Power of the Musea

Chapter 2: Voices and Songs

The next morning, Melanie woke up happily in her Ravenclaw dormitory. The rest of the girls were still sleeping and she just laid there for a minute, taking in her surroundings. Eventually, she sat up on her soft blue bed, pulled a mirror out and started to brush her hair.

"Good morning," a girl with brown hair in the bed next to her opened her eyes and greeted.

"Morning," Melanie returned as she started to pull her hair up.

"Why are you doing it like that?" the girl asked groggily as she climbed out of the bed.

"Because I like my hair like this," Melanie answered.

"No, no, no, why are you doing it by hand? I mean, why aren't you using magic?"

"You can use magic for that?" Melanie asked in wonder.

The girl laughed and sat down next to Melanie, picking a wand up from a bedside table. "Here, I'll show you. Halens stilo." The girl expertly moved her wand and Melanie's hair followed her wand movements to move itself into a perfect ponytail.

"That's amazing!" Melanie said, investigating herself in the mirror.

"It takes a bit to get the finer hand movements down. I'm pretty good, but what my mom can do is amazing."

"Can you do that with makeup, too?" Melanie asked excitedly.

"What do you mean?"

Melanie pulled out a bag filled with different small containers of foundation, blush, eye shadow, and other things. "Is there an easier way?"

"What is all of that?" the girl asked, looking at the container of mascara curiously.

"Makeup," Melanie answered.

"Oh, is this that silly muggle stuff they use? I guess it's okay, but this stuff works so much better." The girl walked over to her things and handed her a single container.

"Just this?" Melanie asked, opening the container to reveal a cotton puff and a large amount of beige powder.

"Yeah, just put a little bit on. You don't need much."

"Okay," Melanie said uncertainly, closing her eyes and using the puff to apply the powder. She felt a slight tingle as she opened her eyes. She picked up a mirror and looked at herself. Instead of the beige-covered face she was expecting, the powder had changed color to perfectly accent her skin tone and add a bit of blush to her cheeks.

"Wow. What is this stuff?"

"Bewitching. It works fine most of the time. Sometimes you have to do a bit of adjusting with your wand, but not much."

Melanie nodded, continuing to look at herself in the mirror. "How did you learn how to do this? Do you know anything else?"

The girl laughed. "Are you muggle-born? Most wizarding girls know how to do this stuff from mothers and older sisters."

Melanie blushed. "Yeah, as you can probably figure from those things," Melanie admitted, gesturing to her makeup bag.

"Sorry, I guess I don't think this early in the morning," the girl apologized. She walked over to her things and pulled out a book. "Here, this'll give you a few ideas."

Melanie looked at the title: 101 Spells for Self-Beauty. "Thanks, uh..."

"Rhonda. Rhonda Mittenborn."

"Melanie Harver."

"I know," she laughed. "Dumbledore introduced you to everyone last night."

"Oh, yeah, that's right," Melanie said, blushing.

"Don't worry about it. The sorting's enough to frazzle anyone's nerves. I was scared out of my wits when I was sorted."

"So, what's all in this book?" Melanie asked, flipping through it.

"Oh, loads of stuff. You have your standard, everyday beauty spells-hair, nails, teeth whitener. Then there's a section on different potions you can make-wart remover, acne remover. Then there's a few really complicated spells-how to change hair color, stuff like that. I can't do any of those yet; most of them are human transfiguration that we won't cover until this year."

"Amazing. Back home, it took me an hour to do hair and makeup. Here, it takes three minutes, and it looks five times better."

Rhonda laughed. "That's the way is with magic: faster and better. I took muggle studies the last few years, and I don't know how muggles manage without it."

"We get by," Melanie laughed. Rhonda nodded and walked back to her bed.

"Hey, you wanna go down to breakfast with me when I get ready?" Rhonda asked as she pulled out her robes.

"Of course," Melanie agreed, pulling out her robes and changing into them as well. When she was changed, she watched Rhonda skillfully magic her hair into an elegant bun on the back of her head. As they left their dormitory to walk down to breakfast in the Great Hall, the other girls were just stirring.

