A/C: FFN's stats have been frozen since Friday the 15th. Anyone else suffering that fact with me? Well, at least I still get reviews.

Friday August 27th, 1993

After last week's… energetic weekend, Melissa felt better prepared for her next excursion. This afternoon Domonkos is hosting a welcome back party in her honour. Since his home is near the magical part of London, her parents insisted on waiting until that day to do her school shopping. She didn't mind the idea, as it meant an extra day to rest up at home. Though it was confusing to be informed that Andromeda and Tonks would be joining them on their trip.

"Really? Why?"

"We'll be in Diagon all day," her mum explained. "With all that's happened, I feel it'd be nicer to have someone teleport us right to the house rather than walk all the way there."

"...Huh. Can't argue with that."

They didn't have long to wait. Andromeda and Tonks arrived soon after breakfast, and the four whisked off to Diagon Alley. Pounds were exchanged quickly at Gringotts, then the mothers split off to do most of the shopping.

"Guess it's just you and me," Tonks grinned. Melissa returned the grin, falling into an easy step as they made their way to Madam Malkin's. Tonks, bless her, chatted away with funny stories about auror training and life in general. Her expressions shifted to match the faces of whomever she talked about. The mimicries had a comical exaggeration, eliciting plenty of laughs as they moved. Being inside of Madam Malkin's was a drag, especially as Melissa found herself in need of all new robes. Even the ones she was wearing she traded in for something off the rack with a better fit. Once that was done, the two went off to Ollivander's. As they did, the conversation changed along with the change of destination.

"Come on, a pretty little thing like you hasn't been on a date? No way no one's asked you!"

"Oh, boys ask me out, I just don't say yes," Melissa waved nonchalantly. That is true. For their first Christmas Hogsmeade weekend Corin had asked her on a date. Then Merton tried his shot on Valentine's Day. Fred did the same thing this year, but that was obviously to get intel on VATIC's plans since Lee left the group, so that hardly counts.

"Hmm… What about the girls?" Tonks asked slyly. "I know there are rules about it, but still…"

"They don't ask me out; but if they did, I'd probably give the same answer. I'm waiting until I graduate."

Tonks' response was incredulous. "You're not the prudish type, are you?! Or…" she leered in close. "Do you prefer someone older?"

"You're one to talk." She gave the other witch a wicked grin. "How is tall, scared, and sandy-haired?"

"What?!" Tonks fell face-first on the ground. She pushed herself up, revealing a whole lot of red. "It was one time! Who told you!"

Melissa stopped walking. Thoughts stilled as she blinked dumbly at the scarlet-haired girl. Then the words snapped into meaning, her eyes going wide. "You two got together already?!"

"SHH!" Tonks threw a hand over her mouth. She whispered aggressively. "Shut up, will you! I thought you said you knew!"

Melissa pulled the hand down, whispering the same way. "I meant with you flirting with him, not that! How did you even pull that off?"

"It wasn't easy, but-" Tonks gave a sigh of defeat, then started walking again. "Look. It was one time. I thought there'd be more to it, but he said it was a mistake. That he was drunk and wasn't thinking straight. I just… I don't know." Her hair shifted to a dull twilight blue. "He keeps making excuses. Saying he's too old, too poor, too dangerous -whatever the hell that means! Just, argh, he's so frustrating! I don't care about money, and he's fit, of course I like him for his age! The dangerous part is so stupid though!"

"He's being ridiculous," Melissa agreed. "Look, if he gives you flack, just give him a muzzle and silver handcuffs, then we'll see who's the dangerous one."

To her side, Tonks shifted into shades of purple and red as she stared incredulously at Melissa. "...Okay, you are definitely not a prude."

"Ha! Never said I was."

They walked for six steps in silence before Tonks could think of a reply. "Hold on… Why silver handcuffs? That's weirdly specific."

The question made Melissa grimace. Did I just out Remus? Fuuuuck. Ah, fuck it, she'll probably find it hot, anyways. "...It's not my place to say. Just remind him that you're an auror in training and can get him on his ass six ways to Sunday for the dozen nights a year he is a danger."

It took a moment, but her eyes eventually widened in understanding. "Ah. I'll keep that in mind."

The conversation faded, just in time as they reached Ollivander's. Tonks offered to wait outside, which likely suited both parties as Tonks now had a lot to think about. Melissa walked inside, and waited for Ollivander to make his entrance.

It didn't take long. "Ah, yes, I did hear your wand had broken."

"Mister Ollivander," She greeted, "you heard it right. Though, considering the circumstances, I'd say that's a good thing."

"Perhaps," the man sighed. "Though it is always a pity to hear of one's craftsmanship being reduced to ash. Now- you are here for a replacement, of course. Spruce and dragon heartstring, naturally. Though you should know that the price is higher for any student's second wand. Eleven galleons."

