[1] BoAtHouSe » DrAcO mALfoY

fifteen » the wicked witch of slytherin

Great, thought Melanie as she ran to the Hogwarts Express at the end of Christmas Break. I'm going to miss the train. Now what?

Melanie looked at the clock hanging from the ceiling of Platform Nine and Three Quarters. 10:59A.M. The train was going to leave in one minute, possibly less.

If Melanie missed the train, she would have to call her parents with a muggle phone, something she didn't know how to use. And her parents would have to owl the school, which would probably take ages. It was a long procedure.

Instead, Melanie focused on making it to the train. She ran to the door, right as it was about to be closed.

After getting on the train, Melanie took a deep breath. She had made it. But now, she had to find somewhere to sit. Too lazy to find her friends, she picked a compartment with only two people in it, and knocked on the door.

"Hi, sorry, everywhere else is full," said Melanie, trying to catch her breath. "Could I sit with you?"

"Sure," one of the two girls said, smiling. She was in Hufflepuff and by the looks of it, she wasn't in the same year as Melanie.

"I'm Melanie Avery, by the way," Melanie introduced herself to the two girls.

The other girl lifted her head at the mention on Melanie's name. It was Sam, the muggle-born Slytherin seventh year Melanie had met a few weeks ago.

"Oh, hi, Sam," said Melanie with a smile on her face.

Sam smiled. "Hey."

The Hufflepuff girl looked at Melanie and Sam with confusion. "Do you two know each other?" The girl asked. She had straight dark hair that reached her shoulders, brown eyes and very pale skin.

"Yeah," said Sam. "We're in the same house."

The girl nodded and turned to Melanie. "I'm Alexa, Sam's girlfriend."

"Oh," said Melanie, a smile slowly finding its way on her face. "Nice to meet you."

After Melanie got comfortable in her seat, she spoke again. "So, are you both seventh years?"

"Yeah." Alexa nodded. "But Sam's in Slytherin, I'm in Hufflepuff."

"Doesn't it get hard? Being in different houses?" A curious Melanie asked. Melanie had never had a boyfriend out of her own house. In third year, she had a boyfriend who was a second year who had a big crush on her – he turned out to be very immature (so she didn't really think it counted, plus they were quite young) and last year Melanie had had a crush on a fifth year – they even went to the Yule Ball together and Melanie had had her first kiss with him, but their minds just didn't connect. They could barely have a conversation without it turning into a argument.

"It's not that hard at school times, since our Common Rooms are close, but on summer holidays, it gets pretty hard. Sam's parents don't want her to be in the magical world in summer, and my parents don't even know the Muggle world properly – they're both magical. But we make it work." The couple looked at each other and smiled warmly.

Melanie smiled too. She took out her Herbology textbook and read over it again, she was trying to make the most of any study time she could get.

"You're in your fifth year, right?" Alexa asked.

"Yeah." Whenever anybody asked her that, Melanie got even more stressed. These exams were really important, everybody was telling her the same thing.

"Poor thing," said Alexa sympathetically. "Good luck, especially for D.A.D.A., that troll Umbridge isn't teaching anything."

"I hate her, more than anyone." Melanie rolled her eyes. "Just thinking of her gives me a headache."