“Look, Mel! We did it we won!” Harry exclaimed as he gathered an astounded Melody up in his arms.
She stood in shock as he tried to summon a reaction from her.
“Helloooo ... Mel? Gryffindor just won and you’re just going to stand there?! Let’s go to the party!”
Melody finally woke from her frozen state. “Harry? Do you love me?”
Laughing, Harry shook his head, “I think we’ve gone over this numerous times, but yes. I do.”
“But why?” Melody said, mostly to herself.
“Do I have to go through the list?” Harry asked, growing slightly confused.
“No, I just don’t get it!”
“Get what? Of course I love you.”
“But last night … ”
“What about last night?” Harry said, his suspicion growing.
“It didn’t work?”
“What didn’t work?” Harry asked nervously.
“Harry, sit.”
She led him to a seat in the box and then sat down next to him.
“Before you get angry, I have to explain why I did it, OK?” she said placing her hand on his like she had the previous night.
“Did what?”
“Harry, last night … I performed an anti-love spell on you,” Melody said, looking down at her feet.
Harry opened his mouth to speak, but Melody silenced him.
“Listen. I talked to Tonks the other night, and she told me there has been a Voldemort sighting. Well, I was already a little distraught from the whole Ron thing and then this came along ... which only reminded me of how much you have to focus. Harry, I thought if I weren’t a factor anymore that you would be safe.”
Harry was silent. He stood and walked to the corner of the box. Doing the same, Melody slid her arm around his.
“Why didn’t you tell me anything?” he finally said softly.
“I knew you would have just stopped me.”
“Well, it apparently didn’t work anyways.”
Thinking out loud, Melody said, “No. It didn’t.”
Harry turned to Melody and placed his hands on her waist.
“Mel, I’d easily risk my life for you, and you need to understand that.”
“I don’t want you to risk your life for me. Even if it means I can’t have you, I still want you alive.”
“That’s sweet, Mel, but you’re the best part of my life, and if that was taken away from me, there would be no reason left to live.”
“So you think you can beat this thing?”
“What thing?”
“Harry, you and I both know that Voldemort is going to come after you. It may be tomorrow, it may be ten years from now, but you need to be ready.”
“I will be, but not having you isn’t going to help anything. As long as you’re here, I have something to fight for.”
He held her close and stroked her hair. Melody burst into tears.
“I didn’t want the spell to work, Harry. I really didn’t.”
“That’s probably why it didn’t.”
“I’m glad it failed,” Melody said quietly.
The weeks melted together, and end-of-the-year exams were soon upon them. Melody and Harry spent less and less time together as they neared, and when they were together, Melody was frantically looking through her notes or a textbook.
Harry brushed off the exams as nothing. According to him, if they could handle O.W.L.s, then he could easily pass these exams. As hard as Melody tried to convince him to study, he refused until exams were only days away.
They walked into Defense Against the Dark Arts the morning of the test. Fleur sat behind the desk leafing through a pile of exams. Harry and Melody found some seats near the back and sat. They dug in the bags for quills and Fleur stood.
“OK, students, zis will be like any ozzer exam, zo let’s get started,” she said as the class frantically scanned their notes.
The tests were passed out and the scratching of quills soon filled the room. Gazing at the questions, Melody seemed to notice a few similarities. Most of the questions she came across were based on facing combat.
After she finished the exam, Melody placed it on Fleur’s desk.
“’ow’d zee test go, Melody?” Fleur asked leaning over her desk.
“Well, Fle…I mean, Professor Delacour, I couldn’t help, but notice that the questions seemed to be geared toward the same thing.”
Fleur nodded, “Zat is how zee ‘eadmaster wanted it.”
Melody opened her mouth to say something, but other students were gathering about the desk waiting to hand in their exam. Instead, she turned and exited the room. Harry was waiting outside when she surfaced.
“That was odd,” he said taking her hand.
“You noticed too, then?” Melody asked, waving to Lavender and Padma.
“I’ve never seen an entire exam about the same area of a subject.”
“Me neither. Fluer said Dumbledore wanted it that way.”
“I see,” Harry said quietly.
“What do you think he meant by that?”
“I think he knows something.”
Melody looked up at Harry, but his eyes were fixed on the wall in the distance. Just by looking at him, Melody could see that something was worrying him.
The next day Melody wearily stepped out of the Arithmancy room. Exams had taken a lot out of her and she was glad to see them come to an end. At the moment, there was a party in the Gryffindor common room awaiting her and she trotted along quickly.
Just outside the portrait hole, she was startled as Seamus jumped from his seat.
“Don’t do that, Seamus! You scared me to death!” Melody snarled as Seamus chuckled.
“Sorry, Mel,” Seamus said halting his laughter, “ I just wanted to make sure you got this. Harry wanted me to give it to you before you got caught up in the party.”
“Oh, thank you, Seamus.”
He handed Melody a small bit of parchment and hurried back into the common room. Melody took a seat on the bench and unfolded the paper.
Mel,
Meet me at our spot. I have a surprise for you. See you soon.
Harry
She shoved the note into her bag and hurried back down the hall. She was filled with excitement as she walked out onto the grounds. With this, she stepped into the hardest night of her life so far.