A/C: Has anyone else been super out of it this January? I feel like I haven't been able to get anything productive done. Fingers crossed that February is kinder on the mind.

Thursday November 3rd, 1994

It felt odd taking double potions twice in one day, yet Melissa made sure not to complain upon entering the classroom for her second round that evening. After all, she did ask for this.

In a surprise showing, she gave the professor a slight bow. "Thank you for giving me this opportunity, Professor."

"Your attempts at humility are noted," he said drily. "You may begin working on making the Dreamless Sleep Potion."

"Yes, Sir." She got to work immediately: crushing wormwood into a paste, stripping lavender into a workable size, and so on. She put all of her focus into making the potion; knowing that, as the sole student in the room, she was under Snape's full attention. True to form, the professor gave the occasional disparaging comment, though it was surprisingly less than she expected. Melissa finished the potion at a decent time, producing a potion of galaxy purple. She brought it up to Snape for grading. He gave it a visual and olfactory inspection while Melissa fidgeted in place.

"Hmph. Not bad, Miss Bennett. Not enough for intense traumas, but well enough to help those with mild insomnia or problematic dreaming. Exceeds Expectations."

With that pronouncement, Melissa blinked in happy surprise. "Thank you, Professor. …Don't suppose I could take some of it, since it's not a super strong dose?"

Snape gave an unimpressed look. "Do you suffer from troubling dreams, Miss Bennett?"

Melissa took a breath, yet found herself unwilling to answer. Instead, she just gave him a look. A staring contest moved between them. It seemed to communicate enough as, with a difficult look, Snape responded, "For this batch, I would recommend a maximum of five doses over the course of a fortnight, and no longer, to prevent any risk of addiction."

"Thank you, Sir."

A pause fell between them as Melissa moved to grab a few doses worth. While she did, Snape considered his words.

"Have you spoken with Mister Potter since Monday?"

Melissa paused in her work, but only briefly. "No, I haven't."

"I see." He then continued in an almost casual manner, "I can hardly imagine a fourth year having any success in this tournament. More likely than not, he'll have to use any and every magic at his disposal just to survive."

She gave a hum of agreement, then flashed him a cheeky smile, "It's okay to just admit that you're worried about him. You're in welcome company here."

Weirdly, Snape looked surprised at those words. Then there was a softer expression, one she couldn't recognize, having never seen it on Snape. It moved on quickly from that expression into one of exasperation. "Be that as it may, as your Head of House it is worth asking- knowing he may resort to any and all magic available to him, are you prepared to watch the boy risk death?"

Huh?

…Oh. "Ah." I totally misread what this conversation's about. "No, I suppose not. Though, if it helps, I'm planning on talking to him after our VATIC meeting on Sunday. You know, give him some tips on what kind of magic is safe to try out."

His expression was unmoved. Silence fell, and Melissa fidgeted in place. Maybe she still isn't understanding what this conversation is about?

"Considering your… delicate constitution," Snape said, "I advise that you record any lingering symptoms you experience over the next few weeks. I would hate to have to attend to a student because they fell into hysterics while in the middle of spectating one of the Triwizard tasks."

Melissa bit down a flash of annoyance, but she can't deny the truth of his words, even if she disagreed on the terms of "hysterics" and "delicate constitution".

"Actually, I wanted to ask you about a possible solution to that." She paused briefly, then asked, "Have you ever heard of a parting stone?"

"A what?"

"A parting stone. Sorry, I don't know if that's a thing yet here or just something I heard about before in the muggle world," she removed a few select items from her satchel as she continued, "It's this concept of turning a loved one's ashes into stones. I'm not sure exactly how it works, but I remember reading that they use some kind of binding agent on the ashes and then bake it- or something- into a few stones."

"That is most certainly not 'a thing' in the wizarding world, nor have I heard of this process in the muggle world."

"Ah. Spoilers, then."

Out of her sight, Snape shivered for unknown reasons. "What exactly is the point of this conversation, Miss Bennett?"

Melissa clicked her tongue nervously, "Well… Fawkes thinks that I might be able to protect myself from certain energies with some kind of amulet focused on 'life energy'." She placed a large flask and two phials on his desk, "and he donated some of his tears, feathers, and ashes as potential bases when he flamed back into a chick."

Eyes wide, Snape stared at the materials, then looked back up at her. "Are you certain this will work?"

"No, but I trust Fawkes, and he thinks that it's possible. What do you think?"

Snape thought for a long time before answering slowly, "I think …there may be some merit to this. However, this is out of my expertise. A protective amulet, like you're proposing, will require careful calculations, charmswork, and possibly more, as you are dealing with protection from a very specific and powerful form of magic that none can truly fight against." He gave her a musing look. "Generally speaking, Independent Study Projects are only allowed for seventh year students. However, considering the circumstances, I can sign off on an official ISP for you. It will give you easier approval into books listed in the Restricted Section, and the other professors will be more willing to teach you spells relevant to your research. Though I do caution discretion when speaking to the other professors."

