CHAPTER 7!

"Melissa? Melissa!" Harry yelled, running after her. She bolted in the direction she had seen the other Slytherins running to and hid in a corner, crying.

"Melissa?" she looked up, snarling, expecting to see Harry, instead she saw the twinkling eyes of Professor Dumbledore. "Melissa are you alright?"

"I'm fine, leave me alone," she whispered.

Professor Dumbledore sat down on the hard floor next to her, put his finger under her chin and lifted her face so she was looking at him. "It's okay, you know,"

"How is it okay? I'm in a house with people who seem purely evil, I'm not with any of my new friends, Harry probably won't ever want to speak to me again, and my stupid, pompous, piece of shit of a cousin is in my house! Sorry about the language sir," she replied.

"It's not all bad…" Dumbledore began, but Melissa looked at him pointedly. "Alright, maybe it seems bad now, but it will get better! How does this sound: give Slytherin a few days, if you don't like it, then we'll find you a room on your own so you can have your friends in there, and all you'll have to do is take lessons with your house, and they're with Gryffindor most of the time anyway. Does that sound okay?"

"Can't we do that now?" she asked miserably.

"I'd like to wait a while. You may not hate it as much as you think,"

"Fine. A week," she agreed, wiping her tears. "But I still don't know where I'm going!"

"Here, I'll take you," Dumbledore replied, kindly. He helped her up and led her down into the dungeons. They turned down a lot of different passageways, and Melissa tried to keep track of where they were going, but got confused along the way.

"Okay, this is it," Dumbledore said, looking at a stone wall.

"I'm sorry? I see nothing," Melissa responded uncertainly.

"Mudblood scum," Dumbledore said, and a hidden door slid open. Melissa looked at him pointedly. "Believe me, I don't choose the passwords around here," he assured her. She took one last look back at him, and then walked through the door.

Malfoy and his friends sat on the chairs around the crackling fire. Malfoy turned as she walked through the door.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't Potty's little girlfriend," he sneered. "You know, I know you're into Potter and all, but maybe you're not quite so bad after all. I mean you were sorted into Slytherin," he said, walked towards her.

"A fact I'm incredibly ashamed of," she replied stonily.

"Why you little - "

"Draco leave her alone," a voice snapped from the shadows. A girl with a face closely resembling a pug, stepped into the light. "I'm Pansy, Pansy Parkinson. Just ignore Draco, he's just in a bad mood. Come with me, I'll show you around," she said to Melissa, and extended her hand. Melissa took it and followed her up to the dormitories.

"Why is Malfoy in a bad mood?" she asked.

"He's always in a bad mood. But what happened last summer royally pissed him off,"

"What happened last summer?"

"You don't know? Oh, I guess Potter wouldn't have told you…well, there was this big thing in the Department of Mysteries, in the Ministry of Magic, and basically, Malfoy was pissed off that Potter and his friends got out alive. He was slightly happy that Black got killed, and by his aunt no less. But then he found out Potter had gotten his father put in jail. The Malfoy name is dirt in respective circles now,"

"Oh," Melissa replied, not knowing what else to say. She dwelled on the thought of her mum killing her cousin. These people are really my family…that's so strange, she thought.

"So this is where you'll be sleeping. And I'm above you. Although we could probably shift your bed up to my dorm…" she waved her wand and whispered something under her breath. "There we go. There's you, me, and some other snobby girls, but I don't really talk to them much. I grew up with Malfoy so I tend to stick to that group, but you know. There's Spira, Melania, and Delila. They're not very nice, but when you get sick of the guys, it's good to know you've got someone else," she looked at Melissa's disbelieving face.

"Look, I know you're worried, especially since you have friends in Gryffindor. They won't not talk to you, I mean, they're your friends. I know I despise them, but as much as I hate to say it, they're loyal people. They wouldn't toss a friend simply because she's in a different house,"

Melissa still looked unconvinced, so she tried a different way.

"How do you feel about chocolate?" she asked.

"Are you kidding, I'm a teenage girl. Enough said," Melissa replied, smiling weakly.

"Ok, well the kitchens aren't far from here, how about we go for a walk, and see what the house elves will give us?"

"That sounds good. Thank you," Melissa replied.

