Power of the Musea

Thanks to everyone who's been reading thus far. I've finally finished working on the end of this story, and all I have left to do is some editing. So, I'll be getting the rest of these chapters up as I edit each one. The final fic will most likely be 28 chapters in all, less if I lump some more chapters together. I'm sorry if it seems like there's a lot of explanation and not so much action. Part of that is the fact that this is my first fic and I'm still learning, but there will be a bit more action as I move closer to the end. I also (yes, this is a shameless plug) already have a sequel pretty much laid out that has a lot more action and less long explanation (although there will be a few more surprises-ha ha). I should be starting to put it up right after I finish posting this fic. Thanks again to everyone who's reading and commenting!

Chapter 14: Mealtime Surprises

"Okay, so I've talked to everyone else in the group," Hermione told Melanie and Rhonda, walking up to the Ravenclaw table at breakfast the next morning. "And there's no way that we can all get together in the near future at the same time. So, since we need to do research first, I split the library into sections and assigned everyone a section to search. We can all search our section whenever we have time and meet back in a month or so to share what we've found." She handed each of them a piece of parchment.

"You want us to read all of these books in a month!" Rhonda shrieked.

"Of course not. I wrote a charm down on the back that'll let you search through the books just by topic. I suggest you look for any book that contains the word 'musea,' 'music,' or other such things."

Melanie nodded and looked at the page in front of her in astonishment. "This is why you're in charge of this, Hermione. I can't imagine anyone else being so organized."

Hermione smiled and blushed. "Thanks. Let me know if you have any problems." She smiled and bounced back to the Gryffindor table.

"That seemed to make her happy," Rhonda said as she finished her breakfast. "Oh, and it looks like you have a letter."

Melanie looked up and saw a large, elegant owl dropped a fancy letter onto her plate.

"This doesn't look like my mother's handwriting," Melanie said, inspecting the letter, addressed to Miss Melanie Brienwald in flowing script.

"Who else would be sending you something?" Rhonda asked, looking at the letter over Melanie's shoulder.

Melanie just shook her head as she opened the letter and started to read.

Miss Brienwald

I just wanted to convey what a joy it was to see you this weekend. I feel like we didn't get enough time to talk, so I would like to invite you to join me for an afternoon at our house as soon as an opportunity presents itself, whether sometime during winter or Easter break. I have asked Draco to personally invite you, but I am sending this letter as an assurance that you will receive the invitation in case it slips his mind~I'm sure you understand how boys can sometimes be.

Feel free to write to me if you need assistance in anything. It would be a pleasure to help the daughter of an old friend.

I would also like to convey how much Draco also enjoyed the visit. He said that you are a fine young lady and an excellent flying pupil.

Narcissa Malfoy

Melanie looked at it in confused amusement, laughing softly as Rhonda sat there with her mouth open.

"What is she talking about?"

"Oh, I ran into Draco and his mother before I met with Dumbledore on Sunday, didn't I tell you?" Melanie asked. She looked at Rhonda's confused face and blushed. "Sorry, I must have forgotten about it with everything else that was going on..."

Rhonda nodded and looked back at her breakfast.

"Is there something wrong?" Melanie asked.

"No, it's just," Rhonda sighed. "I thought you hated Draco, Melanie."

"It's not like we're going to run off and get married or anything," Melanie laughed. "Our mothers were best friends, Rhonda. I have to at least attempt to be civil."

Rhonda shook her head. "I just hope you aren't getting into trouble. The Malfoys aren't the best family to be associated with, considering Draco's father's in Azkaban as a Death Eater. You did know that, didn't you?"

"I figured," Melanie said, starting to eat her lunch. "I just naturally assumed that every Slytherin had some form of relative who's a Death Eater."

"Which means that one of them is possibly related to the one who attacked you," Rhonda said quietly.

"Rhonda, I could be related to the one who attacked me," Melanie said sternly. "But I don't want to think about it anymore. It's the past, and I'm trying to move on."

Rhonda nodded, and Melanie shoved in a few more large bites of her food in her mouth before standing up.

"I'm going to go study," Melanie announced quickly, standing up.

