Later that night, the four friends are inside the Common Rooms, discussing the events of the day, when Umbridge had tried to kick Trelawney out of Hogwarts. They were all quite upset about it, and were worried of what Umbridge might do next.
Melanie and Ron are on the couch opposite the fire place, Harry's on a chair in the corner, listening to the radio, and Hermione is pacing impatiently. "That foul, evil, gargoyle!" She stated furiously, having had been tolerant long enough, not anymore it seemed. "We're not learning how to defend ourselves. We're not learning how to pass our O.W.L.s. She's taking over the entire school." She complained.
Melanie wasn't really in the mood to discuss this, but she too felt the need to do something about it, she just didn't know what. The radio then tunes in. The voice of the minister could be heard through. "…that these disappearances are the work of the notorious, mass murderer Sirius Black." He said, frustrating all four.
Out of all the people around, it seemed that Black had suffered the most. Fourteen years in Azkaban, surrounded and constantly tortured by the Dementors, accused wrongly of murdering his best of friends. It didn't stop there. Unable to prove his innocence, Black is on the constant run and hide, with that bit of being reminded every now and then just what the world thought of him. It was terrible.
"Harry." A voice whispered from the fire, his voice.
"Sirius." Harry confirms. The four turn towards the fireplace and lean in, listening. Sirius's charcoaled face is visible and moving with every word he said, making it look more dangerous than it was. "What are you doing here?" Harry asks in concern, worried that someone might see him, them.
"Answering your letter. You said you were worried about Umbridge." He explained. It was known, among the four, that Harry wrote to Sirius about almost all that went on, and Melanie was more than pleased to know that Black made the same effort to calm Harry's nerves and remind him he wasn't alone. "What's she doing? Training you to kill Half-Breeds?" He joked, typical him it seemed.
"Sirius, she's not letting us use magic at all." Harry explained frantically.
"Well, I'm not surprised." He sighed. "The latest intelligence is that Fudge doesn't want you trained in compact."
"Compact?" Ron questions sarcastically. "What? Does he think we're forming some sort of wizard army?" It did seem silly.
"That's exactly what he thinks." Sirius replied bluntly, shocking them a bit. Was the Minister simple? "He thinks that Dumbledore is assembling his own forces to take on the ministry." He explained.
"Paranoid, is what he is." Melanie commented bitterly.
"Exactly." Sirius replied. He then hesitates. "The others…wouldn't want me telling you this, Harry," He started, and all of a sudden Melanie wanted to drown the fires in waters before he could say something that would strengthen her friend's already high concerns, but she was also very curious. "but things aren't going at all well in the Order." He explained, worrying all of them together. "Fudge is blocking the truth at every corner and these disappearances…are just how it started before."
Melanie's heart sank at that. She remembered the conversation she'd had with Draco that morning, the one she didn't tell her friends about, when she was telling him of the Dark Ages and how he thought they were mere words, at least she knows which one of them is right and she hoped she'd get him to see it too one day.
"Voldemort is on the move." Sirius said, striking necessary fear into the teenagers' hearts.
"What can we do?" Harry asked with a sense of determination Melanie knew he'd been holding in for too long.
All of a sudden, they were startled with the sound of footsteps, Sirius left, saying they were on their own for the time being, and that he was sorry for not being more helpful. Melanie found herself wishing he hadn't said anything at all, but she couldn't deny the truth much longer, none of them could. Voldemort was out there and they had to learn how defend themselves.
And that's when they came up with a plan that would turn the rest of their dull year around. Hermione thought they needed someone to teach them proper defense, and both her and Melanie could think of only one person, seeing as how on their third year, the two girls time-traveled with him and witnessed just how capable he was of fighting off one of the strongest beings alive, Dementors.
The four friends set out to spread the word, quietly, about a meeting they were having during their next Hogsmead visit. Melanie debated telling Draco, but thought it was a really, really bad idea for many reasons and the biggest being, to her great distaste, that his father was, himself, a loyal Death Eater, so telling Draco of their secret group of training against the Dark Lord himself didn't seem wise.
...
After some convincing, many of Hogwarts' students, mostly the closest of friends to Melanie and the three, all agreed to be trained by non-other than Harry himself. Discovering the Room of Requirements, the students train whenever they can, and still attend classes, attempting to keep their secret hidden for as long as possible.
Things were going well for once, and it finally felt like there was hope. With all broken friendships mended, the air of laughter and care returned to the students of Hogwarts, better yet, with a newly found sense of purpose.
It was another day like any other now, the fifth years were in Potions class with Snape. Melanie was seated by a Ravenclaw girl named Amanda. She was probably the snobbiest, most self-centered person Melanie had ever met. She thought herself intelligent and refused, quite rudely, to allow Melanie to do any work at all.
Melanie hated it, and they often started arguing, but she couldn't even change her seat! Thanks to Snape's stupid seating arrangement.
Draco too, was having a hard time dealing with his partner, which was a very dumb Slytherin. Draco, being Snape's favorite, was closely watched by Snape for the past several classes. Snape wondered why the Malfoy's progress in class was suffering. It was fine the year before, so what changed? Then, on that day, it hit him.
Snape eyed the Gryffindor girl seated by the noisy Amanda, Melanie's progress was suffering too. Snape began to think that there really was something between the Slytherin prince and the Gryffindor princess, he thought they were failing deliberately, and to confirm his suspicions, he asked Melanie to switch seats with Draco's partner.
