Chapter 5: Dies de Humana Manes
I muttered several spells, touching my wand to the ink. It slowly began to come off, spreading like a ripple from my wand. I began to tap my fingers impatiently once I saw how slowly the spell was moving; at this rate, one map could take hours.
I tried another spell, and a corner of the map set on fire.
"Augumenti!" I shrieked, dousing the corner.
"What happened?" Leonov exclaimed, whirling around.
"Do you know any faster spells?" I asked weakly.
Leonov patiently told me a spell which he thought was working a bit more quickly. Gradually, the ink was beginning to disappear and what was underneath was revealed.
The maps were covered with complex, detailed and moving charts of the heavens, with all sorts of diagrams and side notes and spells...
"So how are you related to Harry Potter?" Leonov spoke, breaking the silence. We were facing away from each other, so I made a face without him seeing. Did he know how many times I got asked this? Probably not.
"He's my uncle; my dad is his wife's brother," I said automatically. "We're not related by blood. If you want his autograph,you could ask Albus or Lily, they're his kids. They'll probably charge you, but-"
"No, I don't want an autograph," he said automatically.
"So..." I said after a few moments of awkward silence. "What's Durmstrang like?"
"It's a lot colder than Hogwarts," Leonov mumbled, like he didn't particularly enjoy talking about his school. "It's in a castle, too..."
"Look!" I exclaimed, pointing. Under the ink I was wiping off, there were...notes. And they weren't original to the map; it looked like whoever had destroyed these had been...examining them first.
"Leonov! Someone's been writing all over them-what's this about...some Latin holiday." I squinted at the words, confused. I had most of the ink gone, and now I realized that this particular map was one for eclipses and such. Across the top there was a large, slowly moving diagram of how the sun was being eclipsed and there was a list of dates for each day a complete eclipse would happen. One particular date was circled: 21st March, 2023...that was months from now.
"What's this?" I said aloud, but Leonov had frozen. I looked over to him but he was staring with wide eyes, his face gone pale.
"Er-maybe we shouldn't be looking at this," he said quickly, trying to take the map from my hands.
"Are you crazy?" I cried, pulling the map back. "You'll destroy it! Do you want more detentions? Besides, I want to see why the person who ruined these was so intent on filling them with notes first." Leonov nodded slowly, wincing at the same time like he realized he had been defeated.
"The twenty-first..." I muttered, my finger trailing across the map to where a line had been drawn. "Dies de Humana Manes," I read aloud. "Do you know what that is?" Leonov shook his head fervently.
"Okay..." I took off more of the ink so I could read what was under the strange Latin caption. The dry black ink slowly began to peel off.
"Here-" Leonov helped pull, finally deciding to do something.
"Eclipse plus equinox," I read in the scratchy, sprawling handwriting of some unknown person. "Every 1,000 years. What the bloody hell is that supposed to mean?" I cried, rather petulant when I saw that was all there was.
"I've no idea," Leonov admitted. "I think there's more on my map, too-"
"Why didn't you say so?" I cried, scooting over. "What's this..."
"It looks like complete gibberish to me, someone's connected all these stars here and made them into a sort of diagram, look. I think they were trying to pinpoint a certain day, this map must have been the first they started on. look-" He pointed to a date in the corner of the much drawn on star map-21st March was underlined several times; it must have been the outcome of all this seemingly nonsensical scribbling of the first map. Underneath the date, the scrawling handwriting was so bad I couldn't make out a single letter. It could have been in Chinese and I wouldn't have been able to tell.
"Can you read that?" I pointed to the mess.
"Nope." Leonov concluded after squinting at it for several seconds. "Let's keep pulling the ink off of the other maps and see what we can find."
We worked for several minutes in silence, each of us mulling over what we had found.
"Hey!" Leonov suddenly exclaimed. My concentration broke and the ink seeped back into place. I groaned loudly, and threw my wand to the floor. We had been in here for an hour and a half, and all I'd done were three maps. And I hadn't found any more of the mysterious notes.
"They're gone!" Leonov blurted.
"What's gone?" I asked.
"The notes-I was taking the ink off and I had just seen another section, I was about to tell you-then the words started disappearing."
"What? No!" I scrambled back, grabbing the eclipse map where I had seen the first bit of writing. Sure enough, the words were clearing themselves of any trace, like some invisible hand was going over them with an erasing spell. It was on all of the maps, the words disappearing like they'd never been there.
