When Lightning Struck

Chapter 5 - Blossoms of Friendship

Part 17 - Stares

Meega grinned at the other two girls who had been messing with their hair. "Wanna go show off our new hair?"

Hermione shook her head. "I think I'll stay here."

"Mione?"

"As soon as I do this..." She'd been looking through one of the other cosmetic books while Hermione straightened her hair. She pointed her wand at her face and said, "Genae Adfectio!" Her eyes turned a rich green, lighter than Harry's eyes. She blinked several times, then took off her glasses to check them, looking perplexed. As soon as she removed them she looked ecstatic. "Hey! I don't need my glasses anymore!"

"Let's swing by the Hospital Wing just to make sure," Meega said, grinning at her friend. Unlike Mione, she liked the way her glasses looked on her. Anyway, the spell wasn't meant to fix vision, just change eye color, and Meega was perfectly happy with her deep topaz eyes.

"Yeah, sure, whatever."

Madam Pomfrey, amid a lecture on not using spells that they hadn't practiced, proclaimed Mione's vision perfect. Then Meega dragged Mione off to the Slytherin dungeon.

"Lion's Blood," Meega told the blank portion of wall, then grinned at Mione as she led her friend into the Slytherin Common Room, only the third Gryffindor to set foot inside and the first to be invited.

Several of the Slytherins automatically looked to see who had come in, and those who did either stared or did a double take. Among them was Draco Malfoy. He glanced up, did a quick double take, and started watching Meega again, and she shivered slightly. It made her uncomfortable whenever he did that, like she was under a microscope for him to study.

"Lets not stay in here," Meega muttered quietly to her best friend. "We can just drop off my stuff in the dorm and then go out to the lake or the library or something."

"What, do your house mates make you nervous?" Mione asked slyly.

"No, just Draco. Every once in a while he'll start watching me, and I don't particularly like feeling like I'm about to be dissected."

"Draco?" Mione asked incredulously as they crossed the common room. "Since when do you call him Draco?"

"Since he's in my house," Meega said tartly. "Besides, I like his name. Dragons are cool."

"This is Draco Malfoy we're talking about."

"So? Even evil dragons are cool. Think Smaug."

"Smaug?"

"The Hobbit. It's before The Lord of the Rings, where Bilbo gets the Ring. You should read it, since you're so sweet on Legolas. Even though he's not in it. His dad is."

"So?"

"Whatever."

"My, my, Meega, what have you done to your hair?" Draco had apparently abandoned watching Meega in favor of taunting her.

"If you can't tell, it doesn't matter," Meega snapped irritably.

Draco ignored her comment. "And who's this you've brought with you? She's not a Slytherin."

"Exactly. Draco Malfoy, meet Ashley Green. Mione, you know Draco."

"Malfoy should know me, after that last caper," Mione said, sounding amused.

Meega looked blank for a moment, then laughed. "So it was you who sent him that rock yesterday!"

"Of course! Harry's too nice. We've got to break him in to fill his dad's shoes."

"Of course. I don't think Hagrid would like it much, though." She grinned, flipping her hair at a half-stunned Draco, and then flounced down into the girl's dorms with a sniggering Mione.

"You just flicked him in the face, Mia."

"So? My hair smells good. Like vanilla."

"Everybody does vanilla."

"So? I like vanilla."

Meega opened the appropriate door and slipped in, dumping her bag at the foot of her bed, then turned to smile at a shocked Pansy. "Having trouble with your hair? Or maybe keeping your boyfriend in line?" Before she could reply, Meega asked Mione, "So, library or lake or somewhere else entirely?"

"Lake."

Meega nodded and grabbed her cloak, and the pair left.

Part 18 - ...Goon Tomorrow

The next morning at breakfast Professor Dumbledore had an announcement. "While I have your attention I would like to announce that on Halloween we shall be having a ball, courtesy of the Muggle Studies class. It will be a costume ball, and open to students fourth year an above, though you may, of course, invite younger students."

