All That's Left of Yesterday

[meleny]

Meleny was sitting alone in the Gryffindor common room trying in vain to catch up on homework. Meleny just couldn't concentrate because her mind was very full and earlier today she had been out on the grounds where it was a nice day out and she was still rather distracted from that. Anyone who knew Meleny knew that she was always happy and outgoing and always smiles when she talks to people but she was also in a lot of emotional pain. Her mother's death had hit her really hard. Anyone who reads the daily prophet would probably know about it already since her mother had been an auror and an Order Member unless of course her father saw some reason to hush it up and bribed the daily prophet not to print his wife's death in their wizarding obituary section. She was so mad at her father for killing her and all over the safety of the family house elf too. Her mother died because she was trying to protect the house elf her father and sister were torturing and ordering around every minute of the day. Sometimes she couldn't sleep soundly at night and she dreamed about the last day of summer before school and the events that took place before her fifth year at Hogwarts which had ended about a month or two ago. The helpless feeling plagued her at night as well as the fact that her mother was a bit young when she died. In her opinion none of this should've happened.

Meleny felt like she was going rather insane because she hadn't slept. She used to be a bit of a morning person and rather chipper as she went from class to class despite what was going on in her life. Meleny desperately wanted to find someone this year to confide in for a while before she went completely mental. Her aunt was busy at the ministry trying to plan the funeral for when she went home for the holidays. Meleny hated to admit it but she wasn't sure if she would go to the funeral. She knew it would be polite to pay her last respects but then it might make the situation a lot more real and Meleny didn't think she could handle that.

Meleny had been praying that this whole thing was actually a dream she would wake up from, hoping to find a letter from her mother at breakfast and that she would see her again. But Meleny knew better. She saw the green light from her father's wand rush toward her mother. She yelled at her to get out of the way but it was too late. The killing curse hit her mother and her life had been ended in an instant. Despite the reality Meleny was quite content deluding herself to the truth. Meleny stared into the fireplace and felt tears burning her eyes threatening to fall onto the roll of parchment in front of her that was supposed to be used for an essay in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Sitting in that class made her sad now because it was the dark arts that killed her mother and she didn't have time to defend herself. On the parchment she hadn't written anything on it except for her name.

[Harry James Potter]

Harry had skipped class all of today. He was on his bed, staring at the ceiling. Ron and Hermione were probably extremely worried, but when they found him he would tell them. Harry sighed thinking of how stupid he had been over the past few years. He had let Cedric die, Sirius die; he had made it so Sirius had to hide for the last two years of his life; he had put so many lives at risk at the Chamber of Secrets... he hadn't done too much good, though without him the school would be either closed or overrun by Voldemort. At least some good had come out of him. He was such an idiot at times. And Hermione and Ron had accepted his stupidity. Not many people would, and he was lucky enough to be their friends.

Finally after spending the whole day in his bed, Harry arose, feeling slightly hungry, though not too hungry. Harry still felt so guilty about Sirius, and everyone's distraught, especially since Tonks seemed so upset about it too. Harry walked down the stairs to the main part of the common room, expecting to find Hermione or Ron, but it didn't happen. Instead he saw Meleny, a girl he had associated with and respected. Harry didn't really want to make her day worse than it was. She was probably still sad about her mother dying. That made Harry feel a bit terrible that he'd been so upset, because he caused his loved one's death, and her mother died not at her hand, though he didn't really know any details.

Harry slowly trudged up to an armchair, and sat, looking towards the fire, hoping the familiar face would sprout and Harry could talk to Sirius one more time.

"Those one love never are really gone, are they?" Harry said, speaking to Meleny, though not really lookin at her, still staring into the flame.

[meleny]

Meleny hadn't realized that her tears came on full force. She looked down at the parchment and noticed that her name became a smudge on the old paper. She glanced up when she heard Harry's voice. "Oh. I didn't realize you were there. I'm sorry you have to see me like this. It's been a rough start to the summer as you might have heard."she stated and quickly started to wipe her eyes before more tears could come.

Meleny listened to what he said and thought about it. "I guess not."she said as she unclasped the pendant that hung around her neck and stared at it. It was in the shape of a lioness. Her mother gave it to her on her 12th birthday after she told her she was sorted into Gryffindor the previous year. Her twin sister had a similar pendant that her father gave her only it was in the shape of a snake, a basilisk to be exact, one of the most deadliest snakes known to dark wizard kind. "I don't know really. How are they never gone? I'll never be able to talk to my mother again or see her again until its time for me to die."she stated. She sighed as she stared at the ruined parchment. She picked up her wand and levitated it into a trash bin in the corner of the common room.

"Oh, what am I going to do? I feel like I'm going insane. I haven't slept at all. Everytime I go to sleep I see my father killing my mother, the vacant look in her eyes when the life is drained from her. I can hear my sister's evil maniacal laughter, my father's as well. I'm scared to sleep alone and I just want to be normal again. I almost wish I was a little girl again, the Meleny who wasn't tortured by her father and sister, the Meleny who had a mother. I hate this cynical, depressed person I've turned into. Look at me. I'm a disillusioned teenager! I'm freaking out and I can't stop the horrible visions and memories in my head."she said as tears flowed freely from her eyes once again.

"I'm sorry once again. I don't mean to burden you like this. Sometimes I feel like I don't have anyone anymore. My mother was my best friend in the entire world. I have an aunt but she's really busy at the ministry and she's helping plan the funeral with a few people my mother worked with at the ministry and in the Order. I don't want to bother her with my problems. Besides I know she's grieving too. I wouldn't want to burden her either."she muttered rather quietly. The reason she hated to burden people was because this was what she was like when no one was looking. Every day she would smile as if nothing had happened but of course there were those few observant people who knew the truth when they saw her if they read about the tragedy in the daily prophet. She liked to fall apart in peace but she needed human contact more than ever at the moment.

[Harry James Potter]

Harry could tell tears were falling from her eyes, probably because of her voice, since when one cries their voice changes and sometimes cracks. Harry sighed and turned to look at her, with a piece of ruined parchment near her. He could remember a similar feeling that had enulfed him, the first night at the Dursleys. He had woken up, from a nightmare about Cedric, and his scar was tingling, so he was going to write to Sirius and Dumbledore about it... and then it dawned on him that Sirius was dead and never was coming back. He had gone to his mirror from Sirius and tried calling to him, though it was broken.

But he had learned to live with it, at least a little bit, though he was still broken spirited about it, since he did skip class today. He promised himself he wouldn't do it again at that moment, realizing what concenquences it could have on it. Sirius' death shook him because he had lost his only father figure. He had him for a second and then it seemed a split second later that he was gone. It was so unfair it seemed, and it was all his fault.

"It's ok, I just came down here anyways," Harry replied glancing at the fire once more. He had escaped his prison of self-pity and guilt to come down here, and try to relax and be happy, though it was tough, as he believed it was for her.

"Dumbledore once told me something like that, the crazy old... brilliant man. Think: do you still remember her, in your heart? My parents are still living, through me, and your mother is too, but through you. Sure you can't talk to her or see her, but you can still love her, remember her, and feel the love of her. She isn't gone forever, but remember, once you die as well, you can join her, but don't go and do something rash, or they will be disappointed," Harry explained looking up at her. He had thought it over and over the whole summer and this one was the only one that he had really made sense with explaining it, and it made him feel pretty great.

"You do have people. You have all your friends, the whole Quidditch team, you still have me here and the last I checked I was still alive. It would really suck if I were a ghost," Harry replied, with a small grin showing through his frown and self-pity.