"Aren't you going to finish your breakfast?" Rhonda asked as Melanie started to gather her books.

"I just need some time to be alone and think. I'll see you in class, okay?"

Rhonda nodded, and followed Melanie with her eyes as she left the Great Hall. Melanie made a turn for the library, but a voice stopped her.

"Yankee! Wait!" Draco shouted as he followed her out.

"What, Draco?" she asked, spinning around.

"What did my mother send you?"

"How do you know she sent me anything?" Melanie asked innocently.

"I saw her owl deliver a letter to you."

"Oh, that," Melanie said, flashing the letter by his eyes before putting it back in her robes. "It was just the same thing you told me yesterday. She was inviting me over some afternoon. She just wanted to invite me herself in case you forgot." She turned and started to walk towards the library.

"Was that everything?" Draco asked, stepping in front of her. "Did she say something else?"

"Well, that and she said that she'd be more than happy to help me with anything if I needed it."

Draco nodded. "All right. I just wanted to make sure that she didn't say anything embarrassing. You know how parents can be," he told her, making a bad attempt at being lighthearted.

"Actually, yes I do, and that's why I'm going to have to respectfully decline your mother's offer," Melanie replied, pushing past him.

"Why? All she wants to do is talk to you about your mother. They were close friends in school and you can't imagine how much it hurt her when she left."

Melanie ignored him and continued to walk away.

"I'm serious, Yankee," Draco told her sternly. Melanie sighed and turned back around. "I haven't seen my mother as happy as she was the day she met you in a long time. Remembering your mother has kept her mind off her worries about me..." he trailed off.

Melanie gave him a curious look, but he said nothing more. Melanie sighed.

"Oh, I'm sure that your mother misses my mother, but I also know what else is going one here. It's actually quite obvious," Melanie laughed as she continued quickly. "Your mother wants us to become friends, and I'm sure that she would be positively thrilled if we became more than just friends. And it's just because she was so close to my mother. Any set of friends naturally wants their friendship to extent beyond just them, and for their children to become friends is very important. I know that if Rhonda and I should have children about the same age, that I would very much want them to become friends."

Draco gave her an annoyed look. "Are you done babbling? I didn't understand a word you said."

Melanie sighed. "Look. I know you mother wants us to be friends."

"And you're opposed to this?" Draco interrupted. "Even just keeping up appearances for my mother's sake?"

Melanie looked at him seriously. "I can be civil in your presence, Mr. Malfoy, but I can never let myself be considered a friend of yours."

"And why not, may I ask?"

Melanie took a deep breath and stepped towards him. "Because you're a spoiled little brat that I'm sure couldn't truly care about someone if your life depended on it! You are always rude, and you are always belittling others. I can't spend any amount of time around someone like that. It's like poison for my soul. So, Mr. Malfoy, if you do not have anything else productive to say, I have studying to do." She turned on her heel and left Draco standing in the hallway. She quickly walked to the library and set out the potions essay she was working on. She just needed to find one more use of unicorn tail...

Ten minutes later, she realized that she was reading the same two lines in the book over and over again. She let out a frustrated sigh and closed her book. Nothing but her words to Draco could echo through her mind.

"Why did I have to be so cruel about it?" she asked herself softly. "He may be a brat, but he didn't deserve that level of cruelty." She sighed and looked around the nearly-empty library. She had half a mind to find Draco and apologize, but Hermione and Harry's voices echoed through her mind, telling her of all the things that Draco had done during their time together at Hogwarts. She thought of his endless taunts her first few weeks at school. No, he was not worthy of an apology. She reopened her potions book and continued her search.

As the days passed, Melanie and Rhonda started to spend every spare moment in the library, using Hermione's charm to look through stacks and stacks of books while they worked on their regular homework. Melanie's review efforts dimmed slightly as they searched through book after book, trying to find any information about museas. They saw other members of their group there often. Hermione even managed to get access to the restricted section and was combing through all of those books whenever she could. With how busy they were, the week passed quickly, and Melanie was looking forward to the weekend, and Hogsmeade.

When Saturday morning finally came around, Melanie woke up with a horrible stomachache. She could do nothing but pick at her food during breakfast, her arm around her stomach. She barely managed a smile when Harry walked up to the table.