With the two shocked and relieved, Melanie switches seats and turns to take place next to her favorite Slytherin. "Redwing." He smirked.
"Malfoy." She grinned back. They continued their work from scratch throughout the remaining time of the class, and, to Snape's expectation, the two exceeded success. Out of annoyance, he asked the two to stay after class, he wasn't going to be tricked into letting the supposed couple sit together simply because he thought they feigned failure.
Melanie's friends eye the situation suspiciously, and worriedly, but they are forced to leave, along with Draco's friends who too eyed him the same way, except for Pansy, who was glaring at Melanie with pure hatred.
The two stood before Snape's desk, equally nervous. Snape's seated on his chair, the tips of his fingers touching near his face, one leg on the other, he continuously switched eye contact between the two. After nearly a full moment of dense silence, Snape speaks up, his voice deep and disapproving, like it always was. "Tell me, do you intentionally drop your grades in a dire attempt to be put next to one another once more?" He interrogated.
The two students were quite taken-aback with the professor's assumption. They eyed each other in confusion, unsure what to say, then Melanie turned back to Snape, baffled. "Um, n-no, sir"- She starts, but he cuts her off.
"Save it. Do you find it coincidental that the minute you two are together, your progress accelerates vastly?" He questions. Melanie now red with embarrassment, and Draco's fighting a smirk that would get them both detention.
"Sir, please. If I may? Draco and I, we…" She turns to him again, and spots the poorly hidden smirk playing on his lips as he watched her intently, making her stomach twist. "We're not together, we just…work well together." She tries, with him not helping at all. Snape raises a doubtful eyebrow. She tries again. "And, even if we were, would it be terribly bad, if it meant us passing our classes?" She asked hopefully.
Severus takes a moment to think. He could see Melanie was genuine, and though he knew someone like her with Draco would do the boy good, as it even seemed to help him exceed in class, but he thought it stupid as well, considering Draco's and his family's reputation. Still, it was none of his business, so long as the two passed his class. And though part of him worried about the girl and her interference with the Slytherin's dangerous life, he thought the boy, being him, would probably just leave her at some point. After all, pity teenage relationships never lasted in his opinion.
"Very well." He utters. "Dismissed."
….
"Well, that was delightful." Draco joked, as he and the Redwing exited the classroom. The corridor was empty, just the two of them.
"Yeah." She agreed with a dry chuckle, still trying to fan out the stress she was feeling from Snape's gaze. "You could have been more helpful; you know?" She said as they walked together down the hall.
"I told you, I like watching you handle things." He says with a smirk, the butterflies in her stomach growing restless.
"What on earth does that even mean?!" She asked irritably.
Draco stopped abruptly and walked her into the wall behind her. Placing his hand on the wall, he leaned in closer to her now rosy face. They were close enough to be breathing the same air. "What's not to understand, Mel?" He called, hinting off, making her nearly faint as her nickname rolled off his tongue for the first time, and for the first time in her life, she stuttered.
"I-I d-d…" She tried, not even sure what to say or do. Draco grinned mischievously at her reaction. He turned his eyes to her lips, then back to her bright eyes, observing them admirably. He brushed, a strand of her hair from her face, lightly touching her cheek in the process, sending shivers up her spine and freezing her in place.
Unsure what on earth came over him, Draco was in the process of completely closing the distance between them when they heard footsteps and the annoying voice of Ron Weasley.
Hermione and Ron suddenly appeared from the corner of the corridor, they too froze at the sight. They weren't sure what was happening, neither did Melanie. Draco sighed irritably at the intrusion. Another time then. He pulled back. "Impeccable timing, Weasley." He spat. Ron arched an eyebrow at him, him and Hermione wondering what the hell had happened before they got there.
Draco turned back to Melanie, and smirked at her posture, which was burning up by the second. "I'll see you around, Redwing." He told, and turned away entirely, walking down the opposite side of the hall.
Melanie watched him leave, unable to comprehend what had just happened. She placed a hand on her hammering heart. Was he really about to kiss her?!...Would she have kissed back? "Melanie!" Hermione yelled, making the Redwing jump in place.
"What?!" Hermione looked taken aback.
"'What?' What on earth was that?! Did you two…"
"No!" Melanie shouted too quickly, Hermione raising her eyebrow. Ron chuckled at that.
"Looked like you did." He said. He seemed to find the whole situation 'funny', and only partially understood why Hermione was upset.
"Ron!" Melanie warned, him raising his hands up innocently.
"Melanie." Hermione started, regaining her attention. "I thought you said nothing was going on between the two of you." She told as calmly as possible.
"And nothing is!" Melanie defended, not really believing it any more, she never did though, a part of her always knew there something more between them, and she loved it.
"That's not what it looks like! Did you forget what his father i"- Hermione started disapprovingly, but Melanie cut her off.
"Enough. That's not what he is. Not yet and hopefully, not ever." She defended seriously, like she did so many other times.
"Mel"-
"No, Hermione. It's done. We're not talking about it anymore. Now let's go. Harry's probably waiting." She last said before walking off calmly.
Hermione and Ron share a concerned look. It sounded like their friend was in denial, and they didn't even know why. Hermione wanted to stop this before her friend fell head over heels for the son of a Death Eater, but…maybe it was too late.
….