Chapter 14

I don't own any of the characters apart from Melanie Malfoy. All of the characters belong to J.K. Rowling.

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I looked around the place I had once referred to as my prison. To be honest, I still did, but it looked nothing like the place I had spent 16 years of my life in. The walls were now covered in the blue and silver of Ravenclaw courtesy of my mother.

My room hadn't changed much since I'd left it in September. The desk was just as cluttered as it was before I'd packed and all the clothes I had left behind were falling out of the drawers or messily thrown into my wardrobe.

I slipped into a pair of pyjamas I found folded up on my mattress and climbed under the canopy of my four poster. Looking up at the star spattered fabric above me seemed to calm my nerves a lot more, but I couldn't get rid of the nagging feeling in the back of my brain.

The Dark Lord had called a meeting, but apparently it wasn't him, but me. I was then asked to lead the meeting. Even just thinking about it made my heart beat faster. I know he did it to get back at me even more, but no one could deny how shocked he had been when I'd stepped up.

*Flashback*

"So, Melanie, would you like to stand up and explain why you called everyone?"

Every head in the dining room turned to look at me in shock. The shock I was feeling was mirrored across every face sat around the long table. Draco's head snapped up in panic and a look of dread was evident in his eyes. I swallowed loudly and turned my attention back to the Dark Lord at the head of the table.

"Go on Mel, please just say something," mother begged quietly from my side. Draco nodded and then turned his attention back to the floor underneath his feet. Shakily, I lifted myself out of my chair and tried to address the room. My voice got stuck in my throat and I swallowed again.

Everyone's attention was on me, and I couldn't get any words out. I had opened and closed my mouth so many times now that I just looked like a goldfish. I closed my mouth once again, trying to think of a story, but was met by a chorus of laughter.

Anger flared through me and I concentrated my mind on keeping my appearance to how it normally was. I couldn't have any Death Eaters finding out that, the results could be worse than the situation I was in now.

"Okay, so I called this meeting to tell everyone what is happening with the mission me and Draco are currently performing." I said to the room. My voice carried quite confidently but the words were just flowing out and I wasn't even thinking through what I was saying.

The laughter died out instantly and the room was eerily silent. The sneers from all the Death Eaters were now aimed at me but it didn't bother me like it normally would have done. Draco was staring up at me like I had grown two heads. I didn't know if it was because of how true my story was sounding already or if my appearance had changed, but I brushed it off and turned to look at the Dark Lord.

"Me and Draco have thought of many ways to go through with this and at the moment we are currently fixing the Vanishing Cabinet that is situated in the Room of Requirement at Hogwarts School," a mumble of approval carried around the table. "When we have fixed it, we plan to invite a small group of you to come as our back up in case we need your help."

"How would you get us the message that we needed to get into the school then?" one of the Death Eaters sneered at me. The people surrounding him started jeering and patting him on the back, obviously thinking they had got the better of me.

"Using these." I took out one of the fake golden galleons that Hermione had shown me earlier in the year. The large group all moved to the edge of their seats to get a look at the golden circle I was holding in my hand. A snicker could be heard from my right and I turned to see Uncle Rodolphus staring at me with a gleam in his eye.

"Yeah let's all get our money out and we'll all just travel into Hogwarts," he said, making his voice go high pitched, trying to make fun of me. A few laughs met his statement, but I tossed him the coin and took an identical one out of my pocket.

"I send a message using my coin," I lifted the coin up slightly higher so everyone could see, "and someone will have the one that my uncle is holding. When I send the message over the coin should -"

"Aaaaah!" every head whipped around to look at my uncle who had thrown the coin across the table, which Draco caught.

"It should burn so that it gets the person's attention. Anymore questions?" When no one moved to bring my attention to them, I sat in my seat again and turned to look at the Dark Lord again expectantly.

He looked slightly put out at how I had finished the speech so fast, but quickly recomposed himself and stood up spreading his arms wide. "Well, there we have it; Dumbledore will be disposed of by the end of the school year!"

A cheer echoed around the room and I lowered my head not wanting to meet anyone's eyes. I still didn't like to think that we would have to kill one of the greatest wizards of all time. Even when we were fixing the cabinet, I imagined it was just so that me and Cho could sneak out again like we had at the beginning of the year.

The Dark Lord kept glancing in my direction through the rest of the meeting but I kept my head down and was moving the fake galleon from hand to hand so I had something to do. Eventually, the sound of scraping chairs sounded out and I bolted out of the dining room as fast as I could without drawing any attention to myself.

**

My bedroom door opened slightly and Draco shuffled in my room. I had avoided contact with everyone after I had held the meeting because I was dreading finding out that I had done something stupid or was going to be laughed at again.

"Well you did it Mel!" he said, settling himself on the end of my bed. I had no idea what he was talking about. He didn't expand any further, even after I sent him a confused look.

"What the hell are you on about Drake?"

"Your metamorphmagus didn't get affected by your emotions during the meeting!" I still didn't get what he was trying to tell me. Judging by the look he gave me during the meeting, I'd guessed my hair had turned into fire or something. "You're hair stayed blonde!"