They were a bit early for breakfast, so the halls weren't very crowded as they approached the Great Hall, and the Hall itself was mostly empty when they walked in.

"Well," Melanie asked as they sat down at the Ravenclaw table, "you know where I came from, since Dumbledore announced it for everyone to hear. So, what about you?"

"Well," Rhonda said, starting to eat her breakfast. "I live in London with my mom and dad."

"Do you have any brothers or sisters?"

Rhonda shook her head. "Nope. Just me, Mom, and Dad. My dad works in the Ministry of Magic, Department of International Magical Cooperation. What about you?"

"I have a brother, Simon. He's a year older than I am. My dad's a," Melanie blushed, "er, realtor, and my mom works in a department store."

"What do they think of you being a witch?"

"Oh, I, uh, I don't know."

Rhonda gave her a confused look.

"Well, I haven't seen them since I found out," Melanie explained, taking a deep breath. "You see, I didn't know I was a witch until this summer. I was on a school trip to London and my best friend Sophie and I were attacked."

"A Death Eater?" Rhonda's eyes widened.

"I think so. I was in St. Mungo's for a few days, then Dumbledore showed up and explained everything to me: I was a witch, and I could go to school to learn more about it. He brought me back here and got Hermione Granger to come and tutor me."

"Hermione is one of the brightest in our year, so that would make sense," Rhonda agreed, looking at her in surprise. "But, does that mean that you learned everything just over this summer?"

Melanie nodded.

"No wonder you're in Ravenclaw," Rhonda commented to herself. She looked at Melanie, who was quietly eating her food. "Is something wrong?"

Melanie shrugged her shoulders. "I just don't like thinking about London and the attack."

"That's understandable, of course," Rhonda said. "So, if you found out you were a witch, what happened to Sophie?" She took one look at Melanie's face and went, "Oh. I'm so sorry."

Melanie nodded and stared down at her plate. "It's okay. I guess I'm still just not used to it yet."

"You will. Focus on the bright side, it brought you here, didn't it?"

"Yeah," Melanie said with a small smile, "you're right."

Rhonda gave her a supportive hug. "Look, here comes Professor Flitwick with our schedules," she said as the tiny wizard walked along the table. "He's the head of Ravenclaw house."

Melanie nodded as Flitwick stopped next to Rhonda. "Miss Mittenborn, yes. Let's see, your Exceeds Expectations in potions, transfiguration, defense against the dark arts, and herbology clears you for those classes, yes. And I'm very proud of your Outstanding in charms, yes, and I'll be happy to see you there. Of course, no problems with your schedule," he chirped, handing her a piece of paper. "Now, oh, Miss Harver! Yes, now your O.W.L.s pose a problem."

"But, but Professor McGonagall said that I'd passed."

"Yes, but with a round of Acceptables, which technically don't qualify you for any classes. Your only Exceeds Expectations was in potions, so that is the only class you usually could take," he explained, and Melanie's heart dropped. "However, Dumbledore has spoken with your professors, and, seeing how far you progressed over the summer, we are willing to accept you into our classes despite your low O.W.L.s"

"Thank you, sir."

"Don't thank me, thank Professor Dumbledore. His arguments on your behalf were quite persuasive. But I will suggest that you find a study partner to help you at present and continue to look back on things Miss Granger might have missed over the summer."

"Of course, sir."

"Very good, then," he said, handing her her schedule as he moved on to the girl sitting next to her.

"Well, want a study partner?" Rhonda offered, peering over Melanie's shoulder at her schedule. "All of our classes are at the same time."

Melanie smiled awkwardly. "Works for me. Where do we start?"

"How about the common room? Defense is our first subject, so maybe I could give you a little refresher before we start. It's probably not a bad idea, considering that Snape's teaching it."

Rhonda and Melanie both stood up and walked out together. "So, is Professor Snape hard?"

"Horribly. He used to teach potions, but he finally managed to get the Defense job. He's head of Slytherin, and always favors them over everyone else."

"Isn't Slytherin the house that's, well..."

