Sorry for not posting last week. Despite my hopes for February being kinder on the mind, I ended up reaching a breaking point with mental health and decided to take a small holiday last week to heal the mind (which failed spectacularly, but you can't win them all). It sucks that even my writing has taken a hit. It's been four months since I started Summer of '95 and I haven't even finished chapter three. Hopefully once I get more into professional help things will finally pick back up. Fingers crossed!

Now, onto a fun and adorable chapter! :)

Author's Note: For the music, I used a song called Kolomeykas as inspiration.

Monday November 14th, 1994

"The Boy-Who-Lived Fights for His Life! -by Rita Skeeter … To read about the Triwizard Champions, see Page 4." Domonkos flipped down the upper half of the paper, a look of disgust in his eyes. "How is it that my mother gets the job of Hogwarts Correspondent, yet this nail-clacking slag can write the front-page news about what goes on at Hogwarts?"

"...Because she's a nail-clacking slag?" Jacinth answered unhelpfully.

"It's ridiculous! She wasn't even here on Friday! If anything, Potter's story is exactly the sort of campaign my mother would support."

"Maybe she only had time to do one article?" Jacqueline suggested as she went over her own paper. "She wrote a two page spread about the champions and the tournament. That's a lot of work."

"Which is worth the front page. And she could have done both articles in her sleep! Again, Skeeter wasn't there. It's her story to write, not this bitch's." He turned over to Melissa. "You agree with me, right?"

"What?" Melissa shook away her thoughts. "Sorry, I'm just trying to wrap my head around the fact that you just called someone a 'bitch' and a 'nail-clacking slag' in one go."

Snorts of laughter followed that comment. Even Garrick turned his head away to try to stave off some laughter.

"She's got a point," Amy laughed, "I've never heard you swear like that before."

"And," Domonkos gestured towards the paper, "it's worth it."

The laughter continued, with no objections to follow.

"Hmm, that's interesting," Garrick said as he looked over the front page. "Though sweet Harry hesitated to imagine himself winning the tournament, the young orphan said that he would use the grand prize to rebuild his family homes that were destroyed in the war." Garrick glanced over at Melissa, "I had no idea that was something Potter was looking into."

"Yeah, he's been working on that for, like, a year now. Abbott, Malfoy, and some other rich kids have been helping him design an improved manor, plus the cottage in Godric's Hollow."

"Potter Cottage?" Garrick said, with a note of shock. "I've seen the damage wrought to it. Can it even be repaired after being destroyed by such dark magic?"

"Heh," Amy scoffed under her breath, "I doubt that kind of thing can stop Potter."

"Exactly!" Melissa said cheerily. "It's his family home. I'm sure he'll find a way to get it all fixed up. Hell, even if he doesn't win, I'm sure he can hire a construction company to get it done."

Snide or unmoved looks were exchanged between half of the cohort, …beyond Melissa's notice, of course.

Rusalka waved off the exchange. With a click of her tongue, she moved on to other things, "Melissa, is it true you're helping the Durmstrang kids throw a party?"

"Yeah," Melissa grinned widely, "it's Lev's birthday on Friday. Karkaroff's a stick in the mud and will never let them throw a party on the ship, so I've commandeered a party room in the castle and convinced the house elves to make snacks for everyone."

"Oh, fun!" Adrian said with a sudden smile. "Can we come?"

"Of course! I figure we might as well make it an open invitation for all us NEWT kids, plus the exchange students."

"That's a lot of people," Jacqueline noted. "Are you sure you can find a space big enough if most people decide to come?"

Her answer came with a wiggle of eyebrows. "Trust me, I already have the perfect place in mind."

Friday November 18th, 1994

At breakfast Melissa glided over to the Durmstrang contingent with a smile, "Hey, Birthday Boy!" She gave Lev a hug, which surprised the boy for a moment before he returned it with a free arm. A couple of the other students snickered at the somewhat awkward and friendly exchange, which Melissa opted to ignore. "How's your morning going? Are you excited for tonight?"

"Of course," Lev said with a grin, "and I'm doing vell. Even better vit such a 'good morning'."

"Well, hey, it's not everyday you have a birthday." Melissa giggled. "I've been prepping for it all week to make sure it's awesome!"

Lev blinked in surprise. "All veek?"

"Yep! I had to make sure things would work just right."

There came a gleam of mischief in his eyes. "Oh, really? And vy is zat?"

"It's a surprise," she answered with a wink, "but I know you'll love it!"

