Taking Over Me

Chapter One-Familiar Faces

Ron Weasley sat at his desk, flipping through the many Death Eater files. LeStrange, Nott, Macnair, Malfoy, Malfoy...he sighed and dropped the files on his desk. Always the same Death Eaters. He shook his head, and his own personal hanging ornament on his cubical wall caught his attention. He then wondered if SHE was ever found. Wondering if SHE would ever make it to the Death Eater list. SHE was Voldemort's daughter, so why should SHE?

He sighed, and took the bracelet off the hook and held it in his hands. He smiled as he remembered her. Her pale skin, her blonde hair that turned black in their seventh and final year at Hogwarts, her shortness, her miraculous escape from Hogwarts...He missed her so much.

He replaced the broken bracelet back on the hook, and watched the silver cross dangling for a moment. Why did she run away? She must've decided then that she would be a true follower of Voldemort, and not a spy.

He opened the top drawer to his desk, and rummaged around the many knick-knacks that were scattered in there. He couldn't find the piece of parchment he was looking for. Where was that blasted parchment?

He sighed and nearly gave up looking when someone tapped him on the shoulder. He looked up, and saw the smirking face of Affinity standing behind him, holding the exact piece of parchment that he was looking for.

"May I have that back, Affinity?" he asked, holding his hand to her.

Affinity smiled. "Who is this?" she asked, waving the parchment in his face. Ron growled and snatched it from her. He placed the parchment back where it belonged, and went back to looking at the Death Eater files.

Affinity placed her hand on the files, and laid them down. Ron sighed irritably. "What do you want? Your very presence irritates me."

Affinity tried hard to hide a look of hurt, and spun him around in his chair. She smiled at him, and sat down on his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"I've got something for you," she said. She waved her wand next to her.

"If it's another bouquet of roses, I don't want them. I told you I will not-"

Ron couldn't finish his sentence. Affinity shoved a piece of paper in his face, wanting him to not get into that right now.

"Please, lets not get into that right now," she said, holding the paper away from his face at reading distance.

Ron looked at the paper, and back up to her. "Draco Malfoy? I've seen his file a million times!" he complained. Damned if he'd have to look at that smirking blond git's face one more time.

Affinity sighed. "You don't use your eyes do you?" she asked in an annoyed tone. She pointed at a report on him, and read it. "Martial Status: Engaged."

Ron raised an eyebrow at her. "And...? Is that supposed to make me jealous? Because it is," he mumbled. He really wanted to ask Melly to marry him, but he never got the chance; she got cold feet before he even got a ring!

Affinity sighed. "No! It's not supposed to make you jealous. I just thought you wanted a change in your life. Aren't you glad I came into your life?" She smiled at him and pecked him on the nose.

"No," Ron said, wiping away the kiss that she gave him on his nose. "Now, will you leave me alone to my duties? I have to choose which one of these crazed maniacs will be my prey."

He pushed Affinity off him, and went back to looking at the files. Parkinson, Goyle, Goyle, Crabbe, Crabbe, Strands.

Strands? Sherry Strands? She made it to the Ministry's top Death Eaters list? And Melly hadn't? Well, why would the daughter of Lord Voldemort herself need to be caught?

Many a time had he thought about adding her to the files, but he didn't know anything about her now. He sighed. Just like school. He looked around, and, once he saw no one was looking at him, he took out the piece of parchment, and read it.

Ron-

I'm sorry. Tell everyone I'm sorry. I shouldn't have lied to you. I was going to tell you this morning, or last night, but I was afraid to. I look over at you, and I get a happy feeling inside of me. I smile and go back to writing this- my supposed to be notes for DADA. I ask you, will you show this to Harry and Hermione as well? I want them to know what I'm about to say; it's pretty important. Harry...stop gloating, I know you are!

Harry was right about me. I was tricking you all. I did know what happened two days ago in the library, I'm not under a spell. I did mean it when I said that I didn't like you three.

But, that all changed last night. Just before Ron and I were ambushed, I discovered a new part of myself that came to me at the library. My mother's spirit now lives inside of me. She's like my conscience. She's nagging to me about not lying, but I do it anyways. She's telling me to write this, telling me what to write, mostly.

And, speaking of last night, I knew what happened, I just didn't want to worry any of you. I was stupefied, yes. But, I do know that Bellatrix LeStrange was the one to stupefy me. And I know that she was trying to kill me. My mother came out of me, and saved me from her.