If he had anything else to say, it was completely lost. The students immediately started talking about what they were going to wear and who they wanted to go with, and breakfast seemed a very abbreviated meal that day.

In Potions Meega had quickly replaced Draco as Snape's "Star Pupil" and so she could get away with almost anything. That day they were working on Polyjuice Potions, and Meega found them... amusing. She wondered how many students were going to go to the ball as a friend... or an enemy.

Near the end of the lesson the door open and Morrigan practically floated in like a silent shadow. She went over to Snape without making a sound and gently touched his arm, making him jump and spin around to face her.

"What do you want, Miss Eros?"

"I just came to see if you needed a hand."

"We have nearly finished for today, Miss Eros."

"Well, then, can I talk to you for a moment."

"Talk."

"Will you go to the ball with me?" It was clearly a question, but only barely and she was obviously expecting a positive answer.

Severus Snape replied by turning the most interesting shade of scarlet. Meega giggled. Never, in any of the books or in any fanfic she'd read, had Professor Snape blushed. "You're seventeen, Miss Eros."

"Oh, come now, Severus, I'm not that much younger than you, and besides, time means very little to-"

"I know how you feel about age, Miss Eros, but twenty years is a vast difference."

"It's not, really, and it's not like I'm asking you to marry me or anything."

"I wasn't planning on attending."

"Oh, you know Albus will drag you up there anyhow."

By this point Snape was obviously flustered. "Perhaps we should continue this discussion later, Miss Eros. Class is over."

The students reluctantly filed out of the classroom, though almost all of them remained clustered around the doorway. Morrigan smiled. "All right then, Severus, I'll see you after my class." Then she stretched up on her toes to kiss him on the cheek, then strode out of the room. She smiled at the small crowd of Gryffindors and Slytherins and swept off to her room, the Slytherins following, leaving a group of shocked Gryffindors. Meega laughed as she heard Snape deducting points from the Gryffindors that he caught as they scrambled away.

The Slytherins settled into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, slightly more willing to actually listen to her lesson.

"Well, we moved through Werewolves remarkably fast, so today we're going to start on Goons. Can anybody tell me what a Goon is?"

No one raised a hand, and so Meega shrugged and put hers up.

"Meega."

"It's what the Good Fairy turned Little Bunny Foo-Foo into." The other Slytherins looked blank. "What? I'm Muggleborn."

Morrigan raised an eyebrow in amusement. "Well, there was no Good Fairy involved." She lifted a wire hutch containing a little white rabbit onto the desk. "I believe another Muggle Fairy Tale referred to it as the 'Great Animal.'"

Meega put her hand up again and Morrigan nodded in acknowledgment. "Does it go around scooping up field mice and bopping them on the head?"

"It only eats field mice when there isn't larger prey around."

"Like Good Fairies?"

"They do enjoy eating fairies, good bad, it doesn't matter. It's where the whole nursery rhyme came from."

"It's just a rabbit!" objected Pansy.

"Hardly," said Morrigan. "Goons look like rabbits until they attack. Few know what they really look like, because few have survived their attack. We caught this one asleep out in the Forbidden Forest. During class I want you to take notes on how this Goon differs from normal wild rabbits-" she lifted another hutch onto the desk, this one containing several wild rabbits, -"and we will have a test on the differences next time. If you have questions, you can ask Oliver." She patted Oliver on the shoulder. "Thanks for taking over the class, Olli." Then she ran off, presumably to talk Snape into taking her to the ball.

Part 19 - The Fight, the Fright, the Sudden Light

"'It's what the Good Fairy turned Little Bunny Foo-Foo into,' honestly," Pansy said in a mocking tone. Meega had finished lunch and gone back to her dorm instead of to the Gryffindor common room, and Pansy was obviously not happy.

"Oh? 'It's just a rabbit,' honestly! Did you think that Morrigan would try and pass a rabbit off as a Dark creature?"

"The rest of us aren't slimy little Mudbloods, and you'd do well not to remind us that we have to have one in our house."

