as she sprinted past them, aiming jets of light at Peeves. Melanie frowned; she was trying to do some hexes. Obviously, that wasn't working because whatever the lights hit, they seemed to be just lights.

She really hoped they weren't just spells that took a long time to work and would actually turn Hogwarts into something made out of clay instead of stone.

Eventually, Peeves got tired of her chasing him and screaming. He decided to give her bag of stuff back to her; by dropping it on her head.

"Ouch!" As the poltergeist turned to go away, she shouted, "I'm going to get you!"

That made the poltergeist cackle. While floating away, he overturned everything in his path.

Thankfully, Melanie had managed to eat something before Peeves had lured her away from the Great Hall with her stuff. It took her about half an hour to tidy up the chaos that Peeves had left behind him, which resulted in her being late for Charms.

"Five points from Hufflepuff for tardiness," squeaked Professor Flitwick. All the Hufflepuffs looked at her sympathetically, having heard of (or just simply heard) the fiasco with Peeves.

"At least it wasn't Potions; Snape would've taken a billion points from Hufflepuff," whispered Susan as Melanie took her seat next to the Hufflepuff.

From the other side of her, Hermione asked, "What happened with Peeves?"

Melanie whispered the entire story to Hermione, who was also taking notes somehow. Today's class was covering 'Incendio,' which Melanie had absolutely no use for. After all, why bother with the spell? She could just point her wand, say the incantation, and create a fire where she was aiming.

When Professor Flitwick came around, that was exactly what she did though her timing with the fire was a little earlier.

"I hope Professor Flitwick doesn't suspect anything," Melanie whispered to Hermione. The professor did seem a little curious, but ended up choosing not to comment.

At lunch that day, Melanie only just managed to keep her bag of stuff away from Peeves, who seemed to have made it his personal challenge to see how many times he could get her to scream at him or throw objects around her at him.

"Hey, Harry? Ron? Hermione?" The three turned to look at her. "Do you guys want to help me get revenge?"

The two boys nodded, but Hermione looked wary. "Revenge on who?"

Melanie pouted. "Promise to help me?" Hermione nodded reluctantly, and Melanie smirked. "Great, 'cause I need to get revenge on Peeves!"

"WHAT?!" The entire school froze, staring at Ron, who had yelled. The Hufflepuffs around them stared, while Draco Malfoy could be heard from the Slytherin table making fun of Ron's shriek.

"You heard me." When they started to exchange looks of doubt, she stuck her tongue out at them. "You all promised! I need to prank a poltergeist; any ideas?"

In the end, the prank wasn't really a prank. She just cornered Peeves and cast various beams of light at him before trying, and failing, to burn him. Before the poltergeist left, he'd just laughed at her attempts to do something, anything, in revenge.

"Thank you for all the help," Melanie growled at the three others, who had watched the whole scene behind the wall. They'd chickened out at the last second but stayed for 'moral support' ('we-don't-want-to-get-discovered-but-we're-still- here-for-you-in-the-safety-zone).

"That's what I'm here for," said Ron. Another glare from Melanie stopped him from saying anything else, but Harry burst into laughter.

"I'm sorry… but did you really… just try… to hex a poltergeist?" Harry's laughter was catching, and soon Hermione and Ron had also joined in. Melanie pouted, but relented as the four of them collapsed onto the floor, laughing and holding their stomachs.

"PEEVES!" A bottle of ink had been thrown at the wall over their heads, causing it to break and spill everywhere.

"Can't catch me!"

Of course, the ink meant that she was late for another class as she had to clean it and change clothes. As if being late for two classes wasn't bad enough, the second class was indeed Potions.

Would it have been worse to show up inked? A moment of internal debate, and she decided that Snape probably would've sent her back anyways for 'not being prepared for Potions class properly' or something like that. Damn it, Peeves…

"Glad to see you've finally decided to grace us with your presence, Miss Potter." Sarcasm was practically oozing out of the professor's words.

Any other day, Melanie would've stayed quiet. Today, the badly veiled taunt was enough to make her snap, "You don't feel so honoured that I'm here."

The temperature in the classroom dropped ten degrees as Professor Snape turned around. "Ten points from Hufflepuff for your insolence." True to their House loyalty, no Hufflepuffs groaned at the loss of House points.

