Monday May 6th, 1991

"Today is a good day." Melissa purred, basking in the afternoon sun. Around the grassy knoll, her Slytherin yearmates were also enjoying the warm weather. Amy, Adrian, Jacinth, and Warrington were playing a short-hand game of quidditch somewhere above them; Jacqueline and Garrick were playing a game of wizard chess; Domonkos was lounging on a rock close by with his sketchbook; while Melissa and Rusalka were messing around with a game of gobstones.

"You know we still have Astronomy tonight, Bennett?" Rusalka pointed out as she aimed her playpiece.

Melissa shooed the naysayer away. "Doesn't change facts. Sun is shining, there's no homework to worry about, it's a good day all around." And a couple letters sent out yesterday certainly helps to lighten the mood.

"Well aren't you a basket of sunshine." Her opponent smirked.

"I suppose with the right transfiguration, I could be."

Rusalka launched her stone, but overshot it's target. The redhead frowned and gave her a stink eye. "You mind keeping the weird thoughts to yourself when I'm concentrating?"

The girl with butterscotch hair smirked. "I was only replying to your own comment. Was I at least a pretty looking basket?"

Rusalka rolled her eyes. "No. Though you'd make a nice chamberpot."

"A what?"

"Please refrain from describing a chamberpot, Ignatov." Garrick pleaded with exasperation. The girls glanced his way to find him frowning at the chess board.

"Is Jacqueline kicking your butt, Orpington?" Melissa teased.

The purebloods gave varying expressions of disdain at the comment, though Jacqueline showed at least some amusement from two years of sharing a dorm with the uncouth muggleborn.

"It's a… challenging match." He confessed, opting to ignore correcting the other girl's language. At this rate, there wasn't much hope in trying.

The four of them pondered over the board, though Jacqueline was more thinking up her own strategies than worrying of Garrick's situation, and the gobstone girls weren't overanalyzing the boy's options. "You think learning arithmancy will help you when you play wizard chess?" Melissa thought aloud.

"In terms of calculating probabilities, it's possible." The boy considered. He paused for a moment, and looked her way. "Are you considering taking arithmancy next year? I would have taken you for someone who would take divination or care of magical creatures."

Melissa shrugged at the topic change and kept her eyes on the board. "Maybe? I've heard that arithmancy has more accurate future seeing abilities, and I had good grades in muggle maths, so I'd probably have better luck there than by reading tea leaves."

"That's true, but there's more to the class than divination." Garrick insisted. "It also helps with spell crafting, potion making, alchemy, herbology, and other things."

Melissa hummed over that extra information. "Sounds pretty cool. Though also kind of difficult." She confessed.

"If you're taking it for all of those fancy reasons, then why are you taking Muggle Studies?" Rusalka half-sneered. "No offense, to the both of you, but isn't a class like that… beneath you?" Her eyes half-flicked to Jacqueline at that comment, since she, too, signed up for the class. Despite the obvious malicious meaning, the muggleborn didn't let the comment get to her. By pureblood mindsets, she had a point.

Instead of bristling, Garrick gave a cunning yet practiced smile. "Understanding the way muggles think and behave has it's benefits, especially when it comes to maneuvering through the Ministry."

Melissa casually leaned over to Jacqueline. "He's doing the politics thing again, isn't he?" She whispered. A question which brought out a quiet snicker from the other girl.

Garrick didn't let the comment foul his expression. "My point still stands. My parents both agree that it will be useful to me in the long-term."

"They are right." An extra voice added in. The preteens all turned to Domonkos, who was still keeping his eyes on his sketchbook as he spoke. "My family has had much success by understanding the way muggles are. It will be a good class."

The girls all mulled over the thought, curious over how much help it could really be. Melissa had her own guesses for potential opportunities, but it was nothing she could foresee going beyond the current secrecy laws, aside from the galleons to gold scheme she and her aunt were already doing on the side.

Rusalka looked over at each of the two boys and gave a huff and stood upwards. "Whatever, I still think it's a pointless class. Not much to know about muggles, as far as I'm concerned."

Melissa watched the girl walk away, but couldn't be bothered calling her back to try and change the girl's mind. "She's not right, but I suppose most witches think that way." She shrugged.

"Unfortunately." Jacqueline nodded. "It's too bad. I find the articles you and Corin receive on muggle discoveries to be interesting. There's a lot we can learn from them."

"Absolutely! And just wait until that world wide web stuff gets popular. I have a feeling it's going to be huge in what we can learn."

Jacqueline gave her a puzzled look. "I thought you said you don't know how the world wide web works?"

"I don't." She admitted, "Just call it a hunch; or, no, an act of divination!" She proclaimed with an air of mystery.

The other three chuckled at the proclamation, then turned to their own activities. Melissa sat around to watch the chess game as Garrick and Jacqueline closed out a heated match, with Jacqueline winning out in the end.

"I was thinking, since you three are the only ones in our House taking Muggle Studies next year, would you like to come to my home sometime? I could show you around muggle London?"