As they walked out of the dormitory they saw Malfoy sitting cross legged in front of the fire, reading a letter. A black owl was next to him, waiting for his ok for it to leave. He waved it away, and the others begged him to read the letter out loud.

"Shut up!" he yelled. "My letter's are my private business, so piss of and leave it alone. It's just from my auntie anyway, nothing interesting,"

Melissa's heart jumped as she remembered who Malfoy's auntie was. Pansy pulled on her hand.

"Come on, let's go," she said impatiently. Melissa walked out the door, and with a quick look back at Malfoy's smarmy face, she left.

She led Melissa down a few more corridors, and a few twisty turns, until she got to a picture of a bowl of fruit. She looked around to make sure no one was watching, then tickled the pear. It giggled and wriggled, and a large green door handle appeared. Pansy pulled it open and walked through. The kitchens were high – ceilinged and as large as the Great Hall. There were mounds of glittering brass pots and pans heaped around the stone walls, and a great brick fireplace at the other end. There were four large tables, perfectly positioned under the four house tables in the Great Hall above them and it was like a light bulb clicked on above her head as she realized this must be how the food was sent up at food times.

She was just barely taking this all in when she noticed the 100 or so small creatures standing around her. They had large, bat like ears, and eyes the size of tennis balls, and were bowing and curtsying as they came in.

"What in the world…?"

"House elves," Pansy explained. "I need chocolate…MOVE!"

They all scrambled to find her as much chocolate as they could. And Melissa could only stare in wonder at how quickly they worked their way through the room, looking in all the cupboards for the chocolate Pansy had demanded. She was also taken aback at the cruel way Pansy had spoken to them…she'd seemed perfectly nice up until then.

They all came rushing back with trays laden with chocolates, and poured them all into a small box. Melissa watched as the chocolate all shrunk, just as her luggage had when Dumbledore had packed it.

"Here you are miss," a small house elf whispered, handing Pansy the box and bowing so deeply that the tea cosy on his head fell off. Melissa looked at the creature and almost laughed. His tea cosy was covered in badges, and he was wearing a maroon jumper that had so obviously been shrunk . A tie patterned with horse shoes around his neck, children's football shorts, and odd socks completed the outfit. Melissa couldn't help it, she giggled suddenly and then couldn't stop. Pansy looked at her as though she was mad, but the house elf seemed quite pleased.

"Is you alright miss?" he asked.

"Yes…" she gasped. "Yes I'm fine! Thank you very much for the chocolates…"

"Dobby, miss,"

"Thank you for the chocolates Dobby. And I love your jumper by the way,"

"Thank you miss. Master Weasley is giving it to me miss, and Harry Potter gave me my socks!" his eyes leaked tears, as the thought of Harry sprung into his head.

"Harry? And Ron? Are you friends with them?" she asked.

"Yes miss, Harry Potter helped set me free!"

"Come on Melissa, this is getting boring,"' Pansy complained, looking angry.

"Ok, I'm coming!" she replied. As Pansy walked away, Melissa turned to Dobby and quickly whispered "Tell Harry Melissa says hi, ok?"

And she ran off to join Pansy, who grasped her hand again laughing.

Harry and his friends sat in shocked silence in the armchairs by the fireplace. He just couldn't understand what had happened, how could she possibly have been put in Slytherin…

"It must be a mistake," he said aloud.

"Harry, you've said that like, ten times. The Sorting Hat doesn't make mistakes!" Ginny exclaimed. Maybe he likes her, she thought. That must be why he's so upset…bugger!

"Yeah, but – "

"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed. "We're just as upset about this as you are! But she's in Slytherin. The Sorting Hat doesn't make mistakes and she certainly can't swap houses. It was her destiny to be there okay? Now what we need to work out is why?"

They sat in silence once more, contemplating this question, when a loud pop! filled the air. They jumped in shock as Dobby the house elf appeared in front of them.

"Dobby!" Harry exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

"Dobby has a message for Harry Potter,"

"Well, what is it then?"

"Miss Melissa says hello," Dobby replied.

"What! When did you see her? Is she okay?" Ron asked, sitting up in his chair.

"She came to the kitchens with Miss Pansy, and they got lots of chocolate,"

"Pansy? Not Pansy Parkinson?" Hermione asked, confused.

"Yes miss. They is laughing and holding hands together," Dobby replied, nodding quickly. They all looked at the house elf in stunned silence.

