Melody violently dug her eyes into the palms of her hand as she mounted the final step to her suite. Each step from the dance had brought on a more passionate rage causing Melody to pace her sitting room in tremors. She wanted to shred the dress she had so painstakingly chosen and rip the perfectly curled hair from her own head.
Again, Melody’s emotions got the better of her and in an instant the windows overlooking the river shattered out onto the snow many stories below. As she watched the panes explode, her body went numb. She ran to the bare frames and fell to her knees. She frantically searched the ground below for anyone the glass may have hit.
All that stared back at her was the pristine snow and the frozen river, but Melody looked on in a state of after shock as she sunk further to the plush carpet.
Peeling her eyes from the night’s nothingness, she turned on her back to lean on two adjacent frames as the icy air spilled in all around her. Her shaking had ceased, but she was having trouble catching her breath as new tears broke through and started spilling into the mass of hair around her face.
The room dimmed around her and she sank further to the ground to lie on her back. She could see the clear sky’s stars from the corner of her eye, but their luster was blurred by her pouring eyes.
As her mind continued to wander, she heard a step creak slightly. She shot up from her pit of pity with a zealous hope that Harry was climbing the stairs to check on her.
Instantly, she changed from her stoic state to a feverish pace as she magically fixed all the windows. She dried her tears and leaned against the fireplace.
Anticipating intense black hair, Melody was thrown aback to see Ron’s violent red instead. When he found Melody standing across the room, his face tensed and he gave her a sheepish smile.
The air Melody had forced to build up in her chest to counteract the heaviness she felt on her shoulders vanished and she immediately gripped the mantle to maintain her balance.
Seeing her struggle to stand, Ron crossed the room toward her, but she refused.
“No! I don’t need you.”
Ron took this as his cue to stand back, which he did, but the pity in his eyes was overwhelming.
“I hope you didn’t come here to throw me a pity party. I’m fine,” Melody said straightening up.
“Then why don’t you come back to the dance?” Ron said cleverly as he pretended to turn toward the stairs.
“I can’t go back to it,” Melody replied sitting in a nearby armchair, “I can’t go back to any of it.”
Watching Melody’s tough shell disintegrate, Ron sat at the sofa.
“What do you mean by ‘any of it’?” he asked leaning toward Melody.
Melody, whose eyes had been comfortably gazing at her hands, looked up to see Ron’s eyes voicing his concern for her. For a moment, their eyes were locked as Ron broke through Melody’s brick wall to find a cowering little girl.
Melody’s face fell into her hands as she freely cried in front of Ron.
“What have I done?” she howled between sobs.
Ron took this as her cry for comfort as he rested himself on the arm of her chair and let her cry into the leg of his dress robes.
“Marcel is fine. All you did was push him really,” he said pulling her hair from her face.
“It’s not him, Ron. I’ve lost Harry for good.”
“Come on, Mel.” Ron said after a small pause, “What makes you think that?”
Melody pulled herself from Ron and stood from the chair. Ron rose with her but didn’t follow as she crossed to the bookshelf.
“You should have seen him look at her tonight.” she asked as she wrapped her arms around her waist, “Tell me honestly, Ron. Does Harry love Sarah?”
Ron stiffened into a statue as Melody pleaded for an answer.
“I don’t know, Mel,” he said quietly.
The room was captured by a painful silence as the two friends stood alienated from each other. Melody could feel Ron’s eyes hot on her for a moment, but that melted as he reached into the inner pocket of his robes and stepped closer to Melody. When he had reached her, he pulled out a handheld mirror.
“All I know is that Harry has never been one to really think things through. That’s why you can’t give up on him too easily. Give him time. With all the mess surrounding him, he doesn’t think clearly anymore.”
Ron handed the mirror to Melody to reveal that it had been mended from the shattered state it had held after Melody regretfully ended it with Harry. Looking into it, she saw her own reflection for a second before she turned to a drawer behind her and pulled the mirrors partner from it.
“He spent hours with Dumbledore figuring out how to put the mirror back together while still maintaining its link with yours. He wouldn’t do that if he didn’t care,” Ron said retrieving the mirror from Melody’s hand and replacing it in his pocket.
Melody let her hand trace the decorative ridge of her own mirror for a second before setting it lightly on the desk behind her.
“If he cares, then why didn’t he come after me tonight? He’s always come after me, Ron.”
Ron nodded for a moment before motioning for Melody to follow him to the window. Below in the cold night, Harry was impatiently pacing at the doorway of the Bravour dormitory.
“What’s he doing?” Melody asked.
Slightly laughing, Ron replied, “Trying to find the right words to explain that mess with Marcel.”
“Good, because I would like a reason as well!” a voice said sharply behind Ron and Melody.
Spinning on her heels, Melody nearly shrieked to see Marcel rounding the couch violently. As his hand grasped Melody’s elbow, she felt the heat of tears behind her eyes.
The instant a tear fell from her eye, Marcel let go of her and turned his back to her.
“What was that, Melody?!” he shouted.
Ron looked as if he was about to say something, but Melody stopped him.
“I need to do this myself. You should go.”
Ron hesitated, but he followed orders and disappeared down the stairs.
“Well?!” Marcel barked.
“Marcel, I have been lying to you.” Melody began timidly, “No matter how well I pretended to sincerely like you, it was a lie.”
Marcel had calmed down quickly as he now refused to look Melody in the eye.
“I know,” he said simply.
“Then why did you put up with it?” Melody asked trying to look into his eyes.
“I wanted to believe you too much.”
Melody watched as Marcel slowly fell apart in front of her. No tears fell, but the excitement and intensity in his eyes had changed to sorrow and heaviness.
“I wanted to believe it too, to be honest,” Melody said stepping closer to him, “I didn’t want to admit how much I need…”
Melody trailed off as it killed her to say Harry’s name to Marcel’s face as she was so blatantly breaking his heart.
“How much you need Harry…” Marcel finished for her.
Melody fell silent again as Marcel maturely acknowledged Harry.
“I love him, Marcel. He is the only person I have ever really loved.”
The words burned on her tongue as she watched Marcel nod while shaking his head.
“I’m actually surprised you lasted as long as you did.” He said with a light chuckle, “The second I knew you were with him, I knew I didn’t stand a chance. No matter how much I changed to impress you, I’d never be Harry Potter. It was just a matter of time.”
Marcel replied to Melody’s silence by shrugging and turning to leave.
“I’m so sorry, Marcel,” Melody said before he could run away.
“Aren’t we all,” he said shortly.
In an instant, Marcel was gone and Melody was free to follow her heart once more, no matter where it may lead her.