Ch.3 "Such Happy Woes"

"Wow…."

Mallory stood dumbstruck in front of the shop window. Her bags filled with books and potions supplies fell from her hands to the floor.

She was in awe.

In front of her was the most amazing broomstick she had ever seen. Firebolt 2005 edition. On her old school quidditch team all they rode were Nimbus's.

"You play quidditch?" Harry asked, raising his eyebrows in half surprise half delight.

"Of course! I was the star chaser on my old team."She said.

Matt grumbled from behind her. He still had been neither introduced to the three new friends nor acknowledged in any way. He began to wonder if perhaps he'd been cast with a disillusionment charm, but dismissed that idea, for he'd surely have felt that.

"Really? Harry exclaimed. "That's great! We lost most of quidditch team last year due to graduation. I play seeker, Ron here is our Keeper, and we have one Chaser, her name is Katie Bell (For those of you who are wondering, yes Katie is a 7th year, she did not graduate with the other two chasers).

"I have to buy this broom!" Mallory said, before running into the store.

5 minutes later she emerged with a nicely wrapped broom shaped package.

"I bought a kit to go along with it." Mallory said, holding up another bag. Ron looked at her incredulously.

"That must've cost a bloody fortune!" he exclaimed.

"Well, it was rather a lot, but I've been saving up, not to mention my parents left me with a lot of money." Mallory said, looking uncomfortable. She didn't like discussing her parents. Not even Matt knew the whole of why she ended up living with her grandmother. She pushed it all to the back of her mind.

"All I need to do now is get my robes fitted." Mallory said looking at her list.

Mallory walked into Madam Malkins robe shop and found that the selection for robes was very old and out of style. She cringed at them.

"Can I help you m'dear?" asked Madam Malkin.

"Yes I need to be fitted for Hogwarts robes." she said politely.

"Ok just step over here then please." Mallory was forced to stand there with her arms bent at odd angles while the old woman measured then placed unsewn cloth around Mallorys body and pinned it.

"Oh dear me, I got the wrong color fabric. I'll be right back."

Mallory stood there, arms up, waiting for her to return.

"Oh for heavens sake!" she mumbled.

Harry, Ron and Maria were all standing near the back of the room apparently having a deep conversation. Hermione was nearby, still immersed in her book. Matt was standing moodily outside the door.

"Well if it isn't the Weasel and Potty." came a drawling voice.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione all looked around a scowled.

"Haven't you come up with anything more original, Malfoy? It's getting old."

"Why? It suits you two so well." he said, smirking.

"Why are you here, anyway? I'd assume your father would've had your robes custom made weeks ago." Harry said

"Not that it's any of your business, but I'm here with my girlfriend. She's getting her robes fitted today. I'd like to introduce you to the lovely Morissa Eveland." He put his arm around the waist of the girl next to him.

She was slighter shorter than him, but still taller than the other girls in the shop. She had long dark brown hair that seemed stylishly messy and textures and green eyes with smoky shadow. Her perfect lips were stained a deep berry. She was wearing high strappy sandals, a black cami, and faded Capri's. She also had a black ribbon tied around her neck as a choker.

"Lovely? Ha!" retorted Hermione.

"Watch your beaver mouth, mud blood. You'd be lucky to ever be acquainted with a beauty such as her!" said Draco.

Morissa turned her attention to Mallory. Mallory gave her a cold hard stare. Morissa looked her up and down before smirking and turning away.

Harry pulled out his wand and aimed it at Draco.

"You won't get away with calling Hermione a mud blood ever again, Malfoy!" Malfoy reached to pull out his wand and send a curse at Harry.

"Impedimenta!" However it was not Malfoy's voice that shouted the curse. It was Morissa's.

Harry was sent flying back into the shop wall. His head hit the wall with a cracking thud.

Mallory flung the pinned up cloth away from her body and advanced on Morissa. A perfect opportunity to practice her wandless magic.

"Fuegarius"

However, once again, it was not the intended person's voice who had shouted the curse. It had been Hermiones.

A lethal looking spray of fire came streaking through the air at Morissa. Morissa however, was obviously a skilled dueler and muttered the counter curse without a moments hesitation.

"Extinguisho."

A blast of water came out of the tip of her wand and sizzled menacing when it made contact with the water. Smoke went up in the air and soon Mallory was coughing and choking, unable to see. She could just make out Morissa's figure ahead of her and began stumbling towards her. She pulled her fist back as far as she could and launched it at what she assumed was Morissa's head. Her knuckles hit a hard bone and hurt like hell. Morissa was sent flying into Draco.

"Come on, let's get out of here." Draco said, pulling a flailing Morissa out the door. Morissa apparently was ready to fight back.

Once out the door Mallory quickly muttered a spell and the smoke disappeared from the room.Everything appeared normal.

"What was all that racket?" Madam Malkin said, upon re-entering the room.

"Oh, it must've been some kids outside." Mallory said. She just realized that Matt had witnessed none of this. He was still outside.

They finished up with fitting Mallory and were back outside where Mallory finally vented.