"Well, maybe she made a new friend…" Ginny said slowly.

"She can't be stupid enough to be friends with Parkinson! And she's friends with Malfoy! What if Malfoy gives her a hard time?" Harry replied.

"Look, I don't know! Why does it bother you so much anyway? She's in Slytherin, big deal! That doesn't make her evil! And unless you totally ignore her, I highly doubt she'll desert you! I swear you like her or something!" Ginny shot daggers at him.

"Melissa? Are you kidding me? As if!" Harry generally believed this was the truth. Truth be told, she was pretty, heck she was gorgeous! But he still preferred Ginny, he didn't know what it was… although her brother being his best friend was making life difficult.

Ginny seemed satisfied with this answer, and leant back in her chair. "You'll see, it'll be back to normal tomorrow, she'll still be our friend,"

Melissa's only problem (as she discovered the next morning) was that, while she'd made an okay friend in Pansy Parkinson and all her friends, they were all a year above her. She had no friends in her own year. She looked at her timetable and saw that she had double Potions with the Gryffindors first. She contemplated skipping her classes that day and meeting some new people later that night, but then it hit her – Ginny!

"Are you okay?" Pansy asked her. Melissa swallowed her toast and nodded.

"I'm fine, I'm just a little worried about my lessons, that's all. I'm so behind,"

"What are you going to do? Surely Dumbledore – " Pansy was cut off by the post. Melissa looked up and, to her surprise, saw her own owl flying towards her. It landed next to her plate, and held out its leg for Melissa to remove the letter, then gave her an affectionate nip and flew off.

"Nice owl," Pansy remarked.

"Thanks. Harry bought it for me," Melissa replied, looking over at the Gryffindor table. She locked eyes with him, and he gave her a quick smile before putting his head down and muttering with Ron and Hermione again. Fine, be that way, she thought.

"What does it say?" Pansy asked. Melissa scanned the letter.

"It's from Dumbledore. I have to meet him in the Transfiguration room at 6 tonight. He says he's going to be giving me catch up lessons," she looked up at the staff table and saw Dumbledore smiling at her. She grinned back and waved the letter at him, nodding. "I better go okay? I'll catch you later," she stood up and grabbed her bag, waving goodbye to Pansy and the others.

"Bye," Pansy replied, and took a mouthful of toast before heading in the opposite direction with Malfoy and the others for their NEWT Transfiguration class.

Melissa swept past the Gryffindor table and hugged Ginny from behind. "Double Potions, can I sit with you?"

"For sure!" Ginny replied, hugging her back. "Just let me get my stuff,"

"Hey guys," Melissa said to the others. Hermione stood up to hug her tight, Ron nodded and Harry grinned.

"I got your message,"

"Huh? Oh Dobby! He is so incredibly adorable! I love the clothes!" she exclaimed. Harry laughed.

"I'm ready!" Ginny said, picking up her bag and hoisting it over the seat.

"Cya guys!" Melissa said, blowing a kiss to them all and laughing. Ginny did the same and they linked arms, flouncing out of the Great Hall.

"I guess Ginny was right," Ron said, watching them go.

"Yeah, although I knew she would be!" Hermione replied.

"Mmm, ah well, come on guys, we have classes too remember," Harry added, and they went in the same direction as the Slytherins had a moment ago.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So what's up? How was your first night?" Ginny asked.

"It was actually okay. I mean, Malfoy started on me the minute I walked in the door, but Pansy rescued me and took me to get some chocolate from the kitchens, which is where I met Dobby. Then when we went back up to the dorms we moved my bed from the fifth year dorms to the sixth year ones and I had a sob fest, and then we mucked around with the other girls,"

"Other girls? Oh you mean the other Slytherin 6th years! What are their names?"

"Spira, Melania and Delila. They're actually really nice,"

"What about Malfoy? How did you go with him?" Ginny asked.

"He's an arsehole!" Melissa exclaimed, laughing. "But his friends are okay,"

"Crabbe and Goyle?" Ginny asked incredulously. "Nice?"

"Yeah, for sure. And some of the other ones are okay too. It's annoying though, because I don't really know anyone in my own year from that house,"

"At least you're having fun,"

"I'd be having more fun with you guys," Melissa replied. Ginny hugged her.

