It was about two weeks away from Christmas vacation, and it had already
been confirmed that Melova was staying with the Malfoys during the break.
She had tried to explain to Harry as to why her and Draco were getting
along so well but he would just give her the cold shoulder whenever she
tried to talk to him. The truth was that Dumbledore had told to try and get
along with the Malfoys, especially Draco, as seeing how they were the only
family that she had left. Even as much as Melova hated him because him and
his goons made her first night at Hogwarts a living hell, she remembered
the time she tackled Harry to stop him from possibly killing his uncle. She
then knew that family was a precious thing, even if they were as evil as
the Dursleys. But, the Malfoys, they were much worse, Narcissa's sister,
Bellatrix, and her husband were both death eaters. Bellatrix had tortured
the hell out of the Longbottoms until they went insane. But, they were
family, so, Melova had to deal with Draco, Crabbe, Goyle, and Pansy when
they insulted Muggle-borns, half-bloods, Harry, Hermione, Ron, and
Dumbledore. Draco mentioned Sirius on and off in conversations, but Melova
would shoot him and evil glare, which stopped him from going any further
into his insults about Melova's father.
When Christmas vacation was only one day away, Melova tried one last time to talk to Harry, as seeing this was her last to talk to him for the next two weeks. When she found him in the hall on her way to Transfiguration, she walked up to him and grabbed his arm, as this was the only way to get his attention. He seemed startled, turning around, but when he saw who it was, pulled away his arm and just said, "What do YOU want?"
"Harry, Dumbledore told me to be nice to Malfoy. I mean, really he's my family, Harry. It's kind of like you not fancying the Dursleys, but you have to live with them over the summer anyway," she said, amazingly, in one breath.
"At least my uncle isn't a death eater!" he shouted, making a few of the people in the hall stare at him, but he didn't care. Melova had betrayed Sirius, she'd betrayed him, that was all that mattered.
"Harry, I know what you're probably thinking, but it isn't true. I hate those stupid twits. I wish that I could be with you guys all the time," she said looking from Harry, to Ron, to Hermione. "But, I don't want to spend one more night in the hospital wing. I know that I made Dobby promise not to tell you what was going on with me the first night here, but they beat me up pretty bad, Harry. Which meant that all I knew about Hogwarts on my first night was pain, a cold bed in a cold room, and that my father's side of my family is full of idiots," she paused to catch her breath, and started shaking, not out of pain, but because she was afraid, afraid that Harry wouldn't believe her. "You're a much better person than I am, Harry. So, please understand what I'm saying, Harry, please understand that I will never betray my father, you, Dumbledore, or anybody who has ever cared about me." She looked at the door of her next class when the bell rang. "Please understand Harry." She walked towards the door and then turned around, "Oh, ya, Harry, can you tell Neville that I will go to the ball with him, he asked me a few days ago, but I haven't been able to find him to tell him my answer." She flashed a smile and opened the door to Professor McGonagall's class and walked in, waving good-bye to Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Christmas vacation was the best that Melova had ever had. She had gotten so many presents that she didn't know what half of them were. There was a box that when you opened it, a rainbow poured out of it and it sang a melody with voices and an orchestra. The next thing she got, she obviously knew what this was, was a broom. A hand-me-down from Draco, but a broom all in itself. She got a few presents from Neville, one of them being a Remembrall that he had found, and didn't need any more. She got a piece of mood-cloth that changed the pattern when it's owner's moods changed form Kreacher the house-elf who was staying at the Malfoys, thinking that all of the Blacks were dead. Unlike Sirius, Kreacher treated Melova with the utmost respect, keeping her room tidy with a new bouquet of flowers every morning that he picked from the Malfoy's garden. She took all of these gifts, besides the broom, and including a book of beauty-spells from her cousin Narcissa. She had bought a life-size toy mouse for Mystery as a Christmas present. She brought a few new dress-robes for special occasions.
