Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, it belongs to J.K. Rowling. I only own the OC's in this story.
'Oh no.' Mel thought when she caught sight of him. The other two were also nervous about what he was going to say to her.
"Keep calm, Mel. It'll be alright." Andrea assured her in a whisper. She nodded a little and the three approached George, who was looking directly at Melinda's stomach.
"I heard about it not too long ago..." He said once the three had stopped in front of him. Melinda had no words to say to him at that moment, but she could feel he was disappointed in her.
"Listen George, it wasn't Melinda's fault. It was an accident." Valerie instantly said, but George didn't give her any attention. Then, he finally looked up at Melinda.
"I'm just upset that you didn't tell me before. Don't you trust me enough to confide in me?" He asked her, and she looked down with a small frown.
"I'm sorry..." Was all she could say. Sighing, the Weasley twin turned and went back into the Great Hall.
"Don't worry, he'll get over it. It's normal for him to feel a little put off since he likes you." Val told her, but that didn't really make things any better in Mel's opinion.
"Well, let's get this over with." She said, the other two nodding and then entering the Great Hall with her. Almost instantly, talking seized in there and eyes were now staring at the three of them. Melinda tried to look indifferent of their stares as she and the girls made way to the Hufflepuff table and sat down. It didn't take long before whispers began to go around the tables.
"Yeah, it's Melinda Valkyrie. She got pregnant at 15, can you believe it?" Said one Ravenclaw to another.
"I heard she was just giving it to the first who passed by the street." Sneered a Slytherin girl to a couple of her friends as they passed by the Hufflepuff table to get to theirs. Valerie wouldn't take for that and stood up.
"Hey, shut it! You don't know anything you little-"
"Val!" Andrea hissed and pushed her to sit back down. Melinda could only sit there, quiet. Cedric watched her, knowing she was upset with the feedback from the rest of the school. Even the foreign students from Bulgaria and France were gossiping about her pregnancy.
"Oui oui, she eez very bête to get pregnant like zat." A Beauxbatons girl commented to the person sitting next to her. Melinda lowered her head even more, and her two friends tried to comfort her.
"Hey!" Cedric suddenly shouted. He stood up at the end of the table, catching everyone by surprise, but their attention was solely on him now. The 6th year competitor looked at all of the students with a hard look on his face.
"I won't tolerate if any of you speak ill of my friend because of her condition. It is not fair that just because something like this happened you ought to start talking about her in such a manner...and whoever does will have to answer to me." He declared. Melinda was shocked at this sudden attitude of his, but Valerie was almost melting.
"Oh, he's so admirable~!" She said to herself with a dreamy sigh. Andrea herself had to admit that Cedric was being very honorable and kind. After having said that, no one talked for a few moments, but Dumbledore stood up and began to clap. The other professors hesitantly followed suit. Then, the twins stood up and clapped themselves, getting the rest of their House to gain courage to do the same. Soon enough, the entire student body was clapping and whooping, minus most of the Slytherins who were very hesitant on it.
"Marvelous, Mr. Diggory!" Said Dumbledore with a smile. "A wonderful example that all should follow. Remember students, It is not one single action that determines the character of a person. Everyone can make mistakes." He said wisely once they seized clapping.
"Now, let us enjoy breakfast, shall we? Before you all return to your studies that I am sure you have all missed dearly this holiday break." He said cheekily and sat back down. The rest took it as a sign to sit as well, and they resumed their breakfast. Melinda mouthed a 'thank you' to Cedric and he nodded with a smile before getting back down. His friends began praising him for what he did.
"See? You got Cedric and Dumbledore backing you up. Can't get better than that." Valerie commented, still completely gaga over Cedric's speech. Andrea rolled her eyes a little and slapped her upside the head.
"Ow." She mumbled and Melinda smiled a little. It was nice having friends that gave out support like that. Cedric was starting to become a real idol to Melinda, who originally thought that he was just a pretty boy.
'If only Draco was like that...what am I thinking? He never would have done something like that for me.' She thought, shaking her head a little and eating some of her breakfast. What she didn't notice was that George kept looking over in her direction throughout the entire meal.
"What is that Diggory boy trying to do, huh? Advertise you?" Draco asked her, pretty upset with what happened earlier that day. Melinda stared at him as he continued to rant off about how he didn't like Cedric doing what he did. It was about 6 PM and almost time for dinner. Melinda had received a letter from Draco by owl to meet him at the Astronomy Tower later on, and now here they were.
"What's wrong with what he did? He's trying to help me get some support, unlike someone." She muttered the last part to herself. That earned a glare from him.