He chuckled, "Hehe, I'm sure I vill."

"Mhmm!" She gave him a playful nudge and chirped, "I'll see you later", before standing up and flouncing over to her dorm-mates.

Rusalka, who bordered between the two groups, eyed her with a look of confusion. "What was that all about?"

"Oh, just teasing Lev about his birthday surprise. Not that he knows what it is, of course."

"Right," she said slowly. Of course, as her dorm-mates already knew about the plan, Rusalka moved on by turning over to one of the Durmstrang boys nearby and starting a new conversation in Russian.

To her side, Jacinth looked visibly annoyed, more so as the two started to snicker. "What are you talking about?"

"Nothing," she said casually, before making another comment in Russian, making the Durmstrang boy grin and nod in the process.

Jacinth glowered at the two of them, stabbing at his breakfast, yet said nothing as the meal wore on.

Divination class dragged as Melissa stared at the amalgamation of twigs on her table. Her voice moved like music in a whispering wind, "This is really~ not~ my thing~."

"Could be worse," Sierra said in a hushed tone.

"It will be worse. After this we're doing divination with mice and rats."

"Eww! Is that what myomancy means?"

"Mhmm!"

Sierra cringed, quietly complaining, "That's so weird!"

Melissa gave a solid nod; and then, once more, looked over the arrangement of twigs, struggling over sets of conflicting xylomancy notes from the textbook to figure out what it all means. A moment later she was distracted by a note passed to their table with her name on it. Once ensuring the coast was clear, Melissa opened it and read the note.

Is Adrian seeing anyone?

She looked around the room, catching Juliet looking at her expectantly. Confused, she scribbled under the note.

I thought you were dating Cedric?

The note returned through the chain of students.

We broke up in October.

Well that was a surprise; but she supposed that left things open to follow canon.

As far as I know, he's not dating anyone.

The note moved through the chain, only stopping as Professor Trelawney walked over to their side of the classroom. "Miss Delacour, if you could kindly read the note in your hand, please?"

The chain cringed, embarrassed at having been caught. Juliet, especially, flushed with horror at the request. Even Delacour gave a nervous frown, especially as she opened the note, causing all of the girls to glare daggers at her in response.

Delacour read over the letter, silently to herself. Her eyes widened with interest. Then, in a surprise motion, she let the letter burst to flame in her hand. "Oh! Sorry, Professor. Eet must 'ave been enshanted."

"That's alright, my dear. As long as you did what I asked." She looked around the class, "Please refrain from passing notes, everyone. I would hate to have to assign detention to any of you."

Part of the class went back to their work. Others, however, looked at Delacour with a newfound respect in their eyes. Delacour, in turn, looked over at Juliet with a kind smile, and an 'Okay' gesture in lieu of Melissa's answer. Juliet looked over at Melissa, who confirmed the message with a nodding smile. Juliet beamed at the response and gave Delacour a warm smile in return.

Melissa and Jacqueline skipped dinner entirely to ensure that the party would be ready for seven o'clock. She passed through the hallway three times with intent, revealing the door to the Room of Requirement. With the party space manifested, they got right to work adjusting the decorations and directing the house elves towards food and drink preparations.

"This place is amazing!" Jacqueline commented as they worked. "We should have used this last year for our post-O.W.L.s party."

"We should have," Melissa agreed, "but I'd rather the Twins not find out how to get into this room. It's where I practise my music."

"What?! You mean this is the Chamber of Secrets?!"

"What?! NO! It's the Room of Requirement! It just gives you whatever space you need at the moment. It's also where I go swimming when I have the chance."

Jacqueline dropped her wand arm, looking at her incredulously. "You have a private place to go swimming, and you didn't tell any of us?"

"This from the prefect with the private bathroom," Melissa teased. "Also, in my defence, I had Snape walk in on me the first time I tried it- while I was changing," she said, to Jacqueline's horror. "Can you blame me for not wanting to spread word around?"

"Oh, Mother of Magic! That must have been awful!"

"And embarrassing as all hell. Better off leaving this place as a semi-secret party room. Maybe even use it for my birthday this year."

"I suppose…" Jacqueline shuddered, that imagery with Snape still in her mind. "At least this time you can enjoy it instead of giving your birthday up for everyone else to celebrate."

"I guess, but it wasn't so bad. I ended up celebrating it later with my muggle friends. We even got champagne since it was my champagne birthday."

"Champagne… birthday?"

