A/N: So sorry that it's been forever, but I was trying to write a bunch of chapters so that I have enough material that lets me post more often. Now that that's done, you'll get your chapters more and more quickly! Please review so that I'll post more!
Anomaly
Chapter 10
When Lucy began to stir, a collective murmur of relief passed through the fifteen or so people standing around her. Three long, painful days had passed since she'd been cursed, and it had made huge news in Hogwarts. Everyday students dropped into the Hospital Wing on their way to class to pay Lucy and whatever family she had with her a visit. The Winter Ball appeared to be postponed, because nobody had showed up to decorate. Professor McGonagall and all the other Hogwarts teachers were putting all their efforts into finding whoever harmed Lucy Weasley.
Melanie watched as her friends hovered over Lucy's bed. She had stirred three times in the last half hour, and everyone had their fists clenched and their breaths held.
"It was Spook!" cried James, frustrated.
"I can't believe we can't pin the bastard down for this one," said Fred with a stony face.
Molly was shaking with fury, so much that she was unable to say anything.
As much as they had tried to convince the Hogwarts staff that Spook had cursed Lucy, there had been several eye witnesses that placed the Slytherin in their common room that entire night. He hadn't even come down for dinner.
"How the hell did he do this?" said Xander, shaking his head. "I don't understand. He definitely did it, but even Scorpius swears that Spook was in the Slytherin Common Room all night."
"He can't be lying," said Al. "When Scorpius told me he'd keep an eye on Spook, he meant it. I don't think he's spent so much time with the Slytherins since he started Hogwarts."
"That's true," said Roxanne, one of the cousins Melanie had never spoken to. "Scorpius doesn't really enjoy hanging out with them. If he's doing it now, it's definitely to check out Spook."
"Er, if you all don't mind my asking…" murmured Melanie from the corner.
"Oh! Oh, sorry, Melanie," said Al. "Scorpius Malfoy is one of the people we hang out with."
"One of the Royal Group, you mean?" she said.
Al chuckled. "Yeah. One of the—Royal Group. Anyway, he's a Slytherin, and he became friends with me and Rose in Herbology second year. He's not really into hanging out with everyone. Mostly just me and Rose."
"That name sounds kinda familiar to me," said Melanie, partially to herself.
"Yeah, you probably read it during your newspaper binge," Al snickered. "The Malfoys were pretty huge Death Eaters during the Second War."
Melanie raised her eyebrows. "Do I need to ask?"
Al sighed. "Do any of you wanna explain?"
Roxanne laughed. "Al gets tired of explaining this," she said to Melanie. "A very tiny part of the family is reformed. That tiny part is Scorpius Malfoy and his parents."
"Okay," she said with a shrug. "Was that really so hard to say, Al?"
"Now that you mention it, Roxy did a better job at it than I would have done," said Al, looking at Roxanne with a joking reverence. "How did you do that? Merlin only knows how I would've rambled."
"No, Al, we all know how you would've rambled. We've seen it before," Roxanne giggled. "And don't call me Roxy."
"Noah calls you Roxy," he muttered with a sly grin.
"Don't go there," she said, blushing slightly.
"What is it with everyone having a crush on Noah!" cried Melanie.
"You're on that list," Al pointed out.
Looking startled, Roxanne turned to Melanie to say something, but was interrupted by Lucy mumbling, "Wh-where am I? Washapnin?"
"Oh, Lucy!" cried Molly in a strangled whisper. "Merlin, I—Xander, could you please go write to my mum? Tell her everything's all right now. Please."
Without a word, Xander jumped down from the bed he was sitting on and left the Hospital Wing.
"Oh, hell, Hogwarts is gonna have a field day with this," said James as he rushed into Madame Pomfrey's quarters.
"Lucy, Lucy, are you okay? How are you feeling? Can you understand me? How many fingers is this?" Molly rambled desperately, holding up three fingers on a shaky hand.
"Molly? Is that you?" Lucy slurred. "Quit doing that. I c-can't focus if you ask m-me so many questions."
Molly let out a laugh broken by tears.
Though she'd thought she was mostly detached from the situation, Melanie found herself letting out a sigh of relief.
"James was right, I'm gonna go do some damage control, try to keep people from realizing she's totally awake," said Fred, also rushing out of the Hospital Wing.
Madame Pomfrey came out of her office immediately, carrying three vials in one hand and her wand in the other. "All right, all right, everyone out of my way now!" she cried. "Lucy, dear, how are you?"
"M'fine," Lucy mumbled, attempting a smile.
"Well, you're going to be right as rain in a moment, all right?" she said gently.
Lucy nodded vaguely.
"I need everyone but Molly Weasley out of the Wing, now!" said Madame Pomfrey.
"What?" protested James. "But we—"
"Now, Mr. Potter," she said firmly.
Glancing over their shoulders the whole way, the group made their way out the door.
After two weeks, the chaos had not died down in the least. Everybody everywhere was trying to find out who had hurt Lucy: The staff was searching for a culprit, and Hogwarts students were searching for a scapegoat. Because of this, Melanie thought that all the students would immediately point fingers at Spook, given his public threat at the Killer party and that Hogwarts was a gossip chain, but even the gossip chain was having difficulty blaming him for the incident. Many Slytherins claimed that Spook had been in their common room all night, but once Scorpius Malfoy confirmed this with absolute authority, he had the support of the entire Royal Group, and therefore the rest of Hogwarts.
