Melanie Rosen: Year 3 (A Harry Potter Fanfic)

Chapter 21 Crystal Gazing

Chapter 21

Crystal Gazing

    Word traveled quickly throughout the school about Ron’s attack. People asked me if I saved him by intervening with my ‘expelliarmus,’ but Black had already lowered his dagger by the time I uttered the spell. As terrified as Ron was at the time, he sure seemed to enjoy telling the tale the next day. His eyes would light up like torches every time someone asked him to describe what happened.

    I still had the jar Black had dropped. After Ron told McGonagall what happened last night, any thought of the jar was forgotten. I decided to take it to Madame Saunders since it was originally intended for her. She can decide what to do with it.

    That afternoon, I went to Madame Saunders’ office and knocked on her door. At her tone, I entered and found her sitting at her desk, writing a letter.

    Despite me storming out the other day, she greeted me pleasantly. “Why hello, Miss Rosen. What brings you here?”

    “I suppose you’ve heard of Ron’s attack by now?” I asked, stepping towards her desk.

    She nodded. “Yes, word travels quickly. How is Mr. Weasley?”

    “He’s good now. Black didn’t actually get him,” I answered, pulling the jar out from my pocket. “When he escaped, this fell from his pocket.” I set it on her desk. “It’s for you.”

    Madame Saunders look the jar and examined it. She then picked up the note and read it.

    “So why is Black so concerned on whether I know the truth?” I asked her.

    She sighed. “Sirius Black has his own reasons for sending me this and it’s likely out of loyalty to You-Know-Who. You know you can’t trust anything he says, right?”

    I let out a breath and nodded, eying the jar. “What about that? Since Black is dangerous, whatever is in that jar might be harmful, don’t you think?”

    Madame Saunders continued to look at the bottle. “Yes, I suppose you’re right. I’m going to give this to Professor Snape to test and see if it’s dangerous.”

    I nodded and remained quiet for several passing moments before taking in a deep breath and asking slowly, “Madame Saunders, if you don’t mind my asking, how did you get those scars in the first place?”

    She gazed at me for a moment but her eyes fell before she told, “It was a curse performed by You-Know-Who himself. I was trying to get to someone he had but he got to me first.”

    I looked at her intently and said, “But you survived. Every story I’ve heard of something facing Vol… sorry, You-Know-Who himself ended up killed.”

    “Well…” she began slowly, “I wouldn’t exactly call that surviving his attack. It’s just that he didn’t want me to die right at that moment.” She rolled up her right sleeve to reveal her markings. “You see, Melanie, these scars You-Know-Who cursed me with are fatal in time.”

    My jaw dropped. For a moment I didn’t even know what to say. I could not imagine living knowing my life was shortened.

    I finally asked softly, “Do you know how much longer you have to… well…”

    “Live?” Madame Saunders finished for me. “According to the Healers’ predictions, I’m already over a year past the time they thought I would die.”

    I remained quiet for another passing moment and then glanced at the jar. “Well, what’s in there? Do you think it will help?”

    She picked it up and answered, “Well, for years the Healers at St. Mungo’s have been working on developing a cure. Perhaps this could…”

    “It came from Black,” I reminded her. “You should be careful.”

    She sighed. “I don’t really see why he would bother trying to kill me when he knows I am already dying. But you’re right. I will have Professor Snape look at this before I try it out.”

xXx

    After another week passed by, Ron and Hermione finally made up. Unfortunately it was tragedy that brought them together. Hermione had reported to them that Hagrid lost his case and Buckbeak was to be executed.

    I heard the news from Aunt Becky. She had gone with Hagrid to help him with his case. When she told me what happened it sounded like they would have won if not for Lucius Malfoy. He must have scared the committee into doing things his way. I hate how he has to win. It was too bad as my dad was a lawyer and good at what he did. Perhaps if he had knowledge of the magical world he could have helped.

    Today I met up with Harry, Ron, and Hermione and walked with them to our Divination class.

    “Honestly, Hermione,” Ron was saying, “You’re doing way too much. You should let go of some of these classes.”

    “I can do it,” Hermione insisted. “I just need more…”

    “Rest?” I offered, recalling that she had fallen asleep and missed Charms. “You know my aunt told me my uncle took a load of classes during his third and forth year and even some courses during the summer. By the time he reached seventh year, there were only three classes left for him to take at the school.”

    “Hogwarts had summer classes?” Harry asked, curiously.

    I looked up and recalled, “According to my Aunt Becky, they used to, but they stopped doing that when she reached her seventh year. They probably had less classes at the time too.”

    When we got to the top tower, Professor Trelawney had us paired to do crystal reading. At the beginning of the year I was looking forward to this but today I was disappointed. All the crystal ball, that sat on mine and Hermione’s table, did was fog up. While I rested my head on my hand bored, Hermione appeared furious. She kept grumbling that she should be practicing Charms rather than wasting time in this class.

    When Professor Trelawney passed by Harry and Ron’s to assist them, Ron said, “Well, I think it’s pretty clear what’s going to happen here. There’s going to be a load of fog tonight.”

    As several students chuckled, I looked into our crystal and added, “Ours appears more like actual clouds. I think it’s going to rain later on.”

    “You are disturbing the clairvoyant vibrations,” Trelawney barked as she drew closer to Harry’s and Ron’s table.

    Our teacher’s sight naturally led to the grim. That was when Hermione lost it and snapped at Trelawney. The entire class reached the edge of their seats as no one had ever seen Hermione Granger have a go at a Hogwarts Professor. It ended with Hermione swinging her bag over her shoulder, knocking our crystal off the table and storming out of the room.

    I gazed down at our crystal ball, rolling on the ground with the clouds spinning and muttered, “Now it appears more like there’s going to be a hurricane later on.”

    A few students, mostly boys from Gryffindor, snapped out of their shock over Hermione’s departure and chuckled at my comment. Professor Trelawney merely glared at me and placed the crystal ball back on my desk. As she began to resume the lesson, the classroom door cracked open. I turned saw Aunt Becky there. Her eyes appeared slightly swollen and red.

    She looked over to the teacher and said, “Please excuse me Professor, but I need to pull Melanie out if you don’t mind.”

    Professor Trelawney merely motioned her hand towards me. I grabbed my bag and walked out of the classroom. Something told me this would not be good.

    As I quietly followed my Aunt Becky down the steps I asked, “What’s going on?”

    Aunt Becky stopped walking and took in a deep breath before turning around. “Melanie, there’s something you should know. It’s Madame Saunders. She passed away earlier this afternoon.”