"Why is it doing that?" I exclaimed, trying to block the spreading of the disappearing words with my hands, to no avail. It just continued right on under my fingers. "Wait a second-it's clearing the spilled ink too," I noticed as it spread to the maps we hadn't even touched yet. Leonov and I spun in a circle, watching the room transform from covered in soiled black maps to maps that worked again. The progress increased, and in less than a minute it was all done.
"What do you think of that," I said in awe. "It's done our detention for us, but I wanted to try and figure out what nutter came in and did this...hang on...Leonov, d'you think...d'you think whoever wrote these notes spilled the ink himself, on purpose, to...cover his tracks?" I asked tentatively.
"I don't know, Weasley," Leonov said darkly.
Roxanne, the day! He knows, he knows!
I winced, clapping my hands to my ears once more. The voice-it had said my name this time. It was much fainter; I could tell it was screaming and yet it was quieter than a whisper. It must have still been weak from communicating with me the first time, over an hour ago. Anyway, what was it talking about? Who knew what? Not Leonov, the look he had given me when we first saw the writing was genuine shock.
I tried to talk back to the voice, feeling incredibly stupid.
Who knows what? I tried to send my thoughts out. No answer.
"Is it the voice again?" Leonov asked me, completely serious.
"No, just a headache," I lied. "I get those sometimes." He gave me a look like he didn't believe me and I raised my eyebrows as if to challenge him.
"Hold on a moment..." I said suddenly. "Did you say you were...related to a famous Quidditch player?" I suddenly remembered a bit of our conversation from earlier.
"Yes." He looked at me oddly. "Why?"
"Well, my friend Melody Porter, she's trying to-"
"Weasley, Leonov-oh my," McGonagall stepped in and stopped immediately, shocked at the sight of Leonov and I sitting together on the floor, cross-legged in the middle of the sea of completely cleaned maps. "This is-this is-well done, both of you," she said proudly. "They look splendid." She gave us both a rare smile, and I grinned back at her. "You may go now, and-and five points to Ravenclaw for you, Miss Weasley," she said to me; I could tell she felt bad for giving me that detention when I hadn't earned it.
"What were you saying?" Leonov was asking me, turning the same was as me and hurrying to catch up as I walked down the corridor.
"What? Oh-my best mate, Melody Porter, is trying out for the Quidditch team. I really don't think I can bear another week of moping if she doesn't make it and besides, the girl deserves it. She works harder than anyone on that team," I said honestly. "Would you please help her? I'm sure you know a bit about Quidditch...I can repay you somehow, buy you something from Zonko's or whatnot..." I trailed off hopefully.
"No payment," Leonov shook his head, dark eyes reflecting the light from the torches. It was half nine in the morning now; I bet Melody was already down at the field.
"What?" I looked at him, my eyes round with surprise.
"I'll do it." He grinned at me.
"What?! Thank you, Stefan!" I was practically shouting with excitement and I began skipping, excited. A couple of tiny first years looked at me with frightened expressions on their faces, hurrying past. "I mean, Leonov." I calmed down, now slightly embarrassed.
"It's okay." He winked at me, and I gave him a weird look. Attractive blokes do not wink at Roxanne Weasley. Was I in a parallel universe?
"And remember to watch the eyes, that's the most important," Leonov was telling Melody and she was nodding furiously, holding on to every word he said. She flew forward toward the Keeper's posts and he came backwards. The sun illuminated the field, the slight breeze ruffling Leonov and Melody's robes. I squinted and shielded my eyes, looking up. I was planted safely on the ground, thank you very much.
They had been playing for half an hour, Leonov giving pointers and Melody gradually improving. By the end, she was turning sharper and blocking left and right.
When they finally came down to the ground, Melody was beaming and Stefan-Leonov-was grinning triumphantly.
"I don't think you'll have to worry about her not making the team," Leonov said confidently as he landed.
"Oh, thank you!" Melody burst, and she flung her arms around him in a hug. I grinned as well; I just knew she would make the team.
"See you later, Roxanne!" Melody called over her shoulder, racing back to the pitch to put her broom away, then back up to the castle.
"When are tryouts?" Leonov spoke up from beside me.
"What? Oh. In a week," I replied. "28th of September. Melody's been talking about nothing else," I told him.
"She's a good flier," Leonov said honestly. "But she moves then double guesses herself, then freezes and by then it's too late. We call that a confidence problem."
I nodded thoughtfully. "So she's just got to trust her gut?"