Professor McGonagall, who had firmly declared that students were to "move on" from the incident and continue as normally as possible, reintroduced the winter festivities, which left Melanie, Al, and Rose stuck in the Great Hall making decorations. Much of fourth year had joined them, and the surprising appearance of Noah Prewett brought with it a variety of students from other years. It was obvious to Al and Rose that Melanie was nervous because of his presence, but as he spent the entire time working on the other side of the room, the question never came up.
"Merlin, you all brought the lot this year, didn't you?" said Professor Scroll, who was overseeing the activity.
"We were forced into this," Rose explained with a smile.
"And it wasn't really us who brought all the people here," Al pointed out, gesturing across the room at Noah.
Professor Scroll looked over at him and smiled tenderly. "That boy's a sweet one, isn't he?"
Melanie scoffed. "Sure."
"Do you not like him, Melanie?" said Professor Scroll.
"I haven't got a problem with him," she said coolly as she gave up on the spell to cut filmy paper into a snowflake shape and began attacking the paper with her hands.
Rose laughed, "Melanie, let me help you with that."
"I've got it, thanks," she replied curtly.
"Blimey, Melanie, you scared her away," Al whispered, watching Professor Scroll make her way across the room.
"Seriously, what's going on with you and Noah?" said Rose. "I've never seen him do anything like this."
"Me neither, and we've known him since he started Hogwarts," Al added.
"Nothing's going on!" cried Melanie, throwing the paper into the air exasperatedly. "I don't like him! Just, why can't anyone bloody accept that? Why does everyone in Hogwarts have to know everybody's business? Why can't everyone just leave me alone!"
With that, she abandoned the decorations and stormed out of the room, leaving the fifty or so people in the Great Hall to stare after her, openmouthed, and whisper.
"If what she really wants is to be left alone, that scene was not a good idea," Al muttered, returning to the filmy paper.
"She doesn't want to be left alone," said Rose wisely, already molding the metals into shiny ornaments with her wand.
Al stared at her enviously. "How do you do that?"
She glanced at him, then shrugged. "I dunno. I guess Transfiguration is just something I'm good at."
"Very good, Rose!" encouraged Professor Scroll, who had returned. "I hear your mother was quite good at Transfiguration, too."
"She was pretty much good at everything," said Rose disinterestedly.
"I did hear that as well," said Professor Scroll with a tinkling laugh. "Is Melanie all right? She caused quite a scene with the rest of the students. Merlin only knows when that gossip will die down."
"Teachers hear gossip?" Al asked wonderingly.
Again, Professor Scroll laughed. "Yes, we certainly do. We're not moles underground who only come up for a dry lesson, you know."
"Sorry," Al said, grinning sheepishly at her.
Just then, Noah came up to them. "I'm done with my stuff, Veronica," he muttered, avoiding meeting anyone's eye.
"Noah, I am Professor Scroll," she reminded him smilingly. "And that's great. I hope that when you leave you don't take the rest of this group with you."
He shrugged, not returning her smile, and exited the Great Hall, nobody following him but whispers. Professor Scroll continued walking around the room, presumably to convince the students to stay and decorate more.
"What did you mean, 'she doesn't want to be left alone?'" Al asked Rose as he made his first glass ornament.
"I meant, she only wants to be with one person," she replied, eyeing the giant doors that had just allowed an attractive seventh year boy to pass.
Noah walked into the common room mere minutes after Melanie had settled herself on the sofa, staring at the fire. She was thinking about her father.
Most of Gryffindor was in the Great Hall or somewhere else, so the common room was empty. They were alone together again.
Melanie let out a scoff; she was more than a little irritated that he had interrupted her thoughts.
"Hey," he spoke hollowly.
"What is your problem?" she bit back.
Noah shrugged, unfazed by her sharp tone. "Dunno," he said.
"What do you want? D'you wanna snog some more?" she said sarcastically.
"Kinda," he muttered, heading to the boys' dormitory.
"Wow. Bloody hell," she said, scoffing again.
"What's your problem, Melanie?" Noah said, suddenly full of life.
"WHAT?!" Melanie screeched. "Are you serious?"
"Yeah, I'm serious," he said. "What is your problem? Why don't you want to hang out with me?"
"Hang out with you?" she repeated in disbelief. "Do you seriously mean that?"
"Yes, I mean hang out," he said. "Why the hell won't you—"
"Because you don' t want to hang out, Noah," Melanie snarled. "You just come and snog me and you don't care you just want to have your fun and—"
"Bloody hell, slow down!" said Noah, slightly shocked, but now smiling. "Melanie, I-I want more than that. I don't…I just wanna be friends."
Thoroughly outraged, Melanie raised her eyebrows. "Noah, I don't know if anyone's told you this, but 'just friends' and 'snogging' aren't really meant to be done together."
He sighed. "I'm sorry. Look, I-I can't really explain myself. I just, I don't really know how I feel," he said apologetically. "And I don't know what to do when I feel like that."
"You really don't seem the kind of person who talks about his feelings," said Melanie skeptically. "This seems like a line to me."
"It's not!" he cried, falling onto the sofa next to her. "It's not a line, Melanie. I-I really don't know what to do!"
"Noah, I—" she said helplessly. Should she go out with him? If he was being honest with her right now, then there was a chance he was a decent guy. On the other hand, she knew she couldn't handle a relationship. But then again, neither could he.
Before she could finish her thoughts, out of nowhere he was kissing her and she was kissing him back and she completely let go—and it felt okay.
A/N: Let me just let you know, it's not what you'll expect. I hope you enjoyed it! New chapter coming soon.
~Maya
