Chapter 4

Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns Harry Potter. I created Melissa.

"It's rather depressing to be back here, isn't it?" Angela sighed wistfully. They were sitting outside Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour. Angela was playing with her ice cream, which was slowly turning to soup, her long golden hair falling across face and shielding her brown eyes from the sun. Mel sat across from her, back to the sun and ice cream gone, rolling her eyes at her friend.

"You'll be fawned over soon enough, I promise," Mel said with mock sincerity.

"I know, but it won't be the same. It won't be from tan, fit boys with sexy French accents. We're back to the boring boys we've gone to school with for years," she whined.

"I'm sure you'll find someone," Mel muttered distractedly as she scanned the crowd for a familiar face.

"It's easy for you! You have the best looking, nicest, smartest boy in the school after you!" Angela said enviously. "And wait until he sees you! You've grown about six inches, you're tan from the sun, your hair's even redder than normal from being outside, not to mention you've filled out in a few important places. Cedric is going to die when he sees you."

Mel felt her face redden as her friend spoke. She knew Angela was only complimenting her, but it made her uncomfortable anyways. Angela thought she was being ridiculously modest, as both girls had had several admirers during the holiday and now looked more like young women instead of girls. But Mel could not help it. She did not like to be the center of attention. She had often been uncomfortable with all the attention she received from the boys over the summer, but had tolerated it for Angela's sake.

"Not to mention, all the experience you gained over the summer with the male sex," Angela teased, making a mock-suggestive face as she spoke. This only caused Mel to blush more and look slightly mortified.

"Will you shut up!" she hissed, looking around to make sure no one was listening. "First, I did not do more than kiss a few of those boys. Second, Cedric and I are just friends. Let it go, will you?"

"Whatever you say," Angela teased in a singsong voice, smirking at her friend, who was now glaring daggers at her. She rolled her eyes to show that she was not affected and got up from the table saying, "Come on, we need to finish our shopping."

XXX

"This is gonna be our year, gentlemen," Ryan said, his tone full of excited anticipation. Cedric, who was searching for a new pair of quidditch gloves, shook his head in exasperation at his friend's words. He had heard this speech multiple times over the summer. However, their friend Drew, a fellow Hufflepuff fifth year, had yet to suffer through it. Drew shot Cedric a questioning look to which he just shook his head, refusing to say anything.

"With Cedric as quidditch captain and prefect," Ryan continued, oblivious to his friends' exchange, "Hufflepuff House will be lead to victory both on and off the pitch this year. We're finally going to beat Gryffindor!"

"You're just hoping that I won't turn you in if I catch you breaking any rules," Cedric muttered.

"Well, yeah, that too," Ryan said unabashedly.

"Just because we're friends, doesn't mean you can do whatever you want," Cedric said.

"But you can be more lenient with us," Ryan argued.

"Tell you what," Cedric smirked, "I'll turn a blind eye, but you get to deal with Mel."

"Hey! That's not fair!" Ryan whined, causing his two friends to laugh.

"So, Mel made prefect too then?" Drew asked, still chuckling.

"Yeah."

"So, you've heard from our dear, lovely Melissa, have you?" Ryan question. Cedric groaned, know what was coming. "Our dear, sweet, innocent Melissa who was in the south of France with an overly friendly Angela for the summer?"

"Do we know another Melissa?" Cedric snapped. "What are you getting at?"

"Oh, nothing," he shrugged. "I mean, Angela's only the most boy-crazy girl we know and can guilt Mel into doing things or going to places she wouldn't normally go..."

"Get to your point," Cedric said, temper rising.

"All right, all right," Ryan said, holding his hands in front of him to show he meant no harm. He had momentarily forgotten how irrational Cedric was when it came to Mel. "I'm just saying that she may have had a summer fling."

"So?"

"So, don't let it bother you ok? What's done is done. You still have this year to finally ask her out."

Cedric nodded stiffly, but said nothing.