He looked from Melanie to Rhonda. "Are you two ready for a wonderful day in Hogsmeade?" he asked.

Melanie looked up at the Great Hall ceiling, which was storming like the sky outside. She felt her stomach roll over at the thought of going outside in it.

"I don't know, Harry. I'm not feeling good this morning."

"Are you all right?" he asked worriedly.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just a bit of a stomachache." She gave him an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, but I don't think I'm up to going to Hogsmeade today."

Harry nodded. "Of course. You should go see Madame Pomfrey and see if she can give you anything."

Melanie nodded, giving a queasy look back to her food. "I will right after breakfast." She made a face and pushed her plate away. "Or maybe right now."

"Here, I'll go with you," Harry suggested, hurrying to help her up.

"No, you go to Hogsmeade. It's just a little stomachache, and there's no need for you to miss Hogsmeade because of that. Here," Melanie reached into her robes and pulled out a few galleons, "I need you to get me some sweets from Honeydukes so I can make my stomach hurt even more when I get over this bug."

Harry laughed. "Where did you get this from?" he asked, taking the money.

"My parents sent me a little when I told them there was a Hogsmeade weekend coming up and asked them to sign the permission slip," Melanie explained.

"Did they? I would have thought your mother would have refused to."

Melanie managed a weak laugh. "They signed it before last weekend," she told him as she left the Great Hall to walk up to the hospital wing.

When she walked in, Madame Pomfrey took one look at her and handed her a small vial of potion. "Stomachache?" she asked.

Melanie nodded. "How did you know?"

"It's been going around," the witch replied. "Take that now and relax for a few hours. You should be feeling right as rain by lunch."

"Thanks, Madame Pomfrey," Melanie said as she walked out.

Rhonda had gone into Hogsmeade with some of their dormmates, so Melanie went back to the Ravenclaw common room and curled up comfortably in a large armchair in front of the warm fire. She had read through quite a few old potions lessons by the time people started trickling back into the common room, driven from Hogsmeade early by the cold. Rhonda came in after a while, quickly sitting on the floor by Melanie.

"Brrrrrr. You picked a nice day to miss a Hogsmeade visit. Worst weather ever," she complained, holding her arms out to warm by the fire. Melanie smiled and closed her book.

"I'm going to go find Harry, then. I asked him to get some things from Honeydukes for me," she said, standing up.

"I don't know if they're back yet. They were still in The Three Broomsticks when we left," Rhonda said, taking Melanie's chair.

"Oh, well, I could use a walk anyway. I'll see you at lunch," Melanie said, waving goodbye and walking out as the common room began to fill.

Melanie started to randomly wander throughout the castle, thinking. Life had been passing by so quickly since she had arrived in Hogwarts that she hadn't had much of a chance to just think, she was always busy studying or reviewing. For the first time, she let herself relax and take in the beauty of the castle that had stood for so many years and housed so many. She laughed to think of her parents, as students, wandering around. Her father might have spent many hours sitting in the chair in front of the fire, studying. Her mother might have prowled the halls as she was doing now, giggling with the future Mrs. Malfoy at her side.

How different things must have been then. Could they have known about the danger they would face when they left school, or was the name Voldemort nothing but a simple name? She could imagine both of them as young Slytherins wandering around the halls, then as young ladies about to be married-both would have obviously been in each other's weddings. They both would have been pregnant at the same time, and Melanie wondered if they spent hours together, talking excitedly about becoming mothers with bulging bellies. She wondered if her mother had ever brought her as a baby to visit with the infant Draco. They would have met at infants, Melanie was sure.

Melanie shivered. Both her and Draco had been born into the same world, of mothers who were close friends. How, then, were they so different? Was it just that they were different, or had her parents' flight to New York made all the difference? If her parents had stayed in England, would Melanie have ended up being more like Draco? Would she be friends with Rhonda, Hermione, Harry, and Ron, or would she just be one of the snobby purebloods that went around criticizing everyone?

Melanie sighed and turned the corner, but quickly hid back around the corner when she heard two voices arguing.