She's convincing me that what I have, sort of, is great, and I should make it real. What she means by that is to stop making this all an act. Stop lying to you, stop pretending everything. Let everything go, and just live with everything as it is now.

Honestly, this is harder than it sounds. When I write this, and when I thought about it last night and this morning, I discovered that I want everything to go back to the way it was before. When we were all ignoring each other. When we were just housemates, nothing more.

Well, that's all I've got to say right now. If you three don't ever want to talk to me again, then I'll understand.

-Melly

P.S. Harry, to answer you on your two questions, I still don't know. I'm still too young to choose sides, especially when I was born and raised a dark witch. I can't change the way I've lived for eighteen years, that's harder than it sounds as well.

P.S.S Ron, you may have my silver bracelet. It signifies love.

P.S.S.S. Hermione, you may have my other bracelet. It signifies protection.

He sighed, and put the letter away. Well, he thought; she got what she wanted. Neither of them has spoken to each other in four years. Melly had disappeared off the face of the earth for all Ron knew.

He picked his head up. He smiled, and knew exactly what to do.

He pocketed the letter, and walked to the elevator. He got in, and pushed the button, which read "Top Floor".

The elevator doors closed, the elevator shot up. He was impatiently tapping his foot, not listening to the lady speak the floors of the ministry. As soon as the elevator stopped, and as soon as the doors opened, Ron flew out, and ran all the way to the front desk, where Hermione sat.

She smiled as she saw him. "Good afternoon, Ron. Care to join us uppies up here?"

Ron smiled, but kept gasping for breath. "I need you to do something for me," he breathed. Hermione nodded. "Find Melly!"

Hermione flinched. "You want me to find Melly?"

Ron nodded.

"Melly Avalon?"

Ron nodded again.

"Melly Avalon who left us four years ago?"

"Yes!" Ron said, impatiently. "Hurry, Hermione! This is important."

Hermione nodded, and began writing as fast as she could on a book that had all the names and ages and social security numbers of all the witches and wizards in England, Scotland, and Ireland.

She shook her head. "I can't find her. There's a Melly Malfoy."

Ron shook his head, but stopped short. "Melly Malfoy? Since when did the Malfoys have a Melly?"

Hermione shrugged. She tried looking again but she failed. Her eyes, however grew big as she stopped at a certain place.

"What?" asked Ron.

"Wasn't her mother, Faith?" Hermione asked Ron, who nodded in return. Hermoine nodded as well. "I found her."

"Well, I don't want her. I want Melly Avalon."

Hermione shook her head, and sighed. "I'm sorry, Ron. She's either not in these countries anymore or...she's dead."

Ron shook his head. "Melly wouldn't die. Literally. She would not die. She wouldn't even let Snape talk her into changing sides. Remember that? She's just probably burned her wizarding license."

Hermione sighed. "Well, just to make sure, why don't you go talk to Luna and Ginny about that. They're the ones working with the deaths."

Ron nodded, and ran back to the elevator. He pushed the second to last button, and began tapping his foot impatiently. He was surprised that no one was riding the elevator at this time, lunchtime.

"Department of Wizarding Forensics and Death Penalties," the lady said. The door opened, and Ron dashed out, almost running into a stretcher with a lump on it. He looked at, his face paled.

"Oh, sorry, Ron!" he heard Ginny say. "This guy just came in from St. Mungo's. We're supposed to find out what made him go mad, and why he died. What's up?"

Ron looked at Ginny, who was wearing a long white robe. "I need you to help me with something."

Ginny nodded.

"We need Luna as well, and your record books."

Ginny looked at him suspiciously, but nodded nonetheless. "I'll get the books. Luna's just through there. I'll be there shortly."

Ron nodded, and watched Ginny push the stretcher away. He walked into the room where Ginny pointed to, and knocked.

"Hold up!" Luna called from inside. She opened the door, and winced once she saw Ron. "Didn't expect to ever see you down here!" she exclaimed.

Ron sighed, and pushed his way in. "I have a question," he said once Luna closed the door. "Did a Melly Avalon ever come in here?"

Luna thought for a moment. She then looked up at Ron, and nodded. "Just last month. Narcissa Malfoy brought her in."

"What?" Ron couldn't believe his ears. No one ever came down here unless they worked here or they were...dead. "What do you mean, Narcissa brought her in?"