"Bloody hell," Drew said suddenly, his tone of surprise and awe. The two boys followed his gaze toward the front of the store to see what had caught his attention. Two very tan girls had just entered the shop. One girl, who had long, wavy, reddish-brown hair, was leading the other, who had long, pin-straight, golden hair, to where they stood. Cedric heard the first girl say, "See, I told you they'd be here," before quickening her step. Suddenly, the girl was in a few feet of them, launching herself into his arms.

"Hey Mel," Cedric said, regaining his balance as he hugged her back. "How was your summer?"

"Good," she said, letting go. "And yours?"

"Same as always."

She turned away from him and hugged both Ryan and Drew. Though, he noted with some satisfaction, that neither of their hugs were as long as his had been. He noticed Angela watching him and raised an eyebrow. In response, she smiled and shook her head, an all-knowing look in her eyes. Cedric felt his face get hot. It seemed everyone knew about his feelings for Mel, except for Mel herself.

"So I hear you made quidditch captain and prefect?" Angela asked.

"Yeah, we were just discussing that actually. Ryan thinks he's got a get-out-of-jail-free card for the next few years."

"Is that so?" Mel said, turning to glare playful at Ryan, who feigned innocence.

"I do not. I believe what I said that it was smooth sailing for Hufflepuff. Meaning," he added under her stern look, "that we have an excellent shot at winning the Quidditch Cup and the House Cup this year."

"I'm sure that's what you meant," Mel said skeptically.

"Of course it was," Ryan said indignantly. "I would never dream of taking advantage of my friends' positions."

Everyone rolled their eyes, easily seeing through Ryan's faux-innocence.

"Come on," Angela said, linking arms with Mel. "We need to go meet my parents. See you guys tomorrow."

Mel waved good-bye before allowing her friend to lead her out of store. The three boys watched them go. As soon as they were out of earshot, Drew let out a low whistle.

"Seriously Ced, you'd better hurry up and ask her out. She's even prettier than last year," Drew said.

"She may be pretty, but she's a normal, girl-next-door pretty. Angela, on the other hand, is the pretty every girl aspires to be and every guy pays attention to first. Angela's got to be off the market first before Ced's in any real danger of losing Mel," Ryan reasoned.

"Well, that might normally be true if they weren't best friends. However, Mel's always with Angela, so she'll be noticed just as much," Drew countered.

Cedric sighed, grabbed a pair of gloves, and went to pay for them, trying his best to ignore his friends' debate. He knew they were right, he just did not know how to go about doing it. She was his best friend, how was he supposed to tell her that he wanted more? And what if she did not?

His stomach sank at this last thought. What if, after all this time, she only thought of him as a friend? That was his biggest fear, though he could not help but have hope. He had noticed a slight blush in her cheeks after she hugged him, something that had not happened before nor been there when she hugged the other two. He had also caught the fleeting questioning glance Angela had shot her when she thought no one was looking, which caused Mel to blush again. He thought, hoped, that these were signs in his favor. But he knew he needed to do something, and he knew he had to do it soon.

"Can you two please shut up?" Cedric snapped. "I get the point. Scratch that, I've understood the point for years. I'm going to ask her out, this year, before Christmas."

Both boys shut up instantly, staring at him in disbelief. He had been saying that for over a year now, but they had never heard him speak with such conviction. He was serious this time.

"Atta boy, Ced," Ryan said, clapping him on the shoulder. "Now all we have to figure out is how you're going to do that."

Cedric groaned. Honestly, his friends were worse than Angela and Lindsey sometimes.

XXX

"I saw that look you gave him, by the way," Angela said. She was sitting at mirror in their room, brushing her golden locks. Mel was sitting on her bed, engrossed in her new Divination book. She had not been practicing as much this summer—Angela had kept her very busy—and was a bit rusty. It would take her a month to get back to where she had been at the end of the previous school year. She felt a bit guilty for not practicing as much, especially with Sirius Black on the run. She knew he was innocent, but somehow she knew that something else was going on. And she knew that she could only find out what that something was if she started working on her Seeing skills again.

"What?" she asked because she had not heard what her friend had said. However, Angela took it as she did not understand.