On the night of the Mid-Semester Ball, Melova put on her silk black dress- robe that had green and silver beaded trimming. She took out her book of beauty spells and found one that matched her dress, green/silver/black eye shadow, burgundy blush, claret lipstick, and her hair pulled back in a high- wavy pony-tail with strings hanging over her face. She found a pair of dark red earrings and a dark red necklace and put them on. She looked in her mirror, wondering if it was too much. She rubbed a little bit of the blush off and walked down to the common-room and sat on the couch. She was making a piece of candy float into the air when Draco came down the stairs of the boys dormitories and snuck up behind her, jumping on the couch, and making Melova drop the piece of candy to the floor. There it lay in a million pieces when Malfoy said, "I heard you were going to the party with Longbottom." He raised his eyebrow, even though what he said didn't sound like a question.
"I am, since when do you care who I hang around with," Melova asked.
"Since forever."
"You mean since you found out that I'm a 'pureblood'," she said, sneering at the word pureblood.
Malfoy snorted and then looked at Melova, "Why can't you just go with Crabbe or Goyle, or somebody your own age."
"Oh, lil' Draco's worried about his little cousin," she said.
"HEY!"
"Don't bite my head off, I was just having a little fun," she said, standing up and walking towards the portrait hole.
"Don't do anything you will regret, ok?"
"I promise Mummy," Melova joked and walked through the portrait hall as Malfoy got up form the couch and headed back to the dormitories. She headed up the stairs towards the Great Hall, opened one of the great-oak doors, and ran into Harry.
"Hello, Harry. How are you," Melova asked.
"Oh, I'm just great! NEVER BEEN BETTER!!!" he shouted as he ran down the stairs. Melova walked through the doors to where the Gryffindor table usually was, but now all that hung above it was a single-solitary Gryffindor flag. She found Ron, Hermione and Neville sitting in a corner.
"Melova, over here," Neville called out. She walked towards them, and noticed that Ron and Hermione were, it was impossible, were they holding hands? "Hey, Ron and Hermione are here as a couple, too. Isn't that great?"
"You two?" Melova asked, even though she already knew the answer.
"Yes, do you have a problem with that?" Hermione asked.
"Oh, no, just, I didn't think you two had feelings for each other."
"Well, we do," Ron said, gripping harder to Hermione's hand. "Come on, Hermione." Him and Hermione walked off towards the front where the band, "Essence of Snail", was playing a song that sounded like it was techno- beat.
Melova looked at Neville, who was looking a crowd of Slytherins dancing. "How did you get into that load of crack-pots anyway," he asked as one of the Slytherins pushed another one and started screaming at him for something about stealing his girlfriend.
"No clue," Melova answered as the Slytherin on the floor took out his wand and threw the other one all the way across, and into the air the room with a spell. A few teachers had taken the boy who cast the spell out of the Hall, as Madam Pomfrey and Madam Hooch were carrying the other out on a stretcher. "Absolutely no clue.
Neville took Melova's hand and walked her out of the Hall, down the stairs and toward a flight of stairs that Melova had never seen before.
"Where are we going," she asked, confused.
"You'll see. I used to come up here before, a long time ago, though. I can't believe that I even remember it," he said, smiling and leading her on.
They were on the fifth floor when Neville stopped and started tapping his foot on the floor, "What are you doing?"
"Looking for, here it is," he said as he tapped on a hollow sounding step. He pushed the stone down and a door appeared in the middle of the corridor. He opened it and walked in, Melova following closely behind.
"Where are we?" They had stepped into a room that had clouds, a blue sky, grass, and a lake. There was a picnic basket laying near the lake, on top of a red and white checkered blanket. Birds sang in the trees in the distance. When she shut the door, it disappeared, and a bush took it's place.
"I don't know exactly what it is, but I stumbled into it once when I couldn't remember the password for the Gryffindor common room," He said, walking over to the picnic blanket and sitting down. Melova did the same, and couldn't believe that a place that was so beautiful had just appeared out of nowhere like that. "Do you like it?"