"You idiot! You didn't honestly think that that stupid plan would work, did you?"

"It was worth a try. Things aren't working the way they are now, and sometimes the most obvious plan will work," the second voice explained.

"Not always," the first voice said darkly. "We are trying to work in secrecy! If this makes people suspicious..."

"It won't. There's no way to trace it to us."

"We'll see."

Melanie held her breath for a second, straining to hear if there was anything else to the conversation. She heard some faint mumblings as a figure turned the corner.

"Melanie!" Draco shouted, jumping when he saw her. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm walking. What, is that against the rules?"

"No," he said uncomfortably. "I just assumed that you would be in...in Hogsmeade."

"I had a stomachache and decided to stay here," Melanie explained slowly, noticing Draco's nervous look. "Why do you care?"

Draco looked at her and then resumed his usual cocky attitude. "I don't, Yankee. I was just trying to make polite conversation. Oh, but I forgot...polite conversation is too far above you." He lifted up his head and swept past her. Melanie turned and followed him with her eyes.

"Draco," she called after him. He stopped in his tracks.

"What, Yankee?" he asked, still facing away from her.

Melanie sighed and started to walk towards him. "I wanted to say I'm sorry about Tuesday." She paused. "It was a cruel thing for me to say."

He looked at her in surprise and turned around. "I'm glad you realized your mistake," he said, giving her a smug look.

Melanie looked at him unbelievingly. "You never stop, do you?" She sighed. "And I actually thought you could be a gentleman! Our mothers were best friends, yet you somehow manage to turn out to be a spoiled, self-serving little...argh!" She looked around her, shaking her head. "You know what? I give up! I was stupid enough to actually think that there might be a different side to you, that, underneath all of the self-absorbedness and malice, there might actually be someone worthwhile! I mean, I actually enjoyed being around the Draco that gave me the flying lesson! I can't believe I was so stupid!" She started to storm away.

"Melanie, wait!" Draco yelled, reaching out to grab her arm.

"No, Malfoy," Melanie sneered, looking at him with rage in her eyes. "I've already made my mistake, and I won't do it again, so get your filthy, conceited little hands off of me!" She wrenched her arm from his grasp and stormed off down the hall.

She lost all sense of where she was going; she just kept walking wherever her feet led her.

"Melanie, hey!" a voice shouted as she walked past. A hand stopped her, and Melanie spun around to face a startled Harry. "Where are you off to in such a hurry?"

"Oh, I'm just walking," she answered. "So, you're back?"

"Of course, but what's wrong? You look a little flustered."

Melanie quickly smoothed her hair. "I'm fine," she lied.

"Is it your mom..."

"I'm fine, Harry. Really," Melanie repeated, backing away.

"Wait, Melanie," Harry stopped her. "Don't you want your things from Honeydukes?"

"Of course. I forgot all about that," she said, walking back next to Harry as he handed her a bag of Honeydukes sweets. "Thanks."

Harry nodded and smiled. "Yeah, I didn't know exactly what you liked, so I picked up a little bit of everything."

"That'll be fine," she said, rummaging through the bag. "I haven't had a lot of wizarding candy, so I don't really have any favorites."

Harry nodded and looked around them as Melanie searched through the bag some more.

"There's something else I wanted to tell you," he whispered, pulling her into an empty classroom.

"What?" she asked as he closed the door.

He took a deep breath. "Katie Bell was cursed on the way back from Hogsmeade."

"Who?"

"Katie Bell, she's one of the chasers on the Gryffindor quidditch team."

Melanie gasped. "That's horrible! How? Is she okay?"

"I don't know. She's in the hospital wing and I haven't heard anything."

Melanie stood there in shock, her hand over her mouth. "I can't believe it," she whispered. "H-how?"

"Someone gave her a package in the girl's bathroom at the Three Broomsticks and told her to deliver it to someone at Hogwarts-they might have put her under the Imperius curse, too. The package accidently opened on the way back, and..." Harry sighed and looked at Melanie. "They don't know who the package was meant for, though."

Melanie stared at him for a second. "You don't think..."