"I saw the look you gave Cedric at the quidditch shop today," Angela said, turning on the bench to face Mel.

"What are you talking about?" she asked confused, tearing her eyes from her book.

"When you hugged Cedric today, you had this look. It's hard to explain, but you've never looked at him that way before. I guess a good term would be lovestruck," Angela said.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Mel said. She felt herself blush and hid behind her book. She did not want to talk about this. She did not want Angela to know how she now felt about Cedric. If she did, Mel would never hear the end of it.

Ignoring her friend's denial, Angela continued with her questioning. "When did you know anyways? Like I said, you've never looked him that way before, so it must've been sometime this summer. Right?"

Mel remained silent, feigning deafness. However, her flaming ears and face were a dead give-a-way that she had heard every word. After a few minutes of silence, she chanced a glance at Angela and regretted it immediately: Angela was staring intently at her from across the room, patiently waiting for Mel's response. Mel quickly hid her face behind her book again, trying to think of a way to distract Angela.

"I have all night to get this out of you, you know," Angela prompted.

"There's nothing to tell," Mel lied from behind her book.

"Mel," Angela said in her warning tone. Mel sighed and put the book down. That tone meant Angela was going to lose it; she really hated not knowing things.

"I don't know exactly," she began, keeping her eyes trained on the pattern of the bedspread. "I mean, it was sometime over the summer, but I don't know the actual date or time or anything. We were spending a lot of time with those boys and every now and then they would do or say something that reminded me of him. And when that happened…I don't know…I would suddenly miss him. I missed him a lot this summer, more than I've ever missed anyone. There were several occasions where I wanted nothing more than to leave a party and just go write to him. And I never felt anything for those boys. If anything, I felt guilty. Though I don't understand why…," she trailed off for a minute before looking at Angela, panic in her eyes.

"Angela, you have to promise not to tell anyone about this," she pleaded. "Not even Lindsey."

"Of course not sweetie," Angela whispered, taken aback by her friend's confession and panic. "I won't tell, promise."

"Thank you," Mel breathed, relaxing instantly.

"By the way," Angela said breaking the tense silence that had fallen between them, "you are going to owe me ten galleons by the this year."

Mel gave a half-hearted laugh, begrudgingly thinking that Angela may be right. As Angela finished her nightly routine, Mel set out her clothes for the next day and checked the room for any loose articles of clothing or school supplies. She found a few socks and threw them in her trunk before crawling into bed. When Angela had finished, she turned of the lights and crawled into her bed. Mel heard her fall asleep within minutes, but found it impossible for her to sleep: Her stomach was twisting in nervous anticipation of the next day.

XXX

"We'll meet you girls downstairs," Mr. Abbott said, levitating their trunks and taking them downstairs.

" 'Kay, Dad," Angela called from the bathroom, where she was stuffing something into her knapsack.

"C'mon, Ange," Mel whined. "I wanna eat before we leave."

"Then go, I'll be down in a minute."

Mel grabbed her own knapsack and made her way downstairs. On her way, she saw two red-haired boys snickering outside a door.

"The school year hasn't even started and you two are already causing problems," she admonished jokingly, pausing behind them.

"Well, look who it is," Fred drawled.

"Little Melissa!" George said, turning to face her. Indeed, compared to them she was little, but only by a foot. She rolled her eyes at them and continued passed them. However, they decided to follow her downstairs.

"So Melissa, have you gone over to the dark side?" Fred asked.

"If going over to the dark side means I made prefect, then yes," she said, sighing dramatically.

"We'd best keep on our toes, then," George joked. "Wouldn't want you to have give us detention."

"No, we wouldn't want that," Fred mocked.

"Are you two going to make my life miserable?"

"Depends, are you going to make our lives miserable?" Fred asked.

"Only if you're dumb enough to get caught," she taunted. "By the way, how is your sister?"

"Back to her normal, talkative self," George said, jumping down the last few stairs.

"Except around Harry, of course," Fred added. "She fancies him, you know."