"You know I can't do that, I'm in Slytherin! If they found out I'd be done for." Mel leaned against the railing and stared at him still.
"I know, but you don't have to talk about it with your friends." She argued back. Melinda had found out that he was participating in some pretty mean comments being done about her. At that he tensed up a little, but only for a moment.
"Tch, I have to keep acting as if I normally would, don't be so sensitive about it." He muttered. Mel frowned and moved away.
"If that's all then I'm going." She said, already heading to the stairs. Draco faltered a little before grabbing her arm to stop her.
"W-Wait a second." She looked at him, her expression showing impatience. He noticed and got a little nervous.
"Look, I know it seems bad, but you should overlook these things. I already said I'm going to help you out somehow." That still didn't seem to convince her.
"Yeah, some big help you are." Mel said sarcastically before pulling her arm from his grasp. He was dumbstruck for a minute, then went back to his snotty attitude.
"Fine, you're going to act like that? So be it." He turned and walked down the stairs while Melinda watched him.
'What a brat, he just wanted to have the last say I'll bet.' She thought, staying up there for a minute longer before going down as well. It didn't take long before she bumped into the twins. Fred waved to her with a grin, while George awkwardly looked elsewhere.
"Hey Mel, how's it going?" Asked Fred, despite his brother's attitude.
"Err, it's going." She decided to say. He nodded before looking to her stomach.
"How far are you?" She had to count in her head in order to answer him. "About 6 months." Fred grinned wider and then placed his hand on her stomach.
"Wow, you're so big already." That made Mel flush a bit in embarrassment. George watched his brother with a mixture of confusion and surprise. Fred wasn't at all upset like he was with her not telling him about it.
"Sweet, you better make me his uncle or something." He joked, then bid her goodbye and left her and George alone in the hall. There was silence between them, and the awkwardness increased. He scratched the back of his head a little and finally looked at her.
"Erm, Mel?" Melinda looked up at him. "Yes?"
"Can we talk for a minute?" He asked. She hesitated, but then nodded her head. The two went off somewhere more private. They stopped near a hallway with rows of columns and sat down on one of the benches there. Mel hoped that he wasn't as upset with her as before.
"About earlier, sorry about being a bit of a jerk..." He started off, looking down to the ground.
"I was just a little upset that you didn't tell me about it before." Melinda stared at him, hoping that that was a sign that he was giving some sort of white flag.
"I know, I'm sorry too. It's just...this is so hard to admit. It took months before I told Andrea and Valerie about it too." She sighed a bit. "I was scared that you might be mad at me and not be my friend anymore." He seemed to flinch a little at the word 'friend.'
"I guess I can see your point, it really must be difficult." He mumbled, looking down to her stomach again.
"I felt really lonely for the first few months, keeping this a secret from everyone for as long as I possibly could." Mel bit her lip, preparing herself for what she was about to tell him next.
"Truth is, George, at the night of the Yule Ball I...I faked being sick. But it wasn't to not go with you, goodness no." She quickly said. "I just didn't want to be exposed to everyone on such a night. I didn't want to ruin the dance for you either by doing so..." George stared at her, shocked at first that she had lied to him. However, after having explained herself, he seemed to soften his expression.
"I see.. I guess it was a legitimate reason." He said more quietly. "But Mel, something has been bugging me about all this." She looked at him with confusion.
"What is it?" George stared right at her then. "Who is the father?" That was a question she had hoped no one would start asking her, because almost instantly Melinda tensed up.
'I can't tell him, I made a deal with Draco.' Was her thought, but what would she say to that?
"Well uh, I was pretty drunk so I can't really remember much..."She decided on, which was indirectly true. The ginger haired boy seemed to consider that a lot before finally accepting.
"I suppose, but are you sure that you were not...taken advantage of?" He asked carefully. Mel instantly shook her head.
"No, that I know for sure didn't happen." She said. He nodded a bit and then looked ahead. The wind was the only sound being heard at the moment. Melinda wondered if that had convinced George enough for him to fully forgive her; she didn't want their friendship to grow weak because of this entire ordeal. She didn't notice George's hand moving over until she felt it on her stomach. Mel looked down, then at him.
"Whatever happened, I don't think it matters much right now. What does matter is this baby you're going to have..." His hand caressed her tummy with a small smile. For some odd reason, it made her blush when he did that.
"Mel, if you need anything don't hesitate to ask me. I can try to help you with whatever you need." He said to her, making her relieved.
"Thank you George, thank you so much for understanding..." She leaned over and gave him a side hug. It surprised him at first, but he returned it almost right away with a slight grin.