"Really? I thought all wands are seven galleons?"

"Goodness, no! Wand making is an expensive endeavour. The wand cores alone are a hefty price. However, I have an arrangement with the Ministry so that I am reimbursed the proper price for all first-time purchases, as well as second-time purchases if the wizard is underaged."

"That's a smart deal. …How much are wands really worth, then?"

"That depends on the wand itself," he gave a smile of dark amusement. "Hopefully, Miss Bennett, it is not a question you will ever learn the answer to."

"...Noted."

"Here we are!" Ollivander pulled out five wands and handed one to her. "Spruce and dragon heartstring. Ten inches." Melissa gave it a wave, but a light exploded. "Hmm, perhaps twelve and a quarter inches, instead. A little larger than your original." A few boxes spewed off the shelves.

"That's a problem, isn't it?"

Ollivander hummed. "Perhaps it's not just a matter of outgrowing your old wand. Let's see… no, dogwood wouldn't work either. Maybe pine? Or perhaps…?" He met her eyes, his own calculating as he considered a wand. "One moment." He shuffled around the various shelves. Eventually he came back with three boxes. "I rarely keep silver lime wands in stock for long. Hopefully one will prove a match."

The commentary confused Melissa. Silver lime, is that some sort of birch? They certainly look pale enough, though so was her old wand. "Are they similar to spruce wands?"

"No, certainly not. However silver lime wands are more naturally attuned to the mental arts. Legilimency, divination, etcetera. If what's said about you is true, a silver lime wand will be a good match."

"Ah," So this is a waste of time, then. Still, she obediently took a wand just to humour the man.

"Dragon heartstring. Twelve and a half inches. Unbending."

Her arm flushed with an autumn breeze. A shower of golden sparks flew from the tip of the wand. Wait, what?

"Excellent!" Ollivander clapped his hands together. "I knew silver lime would be a perfect choice. Now, that will be eleven galleons."

"...Sure." She fished the coins out from her left hand. Her eyes unable to stray from the oddity latched into her other hand. I'm never going to live this down, am I?

When the group of four arrived at Domonkos' house, Melissa was immediately taken in by Amy and Jacqueline. The two squeezed her practically as tight as her parents had when she first came home. Their reaction was both funny and endearing, but also far too tight for comfort. "Heh- girls- I need to breathe."

"Sorry!" Jacqueline shouted, and both girls (mostly) let go in the process. "I've just been so worried about you! How are you? Were you treated well? I brought potions from my father's apothecary just in case!"

"Jacqueline, it's alright," Melissa chuckled reassuringly. "Thank you for bringing them. I can take a look later and see if there's anything I need."

"You'd better!" Amy added, though it sounded more like a threat the way she scolded.

"I should say Hi to our host, first. Domonkos!" She waved at said boy with a grin. Domonkos, in turn, gave a relieved smile and welcomed the incoming hug. "How have you been?"

"I'm alright. Better now that you're back." Getting out of the hug, she exchanged niceties with his parents, but was quickly pulled out of the hallway and upstairs to where the others were waiting. It was all familiar faces. Adrian and Garrick were no surprise. Rusalka's appearance was a mild one. Though the biggest shock came from seeing Jacinth and Cassius across the room. "Wystan? Warrington? I'm surprised you two came."

"Their attendance is mandatory," Garrick purred as he glanced over at the other wizards. That comment, and even his tone of voice, sent her on edge. The feeling increased as he locked eyes with her. "We all need to talk."

The Bennetts watched with amusement as Domonkos corralled the children up the stairs. "It's nice to see how excited they all are."

Annabella Soros nodded to Jake. "They've missed her terribly. They were worried, too, of course. Azkaban is a frightening place for even the most hardened criminals."

Jake narrowed his eyes. "Our daughter is not a criminal."

"Jake!" Mary whispered harshly as she pushed a hand against his arm. "Sorry, Mrs. Soros. It's just been a hard time for all of us. We've appreciated what you've done on your end. I know that the Prophet's reports have been 'mixed', but we've seen the difference between your articles and… others."

A strained but polite smile fixed onto Annabella's face. "Yes. Unfortunately journalistic integrity is rather 'mixed' at the Prophet, but I pride myself on reporting the truth, even if it's an uncomfortable one." After a moment's pause, she continued. "Speaking of which, I know the interview with your daughter won't be until after the party, but would you two be amenable to talk about how things have been since her return home? It should only take a few minutes?"

The Bennetts shared a look before answering. "Sounds fine with us." The more they can put their daughter in a good light, the better!

Back in Dom's bedroom, everyone stilled at Garrick's proclamation, looking nervously between the two speakers. "...Fair. Fair. I'm sure you all have lots of questions."

A few mutterings along the lines of "I'll say!" could be heard around the room.

