Melody hurried down the hall to Charms. She had already been late twice this week, so she was frantically taking books out of her bag as she walked. While looking down at her bag, she ran into someone. Both dropped to the floor to gather things, but stopped abruptly when they learned who the other was.
Ron and Melody were again face-to-face. Ron thrust the book in his hand at Melody and stood.
“Sorry, I thought you were someone who mattered,” he snapped.
“Someone’s a little saucy today!” Melody snarled back.
“Well, at least I’m not running off to Harry every second.”
Melody paused. Ron was finally experiencing the anger she had initially gotten after the ball. Now that he had been replaced, he was not at all friendly with Melody or Harry.
“Great feeling, isn’t it?!” Melody said smugly.
“What feeling is that?”
“Being replaced. Now get out of my sight,” Melody said continuing her journey to Charms. Ron and she threw nothing but nasty comments at each other in the halls, and it was finally starting to affect Melody: Emotionally, she was tired.
She told Harry all about the encounter that night after practice. They sat in their box and talked well into night. Melody couldn’t help but spill everything about Ron and her argument, and Harry was glad to have the opportunity to say a few choice things about Ron.
As angry as Melody was with Ron, she couldn’t help feel guilty that she had broken up their friendship. Though she liked having Harry all to herself, she didn’t want any unhappiness of Harry’s on her conscience.
Exhausted from the ranting, they hurried back to the castle. The invisibility cloak surrounded them as they passed through the deserted halls. They were nearing the tower when they heard footsteps behind them. Harry hushed Melody and they stood stills.
Snape rounded the corner with his wand raised.
“Damn!” Harry whispered.
“Potter, I know it’s you so why don’t you just come out and we can get this over with, so we both can go to bed,” Snape snarled as he looked directly at them. “You aren’t going to come easy? Well, then, I guess I must …Tranible Revow.”
The cloak flew off of Harry and Melody as Harry attempted to hide Melody behind himself.
“Mr. Potter, wandering the halls at night? Oh, and look here, you brought Miss Chancelle along with you. Thirty points each! Also, you will meet me in my office to serve your detention tomorrow.”
Harry growled before he could catch himself.
“Perhaps you would like detention all week, then? No? Maybe Miss Chancelle would like to serve it for you then? Still no? Ok then, I'll see both of you tomorrow, and we can discuss the rest of the week then.”
Snape turned on his heels and strode down the hall. Kicking the ground, Harry howled with anger.
“Ooo, I hate that man!” Harry snarled throwing the invisibility cloak. “I’m sorry you got detention, Mel.”
“It’s fine. For a while there, I felt like a goody-two-shoes.”
“A what?”
“Nothing, just an American saying.”
***
Detention was not at all enjoyable once they were there. They walked into Snape’s office to find Ron sitting in a desk scribbling down some homework.
“This just gets better and better,” Harry muttered as they stood at the other side of the room.
Snape entered in his usual dramatic way and stopped between the students.
“Good, you’re all here. Now, if Miss Chancelle would come with me … ” Snape uttered as Harry looked up.
Harry quickly cut him off, “Sir, I thought we were all here serving detention.”
“You are, but do you think I’d let you spend it with Miss Chancelle?” Snape said with an odd sense of satisfaction. “You must think I’m pretty dense. No, you shall stay in here with Mr. Weasley while Miss Chancelle spends her detention in the other room.”
Snape motioned for her to follow, and slowly she did. He led her out of the room and she trotted to keep up with his aggressive strides. Opening the door only a few from where they came, Snape let her step in.
“There, Miss Chancelle. I’ll lock you in. If you direly need something, please send the owl over there to the third dungeon,” Snape said closing the door sharply behind him.
She sat in silence for a few moments before she heard voices coming from a window or two over. She recognized Harry’s and rushed to the window to attempt to talk to him, but he was in a discussion with Ron. In moments Melody, found they were talking about her.
Ron’s voice wafted into the room and met Melody’s ears, “ … I mean, it’s not like you’ll be together much longer anyway.”
“What did you say?” Melody heard Harry ask. She was soon lost in the conversation.
“Come on, mate. You can’t honestly think you’re going to marry this girl!” Ron said laughing.
“And you’re going to marry Hermione?”
“Hermione isn’t like Melody.”
“What do you mean?”
“We both know Melody isn’t the kind of girl you bring home to the family,” Ron said as a chair slid on the floor. Melody assumed one of them had stood up and leaned out the window to see into the dungeon. She could see nothing.
“Well, I don’t have any family to impress now, do I?” Harry said.
“You used to have mine, but not since she came along.”
“Maybe it’s for the best, then.”
There was another scratch against the floor and Ron said, “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Ron, you’re the one who broke her heart!”
“It wasn’t my fault!”
“I know! It was Hermione’s, and you’re telling me that Melody is the one with faults!”
Ron’s voice shook slightly as he said, “Don’t bring Hermione into this!”
“Then leave Melody out of it!”
“Harry! Think a little! If she hadn’t come here, none of this would have happened! Dammit, Harry! She’s going to be your ruin!”
What came next happened too fast for Melody to assume what was going on. She heard a few chairs slide and then a green flash of light came from the window.
Immediately, Melody called out the window to Harry. Few moments passed before he popped his head out. He was breathing heavily and his eyes were wide.
“What happened?” Melody said anxiously.
“Did you hear what he said?”
Melody nodded.
“Well, then, you know he deserved it.”
“Deserved what?!”
“Well, you know how I blew up at Seamus,” Harry said timidly. “Let’s just say it’s a bit more serious than that.”
“What did you do?” Melody said, her voice tensing slowly.
“Erm … I sort of stunned him.”
“YOU WHAT?!”
“I didn’t plan on it. It just happened.”
“Hurry, levitate his body out onto the ground. Snape will be back soon to check on us,” Melody pleaded before Harry disappeared into the room once again.
Ron’s solid body began to float out the window as Melody heard keys messing with the lock.
“Harry! It’s Snape!” she hissed as Harry lowered Ron to the ground.
Melody was right, and Snape was soon bounding into the room.
“You may go, Chancelle, but I better not catch you sneaking around the halls late at night again, especially not with young gentlemen such as Potter.”
Melody nodded and walked out of the room as quickly as she could without drawing attention. She raced through the halls and out onto the grounds. Ron’s body was lying motionless under the window.
Sitting down beside it, she pulled out her wand and revived him. His eyes soon opened, and he saw that it was Melody standing over him.
She was looking over her boyfriend’s best friend. Harry had just attacked his best friend -- defending her.
No matter how much she tried to sleep that night, she couldn’t. Guilt was rushing through her and it seemed there was only one way to get rid of it: Let Harry be.