"It's beautiful," she said, lying down. "What's in the basket?"
"Whatever you want."
"Mm, let's see, oh, an ice cream sundae, brownies, a strawberry milkshake, French fries, hamburger, and um, pumpkin juice?" Sure enough when she opened it, there was exactly what she had asked for.
"My god, where do you store all that," Neville asked, watching Melova dig into her ice cream sundae and take a huge chunk out of her hamburger.
She swallowed and said, "I don't know, guess I have a high metabolism." She ate another bite of her hamburger and then just couldn't help it anymore, she put down her food and looked at Neville. "Neville?"
"Yes?"
"Doesn't it bother you that I'm only twelve and in Slytherin?" she asked.
"No."
"Why not?"
"I'm just happy that somebody as beautiful as you isn't running away when I try and talk to them," he said, smiling.
"Doesn't it bother your grandmother?"
"No, I didn't tell her, why? Did you tell your mother?"
Melova went pale and realized that she hadn't told him about her mother. He obviously knew about her father, having watched him die. "My mum's dead. She died when I was three."
"Oh, I'm so sorry," he said looking down, turning a crimson red.
"Don't be, she wasn't a very good person anyway," she said, looking at him.
"Why?"
"Does the name Mary-Anne Jolivia Hiquoree ring a bell?"
"Oh, the first witch to be deMagicized, right?"
"Ya, and she didn't even tell me about Hogwarts or anything."
"So, who raised you?"
"Madam Rimes at UnderWater's Orphanage in London."
"Oh. I didn't know, I'm sorry."
"Don't be," she moved the picnic basket and laid her head on his shoulder. They stayed that way for about the next thirty minutes when Melova broke the silence. "Neville?"
"Ya."
"I love you."
"I love you, too."
Melova looked up at him. She kissed him softly on the lips. As she deepened the kiss, his hands moved to the back of her head and the small of her back. She broke off after about five minutes and looked up at him, "Neville, you aren't the lucky one, I am."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After Neville walked Melova back to the Slytherin common room, he headed back towards the Gryffindor common room, where he met up with Harry. Neville was walking dreamily so Harry took to notice very quickly.
"What's up with you, Neville?"
"Oh, nothing," Neville answered as he danced his way up the stairs to bed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Melova was prancing around the common room when Malfoy walked down from the boys' dormitories and found her laying on the couch, smiling, and obviously day-dreaming.
"What's up with you, Melova?"
"Oh, nothing," Melova answered as she danced her way up the stairs to bed.
When Christmas vacation was only one day away, Melova tried one last time to talk to Harry, as seeing this was her last to talk to him for the next two weeks. When she found him in the hall on her way to Transfiguration, she walked up to him and grabbed his arm, as this was the only way to get his attention. He seemed startled, turning around, but when he saw who it was, pulled away his arm and just said, "What do YOU want?"
"Harry, Dumbledore told me to be nice to Malfoy. I mean, really he's my family, Harry. It's kind of like you not fancying the Dursleys, but you have to live with them over the summer anyway," she said, amazingly, in one breath.
"At least my uncle isn't a death eater!" he shouted, making a few of the people in the hall stare at him, but he didn't care. Melova had betrayed Sirius, she'd betrayed him, that was all that mattered.
