September 2nd, 1991
"Good morning, little puffs." Melissa greeted as she sauntered over to the Hufflepuff table. The first year Hufflepuffs looked up at the incoming Slytherin, some looked to her in mere curiosity, while others -ones she knew to be pure or half-bloods- looked to her warily.
"Good morning." A few murmured in reply. "Good morning, Melly." Harry added with a smile. The boy shuffled in his seat so that his older friend could sit between him and Sally Smith. "Everyone, this is my friend, Melly."
"Melissa Bennett." She nodded, sweeping a welcoming smile to each of them. The others answered her greeting with their own names.
"You were the girl at the trial." One of the boys, Ernie MacMillan, voiced in a way that was half-statement, half-question.
"I am." She replied in a somewhat guarded tone.
The boy didn't seem to believe her. "But you're a Slytherin."
Melissa rolled her head to face Harry. Oddly, Harry mimicked that action in unison to her. Both flashed each other a look that seemed to ask 'we're going to deal with this a lot, aren't we?" followed by a shrug from Melissa that said 'might as well get used to it.' She turned back to MacMillan in the same drole tone. "Contrary to your bedtime stories, kid, not every Slytherin is a Death Eater and not every Death Eater is a Slytherin."
The boy pouted at her explanation. "I'm not a child!"
"-you are literally eleven-"
"-I just know that Slytherins can't be trusted."
Melissa rolled that comment through her head. Her head perked like a confused dog. "You are officially the strangest Hufflepuff I've ever met." Without further comment, she turned to Harry with a playful grin. "Speaking of strange Hufflepuffs, what was all that at the sorting last night?"
The two of them managed to ignore MacMillan's sputtering as Harry answered her. "The Sorting Hat wasn't sure where to put me. It had to keep going through my memories to find what makes the most sense for me."
"That's all it was?" She asked in simple curiosity.
"Mhmm." A light glinted in Harry's eyes as his face lifted into a playful smile. "I chose a Magdalene, again, didn't I?"
Melissa attempted to scoff at him, but it came off as more of a giggle. "Is it really that obvious?"
"You're pretty easy to read. That said, I think you're losing your touch." He teased.
"Hey, it's not my fault. It's yours!" She asserted. For a dramatic effect, her body leaned into Harry, an arm draping across his shoulder. "But I suppose it can't be helped. You're the Ruby to my Sapphire! The Steven to my Garnet! You've changed so much. What happened to that little boy that wanted to be a superhero?"
"The Steven to her what?" One of the girls asked beyond Melissa's scope of vision.
"I think she's mad." MacMillan muttered under his breath.
Not paying mind to the others, Harry gave her a little smile. "I guess I just grew up, is all."
Their eyes met in a gentle, friendly understanding. Melissa pushed herself off of Harry with a small sigh. "Yeah, you're definitely the Steven to my Garnet."
"Excuse me?" A boy's voice from behind them interrupted. It was a first year Slytherin boy with platinum blond hair. Draco Malfoy, the other two knew in an instant. Behind him stood his entourage of Crabbe and Goyle. With half a thought, Melissa gave two shallow taps on Harry's shoulder as she had seen Sirius do in the past. "My apologies for the interruption. I wanted to meet you two before classes start." He gestured to the two boys behind him, then extended a hand to them. "These are my friends, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, and I am Draco Malfoy, pleasure to meet you."
To her surprise, Harry stood from his seat. His posture shifted to a stiff and straightened back. "The pleasure is ours, Mister Malfoy." He reached out and shook the other boy's hand.
A few voices gasped or whispered behind them. With the sight before her and sound behind her, Melissa felt little choice but to take on the challenge. "Right. It's nice to meet you, Mister Malfoy." She extended a hand out to him. "Congratulations on making it into Slytherin."
On letting go of Harry's hand, Malfoy seemed to hesitate. He looked at Melissa's hand, and a flash of a glare passed through his eyes as if her hand was diseased; and, yet, the look dissipated and was replaced with a polite smile. He shook her hand with no more sense of hesitation. "Thank you, Miss Bennett. It's only natural that I got into Slytherin. The Malfoys have been proud Slytherins for generations."