"Now, perhaps you can explain to us all why you were late." Melanie walked calmly over to sit by Hermione. "Miss Potter?" She put her bag down beside the table, taking out her quill and books. Melanie was stopped in her act of opening her book when Snape's hand came slamming down on the cover. "Well?"

Melanie glared at him; a person had no right to mistreat others and still expect respect. She considered ignoring him again but didn't really feel like suffering through a detention with him. Besides, Potions was still an interesting subject, one which she was looking forward to getting to that lesson.

"Peeves decided it would be funny to throw a bottle of ink at me, sir." She looked him straight in the eye, matching his cold expression. A second later, Professor Snape was back at the front of the classroom, lecturing them about the potion they were required to make.

"Bloody stupid professors," Melanie mumbled to herself as she left the classroom. It turned out that an angry Snape was one that would assign extra work.

"Well, you really shouldn't have cheeked him," Hermione reprimanded, cowering slightly as Melanie turned her furious gaze onto her.

"He was asking for it. 'Glad to see you've finally graced us with your presence.'"

"Oh, you know it's just Snape. He hates everybody."

"Everybody outside of Slytherin, you mean." Melanie could tell that Snape hated Harry from two sets of memories and proof whenever she'd catch him glaring at her brother. Apparently, Snape couldn't bear to take even one point from his own House. "Biased git."

"Almost makes you wish you were Sorted into Slytherin, huh?" Hermione joked.

"Why would you ever want to be Sorted into Slytherin, Hermione?" asked Ron, nudging Harry. They two boys had spotted the other two in the hallway and snuck up behind them.

"Hey, Ronald, Slytherin isn't a bad House," Harry said, smirking when Ron winced a little at the use of his full name. At the doubtful looks when he defended Slytherin, he added, "Well, the people are quite horrid, but the House itself isn't bad. It means that we think before we act and we can trick people, unlike brash, bold Gryffindors."

"Harry, don't bash Gryffindors," tutted Melanie mockingly, cheering up slightly. "You are a Gryffindor at heart." Harry placed a hand over his heart and smiled.

"We're all Gryffindors at heart," stated Hermione with a grin.

"Ugh. Please don't ever say that again."

Draco Malfoy, Melanie thought, torn between amusement and defensiveness at how much he didn't want to be in Gryffindor.

"What are you doing here Malfoy?" What's with the Malfoy-Weasley rivalry?

"Contrary to your belief, you do not own Harry."

"Git."

"Weasel."

"Idiot."

"Ars-"

"HEY!" yelled Harry. The two stopped arguing and faced him.

"Honestly, you two argue like five year-olds." Hermione rolled her eyes.

"We do not!" Melanie laughed as they glared at each other, having said the same thing at the same time.

"Could you two, please, try to not, like, kill each other? Please?" pleaded Harry. Reluctantly, the five walked towards the Great Hall for dinner.

This is going to be an odd dinner, thought Melanie. Draco had decided that he should sit with the other four, so they'd settled on sitting at the Slytherin table, much to the displeasure of all the other Slytherins.

"Weasley, Granger, Potter," Theodore Nott said, sounding slightly scornful. Melanie and Harry shared a grin as they both responded to 'Potter'.

"Not you, Potter. You, Potter!" That only succeeded in confusing and amusing them further.

"Never mind that; just call me Melanie and him Harry."

Theodore nodded reluctantly but said, "Call me Theodore. That doesn't apply to you, Mudblood, or you, Weasley."

That caused some yelling from Harry, Melanie, Ron and Hermione. Apparently, four yelling first years, three of which could do magic competently enough was intimidating because Theodore ended up apologizing, albeit unwillingly.

Though, he still ended up having to eat a burnt dinner.


[Insert me saying that I am not J.K. Rowling, therefore I do not own Harry Potter.]

Thanks to…

That Elusive Reader: Glad you like Melanie! :D

This chapter was probably really short and kind of a filler. I couldn't really think of anything that could contribute to the plot until about Christmas, and I didn't want to pass over months without some little bits.

Next chapter will most likely be Christmas, though, so get ready for that.

Question: Am I supposed to capitalize 'Professor'?

[EDIT: Disregard that question about capitalizing 'Professor.']

~ScaleneGalleons~