August 12th, 1992

Melissa arrived at Harry's flat on schedule. With fiery determination she entered the living area where Harry and Mister Salvatore stood making small talk. Both wizards greeted her; however, she didn't respond. Instead, she walked straight up to their defence tutor …and fell to her knees. Her hands clasped before him in prayer.

"Marcello Salvatore," she intoned, "in the name of all that is holy and sacred in this world, PLEASE send the next defence professor your teaching notes for Hogwarts!"

There was a pause. Her face remained earnest and pleading. Eventually, Harry had to laugh. "What are you going on about?"

"You got your Hogwarts letter, didn't you?"

"Yes." He answered. "Mister Salvatore and I were just talking about it. There are a lot of books, sure, but I don't see what's wrong with them."

"It's not the books, it's him!"

"The professor?"

"Yes! Lockhart is going to be the next professor! I don't know why! You would think Dumbledore could hire someone qualified in defence, but nooooooo instead we have to deal with him!"

Harry snickered at the rant. "He can't be that bad of a teacher?"

"Bad? Bad would be generous. He cannot teach for shit! That pompous, lilac-loving, toothy idiot isn't going to offer a single nugget of knowledge and it's going to kill my sanity!" She fixed her attention back to Salvatore. "Seriously, all he's going to do is make us reenact his books unless you give him something to work with. It's the only chance we have. PLEASE!"

In a rare showing from their defence tutor, Salvatore tried -and failed- to hold in laughter. "Very well, if you insist." He answered, chuckling all the while.

Melissa immediately bent back in relief, though her hands were still clasped together as they fell dramatically. "Oh, thank god!"

It was then that Harry startled with realization. "Hold on! He knows?!" He looked between Salvatore and Melissa, bewildered.

Oh… Melissa looked at the two of them for a moment. She had spent the entire ride over here so fixated on the cringe that is Lockhart, that she failed to realize the consequences of her plea. "Oh. Um… he kind of found out a while back. Apparently seeing possible futures is a "security risk"." She air-quoted the final words, giving a truthful credit to the reveal.

Despite the reveal, Salvatore offered the children a warm smile. "Indeed. Hopefully we can prevent such risks in the future. Though you should know, Mister Potter, that you and I are the only ones aware of her gift. Your godfather and Mister Lupin have their suspicions, of course, but I felt it best to not validate such thoughts. A confirmed Seer is always at risk for being accosted by eager or ambitious wizards."

"Yeah, Melly was pretty adamant about that when I found out." Harry looked over at his friend. "Though, really, you're the one who needs to be careful about being found out. What if Uncle Sirius had been here?"

"Yeah…" She sighed, unhappily. "He's already gone to Moony's for the night?"

"He did. I already have my things packed."

"Great. So, lessons first, and then John Williams Marathon: Part 2!"

Harry laughed over her excitement. "You're really determined to have me watch all of them, aren't you?"

"Not all, just the best." She sniffed.

Salvatore raised a brow over the exchange. "Dare I ask?"

"She had me watch six movies last month!"

"Pfft! You say that like you didn't like them. "

Harry smiled, despite giving a conflicting retort. "I'd like them better if you'd keep from miming dramatically or trying to shark-bite me like a maniac."

"So… what you're saying is, don't pull levitation pranks on the Weasleys while we watch Star Wars?"

Harry actually had to stop and ponder that before answering. "As long as I'm not the one being distracted, what you do to the others is fair game."

The compromise was met with a shark-like grin. "You've got yourself a deal!"


August 13th

As noon approached, Mary went through the collection of snacks and plastic kitchenware with careful evaluation. "Seems you've been busy." She smiled with amusement.

"Of course! You didn't think I'd just sic a bunch of teenagers on you, did you?" Her daughter teased.

"Oh, I don't doubt I will have to come in here at some point." Mary teased back. "But it looks like everything is set. You have a notepad for when you're ready for pizza?"

"Over there on the table." She gestured.

"Perfect."

Harry then piped in. "And you remember our deal, right? No dramatics during the movie."

Melissa rolled her eyes at the insistence, and groaned with a "Yes, dad."

From the hallway, Jake jumped into the room with a dramatic flare. "No! I am your father!"

"SPOILERS!" She shouted back, but cackled into laughter.

Harry blinked at the exchange. "I don't get it." He murmured, but Melissa quickly waved him off, claiming that she'd explain the joke at another time.

