Chapter 2; Room of Requirement
2 YEARS LATER
Melani woke with a jolt. She sat up, massaging her head. Another headache along with another vivid dream about Malfoy, she thought bitterly. She had recently been waking up like this a lot. They weren't romantic, of course. They were just... weird.
For example, the one she had that night was in the Great Hall; the tables were gone and it was the middle of the night. She was facing Malfoy, her back to where the Head Table usually was and his to the exit. They had their wands out like they were dueling. It wasn't clear who was winning, but Malfoy kept smirking at her whenever she had cast a charm that he couldn't block. Furious and confused, she kept pushing to beat him. Finally, he had fallen to the floor. Canceling the spells, she went over to help him up. He intertwined his fingers with hers, standing without her help. He then put a hand under her chin, lifted it, and whispered "It's time to wake up, Melissa."
The more she thought of what he said, the more her head hurt. So she decided to get ready for the day to get her mind off of it.
The only bed that was empty was Elise's; she probably wanted to get a head start on her Divination homework that she complained about yesterday. Most people didn't get up this early on Sundays, after all. Melani changed into her robes and made her way to the Great Hall, slipping her wand into a spare pocket.
When she sat down to eat, the owls came to deliver the mail. An eagle owl came to her with a huge letter attached to its leg. She choked a bit, worried about what lay in it.
Melani quickly removed the package from its leg. It cawed happily, then flew away. With trembling hands, she slowly undid the letter. Out dropped a stack of about twenty blank papers and a small note. Leaving the papers, she picked up the note and read-
Dearest Melani
We are glad that you are finding plenty of time to practice; we hope your violin isn't interfering too much with your studies (At least 5 O's on your exams!)
Happy 14th birthday! We hope this got you on time.
Attached is a printed copy of Vivaldi's Winter for solo violin (we had to go into a Muggle shop to get it). Your father enchanted it so it can turn into blank sheets (we assumed that the charms were working because you stopped complaining about how many times people have caught you with music). He also enchanted several sheets of staff paper (we know how much you love composing). Remember, only a tap will reveal it, and only for unicorn cores.
We hope to hear from you soon, and have a very happy birthday!
Love, Ma and Chichi
Melani blinked. She had completely forgotten that it was her birthday, September 25. As for the papers, she was overjoyed. 'Winter' was the perfect present for her, and she did love composing her own pieces on the side.
Shoving toast in her mouth, she gathered her papers and left the hall, stuffing the note into another pocket. On her way out, she saw Malfoy out of the corner of her eye, staring at her. She ignored him and rushed to the stairs. For some reason, he always looked at her when she passed. It started on her first day, and hasn't stopped once.
Melani went up and up and up until she reached the seventh floor. After practically passing out the first few times she had gone up, she was barely winded this time. Making her way to the left corridor, she immediately began to think, "I need a place to practice violin" over and over, pacing up and down the short hall. On the third round, a door emerged from what used to be an empty wall. It was a huge, intricate double door that opened with no sound. Smiling, Melani walked through the doors confidently into the vast room.
She accidentally found the room during the middle of first year when she was stressing out that she hadn't been able to practice for months . She ran through the castle, desperate to find the legendary Room of Requirement. She had been pacing the left corridor of the seventh floor muttering "I just need a place to practice violin for a few bloody minutes, is it really that hard?" when the door suddenly appeared, revealing the spacious room. It was full of scattered chairs, abandoned instruments, a dusty stage, broken rosin, ripped strings, old curtains, and lots of other kinds of musical debris.
Melani practiced in here as often as she could to keep her secret safe, but she was getting suspicious. She had caught Malfoy hiding behind walls when she was on the floor, about to open the door. He just smirked and walked away when she caught him, or so she thought. She tried to not care, as long as he didn't tell his father or something. No one had come up to her for it yet though, so she assumed her secret was safe.
Melani heard the door close behind her, leaving her alone. She pulled off her outer robes and unhooked her necklace, slipping the chain off from the mini violin. Taking out her wand, she draped her robes over a nearby chair and held out her charm, careful to grasp the neck of it.
"Engorgio!" she cried, pointing her wand at it.
The violin grew in size, until it was roughly the length of her arm. It had a glossy red body and the standard black neck and tailpiece. The ebony pegs had a gold rim and the strings were dusted in rosin dust. Behind the bridge was a mute and under the body was a squishy yet firm shoulder rest.
Placing it on the seat of the chair with her robes, she took her wand and waved it, conducting a simple 4/4 time signature. Instantly, the "wand" extended until it was about two feet. It sprouted unicorn hair, stringing itself until it was taut. It had transformed into a violin bow, slender and gently bent.
Melani placed her wand-turned-bow next to her violin, and went to search for some rosin. She found a piece of the amber colored material and came back to rub it up and down the unicorn hair, coating it as she did at the beginning of every practice. After she did that, she picked up her violin and placed it under her chin, running the bow hairs over the strings to check their tuning. When she had finished, she set her violin down again and, with her bow in her hand, picked up the blank papers.
Spreading them out, she tapped each one lightly with her bow. From where they were tapped, ink flowed across the page, revealing the staffs underneath. She placed her violin underneath her left arm, picked up the papers with music notes on them in her right and, gripping her bow in her left hand, went over to an empty stand nearby. She put the papers on the stand, placing the ones with a "III" over the rest. Then, with bow in hand and violin under her chin, Melani began to sightread Vivaldi's Winter, third movement.
She quite enjoyed the room; it reverberated sound well and she liked the abandoned look it sported. It was homey and had a very serene feeling to it. Most of the time she spent in here was just looking around in awe.
After a few hours of site-reading and practicing, Melani shrunk everything back to their original size and donned her robes. Tapping the papers with her wand again and watching them turn blank, she gathered the now empty white papers and folded them down. She slipped her wand into her pocket, and opened the large doors to the seventh floor. The door shut as she passed through and became one with the wall.
Melani raced down the stairs, glancing out the windows. The sun was high in the sky; it was probably lunchtime. She was almost all the way down when she bumped into someone, dropping all of her papers. They scattered down the stairs, covering everything.
"Watch where you're going, you-" Melani stopped talking when she saw who it was.
"What a coincidence that I bumped into you, Gerisha," Malfoy said smoothly, smirking at her shocked expression.
She relaxed her face, trying to compose herself before bravely lashing out at him. "Get out of my way, Malfoy," she said, although rather quietly.
His smirk widened. "What was that? You should really speak up, Gerisha, or someone might interpret what you said diff-"
"Sod off, Malfoy!" She moved to the right, trying to get passed him.
He stepped in front of her, smirk disappearing. "Maybe you should think about actually respecting people... Or else your secret might get out," his voice dropped to a husky whisper at the last part, making Melani shudder.
Refusing to show any reaction to his words, she glared at him and pushed him away. He only stared at her dismally, and continued walking up the stairs.
"Accio parchments!" Within seconds, the papers were all neatly in her arms.
Without a second thought, she decided to skip lunch and go directly to the Ravenclaw common room. After spending a while figuring out the knocker's riddle, Melani got in and plopped herself down at a desk, placing the papers in front of her. She laid her head down roughly, staring through one of the huge windows. She thought about the dream, her encounter with Malfoy, and her progress on Winter until she got another headache.
This was not a good birthday for Melani.
