Power of the Musea

Chapter 13: The Beginning of the Turn

The entire group was still waiting outside of Dumbledore's office when Melanie came out.

"You're still here!" Rhonda shouted, running up to hug her.

"Yes, I am, and I'm going to stay here." Melanie laughed and looked at everyone else.

"We're glad she let you stay," Harry told her.

"Yes. I can't believe that she would even consider withdrawing you. You're in no more danger than we have been our entire time here," Hermione said.

"Yeah, since you can fight off the killing curse, nothing can hurt you!" Ron exclaimed.

"Speaking of that, Melanie..." Hermione prodded.

"I'm not allowed to tell you," Melanie told them. "At least, not right now. Dumbledore said he's going to explain it all to you tomorrow night after dinner."

"We have to wait until tomorrow!" Rhonda complained.

"He didn't want me to have to suffer through a late night of explanations after today," Melanie explained. "So, I'm going to go back to my room and go to sleep."

Rhonda nodded. "Good idea."

Harry, Ron, and Hermione nodded. "We'll see you tomorrow, then," Hermione said as the two groups split off.

Rhonda and Melanie made their way up to the Ravenclaw common room, but Harry caught up with them about halfway there.

"Melanie! Wait!" he shouted, and she stopped and let him catch up.

"What, Harry?" Melanie asked.

Rhonda looked at both of them and smiled. "I'll be up in the room, Melanie," she said mischievously, walking away.

Melanie rolled her eyes. "What did you want?" Melanie repeated, turning towards Harry.

"I just wanted to be sure that you were all right," he told her.

"Of course I'm all right. I'm a little tired, but I'll be fine in the morning."

"No, I mean with all of this stuff going on, and finding out what really happened in London. I just wanted to make sure that you were handling it all right. If anyone else can understand what you're going through, it's me." He paused and laughed. "I just don't want you to get any more stressed out than you normally are."

Melanie smiled. "I'm fine," she told him. "Don't worry. It's really not that bad."

Harry looked at her unbelievingly. "Are you sure?"

Melanie nodded. "Yeah. Don't worry, Dumbledore will explain it all tomorrow night."

Harry nodded. "If you need anything, ever, you know you can ask me for help."

"I know, Harry. Thanks."

"Now, I think we need to celebrate you staying here," he added with a smile. "How about you come with me into Hogsmeade with Hermione and Ron this Saturday? Rhonda can come too, of course."

Melanie's face lit up with a smile. "Sure," she agreed, turning and walking back into the common room. Rhonda was there and followed her up to their dormitory. She opened her mouth to speak, but Melanie sent her a look. Rhonda sighed.

"Fine. You just go to sleep, then," she huffed.

"I will, then," Melanie told her, sticking out her tongue. Rhonda rolled her eyes as Melanie changed into her nightgown and curled up under the covers. Soon, she was drifting off to sleep.

The next morning seemed to be a harsh recall to everyday life. In Defense, Snape seemed to be in a fouler mood than normal. He was constantly belittling everyone and pointing out mistakes left and right. He had one of the Hufflepuffs near tears only halfway through the class. As the Hufflepuff's friends leaned over to comfort her, Melanie heard laughter coming from the back of the classroom. She turned and saw Draco and his usual Slytherin buddies sitting there, quietly sending hexes towards the poor girl. Melanie looked that them for a minute before turning her face away in disgust.

When the class finally ended, Melanie and Rhonda gathered their things.

"Miss Brienwald, I wish to speak to you," Snape announced as the rest of the class left.

"See you in the common room," Melanie told Rhonda uncomfortably as they separated. Melanie fought her way down to Professor Snape. "Yes, Professor?" she asked.

"I just wanted to be sure that you realized, Miss Brienwald, that the fact that I was close to your family in school does not mean that I shall in any way begin to be lenient on you."

"Of course not sir. I would not expect you to do anything different. Your view of the situation has not changed at all, only mine has."

Snape nodded. "Your mother has requested that I keep her informed of all of your academic pursuits, so I will give you due warning that I intend to hold you up to the high standards that I have come to expect of you from both your prior achievements and being her daughter."

"Are you warning me, sir?"

"Yes. I will be watching out for you, Melanie. If you let your studies slacken at all, your mother will hear of it. Stay in line."

"I assure you, sir," she told him defiantly. "You will have nothing but excellence to report to her."

He let a sly smile cross his face. "Defiance and rebellion can be powerful tools, Miss Brienwald. Use them well. You may go."

Melanie nodded and hurried to return to her common room, but she was delayed yet again, this time by Draco standing out in the hallway.

"What are you doing out here?" she asked in surprise.

"Waiting for you, Yankee. My mother made me promise to speak to you when I next saw you."

"Well, you spoke to me. I'm sure your mother would be very proud of you."

"She also told me," Draco continued, following her as she walked away, "that I was to invite you to an afternoon at our house whenever you have an opportunity. She would like to be able to talk to you about your mother."