"Narcissa Malfoy had the poor girl chained. My, did Miss Avalon give off a fight. Narcissa said that she brought Melly here because she didn't want Melly rotting away in Azkaban; it would have been too easy for her to get out. She wanted Melly to go through the death penalty. Melly screamed, objecting her identity, saying she was...Bellatrix LeStrange? I think it was? I don't remember. Well, we did the wand check, and it was Melly's wand. I ordered it burned, and the guards put her in the death chamber, where she had to live for two days without food or water, in a cell with frozen carcasses."

Ron sneered in disgust, but quickly changed to hurtful look. Melly was dead? She couldn't be! She just couldn't be!

"You're welcome!" Luna called as Ron mindlessly made his way back to the elevator. He pushed the button, which was where he needed to go, and leaned on the back of the elevator as it rose up.

Melly? He took out her letter, and read it, over and over. As soon as the door opened, he walked out, and walked to his cubicle, still reading the letter. As soon as he sat down, he looked at the bracelet that hung lifeless on his wall.

Lifeless?

Just like Melly.

Someone knocked on the cubicle wall. "Ron? You okay?" Harry asked. He saw Ron still staring at the bracelet. He sighed. "You need to let her go! She's been gone, out of your life for four years now!"

"She's dead, Harry," Ron whispered.

Harry winced, but gave a smug look. "Dead? Some 'Princess of Darkness' she turned out to be then."

"It's not funny, Harry!" Ron snapped. He looked away at the files still on his desk, and sighed. Harry placed a hand on Ron's shoulder.

"I think you need a break. Why don't you take the rest of the day off? I'm sure Shacklebolt wouldn't mind."

Ron nodded, mindlessly stood up, and walked out of the cubicle.

Harry looked down at the desk, and saw the parchment that Melly had last written to them. He picked up the letter and looked over it. Ron took great care of it. He was about to reread it when something caught his eye.

He looked down at a smirking picture of Draco Malfoy. He read the file, and nothing surprised him much. Just the usual Draco Malfoy bit. What really caught his interest: Martial Status: Engaged.

---

Outside was clear, sunny, and warm. A perfect summer day. Too bad Ron wasn't in the mood to be cheerful about anything at the moment. Was it really necessary to go to work? He knew Shacklebolt wouldn't mind if he stayed home just one more day! Five days wasn't that long, was it?

She couldn't have died! It just wasn't possible. She was a powerful witch, and she would have knocked Narcissa off her...knockers...before she let Narcissa take her in.

He walked down the street of muggle London. The bakeries were lined up in a row, with fresh smelling breads. He looked up, and stopped short.

She smiled, and paid for the bread. She turned towards Ron, and stopped where she was. She shook her head, and continued walking, her head down. As she tried to walk past Ron, he grabbed her.

"Melly!" he cried.

She looked up at him, and pretended not to see him. "Oh! Ron! Uh...Didn't see you," she said.

"Yes you did. You looked right at me," he said, smiling. He knew it. He just knew that Melly wasn't dead.

He looked her up and down. She changed, a lot. Her hair was back to blonde, her eyes were brown, almost black, and her skin was no longer pale. She wasn't as short as she was back in school either.

"You're different!" he exclaimed.

Melly looked down at herself. "I know. For...certain reasons." She looked back up at him. "You seem shorter than before."

Ron laughed. "Maybe because you've grown taller in the last four years!"

"Four years? It's really been that long?"

Ron nodded, but stopped short. "Melly," he said seriously. "You died. But, you're alive. How...What happened?"

Melly sighed, but shook her head. "I cannot say. You understand why, right?"

Ron nodded, smiling again. "At least I know you're alive and well?"

Melly nodded. Wow! It was great to see him again!

Melly? Who is this? Faith asked.

The young man, she answered quietly.

She couldn't hold it in any longer. She jumped in his arms, placing a kiss on his cheek.

Melly! Get off him! Now! You'll get caught!

Oh, come off it, Mum! I haven't seen him in ages!

And a good reason why you shouldn't be crawling over him right now. What will your father say? And Lucius? And Narcissa? And Severus?

Melly gasped. Her left arm started hurting more than it ever did before. She backed away from Ron, grabbing her arm. She picked up her shopping bag, which she dropped when she hugged Ron, and looked up at him.

"What's wrong?" he asked, sounding alarmed. Melly laughed, oblivious to the pain in her arm.

"Don't be so alarmed!" she exclaimed breathlessly.

"Ron!" Harry called from behind. Ron turned around and saw Harry running to him. Harry stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Melly bending down, holding onto her arm. He slowly went for his wand.

Melly's eyes grew wide. "Good-bye, Ron!" she said before disapparating.

Ron quickly turned around to see that Melly disappeared without a trace.