"...Should we wait for everyone else to arrive?"

"No," Garrick answered. "No one else will be coming for another hour. This meeting is just for us, to plan accordingly."

Plan? She looked around the room for help. Jacqueline ended up being the one to step in. "Potter told us what happened, and why you did it. Garrick's father has also let him know why his story isn't matching what's being said in the papers. It does, however, put us in a difficult position of what we should say when we return to Hogwarts."

"Ah. That's a tricky one. Lockhart's planning on publishing the demon version of events, but Dumbledore wants me to go with the 'official story' that Voldemort messed with my head."

"Did he?" Rusalka asked suspiciously.

The question brought a sigh out of Melissa, but she did look her in the eyes and answered, "I have no memories of what he did to me in the forbidden forest or when he kidnapped me. I also don't remember summoning demons out of a ritual or the attack in the caves," she gave a shrug. "Since Lockhart obliviated me I have no way of knowing for sure."

Garrick took that for a segue. "But He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did possess Weasley?"

"He did," she nodded, giving no doubt of that.

"Malfoy's father was arrested for his part in it, Garrick," Jacqueline chastised. "Even Malfoy testified against him. You know He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Name was involved!"

Melissa piped in. "Back up! Draco testified against him?"

"He did," she answered. "He learned about it through his house elf, of all things. Not that a house elf can be a proper witness, of course."

"Okay… but he testified against his own father?"

Adrian answered with a smirk. "Claimed it was the proper thing to do as a citizen of Wizard Britain. He grew up believing that You-Know-Who imperioused his father in the war. To find out that his dad was lying the whole time, and is still involved with him; even after the reveal that You-Know-Who's the half-blood son of a squib… It doesn't look good on Malfoy Senior no matter how you spin it."

"Oh, shit," she blinked, impressed. "I didn't think of it like that."

"If we could get back on topic," Garrick clicked his fingers to grab their attention, "we need to decide on our approach for when we return to school."

Warrington huffed at that. "Is that really something we have to agree on?"

"Yes! Slytherins need to stick together. We've already seen the consequences of what happens when we don't." A shiver went through the room and Garrick continued. "Like it or not, we need to be a united front. If others sense any division they will tear us apart. We cannot let that happen!" He crossed his arms, speaking with authority. "The whole school knows that Lockhart exaggerates his work, so we'll mention the Tricksters but mix in part of the official story to say that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named warped Melissa's protections to fight against her. She was only arrested to appease the victims within the Sacred Twenty-Eight, but she was NOT found directly responsible. The real accomplice has been put away. The matter is settled. Agreed?"

"Agreed," the group answered.

Once details were hashed out by the group, they went downstairs just as more guests arrived. Melissa offered a reassuring nod towards her mother and the Tonks', then let herself be distracted by the new arrivals. To her surprise, each person that came was genuinely excited to see her. They all asked after her health, a question frequently answered with "as long as I get a slice of that chocolate cake" or another cheerful quip along those lines.

There was another pattern that Melissa was quick to notice. One she asked slyly at Domonkos. "Did you really just invite everyone from VATIC?"

"Not everyone. Our dorm-mates are all here, aren't they?" He teased her. "My parents gave a limit of twenty friends, so I only invited people in our year. Not everyone's in our group, though."

Could have fooled her! Soon enough every person that is or was a member of VATIC was in attendance. The only exception to that rule was Sierra, who came running in a half-hour late, panting from exertion and with her cloak bundled into her arms. "Sorry I'm late! I thought I had time to get some school books, first, but this thing is a menace!"

As if on queue, her arms jerked about, the bundle moving like mad. At once, Alicia shrieked. "Oh no! You brought it here?!"

"I'm sorry! I was already late and there's no way I'd have time to put it away."

The curiosity was eating at Melissa. "What is that?"

"Our new Creatures textbook," Merton groaned.

"It's practically a creature, itself!" Rusalka huffed.

"A textbook?" The fact that the bundle was growling certainly put doubt to the idea. That said… something about that concept creeped into her conscious mind. She raised her hands out to Sierra. "May I?"

"Uh, sure?"

The bundle thrashed, stumbling out of Sierra's hands. Fortunately Melissa moved so that it landed in her arms. Sitting back down, she unwrapped the cloak, exposing the fanged book. It launched at her hand, and she jerked away from the teeth, moving towards the spine. "There, there, it's okay," she said quietly, stroking the spine. The thrashing stopped, and the book purred. "That's it. You're alright, now," she cooed. "There we go. All better now." The book's cover opened softly, then stopped moving altogether.

The rest of the room watched the taming in jaw-dropping silence. Finally, Lee spoke. "How did you know how to do that?!"

"Hagrid tells you," she answered, still stroking the book in peaceful motions. "Kettleburn retired. Hagrid's going to be your new Care professor."