Throughout this offer, Melissa's eyes had gone wide. She had long been planning on using her ISP to make an automaton orchestra tied to charmed parchment and dictaquills for speedy compositions …but, yeah, this is obviously a better idea (for her health, if nothing else). "Makes sense. I- I can also ask the Headmaster if he has any nuggets of wisdom for what the Flamels needed to make the Philosopher's Stone. There's bound to be some ingredients or processes that are useful to making this kind of amulet."

Snape flashes her a suspicious look. "That is dangerous territory, Miss Bennett."

"So is being friends with the M.O.D." She rolled her eyes, "Look, I have no interest in living forever. I'm already living my own weird version of that, and it's more than enough for me."

He considered her words; admitting, reluctantly, to the truth of it. He pulled a sheet of parchment out of his desk and handed it to her. "This is an example copy of an ISP proposal. I expect a full proposal for your project by the end of next week. We are doing this by the book, but with discretion from all who do not already know about your situation. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal …uh- Sir," she added hastily.

"Good. Then you are dismissed."

Friday November 4th, 1994

Upon arriving at Ancient Studies, the class had to do a double-take as their numbers seemed to have quadrupled overnight. "Lev? You're taking this class, too?"

"Of course. I did say ve are taking ze special classes, right?"

"True. I heard some people have joined Divination, Muggle Studies, and Creatures class. Guess I didn't think a lot of people would be taking this class, too." It was true, of the fifty-ish international students, it appeared that half of them had joined the class. Melissa noted with interest that Fleur Delacour is here, currently speaking with Patricia and Kenneth. Unfortunately, it seemed like the rest of her Hogwarts cohorts were ogling the Veela girl rather than preparing for class. In light of that, she walked right over to Corin and Domonkos, and promptly slapped both of them upside the head.

"Ow!"

"What was that for?!"

"For not getting your shit together. You better have not been like this in your last class."

"I-" Domonkos was at a loss of words. Though the sudden flush of shame said enough.

"Consider yourself lucky that Eloise didn't dump you then and there."

"What about me?" Corin asked, "I don't have a girlfriend!"

"You still have to get your shit together. I don't care how strong her allure is, it's rude to stare. Speaking of which-" she gave another whack, this time to Garrick, "you're embarrassing yourselves. At least Kenneth has some class."

Garrick and Domonkos looked visibly offended at the comparison, though even they could look back at the other group and admit …yeah, he isn't drooling over the French blonde like they are.

Unfortunately, their observations of Kenneth accidentally led to them staring at Fleur once again.

More smacks followed.

At least some of the international students found the whole thing hilarious.

"It vos ze same in Advanced Arissmancy and Alchemy," Lev informed her with a snicker. "Nearly every boy vos staring at Delacour. Even ze Beauxbatons vizards."

"I know they can't help it, but it's still annoying," Melissa said with a huff. She gave Lev a curious look. "You weren't staring at her, though. Right?"

Lev gave an ashamed blush. "No," he lied. "She is a beautiful vitch, but vy should I stare? I am not a vild volf."

She gave him an amused smile. "Suuure, Lev."

"Question," Rusalka's voice interrupted the gathering. She, Jacinth, and some of the other kids from Durmstrang and Beauxbatons were looking over at them on their own walk towards the international quarters for lunch. "What do you mean by 'the boys can't help it'?"

Two of the Beauxbatons girls gave each other knowing looks, but neither answered. Then again, the question wasn't for them. It was for Melissa. "She's one quarter Veela."

"Veela?!" Jacinth exclaimed.

Melissa gave a nod. "I'm not sure if she can go full 'bird', but she has a natural allure that draws men to her, whether she likes them or not. Which really sucks. I can't imagine having a bunch of guys drool over me on a daily basis just because of something I was born with."

"Eetz so annoying!" One of the Beauxbatons exclaimed. "Ze boys always look at 'er, even our boyfriends. She does notting yet zey zink she eez everyzing!"

Melissa gave them a hard look. "Again," she said harshly, "it must really suck for a teenaged veela to have men she's not interested in chasing her on a daily basis because of biology."

"Biology?" said Lev.

"Because of something she was born with, beyond her control. Personally," she continued, "regular women have a hard enough time with men who don't take no for an answer. To have that extend to the majority of the male population, especially when you're just a teenager, must make her life very unsafe. I bet part of why she's the champion is because she's had to fight off men on a regular basis, and got stronger in the process." She flashed them all a hard look. "Something to think about."