"Exactly." He nodded. "Now that I've got her flying...what about you?" His grin widened, like he already knew how terrified I was of flying.
"Me? No," I scoffed, backing up as he advanced toward me with a cheeky grin. "Leonov! You are not getting me off the ground!" I laughed, pushing at him as he came too close, looming over me with that crooked grin of his.
I had to look up to see him, and that was saying something. I was taller than a lot of the blokes in my year.
He kept grinning and advancing, like he was trying to corner me or something.
"Stop," I laughed, pushing him back again. I put my hands on his shoulders firmly, and he pretended to continue marching in place. I tried to hold in a laugh but only succeeded in letting out an unladylike snort. I turned and ran, laughing.
"You can't run forever, Weasley!" He shouted from behind me. After a few moments he caught me, grabbing my arm and spinning me around to face him, holding the broom up between us.
"Come on," he pleaded. "Just one, teeny ride? With me? I won't let you fall," his eyes grew wide and he began to pout slightly, pleading.
"Leonov, are you trying to pull puppy dog eyes on me?" I laughed, pushing the broom back down. "I have a little brother with the biggest, brownest eyes in the world so that's never going to work. Sorry, I'm immune. And maybe I'll fly some day, just...not today," I told him firmly. He dropped his head, sticking his lower lip out and pretending to cry.
"Leonov-Leonov!" I laughed, trying to pull his chin back up. "I'm sorry, okay?" I laughed. "Someday I'll tell you the story about when I flew and ran into a den of werewolves."
"Werewolves?" His head shot up, and he was suddenly smiling and eager for a good story. "Can someday be now if I walk you back up to the castle?"
"Maybe," I grinned.
And just like that, Stefan Aleksander Leonov and I had become friends.
I could barely keep my eyes open. The potions teacher, Professor Spinnet, was droning on about something and all I wanted to do was sleep. I couldn't tell if it was a dream or not that Al was flinging magical paper airplanes back and forth with that annoyingly pretty Durmstrang girl who he seemed to be inseparable with lately.
The room was warm and dark, and unknown potions were emitting different colors of smoke and light from the other side of the room.
"-hiccuping potion which not only causes the hiccups but..." Seriously? We were making a hiccup potion? We had done that in first year. And this was advanced potions. Oh well, Professor Spinnet was only our temporary teacher while Professor Sina was on maternity leave. The walls were covered with all sorts of diagrams; there were no windows, so the only light came from the torches on the wall, which somehow managed to cast a slightly greenish glow over the rows of students.
I propped my head up on my hand, yawning loudly.
"-assigning partners-" I sat up straighter, my eyes sliding to Melody hopefully. Her face was pale and drawn, and she had dark circles under her eyes. The Quidditch tryouts were tomorrow and she had been even more nervous than usual lately, developing insomnia and losing her appetite.
"Scorpius Malfoy and Rose Weasley," she began, and I saw Anna eye her ex-boyfriend unhappily. They were broken up again, in their biggest fight of the year. Something about Anna showing around some Durmstrang boy that Scorpius didn't like, and then him trying to one-up her by kissing Wanda Davies in the Great Hall. Now they weren't on speaking terms; or looking terms, even, except to glare across the room at each other.
Anyway, Rose looked very happy to have Scorpius as her partner and Scorpius, for some reason, was blushing very red when he heard his name called with Rose's. Uh oh.
"Anna Jacklyn and Lorcan Scamander," she continued, and Lorcan and Rose looked at each other with utter contempt. They had hated each other since first year.
"Roxanne Weasley and Nadia Leonov." I searched around the room, confused. Nadia who? Stefan hadn't told me he had a sister. I had only known him for about a week, but still. That was a pretty big detail. Merlin, it was so much easier to spot the Durmstrang students when they all sat sullenly in the back of the room, all clumped together. Now they were all spread out amongst the Hogwarts students; it was almost impossible to tell who was who anymore.
She continued reading off names until everyone on the list was called, and I went to find Natalie. Er, Nadia.
I made a quick sweep of the room and didn't see anyone who looked especially like a Nadia, so I shrugged and went to pick up potion ingredients from the table.
Arms loaded, I made my way back to my cauldron, and dumped the ingredients. To my surprise Al's new girlfriend was already there, sleek black hair pulled up into a perfect ponytail with flawless skin and thinly plucked eyebrows. She looked like an exotic version of Dominique, the part Veela. She had already begun stirring, in my cauldron. With another set of ingredients.