"Harry, I know what you're probably thinking, but it isn't true. I hate those stupid twits. I wish that I could be with you guys all the time," she said looking from Harry, to Ron, to Hermione. "But, I don't want to spend one more night in the hospital wing. I know that I made Dobby promise not to tell you what was going on with me the first night here, but they beat me up pretty bad, Harry. Which meant that all I knew about Hogwarts on my first night was pain, a cold bed in a cold room, and that my father's side of my family is full of idiots," she paused to catch her breath, and started shaking, not out of pain, but because she was afraid, afraid that Harry wouldn't believe her. "You're a much better person than I am, Harry. So, please understand what I'm saying, Harry, please understand that I will never betray my father, you, Dumbledore, or anybody who has ever cared about me." She looked at the door of her next class when the bell rang. "Please understand Harry." She walked towards the door and then turned around, "Oh, ya, Harry, can you tell Neville that I will go to the ball with him, he asked me a few days ago, but I haven't been able to find him to tell him my answer." She flashed a smile and opened the door to Professor McGonagall's class and walked in, waving good-bye to Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Christmas vacation was the best that Melova had ever had. She had gotten so many presents that she didn't know what half of them were. There was a box that when you opened it, a rainbow poured out of it and it sang a melody with voices and an orchestra. The next thing she got, she obviously knew what this was, was a broom. A hand-me-down from Draco, but a broom all in itself. She got a few presents from Neville, one of them being a Remembrall that he had found, and didn't need any more. She got a piece of mood-cloth that changed the pattern when it's owner's moods changed form Kreacher the house-elf who was staying at the Malfoys, thinking that all of the Blacks were dead. Unlike Sirius, Kreacher treated Melova with the utmost respect, keeping her room tidy with a new bouquet of flowers every morning that he picked from the Malfoy's garden. She took all of these gifts, besides the broom, and including a book of beauty-spells from her cousin Narcissa. She had bought a life-size toy mouse for Mystery as a Christmas present. She brought a few new dress-robes for special occasions.
On the night of the Mid-Semester Ball, Melova put on her silk black dress- robe that had green and silver beaded trimming. She took out her book of beauty spells and found one that matched her dress, green/silver/black eye shadow, burgundy blush, claret lipstick, and her hair pulled back in a high- wavy pony-tail with strings hanging over her face. She found a pair of dark red earrings and a dark red necklace and put them on. She looked in her mirror, wondering if it was too much. She rubbed a little bit of the blush off and walked down to the common-room and sat on the couch. She was making a piece of candy float into the air when Draco came down the stairs of the boys dormitories and snuck up behind her, jumping on the couch, and making Melova drop the piece of candy to the floor. There it lay in a million pieces when Malfoy said, "I heard you were going to the party with Longbottom." He raised his eyebrow, even though what he said didn't sound like a question.
"I am, since when do you care who I hang around with," Melova asked.
"Since forever."
"You mean since you found out that I'm a 'pureblood'," she said, sneering at the word pureblood.
Malfoy snorted and then looked at Melova, "Why can't you just go with Crabbe or Goyle, or somebody your own age."
"Oh, lil' Draco's worried about his little cousin," she said.
"HEY!"
"Don't bite my head off, I was just having a little fun," she said, standing up and walking towards the portrait hole.
"Don't do anything you will regret, ok?"
"I promise Mummy," Melova joked and walked through the portrait hall as Malfoy got up form the couch and headed back to the dormitories. She headed up the stairs towards the Great Hall, opened one of the great-oak doors, and ran into Harry.
"Hello, Harry. How are you," Melova asked.
"Oh, I'm just great! NEVER BEEN BETTER!!!" he shouted as he ran down the stairs. Melova walked through the doors to where the Gryffindor table usually was, but now all that hung above it was a single-solitary Gryffindor flag. She found Ron, Hermione and Neville sitting in a corner.
"Melova, over here," Neville called out. She walked towards them, and noticed that Ron and Hermione were, it was impossible, were they holding hands? "Hey, Ron and Hermione are here as a couple, too. Isn't that great?"
"You two?" Melova asked, even though she already knew the answer.
"Yes, do you have a problem with that?" Hermione asked.
"Oh, no, just, I didn't think you two had feelings for each other."
"Well, we do," Ron said, gripping harder to Hermione's hand. "Come on, Hermione." Him and Hermione walked off towards the front where the band, "Essence of Snail", was playing a song that sounded like it was techno- beat.
Melova looked at Neville, who was looking a crowd of Slytherins dancing. "How did you get into that load of crack-pots anyway," he asked as one of the Slytherins pushed another one and started screaming at him for something about stealing his girlfriend.
