[1] BoAtHouSe » DrAcO mALfoY

fourteen » a change of heart

Melanie spent the day after Christmas hoping her family didn't smell the firewhisky on her breath. Every sip of firewhisky had brought her a new type of confidence, making her drink more and more of the addicting beverage. Amelia and Theodore only tasted the firewhisky with one sip; Draco barely had any, in fear of being caught with his eyes bloodshot and firewhisky on his breath.

Melanie's head was throbbing, all she wanted to do was sleep. But she still had unfinished Charms homework and she still had to feed her cat. Melanie forced herself out of her bed after her mid-day nap, she had wanted to spend time with her family but then fell asleep out of fear of being called out.

"Here you go," she said, putting some cat food into Cosmo's food bowl. She charmed the food bowl to refill everyday, just in case she forgot to feed him.

Then, Melanie finally stopped being so lazy and sat down at her desk to finish her Charms homework. Until she was interrupted by her mother.

"Melanie," said Mrs. Avery, opening the door and walking into Melanie's room. "Your father told me about what happened last night."

"What?" Melanie panicked slightly, afraid that her family had learnt about the firewhisky.

"About you learning the Unforgivable Curses from Bellatrix," Mrs. Avery continued, worried about her daughter.

"Oh. That. What about it?"

"Well, you'll be starting today," Mrs. Avery said. "But I have a suggestion, more of a warning."

Melanie nodded, waiting for the warning. I wonder if Mum's ever used the Unforgivable Curses.

"These are very dark things, Melanie. It's easy to get caught up in it. Promise me you'll be careful," said Mrs. Avery, her face etched with worry.

Melanie nodded once more and promised her mother.

"You should get ready, your sister's going to take you to the Malfoys' for your lesson," Mrs. Avery reminded her.

"The Malfoys'? Why are we going there?" asked a confused Melanie.

"Well, apparently Bella is staying at her sister's house so she requested for the lessons to be there too," explained Mrs. Avery, walking towards the door. "Get ready now, come on."

When her mother left, Melanie walked to her wardrobe and picked out the plainest pieces of clothing to wear for the day. After putting on an all black ensemble, Melanie walked to her sister's room and knocked on the door. Without waiting for a reply, Melanie walked into the room.

"Mum said you're going to take me to the Malfoys' for the lessons with Bellatrix," she told Marcy.

"You look like you're going to a funeral," Marcy said with a laugh.

Melanie didn't find it funny.

"You act like it too." After getting an unimpressed look from Melanie, Marcy got up and lifted her arm for Melanie to grasp onto.

"You know," Melanie broke the silence while the two walked the pathway to the Malfoys' front door. "If we were Muggles, you would always be dropping me off to places with a car. Good thing we're witches though, apparently there's an awful lot of traffic in the Muggle World."

"Why do you know this stuff?" Marcy laughed again. "It's so unnecessary. I mean, who cares about what Muggles do?"

After not getting an answer from Melanie, Marcy found it upon herself to remind Melanie of what their family believed in.

"Muggles and mudbloods are lower class, no matter what those books you read tell you," said Marcy.

Not this again. Melanie rolled her eyes. After being raised by her parents to think Muggles and Muggle-borns were filth, it took a lot of reading for Melanie to realise that this was wrong. It took her about two years of research to understand that Muggle-borns weren't filth, actually they were like purebloods and half-bloods, they were also witches and wizards, able to cast spells and do all the things a pureblood could. There wasn't a difference. But still, Melanie had a hard time trying to look at Muggle-borns like they weren't scum. Old habits die hard. At least she didn't use the foul word against them.