"What are you doing?" I asked her a bit waspishly.
"I'm your partner," she said slowly, like I was stupid. Oi! Just because I looked like a troll in the mornings didn't mean I had the intelligence of one. "And I've gotten the ingredients."
"Well, why didn't you tell me that?" I asked her, just as slowly. "You saw me at the ingredients table, didn't you?" I was already suspicious of this girl for following Al around, was she pretending to like him just because he was Harry Potter's son? Al watched out for me, so I felt the need to screen his girlfriends, official or no.
"I didn't know who you were," she shrugged.
My eyes narrowed. "Then how did you know which cauldron was mine?"
"Oh, I must just be a good guesser," she let out a little titter that had me grinding my teeth together.
"Okay, Leonov, I'll do the stirring. Potions is my best subject."
"At Durmstrang in Advanced Potions we made much more complex potions, this stuff is for the youngest children," she said sweetly, stepping back as I rather forcefully took the stirrer from her.
"Lovely," I told her just as sweetly. "Now could you please chop up the wormwood root? Make sure to get as much juice as possible-"
"Oh, I know!" Her voice was sickeningly sweet.
"Perfect," I smiled. "Then you won't need me to tell you that you're chopping cherry wood root."
"What?" Nadia looked down, distracted. Her face turned a fiery red as she quickly pushed the evidence of her blunder to the side.
"It's okay, Nadia, loads of beginners make that mistake," I assured her sweetly, triumphantly. As fast as Stefan and I had become friends, an immediate, unfounded dislike had sprung up between his sister and I like an ugly, thorny monster. "Now you've been hanging around a lot with my cousin Al lately, what are your intentions?" I narrowed my eyes as I began interrogating her.
She gave me a raised-eyebrow look; I had caught her off-guard.
"What?" She spluttered.
"Al, and you," I said slowly. "What are your intentions?"
"Who are you, his mother?" She snapped, trying to take control by stepping forward and grabbing the stirring stick,
"Ah ah ah," I chided, sprinkling in a bit of Albanian clover. "To stop stirring now would turn it into poison!"
"Hello there, ladies!" I turned around, rolling my eyes to see the very cousin we were just talking about. He ran his hand through his hair, a goofy grin on his face as he looked down adoringly at Nadia.
Hold on. Al? Was this really Al, because he was sure acting a lot like he was possessed! He looked like-looked like he was in love! Al didn't do love, he did a couple weeks, maybe, of a girlfriend and then didn't really know what to do when they wanted to get close so he dumped them, because he never really liked them that much.
And Nadia was grinning back at him just as sweetly, but there was something malicious behind her pretty smile. She was up to something, and Al couldn't see that because he was too love-struck.
"Are you feeling ready?" I asked Melody at breakfast the next morning: the day of the Quidditch tryouts. Laine, Anna, Stefan, and Melody's Durmstrang "not my boyfriend" Ivan were all clustered around her, watching her not eat.
"No," she said shortly, pushing her food around her plate.
"Come on, Mel, you've got to eat," Ivan said anxiously from his spot across the table beside Stefan. Ivan was large and bulky with muscle, his dark hair cut closely to his head. Piercing green eyes were his most striking feature.
"Don't you want to keep your strength up?" Laine pleaded, tugging at her arm. "Come on, you didn't sleep last night and now you've got to eat."
"We can force feed you," I warned her.
"I know," Melody said slightly snappishly. "You did in fifth year, and then got oatmeal all down my robes. I had to change, and almost missed the tryouts," she reminded us, and I was shocked. Usually Melody was extremely easy going and kind, never reminding anyone of their faults. Stefan and I exchanged glances, as did Laine and Anna; we all knew this was unusual behavior for her.
"I'm not feeling well," she murmured.
"Of course not," I put my arm around her tentatively and she let her fork clatter onto her plate, dropping her head onto her hands. Was this beyond Quidditch? Even in the past she had never been this nervous. Well, nervous and jittery. Now she just looked...like she was going to her own funeral, to be honest.
"There's Hermione's owl," I spoke aloud. "I wonder what she could be writing me for?" I held my hand out but to my surprise, she landed in front of Mel.
"Erm..." My eyebrows scrunched up.
Melody's eyes suddenly widened and she grabbed the package like it was a life preserver and she was drowning. She tore it open and inside lay a vial of-something.
