Imperio (on hold)

8: Changing Relationships

The next couple of months went by without anything much happening. Melody began attending her classes again which shocked everyone, she finished her detentions with Umbridge and managed to keep her nose out of trouble, consistently avoiding Tiana and Akiko. All the while growing steadily closer and closer to Harry Potter, who had taken it upon himself to feel sorry for Melody and be a friend for her.

The morning of the day before the students would leave for the Christmas break, Melody was woken up earlier than usual by the noise of a raging storm outside. The rain was battering the windows and a lightning bolt had hit a tree in the grounds.

Melody got out of bed and looked out the window at the teachers, still in their night gowns, magically extinguishing the flames on the tree.

The sun was just beginning to rise over the horizon but the dark grey clouds causes the grounds to be mostly in shadow.

A dark feeling rose up in Melody's chest and for a second her mouth trembled as though she was trying desperately to say something but was being held back. Then it stopped, and she bent over her trunk, silently getting changed.

"Continue with your behavior today"

Once she had slipped on her stockings, skirt, blouse, jumper, Hufflepuff tie and school shoes she tied her purple hair up in a high ponytail. She looked in the mirror on her wall and saw that dark brown roots were beginning to grow, so she gently tapped her head with her wand and and the regrowth turned purple. 

Melody went downstairs into her common room, which was empty because of how early it was. She sat down on a plushy yellow armchair and stared blankly at the wall for the next hour.

At about seven am a fifth year boy came downstairs. He wobbled over to the closest armchair, his arms full of textbooks and parchment scrolls. He sat down and began feverishly flicking through a textbook and when he found the right page he unravelled one of his scrolls and looked over it critically. He hadn't taken any notice at all of Melody, who stood up to leave.

She climbed out of the common room door-hatch and walked through the corridor into the Great Hall. The only people in the hall were a small group of Ravenclaws, a lone Slytherin, a couple of Hufflepuff girls and no Gryffindors. There were some plates of toast and jugs of pumpkin juice on the tables but the full breakfast hadn't been sent up yet.

Melody sat down carefully at the Hufflepuff table, as far away from the two girls as she could get. One of the girls had gotten up and was walking towards Melody, as she got closer she was recognisable as Akiko. She had a triumphant expression on her face.

"Yes?", Melody said when Akiko stopped about a metre from Melody. "Hello Adams", Akiko replied, "guess what?". Melody raised her eyebrows. "You've been kicked off the Quidditch team!", Akiko burst out, not bothering to suppress her glee at Melody's misfortune.

"What?", Melody replied blankly. Akiko laughed, "well you haven't been turning up to practice and you've avoided the whole team! The captain was feeling sorry for you, saying you were going through some stuff and you'd come around. But I had a nice little chat with them and they agreed that the team needs a more reliable beater. So I've been asked to tell you the news!". Akiko had said it all rather quickly, as though it was something she had been very excited to tell Melody. She then turned around and strutted back to Tiana, still guffawing heartily.

Melody grabbed a slice of toast and buttered it, all the while keeping an eye on the Gyffindor table.

A few minutes later Harry Potter and Ron Weasley came down the stairs and sat together at the table. Ron was ranting angrily about something and Harry was nodding awkwardly.