"Evil?" Rhonda suggested. "Yeah, turns out most of the dark wizards, even You-Know-Who himself. Do you know who he is?"

Melanie nodded glumly. "Yeah, Hermione explained everything over the summer."

"Good, you definitely need to understand that now that he's back. Speaking of Slytherin," Rhonda said as she looked at the hallway in front of them. A tall, blonde-haired boy was walking next to a stringy, dark-haired one, both in Slytherin robes. They were both so absorbed in their own conversation that they didn't notice Rhonda and Melanie.

"Look, we can fix it if we try," the stringy boy was saying.

"Yeah, but we can't be too obvious about it. We need to continue to do all that we usually do," the blonde boy added, focusing so much on what he was saying that he ran right into Melanie. "Watch where you're going!"

"Where I'm going?" Melanie asked indignantly. "You were the one that was walking; I was standing still. You should be the one apologizing!"

"Melanie," Rhonda hissed, trying to motion for her to leave. Melanie stood right where she was, looking indignant.

The blonde boy was looking her up and down. "You're that new student, aren't you? From the States?" he sneered.

"Is there a problem with that?" she asked.

He took a threatening step forward. "Of course. Only two things come out of the States-mudbloods and blood traitors. I'll bet you're a mudblood, from the looks of you."

"I don't like the tone of your voice."

"Oh, really?" he said with false surprise. "I don't like the tone of yours, either. My ears actually hurt listening to your scratchy little mudblood voice."

"There's nothing wrong with my voice," Melanie said. "Maybe you should get your pompous, self-absorbed ears checked."

The boy looked at carefully for a moment. "You better watch your back, mudblood," he warned, giving her one more glare as he walked into the Great Hall with his stringy companion.

"Who was that?" Melanie asked as she and Rhonda continued their walk up to the Ravenclaw common room.

"The worst of the Slytherins-Draco Malfoy. His father was arrested at the end of last year as a Death Eater. His little stringy friend was some Slytherin named Nott. I don't know much about him, though. Pureblood, obviously, if he's hanging around with Malfoy."

Melanie nodded. "I've met people like him. Spoiled and selfish; the only way they view others is how much they can help. Pathetic, really. And I assume that he was calling me a nasty name."

Rhonda nodded. "Yeah. Really nasty. It was great the way you were standing up to him, though: 'maybe you should get your ears checked.'" They both laughed as the sat at one of the tables in the Ravenclaw common room and pulled out copies of Confronting the Faceless. "All right, what should we review over?"

Melanie shrugged her shoulders as Rhonda flipped through her book. She was quiet for a few moments, then looked up at Rhonda. "Rhonda, you mentioned that that one boy, Nott, must be pureblood because he was hanging around with Malfoy."

"Yeah," Rhonda agreed, nodding. "Most Slytherins, like Malfoy, think that they're..."

"I know what pureblood is, Hermione explained that, too."

"Of course she would. Hermione's parentage been the butt of Malfoy's jokes often enough from what I've heard."

"The thing is, have you ever heard of something called 'dual-blood?'"

"What?"

" 'Dual-blood.' It's something the sorting hat told me. The hat went down on my head and it, he, went 'Ah, so we have a dual-blood.' I have absolutely no clue what he meant."

"I have no clue, either," Rhonda admitted, looking rather confused. "I've never heard of a phrase like that. Don't worry about it, though. The sorting hat's always been a little bit of a crackpot."

Melanie laughed half-heartedly, still curious about what the hat had said. "All right then, now, what about Defense?" she asked, looking down at the page that Rhonda had opened her book to.

When it was time for Defense against the Dark Arts, Melanie walked to class with Rhonda. The classroom was dark, lit only by candles. Once their eyes had adjusted to the dark, they noticed pictures of individuals suffering along the walls.

"This room is creepy," Melanie whispered to Rhonda as they sat down near the back of the room.

"Well, I guess it's dark since Snape's used to the dungeons, but, yeah, those pictures creep me out, too."