"No clue," Melova answered as the Slytherin on the floor took out his wand and threw the other one all the way across, and into the air the room with a spell. A few teachers had taken the boy who cast the spell out of the Hall, as Madam Pomfrey and Madam Hooch were carrying the other out on a stretcher. "Absolutely no clue.
Neville took Melova's hand and walked her out of the Hall, down the stairs and toward a flight of stairs that Melova had never seen before.
"Where are we going," she asked, confused.
"You'll see. I used to come up here before, a long time ago, though. I can't believe that I even remember it," he said, smiling and leading her on.
They were on the fifth floor when Neville stopped and started tapping his foot on the floor, "What are you doing?"
"Looking for, here it is," he said as he tapped on a hollow sounding step. He pushed the stone down and a door appeared in the middle of the corridor. He opened it and walked in, Melova following closely behind.
"Where are we?" They had stepped into a room that had clouds, a blue sky, grass, and a lake. There was a picnic basket laying near the lake, on top of a red and white checkered blanket. Birds sang in the trees in the distance. When she shut the door, it disappeared, and a bush took it's place.
"I don't know exactly what it is, but I stumbled into it once when I couldn't remember the password for the Gryffindor common room," He said, walking over to the picnic blanket and sitting down. Melova did the same, and couldn't believe that a place that was so beautiful had just appeared out of nowhere like that. "Do you like it?"
"It's beautiful," she said, lying down. "What's in the basket?"
"Whatever you want."
"Mm, let's see, oh, an ice cream sundae, brownies, a strawberry milkshake, French fries, hamburger, and um, pumpkin juice?" Sure enough when she opened it, there was exactly what she had asked for.
"My god, where do you store all that," Neville asked, watching Melova dig into her ice cream sundae and take a huge chunk out of her hamburger.
She swallowed and said, "I don't know, guess I have a high metabolism." She ate another bite of her hamburger and then just couldn't help it anymore, she put down her food and looked at Neville. "Neville?"
"Yes?"
"Doesn't it bother you that I'm only twelve and in Slytherin?" she asked.
"No."
"Why not?"
"I'm just happy that somebody as beautiful as you isn't running away when I try and talk to them," he said, smiling.
"Doesn't it bother your grandmother?"
"No, I didn't tell her, why? Did you tell your mother?"
Melova went pale and realized that she hadn't told him about her mother. He obviously knew about her father, having watched him die. "My mum's dead. She died when I was three."
"Oh, I'm so sorry," he said looking down, turning a crimson red.
"Don't be, she wasn't a very good person anyway," she said, looking at him.
"Why?"
"Does the name Mary-Anne Jolivia Hiquoree ring a bell?"
"Oh, the first witch to be deMagicized, right?"
"Ya, and she didn't even tell me about Hogwarts or anything."
"So, who raised you?"
"Madam Rimes at UnderWater's Orphanage in London."
"Oh. I didn't know, I'm sorry."
"Don't be," she moved the picnic basket and laid her head on his shoulder. They stayed that way for about the next thirty minutes when Melova broke the silence. "Neville?"
"Ya."
"I love you."
"I love you, too."
Melova looked up at him. She kissed him softly on the lips. As she deepened the kiss, his hands moved to the back of her head and the small of her back. She broke off after about five minutes and looked up at him, "Neville, you aren't the lucky one, I am."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After Neville walked Melova back to the Slytherin common room, he headed back towards the Gryffindor common room, where he met up with Harry. Neville was walking dreamily so Harry took to notice very quickly.
"What's up with you, Neville?"
"Oh, nothing," Neville answered as he danced his way up the stairs to bed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Melova was prancing around the common room when Malfoy walked down from the boys' dormitories and found her laying on the couch, smiling, and obviously day-dreaming.
"What's up with you, Melova?"
"Oh, nothing," Melova answered as she danced her way up the stairs to bed.