Welp, summer's almost here (for me) and look at this, it's summer time for Meissa! Whoot whoot!
On another note, I've been experiencing a bit of writer's block in regards to the story (all of my stories actually) so I would appreciate any suggestions as to where Meissa, Hermione and Daphne can visit in the UK. In any case, please enjoy and don't be afraid to leave a reveiw!
Chapter 35: Going Home
Meissa studied the dormitory for any stray items of hers or Daphne, reminding herself that she had already taken her potion for the day. The parchment with her marks for the year sat in her trunk - full of passing marks for each of the classes, and indicating that she would have to try much harder in Herbology to bring up the Acceptable to Exceed Expectations or higher.
Daphne's marks were good but the blonde already told her, shortly after receiving her parchment, that she intended to improve her marks so that her mother would not have anything to pick at. Daphne's natural talent in Transfiguration shined through during the exams - receiving top marks possible for a student. Astronomy, Herbology and Charms proved to be the blonde's weak points and had already preempted the second year by asking Meissa if she would be willing to tutor her still.
Meissa was not at all against it and had said they could get their summer homework out of the way in the first few days of summer - either before or after they all meet up at Hermione's house.
Meissa's plans, of course still depended on her godfather but it seemed, to the raven haired girl, that her godfather may not punish her due to what had happened to the Slytherins in the feast. So she was rather hopeful that her summer plans are still ongoing but was somewhat prepared to adapt if needed.
"Meissa, hurry up, the carriages are due to leave in ten minutes!"
The Black heiress took one last look in the dormitory before she nodded to herself in satisfaction and tapped her wand to the trunk. With three taps the trunk was shrunk to the size of her palm and pocketed without any further thoughts.
And with that she left, following Daphne down to the ground floor where they would join the other students in leaving the school for the summer.
~MJB~
Hermione was looking around, Daphne and Meissa still haven't shown up and it was getting close to the time when the carriages would leave. Harry was waiting by her side, quietly chatting with Ron who was refusing to see that there was anything wrong about getting the credit for the chess match. Hermione had already given up on getting the bullheaded boy to realize what was wrong with that. She hated that the red head was getting the credit but she didn't know how to fix the whole situation so that the right person was getting the credit they deserved.
Maybe Ron would have won the match but Meissa strongly disbelieved that, commenting that it seemed like he was leading to a moment when he would have to sacrifice himself to secure a win for Harry. In light of what Meissa managed to do Hermione could only conclude that the Slytherin girl had done a much better job in protecting them. Not only had she kept them alive but she also adjusted her plans when Ron proved difficult.
That was something she doesn't think anyone could manage. Not on the fly, not like how Meissa had done. Maybe she's overthinking it - seeing it as an amazing feat instead of a test of Meissa's character.
"Hermione," she hears from somewhere behind her and turned. "There you are," she sees Daphne approach her, her trunk floating next to her. "Potter," the blonde nods to him before turning to Hermione, completely ignoring the redhead to his immediate ire.
"Daphne," she smiled at the other girl before looking behind her for their other friend. When she didn't immediately see her she looks questioningly at the blonde. "Where is Meissa?"
"What do you -," Daphne cuts herself off as she saw that the other Slytherin girl was not with her. "Where did she go? She was right behind me!"
"You didn't get separated?"
"No! There's not that many students left inside," Daphne defended as she scanned the area for the other girl. "She couldn't have gone far."
"We'll help you look," Harry volunteered.
"What?!" Ron exclaims.
"No one is forcing you to look!" Hermione cuts him off before he could start shouting. He shut his mouth with a sullen snap, his eyes glaring daggers at the Gryffindor girl. But at that point she had already turned away from him, looking at Daphne and Harry, two people she can truly count as friends. "Where do you think she could've gone?"
"Let's check the ground floor before anywhere else," Daphne suggested. "I'm positive she was with me on the stairs up from the dungeons."
"I'll check the halls to the right," Harry volunteered. "One of us should check the Great Hall."
"Wait," Hermione injects, "I think we should stay together."
"It would be faster to search for her separately," Harry argues and while Hermione could agree with Harry's point she felt that when they do find Meissa they would have to relocate the others and then hustle to the carriages.
Daphne looked between the two Gryffindors, thinking. "I agree with Hermione," she spoke up after a moment. "And I feel that Meissa will be close to the dungeons. She wouldn't have that much time to wonder off to the other side of the castle."
Harry frowned but nodded slowly. "Okay," he says out loud, "You two do know her better than me so I'll take your lead on this."
The trio share a nod between themselves before re-entering the castle to begin their search for their waylaid friend, leaving Ron behind as he did not want anything to do with the missing Black heiress.