"Ah- it's when your age matches the day of the month," she explained. "I turned 16 and my birthday's the 16th of June, so this was my champagne year."

"Oh. That's a sweet notion. It's a shame I was too young for my own birthday." A pause fell, before Jacqueline spoke again. "Will you be serving champagne tonight? I believe I heard someone mention that Poliakoff is eighteen now."

"He is?" Melissa considered that for a moment. "Huh. Right. He's in his seventh year. I guess that makes sense. …Hmm, right. Excuse me, Bonzy?" A house elf appeared at her side. "Can you bring champagne to the party? It's part of a foreign custom for the birthday boy, and I want to be sure we celebrate it correctly."

The house elf eyed her suspiciously. "Bonzy be bringing champagne, but only for the wizard with the birthday!"

"That's fine. Thank you, Bonzy."

Bonzy poofed out of the room, and Melissa flashed Jacqueline a smile, "Mission accomplished!"

"Ah, Mathilde, Mathieu, bonjour et bienvenue! Linnea, Vaino, dobro pozhalovat'! Ru, Amy, Brodny, welcome to the party!"

Brodny gave her an amused smile. "Do you know everyone at this school?"

"What can I say, I'm just amazing!" Melissa teased.

Amy chimed in, "She's also part of the Valentine club, so she basically has to know everyone."

Melissa snickered, more or less acknowledging the truth of Amy's statement.

"Valentine club?"

"I'll explain in a bit. First, wanna get some drinks?" Amy pulled at Brodny's arm, directing him and Rusalka to follow her to the drinks table.

Melissa's attention went back to the door as another pair walked in, arm in arm, much to her surprise. "Patricia… et Julien. Bienvenue. I didn't expect to see you here, Stimpson."

Patricia Stimpson blushed, looking down nervously. "I, uh, I wasn't planning to, but…"

"But I told this beautiful lady that she needs time to have fun," the Beauxbaton chaser answered with a teasing smile.

The Hogwarts girl squeaked, blushing deeper and struggling over the compliment. Melissa could only smile and move to spare the nervous bookworm, "Well I'm glad you were able to make it. Come on in. Make yourselves at home."

Her eyes followed them as the pair entered the space, an endearing smile brightening her face.

"You look pleased with yourself."

She turned, allowing her smile to grow sly towards Garrick. "Hey, it's nice seeing everyone get along with the exchange students. There's quite a few mixed couples I've seen so far."

"I'm not surprised," Garrick said idly. His eyes roamed about the room, not saying anything else.

"Don't suppose you have your eyes set on any of our lovely new classmates, hmm?"

Garrick gave a small laugh, then shook his head. "I'm afraid not. I don't suppose you have any recommendations?"

"Hmm," Melissa mulled over the thought. "I don't know everyone super well yet…" She shrugged, "Why not talk to Astrid Wikström?"

He seemed suspicious of this request. "Your new friend?"

"Yeah. She's intelligent, patient, hard-working, and has a healthy balance of when to be serious and when to have fun. You can use a dose of that." Her description didn't seem enough to sway him, so she gave him a playful nudge, "Come on, Little Lord, live a little! Have some fun!"

He flashed her a look, then rolled his eyes, before a small smile went to his lips. "Fine, but just to see if we get along."

"Whatever you want to tell yourself, dude."

He gave her a confused look at being called 'dude', but eventually walked away -hopefully to find Astrid, or at least some nice witch to hang out with.

Another voice welcomed her at the door. "Hey Mel!"

"Hey Ced- oh, and- Fleur?" Her brain record-scratched as she noticed Cedric arm-in-arm with Fleur Delacour, of all people. Cedric seemed as cheerful as ever, yet Fleur herself looked like the cat who got the canary. "...Hi." Melissa shook her head. "Sorry, just surprised, is all. Welcome to the party."

"Thanks!"

"Merci," Delacour gave a slight nod of the head before tossing her hair back and walking with Cedric further into the room. Voices grew notably quieter as people spotted the Champions walk in as a couple. If it were possible, Delacour seemed to look even more regal as more eyes fell on them.

Other voices muttered at the doorway, theirs being a small argument about attendance by the sound of it. Melissa wasn't fully paying attention, as her eyes were still on the Champions. Then one voice grew loud at her side. "Hey Melissa," she turned to acknowledge the witch, mildly surprised to see Tracey Davies, "there's no rule about no fourth years at this party, right?"

