CHAPTER 18

The next day they woke up and headed down to breakfast together. Draco had been moved to the sixth year Gryffindor boy's room. Professor McGonagall handed out their schedules. Harry, Hermione, Ron, Draco, and Neville had all of their core classes together. Luna and Ginny had the exact same schedules, and, for the first week, Melinda had special classes with teachers when they did not have a class. The teachers would then determine where to put her for the rest of the year. After everyone finished breakfast, Harry, Hermione, Ron, Draco, and Neville headed towards the third floor for their first class of the year, which was Charms.

"Draco," Hermione said, "you look a lot better with a red house pin."

"Oh really, Granger," he grinned "are you coming on to me?"

Harry looked upset, but it was obviously faked.

"Yeah, that'll be the day," she said sarcastically.

"You know you like me," he smiled his mockingly evil smile.

"You don't want Ginny to hear this," Harry said teasingly

"Maybe I should tell her…" Ron said his voice trailing off.

"I'd turn you into the little weasel you are!" Draco bellowed his eyes glittering.

"Not before you find yourself as 'the Amazing Bouncing Ferret,'" Ron yelled.

"You wouldn't dare!" Draco drew his wand.

"Stop!" Hermione jumped in between them. "Besides if you want to fight over me, you should challenge Harry to a proper duel."

Draco and Ron pauses and then started laughing.

After charms, they headed off to Defense Against the Dark Arts.

"Did you guys see the new teacher at dinner while Hermione and I were in the hospital?" Harry questioned.

"No," Draco shrugged.

"There weren't any new teachers," Neville spoke up for the first time of the day.

"Neville," Hermione said, "you should talk more often."

They opened the door to the classroom, and looked round to see if they could spot the new teacher. Dumbledore was standing behind the desk.

"Our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is currently not here," Dumbledore said, once everyone had sat down. "I will be taking his place until he arrives. Wands out, please."

Defense Against the Dark Arts went well, they just reviewed spells they had learned during their previous years. The eight teens met up at lunch.

"How is your first day going so far, Melinda?" Hermione asked.

"Really good, actually," she said quickly. "McGonagall said I have very high potential, but she cannot put me in a normal class, so she's just going to teach me by my self. Flitwick said he was really impressed at how well I could do things like the stunner spell though, and he's going to put me in the fourth year class."

"Nice. We'll try to teach you as much as we can, maybe you can graduate at the same time as Ginny and Luna," Ron said.

"Melinda Vilnueve," a voice said. "I need to see you in my office."

Everyone looked at the speaker. Dumbledore stood there with an impassive look in his blue eyes. Melinda stood up and followed him out of the room. She did not return before afternoon classes. However, she did walk up behind them on their way to dinner. Her eyes were red; and it looked like she had been crying. When she pushed past them and sat down by herself and gave Ginny a fierce look when she tried to go sit next to her, they decided to leave her alone for the time being.

"What's up with her?" Harry asked Neville, who shrugged.

"I don't know…" Hermione said. "Dumbledore did seem like something was wrong."

Once dinner was finished, they decided to wait a few more days before returning to the library and headed back to the common room, where Hermione forced Harry to practice spells they had learned in the past years with her. Ron played chess with Draco. It was an extremely close match. Unlike whenever Harry played Ron, or really whenever anyone played Ron, Draco seemed to be winning some of the time. Hermione had to keep telling Ginny, Luna, and Neville to be quiet. Melinda had walked in, sat down and glared at Hermione and Ginny when they tried to talk to her.

Hermione fired a stunner at Harry, who barely had time to block it.

"Constant Vigilance," she smiled.

Ron, Luna, and Neville cheered as one of Draco's pieces screamed fell to the floor.

Hermione turned around to look, and Harry levitated her off of the ground.

"Hey! Cheater!" she said.

"Constant Vigilance," Harry grinned and noticed Neville sit down next to Melinda.

"AH HA!" Ron yelled, as one of Draco's bishops sailed of the board and into the fire. It screamed and bounced in a circle for a little bit until Luna picked it up and set it back on the table.

"AH HA!" Draco smiled, as Ron's remaining Rook plinked onto the floor.

Harry smiled and let Hermione float down, then there was a loud sob. Harry turned to see Melinda crying on Neville's shoulder. Hermione started to walk over, but Harry pulled her back.

"You already tried," he said gently.

Neville took Melinda to the stairs leading up to the girl's dormitory about half an hour later. Once she walked up the stairs, he went back to watching the chess game. At ten o'clock, Hermione and Harry said goodnight and went to their dormitories. The chess game went on until three, as Ron told it, and there was no end in sight. It would have probably gone on into classes the next day, but both sets of pieces gave up and ran into a crack the fireplace's mantle.