Melody Riddle and the Order of the Phoenix

Chapter 39: Test of Friendship

 After such a tiring ordeal, the trek up Seraphina's flight of stairs to my room was complete and utter exhaustion. It took forever to get to each flight even though I only had to go up two of them — I mean, they were long flights, but still. Becky and Draco walked up with me, at the ready in case I passed out since I hadn't yet released the aging spell. Considering I had the last time I released it, I preferred the thought that a comfortable bed awaited me when I did.

I wobbled slightly at each step, but even in such a weakened state I had to notice that Becky most certainly wasn't herself. She was quiet, a frown darkening her usually cheerful features. Her eyes were also dull, something I'd have attributed to her having to hold the Patronus Charm the entire time we walked through the prison... if only she didn't seem upset.

"Are you... okay?" I found myself asking as I finally lifted myself onto the final step. With a few deep breaths, walking forward from there was easier than the climb up — still difficult, but not nearly as impossible.

"No."

No hesitation, I realized. "What's —"

She said something, interrupting my question, but she said it so low it was as if she didn't say anything.

"Sorry, I didn't hear —"

Her response was pained, "I can't do this anymore!"

I lost my footing, quickly catching myself against the nearby wall. My bewilderment at her words was throwing loops around my brain, not a shred of understanding in place for my usually logical thoughts. God, I need some sleep.

"Shh!" Draco hissed heavily, glancing quickly down the stairs before rushing to my side. Wrapping my arm around his shoulder, he used his head to gesture for her to follow him as he carried half my weight to my room. "Not so loud. This may be Seraphina's home, but there are still Death Eaters around, you idiot."

Her scoff... it was uncharacteristically arrogant. A tendril of fear and stress hidden behind it. "I may be exhausted, but I can still protect myself."

"Oh, yeah? Same as her?" he pointedly turned towards her to show his glances toward me.

"I resent that.." I groaned.

Becky pouted, but ceased speaking until we made it to my room. Draco sat me down on the edge of the patchwork quilt covering Seraphina's guest bed, sitting next to me so I had his shoulder to keep me upright as Becky closed the door.

"What's going on?" I asked forlornly.

"I — I just can't do this. I don't know how you do this all the time. The constant fear that someone is going to see right through you — th-the realization that I don't want George or Hermione to find out that I was a part of this — seeing my best friend sentence someone to the worst fate imaginable without so much as a backward glance! Tonight did not go the way it should've gone!"

And how would it have gone had I not done that? I sighed, "Becky, I don't understand why you're acting like this. I warned you before we did anything that what you see may not be pretty."

"'Not pretty' was an understatement!" Becky replied hysterically. "I didn't sign up for this to see the joy in people's souls being torn out of them"

"How could you not guess?" I shrieked, my patience thinning as my energy quickly depleted. But I had to hold on... it felt like something important to me was at stake there. "My dad is a man — a monster — that torments people for the fun of it, kills Muggles for sport, tortures people for information, and all in all seeks power over compassion. So, in the end, that's what I also have to be when I'm around him!"