"I really don't think so," Harry admitted. "You were supposed to be in Hogsmeade, so they would have just given it to you there. It's obvious that something's going on, though, and you need to be on your toes."

Melanie sat down, pale and eyes wide. She shook her head.

"Look," Harry said, sitting down next to her, "I'm not trying to scare you. I just wanted to warn you that something is up. I want to make sure that you're looking out for yourself. After all, we still don't know why you were attacked in the first place, and, now that we know what you can do, you may be in even more danger."

"Do you really think that it's that dangerous?"

"I don't know. All of this might have absolutely nothing to do with you, but then it might. I just want you to be aware of it."

Melanie nodded, standing up. "T-thanks, Harry," she stammered, grabbing her bag. "I'll see you later." Without another word, she hurried from the room and up to the Ravenclaw common room.

"Melanie!" Rhonda shouted, running up to her through the crowded common room. "Have you heard about Katie Bell? What's wrong with you, you're white as a ghost!"

"We have to talk, now," Melanie said, grabbing her arm and pulling her out of the common room. She didn't stop pulling until they reached a deserted classroom on the seventh floor.

"What is it?" Rhonda asked when they walked inside.

"Harry just told me about Katie," she said.

"Oh. It's horrible, isn't it? Why would someone want to attack her?"

Melanie shook her head. "She wasn't supposed to be the one attacked-she was supposed to give the necklace to someone else."

"Who?" When Melanie didn't answer, Rhonda looked at her in shock. "Do you think it might have been you?"

"I don't think so, but the thought that someone is trying to attack people at Hogwarts isn't a comforting thought."

"They might decide to go after you?" Rhonda asked, a scared look on her face.

"Who knows? Anything is possible these days," Melanie answered.

Rhonda shuddered. "It is scary. Do they know who it was?"

Melanie shook her head. "Someone gave Katie the package in the girl's bathroom in the Three Broomsticks. Nobody was with her-and Katie very well can't tell us herself."

Rhonda gasped. "The girl's bathroom in the Three Broomsticks? That's scary," she commented to herself.

"What?"

"I was in the Three Broomsticks' bathroom with Lisa about twenty times today."

"Why?"

"Her brother slipped the bad half of a puking pastille in with her Honeyduke's things as a joke," Rhonda said, rolling her eyes. "I'm glad to be an only child."

"If you were in the bathroom that much..." Melanie trailed off.

"I didn't see anything or anyone out of place. I never even saw Katie. It's just a bit unnerving to think that I was right there, most likely only a few minutes before Katie was..."

Melanie gave her an encouraging pat on the shoulder. "There's no use talking about 'what ifs.' We can't do anything about it, anyway. We just need to keep a sharper eye out."

Rhonda nodded. "I guess you're right."

Melanie and Rhonda spent the rest of the weekend in the library, finishing their assignments and continuing to search through their assigned parts of the library. People were still talking endlessly about Katie's attack, but Melanie started to relax a bit as she absorbed herself in the library research.

On Monday morning, an owl dropped a letter and small package onto Melanie's plate.

"Oooh, what did you get?" Rhonda asked, leaning over to see.

"It's my mom's handwriting," she said. "This might not be good." She started to open the letter.

"Do you think she's heard about Katie and wants you to come home?" Rhonda asked worriedly. Melanie just shrugged her shoulders and read the letter.

Melanie,

I just wanted to see how you were doing, and how your week has gone since I was there. I know that this year has been a complicated one, and I wish that things could have remained simple for you. However, it seems that life chooses to throw us its own twists and turns. I know it must seem to you that every time you see me I just get crazier and crazier, but you must realize my actions only come from how much I love you. You can't understand what happened before and immediately after you were born and why things turned out the way you did. Just know that everything I do is out of concern for you.

Your father and I thought you might like this back. Your film is still in it, and Dumbledore recommends that you speak to a Mr. Colin Creevy of Gryffindor before you develop it for an added surprise.

Please write if you need anything, and I hope you're having a good time.

Mom.

"What does she mean, 'an added surprise'?" Melanie asked as she unwrapped the box containing her camera.

Rhonda laughed. "You'll see. Colin's sitting at the Gryffindor table now, do you want to give the film to him to develop?"