They checked the halls around the stairs leading down to the dungeons. They searched the rooms and was getting pretty worried when Hermione started to hear something echo down the halls. "Do you hear that?" she asks, hooking a hand onto Harry's arm to stop him.
"Frére Jacques, frére Jacques," she hears someone sing childishly, trying to figure out why this sounds familiar, "Dormez-vous, dormez-vous? Sonnez les matines, sonnez les matines. Ding-dang-doing, ding-dang-dong."
"What's that?" Harry asks questioningly, his voice low. Daphne frowned as she tried to remember what language she was hearing.
"I think… it's French," the blonde concludes, finally placing the language, "My grandmother was from France and she tended to scold my mother in French."
"Are you sleeping, are you sleeping? Brother John? Brother John? Morning bells are ringing, morning bells are ringing! Ding-dang-dong, ding-dang-dong."
"Oh!" Hermione looked at the other two, expecting Harry to recognize it but found no recognition to be found there, "It's a lullaby!" There was still no recognition from Harry so she decided to pursue that line of thought later. "Let's follow the singing. It might be Meissa."
"Why would she be singing this though?" Harry questioned, glancing between the two girls. They could only shrug at him and started searching for the source of the singing. It was a bit hard due to the fact that their voice was echoing.
"Frére Jacques, are you sleeping? Dormez-vous? Brother John? Sonnez les matines, morning bells are ringing. Ding-dang-dong, ding-dang-dong… Are you sleeping, frére Jacques. Brother John, dormez-vous. Morning bells are ringing, sonnez les martines. Ding-dang-dong, ding-dang-dong."
They around a corner and found Meissa dancing down the length of the hall they were in. Occasionally pausing to knock on the chest of a suit of armor, laughing in glee when she gets a sharp tang and occasionally drumming on the metal with her nails.
Daphne paused, stunned by this open display of glee while Hermione found herself intrigued by this side of the raven haired girl.
It was so far from what they would expect from the other girl that Harry ended up staring as the raven haired girl danced and sang and laughed. Never before has he seen this light hearted side of the Slytherin girl, he found it incredibly odd if he had to be honest with himself. But the fact that both Daphne and Hermione looked just as shocked by this told him that this wasn't actually a regular occurrence.
"Meissa?" Hermione tries, approaching the other girl. The raven haired Slytherin was staring up at a suit of armor, her hands on her hips as she stared it down.
Harry frowned as there was no reaction from the other girl. He didn't think that she would be the kind of person to actively ignore someone. Especially when that someone was Hermione or Daphne. In the times he had seen Meissa with Daphne and Hermione the raven haired girl was attentive, heeding their suggestions or thoughts.
"Meissa?" Daphne tries now with no visible response.
"I wonder where Unca Sevy is," Meissa muttered as she turned and - Harry blinked as he saw this - skipped the other way.
Daphne frowned and hurried after the Black heiress. "Hey!" she grabs her friend by the elbow, "where are you going?" Dark brown eyes locked with pale blue and for the first time ever, since the Sorting night, Daphne saw no recognition.
"Who are you?" the Black heiress stared at her with wide eyes, her voice making her seem younger than she ever had before.
Looking into Meissa's eyes Daphne realized with a start that she had never seen the other girl with her guard down.
"I'm your best friend?"
She hadn't meant for that to come out as a question.
Meissa looked at Daphne in confusion. "I don't know who you are?" Meissa frowned as she backed away from Daphne. "Unca Sevy said not to talk to strangers."
Hermione frowned as she noticed the way Meissa was talking. She sounded like she was younger - almost exactly the way a person would expect a child to talk as. It was drastically different from how Meissa typically talks. The raven haired Slytherin tended to sound like she was older than her age but this was ridiculous.
"We know him," Harry tried, thinking that they needed to get Meissa onto the train before it left without them.
"Really?" Meissa looked at the raven haired boy with hope apparent in her eyes. "Can you take me to him? I got lost again," there was a definite pout on the girl's face. "I dunno where Kiera or Nymphie went," the Black heiress mutters, her tone conveying just how scared she was despite the fact that she had just been singing a lullaby not ten minutes ago.
"Of course," Harry agreed, trying to figure out who Kiera or Nymphie is. Never mind the fact he had to figure out who 'Unca Sevy' was before things blew up in his face.
"Wait," Meissa cried and backed away from the trio once more. "I don't know who you are! I can't go nowhere with you!"
Hermione nearly cried in frustration - they nearly had her following them!
