Strategy { Oliver Wood}

Chapter Three

Melanie searched the train until she found her best friend Andrea Wells, otherwise known as Andy, already in a compartment. Upon entering the short haired blonde looked up and grinned at her.

"About time you showed up, I was beginning to think you were going to miss the train."

"Calm your kneazles, I'm here aren't I?" Melanie said sitting down across from her and throwing her legs up.

"I thought Carter was starting this year."

"He is."

"And he's not with you?"

"No, I thought it would be best to go let him make his own friends. I doubt he wanted to be stuck in a compartment with us for several hours. Besides I spend enough time with him at home as it is. It's time he spread his wings and fly on his own."

"You think he'll get into Ravenclaw?" Andy asked.

"Nope, I think he's a shoe in for Gryffindor...or Hufflepuff. We'll see."

"Yes we will. Speaking of Gryffindor, I saw Mr. Wood walk by earlier," Andy grinned.

"I saw him too. He greeted me kindly as we both boarded the train."

Andy snorted. "Greeted you kindly how?"

"Well, he didn't make that mean face he always gives me. You know the one where it looks like he's smelling rotten cabbage."

The two girls laughed.

"Before today I ran into him at Flourish and Blotts too. That went well."

"I bet he was so happy to see you," Andy said.

"Overjoyed."

"He doesn't know it yet, but you two are soulmates," Andy told her.

"More like sworn enemies by the way he acts."

"Well...it probably doesn't help that you've taunted him through every quidditch match you've played against him."

Melanie smiled. "Like I've said before, quidditch is strictly business."

"So don't mix business with pleasure."

"Can't help it, he's wicked cute. There's nothing cuter than a flustered boy with a Scottish accent."

"I don't know....I think Spanish accents are pretty fantastic."

"Too soft to be my favorite. But Spanish boys...yes two thumbs up," Melanie said throwing her thumbs up into the air.

"Me gusta."

"Mucho."

Andrea and Melanie went back to their first year in Hogwarts when the girls were sorted into the same house. When Melanie first met Andrea back in 1987, the girl had the longest blonde hair Melanie had ever seen tied into a long braid. She had palest blue eyes that gave her an overall angelic appearance, but Andrea turned out to be a spitfire, she just needed the right friend, and that friend was Melanie.

Andrea cut off a good amount of her hair second year and every year it grow shorter and shorter. Currently, she had it in a pixie cut that suited her quite well, even if her parents didn't agree so much. But Andrea seemed more comfortable in her skin and so much more confident . With the confidence came a new nickname of Andy.

Normally, Andrea spent the majority of the summer at Melanie's house, but the past summer she had to help her mother take care of her sick grandmother.

"How did your Mum do with the dating thing?" Andy asked her. "Didn't you say she was going to give it a go?"

"She did...and it didn't work out so well," Melanie said.

"Why? Did she get a bunch of pricks?"

"Nah, the men seemed really nice, but you know my mother, she drowns herself in work. Instead of going on a double date with her friend, she took up a double shift. I don't know if it's because she's worried about what Carter and I will think or if she's just not ready for it."

"It's been like what...seven years?" Andy said.

"Yeah. Lucky seven."

Seven years since Melanie and Carter's father left the home, much to the family's relief. Michael Hunt was not a kind man to his family especially to the children's mother. By placing his hands on their mother, the man had left the woman emotionally scarred as well as physically bruised many of times. Melanie was eight and Carter only four years at the time, when the man threatened to strike them as well during one of his episodes. But before he could even think to touch them, it was Daphne who drew her wand on him, threatening to blast the man to pieces if he dared lay a finger on them.

That was the last time Melanie or any of them saw the man. Instead of keeping the last name Hunt, Daphne changed Carter's and Melanie's to Anderson as if to make it seem they were starting over again.

Melanie wasn't hurt by her father's departure, in fact she was glad he was gone. But she didn't like how her mother had to work extra hard to provide for her family. Melanie took on the responsibility of looking after her little brother once she was old enough to save her mother the expense of hiring a babysitter during the summers. Daphne did everything she could to make sure her two children were happy, but Melanie just wanted her mother happy.

She suggested her mother go on a couple of dates but the results were the same in every scenario. Daphne claimed she was far too busy.

"How did it go with your nan?" Melanie asked Andy in hopes of changing the sad subject.

"Ugh, besides the things I wrote to you about...I know we're supposed to respect our elders and all, but that woman is a demon. All she did was make fun of my hair. Kept telling me that only boys wore their hair this short and then she started calling me Andrew. Andrew, be a good lad and fetch me my slippers."

"You should have flashed her and yelled behold my womanliness!"

"Did you just suggest that I flash my grandmother?" Andy asked her.

"Yes."

"This is why you're my best friend."