"What is it?" Laine and Anna asked at the same time, peering over to look at the carefully wrapped vial.
"Nothing," Melody said quickly, face reddening as she rewrapped the vial and hid the box. Before she closed it, I caught a glimpse of the note. "Really, it's just something to help with my erm...acne," she said, her perfectly clear face reddening even more. I looked to Stefan, confused, but his face was perfectly unreadable. "I've got to talk to you about your sister later," I mouthed, but he just looked confused. I rolled my eyes and made the 'never mind' gesture with my hand.
"Well, come on then!" Melody exclaimed. "We've got to eat and go down to the pitch!"
"I have a feeling this isn't going to go well," I told Stefan darkly, who sat on my left. Laine was trying out as well, but she wasn't nearly as nervous as Melody. In fact, she wasn't nervous at all; she got in every year, she was just that good.
I didn't know where Anna had gotten to: I scanned the seats, then saw her arguing loudly with Lorcan Scamander. He was a full head taller than her, and their blonde hair gleamed identically in the sunlight. I would never let Anna hear me say it, but they made quite a good couple. Even though they argued more than Ron and Hermione. But if they ended up together, that would leave Scorpius open for Rose, and then everything would be all chipper and dandy.
She finally stalked angrily away from Lorcan, who was still shouting. "You've got Dandyshanks stuck in your brain, Jacklyn!" He yelled after her.
"I don't even know what those are, Scamander!" She screeched back, fuming as she sat down next to me and crossed her arms. "That boy is infuriating," she growled.
"You fancy 'm," I coughed into my arm.
"Oh, hush." Her face had grown red. "Don't be talking to me about fancying boys, Miss Weasley." She nodded her head toward Stefan and I was glad he was turned the other way and talking to Ivan.
"Shush!" I exclaimed, covering her mouth. "For your information, I actually don't. Really. He's nice looking, yeah, but he's got so many girls on the line and I'm pretty sure he doesn't date them for more than a couple weeks. Typical." She licked my hand and I removed it quickly, wiping it on her right cheek, the one that wasn't scarred. "Ick," I moaned. "That is disgus-look! They're starting!" I shook Stefan's arm excitedly and he immediately ceased his conversation with Ivan, turning toward the pitch. We watched Victoria Lanceling fall off her broom on the way up to the hoops and had to be carried to the hospital wing; that was one out.
Marcus Finch, a tall, solidly built seventh year who had played Keeper for the past three years came up next, swaggering and confident. He mounted his broom and flew expertly toward the hoops, twisting around and making sure to put in an extra loop.
"Ste-" I stopped when I realized he was no longer sitting next to me and instead chatting up several pretty Hufflepuff girls, who were giggling shamelessly and twirling their hair around their fingers. Why were they here, anyway? These were Ravenclaw tryouts. The only ones allowed to try out who weren't technically in Ravenclaw were the Durmstrang students, they all just tried out for whatever house team their mates were in.
I rolled my eyes and huffed under my breath, hurriedly running out to where Melody was nervously watching Marcus Finch block all of the Quaffles sent his way.
"Mel!" I called out to her. She looked thin and small, standing alone and staring at the sky. She looked at us as we came closer, her blue eyes filled with fear.
"What's wrong this year, Mel?" I asked her softly, putting my hands on her shoulders. "You've got more practice than ever this, year, if you just remember what Stefan told you..." I trailed off. Her face looked positively gray.
"I think I can do it," she said quietly, eyes flickering from my face to the ground. "And that's the problem. I can do it, I know it. But not today."
"Why not today?" I asked gently.
"Because..." Melody looked like she wanted to tell me something horribly. Her face scrunched up like she was going to try and she opened her mouth, and then closed it again.
"Mel," I said softly, now trying not to cry myself. "You can tell me anything."
"I know," she said, inhaling a deep, shaky breath. "I just feel like I'm going to puke," she laughed shakily.
"Melody Porter?" The Ravenclaw captain-Jay Chang, Su's older brother-called to her. "Are you ready?"
"Yes," she said shakily, and mounted her broom. She flew up to the hoops, growing smaller in the distance.
"Damn, I missed her!" Stefan came running up behind me, slightly out of breath from probably sprinting down the stairs.
"Yes you did." I was slightly irritated, so I brushed past him. "You've really got to get your womanizing tendencies under control, especially when your friends are trying out for Quidditch teams," I tossed back over my shoulder.