Daphne, forming a rough idea of how to resolve the issue, took the lead once more. "My name is Daphne," she introduced herself. "This is Hermione and Harry, they're my friends."
The Gryffindor saw immediately what she was trying to do and went along with it. "Now you know who we are - we're not strangers anymore right?"
The raven haired girl frowns thoughtfully at the two girls before she slowly reached for Hermione's outstretched hand - seemingly one part scared and one part timid. It was such an odd sight that Harry had to pinch himself to confirm that this was actually happening.
The resulting pain confirmed that he wasn't dreaming at all.
Holding Hermione's hand Meissa turned to Daphne, dark brown eyes meeting pale blue, and held a hand out to the blond with a shy smile on her face. Daphne returns the smile and accepted the hand. Once both hands were occupied Meissa started skipping, forcing the other two girls to skip along with her or be dragged.
They continued along in this fashion until they reached the doors that led out of the castle and to the carriages. There the raven haired girl paused and looked at the other girls. "Unca Sevy is outside?" she asked hesitantly.
"Yes," Harry answers, "And your cousin."
"Dray is here?" Meissa questioned with wide eyes. "What's Dray doing here? Is Aunt Cissy here too?" Daphne had to fight a slight wince, connecting Dray to Draco. The platinum blonde wasn't going to be happy when he finds out that Meissa had been calling him Dray in front of Harry Potter.
Harry, for his part, was doing his best to suppress the amusement he got from hearing Meissa's nickname for Draco.
"I don't know if your aunt is here," Hermione starts cautiously, she remembered Meissa talking about her aunt once, "But I think Draco might be outside. Would you like to join us in searching for him?"
Meissa took a moment to decide, nodding her head slightly when she made her mind. With that they lead the Black heiress through the doors and to the carriage, careful to keep her away from any lingering students. They weren't sure why Meissa was behaving so oddly but knew that they needed to find out what could have cause the regression, hopefully without damaging the heiress' reputation. Until she was returned to her normal self it was best they kept her separate from the other students.
It was rather fortunate of them that they were among the last to take the carriages down to the train station.
It took them some effort but they were able to talk Meissa into boarding the train, settling her into a carriage with the promise that 'Dray' would be along soon enough after he was done mucking about with his friends.
Surprisingly, or unsurprisingly considering her dislike for Crabbe and Goyle, Meissa made a face at the mention of Draco's two friends, muttering about bricks being smarter than those two. It was something Harry had no problem agreeing with, pressing a hand to his face to stifle the snickers. Hermione rolled her eyes but made no point to curb the raven haired boy's amusement while Daphne had a sly sort of a smile on her face.
~MJB~
The chatter of boys and girls alike was the first to register in her mind, just about masking the vibrations of what she had identified as the train's wheels grinding against the rail. The clamor of owls hooting, cats hissing, and a toad croaking nearly set her teeth on edge and woke her completely from the edge of sleep she had been drifting in.
"Oh!" she hears someone exclaim somewhere off to her right. Her eyes noting instantly that she had been slumped in the corner of what looked like to be a compartment of the Hogwarts' train. Same horrible color scheme and rather uncomfortable stuffing for the seats.
Thing is, she couldn't remember ever boarding the train?
"Meissa?"
She turns towards the speaker, registering them instead of the compartment. She needed to work on that.
"Yeah?"
The near relief on Daphne's face was rather puzzling in her opinion. Has she been out for that long?
"How are you feeling?"
"Um…" She took a moment to think about it before she realizes that she felt looser. Like she lost a load of weight from her shoulders. She couldn't actually remember the last time she didn't feel like she had the weight of the world on her shoulders. It was, in her opinion, rather freeing. "I feel good," she finally tells the blonde after noticing that she was waiting for a response.
Daphne nods slowly as if she was unsure about accepting the raven haired girl's response. "When was the last time you've taken your potions?"
"This morning, when we were finishing up the last of our packing." She looks curiously at her friend but decided not to press for answers when it became apparent that she did not want wish to talk about whatever it was that was bothering her. "How close are we to King's Cross?"
Daphne blinks at her for a moment before she frowns, looking out of the window. "I'd say we'd have about an hour."
Meissa nods, thinking quickly before taking in her current attire. She was still dressed in her school robes - if she had fallen asleep shortly after boarding the train she could see why she would neglect changing into something appropriate for blending in. She found herself grateful for her friendship with Hermione. It gave her a better idea of what was more current, even if she did find it hard to imagine what wearing 'jeans' would be like.