"Ohh that little witch!" Mallory said. "How dare her attack Harry!" Mallory was distracted from her thoughts by a deafening racket coming from a store across the street. It was the pet store.

"Ohh! I want to buy a pet!" Mallory exclaimed, lugging her purchases across the street. Morissa had obviously been completely removed from her mind.

Once inside she noticed the cause of havoc. There were dozens of owls screeching and squawking like no tomorrow, and there was a number of magical dogs barking and pulling at their restraints and throwing themselves against their cages.

The cause of all this noise was one cat.

The shop owner had apparently let the cat loose and upon gaining freedom the cat launched itself at the owls. The dogs seeing a prospective meal were inclined to attempt to break free as well.

"Oh it's such a pretty cat!" Mallory exclaimed.

Matt thought it was a nuisance.

The cat was pretty though. It's slender toned body was covered in shiny black fur and it had a snow white star on each ear and a third star on it's back just near it's tail. It's crystal blue eyes resembled Mallory's. This cat was so destined to be hers.

"Come here, precious." she cooed. The cat purred and winked it's eyes at Mallory before beginning to slowly walk towards her.

At that moment the most vicious and lethal looking of the dogs threw itself hard at the cage door, which could no longer survive the beating and the dog came racing full speed towards the cat that had just entered Mallory's arms.

Mallory screamed.

The cats blue eyes turned a fiery red andegan clawing at Mallory in an attempt to get away. Mallory closed her eyes and tried to shield her face from the raving cat and lunatic dog.

This did not help, however, and soon her body was knocked to the ground by the full weight of the dog. She was vaguely aware of the fact that the cat had latched itself to her arm for dear life.

Suddenly she was overcome by an intense sharp pain. The cat had lunged out of Mallorys arms and had been replaced by the vicious canine's sharp teeth.

She was unaware of the screaming and yelling around her as she was screaming louder than them all. She felt warm blood spurting from her arm and nearly blacked out when the dog began shaking its head and tugging at Mallory's arm as though trying to rip it away.

She screamed incoherent words and tried in vain to lift her free arm to hit the dog in the nose, poke it's eyes out, anything to get the vicious dog off her arm. Just as she was about to black out she heard an unfamiliar voice.

"Impedimenta!" The stunned dog let go of Mallory's arm. She didn't care though…she didn't even know.

She whimpered and cried and tried to roll over to escape the cold pool of blood she was laying in.

"Mallory?" She only heard Matt's frightened voice softly whisper her name before she passed out for good.

"No, no, go to bed. I'll stay…"

"We're not just gonna leave her alone in this condition. We want to make sure she's alright."

"When do you think she'll wake up?

"Probably soon, she always did have somewhat of an immunity to internal potions. The sleeping draught would only last a few hours on her."

Mallory heard voices around her. Although she had her eyes closed she could tell it was dark around her. Her whole body felt like a pile of bricks. Despite her protesting body, she opened her eyes and peered around her. Maria was sitting in a corner reading while Matt was pushing Harry, Ron, and Hermione out the door, insisting they get sleep. Mallory giggled at them.

"Hey look she woke up!" Ron said suddenly.

Matt turned around so fast he was certain he had whiplash.

"Mallory! Are you ok? Does it hurt?" he ran to her bedside.

"I'm fine, just a bit tired."

"I'm glad you're ok….I was so scared. Your arm was so mangled by that dog…" he cringed Mallory looked down at her healed arm and noticed all that was there was a long scar going up the length of her inner forearm.

"The healer said that should go away in a few months." Matt said, gently stroking up and down her arm.

Mallory smiled weakly.

"Oh, and the shop owner felt absolutely awful about what happened, and since you seemed to like that cat so much, he decided to give it to you as consolation. It's getting it's shots right now, but it'll be brought to you tomorrow morning before we leave for the train." Matt added.

Mallory beamed.

"Oh, that cat was just gorgeous!"

"I know someone who's even more gorgeous." Matt said, smiling at her with a twinkle in his eye.

Mallory blushed.

"Aww, come here." she said, holding out her arms for a hug.

"You're so sweet." Mallory held on to Matt, just enjoying having him hold her. She felt like she could sleep right there in his arms.

"Hey, we're gonna go now that we know she's alright." Ron said. "We'll see you guys tomorrow."

Then Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Maria all said their goodbyes and left the room.

"Now," Matt said once they'd left. "I think someone needs to go to bed. We'll be leaving early tomorrow morning." Mallory pouted.

"Not yet…stay with me." She scooted over to one side of the bed, leaving a space. She patted on it, signaling for Matt to come over.

Matt couldn't resist her cute pout.

" All right. I'll stay." He walked over to the bed, lifted the covers and slid in next to her.

Mallory snuggled up against him and rested her head on his chest. Matt smiled down at her and gently stroked her hair.
Mallory closed her eyes. His touch felt so soothing…she could hear his constant heartbeat and could feel the gentle swell of his chest as he breathed.

As she drifted off, he whispered gently to her:

"Goodnight, sweet Mallory."