"Okay," Melanie said, confused as she stood up and followed Rhonda over to the Gryffindor table. Rhoda tapped on the shoulder of a small, blonde boy, who immediately turned around.

"Colin, could you develop the film in this camera for us?" Rhonda asked.

"Sure," Colin said, and Rhonda handed him the camera. He looked at it. "You still have a couple of pictures on it. Do you want to take them before I develop it?"

"Of course," Rhonda said, pulling Melanie in close to her. "Take a picture of the two of us. Smile, Melanie."

Melanie laughed as the camera flashed.

"There's still one more," Colin said.

"How about a picture with us?" Harry suggested, having sneaked up behind them. He called Ron and Hermione, and the five of them grouped together and smiled. The camera flashed.

"All right, I'll have the pictures back to you as soon as I can," Colin told them.

"Thanks," Rhonda said, walking with Melanie back to the Ravenclaw table.

To Melanie's surprise, her camera and a small package of pictures was waiting for her on her breakfast plate just a couple days later.

"That was fast," Melanie said, "it always takes Wal-Mart about a week to get my pictures back."

"What?" Rhonda asked, confused.

"Oh, never mind," Melanie told her, opening the package of pictures. She gasped when she saw the picture on top. There, as she had expected, were she and Sophie, both in their cheerleading uniforms. Only, there were actually moving. Sophie was jumping up and down, shaking her pom-poms, and Melanie could actually see their basketball team warming up in the background. Next was a photo of the entire cheerleading squad as they performed at halftime-all of her friends dancing to the silent music.

"See?" Rhonda asked excitedly, "That's the surprise!! Wizarding pictures move!"

"But these aren't wizarding pictures," Melanie said, looking next at pictures of her and Sophie primping for their first high school prom. Sophie, her hair in curlers, was making funny faces and posing for the camera, then both of them all fancied up with and without their dates.

"Well, it all has to do with how they're developed, I think," Rhonda explained, looking over her shoulder as Melanie moved on to pictures of her family, all of them gathered around and smiling-her parent's arms around each other, and her and her brother pushing against each other playfully. Then came a picture of Simon on his seventeenth birthday-with the old junky car their parents had finally bought for him. In this picture, Simon gestured towards the car like her was showing a prize on a game show, acting more like the car was a luxury vehicle than a bunch of rusty parts welded together.

"Is that your brother?" Rhonda asked. Melanie nodded, flipping to the next picture. There she was, on stage in the school musical. She had only been in the chorus, but there she was, in full costume, singing her heart out and spinning around.

Then came the pictures of London: her and Sophie on the plane, jumping on the hotel room beds. Melanie paused at the last picture of both of them, tears forming in her eyes. It had been the night before the attack, and they had just finished performing with the rest of the group. They were both in their uniform black concert dresses, their mouths wide open as they pretended to be singing in some grand opera before they both burst into giggles.

"You still miss her, don't you?" Rhonda asked, looking at the prissy girl next to Melanie.

"Of course I do. We were best friends since kindergarten." Melanie laughed. "We got into a fight, the very first day of school. I don't know why-we could never remember. But the teacher came out to the playground and found us wrestling on the ground. As punishment, she made us partner up for the rest of the day, and we were inseparable from then on. We were just like twins-we had the same classes, we did the same things, we watched the same movies. We were just alike-except for one fatal difference," she added sadly.

"Don't worry about it," Rhonda encouraged her. "It wasn't your fault, and there was nothing you could do about it. What you need to do is be grateful that you were able to survive and accept that gift." She looked at Melanie. "Don't waste the future that you have worrying about the past."

Melanie nodded and flipped to the next picture. There she was with Rhonda, both of them in their Hogwarts robes, smiling broadly at the camera.

"I like that picture," Rhonda said.

Melanie smiled as she looked at the last picture in the pile. There was the whole group. Hermione and Ron were on the edge, her and Rhonda had their arms around each other's shoulders, and Harry was kneeling in front of the group.

"I like this one, too," Melanie said, smiling at it. She sighed. "But I guess it's time for defense now, isn't it?"

Rhonda made a face. "Boo. And today started out so well."