"Uh, nope?" Her eyes flicked up, spotting Greengrass, Malfoy, Zabini, and a few Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors practically holding Harry and Hermione in place under protest. It was an amusing sight, one that mingled with her current emotions and the surprise of seeing Harry for once in who knows how long.

"Hey, Houdini, here's a Magdalene Moment for you," she gestured towards Cedric and Fleur, "if those two are together, there's a pretty good chance that Chang's single right now."

"Chang?" Malfoy looked confused, as did the others. …Except for Harry, who immediately looked beet-red. A fact which Malfoy and Zabini caught on to. "As in Cho Chang?"

Zabini looked positively gleeful. "Do you have a crush on her?"

"Shut up!" Harry said through his teeth, glaring daggers at Zabini.

Zabini, in turn, started laughing. "Oh, this is great! Is Chang here, yet?"

"Yep! I saw her go that way," Melissa pointed. "Be sure to be a good wingman, alright?"

"Will do! Come on, Mister Champion, let's get you a date!"

"Wait- guys- no-!" Harry was immediately dragged into the room by half of his friends, his protests fully ignored the whole way in.

After a large number of NEWT students arrived, Melissa stepped away from greeting guests to actually enjoying the party herself. She talked with friends, joined the musicians in a couple of songs, and caught up on a much missed dinner. A little after 8 o'clock, she decided it was time for the surprise entertainment. She approached the far wall, where the room had installed a stone stage flanked by two tall braziers. She gave the band a signal, letting them know to take a break after their current song. When finished, they stepped off of the stage so Melissa could take over. She readied her balalaika, then cast a sonorus on herself.

"ATTENTION PARTIERS!" The crowd hushed with only mild chatter moving between them. "FIRST OFF, LET'S HAVE A CHEER FOR THE BIRTHDAY BOY, EH? GIVE IT UP FOR LEV POLIAKOFF!"

Applause and shouts of "happy birthday" rang through the room. It took a moment to actually spot Lev through the crowd, but once she did, she gave him a wave and stepped near the edge.

"NOW, LEV, IF YOU CAN STAND RIGHT UNDER THAT CHANDELIER. YEP, THAT ONE. I HAVE A SURPRISE GIFT FOR YOU. A PIECE OF ENTERTAINMENT FOR YOU AND EVERYONE TO ENJOY."

And a chance to show off, went unsaid.

She dispelled the sonorus, yet her words that followed were still loud as she strummed the instrument and began to sing a slow tune.

"This music-mover needs to twirl,

While joined by twins,

For festive flair.

I cast on these elementals,

To be my sisterly ensemble,

Come join my company,

To step in my set,

As a true-footed troupe,

I deign you to dance!

The flames WHOOSED high! At once, Melissa could feel a connection between herself and the brazier flames, a connection which let her know that the spell had taken hold. After a pause, the balalaika continued to play a slow tune. She swayed in place for a moment, then raised her knee high before taking a dramatic step down the stairs.

And voices gasped as legs of fire emerged from the braziers.

Another step. A step, again. Twin women of flame emerged from the braziers, walking on empty air in line with Melissa's steps. On reaching the floor, the pace quickened, but only slightly. With it, Melissa slid and swayed across the dance floor, At every sixteenth beat, her arms raised to a loud clap, the twins moving in unison. The pace quickened again, this time with the band rejoining on the sidelines. With more room for musical rest, so to speak, Melissa was free to act wilder in the dance. Arms and legs and hips and shoulders all moving to give the flames a more sultry and ethereal appearance. Everytime she moved far to either side, the crowd wowed as the fire-women got closer to them. It was a balancing act to ensure that the flames never got too close, but it was fun getting the flames to dance around groups of people.

The music got fast closer to the finale. She skipped down the room, down to the chandelier Lev stood under. She could see the delight on his face as they got closer, and a fun idea struck her. She moved far to her right, allowing one of the flame-women to dance around him. Then she herself skipped towards him, doing a similar dance around him, smirking at him all the while and even flashing a wink before skipping away so that the second twin could do the same. When the triplet of circles finished, she moved back towards the centre of the room, just in time for the song to reach its dramatic end.

Like the woosh of the braziers, the crowd erupted into wild applause! Melissa drank in it, she and her fiery twins bowed to each side of the audience, milking it for longer applause. Then, credit where credit is due, did a final motion towards the band for their own accolades, before giving a final strum on the balalaika to dispel the twins to smoke.

At that moment, a body rushed at her from behind, grabbing her and spinning her in the air.