"Of course, I'm an understanding guy." He responded, half joking. She smiled and leaned her head against his shoulder. The two stayed like that until it was time to head off to dinner.
"I'm glad George didn't stay mad at you, this makes things much better." Andrea said to Mel the next day when she told the girls what happened. Valerie was quick to agree.
"Yeah, I mean I would think he'd still be upset with you not going to the Ball with him..."She mumbled, yelping after receiving a hard nudge on the side from Andrea.
"Whatever, you guys are on good terms, right? That's all that matters." The brunette told Melinda, who nodded at that.
"Yeah, I'm really glad he's not mad at me. I was afraid I'd lose his friendship with this..." The three then continued to eat breakfast before gathering their stuff and heading off to their first class of the day. On the way there, Valerie was complaining about her schedule being switched so she now had Potions right after lunch instead of before.
"Ugh, I swear this has got to be the worst arrangement ever. What if I get sick? You know how some of those potions we make can come out smelling pretty bad." Andrea smirked a little.
"You're out of luck then." Val stuck her tongue out at her for that. Melinda shook her head at the two and continued on until they got to Charms class. Professor Flitwick almost instantly greeted Melinda.
"Miss Valkyrie! How are you this fine morning? Well I hope? Oh yes, do take a seat! We don't want you to exhaust yourself." He said in his giddy way. Melinda blinked at this sudden attitude of his.
'I guess he's being more careful now that he knows I'm pregnant.' She thought, brushing it off and taking her usual seat with the other two. The rest of the students then filed in once the bell rang, and the lesson commenced from where they had left off last semester.
As the class neared its end, Melinda couldn't help but feel eyes on her the entire time. That made her a little uneasy, but Andrea and Valerie were there to give her some reassurance.
"I wonder if Snape will be any different with you now." Val suddenly commented, even making Andrea curious about that.
"Yeah, wouldn't it be funny if he was just as careful with you as Professor Flitwick?" That made the three snicker at the thought.
"I doubt it, he'll probably act the same as usual." Mel said, finding that more probable. Valerie shook her head.
"You know how some pregnant women get upset with the slightest things sometimes? Even if you don't feel sensitive, you should take advantage that you're like this and fake it so it'll seem like his fault that he made you that way. It would be so hilarious if he freaked." She grinned. Andrea shook her head, but the thought was quite amusing to her as well.
"We'll see." Melinda said. When it was time for Potions class, the three girls were curious on how Snape would act with Melinda now that he knew she going to have a baby; they were half hoping that he would go little easy on her because of it. They got to the dungeons and took their original seats. Professor Snape was sitting at his desk, but he did not look at them just yet.
Once all the students came in and the last bell rang, he stood up and instantly the room went dead quiet. He slowly walked up to the front of his desk, one hand behind his back, and gave his cold and unnerving stare to everyone. Snape then laid his eyes on Melinda and they stayed on her, as if he had marked her as his target. He made a direct walk to her desk, and stopped right in front of it.
"Miss Valkyrie. I was instructed by the Headmaster that, due to your current condition, you are not to partake in any harmful potion making. Unfortunately, this semester we will be handling quite a few of those. Therefore," He said, almost smirking. Melinda knew right then that she was not off the hook, and that he would probably make things as difficult as he could for her.
"I have prepared a few assignments for you to work on while you are incapable of handling potions." He revealed the arm he had hidden behind him, and in his hand was a very thick stack of parchment papers.
"These will be the assignments you are to accomplish while in your state. You should have the first four of them done by the end of this class." Andrea and Val couldn't believe their eyes; the stack was nearly as thick as their textbooks! Melinda wanted to crawl up in a ball and cry, but she knew that complaining about it would do her no good.
'I knew he wouldn't go easy on me. He found a way to make Potions even worse than it was before...' She thought in dismay. Snape went back to the front of the class, and as usual gave very vague instructions on their next potion to brew.
"God, it's unbelievable he did that! He is being so unfair!" Valerie complained, still baffled that Snape would make Melinda do such heavy duty written work; essays were not Val's strong point.
"Well, it's Snape we're talking about. We should've seen it coming, actually." Andrea mumbled, eating a piece of chicken from her dinner plate. Melinda sighed and just gave a shrug.
"It's whatever I guess. I'm ok in Potions anyway, I don't think it'll be that hard to write a couple of essays." Valerie almost chocked on her drink.
"Not hard? Mel, your hand will hurt like a Bloody Mary scream after doing it for so long." She said with an incredulous look. The other two looked at her weirdly, then resumed their eating.