"You'll be fine,"

"I know. Dumbledore actually offered me a deal. He said if I stay in the Slytherin dorms for a week, and I still don't like it, he'll give me my own room and then I can have whoever I want in there, and I can eat with the Gryffindors and stuff,"

"Cool, are you going to take it?"

"Probably. I mean, Pansy's really nice, and so are the others, but they're not you guys!"

"Aww, how sweet!"

They entered the dungeons and sat at a table together. Their cauldrons were there ready to use and they pulled out their copies of Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger and set them on the table, waiting for the teacher to arrive.

"Who teaches this class?" Melissa asked.

"Professor Snape. He's feral. Everyone knows he wants the Defence job. Probably so he can teach the dark arts instead of defence, but hey,"

"Teach it? Why would he teach it?" Melissa asked. Ginny leaned in close and whispered.

"He's a Death Eater,"

Melissa gasped just as the door opened. Snape walked in the door, black cape blowing around behind him.

"Settle down," he strode to the front of the class. "Now, before we begin today's lesson, I would like to remind you all that at the end of the year, you will all be taking your Ordinary Wizarding Levels. Now, while most in this class are most definitely moronic and hopeless when it comes to the fine art of Potions, your marks reflect on what I have taught you. I expect you all to get at least an 'Acceptable', or suffer my…displeasure. I only take the best into my NEWT Potions class, which means most of us will definitely be saying goodbye," his eyes lingered on Ginny, and she sneered back.

"Today we will be mixing the Draught of Peace, a potion to calm anxiety and soothe agitation. I must warn you, if you are too heavy handed with the ingredients, you will put the drinker into a heavy and sometimes irreversible sleep, so you will need to pay close attention to what you are doing. The ingredients and method are on the blackboard, you will find all at you need in the store cupboard, and you have an hour and a half. Well, what are you waiting for? Begin!"

Snape could not have set them a more fiddly potion. Melissa was worried enough about the fact that she'd never done it before, but as Snape walked around inspecting the cauldrons, he looked at hers with a slight pleasure, and muttered "Just like your mother" before walking away.

With ten minutes to go, Snape called out to the class. "A light, silver vapour should now be rising from your potion,"

Melissa looked around the classroom and was amazed to see she was doing better than people who had been doing Potions for the past four years. Her potion was indeed letting off a light silver vapor, as was Ginny's, but some of the Potions, far from emitting the vapor, were issuing large amounts of dark grey steam. One boys had the smell of rotten eggs, and another looked as though he'd made cement. Snape circled the classroom one more time, and stopped at her cauldron.

"Well done Miss Simmons, better than some," he said, looking down at Ginny's, which was in fact the exact same as Melissa's. He swept away to pick on someone else, before moving to the front.

"Fill one flagon with your potion and bring it to the front for marking. Homework: twelve inches of parchment on the properties of moonstone and it's uses in potion making, due Thursday. Dismissed,"

They packed up their things and headed to the Great Hall for break.

"What the hell was up with Snape?" Ginny asked, fuming. "Our potions were exactly the same!"

"I dunno, maybe it's because I'm a Slytherin, and you're a Gryffindor. Who cares anyway? What do we have next?"

"Um, double Defence Against the Dark Arts with Professor Lupin,"

"Lupin? As in Remus Lupin?" Melissa asked shocked.

"Yeah, you know him? He taught us in second year, and he's a member of the Order, but he had to leave because everyone found out about him,"

"About what?" Melissa asked.

"Oh, you don't know! He's a werewolf," Ginny replied, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

"A what now?"

"A werewolf. Come on, we'd better go, we'll be late otherwise," Ginny walked ahead, but Melissa stood still, shocked. You know everyone has their little secrets, he'd said to her the day before. She supposed they were square now; she knew about him, he knew about her…

"Are you coming or what?" Ginny shouted from the end of the corridor. Melissa jerked, suddenly aware of her surroundings again. She ran to catch up to Ginny.

Melissa wandered to the Transfiguration room at ten to six that night. She'd gotten Ginny to show her where it was during they're lunch break so she wouldn't get lost. She was contemplating her first day and how it had gone.