"How do you know that?"

"How do you think, idiot?!" Jacinth hissed. "She's a seer, remember?!"

Melissa decidedly avoided most people's eyes. Choosing, instead, to re-wrap the book and give it back to a now-grateful Sierra. "Thanks. …Anything else we should know? About the class, I mean. I've never seen him use a wand."

"Hmm, right. He's not very good at it," Melissa considered the question with a shrug. "He's going to bring out hippogriffs in his first class. One of the third years will be attacked- actually, wait, that part isn't certain anymore."

Awkward silence followed. Jacinth was the one to break it. "Just how much of the future do you usually see?!"

"Honestly, it comes and goes," she answered with a shrug. "And sometimes things don't work out the way I see it. I usually just ignore it unless it's something really important."

Stephanie frowned at that. "Is being attacked by a hippogriff not important?"

Melissa's answer came sardonic. "I've been a little distracted lately."

That shut up that line of conversation. People started to break off into small groups of conversation. Melissa stayed with Sierra for a while longer as the girl asked about her time in Azkaban. The first couple of questions were the same as the others. The next, not so much. "So is it true that you're immune to dementors?"

"What?!" A squeak of a laugh came out of her. "You're kidding, right?"

"Of course not! There was an article about it!"

Amy then entered the conversation. "That's the theory they're running with, anyways. Hey, Dom, do you have that article on you?"

"Heh, we have every paper here," he answered. "I'll grab the ones that mention you. One moment."

In the waiting time, Melissa took a chance to point out that obviously she isn't immune. (But, wow, she wished!) When Domonkos returned, he had a small stack of Prophet papers with him. The top one had an old article titled Innocence or Madness? New Inmate Immune to Dementors!

By Rita Skeeter, because of course an idea that stupid would come from her. Melissa read through the article with masochistic curiosity. Weirdly, the article had witness testimony from both a former inmate, "JR", and an anonymous source. Both claimed that Azkaban's aura changed with her arrival. That the place has transformed from a Hellish dichotomy of screams and catatonic silence, to a place full of singing and laughter. Which- okay- that is true, but the article was running weird theories as to why. On one hand, Melissa was either insane enough that the dementors can't affect her or was 'protected' by Voldemort's (or demonic) possession. On the other hand, perhaps she's just such a sweet and innocent person that the dementors have decided to only focus on eating the real criminals of Azkaban. After all, the article pointed out, Sirius Black was innocent and said to be surprisingly sane despite his ten year incarceration. The article went so far as to use her age and her various "public persona" factors to weigh into that idea. It was a lovely thought, but still…

"This is some of the dumbest shit I've ever seen." She handed back the paper to Domonkos. "Don't get me wrong, I did act like that while I was there. But I did that because I needed it. You can't expect me to sit around for three months and do nothing. That'd be boring as hell."

With a smile and a headshake, Amy muttered. "Only you could go to Azkaban and be worried about boredom."

"What can I say? You know me well."

"I have another question," Sierra hedged back in. "I'm sorry for asking, but what do you remember about- you know-?"

"The attack?" At Sierra's nod, she replied. "Not a thing. One minute I was reeling over Rachel and Eloise telling me that Ravenclaw's common room doesn't have a floor anymore; the next minute, I'm waking up in a panic, because I can tell that somebody's been in control of my body, but not knowing why."

"Wow! That's horrible!"

"It is."

Despite the sad tone, there came a giggle from a few feet away. "Oh, goodness, I almost forgot about that!" Said Eloise. She offered Melissa a wide smile. "With everything that's happened, you probably don't know this; but it turns out they never vanished the floor."

"Wait, really?"

"They cast a sort of invisibility charm on it, then carved and activated levitation runes on all of the furniture so that they only looked like they were floating over nothing. We didn't realize it until someone tripped while trying to hop across the furniture. It was scary, but also really funny once we realized what happened."

"That really is impressive," Melissa giggled. "I can only imagine what they'll come up with this year."

"It'll be interesting."

"I'm not looking forward to it," Kenneth shuddered. "I just know they're going to be harder to room with this year. I can't exactly take points from them without getting payback for it."

"Want me to cover for you?" Cedric asked. "I'm sure we can figure out a system."

Lee interrupted before Kenneth could answer. "Hey, what about me?"

"You'll be on our list, too," Cedric teased him.

"Oh," Melissa finally realized what they were talking about, "did you two get prefect?"

"We did."

"Me, too," Stephanie added.

"And me" -"So did I," Jacqueline and Garrick added simultaneously.

"Oh, wicked! Congratulations!" They all responded in thanks to her. Giving a wink, she added, "So, when school comes, I'm sticking by you five, right?"

"Of course!"

"It's what friends are for, right?"

"Right," she answered. "Wouldn't have it any other way!"