"ZAT VOS INCREDIBLE!" Lev shouted in her ear. Her slight panic abated as she caught onto his voice and excitement, eliciting a laugh from her instead. The spinning slowed, allowing her feet to stumble onto the ground while they still moved in a circle. "I have never seen- zat you can do zat- and so quickly!"

They stopped spinning. It gave her a moment to turn her head up to see his expression. What she saw made her grin. "I take it you like your gift?"

"Like it?! Zat vos amazing! You are amazing!" Then his expression seemed to sneer. "Your skills are vasted at Hogvarts. You should come to Durmstrang. You vood be ze best of everyvon!"

Hot damn, Melissa wasn't sure whether to be smug or embarrassed by his level of praise. She was kind of struck dumb by it, her smile growing both tighter and deep with emotion.

"Heh, as if that would ever happen." Both Lev and Melissa turned their heads to see one of her more bigoted classmates, Alex Sykes, looking at them with disdain. Other people in earshot stopped talking to openly stare at his audacity. "What? I'm just calling things as it is. Durmstrang doesn't accept muggleborns in their school. It'd be pointless to even try."

"...Muggleborns?" Lev asked. He looked down at Melissa. He didn't seem to be asking her, specifically, he just seemed confused by the word in general.

"My parents don't have magic," she explained, "so they're called muggles. Since I have magic, but they don't, I'm a muggleborn witch."

An odd silence fell between them. He seemed puzzled over the information, though she wasn't sure if it was the same as how he is when learning other English terms. Then, he muttered, "Oh," and the arms around her squeezed tighter as he gave her a smile, "Zen zat is Durmstrang's loss, too."

His answer made her smile brilliantly, "Heck yeah, it is!"

With that, the awkward silence of the crowd ended. People moved on to new conversations, or congratulated Melissa (and Lev) on the night. The band restarted the music, and Lev took that opportunity to ask her to dance. Melissa obliged, handing her instrument over quickly to Jacqueline before joining Lev on the dancefloor.

"You really are a genius," Lev said. "I just noticed, you sang in English. I didn't know zat vos possible."

"Neither did I," Melissa admitted, "It's why I spent so much time working on it to make sure the words and music fit just right. Now that I know it works, I think I'm going to try to write more spells from now on."

"If zey are anything like vot you made tonight, zey vill be spectacular!" He spun her around, making her laugh with joy. As the music ended and started anew, Lev seemed pensive. "I vos vondering," he said slowly, "zair is a trip tomorrow, vair ve can see an English village, yes?"

"Yeah. It's called Hogsmeade Village. We get to go there a few times a year."

"Yes. Hogsmeade," he nodded. "Vant to visit together? You can give me a tour of ze village?"

"Sure! That'd be awesome!" Melissa agreed. "Meet me at the entrance. That's where the carriages will be to take us there."

A plan formulated, the two continued to dance for the rest of the song. Melissa then begged off to grab a drink. She grabbed a ladle-full of fizzy soda, then scanned the nearby group of teens. She eventually spotted Jacqueline and Jacinth standing together against the wall. Both looked unhappy, which didn't bode well to Melissa, so she made her way over to them.

Both Slytherins, she found, were staring unhappily in two different directions. Jacinth's direction was pretty obvious. He was glaring daggers over to where some Durmstrang students were chatting, and Rusalka was at the centre of it all talking with a couple of the boys.

"If you're that annoyed, you can just ask her to dance," Melissa commented over the music.

"I don't dance!" Jacinth said petulantly.

"Well, that's your loss; but if you want to spend time with Ru you have to actually spend time with her and not skulk around like a ghoul."

"What did you say?!" Jacinth whirled on her.

Her own expression was flat. "You can spend time with your girlfriend and her friends without being a child about it," she said blankly. "Go on, talk to her. This is a party. Have fun with it."

His own expression flattened, but it must have worked as Jacinth pushed off the wall and staked over to the Russian contingent. And now for my next wallflower…

Melissa leaned against the wall, following Jacqueline's gaze out to the dance floor. Sure enough, her eyes were focused on a Beauxbatons boy… dancing with Lucy. "Everything okay?"

"Uh, yes?" Jacqueline fussed for a moment, handing Melissa back her balalaika as a distraction.

"Come on, Jacqueline. What's bothering you?"

"Nothing. It's just…" she looked forlornly at the dance floor. "I was hoping to dance with some friends, but…" She cut herself off, looking guilty. "Is it wrong to be jealous when your friends are busy with boys?"

