James left her bedroom, telling her that he would see her in the morning and that was when Lily began to panic. She was in a strange house and only knew two of its' four - now five - occupants, and now James had told her that she could be sharing this house with a rapist.
She could feel her heart pounding in her chest, and she was taking ragged, raspy breaths that were uneven. It was because of these things that she knew she was scared. Really scared.
It was dark and this just added to her panic. She couldn't see anything apart from the dark blackness; when she closed her eyes, she could see exactly the same thing.
She jumped about a foot in the air when she heard a loud knock on her door. Quickly, she hastened to lie on her side and pretended to be asleep. She opened her eyes a fraction as light spilled into the room, and she saw with horror a male curly brown head of hair that definitely did not belong to Sirius or James.
"Lily?" Jake whispered into the silence, punctuated only by her heavy breathing. She lay still, refusing to answer him. Maybe if he thought she was asleep, he would leave her alone. Oh Godric, James had been right!
"Are you asleep?" the man asked in a hoarse, tired voice. Funny, she thought. He didn't sound at all scary, but scared himself.
"Lily, if you're asleep then you don't need to worry. But if you can hear me then you need to listen. I am well aware of the suspicions James harbours about me and my relationship with my daughter and I know he will have confided in you by now. But none of it is true." His voice was steady, pleading even, as he continued hurriedly. "Actually, it's because of my nephew that I'm here, Lily Evans. James is missing."
An icy hand clenched itself around her heart and for a second or two she struggled to breathe. Any previous doubt she had had in her mind had gone, and her eyes flew wide open and met his.
"So you are awake," he said in a louder, more relieved voice. "I need to know where he might've gone, or…" He let his voice trail off, giving her no falsehoods about what the alternative was. "Where he might've been taken."
She scrambled out of bed hastily, and rummaged around in her trunk until she found a jumper. She pulled it on and stared at him.
"What do you mean? It's the middle of the night!"
He sighed, "I always check on those two, and Allison would've done the same for you. If I had done so, though, James would have suspected I was going to do to you what he thinks I did to Lucy. Anyway, Sirius was fast asleep, but James' bed was empty." His voice shook, and Lily felt sorry for him.
xXoXx
"Mike's back!" she yelled happily, running to her older brother and hugging him fiercely. "Hey Mike!"
He chuckled and hugged her back. "Hey kiddo! How's Hogwarts going?"
Her face fell. She remembered with a painful jolt the face of a boy she'd been trying to forget for the whole holidays. "Oh! Well, it's okay… I guess." She scuffed the ground with her sneakers as she spoke.
It was then that she noticed the redhead standing next to him. She looked rich, with recognizable labels on her clothes and stylishly cut hair, and she was looking at Michael in a way she had only ever seen on James' face as he gazed amorously at Lily.
"Who's your friend?" she asked, and saw him start, realizing he had forgotten to introduce his companion to her.
"Mel," he began seriously, and this alone was weird. Mike never spoke seriously; he was a very jokey person. "There's someone rather special I'd like you to meet. Mel, this is Hannah Macpherson. Hannah, this is Melissa - Mel - my little sister."
She smiled hesitantly at Hannah. "Hi."
Hannah gave her a withering look, and spoke only to Mike.
"You didn't tell me you had a sister." She sounded accusing, and irritated. Mel was crestfallen. Why didn't this girl like her or want her around?
Mike managed a weak smile. "Sorry! Didn't know I was supposed to."
"It would've helped," Hannah muttered, glaring at Mel. Then her gaze shifted to Mike and her gaze softened. "It's okay, darling. I don't mind. Now, you should introduce me to your parents!"
Darling? Now this was even weirder. She had never heard anyone but her parents call Mike their darling, and now some girl was using the affectionate term?
And the two of them swept past her, Mike ruffling her hair affectionately and Hannah staring past her to her darling Mike. She stood still, listening to Mike introducing Hannah to their parents.
"Hey Mum, Dad!" Mike said brightly. "This is Hannah Macpherson, my… fiancée."
A few months later at dinner, the five of them chatted about how Mike was finding his new job at the Ministry of Magic. As it turned out, he had met Hannah through the Ministry, as she worked next to him in his office. They had quickly become friends and, soon after, they had become a couple.