"Well, looky here," a voice behind them sneered. "It's the Yankee mudblood." Melanie turned in her chair and saw Draco Malfoy standing behind her. "The Yankee mudblood came to Hogwarts, thought she'd do some magic...just wait, Yankee, and I'll have a whole theme song written our for you, just like Weasel King here." He sneered at Ron as he walked by with Harry and Hermione.

"Shut up, Malfoy," Ron threw back, turning red.

"Leave her alone," Hermione echoed.

"Oh, look, one mudblood defending the other-isn't it so sweet!" Malfoy exclaimed, his voice dripping in sarcasm.

"Can it, Malfoy," Harry warned, pulling his wand.

"Starting problems the first day, are we, Potter?" Snape's voice sneered from the doorway.

Harry opened his mouth to protest, but thought better of it and angrily put his wand away. Draco gave Harry a victorious smile as he sat down in a seat in the corner.

"I hate Slytherins," Harry muttered to Ron and Hermione as they sat down at a table between Melanie and Draco.

The lesson began, and Snape split them into pairs to practice nonverbal spells. Melanie and Rhonda quickly paired off and tried to hex each other silently.

"How is this supposed to work?" Rhonda complained, her brow crinkling as she concentrated on hexing Melanie.

Melanie laughed. "Good, then I don't have to worry about blocking it."

Rhonda's eyes flashed mischievously, and she quietly whispered, "Rictusempra!"

A jet of silver light flew towards Melanie, but disappeared as it approached her. Rhonda dropped her wand in surprise. "How did you do that?"

"Very good, Miss...Harver," Snape sneered deliberately behind them. "An unspoken shield charm. It seems that you have even beaten Miss Granger as the first to manage it. Yes, yes, ten points to Ravenclaw."

"Amazing," Rhonda whispered as Snape moved on, even though Melanie could still feel his eyes on them. "He never gives points to anyone but his own house."

Behind Melanie, Hermione huffed. A few seconds later, Hermione successfully blocked a jinx from her partner, a skinny boy who, like Rhonda, had had to whisper the incantation.

"Why don't you try doing the jinxing, now?" Rhonda asked. "Shouldn't be hard, since you can do a nonverbal shield."

Melanie nodded and confidently tried to cast the jinx. Nothing happened, so she concentrated harder. Her face twisted even more than Rhonda's had, but nothing came out of her wand.

"Why can't I do it?" she whispered as there was a loud crash. Melanie stopped trying to jinx Rhonda and turned to see Snape standing up, having been pushed into a desk.

"Do you remember that we are practicing nonverbal spells, Potter?" he sneered angrily.

"Yes," Harry told him.

"Yes, sir," Snape corrected him.

"There's no need to call me 'sir', Professor."

Melanie and Rhonda both gasped to cover up sniggers as Snape quickly gave Harry detention.

"That's enough for today," Snape finished. "I want a twelve-inch essay on the benefits and uses of nonverbal spells by next class, and take care not to simply quote The Standard Book of Spells," he added, looking at Hermione. She turned slightly pink as everyone grabbed their books and walked out of the room.

"Well done, Melanie!" a pair of boys congratulated, walking up to her. "Nobody else has ever been able to get points out of Snape except Slytherins!"

"Yeah, great job. How did you learn to do the nonverbal so well?"

Melanie shrugged her shoulders, trying to hold back a proud smile. "I...I don't really know."

"Must just be the ability, then. It's nice to see a Ravenclaw finally able to beat Granger. What other classes do you have?"

"Umm..." Melanie stammered as she pulled out her schedule. "I don't have anything else today until potions."

"Great, we're in it, too! We'll see you, then?"

Melanie nodded as the two boys walked away. She looked at Rhonda in confusion.

"Who were they?"

Rhonda laughed. "That was Anthony Goldstein and Terry Boot, two other sixth-year Ravenclaws. They're usually okay, but they're apparently very excited that someone has beaten Hermione for a change."

Melanie shook her head. "It was only by a few seconds," she said modestly.

"A few seconds and a few points for Ravenclaw-and you're a hero." Rhonda laughed. "That's probably why Snape gave you the points, too. Hermione's not exactly his favorite student."

