Power of the Musea

Chapter 20: Christmas

Melanie didn't see her mother at all the next morning or afternoon. She spent most of the time in her room, reading her charms book when her mother knocked on the door after dinner.

"Can I come in?" she asked, pausing at the door.

"Of course," Melanie told her, closing her book and setting it down on the floor.

Her mother nodded and sat down on her bed. She took a deep breath. "Well, I've been doing a lot of thinking since last night."

Melanie nodded and turned in her chair to face her mother.

"I know how much you would like us to return to the wizarding world, and you know that I want you to return home and let everything return to normal." Her mother shook her head. "Ever since you were attacked, your father and I have been straddling the line between these two worlds, hoping that somehow things will return to normal. Of course, as we discussed last night, it's become quite clear that that is no longer possible. The time for straddling the line is over, and it's time to finally pick and choose sides."

Melanie nodded, holding her breath as her mother looked at her and sighed.

"We're going back home, Melanie. Your father and I left the wizarding word sixteen years ago, and we don't feel like we can return. We've grown used to safety, to this exile we've put ourselves in."

"What?" Melanie asked, looking at her mother in shock.

Her mother looked away and continued in a very rehearsed tone of voice. "We'll stay here for Christmas tomorrow, then we're going to go back home. You can stay here, go to school, do whatever you like. You'll be seventeen this summer, so you'll be a legal adult then and can go off on your own, free of us and our wishes."

Melanie shook her head, staring into space. "No, you can't just forget about, about everything..."

"Your father and I have made the decision to sever all ties with the wizarding world once and for all. We're never going to come back. We're not going to stop you from doing as you will, but our decision is made, Melanie."

"You're just going to abandon me?"

"Of course not, darling," her mother assured her. "We are going to send letters to our old friends who are still living, asking them to help you get on your feet and start a new life here. We will arrange for some money to be deposited in Gringotts for you so that you have something to work with. I'll work out the rest of the details when we leave, but, for now, let's forget all of this and try to enjoy our last Christmas together as a family."

Melanie nodded, still in a state of shock.

"The house elves are going to bring up some hot chocolate for us, and your father was going to read in front of the fireplace, just like we used to at home. I'm assuming that you would want to join us," her mother told her, standing up.

Melanie nodded. "Just give me a minute."

Her mother nodded and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her. Melanie paced around her room, trying to figure out what was going on, pulling her fingers through her hair in disbelief.

"Melanie!" she heard Simon's voice shout from the other room. "Come out here!"

Melanie quickly composed herself. She walked out into the main room and saw her father sitting in a chair next to the fireplace, her mother sitting in the chair across from him. Melanie walked over and sat down next to Simon on the couch as her father started to read. There was a mug of hot chocolate on the small table in front of the couch for Melanie, and she sipped from it as she looked around at her family. She was completely unable to focus on her father's voice and the story that it told. All she could hear running through her head was her mother's voice telling her that they were going home...

The next morning, Melanie found a small pile of presents underneath her bed. She grabbed one off of the top and looked at it.

"To Melanie, from Rhonda," she read, ripping at the paper to find a box. Carefully placed in the box was a giant picture frame, split into nine sections to hold nine individual pictures. She smiled and set it down on her bed, gasping when the nine sections came apart and started to float and circle around the stand. She found a note on top of the frame from Rhonda and picked it up.

Melanie,

I hope you're right when you said you were fine. Have you told Hermione about what happened? She'll be excited to hear something happened, as long as you're okay. But I guess we'll all hear more when we get back.

Merry Christmas! Here's somewhere for you to put some of those pictures Colin developed for you. Hope you're having a great break, see you soon!

Rhonda

Melanie smiled to herself as she carefully put the frame aside and bent down to the next present. She unwrapped a large potions book from Hermione before moving on to the presents from her parents. She unwrapped a container of Bewitching, followed by yet another potions and then a charms book, and the last, and biggest, box revealed a deluxe potions kit including about every ingredient that Melanie could imagine (all contained in a brand new cauldron). As the awe of the gifts wore off, she looked at the pile from her parents sadly. If she had opened these presents yesterday before her mother's discussion, she would have been so glad that her parents had thought to buy her wizarding things. She sighed and picked up one of the books to flip through it.

"Hey, aren't you going to come out for breakfast?" her brother's voice asked from the doorway.

"In a minute," she told him, and he nodded and walked up to her bed.

"Wow, that's some neat stuff," he said, looking down at her new possessions lying on the bed.

"Yeah. What'd you get?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "The usual, a new football, strategy book, model car, pretty much same as every year."

Melanie nodded, returning her attention to the book.

"Hey, what about breakfast?" he asked, softly hitting her on the arm.

"Oh, right," Melanie said unenthusiastically, setting down the book and standing up.

"Hey, what's wrong?" he asked.

