Chapter Twelve:

By the time Emma and Melanie reached Melanie's home, they weren't speaking to each other. They had been fighting over whether or not Melanie should have waited to interrupt Emma's and Draco's dance.

As they went upstairs to Melanie's room, all that was heard was the two Gryffindors were their footsteps and the slamming of Melanie's door.

"What's up with them?" Melanie's father, Cornelius Fudge, asked his wife.

"I don't know they're normally perfectly chummy with each other. Maybe they did something the other didn't like at the party," replied Jacqueline Fudge.

"Maybe. I'm so glad I'm not a girl, they're so hard to understand."

"I know what might have set them off!" Jacqueline said as though her husband hadn't spoken. "Every so often I would look over at them to see how the girls were getting along. The first few times, they were sitting down talking. Then, one time I glanced over and saw them dancing with each other, which was rather hilarious, but when I looked back, Mel was sitting by herself and Emma was dancing with some person with stunning blonde hair."

"Blonde hair, huh? I wonder who it was."

As soon as Emma and Melanie got upstairs, Emma yelled, "Why did you have to go ruin my dance!" because she couldn't stand not talking.

But, Melanie didn't answer, she just went on putting on her pajamas as though she didn't hear Emma.

"Mel! Answer me! It's only polite."

Finally giving in, Melanie yelled, "Well it's only polite to leave your best friend at a party where mostly everyone there is either glaring at her or not even acknowledging her presence just to dance with your crush. Not! And especially for FOUR FREAKING HOURS!"

"Well sor-ry. You were just the one who agreed to let Draco cut in our dancing."

"If I had known that you guys would be dancing for four hours, then I wouldn't have agreed. Three hours of trying to talk to people who so apparently hate you never agrees with anybody."

"Ohmigod! If I had known I would have so cut the dancing shorter by at least two hours!" Emma told Mel with wide eyes.

"No you wouldn't have," Mel laughed

"No, you're right, I wouldn't have," Emma replied, smiling.

"But thanks for trying to make me feel better."

"You're very welcome, any time."

"Thanks," Mel smiled widely at her friend, but it soon turned into a yawn. "Maybe we should go to sleep."

"Yeah. We should. I'm kind of tired," Emma replied after stifling a yawn.

"Well you should be, after all, it is two in the morning," Mel stated as they both got into bed.

"Goodnight, Mel," Emma said after a while.

"'Night."

The next morning, Emma woke up before Melanie at noon. She had been awakened by a dream. This dream was about her uncle, Sirius. Emma had dreamt that he had walked through the door to Mel's room. She didn't see the rest because she woke up.

When Emma got over her dream, she got up out of bed and went over to the window where she looked out onto the Fudge's Quidditch field and Jacqueline's garden. There, she started to think about the one thing that brought her mind off of everything: flying. She ached to go get her broom and zoom out of the window.

'Why can't Mel wake up sooner?' Emma thought to herself. 'I want to go fly!'

Then, just as though Mel was reading Emma's thoughts, she started to stir and then after a few seconds Mel opened her eyes and roll onto her left side to look at her best friend.

"How long have you been up?" Mel asked drowsily as she rubbed her eyes.

"About half an hour," Emma replied simply.

"Oh, just let me wake up a bit more and then we can do something."

"Ok, fine by me as long as we go flying sometime today!"

"That's fine," Mel said as she sat up and got out of bed.

About ten minutes later, Mel and Emma were dressed and ready to go down stairs, but as they rounded the last corner of the stairs, Mel's house elf, Tuffy, came running up to them saying after curtsying deeply, "Tuffy was told by Master Cornelius to get young Mistress and Miss Black. Master said they was to come to breakfast."

"Tell dad that we'll eat later Tuffy! We were just about to go flying!" Mel told Tuffy in a distracted voice.

"Tuffy was told to tell young Mistress and Miss Black to come to breakfast now!" Tuffy said in her high squeaky voice.

"Fine then. We'll come."

And to that, Emma and Mel followed Tuffy to the dining hall.

"Dad," Mel said as soon as they opened the door to the hall, "we were just about to go flying and we're not very hungry! Isn't that right Em?"

"Um... yes that is correct Mel," Emma replied unsurely to Melanie's question.

"Sit down Melanie. Emma," Cornelius Fudge said in a firm voice. To which Emma and Melanie both sat down immediately.

As soon as they sat down, all sorts of food appeared on their plates. There were waffles, pancakes, strawberries, bananas, cantaloupe, watermelon, raspberries, etc.

When breakfast was finished, Mel and Emma raced out to the backyard, got on their brooms, and kicked off.

The moment Emma was in the air, she spun and flew in loops. Mel tried to keep up, but couldn't because when Emma got going, she flew very fast and no one except for Harry could ever keep up.

"Emma, wait! Slow down! You're going too fast!" Mel screamed and Emma slowed down and flew to her friend.

"Sorry sometimes I get a little carried away."

"SOMETIMES? You always get carried away."

"Yeah I guess I do," Emma said laughing as she flew around Melanie.

"Do you want to practice? We could bewitch something to be our moving target."

"Ok." And for the next few hours they practiced Quidditch.