"What's funny, though, is I don't even remember thinking the shield charm...I was thinking about music, actually; I had this weird song stuck in my head."

"Well, if having a weird song in your head helps you produce a nonverbal shield charms, then use it," Rhonda said as they reached the Ravenclaw common room. "Anyway, do you wanna just go and write this essay for Snape now since we have two breaks before lunch and nothing better to do?"

"Sounds good to me," Melanie agreed as they walked inside. "After that, then, do you think you could help me review potions a bit before the first class?"

"No problem."

Later that day, she walked down to the dungeons with Rhonda. Melanie saw Harry, Ron, and Hermione already waiting in the corridor when they arrived. She waved and started to walk towards them, but Anthony and Terry pulled her away.

"A new potions professor, what do you think he'll be like?"

"My mom said he taught when she was here, and that he wasn't that bad. He had his favorites, though."

"Melanie, can I talk to you?" Hermione interrupted, walking up behind Anthony and Terry.

"About what?" Melanie asked.

"About Defense this morning. How did you do it so fast?"

"She's just smart, Hermione," Anthony said smugly.

Hermione rolled her eyes and looked at Melanie. "We barely covered verbal shield charms this summer, and now you can turn out an unspoken one before anyone else in our class?"

"Oh, c'mon, Hermione, you're just upset because somebody beat you for once," Terry said, trying not to laugh. Anthony nodded, but Rhonda started to look at Melanie with the same confused look that Hermione was wearing.

"Hermione does have a point, Melanie," she said. "Now that I think about it...that was your first try. It's a bit remarkable to be able to pull of a nonverbal shield charm on your first try."

"Well, when you're good, you're good," Anthony said, pulling Melanie towards the doorway. "C'mon, let's go. Professor Slughorn's here."

Hermione walked passed them to catch up with Ron and Harry as the four Ravenclaws approached the doorway. Professor Slughorn greeted them, looking at Melanie for a moment.

"Yes, it's a pleasure to have you here, Miss, Harver isn't it? Yes, a real pleasure," Slughorn said.

"Well, it's a pleasure to be here, Professor," Melanie returned with a broad smile as he let them pass and moved on to greet the two boys behind them. Melanie saw Hermione, Harry, and Ron sit down near a gold cauldron and thought about joining them before Anthony and Michael had walked up next to her and Rhonda.

"Shall we claim a table for Ravenclaw?" Michael suggested. "The Slytherins have already done so." Melanie turned and saw Malfoy, Nott, and two other Slytherins that she didn't know sitting at a table nearby.

As the Ravenclaws passed, Malfoy let out a loud laugh. "Well, Yankee, I'm surprised that you wouldn't sit by Granger. Shouldn't mudbloods stick together?"

"No, that rule only applies to self-absorbed idiots like yourself," Melanie replied smugly as she sat down next to Rhonda.

"You have too much confidence for your own good, mudblood," Malfoy huffed as Slughorn told them to get out their things. Melanie bent into her bag and carefully set out her book, scales, cauldron, and kit of ingredients. She also took out a long piece of parchment and sat there with quill in hand, ready to take any necessary notes.

"You seem a little bit too excited about this," Rhonda said as she lazily set out her things. "I hate this class."

"Oh, but I love it! It reminds me of the chemistry class I took in school last year," Melanie answered enthusiastically.

"Spread some of that love over here, why don't you?" Rhonda laughed as Slughorn called their attention.

"Now," he began, "I've prepared a few potions for you to have a look at, just out of interest, you know. These are the kind of thing you ought to be able to make after completing your N.E.W.T.s. You ought to have heard of 'em, even if you haven't made 'em yet. Anyone tell me what this one is?"

He pointed to the cauldron brewing on the Slytherin table. "It looks like boiling water," Melanie whispered. "For some reason I want to pour pasta into it."

Rhonda tried to stifle a laugh as Hermione raised her hand. "It's Veritaserum, a colorless, odorless potion that forces the drinker to tell the truth."

"Very good, very good! Now, what about this one?" He was now pointing to the potion sitting in front of Rhonda.

