Midnight

"What was that about?" Fred asked as I shrugged.

"I don't know, but, I can't shake this feeling whenever she's around me. It's not bad or anything. I just, I don't know" I told him as we continued walking. "You know, maybe we should consider dating again" I added as he stopped walking to look at me with surprise, "you know, for protection." I could tell he was trying not to grin ear to ear. "For your protection of course, not mine. I can handle myself" I reminded him poking my wand at his chest.

"I have no doubt about that Ms Allen" he said swatting my wand away and pulling me in for a kiss.

"What do you think is going on?" Fred asked as we continued to walk around.

"Something I doubt any of us will like" I said as we found ourselves in library. "You know, I feel like I'm not doing enough studying" I told him as we sat down, putting my bag on the table.

"I could teach you some wand motions" he replied as I giggled, Fred moving closer to me, setting his hand on my knee.

"Oh, Fred, I'm sure you could teach me a lot, but I seriously need to work on my spell casting. I got an A on my last duel with Professor Flitwick and I swear if I have go against Hermione or Melinda again I'm going to lose my mind" I mumbled as I took out my Charms book.

"Do you wanna talk about your mom? Or the Malfoys?" He asked as I took out my wand and made the motions with my wand for the practice spells.

"Not really" I said still practicing. "I mean, I guess I just don't understand why my mom can't visit more, I mean, I get why but, why? What pack did they make? Why did she agree? I'm her daughter, doesn't she think she can protect me?" I asked, my wand movements a little messy.

"Maybe she knows you'll just do a better job protecting yourself. Or perhaps it was the Malfoys, you don't know how intimidating they can be, and mean" he said as I fidgeted in my chair, trying not to put my wand down. "You heard Melinda, they had their own reasons, and maybe...well...I know this is wrong, and I'm sorry for saying this...but..." he paused.

"But..."

"What if you're dad wasn't telling the whole truth? I mean, not that I don't trust the man, I don't know him, but, what if there's more?"

"Like what?"

"I don't know."

"You do, you just won't tell me" I told him putting my wand back in the bag.

"Did your parents have a healthy relationship? They were okay, right?" He asked as I felt my eyes narrow, I knew what Fred was getting at and I knew he didn't mean it in a nasty way but I couldn't deny it still hurt.

"They were fine, I mean, that's what my mom always said, they loved each other and my mom said herself he didn't speak about his family. She was just as surprised when she realized I was a Malfoy" I reminded him.

"And nothing about Melinda stood out?" He asked as I shook my head. "Her grandparents?"

"I met them maybe twice. On holidays, they didn't really talk to me, they said hi, they were polite and nice but they never really talked to me" I explained.

"Probably because they felt guilty" Fred answered as he took my hand. "I mean, if everyone is telling the truth, they were involved, heavily involved, they created this whole thing" he said as I nodded.

"Melinda said she can't get anything out of them, I can't push her to make them tell her, and now her and Draco are broken up over it, I just wish we had more answers. What were they protecting everyone from" he said as I looked at my notebook "What if I try talking to her? And Draco?"

"You hate Draco" I teased as Fred patted my knee.

"I do, but, you want answers, I'm willing to do whatever I can to help" he said as I leaned in and kissed him.

"That's very kind of you" but then something else came back to mind, "we need to figure out what's going on with Professor Barrass, he's been acting strange, I'm not saying I know everything about the man, but, I thought I knew enough about him to know when he's acting different."

"And you think he's different?"

"Yes, yes I do. I mean, the mysterious disappearances, the weird meeting we had with him, you can't tell me you haven't noticed?"

"I don't disagree that something is strange with him, but, he's probably just protecting you guys, you know how some people are" he said but I shook my head. "When we broke up, I was just so angry with you that I honestly didn't feel like myself, I didn't want to talk to you, I didn't want to see you, I didn't want to be around you" he started.

"But that was because we didn't end on good terms, but now we're back together—" Fred shook his head.

"What if he's acting like that not because he's hiding something bad, but something good?" He asked as I raised an eyebrow, but then remembering Professor Burnner's comment.

"They're together" I told Fred as I stood up. "They're a couple, which means she probably knows something" I said as I started to leave but Fred grabbed my arm and then books and bag.

"You should leave her alone tonight" he said as he handed me my stuff. "We should go eat dinner, go to the common room, have a good laugh and then go to bed" he said and then smiled, "separately; unless you wanna go to the Quiet Corner..." he teased as he moved closer.

"Don't make me think that's all you want" I said kissing his cheek.

"Okay, c'mon then, let's eat, I'm hungry" he said taking my hand as we walked down to the Great Hall.

The next few weeks I found it incredibly hard to focus, all my thoughts and focus were on Professor Burnner. I hadn't seen Professor Barrass in some time and she kept asking how I was. Not that I didn't appreciate her concern but the more I voiced to Melinda about how it didn't feel like it was coming from a good place the more she seemed to understand. I knew she didn't exactly get it, but she knew me well enough. We talked a few times about the Professor, but none of the theories we came up with seemed to stick. We thought maybe she was involved with Melinda's grandparents, but she was too old, we figured maybe she had been involved with my dad, but the Malfoys didn't recognize her, my mom didn't recognize her. No one seemed to know her outside of being an additional Professor at the school.

