Written In The Stars VI -[Harry Potter xF!Oc]

Chapter Eight: A Rough Start.

When Mel finished putting on her uniform, she swore loudly. 

"What's wrong?" Hermione walked up to her. "What happened?"

"That bastard!" The girl cried. "Harry got in a fight!"

"What?" Ginny and Hermione asked.

"I don't know!" Mel rubbed her nose, breathing heavily and pushing the feeling away. "I saw Malfoy above him... looking all pleased with himself..."

"C'mon!" Hermione dragged her out of the compartment, Mel barely had time to seize Grey. 

When they left the train neither Harry nor Malfoy was found. The boys caught up with them and asked them what was going on.

"He must be around, the train's empty," Ron looked over his shoulder. 

"I saw Malfoy a minute ago, he was alone," Erick said. "He looked happy..."

"I shouldn't have let him go!"

"You can't be chasing him around," The Headboy reminded her. "Harry should know better than to taunt Malfoy..."

"Who said it was Harry who started it?" Ron intervened.

"He was the one who followed him —"

"Don't argue," Hermione said. "Maybe Harry's waiting for us in a carriage? He's not here, c'mon..."

But he wasn't waiting for them in the carriages either. Half-hopeful, Hermione mumbled something about him going on his own, but that was even more unlikely than Harry not waiting for them to pick a carriage.

Mel froze, in front of her a Thestral was calmly waiting for them to climb its carriage.

"What is it?" Erick asked. "Is it Harry?"

She shook her head tensely. It was beautiful in a way a Thestral was meant to be; unfortunately for her, the sight only reminded her how broken she was, suddenly she felt worn and tainted.

"You... you can see them now, can't you?" Her friend inquired knowingly.

Mel climbed into the carriage without responding, fixing her gaze on the ground.

"Can't you see anything?" Ron questioned nervously. "Not even if you focus?"

Mel glared at him but tried it anyway, she did her best to disconnect from her body, but she was too upset to fully focus. She slouched down her seat and sulked all the way to the castle. 

It wasn't fair, but it was even worse for Harry, he'd seen death when he was only fourteen years old. Alone, waiting for Voldemort to take him out. Her decision of standing next to him reaffirmed itself, she didn't want him to suffer on his own anymore.

She was still feeling quite mad when they reached the school, but part of it felt foreign. It felt like a sharper kind of anger, which was probably Harry's. If the boy was still capable of feeling, he had to be alive.

Erick stopped abruptly and she looked back, for the first time in months, Mel caught something in his eyes she would've never expected to see: Erick was nervous. She wished she could say something to calm him down, but her mind was still fixated on Harry and it didn't matter, in the end, Erick would have to walk up to Slytherin's table alone.

"This is your last year," Mel began. "There are students in there that need you more than you know... You can do it."

Erick took a deep breath and fixed his posture as well as his expression. The warmth that had taken place in his eyes since the start of summer was soon replaced by his former sharp, cold gaze.