Melanie shrugged her shoulders. "Mom and Dad have decided that they're not going to have anything else to do with me as a witch."

"What!"

"You're all leaving tomorrow."

"You're not serious!"

Melanie looked at him seriously. "Do you really think I would joke about this?"

Simon's face sobered. "I'm sorry, Mel." They both stood there for a moment until they heard their father's voice calling them into the other room.

Simon sighed. "Merry Christmas, then," he said as they both walked out into the main room.

Christmas was all one big blur to Melanie. The next thing she knew, it was the next day and the rest of her family had packed their belongings and were getting ready to leave.

"Do we have everything?" Violetta asked, looking around.

"Yeah," Simon told her, standing off in the corner.

Melanie's father turned to face her. "Well, have a good term, darling," he said, giving her a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

Melanie nodded wordlessly as her mother walked up to her and gave her a hug and kiss as well. "We've sent out several letters to old friends, and we asked them to write you back so you know who they are and that they are indeed willing. They'll help you if you need it."

Melanie nodded, trying to hold back a tear. "So, you're pretty much disowning me, then, huh?"

"No, not at all!" her father cried, giving her a giant hug. "You are always welcome to come home whenever you want, and we will help you if you need it."

"We just don't want to be involved with this world anymore. And, since you are nearly seventeen..." her mother finished.

Melanie nodded. "Fine." She backed away as house elves started to float the trunks away.

"Enjoy term, darling," her father told her, giving her one last hug before he walked out the door.

"Send a letter whenever you want-the old fashioned way, if you can manage it," her mother added, giving one more hug before she, too walked out.

Melanie looked at Simon. "Oh, I never gave you your Christmas present," he told her, pulling a package out from behind him.

"But you didn't have to..." Melanie told him as she unwrapped the package. She looked at the photo album Simon had showed her during his visit.

"Since our family is insisting on splitting in two, I thought you'd like what remnants I could find of the wizarding half."

Melanie looked from the album to Simon. "Thank you so much," she said softly. She threw her arms around him and gave him a big hug. "Thank you."

"Hey, what are big brothers for?" he asked, giving her a smile as he turned to walk out of the door. "Oh, and, be sure to write. Especially if whatever boy you like gives you any problems. I may be an American muggle, but I can still kick his..."

"Simon!" Melanie laughed.

"Just so you know," he said as he took a step out the door. He poked his head back in the door. "And watch out for yourself, okay?"

"I will," Melanie nodded, as his head disappeared and was gone.

After moving back into her Ravenclaw room, Melanie could think of nothing better to do than grab her books and head to the organ room to practice. She forced herself to study all afternoon on past herbology before she let herself explore the potions books she had received. After dinner, she happily dragged out her new potions kit and books and searched for an interesting potion to brew. And that's how the rest of her break went, lots of studying and catching up on classes, letting herself brew interesting potions at night as a reward.

The days went by, and soon it was the New Year and time for the hallways of Hogwarts to yet again fill with students.

"Melanie!" Rhonda's voice squealed from the door to the common room.

"Rhonda!" Melanie returned, running to hug her. "How was your break?"

"Same old story," Rhonda said as they walked up to the room. "What about you?"

Melanie looked around the room to make sure that nobody was there. "It was horrible," she admitted, collapsing on the bed. She recounted every single detail of break, carefully watching Rhonda's reactions to each event in the story. When she finished, Rhonda was looking at her in complete shock.

"They just left you, then?" she asked.

Melanie nodded. "I'm feeling better about it, and I almost understand why they did it. And it's not like they're totally abandoning me...it's just like I've gone off to college or something. They're providing for me, they've asked their old friends to look after me..." Melanie trailed off.

"Have you gotten any letters from your parents friends? Who'd they send them to?"

Melanie shrugged. "I don't know. I'm assuming that I'll start getting letters tomorrow during breakfast."

"Well, you do know that my mom would be thrilled to let you stay with us for a while if you need it. Or, at least I could manage to convince her in a couple, few, weeks time," Rhonda admitted.

Melanie laughed. "Sounds great. I'm hoping that I'll be able to find a nice job once I get my N.E.W.T.s and really be able to go out on my own. Of course, this is making me worry even more about my classes now. I still feel like I'm behind, and I've been studying like crazy the last half of break."

"You'll be fine. You've only been studying magic for half a year, and you're already almost as good as I am."

"Yeah, but now that I know I can transmit my powers, I'm going to be working on that as much as my regular studies and I'm not going to be getting much further."

Rhonda paused and looked at her. "Speaking of that, did you ever figure out who you helped?"

Melanie looked at her in surprise. "What? You haven't figured it out on your own?"

"You never told me!"

Melanie looked to make sure that nobody else was in the room. "I was hoping you'd figure it out on your own, I really didn't want to have to announce it where someone could hear," Melanie whispered.