Jacqueline and Garrick both looked surprised at the offer, a small look of concern on their faces. "Thank you for the offer, but I will have to speak with my parents and have their permission first."

"Same with me." Jacqueline added.

"No problem." Melissa dismissed their worry. "I figured that would be an issue for you. How about you, Domonkos? Are you staying in Britain this summer?"

"Not for long." He confessed. "I will only be in London for a few days before heading to Hungary to see my cousins."

"Hmm, alright then. I'll try to find something for us to do before that." She promised.

Wednesday May 15th, 1991

"Ta-da!" Melissa sang out, brandishing a handful of letters from her owl's, albeit late, evening post. She twirled around the middle of the aisle and started handing out the letters.

"What's this?" Jacqueline asked as she received hers.

"They're invitations to my birthday party!" Melissa answered with cheer.

"Isn't your birthday next month?" Jacinth asked.

Adrian nodded. "We celebrated with you last year."

"Yes, yes, but that was at school." Nobody bothered to point out to the little witch that it's because her birthday lands before they leave for home. "This party will be at my home. Well, specifically at a cinema. My parents said they'll have a room rented out for us."

"A cinema?" Jacqueline asked.

"It's a theatre for muggles." Domonkos explained.

At that point, Warrington, Jacinth, and Rusalka looked at their letters with varying levels of disgust. "As if I'd go to some muggle place." Warrington proclaimed, flinging the paper onto the table.

"Hey, if you don't want to come, don't come. Nobody's forcing you, Warrington." She looked over at the gaggle of nervous purebloods and gave them a considerate look. "There's over a month until the party. You all have time to ask your families. Plus, the invitation has all of the information they'll need to know." That seemed to put a few of them at ease as they looked at the colourful invitation inside.

Amy looked at her own invitation with a puzzled look. "Melissa, the date's set for the 23rd." Some others took note and reread the invitation and realized the same problem.

"That's the day after we arrive home." Adrian stated the obvious. "Isn't this a little early for an event?"

"Eh… I suppose. But it's already a week after the 16th and it felt weird to have a party that much longer after." She explained. "Plus, Domonkos said he's leaving that week so I wanted to plan something soon."

The others had different opinions on the matter, but the invitation was already set and the room reserved, so that issue was too late to be dealt with. "Well, hopefully it won't be too big of an issue. If there is, we can always meet up another time over the Summer." She promised her Slytherin yearmates. "I have to go spread around the other invitations, but let your parents know as soon as you can!" She waved off the instruction before running off to the other tables with her invites.

"A muggle cinema, eh?" Fred read over the invitation with a look of intrigue.

"Dad will get a kick out of this." George added.

They both looked at her with consideration. "You're letting us come?" They asked.

Melissa smirked at their confusion. "Well it's not like you can do magic outside of Hogwarts, so I figure it will be safe enough." Her hand gestured with a so-so movement. If she were to be honest, she was bound to fall prey to something with them around, but it felt like it could be a fun idea, regardless. "Also, since I'm pretty sure a lot of the people I'm inviting won't make it, I got my parents to agree that you guys can bring your siblings along if the numbers are low. You have another brother and sister coming to Hogwarts, right?"

"Ron is." They both said. "Ginny's coming the year after." George added.

"Ah, fair enough. If they both want to come, that will probably be fine. I'll let you know later when the RSVPs come in."

"What, no invitation for me?" Donaghan teased as Melissa finished handing out invitations during music club.

"That depends, does an adult fresh out of Hogwarts want to spend a day with a bunch of soon-to-be third years?" She teased right back.

The older teen grimaced at the obvious point, but gave a tight smile. "Are you at least checking out Predator 2?"

"I wish." She lamented. "As if I'd be allowed to watch that out of home. I'll have to wait until next summer on VHS."

"True. I can't imagine a lot of wizard students being able to handle a movie like that, anyhow. So what will you be seeing?" He asked.

"Not sure. Once everyone RSVPs my parents will see what tickets are available and let me know." She explained.

"Ah, that sounds like a good plan."

"Oh, speaking of plans, I do have something for you." She fished out another envelope and handed it to him.

"What is it?" He asked as he opened up the letter. Instead of answering, she allowed Donaghan to read it, and watched as his eyes grew to saucers. "You're serious?"

"For once, yes." She answered with a smile.

"Your dad will really let us record at his studio?"

"Yup! Not for free, mind you, but he's offering a discount since he can't really have too much staff around in case… you know." she twirled her wand around to emphasize the point.

"That's… that's fantastic!" He cheered. "I'll have to send owls to Duke and Wagtail. They'll be thrilled! Thank you, Melissa!"

"You're welcome, Donaghan. Us musical muggleborns have to stick together, right?"

The older boy laughed at the girl's mischievous smirk. "Suppose you're right. Let me know how your lot handles a night at the movies."

"Will do!" She grinned.

Author's Note: Thus ends Year 2 of TLS. See you next week!