"A Mudblood, am I?" Meega said a little dangerously. "At least I don't have a boyfriend who keeps busy by flirting with any relatively good looking girl that he sees."

"At least I have a boyfriend," Pansy sniffed. "No need to ask who you're going to the ball with. There's only one boy in the school who would go with a bushy-haired Mudblood like you, and he's going out with your Gryffindor twin."

Smack! Meega slapped Pansy, then whispered, "Don't you ever insult me or my friends again, or you'll be dealing with more than a hand print." Then she took her bag and stormed off.

"You're always prettier when you're angry," said a very familiar voice.

"Shut it, Draco, I've already slapped someone today, and I'm on a roll."

"Not today," Draco said coolly. Crabbe was standing by the exit, and Goyle the way back into the girl's dorm.

Meega glared at the pretty blond boy. "Talk," she growled.

"Will you go to the ball with me?"

Meega was about to refuse when she scented revenge. "Sure. Now let me out of here."

He nodded and his thugs moved. Meega left in a huff, going straight to the Gryffindor tower. It wasn't like anyone else was going to ask her.

When she got to the Common Room, though, Neville was waiting for someone. She slowed warily, and he asked, "Can I talk to you for a minute, Meega?"

"Um... yeah."

"Will you go to the ball with me?"

"Oh, I'm so sorry Neville!" Meega said. "Draco just asked me, and for some reason I said yes. Now I feel awful."

"Oh," Neville said, looking crestfallen.

"I'm really sorry, I wasn't really expecting to get asked. I'll save you a dance, okay?"

"Er... okay, I'm not very good, though."

Meega grinned. "Well, then, I've got the perfect way to make it up to you. I'll teach you."

"No- it's fine, really, Meega. You don't have to-"

"Yes, but I want to. I'll see you in the empty classroom across from Transfiguration after Care of Magical Creatures, all right?"

"O-okay."

Meega grinned at him, then went over to join Mione and the Trio.

"Hey, do you know if Snape agreed to go to the dance with Morrigan?" Mione asked when she sat down.

"No idea. She probably managed to talk him into it. I feel absolutely awful."

"About what?"

"The ball. Neville just asked me."

"You didn't say yes just because he was the first to ask you and then get asked by your secret crush, did you?"

"No. I actually don't have a crush on anyone for once. I would have loved to go with Neville, and we would have had a great time."

"Would have?"

"Yes. Draco had already asked me."

"And you agreed to go with him?!" Mione squeaked.

Meega nodded glumly. "I wouldn't have, but I'd just had a fight with Pansy."

"What's that have to do with anything?"

Meega snorted. "You are blind, aren't you? Draco's her boyfriend. I hope I haven't missed the break up."

"Revenge?"

"Yeah. It's the sweetest smell on earth if you can scent it fast enough. Otherwise there's no point."

"What happened to Slytherins being vengeful?"

"You know me better than that, Mione. I'm about as vengeful as a cricket unless I manage to lash out in the first few minutes."

"A cricket?"

"Whatever."

"Maybe if you hadn't been flirting with him yesterday..."

"I wasn't flirting. No more than I do with any other boy, anyway."

"You don't flirt with Harry and Ron."

"Yes, I do. Oh, and Hermione?"

"Yes?" she asked without looking up from her book. Her light brown hair, since she'd straightened it the day before, was sleek and manageable.

"Are you going out with Harry or Ron or is Pansy just being an idiot?"

"Harry."

Harry blushed, picking up a book to hide behind.

Meega grinned. "Who are you going with, Mione?"

"To the ball? Don't know. Probably some idiot who can't ask anyone before a few days before the ball."

With two of the five of them with their noses in books and Ron sitting with his back to Mione, Meega was the only one who saw the Weasley boy's ears turn red. So he had a crush on Mione, did he? "Well, he'd better hurry up or somebody else might ask you. Maybe Neville will ask you."

"Neville?"

"Sure. He still needs a date." Ron was getting redder, which was probably a good thing. "Or maybe Seamus or Dean will."