She wished that her godfather would be there to pick her up but just like he couldn't be there to see her off she knew that he couldn't be there to see her return. Her Aunt Cissy had insisted that she join the traditional voyage to the castle instead of traveling along with her godfather and she hadn't even considered broaching the concept of returning to their summer home via the floo network. So she knows that her Uncle Sevy wouldn't be there to greet her at the station, which meant that she'll be spending the night at her Aunt's place.
She actually found herself dreading the visit, distinctly remembering that she had woken up locked in her room with several broken and fractured bones to remind her of… something. She knows from Aunt Cissy's brief mentioning of it that her Uncle Lucius was the reason why she was laid up for the rest of the Winter holidays. And she was not looking for a repeat performance.
So staying out of the Malfoy home was the ultimate goal. The fact that she was still punishment free gave her the hope that she would still be allowed to spend a month at Hermione's house.
"Do you want to play a few rounds of chess?" Meissa finally suggested after a few moments of silence.
"Sure, but I hope you're not planning on a long game," Daphne warned with a smile on her face.
Meissa only grinned at the blonde and after receiving the game from her trunk they started setting up the pieces.
Roughly thirty minutes later found the two girls in their second game - with Meissa taking the time to help Daphne formulate better strategies - when Hermione came by to visit them. The relief on her face when she saw Meissa playing chess was so apparent it drew a questioning look from the raven haired girl. When pressed the brunette gave no answer, only saying that she was glad to be away from Ron's annoying prattling about Gryffindor winning the House Cup and his hopes of them winning the Quidditch cup next time.
The comments only earned her an eyeroll from the two Slytherins, both of them being unimpressed with the red headed boy after he stole the credit from Meissa. Daphne was firmly of the belief that Meissa could dance circles around the boy. The Black heiress had no opinion on whether or not she could do such a thing but she did hate how everything unfolded at the feast.
It was so bloody unfair!
"Hey Meissa," the heiress hears Hermione call out to her, drawing her from her thoughts. Once the Gryffindor saw that she had the raven haired girl's attention she gave a brief smile. "We're almost at King's Cross Station. Do you want to change now?"
Meissa turns towards the glass window and saw that Hermione had spoken truly. They were now somewhere in London, well on their way to the railroad station and it was time to change their clothes into something appropriate. "It's best," she agrees before she took a change of clothes and left for the girl's loo, ignoring the questioning looks she gotten from the other girls.
Hermione found this to be unexpected - having not known about this particular quirk, for lack of better words. Daphne had expected this but once again found herself wondering about why Meissa was so uncomfortable changing around other people. Parkinson, Bulstrode and Davis were comfortable changing around each other. Bulstrode was actually the only other person besides Meissa who seemed uncomfortable, her figure not exactly small nor slim.
Most of the other Houses had picked up on her insecurities about her appearances - the straight build of her body made her seem blocky. The few malicious students had already started drawing attention to it, making comments about losing weight. In those rare times - early in the year - Meissa had actually gotten enraged on Millicent's behalf and pranked them to an inch of their social lives. The best part of the pranks was that the Weasley twins often got accused of pulling them off since they were the renown pranksters of the school.
By the time Meissa returned the train was pulling into the station, her hair braided back with a few loose strands already falling onto her face. Hermione and Daphne had already packed away the chest board so all that was left was for Meissa to toss in her clothes and, with a simple tap of her wand, shrink the trunk to its pocket sized form.
"I saw one of those before," Hermione comments as Meissa pocketed it. "They cost a lot though."
"It was a gift from my aunt," the raven haired girl says as a way of explanation as Daphne held the door open for them both, her trunk already safely stored away.
"Ah," Hermione smiles slightly at the two Slytherins. "Well, I should go get my things."
"We'll go with you," Daphne offers before Meissa could even open her mouth, surprising both girls. "What?"
Meissa shook her head and motioned for them to start moving, seeing that the crowd seemed to have dissipated somewhat in the five minutes of their arrival. Daphne shoots them both questioning looks but after trying to get them to explain - ultimately failing - she gives it up as a lost cause. Instead she helps Meissa carry Hermione's trunk off the train - ignoring the other girl's attempts to say that she could do it herself.
Between the two Slytherins they were able to wrestle Hermione's trunk onto a cart with Meissa giving a show of exhaustion a she leaned on the cart. "Merlin's beard, 'Mione! What do you have in there, bricks?" she exclaims, spying Harry and Ron's approach. Both of them seem to have gotten their trunks onto a cart, one for each of them, and felt a flare of irritation that they left Hermione to bring out her own by herself.
Hermione doesn't see the approach of the boys as she smacks Meissa's arm. "I do not have bricks in there! Just my books!"
Daphne smiled at the other girl, deciding to join in on the teasing. "Was there any room for your clothes in there?" she asks slyly.