'At least I have Astronomy to look forward to at nine.' She thought. Melinda loved the class, looking at the stars and studying their names, as well as the planets and constellations. They even inspired her to start choosing a name for her baby. Be it boy or girl, she was trying to find one for each that she would think suitable for her child. Not to say, Draco was named after a constellation, and so were a lot of his family.
'Why not keep their tradition at least?' She thought. The girls went to their Common Room to do all their assignments for the next day and chat while they had free time. Valerie, although adamant on thinking that they ought to report to Dumbledore about Snape being a douche, decided to make Cedric that night's topic once again. Andrea, sick of hearing her talk about him 24/7.
"Give it a rest, for goodness' sake Val!" She blurted out, being annoyed with her constant dreamy sigh whenever she said his name, or her overly excessive comments on his appearance and character.
"Shut it, you would be doing the same if you were as in love as I am." She stated with a pout. Andrea sighed and shook her head. Melinda barely paid attention to their conversation, her mind being on Draco and how he had acted the previous day.
'It was almost as if he was jealous of Cedric.' She thought, but the possibility of it being true seemed near zero for her. Perhaps, the real reason he was upset with it was because he didn't like that she was getting too much attention due to her being pregnant. He could well be worried that somehow people would soon find out that he was the one that knocked her up...by mistake, of course.
'Yeah, that has got to be it,' She convinced herself. 'He's annoyed and worried that this is getting too much publicity, to the point where they'll start getting comfortable enough to ask questions like George had done...I have to be more careful.' She looked to the clock, and it read 8:25 PM. There were still a few minutes to go before Astronomy class started, but she decided to go on ahead to the Tower anyway.
The sky looked especially beautiful that night. It was a clear navy blue, with little to no clouds covering the bright stars that sparkled up there. The moon itself was out and letting its light shine down upon the top of the Tower floor.
'Amazing.' She thought, mesmerized. Her eyes locked on one small star that had caught her attention almost right away. It sort of reminded her of the star inside the small crystal ball that George had given to her as a gift. The star she was looking at now had a name that was an option for the baby's name, if she had a daughter. Her eyes then trailed over to another star, with a potential name for her son.
'Should I even discuss this with Draco? Or would he not care about the name?' Mel suddenly thought, curiously. Malfoy didn't strike her as the type to care about such a thing, but since they day he found out about the baby last December, he was acting rather odd. The clock struck nine, and Professor Sinistra came up and welcomed her students.
"We shall pick up where we left off with the charts. Off you go with your telescopes." Melinda had already set up hers, so she only had to take out her chart and continue working on it. She didn't know why, but she wanted to make sure that her chart was very well done, so Mel had been working extra hours with it. Andrea glanced over to her and blinked.
"Well, over achiever much?" She teased her. "Your chart's coming off really good, Mel." At that, the Hufflepuff girl grinned.
"Thanks, I don't know why but I just have this urge to have it well done." She told her. Nodding, Andrea went back to her star observation, and so did Mel. Time seemed to pass why so quickly, that Mel almost barely noticed that it was 10 PM and that they had to return to their dorms.
'Only a week and a half left before February comes in. Then, it'll be about 2 more months until the baby comes.' She thought while heading to the Hufflepuff Common Room with Andrea.
"I'm so tired." The brunette commented, yawning a little even. Melinda glanced over to her. "You sound tired." She lightly teased, causing Andrea to smile a little. Both met Valerie in the Common Room waiting for them so the three could head up to the dorm together.
"How was Astronomy?" Val asked, receiving a shrug from Andrea. "It was alright, had to work on our charts today." She gave a fake grin at that.
"Oh boy, that sounds like so much fun!" She said with a girly, high pitched voice that made the other two cringe.
"Don't ever talk like that again." Warned Andrea while she opened the door to their dorm. Val pouted, then shrugged and headed inside followed by Mel.
"Okay. I was thinking that we could go off this Saturday to Hogsmeade." Andrea quietly said as she took a seat on her bed. The other girls were already asleep, so she had to lower her voice.
"Why? We have a Hogsmeade Trip?" Val asked, receiving a nod back.
"Yep, and while we're there, I was also planning on going shopping for baby stuff. I heard there was a shop named Baby Witch. How about it Mel?" That was no foreign name to Melinda, and she smiled as she remembered seeing it that one snowy day.
"Yeah, sounds good." Was her answer. The three got ready for bed, and bid each other goodnight as they laid down to sleep. The last few thoughts in Melinda's mind was the Hogsmeade Trip coming up, the stars with the unique names, and of course, Draco Malfoy.
bête - stupid, silly, idiotic, foolish. Whichever definition you prefer ;)