"The whole school knows thanks to Lockhart and his valentines. Poor girl. She's been through a lot. You two should be nicer to her," Mel admonished.

"Oh don't worry," George said, "Ginny can hold her own."

"She'd have to growing up with you two," Mel teased. She saw Angela's parents and waved good-bye to the twins. From her table she watched the Weasley party. She saw Harry, who looked a little thin, as always, but he seemed fine otherwise. She had overheard Tom, the bartender, saying Harry had been at the Leaky Cauldron for a couple weeks. She wondered what had happened. He was supposed to be at his aunt's house.

Angela appeared, stomping down the stairs and huffing as she sat down. "Be glad you don't have a younger sister," she said between gritted teeth.

"Are you two fighting already? You've barely been up two hours!" Mrs. Abbott sighed exasperatedly.

"She keeps stealing my clothes!" Angela said, reaching for the plate of toast.

"All go talk to her," Mrs. Abbott sighed. "Hurry up and eat. We're running late as it is."

XXX

"Hey guys," Lindsey said, entering the compartment. "Did you hear about the dementors?"

"Nice to see you too," Ryan said sarcastically.

"Besides that they let Sirius Black escape and are now searching the country for him?" Cedric asked.

She nodded, "Some are going to be guarding Hogwarts."

"WHAT?" the other five exclaimed at once.

"Why would the ministry allow that? Why would they need to do that?" Mel asked.

"To keep us safe, I guess," Lindsey said shrugging.

"But why would Hogwarts need that kind of protection? It's so supposed to be one of the safest places in the wizarding world," Mel pressed. It did not make any sense. Why would they need to guard the school? Sirius Black did not want anything to with a bunch of underage wizards and witches.

"Well, the past two years haven't exactly been the best example of Hogwarts being the safest place ever," Angela said. Drew and Ryan nodded their heads in agreement. "Plus, it probably has something to do with Potter. I mean Black was one of You-Know-Who's most devoted followers. Maybe he thinks if he kills Potter, he can bring back his old boss."

Mel shrugged, pretending her explanation made sense. She knew Black was innocent, that he was not after Harry at all. He was after someone though, she had seen as much. She just could not tell whom. The visions she kept having were too jumpy, they kept switching back-and-forth between subjects. She was having trouble keeping the separate thoughts straight because of their unfocused nature.

"How safe can they really keep us though? Black's already gotten past them once," Drew added.

"Thanks for that thought," Ryan said sarcastically. "I feel much better."

"So how was your summer?" Angela asked Lindsey, trying to ease the tension that had fallen over their compartment.

"It was fine. We visited my grandparents up north for the greater part of the holiday. How was yours? Did you and Mel have any adventures in France?" Lindsey asked, wriggling her eyebrows suggestively. Mel immediately became absorbed in her book while the boys began talking about quidditch, though they were really listening to everything Angela had to say.

"A bit, yeah," Angela said, smirking. "We spent a lot of time on the beach, made some new friends…."

"What kind of new friends?" Lindsey pushed, grinning from ear to ear.

"You know," Angela said, rolling her eyes. "The good-looking kind that you can have fun with."

The two girls burst into giggles. The boys, all pretense of their own conversation gone, stared at them with wide eyes. They knew Angela was boy crazy, but they did not realize how much. What all had Angela done that summer? What had Mel done?

"Is that true, Mel?" Lindsey asked between giggles.

"Is what true?" she asked, pretending not to have heard the conversation.

"About the—"

But the rest of her words were lost as the train lurched to a stop, throwing them out of their seats. The power cut off, leaving them in total darkness. After picking themselves off the floor or readjusting in their seats, the six Hufflepuffs pulled out their wands, saying "Lumos" as they did.

"What's going on?" Angela said, her voice shrill.

"Dunno," Drew said, his own voice slightly higher than usual. "Why is it getting so cold?"