"So I've been told." She responded. "I'm sure you'll make our house proud."
"Sorry to bother you all," a Hufflepuff prefect stepped into their odd group, "but the schedules are being passed around now. You'll want to get back to your seats to get yours."
"Thanks for letting us know, Truman." Melissa nodded. She then looked to the three Slytherin boys in a gesture that implied corralling them to their seats. Melissa then took her own seat with a mild confusion to the whole exchange. That said, she tried to push it from her mind as she got a hold of her class schedule.
"I get to sleep in on Mondays!" Warrington grinned as he looked over his copy.
"Me, too!" Jacinth cheered. He peered over Rusalka's schedule with mild disappointment. "You should drop Ancient Runes, Rue, then we can all have the same schedule."
"It's not like we have the same dorm, Jacinth. It wouldn't make a difference." Rusalka countered. "Besides, I can't imagine having to go through that tease on Thursday. A free period and then Divination? I'm better off just going Runes before Divination than being teased like that."
"These classes do like to mock us." Domonkos added. "Friday does the same. Though I believe it is a normal free period before the muggle studies and divination classes."
"It's not so bad." Jacqueline countered. "Thursday looks fun."
"You only say that because we have double potions with Ravenclaw." Rusalka pointed out. The rest of them laughed at that obvious point as they continued to go through the listings, making comments here and there, though Melissa remained mostly silent on commentary. She simply looked at her schedule with a smile on her face.
"What are you so happy about?" Jacinth asked her with some disdain.
"Oh, nothing." Her smile marginally lowered, yet the slow shift in atmosphere made her somewhat bold. "I was just thinking about last year when everyone was picking their electives. Like how people were picking arithmancy or divination, or divination and care of magical creatures, and practically everyone wanted to take ancient runes-"
"What's your point, Bennett?" Jacinth fired off.
She shrugged casually with a slight dismissive whine in her voice. "I'm just saying… I only signed up for arithmancy and ancient runes."
The boy looked at her, puzzled, as did most of the others, but it was Amy and Jacqueline who perked up at the implication. "Hold on!" Amy cried out, swiping the timetable out of Melissa's hand. She studied it for a moment, then looked up to Melissa in shock. "You clever snake!"
"What is it?" Rusalka asked.
"She doesn't have any classes after Friday morning!"
"What!" a few of the others shouted. Melissa continued to stay silent as the timetable was passed around. Sure enough, her Fridays afternoons were off completely, and Thursdays had a free 4th period, giving her full reign from 2:30pm until astronomy at midnight.
"You didn't plan this!" Warrington accused her -or was he technically not accusing her?
"Not exactly. I just followed a pattern, that's all."
Garrick gave her a considerate look. "That's why you didn't take divination." He surmised.
She shrugged in response. "That, among other things."
Jacqueline looked pensively at her own timesheet compared to Melissa's. "I wonder if anyone else figured that out?" The others considered the possibility, curious of the answer and what this year will hold for them with their new classes.
As it turned out, Melissa was either the only person who realized the elective selection pattern, or was simply the only person to exploit it. When they sat at ancient runes for the first period, the seven Slytherins in attendance made quick work to ask after other people's schedules. With twenty-seven out of thirty-eight third years choosing the subject this year, it was easy for them to uncover the answer. In truth, this year's class of ancient runes was the fullest elective course seen in decades. Most students and staff easily guessed the credit of it's sudden popularity to the previous defence teacher, whose metallic and rune-layered arm was the subject of much curiosity. This was a fact that the teacher, Professor Babbling, took in stride. The stern-faced woman worked to enthrall her new students with tales of the feats runes can achieve. Wards, portkeys, wands, and, yes, even astounding metallic limbs (with its own wand-like qualities) are all achievable so long as you have a good understanding of runic languages! It certainly got the students excited at the possibilities. After all, they have all seen the power of runes first-hand with Professor Salvatore.
Speaking of defence teachers, the Slytherins and Gryffindors had their first defence class right after runes. The experience of that class was… mixed.
"Good m-m-morning, class." The turban-wearing Professor Quirrell greeted the group of third years. "N-now, I'm sure you are v-v-very excited to continue your s-st-studies of defence."