Mel still couldn't understand why Hannah had taken such an immediate dislike to her, and it worried her that the pretty redhead was teaching Defence Against The Dark Arts at Hogwarts next year. She wasn't a very bright student, and relied more on her Quidditch talent as a career than any academic path. Her parents resented this because they had had high hopes for both their children to follow them into greatness. Helen Ludworth-Anderson was a muggle politician and she was proud that Mike had found the alternative to her job in the wizarding world, but she had always scorned "thick, oafish sports players" as she deemed them. Nigel Anderson was a wizard who owned a bookshop in Diagon Alley, and had always been a brilliant student. He had attended Hogwarts in his day, and had been in Ravenclaw, and he identified more with his son than his daughter because they were so similar. Nigel and Mike had both been in Ravenclaw, been hopeless at sports, scored highly in their OWLS and NEWTS, and were both male.
So Melissa was the biggest disappointment to her parents and therefore did not get on terribly well with them. She missed her magical friends: Lily, Kendra, James, Remus… hell, even Sirius and Peter! But her parents had made a rule that forbade her from spending any time with any of her magical friends because they wanted her to make non-magical friends so she could choose a muggle or wizarding career. She had told them time and time again that she wanted to play Quidditch professionally - as a Beater - but they did not accept this.
"So, Melissa, how are your Defence Against The Dark Arts grades coming along?" Helen asked her daughter sharply, her beady eyes penetrating. That was another reason Mel disliked her parents. They never used her nickname, Mel, but always called her Melissa. When they were especially angry with her, they would call her Melissa Rose, using her middle name to tell her she was on very thin ice.
Mel looked down at her plate and pushed around a potato with her fork. She had nothing to say. She was barely passing any of her classes, but Defence Against The Dark Arts was her worst class. Although she would never admit it, she always got scared when she had to duel someone else, especially when she was up against one of her friends. They were all brilliant; Lily, Kendra, James, Sirius. Peter, of course, was completely useless. This should have brought them closer together as friends, but there was something about Peter she didn't like. Though she didn't know what it was, something had always kept them apart. Remus was better at the theory behind the spells, but he was her one ally in that he disliked duelling also.
Mrs Anderson managed a short, tittering laugh for Hannah's benefit. "Hopefully Melissa will benefit from your teaching, Hannah. She is returning for her last year of school soon, but unfortunately," she sighed heavily, exchanging glances with her husband, "she lacks the discipline necessary to succeed in her classes."
Mike opened his mouth to - as he usually did - placate his parents. He had always disliked the way they often treated Mel as inferior to the rest of the family, just because she wasn't as smart as they all were. But Hannah beat him to it.
She nodded understandingly, "Well, Mrs Anderson-"
"Oh, Hannah! Please call me Helen!" Mel's mother interjected, the epitome of social tact and politeness as a result of her charming career.
"Helen, then." Hannah smiled winningly at her boyfriend's mother. "I understand perfectly that some girls her age are not the most intelligent people. They tend to move on to other things, which they consider more… entertaining than their academic work."
Helen was hanging on to every word, hoping for advice from Hannah. "What sort of things do these girls move on to?"
"Oh Helen," Hannah beamed, looking coy. "I am not sure that it is appropriate to talk about such things in front of one so young!"
Mel resented that - she was sixteen, certainly old enough to hear whatever it was Hannah was going to say next. She hated Hannah insulting her intelligence, too. This girl knew nothing about her but was saying unkind things about her as if she wasn't even there!
"Melissa should be warned about what horrors will befall her if she doesn't sharpen up her act at school," Nigel interrupted, frowning, as he looked his daughter over.
"Well if you're sure…" Hannah continued, adding in an innocent look. "A few of the more… loose girls in my year quite ruined their reputations and I know one or two are now barmaids and the others have found some wealthy benefactor from which they are rewarded with money and trinkets for certain favours."
"Oh, how terrible!" exclaimed Helen, looking at Melissa sternly. "You must listen to Hannah in such matters, Melissa. She is a very wise young woman."
"And of course there are the girls that favoured their sports," Hannah went on, sighing. "Most have obtained serious injuries and are utterly dependent on the goodwill of those generous enough to take them in to their own homes."
Mel's insides clenched horribly. She knew her parents would listen entirely to this 'wise young woman.' She wouldn't be allowed back on the Quidditch team, she just knew it!
"Alright, Melissa." Helen began. "This is the end of your sporting endeavours. No more Quidditch, you hear me? No more Quidditch."
Mel felt tears stinging her eyes. I will not cry. I will not cry. I will notcry, she chanted to herself. She had been lucky, she told herself, to be allowed to play as a Beater for as long as she had. Her parents had been terribly lenient on her, she thought, but she couldn't make herself believe it.
"But Mu-"
Helen slapped her. Hard. The right side of her cheek was stinging and she could just feel it turning a bright red. The noise of the slap echoed around the room until Helen broke the silence.