"Nope. Dean's going out with Lavender and Seamus is Parvati's boyfriend. Besides, they don't like me, either. Not after what I did to their girlfriends."

"What did you do to Lavender and Parvati?"

"Um... everything they owned was pink the first Saturday."

"You turned everything they owned pink?" Meega asked incredulously.

"Yea."

"I hate pink."

"We know, Mia."

"So, why don't you ask someone?"

"Like who?"

Meega shrugged. "Neville, Justin, one of the twins... Fred and George are hilarious and fairly nice."

Meega had finally hit the right nerve. Ron, who was now blushing as much as Harry, turned around to face the newly blond and scarlet haired Gryffindor and said, "Mionewillyougototheballwithme?"

Mione looked at Meega. "Would you care to translate?"

"He asked you to the ball."

"Thought so." She turned to Ron. "Sure."

Meega grinned, and Ron quickly diverted their attention from him by calling to Morrigan, who had just come in. When she came over, he asked, "So, did Snape say yes?"

"That's not really any of your business," Morrigan said with a smug expression before she left the trio and the two girls.

"Snape must have finally said yes, then," Meega said with a little smirk.

"I can't believe she asked him!" Mione said.

"She's absolutely a stunner, and she picks Snape out of the whole school," Ron said in disgust.

"Oh, thanks," Mione sniffed.

Ron's ears turned red again, and Meega giggled. "Put your foot in your mouth, did you?"

"Shut up."

Part 20 - The Big Breakup

When Meega finally got back to the Slytherin common room that night she was absolutely exhausted. Her feet hurt as much from dancing as from Neville stepping on them, and her sides hurt from laughing. Neville had been joking with her the whole lesson, and she had discovered that he had a very healthy since of humor. The common room was relatively full, as there weren't really very many Slytherins, and there was only one seat left by the fire. As she quickly took it she realized that it was Draco's usual chair: a comfortable deep green armchair accented in silver with ebony wood. Meega glanced around for the blond boy and found him just sitting down at a table a little ways off with some homework. Could he possibly have moved for her?

As Meega curled up in the chair, Pansy came up out of the girls' dorms. She looked at Draco's chair, saw Meega, and sneered, and glanced around the common room. When she saw Draco she went over huffily.

"I heard that you're going to the ball with Meega Kyl-Derc."

Draco didn't look up from the essay he was writing. "We decided not to go to this ball together, Pansy."

"You said that you were going to go alone!"

"No, I said that I didn't know who I was going to ask. You were the one who said that we should go with someone new."

"I meant a real Slytherin, Draco, not that little slut."

Meega bristled. If she hadn't been quite as tired as she was then Pansy would currently be regretting even thinking that Meega was a slut.

Draco finally looked up from his homework, seeming very bored. "Take it up with the Hat, Pansy. I didn't Sort her. Meega interests me. She's too brave for her own good."

"Too brave for my own good, am I?" Meega muttered to herself, glowering.

As she did Pansy glared at Draco and retorted, "You could have at least chosen a date with proper Slytherin pride. That little Mudblood whore is friends with Gryffindors!"

Pansy was very lucky that Meega was too tired to go over there. Whore indeed!

Draco glared slightly. "I don't associate with whores, Pansy. Would you have preferred it if I'd asked that slut, Morgianna?"

Pansy glared back. "At least she acts like a Slytherin. It's over between us, Draco."

Draco was obviously floored by that. "Wh-what?"

"It's over," Pansy said slowly. "As in, we're through."

"Are... Are you dumping me?"

"Bravo, Draco, it only took you three times to understand. Yes, I'm dumping you." With that she stalked over to Crabbe. She smiled up at the large and rather unintelligent Slytherin, and they left the common room hand in hand.

"Good riddance to bad rubbish," Meega muttered, starting on her Potions essay.

Quite a while later the common room was silent. Meega had a familiar felling that she was not alone, though, and so looked around to see who else was still there. Draco was still sitting at the table in the corner, and he looked completely devastated. Sighing slightly, Meega shut her Transfiguration book and went over to him.

