I want to be together…
She shouldn’t have blurted it out. What else should she have told Marcel after he so willingly laid his heart on the line? It wasn’t all a lie. At the moment, Marcel looked a lot better than Harry, who was obviously hiding something from her. Maybe it was time to break it off with Harry…maybe.
Her emotional battle was raging on, but it still wasn’t the biggest of her problems. In the last week, she had broken the mirror so many times that it was a safety hazard to be in the same room with it! Last night alone, she had broken every glass vase in her suite. It wasn’t until picture frames began to shatter that she decided to ask someone about it.
At her desk, she sat and wrote:
Dear Professor Dumbledore,
I know you’re terribly busy, so I’ll keep this short.
In the past few weeks, I have had a lot of trouble controlling my powers. I’ve never had a problem before, so I’m a little concerned. Any advice would be helpful.
Melody Chancelle
She sent the letter with her owl, Sparx, and went about her typical Saturday routine.
The next day in the library, Melody was tediously labeling her star chart for Astronomy when Brigitte Pentier took a seat beside her. They hadn’t spoken since their scene at breakfast, so silence smothered both until Brigitte gave a little cough.
“Are you going to talk to me,” she finally asked, “Or am I too immature?”
Melody almost came back with a snappy remark, but stopped when she saw Brigitte’s face, “Sorry, Brig. It’s just…well, I didn’t want to talk about Harry.”
“Oh, I see.”
Silence fell over them again as both absent-mindedly paged through the books in front of them.
“Mel,” Brigitte began, “I know it seems like all I talk about is boys, but you know…whenever I try to ‘ave a real conversation with you, you don’t take my seriously.”
“I don’t need this,” Melody thought to herself.
“Do you want me to apologize or something?”
Offended, Brigitte replied, “Well, I’m not ‘ere to force you, but I think it would be the decent thing to do.”
The librarian swooped over them with her finger glued to her lips.
“Well, if you recall,” Melody hissed, “I already apologized once.”
Brigitte opened her mouth to say something, but instead, rose from her seat and stormed off, leaving her book open.
Melody returned to her star chart and was content until her eyes fell on Brigitte’s exposed book. Staring up at her were two sharp, green eyes. She picked up the book and read about Harry for a moment, before resting it on the table. Harry smirked up at her, and all she could think about were the lies he was housing. She gathered her things and made to leave, but paused. Harry was still eyeing her. For a long moment, four eyes were locked until she stood and with as much force as she could, she slammed the book shut.
“Was that really necessary?” the book called, as she stomped off.
Much to Melody’s surprise, she found Sparx perched on her chair when she arrived for breakfast on Monday morning. As she anticipated, a small roll of parchment was tied to the owl’s leg.
Visit me on Saturday
…Professor Dumbledore
PS “ Harry can give you the password.
Slowly, Melody rolled the small note and placed it in her book bag. She was going to roam the halls of Hogwarts again this weekend, and she couldn’t help but feel mildly excited.
Her glee quickly faded as she spotted Marcel heading up the center aisle towards the Patron table. She unsuccessfully tried to hide her face with her hair, as he came up behind her. He hovered over her for a moment before he gently placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Walk you to class?” he asked, offering his arm.
Melody nodded but did not receive his arm. Instead, she fiddled with her schoolbag. There was a long silence as they exited the dining hall, but as soon as he grabbed her hand, a twittering group of fourth years ran off, buzzing.
The gossip bounced off Melody until Celeste walked into the foyer. Celeste’s brown eyes grew to the size of Kolsta (French wizarding coin, like a galleon) as she scurried over.
Immediately, Melody remembered that Celeste was still under the impression that Marcel was harassing Melody as Celeste slapped Marcel’s hand.
“Celeste!” Melody exclaimed urgently.
“Leave her alone, Marcel. She said ‘no!’” Celeste said, ignoring the look Melody was passing her, “I mean, honestly! There are plenty other fish…”
Celeste was cut off as Melody dragged her away from Marcel.
Once they were out of earshot, Melody explained the situation to Celeste. As she finished, Celeste was looking over Melody’s head, shaking her own.
“What about ‘arry?” Celeste asked, pleadingly.
Melody was silent for a long time as the said the words over in her mind. She would never be able to explain it all, so she decided to say what might please her.
“Well, I haven’t seen him in awhile…and Marcel is really nice. Oh Celeste, don’t look at me like that!”
After an awkward silence, Celeste began, “You are SUCH a fickle fool, Melody! You change boys more than you change shoes. ‘ow can you jump from guy to guy?! Don’t you ever think of them and their feelings?!”
And with that, she turned on her heels and marched into the dining hall.
Timidly, Melody rejoined Marcel, but didn’t take his hand.
“Melody? Is there something you want to tell me…like the reason you refuse to hold my hand?”
Melody hesitated, but then took his still extended hand, “No, I just feel weird, because I still haven’t broken up with Harry.”
“Oh…second thoughts,” Marcel said, sternly.
“It’s not that,” Melody lied, “I just feel wrong knowing he doesn’t know. Does that make sense?”
Marcel nodded, “Fine, but let me know when you’ve spoken to him.”
He kissed her forehead and took off to the yard.
The week passed quickly and on Friday night, after a week of waiting to hear from Harry, Melody gave up and called him.
“Harry?” she said sharply into the mirror.
She repeated his name for a few more times before he finally appeared.
“Oh, Mel. Hi.”
Again, he looked distracted as his eyes refused to meet Melody’s.
“What’s going on?” Melody asked.
“Nothing.”
Melody clenched her jaw as Harry continued to glance about what looked like his dorm.
“Well, I thought I’d tell you I’d be at Hogwarts tomorrow,” she said quickly.
Finally, she had his full attention, but the look upon his face was less than comforting.
“What time?” he asked nervously.
“I thought I might spend the day with you…if that’s alright!”
Melody could feel her emotions from the night of the party returning, but Harry was still oblivious to her temper.
“Well, I have…um…Quidditch practice.”
This time he had slipped. Melody knew very well that there was to be no Quidditch this year due to the Tri-Wizard. Melody’s heart sank to the pit of her stomach.
“Oh really,” she began, “What time would that be at?”
Harry’s face brightened as if he had won something.
“Why don’t you come around at three tomorrow afternoon?”
“Okay,” Melody said stone faced, “See you then, I guess.”
Before he could spout another lie, Melody put the mirror face down.