"Melissa Rose, don't you remember what I told you when you were little? Don't you remember what I told you never, never to call me?"
Mel trembled, her hand resting on her cheek. But if years of experience with her mother had taught her anything, it was self-control. She collected herself, stopping the flow of tears escaping from her eyes and pushing her shoulders back.
"Yes, Mother," she said hollowly, unable to meet her mother's eyes.
"See me after dinner in my study, Melissa," Helen ordered, returning Hannah's sympathetic smile.
After dinner, Mel made her way to her mother's study. She knew this was bad - the only other times she had been summoned to Helen's study had been followed by a severe reprimanding for one reason or another.
She lifted a hand to the door to knock, but before she did so, she heard her brother's raised voice from inside the door.
"…Telling you, you went way too far!" Mike shouted. She strained to hear her mother's cool voice, but she could not quite hear Helen.
"Yes, of course I trust Hannah, Mother, but Mel isn't like that!"
There was a pause, and then he continued.
"You're wrong!"
And then he stormed out, throwing open the door. Mel, who had been leaning against it with her ear pressed up against the wood, was thrown backwards. Helen stared angrily after him and then she saw Mel.
"Come in," she ordered calmly, once again having a cool exterior. Mel slipped in and closed the door quietly behind her. Once inside, she looked directly at Helen and stood modestly with her hands behind her back, awaiting permission to sit down.
"Take a seat," Helen said, and Mel did as her mother said, sinking down gracefully into the leather chair opposite Helen's identical chair.
"Firstly, you will already know that I am very displeased with your behaviour at dinner tonight. You were deliberately rude and insolent - your usual manner might I add - when we had a guest."
Mel nodded; she had suspected her mother would say as much.
"Yes Mother." She said meekly. "I understand."
"And secondly, I wish to reinforce what I stated at dinner. No more Quidditch, Melissa! I will not let you go down the same path that those acquaintances of Hannah's went down."
Her shoulders hunched and she felt all the breath in her body leave her. No more Quidditch… Well perhaps it would be for the best. If she didn't play Quidditch, she wouldn't have to see Sirius as often. That would make it less painful for her to be apart from him.
"Yes Mother."
"Melissa, now I have made sure you will not become a Quidditch player, I wish to make sure that you do not let yourself become loose." She said the last word with a shudder, as if she was in some sort of pain. "Are you untouched, Melissa? Are you… are you a virgin?"
Mel snorted, forgetting where she was. "Mother, do you not remember my uncle?"
"Melissa Rose," her mother warned. "The horrible, terrible slander you threw around about my brother was all just a silly little lie that a nine year-old made up to get attention."
"I bet you wish that was true, Mother," Mel said, locking eyes with the one woman she hated most of all in the world. "But the real truth is: Uncle Mark took advantage of me. He took my virginity, and YOU KNOW IT!"
She was on her feet by the end of her little speech, her shoulders heaving as she finally got off her chest the burden that had been placed there seven years ago.
"Melissa Rose!" Helen cried, raising her voice to match Mel's in volume. "You are STILL a liar, seven years on. You make me ashamed to call you my daughter!"
Of all the things her mother had ever said to her, of all the names she had been called by Helen, this comment hit her hardest. She was physically crushed. She fell back into her chair and could think of nothing to say.
"Get out," Helen said slowly, so softly that Mel thought maybe she hadn't heard her mother right. "Get out," her mother said again, her voice getting louder. "Get out of my house! I will not have a slatternly, ungrateful LIAR in my home! Get out NOW, before I have to force you out myself!"
Mel was horrified. As much as she hated her mother, she enjoyed the luxury of having a roof over her head and three meals a day. She didn't know where she would go, let alone how she would cope with having to fend for herself. She was scared, really scared of what her mother would do.
"Mother, I think-"
"No, Melissa Rose! You never think! And that is why I don't want you in this house ever again, d'you hear me?"
And Melissa, for what she hoped would be the last time in her life, bowed her head obediently and whispered, "Yes Mother."
Well... whaddya think? Quite a lot of drama in this chapter and I have a feeling I'm going to get a few reviews saying Mel's home life was waay unrealistic, but I don't really think it was. Some parents have that problem where they can't see what their children want to be, but what they want their children to be. Helen and Nigel were perfectly nice to Mike because he fulfilled their expectations, but Mel is a bit of a wild child and caused them a lot more grief than her older brother did.
And no more Quidditch for Mel! Although, as she said, perhaps it's for the best...
Review please!! Reviews make me happy!
xx
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