A few shrugged in response, but no one said anything. They waited in fearful silence for several minutes, alternating between looking at the door and around the compartment. The compartment grew colder, causing Mel to shiver. She felt Cedric reach out and squeeze her hand. She was thankful for his comfort. Even with their illuminated wands, she felt strangely isolated in the darkness. Feeling the warmth of his hand calmed her a bit. She squeezed back and inched a little closer to him, silently thanking Merlin that Angela and Lindsey could not see her.

Suddenly people started screaming around them. Mel felt Cedric tense beside her and tighten his grip on her hand. She also heard Angela's panicked breathing mixed with Lindsey's own trembling gasps. The other two boys were silent, but she saw them raise their wands toward the door. Mel felt her heart pounding and was sure that everyone could hear it.

It was becoming unbearably cold. It did not matter how tightly Mel pulled her cloak around her, the cold just penetrated through her clothing. The screams were getting louder; Mel closed her eyes trying to block out the din. Pictures began flashing before her. She quickly realized they were memories, bad memories. But they were not hers; they were Harry's. She clutched her head in pain, letting out a low moan.

"What's wrong, Mel?" Cedric asked as he helped steady her by the shoulders. But before she could respond, Lindsey and Angela let out high-pitched screams.

"It's a dementor!" one of the boys shouted. Mel could not tell which one. Between the screaming in and out of her head, she was in so much pain that she could not focus on anything else.

Then it was silent. The lights came on, the train started moving, and the air began to warm instantly. Mel's head stopped hurting and she was able to open her eyes. Her friends' faces were pale, a shadow of fear still etched on them. She felt Cedric release her shoulders. She looked at him, his eyes asking if she was all right. She nodded that she was, hoping he would accept that for now. He gave a short nod and looked past her, studying their friends. After a couple of minutes, they all sat down, no one saying a word.

"They're insane," Ryan muttered. "They're going to have those things around the school?"

"Looks like it," Drew said gruffly.

"Why were they on the train? Black wouldn't be here!" Lindsey said, her voice still abnormally high.

"It doesn't matter, they'll look for him anywhere. I don't think they're happy that he escaped," Mel said, surprising herself and the others with her omission.

"Well, I don't care why they were here," Angela said, hugging herself. "I just never want to feel like that again."

"Agreed," Mel and Lindsey said in unison.

The door slid open to reveal the witch who ran the candy cart. She took one look at them and rummaged through her cart for something. She turned back to them, silently handing a handful of chocolate frogs to Lindsey, who was sitting closest to the door.

"You should all eat one. The chocolate will help you feel better," she explained. "We'll be arriving at the station in half an hour."

"Thank you," Angela said. The witch smiled at them, and then closed the door. Lindsey passed them each a chocolate frog, which they all opened somewhat hesitantly. However, after the first bite and warmth flooded their bodies, they eagerly devoured them.

"I told my mum chocolate was good for me," Ryan said. His friends smiled at his weak attempt at a joke. Mel watched the color return to her friends' faces, the effect of the chocolate. She still felt a bit cold. The warmth from the chocolate had not had quite as strong of an effect on her. It was probably due to the fact that images from Harry's mind were still fresh in her mind…as was the screaming. It had been horrible.

"Mel, are you ok?" Angela asked.

"Yeah. Why?"

"You're just very pale is all."

Mel shrugged, "I'm fine."

Mel watched her friends converse. They were not really talking about anything important. They were only trying to distract themselves from what had happened, trying to bury it in their minds. Mel and Cedric remained silent. Cedric covertly watched her from the corner of his eye, while Mel's gaze became unfocused as she became more and more engrossed in her thoughts. Angela actually had to shake her to get her attention when they had arrived at the platform.

"You sure you're ok?" Cedric asked her in a whisper as they climbed into a carriage. "I can go with you to the hospital if you want."

"I'm fine," she said, forcing a reassuring smile. He nodded his head, though he did not believe her. She saw the disbelief in his eyes and sighed when he turned to close the carriage door. How could he know her so well? The others easily believed her lies, but he had started to see through them. She had known them all the same amount of time, but only he really knew her. She could not help but feel comforted and worried by that thought. How long could she keep her secret if he started to see through all her lies? How much longer could he handle her not telling him the whole truth?