Shortly after they were interrupted by the doorbell. Jacqueline and Corin were the first to arrive, the former being apprehensive over her first excursion to a muggle home, the latter simply excited to introduce fellow magicals to, quote, "the greatest trilogy of all time". Later came Harry's friends, Hannah and Kevin, followed soon after by the three youngest Weasley boys and -to Melissa's surprise- Cedric Diggory.

"Cedric? What are you doing here?" Her head perked curiously at the dark-haired boy.

Cedric blinked in confusion, glancing quickly at the now-snickering twins, before giving her a sheepish look. "Sorry for dropping in. I ran into Fred and George in the morning and they said it was an open invitation." He glanced back at the twins, the accusing look meeting their cheeky grins.

She offered the poor boy a reassuring smile. "That's alright. This is meant to be a whole 'teach purebloods about muggle culture' thing, anyways, so it works."

"Really?" Cedric blinked in surprise and gave a relieved remark. "Oh, then this can be useful for muggle studies." The group was then led into the den, and the attendees all greeted each other. Cataloguing who was in the room, Cedric turned back to Melissa. "Is Stephanie not coming?"

"No. She's visiting family in France. I couldn't convince Garrick to come, either, but that was likely more his parents' decision."

"It should be fine, even if they can't be here." Jacqueline added. She raised a sheet of parchment in her hand as she spoke. "I promised Garrick to take notes for him, maybe you can do the same for Egalitaire?"

Cedric mused at the suggestion before offering a nod. "Sure. I can do that."

Between them, Melissa alternated her stares at the two purebloods. At last she settled on Jacqueline and muttered. "...Of course you planned on taking notes. Why am I even surprised?" She shook her head, quietly whispering "I'm surrounded by nerds" in exasperation.

Catching on to her annoyance, Harry broke into a cheeky smile. "If you two want to make this a more muggle experience, Melly has some spiral notebooks and pens in her room. You should take your notes on those."

The host instantly levelled him with a stare. "Really, kid?"

"That's a great idea!" The Weasley twins piped in, their hands instantly on the boy's shoulders, pushing him forward. "Lead the way!"

They sped off without a hitch, pushing Harry with them out to the hallway. By the time their footsteps crashed up the stairway, it finally dawned on Melissa what they were doing. "HEY! NO PRANKSTERS ALLOWED IN MY ROOM!"


One crashed shelf, five notebooks, and ten bowls of popcorn later, the group finally settled down in front of the telly for their first film of the night. With a group this chaotic, ground rules had to be set. Questions would be noted for after the show/bathroom breaks, prank objects were banned entirely, along with any attempts by Corin and Melissa to quote or hum along with the film.

So, naturally, everything fell apart within the first minute.

"I already have too many questions." Hannah lamented as she scribbled in her notebook.

"Is a space station a star that can kill things?" A Weasley asked.

"That can't be possible." Another replied.

"The power to destroy an entire PLANET?!" Cedric exclaimed.

"...Now you see why I didn't bring them to a sci-fi show last time?"

Corin nodded sagely. "...Yeah. Somehow I imagined this wouldn't be as shocking as Mortianna."

A few more minutes in and they had to concede in pausing the video just to explain space stations, droids, aliens, muggle (futuristic) weapons, and why they were starting the day with number 4 instead of the first three "episodes". It didn't quite satisfy everyone's curiosity, but the explanations were enough to help the wizard-raised kids get by as the film progressed. They watched for nearly an hour as the protagonists fled Tatooine out into space. Then came the moment of Alderaan's destruction, and most of the children jumped or yelped when the planet exploded, the likes of which most had never seen or even contemplated before. Though quickly the scene changed, bringing them back aboard the Millennium Falcon. There, Luke Skywalker was practicing using the lightsaber against an armed robotic sphere. During this training, Obi-Wan Kenobi advised him on how the Force both dictates actions and can be manipulated by a Jedi. Though it made little difference when the sphere fired again.

"YOW!" One of the Weasley Twins yelped in an explosion of popcorn. Everyone else backed away in surprise at the shout.

"Oy! What was that all about?" Ron complained as he brushed popcorn off his shoulders.

"I don't know. Something hit me." The Twin winced as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Probably just a bug." Harry offered the older boy. The others, too, nodded and returned to the movie, ignoring as the boy continued to rub his neck.

"I suggest you try it again, Luke." Obi-Wan spoke, giving the boy a helmet with the blast-shield down to block his vision. "Your eyes can deceive you. Don't trust them." The lightsaber turned on, and the sphere fired again.