"I'll remember that," Melanie told him, not turning to look at him as she hurried off to the Ravenclaw common room. She spent the rest of the morning working on the Defense homework they had been assigned. At lunch, a third year came up to where Melanie and Rhonda were sitting and handed Rhonda a roll of parchment.

"Professor Dumbledore wants meet us after dinner," Rhonda said, her eyes scanning the message.

"Of course," Melanie said, not even looking up from her food.

"You knew?" Rhonda asked, setting down the parchment and looking at her.

"Well, Dumbledore said he was going to explain it all. Why else do you think I didn't say a word after I got back last night?"

"Oh, I don't know. I thought maybe you were too entranced about your talk with Harry on the way back," she teased.

"What do you mean?"

"You only came into the common room with the widest smile I've ever seen on your face," Rhonda said, a smile sneaking across her own face.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Melanie said, blushing.

"C'mon, what'd he say?"

Melanie shrugged her shoulders. "He just wanted to see how I was doing-with the whole finding out I was attacked with the killing curse thing."

"Oh," Rhonda said, her face falling. "I guess he would know how to deal with it better than anyone else."

"Yeah, that and he wanted me to go to Hogsmeade with him this weekend," Melanie added nonchalantly.

"What?!?!" Rhonda asked, almost jumping in her seat. "I knew it, I knew it!"

Melanie laughed. "It's not a date or anything, Rhonda. We're going to be with Ron and Hermione."

"Who everyone knows likes each other. I wouldn't be surprised if you two split off..."

"He invited you, too," Melanie added.

"Oh, I won't go! I wouldn't want to get in the way of you two," Rhonda said with a nudge.

"Rhonda," Melanie groaned.

"What?" she asked innocently. "This is so exciting!"

"What is so exciting about this?"

"Oh, come on, Melanie, just look at him! He's gorgeous, the best quidditch player in the school, the hero of the wizarding world...could you ask for anyone better?"

Melanie just sighed and shook her head. "I don't think of him like that, Rhonda! I don't think of anyone like that. The last thing I need right now is to be distracted by silly boys." She let her eyes roam around the Great Hall, lingering for a moment at the Slytherin table. "Silly boys." She shook her head and focused on her food.

"Whatever," Rhonda said unbelievingly as she returned to her lunch as well.

The rest of the day passed in its usual manner, and after dinner, Rhonda and Melanie left the Ravenclaw table together, followed closely by Hermione, Ron, and Harry. They made their way up to Dumbledore's office and anxiously walked inside.

"Prompt, aren't we?" Dumbledore asked as they entered, smiling. "Well, sit down and we shall begin." Seven chairs suddenly appeared behind them. The group exchanged startled looks and sat down.

"Now," Dumbledore began, standing up. "I believe all of you are waiting for an explanation of what happened last night."

The group nodded, everyone's eyes focused on Dumbledore. "What you heard Mrs. Brienwald say is indeed the truth. We recently discovered that Melanie was not attacked with Avada murim, but Avada kedavra."

Even though this was not new news to anyone, hearing it come so calmly from Dumbledore's mouth caused an uneasy silence in the room.

Rhonda was the one to break the silence. "Then how is she still alive, sir?" she asked in a quivering voice.

"Did Sophie..." Harry asked, trailing off.

Dumbledore shook his head. "Melanie did not survive the same way that you did, Harry. Her friend was dead before the Death Eater attacked Melanie."

"Then how did she?" Hermione asked.

Dumbledore paced a bit behind his desk. "I put Melanie's memory of the event into a pensieve, since her mind has chosen to forget the attack on her. With the pensieve, I was able to see what was beyond Melanie's conscious recollections."

"And what did you see, sir?"

"What you would expect, Harry, a green light heading towards Melanie. Except, the spell somehow vanished around her instead of hitting her directly. There was nothing that you could see in the pensieve that gave me any clues. The clues instead lied in what I heard."

"What do you mean? Did the Death Eater misspeak the incantation?" Ron asked.

"Leviosa," Hermione muttered under her breath and Ron shot her a look.

"No, Mr. Weasley," Dumbledore answered. "What I did hear was music."

The entire group looked confused, but Hermione's eyes widened. "Are you thinking she's a musea?" she asked in astonishment.

An amused look passed over Dumbledore's face. "Very good, Miss Granger. That is exactly what we suspect."

"A musea? What on earth's that supposed to mean?" Ron asked loudly.

"A musea is a myth that's been circulating around the wizarding world since the dawn of time," Hermione rattled off. "Nearly everyone agrees that music can be relaxing and soothing, but the musea legend claims that there are wizards that exist that can manipulate music to the extent that the music itself can become a protective barrier."

"Very good, Miss Granger. If this were a class, I would award Gryffindor five points. How did you happen across this extremely unknown legend?"

"It was in one of the books I read in the school library, sir," she said.