The others jumped in when they could, but Hermione couldn't find anything about her, just again, that she wasn't from around here; Ron and Harry both said they saw her being friendly toward Neville and other students, Fred said the same. Even Draco shared his thoughts, which were basically that I was reading into it and perhaps I didn't care for the woman because she was taking up time from a mentor who I hadn't gotten a chance to really talk to. I reminded him Professor Barrass didn't seem to want to talk to me, even when he was in the school he was very obvious about avoiding me or keeping conversations short. Melinda still seemed surprised about my interaction with him the one day he supposedly messed up my memories.

By the end of the month we had gotten nowhere, just more questions than answers, and none of those answers were ones we could find here. "Maybe once we stop thinking about it something will come to mind" Fred suggested the first week of May as we sat in the Quite Corner. I sighed and leaned on his shoulder, trying again to get through the recent chapter I was assigned for Muggle Studies. We hadn't made out, in fact since arriving back at Hogwarts we hadn't kissed much. It was partially due to seeing Oliver everywhere and feeling guilty. I didn't want to end things with him the way I did, and it made Quidditch practice hard. Lavender constantly joked I shouldn't have made my way through the team if I didn't want to feel stressed. And then she kept saying I was actually working for Draco and had meant to cause a split within the team. Thankfully no one else listened anymore. Not even Charity, but that was still a mystery to me. I wondered if Fred had talked to her, or if Fred had talked to George and then George talked to Charity, that seemed way more likely, especially since George still wouldn't have a full conversation with me.

"I still can't shake that something seems out of place" Melinda said as we sat in the library one weekend in the middle of May.

"Do you need my notes?" Hermione asked as I chuckled.

"No, I don't mean about that; I sent a letter to my grandparents, a while ago, and they just never wrote back." I glanced over, but didn't move, my legs too comfortably perched on Fred's lap.

"Maybe they just don't want to write back" I suggested.

"Yeah, that's what I mean, usually if I don't hear from them it's because they don't want to answer, not because they can't. So they know something."

"They probably don't want you to tell me, I mean, we both know they let my dad get involved, I'm sure they feel guilty" I said as I felt Melinda staring at me.

"Do you hate them for that?"

"I honestly don't know..." I told her as I watched her shoulders deflate. I wanted to continue talking about it, since we hadn't, but I was still confused about how I felt. I was confused and uncertain who to blame.

"We'll fix this and I'll find you answers, I promise" Melinda said as she started packing up. I nodded, wanting to believe her, but knowing I just needed space, from her and Draco.

And space was what I got. With Draco it was bit harder, he was struggling with not being able to talk Melinda, who told him she needed space from him, she needed to really think about to what extent his family was involved. She wanted to see how his relationship with me was, to know he valued family, because to her family was everything. Which was why I knew she did feel deeply and truly sorry about what her grandparents did. But like I told Fred it wasn't like my dad went in blind, it wasn't like he didn't agree. He was a willing participant, as was my mom when she decided to give up custody. It was a lot to comprehend and take in stride, without hating my best friend and pushing away my only current family. At least this time it really felt like Fred was on my side.

Oddly, I thought my game would suffer, the team would suffer, the whole school had heard some form of the news by the beginning of June and most people were sympathetic, a little too sympathetic. Let the game be lighter, change chasers, don't overdo practice, a lot suggestions. Thankfully after a discussion with the team we all agreed I would remain on the team and nothing would change, we'd remain strong and put our best foot forward. And that we had, we won all our games, we just had one more game against Hufflepuff that I was positive we could win, but the team captain and Seeker, Cedric Diggory, was as good in playing as he was looking. Holly seemed pretty bummed when she learned Cho and Cedric were together, having seen him coming out of the hospital wing with Cho one afternoon. "What about you two? Are you guys back on the mend?" Katie Bell asked as we sat in the locker room after a practice game.

"Yeah" Fred said as I continued staring at my shoes, pretending lacing them up was more important and interesting than anything else.

"Good, good, it was making the whole team sad watching you two mope about" she continued as I felt my ears warm, I knew at least two members who didn't care what happened to my relationship with Fred. Still, it was nice to hear someone cheer us on.

"Oh, thanks" I said trying to avoid eye contact with Oliver.

"Tammie" I quickly jumped up upon hearing my name, half grateful, half alarmed to see Draco. "I need to talk to you" he said as I nodded and started out, Fred behind me. "Just Tammie" Draco told him as Fred stopped, looking at me.

"Meet me back in the common room, I'll be there as soon as I can" I told him kissing his cheek and then following Draco out.

"Okay" he whispered back, taking the opportunity to kiss me full on the lips.

"This better be important..." I mumbled as I followed Draco out.

"I can't find Melinda" he said as I shrugged, that wasn't my problem and to my knowledge she didn't want to talk him.

"I don't think she—"

"No, listen to me, I can't find her, Holly came to me and asked if I've seen her, she was coming to ask you but I said I'd talk to you" he said as I searched his face. Holly couldn't find Melinda? They were close and usually were stuck together like glue.

"I'm sure she's somewhere Draco," I said, ignoring my heart racing.

"She said she got a letter from her grandparents, she went to meet them?" He said as I looked at him with bewilderment.

"Meet them? When?"

"Tonight, at midnight, but, she hasn't been around since she got the letter, I know it's Saturday and she does a lot during her free time, but I just was wondering if you've seen her?" I shook my head.

"Don't worry about, I'll find her" I told him as he nodded and tried my best to calmly walk off.