"Of course!" the bushy haired girl exclaims before the two Slytherin girls burst out laughing at the indignant look on the Gryffindor's face. They got a huff from the muggleborn girl before they finally managed to quell their laughter, the boys' arrival playing one small part in their calming. "Well I hope you enjoyed that," Hermione huffs at the two girls, getting smiles from the two girls, before she turns to greet Harry and Ron.
Meissa turned away from the Gryffindor to search the crowd for her cousin. She had just managed to find him when her eyes slid over to where a wizened old guard was allowing small groups of students to exit through the ticket barrier. Draco's platinum blonde hair standing out in stark contrast to Crabbe and Goyle's dark colored hairs. Right when she found him she saw that the trio were given permission to step through the barrier, eliciting a roll of exasperation at her cousin.
She should have figured that he would go ahead of her with his goons - he was rarely ever without the company of his bodyguards. It was actually amusing for her to bet when people will start to speculate if those three were in a triad or something. So far no rumors has sprung up about the three boys but that was okay, she had her money bet on year three if not year four.
"You must come and stay this summer," she hears Ron say, drawing her attention away from the thoughts of her cousin. She watched as Harry nods slightly, apparently accepting the invitation.
"Thanks, I'll need something to look forward to," he says as people jostled them. Some were calling out farewells to Harry as they moved forward towards the gateway back to the muggle world. A few times Meissa had to keep her face blank as a hard elbow would find its way to her spine.
Some of the people that went by called out to Harry, ranging from a generic farewell to something about his fame as the boy who live.
"Still famous," she hears Ron comment, grinning at the raven haired boy. Yet, Meissa couldn't help but notice that there was a glint of jealousy in the other boy's eyes. He wanted the fame, glory, and fortune that came with being the boy-who-live.
"Not where I'm going, I promise you," she hears Harry comment. An alarm rang in her mind at Harry's words and she found herself staring at the raven haired boy. But she had no opportunity to say anything to him because they were going through the barrier. She and Daphne followed them through less than a heartbeat later and she heard a voice call, "Mom, there he is, look!"
Meissa turned her head towards the voice, locating the Gryffindor Trio walking towards a woman and a girl, about the age of a person who could go to Hogwarts. "Harry Potter!" the girl was squealing.
"Wow," Daphne muttered, shocked, as they walked towards the trio.
"Something tells me she idolizes the Boy-Who-Lives."
"I'm getting that impression too," the blonde shook her head in disbelief. After being around Potter for a year she found it hard to buy into the books. It probably didn't help that Meissa's comments about Potter has caused her to see him in a different light. The late nights spent researching laws and cases certainly reinforced the new outlook.
They joined the trio just as Harry was thanking the red haired woman for the fudge and sweater.
"It was nothing, dear," the woman was saying before she took notice of the two girls. "Oh, hello."
"Hello," Meissa returned while Daphne nodded her head slightly in greeting.
"They're Slytherin, mum," Ron interrupted before Meissa could introduce Daphne and herself to the woman. Almost at once Meissa saw a shutter close over the woman's emotions and knew that she was likely the source of the negative views her son has for Slytherin.
"They're friends," Harry hastened to add, sensing the impending explosion. "This is Meissa Black and Daphne Greengrass."
Meissa nodded slightly in thanks to Harry as she watched as the woman's eyes became colder towards them. "Greetings, Madam Weasley," she nods slightly in acknowledgement to the woman. She wasn't sure but she had a feeling that the Weasley family was distant relatives of the Black house - although most of the Pureblood wizarding families could claim that. "May the Light always shine upon your Home and serve as a beacon in times of danger," she intones after a moment of hesitation.
The Weasley matriarch paused at the phrase, having not expected a witch from a Dark pureblood family. "Thank you," she returns, losing some of the ice from her eyes.
Harry, Hermione, and Ron were looking back and forth between Meissa and Mrs. Weasley while Daphne was just looking at Meissa with an expressionless mask on her face.
Ron looked increasingly more livid the longer he saw that his mother was not ripping into Meissa like he had expected.
Hermione was curious, she wanted to learn more about what Meissa had done to appease the Weasley matriarch because the red haired woman had looked like the raven haired girl was someone to keep away from until Meissa said those words.
Harry was simply relieved that a fall out didn't occur between Ron's mother and Meissa.
"Ready, are you?"
Meissa blinked at the voice, sensing the hostile tone in the words, and turned to face the person.
~MJB~
I wonder how many people will be leaving me reviews and comments for this chapter. I think I left ya'll with more questions than answers \o.o/