"Oh, one of your books you checked out for 'light reading'?" Ron asked with a snort.

"Yes, and see what good it's done me," she replied.

"Yes, it has done you good," Dumbledore agreed, "because I will need you to find that book back. Not a great deal is known about the musea, because hardly any wizards have taken the myth seriously, mostly because there has never been proof to support their existence."

"There's never been proof that people can walk around repelling curses? Or is it just the killing curse?" Ron asked.

"It could be any kind of spell," Hermione answered. Her eyes widened. "That's what happened in defense that day, wasn't it? You didn't block the spell, it...it didn't hit you at all because of your powers."

Melanie nodded as Dumbledore continued. "There is probably no proof, Mr. Weasley, because those who possess these abilities are very likely to hide away so that others will not try to take advantage of them."

Ron's eyes opened. "Can she protect other people?"

Melanie held her breath, looking intently at Dumbledore as he thought.

"That I do not know, Mr. Weasley. I, unfortunately, do not know much about museas other than the basics of the legend." He paused. "Which is why I am asking for your help.

"If we are to find out more about Melanie's abilities we will have to know much more-the question of if she can protect others being one of them. This, however, requires research, studying, practice and experiments, or, in other words, a lot of time. A lot of time that I and others I would trust this mission to do not have. So I was going to ask you if you were willing to assist not only myself, but your friend."

"What do you want us to do, sir?" Rhonda asked quickly.

Dumbledore smiled. "What I would like you to do is three-fold: to research museas to the best of your ability in the library and any other sources available to learn everything that has already been learned through the ages. Then, I want you to experiment-safely, mind you-and find out just how many types of spells Miss Brienwald can block or manipulate and if she can successfully apply this protection to others. The last part is for secrecy. None of your other classmates can know of what you are doing. Not only to protect Miss Brienwald herself-for I'm sure that she would become some sort of freak show to them-but also to keep as much information out of You-Know-Who's hands as possible. If it became common knowledge that Melanie possessed these abilities, he would undoubtedly try to use them himself."

"Will he be coming after us for this?" Rhonda asked slowly.

Dumbledore shook his head. "This is not a dangerous task I've asked of you. It just includes helping Miss Brienwald develop her skills and keeping it secret. The only risk of harm is that, if your participation is discovered, you will be labeled as an opponent of You-Know-Who and may become a target of the Death Eaters. But this is a danger of alliances and your friendship, not danger of the task itself."

"Sir?" Hermione asked, "but I don't understand how that's any more of a danger than we had before as being friends of Harry's."

"Really, why would we have any problem helping?" Harry asked. Ron and Rhonda nodded their agreement.

"It is not only your willingness to help her that I require, it is also the willingness of Miss Brienwald herself that I need." He looked at Melanie. "I know your mother allowed you to remain here only for your own schooling. But I also know that certain experiences would make you want to learn to develop these abilities and see if you can indeed protect others."

Melanie nodded, tears starting to form in her eyes. "Why would I not?"

Dumbledore took a step towards her. "You do know that this is in direct defiance of your mother's wishes. This would mean starting to turn down a road that she desperately does not wish you to go. Your abilities will force you to choose sides, and may lead you into danger. You will be protected as long as humanely possible, but it is something that, in the end, cannot be avoided."

Melanie bit her lip and nodded. "I cannot turn my back if I can help others."

Dumbledore nodded. "Then you are all in agreement. Miss Granger, since you have the most knowledge of the musea of the group, I will appoint you leader. And I would also like you would stay and speak to me for a minute. Harry, I would like to speak to you as well. The rest of you may go."

Melanie, Rhonda, and Ron all walked slowly out of Dumbledore's office.

"What do you think he has to talk to those two about?" Rhonda asked as they made their way back to the Ravenclaw common room.

"Who knows?" Melanie asked. "Probably something with leading the group."

"You are all right with all of this, aren't you?" Rhonda asked.

Melanie nodded. "Of course. I'm a bit excited, actually. Rebelling against my mom, doing something to possibly hurt the ones who attacked me..."

"That's why you're doing this, aren't you? It's because of Sophie," Rhonda said as they walked into the common room.

"A lot of it is," Melanie admitted as they walked up to their room. "But a lot of it is for everyone else. If I can somehow help, I want to."

"I sometimes wish I could be of help," Rhonda said, sitting down on her bed.

"You are. Rhonda, you've helped so much just in the short time we've known each other. You've helped me from going completely insane with my classes, and don't forget your brilliant plan to keep my mom from taking me away."

Rhonda laughed. "It wasn't the best idea, was it? But, you're still here, so it couldn't have hurt."

Melanie nodded. "Exactly. But it'll take a lot more to convince my mom to let me stay here if she gets wind of all this."

"Then she just won't have to know," Rhonda said with a glimmer in her eye. Melanie laughed before she crawled into bed and went to sleep.