Potions was, well ok. She seemed to be pretty okay at it, but the teacher was horrible! The way he'd treated Ginny…and the way he'd treated Melissa herself. He freaked her out a little, knowing that he was a Death Eater and he'd obviously known her mother. If that was what was getting her favoritism then she was hoping it wouldn't last long. She wanted nothing to do with her mother, and that's the way it would stay.

She entered the room singing one of her favorite songs "Away From Me", (another Evanescence song) and found Dumbledore sitting behind the front desk waiting for her, his left hand laying across the table and his right pressed to his chest. She was shocked to see it was shriveled and black.

"Professor! What happened to your hand?" she asked.

"Never mind, if I were to tell you now we would be rushed, and it would not do the story justice. How are you settling in?"

"Yeah, ok I guess. I mean, today was easy, because I was with the Gryffindors all day, so that meant I had Ginny, but I don't know what I'll do when I'm not…I don't have Transfiguration or Charms with her, and I've mostly made friends with the sixth years so far,"

"Well, it may be a good idea to associate with the 5th years more tonight. And also to return your bed to the proper dormitory," he replied, winking. She blushed.

"Yes sir, sorry sir…so what's this all about anyway?"

"I assume you mean our lesson?" he asked. She nodded. "Very well. Whilst it's obvious that you display a very high magical ability, you've been left behind in the first four years of your education. So, I intend to try and catch you up. We shall meet here every Tuesday night at 6:00, and every few weeks we shall start a new year. Obviously, tonight we'll be working on first year. Clear enough?"

"Yeah, sounds good," she replied.

"All right, well in that case, take out your wand. First we'll be starting with some transfiguration – turning a matchstick into a needle,"

It only took her three tries, and Dumbledore was very pleased. He then gave her a mouse (which she held away from her at arms distance) and asked her to turn into a snuffbox, giving her the correct incantation and wand movement. This took her a lot longer, as it was a much larger object, but eventually, she managed it.

"Very good! I hate to say this, and you probably hate to hear it, but it seems you've inherited your mothers ability with a wand. She was quite talented herself," he told her, his eyes twinkling. She grunted at him and he laughed. "Let's just move on shall we?"

-

He taught her some more basic transfiguration, and they did a little bit of charms, before she left the room at 9:30.

"Now, I know you're probably very busy, but I'm going to need you to do some homework for me," He handed her two books; The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) and A Beginners guide to Transfiguration. "You should already have the A History of Magic, Magical Theory, One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi and Magical Drafts and Potions. Those books have been retained since first year. However these are the other two books first years are expected to read, and your homework is to read up on caring for magical plants and fungi, and write me an essay on the proper handling of Aconite. Professor Snape has also agreed to let you use the Potions dungeon to brew me up a potion to cure boils. That should be enough for this week. Any questions?"

"Yes sir, but it's not about the lesson as such. I was just wondering how many of the teachers know about my mo – my heritage," she asked, quite nervously.

"Well, Professor McGonagall knows, solely because she found the Simmons' home for you, myself of course, because I collected you, and I believe that Professor Snape knows also,"

"You believe?"

"Yes. I did not tell him myself, but unfortunately your mother has confided in her sister about you and your family," –Melissa felt a pang at these words – "and her sister happens to be married to a close friend of Professor Snape. So yes, I believe he knows, but I can't be sure,"

'I can," she whispered menacingly under her breath. "Thank you very much Professor, I certainly enjoyed tonight. I'm very grateful,"

"You're very welcome," he replied. She smiled at him and left the room.

Dumbledore lingered a few minutes, mulling over his thoughts, before he too left. He did not ascend the stairs to his office however. Instead he made his way forcefully to the dungeons. He knocked loudly on Professor Snape's door and did not wait for an answer before walking in.

"Albus, what can I do for you at this late hour?" he asked.

"I'd like to speak to you about a student, Severus,"

"Yes?"

"Melissa Simmons'"

"Malicia Lestrange you mean?"

"I will call her that only when she is ready to be. I thought I made it quite clear you were not to let on that you knew,"

"Headmaster I barely uttered a word I – "

"Well she heard you, and she's very angry. Severus you need to be more careful. This girl could be quite useful, and I do not need her being suspicious and mistrusting towards me. Do not disappoint me again, Severus," he strode out the door and slammed it behind him without another word.

"Yes, Headmaster," Snape said disdainfully to the empty room.