"What do you mean her hair stayed blonde?" mother asked from the door. We both jumped up, wands in hands, aiming at her. I was first to react and lower my arm at the look of horror on her face.

"Erm, she's a metamorphmagus?" Draco told her, although it came out sounding more like a question, while rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. Mother just carried on looking at us both, a mixture of emotions flashing across her face. I closed my eyes and focused on the colour I wanted to change my appearance to.

"Your hair's pink!" mother shouted, pointing at my head in the process. I grabbed the strands at the end of my ponytail and brought it into my line of sight.

"Damn it! I wanted it to turn bright blue!" I said, crossing my arms across my chest like a toddler. Draco laughed softly from my side and mother walked over to me and pulled my hair towards her, yanking my head back in the process. Just as she did it, my hair turned back to its normal shade of platinum blonde.

"What do you mean?" she asked me. She was still staring at my hair intently, almost willing it to change colour again.

"I haven't got full control over it yet. I've been trying to but it's a lot harder than it looks. Normally when I get angry my hair turns red and it didn't today. So I think I'm getting better."

We sat down and tried to explain it to her before she could ask any more questions or panic about it further. She didn't look convinced when we told her I had only just found out about it, but accepted it and agreed that it was best not to tell anyone about the ability.

"Oh I meant to tell you," she said, making her way over to the door, "we're going to visit your father in Azkaban tomorrow evening."

**

"I still don't see why I have to go with you! He wouldn't even care if I was there or not!" I shouted down the stairs to mother. She just rolled her eyes and looked back up at me.

"Of course you do! It's Christmas Day and he's asked to see his family today." she said exasperatedly. It was my turn to roll my eyes this time.

"Yeah, but me and Drake were meant to be staying at Hogwarts over the holiday, so he thought it would be just you. He would never willingly ask to see me anyway," I argued back, my hair turning its favourite flaming red colour.

"Well you're coming! And sort your hair out before anyone comes in and sees you." she stated. I sighed and turned around to see Draco making his way down the stairs towards mother. He just gave me a look that said 'stop fighting; you'll end up coming anyway'.

"Fine! But don't try and pretend that he's actually happy to see me when we get there." I told her as I stormed down the stairs. I closed my eyes when I got to the bottom and focus my mind on my usual appearance.

"Good, now come on. The faster we get there, the faster we can get out. I don't like them dementors very much at all." She took hold of my hand and Draco's and disapparated.

The cold wind whipped around me and I could feel my robes hitting my legs. When I opened my eyes I could see the tall black building towering above me and I felt scared. Not at the idea of being surrounded by dementors or crazy prisoners, but because we had no idea how my father would react after being in here for quite a while.

"Who are you here to see?" one of the guards asked us. I looked up at mother to see her face had paled a lot in the few steps we had walked from the gates to the entrance. She opened her mouth but no sound came out so Draco stepped in to help.

"Lucius Malfoy."

"Relation?" the guard asked, looking us up and down.

"His wife and children." Draco stated. The man raised his eyebrows when he looked me over but didn't question it further and moved aside to let us through.

Father was in one of the cells furthest away from the entrance in the heavily guarded section. As we walked further through the building, the temperature dropped, telling us we were getting closer to the dementors.

When we finally reached him, I shuffled behind mother so that he wouldn't see me on first look. Draco followed my lead and hid behind the wall to our left, knowing that father would kick off as soon as one of us was seen.

"Lucius? Can you hear me?" mother called towards the dark room. I could hear movements from the back and saw a hunched shadow walking towards us. Mother walked forward, forgetting to keep me hidden and walked over to her husband.

"Narcissa. I'm so glad you came," he said in a soft, caring voice while taking hold of her hand. I could see tears staring to fall down mother's face and was trying with everything I had not to walk over and comfort her. Father looked up and his eyes landed to the spot where Draco had just been stood.

"Did you come on your own?" he asked, his voice suddenly going scarily low. I realised then that I was in plain view, but it was too late. His eyes landed on me, and a look of disgust was clear on his face.

"They wanted to come and see you," she tried to explain to him. He wasn't stupid though and could see through her lie straight away. He started looking for Draco and I sent my twin a pleading look for him to come and join me. As soon as he did, it proved too much for our father.

"Why aren't they in school? They should be working on their mission, not taking a holiday!" he screamed, his voice bouncing off the walls. Some of the guards stepped forward but Draco held his hand up to stop them.

"The Dark Lord called a meeting last night and we were called to it, and we asked if we could stay at home so we could come and see you," Draco lied smoothly. Father stood up and took hold of the bars of his cell.

"Would you mind giving me and Melanie a moment alone please."

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Hey guys, I'm sorry it's taken me so long to upload, but I had exams and then I've just been really busy.

I've only got one thing to say and that is: In chapter 14, it was brought to my attention that I had said Luna was in the same year as Mel, as well as Cho. Now I've explained why Cho is in this year but have changed what Luna said in that chapter. It's only a minor detail but I just thought I'd explain I had made that change.

Until next time guys, C x