"Thank you."

Draco started and looked up at her, confused. "For what?"

"Sticking up for me earlier. You could have very easily said something like you did when she called me a slut."

"I have a reputation to keep up."

"Getting dumped for Vincent Crabbe in front of the entire House doesn't fit with your reputation. You might have been able to avoid it if you had let her label me however she wanted."

"She was lying."

"And you never have?"

"Not very often, and never to hurt a fellow Slytherin. I usually just exaggerate to get at Harry."

"Why don't you like him? I mean, besides for the fact that he chose to be Ron's friend instead of yours."

Draco sighed. "He's up there with his broom and his scar, famous for something he can't remember, snubbing most of the school like we're lower life forms. Haven't you noticed that only Granger and Weasley are worthy of him? Not even you and your little friend are really part of his group."

Meega smiled very slightly. "The same could be said of me. Some of us never get social skills taught to us properly, and Harry was rather downtrodden before he came to Hogwarts. He was completely unloved and unwanted, and then suddenly he was one of the most famous wizards in the world. He hates being famous, and he doesn't even realize that he's closing most of the school out. You do that, too."

"What do you mean?"

Meega sighed. "You walk around with your pair of goons like a king with his official body guard. You make your self completely unapproachable. You had Pansy, too..." Meega trailed off as Draco winced. "I'm sorry, really I am. Pansy wanted a boyfriend she could completely control. She's not good enough for you." She paused, holding out her and conjuring up a small magical music box. It was a fairly ornate silver box, set with tiny emeralds in the lid that were arranges to read:

ρ ï'

ρ ï'

Meega opened the box, revealing an inscription on the inside of the lid.

 ρ  ï‚°

  ρ  δρ ï'ï-σ, σ ï- ï-

γ ï€-ρ

Meega nodded in satisfaction, shut the box, and handed it to Draco. "This might help."

Draco looked at the lid oddly, then lifted the lid to look inside at the inscription. Then he looked up at Meega, confused once more. "What is it?"

"A music box."

"How does it work?"

"The instructions are on the inside of the lid."

Draco was starting to look slightly angry. "I can't read it."

"Neither can I, or anyone else. You have to have the key." She conjured up an emerald teardrop about the size of the tip of her pinkie, and her hands were rather long and thin. "Don't loose it. Put it in the box, and don't leave it in or anyone can read it. I wouldn't want you to get teased." She placed it in a little crevice in the front of the box, and the letters on the lid immediately shifted.

Mornië utúlië

Mornië alantië

Draco stared for a moment. "What's that say?"

"Mornië utùlië. Mornië alantië. It's Quenya, which is a language that a Muggle created for a series of books he wrote called The Lord of the Rings. There's also a prequel, The Hobbit. Mornië utúlië means 'darkness has come' and mornië alantië means 'darkness has fallen.'"

Draco nodded, even though he was obviously still confused, and opened the box.

ï‚°*~. Draco .~* ï‚°

When you are in dark times, speak my name.

Meega Kyl-Derc

Draco gave Meega an odd look, and she grinned. "Try it."

Draco shrugged and said, "Meega Kyl-Derc." The box immediately started playing.

May it be

An evening star

Shines down

Upon you

May it be

When darkness falls

Your heart

Will be true

You walk a lonely road

Oh how far you are from home

Mornië utúlië

Believe and you

Will find your way

Mornië alantië

A promise lives

Within you now

May it be

The shadow's call

Will fly away

May it be

You journey on

To light the day

When the night is all gone cold

You may rise

To find the sun

Mornië utúlië

Believe and you

Will find your way

Mornië alantië

A promise lives

Within you now

A promise lives

Within you now...

As the song stopped the emerald fell from the front of the box. Meega carefully placed the emerald inside the box and shut the lid, holding it out to Draco. "I know that Mione won't like this, but... Friends?"

Draco watched the box coldly for a moment before he nodded and took the little silver box from her. "Friends."