Does she still not…? "Your feelings are okay, so long as you don't be mean about it later. Though… I wonder…" She considered her words carefully, "Are you jealous of Lucy, or are you jealous of that boy?"

Her expression was a bit hard to read. "I'm not sure what you mean."

"I mean… Do you wish you were in her shoes, or wish you were in his shoes?"

At that moment, the boy leaned close, whispering something in Lucy's ear. Jacqueline began to blush. "I-" She bit her lip, looking away from the scene. She looked alarmed and laughed nervously as she stuttered, "I don't know what- wanting to be in his shoes? What- that doesn't make sense."

Melissa gave a sad smile, "Are you sure it doesn't?"

It was clear, as Jacqueline's eyes filled with panic, that this was the first time anyone's ever had this kind of conversation with her. A shot of pity lanced through her. "Let's go for a walk. You can think about it for a bit. I won't say anything."

Jacqueline nodded wordlessly, following her out into the hall. Their steps echoed, the emptiness of the hall apparent as the Room ensured the party was soundproof. After a turn, Jacqueline spoke. "Is… is that alright? Being jealous of a wizard?"

"In many ways, including matters of the heart."

A few more steps followed. "I don't understand," she said haltingly, "If it's alright- why have I never heard of anyone being this way?"

Oh- shit- I have to tell her, don't I? She really didn't want to be the one to tell her. Alas, she's already put the thought into Jacqueline's head, she might as well explain it fully. "That's because it's not legal. Witches and wizards only, never two witches or two wizards." The admission put a new panic in Jacqueline's eyes. "There are those who do, but in secret. Live a life as a spinster, with a roommate who also never marries, and how many people are really going to check the number of beds in the flat?"

"But… if it's against the law," Jacqueline asked desperately, "then why…?"

"Because love, Jacqueline," she smiled gently, "because love. Love is all you need," those last words, sung as the Beatles, were the last words said for a long time.

Rusalka scowled as she marched into their dorm room, "I turn my back for one second, and you go off snogging my cousin!"

Amy, on the other hand, grinned triumphantly. "Hey, he's fit; and I didn't hear him complaining."

"No loyalty amongst witches! Honestly!"

"Come on, Ru. Not every girl is trapped with a bloke already." Amy then gave Melissa a sly look. "What about yourself? You seemed to be having fun tonight."

"Hmm? Well, obviously. As if I'm not going to have fun at my own part," Melissa said with a grin.

"Sure, sure…" A few seconds passed before Amy spoke again. "You used to have a thing for Myron Wagtail, right?"

Melissa immediately went bright red. She turned to Jacqueline, aghast. "I told you that in confidence!"

The other three snickered. "Sorry!" Jacqueline said through her laughter. "It was a long time ago. I didn't think you still liked him."

"I mean, I'd never date him. He's practically a decade older than me. It's just… umm…"

Amy answered instead, "He's a pretty boy with long, brown hair, delicate features, and plays music." She paused for a beat, enough to catch Melissa with her head down and blushing furiously. "I wonder if there are any boys our age who are like that?"

"Maybe not our age," Rusalka commented, "a bit older would be better. Say, eighteen years old."

"That would be good," Jacqueline agreed. "Someone handsome, friendly, and playful. That would be perfect for her. Now, who would match that description?"

"Nope!" Melissa called out. "We're not talking about my love life right now! I said what I said about not dating anyone at Hogwarts, and I'm sticking with it!" She then fled to the loo to stave off the growing embarrassment and end the conversation once and for all.

"Do you think she figured it out?" Amy asked.

"I doubt it," Rusalka answered. "She can be a bit oblivious sometimes."

"I don't know…" Jacqueline frowned, "Are you sure this is a good idea? She did divine that she'll never date anyone."

"No, she said she doesn't date anyone from Hogwarts, or Britain in general," said Amy. "That doesn't mean she's never going to date. She just hasn't realized her Sight has a loophole."

"Plus, if this works, it'll distract her away from Potter," Rusalka added. "And you agree that she needs to stay away from him to be safe, right?"

Jacqueline wringed her dress. "That's true. …But what if this doesn't work?"

"We're Slytherins," Amy said with a smirk, "we can come up with plans for any problem."

*BAM!*

They stopped talking as Melissa slammed the door open and ran back into the room in a state of panic. "Guys! I think I accidentally agreed to go on a date?!"