"Oi! Come back! Like you've never flirted with a bloke!" He protested angrily, jogging to keep up with me as we climbed the stairs.
"Yes, but you're more like a-a serial flirter!" I hissed, eyes flashing. "Whatever. I don't care. You should just pay attention to Melody," I snapped.
"Lay off," he snapped back, and suddenly we were in each other's faces. We both whirled away from each other at the exact same time and perched ourselves on the edge of the bench, as far away from each other as we could possible be. Anna was too involved in watching Jay come up to Melody with the first Quaffle to notice mine and Leonov's new coldness toward each other.
"Here she goes." I gripped Anna's hand as tightly as I could; on my other hand, my fingers were crossed. I squinted and saw Mel freeze up as the ball sailed past her; she didn't even try!
"What's she doing?!" I cried, jumping to my feet and taking Anna with me.
"Come on-come on Mel!" Anna was shouting, even though there was no way Melody could hear her. In a sudden gust of wind her blonde ponytail was whipped into my face and I missed Jay's next shot.
"What happened?" I cried, spitting bits of blonde hair out of my mouth. I'd never really wanted to know what Anna's shampoo tasted like. "Did she block it?"
"Almost," Anna related miserably. "It went right past her fingers, but she almost had it."
"What is going on?!" I asked, louder than I intended. "She was doing so well!"
The third one though, she blocked. She sped toward it and actually kicked it with her toe; it went spiralling toward the ground, but it was still a block.
"Yes!" Anna and I screamed, jumping up and down.
The fourth one made my heart leap into my throat; she lunged for it and it glanced off her fingertips, but she got just enough of it that it spiralled away from the goals.
The next one was completely unfair, Jay shot it out faster than Melody could even get resituated, in the completely opposite direction.
Mel zoomed toward it as fast as she could, but not even that daft troll Marcus Flinch could have saved that one.
Melody flew to the ground, looking completely defeated.
Anna and I ran out to meet her and to my surprise, Leonov was running out as well, but not toward Mel-toward Jay.
"What the bloody hell was that?" He yelled to Chang, who looked positively shocked to be addressed like that.
I didn't hear his response, or any of Leonov's after that.
"He doesn't have to do that," Melody said miserably, her hands trembling slightly. "I know I played like shit."
"You did not!" I exclaimed angrily, seizing her by the robes. "But Mel, that wasn't your best play! Tell us what's wrong now!" I demanded, sticking my face in hers. Maybe I should have been a bit more sympathetic, but I was pissed. Not at Melody, but at whatever was making her look this sickly and become this stressed. Melody had always been the one holding me together. Now she was like a walking zombie.
"I'm going to go lie down," Melody said quietly, and took her robes out of my hand. Anna and I watched her retreating back, the sounds of Leonov's and Chang's raised voices growing louder.
"-wasn't even going to make it anyway! Marcus-Finch-is-the-keeper!" Chang was roaring in Leonov's face. "Now go back to your seat, you git, so I can test the beaters! If you've got any more problems you can stick them up your arse!"
I saw Leonov's intake of breath, and his hand twitch toward his wand. At the last second, his arms came up and grabbed the sides of the collar of his robes. He hissed something in Chang's face, something that I didn't hear, but the arrogant smirk dropped right off of Chang's smug face and he began nodding very quickly. Stefan set him back down, and stalked back up to the castle without a look at either Anna or me.
"Roxanne," Anna said quietly to me, leading me back toward the stands so we could see Laine try out. "I walked in on Mel throwing up in the bathroom the other day."
My blood ran cold. "It must have just been nerves," I said shakily, refusing to believe what Anna just said. "Are you sure it was Mel, anyway? There are a couple girls in the school who look like her-"
"It was Mel," Anna said firmly. "Roxanne, listen. I know you don't want to hear this but I think I know what's going on. You remember when Melody went to Italy this summer?"
"Very well, she left me all alone," I grumbled, forgetting Melody's mysterious ailment for the moment.
"Well, she met a boy there, as you know," Anna began carefully, holding my gaze to gauge my reaction. "Now I'm not saying she did, but what if, Roxanne, what if she and that boy..." she trailed off, waiting for me to understand.
"Bullocks," I gasped. "You think she's-" I stopped myself. I didn't want to say the word.
"I don't know," Anna whispered. "But think about how she's been acting lately."
"No," I whispered. "Not Mel."
"But Roxanne," Anna's voice cracked, her blue eyes looking slightly teary. "What if it's true?"