She walked off, breaking away from the Beauxbatons girls, with the others following suit. Some were thinking over her words, while others moved on to other conversations. That said, none spoke to Melissa until they got safely onto the ship. Astrid did so while giving her a thoughtful look, "I like what you said, about needing to fight off forceful wizards." She looked mildly uncomfortable. "I have been grateful to only have three classes with Delacour, and glad that Alchemy class is mostly witches and with wizards who are more polite. Though I never considered what it must be like for her. …I will work to be kinder to her."

"That's appreciated," Melissa said. She plopped down on one of the chairs, releasing a large breath. "So, you said you're going to teach me how to summon fish?"

Sunday November 6th, 1994

Melissa awaited the start of the meeting with baited breath. This is it. A time for me and Harry …in the same room. That's normal. That's fine. Perfect, even.

She busied herself over some notes from their last meeting. After much debate, the group had settled on a unique approach to handle their international year. To foster friendships, and not offend their foreign counterparts, they decided to celebrate Ystävänpäivä (Finland's 'Friend's Day') instead of Valentine's day. The idea is sound. The execution, on the other hand, is confusing. According to Annabel and Astoria, people celebrate the holiday by going out with friends for coffee, dinner, skating, bowling, or even a sauna. While that's awesome for a winter holiday, none of that really fits with how VATIC usually goes about things. Not to mention it doesn't seem to change much between muggle and wizarding communities. So how are they to go about putting a magical spin on this in a school setting…?

"Attention, everyone!" Tracey called out to the group. Everyone stilled as Tracey gestured to Hufflepuffs at her side. "Annabel and Ben have an important announcement!"

The others looked on in interest, but also with concern upon seeing their nervous faces. "I have a note here," Annabel said, lifting the paper halfheartedly and giving it a short read through. "Harry would like to thank everyone, and really appreciates everything that we do, but with him getting forced into the Triwizard Tournament- says that he has to step down from VATIC to focus on preparing for the tasks."

"What?!" Exclaims of surprise rang around the room.

"Ugh! Harry, what were you thinking?!" Dean shouted. "Now we have to do a whole new round of applications!"

"Hey, go easy on him," Byron said. "He's being forced into a huge tournament against his will. He can't help focusing on staying alive rather than being in a club."

A few gave Byron odd looks, but Ben and the others nodded. "Exactly. Besides, it won't be so bad. Harry made a big announcement about it just now in the common room so that anyone interested will be coming up here today."

The group gave each other pensive or nervous looks. Finally, Dean gave a loud sigh, "Fine. Guess we'll set the room up for the interviews. Nobody give away what our plans are, though!"

"Except that we're including the international students," Luna said. "Their insight will be very useful."

"Huh, that's a good point," Parvati said with a blink.

"Yeah," Tracey nodded, "let's prep some more questions like that, now, just to be safe."

"Sounds good to me," Dean said with a nod. "Let's get to work!"

"I just don't get it," Melissa muttered almost to herself, as she laid in bed. "He's in, like, three clubs, including quidditch. He's always been able to juggle all that stuff, have friends, and keep his grades up. Now one tournament shows up, and he drops everything? It's only three tasks! How much time does he really need for it?"

"I'm sure he's just thinking about what's best for the situation," Jacqueline said gently.

"Yeah, he's being responsible," Amy added. "He's going up against three of-age wizards, way out of his league, in a tournament that's supposed to be hard for them. He needs to worry about the tasks way more than Cedric and the others do."

"I suppose," Melissa whined. "It's just, it's more than just the tournament," She flopped over to face the room, "I know this sounds paranoid, but it almost feels like he's avoiding me."

"What do you mean?"

"I haven't seen him in the Great Hall once since the whole Goblet mess happened. I don't see him in the corridors either. Doesn't that seem strange to you?"

A pause of contemplation fell over the room. "To be fair," Jacqueline said, "I haven't seen him around either."

"Do any of your classes overlap?" Rusalka asked. "Like, does he have Charms in the same afternoon or morning as you?"

"No," Melissa answered.

"So this year have you ever seen him in the corridors?"

"...Hardly," Melissa admitted.

"You said that Cedric's taken him under his wing," Amy added. "They're probably training together in their spare time."

"And hiding from all of the stares and whispers that are bound to happen if he stays long in the Great Hall," Rusalka said.

"I guess that's true."

"See," Amy said, "you're worrying over nothing. The Puffs are taking good care of him. You just focus on your own projects and he'll come around when he's free."

Melissa thought it over, eventually giving in to a loud sigh, "You're right. I'm overthinking things. Thanks, girls."

"Of course."

"Anytime."

Melissa blew out her candlelight and wished the other girls goodnight. In that act, she fully missed the concerned and relieved looks exchanged between them.