"OY!" The other Twin jumped sideways against his brother. Though, unlike the former, this brother rubbed against his shoulder. To a trained eye, one might even think he had been hit in the same spot as Skywalker.

But that would be mere coincidence, of course.

As the group eventually settled back into the film, Harry side-eyed the host of the party; only catching her attention once she had already positioned a popcorn kernel high into the air. Face fixed to a frown, he pointed to the kernel, raised three fingers, then pointed to the screen and made a "turning off" motion.

Her mouth silently whined "Fine!" and the popcorn kernel slowly hovered it's way back into the bowl. For now.


Everyone cheered as the credits rolled on Return of the Jedi. The trilogy had been a success and the wizard-raised, while confused on many occasions, found themselves ensnared in the wondrous sci-fi universe. As they munched on pizza (yet another novel experience for most of the children) the preteens found themselves in deep discussion over alien worlds and theories on a link between magic and the Force. The teenagers, on the other hand, found themselves in the midst of a brainstorm as George and Fred Weasley convinced the lot to work out how they could invent their own lightsaber.

"If you try this, you will definitely get someone killed." Corin argued.

"That's no different than a wand, though." Melissa mused over a sketch of a magical lightsaber.

"It's absolutely different." George grinned. "This would be a sword, a sword that can deflect spells!"

"And slice an arm off." Corin countered.

Fred laughed at the counter. "What, and a regular sword can't?"

Eyes on another sketch, Cedric popped into the conversation. "Oh! What if we combine a kenaz rune matrix and an eihwaz matrix to keep the light stable?"

George shook his head. "No, I think an algiz would make more sense than eihwaz. It will be better at deflecting spells that way."

"But then what's to stop the light from going out of control?" Cedric argued.

"The eihwaz can be part of the kenaz matrix." Melissa offered.

"An inner ring!" Fred exclaimed. "Then we have an outer algiz ring to deflect!"

"That's brilliant!" George immediately jotted the ideas down into the notebook.

As he scribbled, a quiet voice chimed in. "...It needs thurizan."

"What?"

The other teens all turned to Corin. His head was bowed into his hand, eyes closed as if regretting or questioning his own actions. "Algiz is only useful for defence," he said, "but thurizan can be both destruction and defence. It also can be used as a purging or 'cleansing fire' quality that can enhance the overall look of a lightsaber. It's the best rune someone can use as the keystone for a matrix."

The others looked at him in a mix of surprise and awe. Corin, though, merely opened his eyes and shrugged. "Just because I think making a lightsaber is a bad idea doesn't mean I haven't already thought of how to pull it off."

The twins beamed at the Ravenclaw, eyes twinkling with glee. "You're hired!"

Corin broke into a small smile. "I'll pass, but thanks."

"Come on, Corin, this will be brilliant!" Fred argued.

George then chimes in. "Search your instincts, young Joyce. You know it to be true!"

"Maybe try pulling a Jedi mind trick on me. Then we'll see." Corin teased.

"Very well!" Fred dramatically raised his hand out towards Corin. "You want to build a lightsaber."

"I do not want to build a lightsaber." Corin snickered.

"Use the Force, Fred." George encouraged with a sage voice.

Fred tried again, with the darker flair of Darth Vader. "You want to build a lightsaber because it is awesome and together we will split the profits and rule the galaxy!"

Corin threw a hand to his heart in mock protest. "No! I will not submit to the Dark Side!"

Melissa jumped in on the fun. "Yes, Lonestar! Deny the dark side of the Schwartz so that I may get more of the profits!"

Both twins stopped their Jedi posturing to face her. "What?"

"No!" Corin threatened with a warning finger. "We are not bringing the Schwartz into this!"

"What's the Schwartz?" Cedric asked.

"I'm glad you asked!" Melissa grinned.

"No!" Corin protested. "Stop her before it's too late!"

"HEY, EVERYBODY! WHO WANTS TO SEE ONE MORE MOVIE?"


Author's Commentary

With the amount of times I reference Star Wars in this story, you'd think I'd have watched the original trilogy more than twice.

Fun PZ fact! Since I've missed a lot of classic/popular films growing up, I spent part of 2020 watching a lot of John Williams films for research purposes (all for the first time except for HA and SW). I got to see Jaws, Home Alone, the three Indiana Jones flicks, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman I & II, the Star Wars trilogy, and E.T. So these ended up being all of the movies Melissa and Harry watched for their movie nights.