Rhonda looked at her blankly and Melanie sighed.

"Think about it? Someone I care about, a flash of blonde hair?"

Rhonda looked around, confused. "I don't know...a flash of blonde hair?" Rhonda's eyes widened. "Malfoy?!"

"Ssshhhh!" Melanie hushed her. "You don't have to shout it."

"You helped Malfoy?"

"Yeah. I don't know why."

"You like Malfoy? I thought that was just a silly crush-like-thing."

"So did I." Melanie shook her head. "But I don't understand anything anymore. It could just be a crush thing."

"But your power went out to protect him, and he was the first person. You call that just a crush thing?"

"Like I said, Rhonda, I don't know." Melanie sighed. "Look, I'm starting to get hungry. I'm going to go ahead and go down to the Great Hall for dinner."

Rhonda nodded. "I'll meet you down there. I want to get some of my stuff put away first."

Melanie nodded and made her way out of the room, passing by Cho and other Ravenclaws bringing their trunks to the dormitory.

"Well, well, so the Yankee's parents decided to abandon her, eh?" she heard a voice sneer behind her as she approached the Great Hall. She spun around and saw Draco standing there, walking up to the Great Hall from the dungeons.

"How did you find out?"

Draco walked up to her importantly. "My mother received a very interesting letter the day after Christmas. She wanted me to convey her response in person to reinforce her sincerity," he told her, handing her a roll of parchment. They locked eyes for a second.

"Thanks for being so kind and polite about it," Melanie replied, ripping the parchment out of his hands.

"Well, I'm sorry, but I can't help it if your parents are bloody cowards that would rather flee to America than return to their roots and rightful place."

Melanie glared at him. "I can't believe I..." she trailed off.

"You what?"

"You're looking a bit pale, Draco. Did you not get enough sun over break? I hear that Death Eater hoods can delay tanning somewhat."

If it was possible, Draco whitened even more. "Don't even suggest.." he warned, drawing his wand and pointing it at her.

Melanie gasped and took a step back. "We're in a public place. There will people coming down any second for dinner."

Draco looked down at his wand and quickly put it away. "I wasn't going to hex you," he said quickly.

"Funny, I thought otherwise." Melanie heard footsteps behind them as others approached the Great Hall for dinner.

"I wouldn't hex you. Why would I?" He paused. "I mean, the last thing I need is another detention," he added quickly.

"Why would you care about detentions? You're a Slytherin, you think hexing other students is loads of fun."

"What happened to being kind and polite?" he asked forcefully.

"I only return what is given to me."

He just looked at her for a moment and she took a step backwards toward the Great Hall.

"Now, if you will excuse me, I'm going to eat my dinner." She turned and walked into the Great Hall before Draco could say another word. She hurried to the Ravenclaw table, watching out of the corner of her eye as Draco walked over to the Slytherin table. She noticed his gaze turn towards her several times, and quickly looked away.

"What'd I miss?" Rhonda asked as she walked up and sat down next to Melanie.

"What do you mean by that?" Melanie asked quickly.

Rhonda was taken aback. "It was just...did something happen?"

Melanie sighed. "Well, if you consider almost being hexed by Draco in the hallway something, then, yes."

"What? After what you did, he tried to hex you?"

"I don't think he knows that anything happened," Melanie said. "But what I do know," she continued, bringing out the piece of parchment, "is that Narcissa Malfoy was the recipient of one of my mother's letters."

"Ugh, spending the summer with the Malfoys?" Rhonda asked in disgust as Melanie unrolled the letter.

"Well, apparently not," Melanie said, her face contorting in confusion as her eyes finished taking in the letter.

"What do you mean?" Rhonda asked as Melanie handed her the letter.

"Apparently, she would love to offer me her home and services as much as I would require, but..."

" 'Regretfully must say that present circumstances prevent me from opening you up to a potentially hazardous situation,'" Rhonda read. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means that something's going on in that house," Melanie said, taking the letter back from Rhonda.

"Of course there is. Melanie, his dad's in Azkaban as a Death Eater! Staying there would mean walking right into the hands of the people who attacked you."

"But there's something not quite right with all of this," Melanie said, shaking her head. "There's something that doesn't fit."

"What doesn't fit? It makes perfect sense to me."

"But what about the attack? I don't think the danger comes from the Malfoys, I think the danger is that they're in danger."

"Danger from what?" Rhonda laughed. "They're the richest and most well-connected family in the wizarding world."

"Connections don't mean anything. Not now."

"Melanie, you're worrying over nothing. What does it matter anyway? Malfoy's a selfish git and he probably deserves everything he gets."

"Why can't I agree with that?" Melanie asked, turning to look behind her at the Slytherin table. She saw Malfoy there, and he appeared to be arguing with Nott. As she watched, he turned and looked at her. They locked eyes for a second, when they both quickly looked away.