A few students shuffled awkwardly in their seats.
"Yes, b-but I see some concerns." He offered them a gently playful smile. "I ap-p-pologize for the m-manner of my speech. T-t-trouble with a hag this Spring, I f-fear." Quirrell shuffled through some notes on his desk, then looked back at the class. "Now, I s-s-see from the last prof-fessor that you should know all class XX crea-t-tures and s-s-ome class XXX ones. He al-s-so left a list of sp-spells you know. All good. V-very good.
"Yes, b-but not-t-t enough!" He stammered loudly, his body rose taking on an air of lecturing command that surprised the students. "As-as you can see, knowl-ledge is good, but cannot help alw-ways." His head turned and body twitched in an uncomfortable way, a discomfort that could be practically felt by the entire class. "I kn-kn-know spells and dark-k creatures, but was harmed b-by the hag. This is because, when spells fail, there is someth-thing I lacked. That is phys-ical ed-ducation!"
Physical education? As in P.E. class? Melissa wondered to herself.
He answered the un-asked question. "Y-yes, phys, ah, physical eduCAtion!" He exclaimed, surpassing the stutter. "You must be able to fight with more than magic, your b-body must be fit, too, to-to fight! S-so, in this class we shall study class XXX creatures, new spells and coun-counterCURses, and t-train your body to survive when all else fails!"
With a wave and stuttered levitation spell, Quirrell produced the year's syllabus and had them float to each occupied desk in the room. When it reached the back of the class, Melissa partially tuned out the professor's stammered speech to read through the syllabus. Indeed, the class was designed just as he said. Magical theory and practical lessons mixed with physical exercises were described throughout the term. Melissa considered that a moment, looking back up to the turbaned professor with a sense of confusion and curiosity. This is a lot more different than I expected.
At the end of the fourth period, Melissa found Harry walking among other Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws on their way to the Great Hall. Harry caught her looking his way, waved, and excused himself from the group to see her.
"Hey, Harry. So, what do you think of wizard school?"
"It's about what I expected." He confessed. "You're right about Binns. It's really hard to pay attention in his class."
Melissa laughed. "No kidding! Did you just have history?"
"No, that was in the morning. We just had a double period of defence."
"Oh? I had that one this morning. …Quirrell's a strange one, isn't he?"
Harry considered the question a moment. "A bit. He seems like he's both afraid and wanting to fight at the same time. It's odd. The stuttering also makes it hard to follow at times."
"Agreed." Just as she turned to walk into the Great Hall, Melissa found herself violently shoved at the shoulder by an older student. Melissa cried out at the sudden pain, and flicked her eyes up to the student, identifying him quickly as one of Slytherin's quidditch beaters, Lucian Bole.
"Watch where you're going, mudblood." Bole sneered over his shoulder as he walked into the Great Hall. Several other Slytherins in his year either smirked or sniggered as they followed after him into the room.
"Hey!" Harry stepped forward at once, only for Melissa's arm to immediately shoot up and block his path.
"Leave it, Harry." She ordered.
"He can't just say stuff like that to you, Melly!" Harry argued.
"There's nothing we can do that will make people like him stop. Believe me, I know it first hand."
Harry's angered expression dissipated, his eyes blinked into worry as he looked at her. "Has it really been this bad?"
Melissa twitched subconsciously, but brought out a small, placating smile. "A couple rude words or hexes isn't the end of the world, kid. No point in getting worked up over the opinions of some dumb bigot."
"There is if it keeps going." Harry pointed out. "If we don't stop him now, where will it end?"
The witch couldn't help but have her smile turn genuine at the boy's gumption. "Heh. Spoken like a true Gryffindor."
Harry looked at her, puzzled. "Melly, I'm in Hufflepuff, remember?"
"Huh?" She looked down reflexively towards his yellow-striped tie. "Oh, right, sorry. Wrong timeline."
"...Right." His eyes flicked over to the Slytherin table before going back to her. "So, any future where we can stop that guy and others like him?"
Melissa shrugged dismissively at the idea. "Doesn't work that way. Besides, the older kids are basically a lost cause, anyways. I have more important things to worry about."
"Like what?"
Her smile turned up a touch sharper. "You'll see."