"Eew, would anyone actually drink that?" Rhonda asked, trying to keep her nose away from the cauldron.

"It's Polyjuice Potion, sir," Hermione answered.

"Why would anyone possibly drink that?" Melanie asked.

"Well, it does change you into someone else, only physically, of course."

"Wow," Melanie said, taking a second look at the potion as Slugworth turned to the cauldron in front of Hermione.

"It's Amortentia!" Hermione was cheerfully answering.

The scent of tulips reached Melanie's nose, and she temporarily zoned out. Her attention was drawn back to the class when Rhonda nudged her.

"Amortentia doesn't really create love, of course. It is impossible to manufacture or imitate love. No, this will simply cause a powerful infatuation or obsession. It is probably the most dangerous and powerful potion in this room," Slughorn was saying.

Melanie saw Malfoy whisper something to Nott, and they both looked unbelievingly at Slughorn.

"You may doubt me now, but my life has taught me that there's few things more powerful than obsessive love," Slughorn told them. "But, as for now, I wish you to begin to brew..."

"But, sir," the boy sitting with Ron, Harry, and Hermione interrupted, "you haven't told us what's in that one." He was pointing at the cauldron sitting on Slughorn's desk, where a golden potion was bubbling so happily that entire drops were jumping high above the surface and returning without the tiniest splash.

"Wow," Melanie said, entranced by the jumping drops as Slughorn explained that the potion was called Felix Felicis, or liquid luck, as Hermione quickly added.

"That could be useful," Melanie whispered to Rhonda as Slughorn continued on a lengthy recollection of the finer points of the potion. Her attention was drawn back when Slughorn announced that he was offering a small bottle of Felix Felicis to whoever produced the best Draught of Living Death.

"C'mon, Melanie, you know you can win it!" Terry encouraged Melanie as she started to arrange her things. "You've beaten Granger once today, you can do it again!"

Melanie threw both of them a smile as she began to weigh out ingredients. Not wanting to disappoint, she worked through the potion as quickly as she could. After painstakingly careful work, she was pleased to see that her potion exactly matched the halfway stage of the potion. She excitedly moved on to the next step, cutting up a sopophorous bean. The bean was putting up quite a fight, and Melanie had just managed to add it before Slughorn announced that time was up.

"Yes, very good, Miss Bu, Br...Harver," Slughorn stammered. "Very good for a first attempt."

Anthony and Terry gave her encouraging looks as Slughorn moved over to Hermione's table. "The clear winner!" he shouted, and the boys gave disappointed looks. "Excellent, excellent, Harry!" The boys relaxed their disappointed looks at this as they gathered up their things.

"Well, at least Granger didn't get it," they muttered as they all walked back to the common room. "What are you two girls doing for the rest of the night?"

"Oh, I don't know, dinner, hang around..." Melanie answered nonchalantly, smiling broadly at them.

"Do you want to sit with us at dinner, then?" Anthony asked, trying to discreetly move closer to Melanie. "Maybe a game of exploding snap in the common room afterwards?"

"That'd be wonderful!" Melanie smiled at him again as they reached the common room. "Give us a minute to put our books away before we head down to dinner, though, okay?" Both of the boys nodded as Melanie and Rhonda walked back up to their dormitory.

Rhonda broke into laughter as they set their things down by their beds. "You are hysterical, Melanie! You've got both of them crawling behind you on their knees."

"This is nothing," Melanie said, looking in her mirror and trying to fix her hair with her wand. "Sophie and I had half the football team fighting over who would take us to homecoming." The smile gradually vanished from her face and she dropped her wand. Her hair dropped carelessly with it. She shook her head and quickly fixed her hair, but it wouldn't set right. "Can you help me with this?" she quickly asked Rhonda.

"Sure," Rhonda said, moving her wand so that Melanie's hair returned to how it had been that morning. She gave Melanie a concerned look. "Are you all right?"

"Fine. I'm perfectly fine," she flashed Rhonda a smile, but her face lacked the glow it normally held. "There's no need to keep those two waiting any longer." Rhonda nodded and walked with her back to the common room where Anthony and Terry were waiting.