Professor Black: Melanie had an idea: it was very simple though so very complicated and extremely blatant, but it was about the most brilliant thing she could think of.
As she sat at her desk trying to figure the mess out, Melanie had a flashback of her mother's death.
The day had been a nice, clear one and the Blacks were cooking muggle-style. Melanie had been helping her mother cut up peppers when there came an odd feeling in the room. At first, she thought it might have been her father-someone whom she had no recollection of because they had been living low-key for some time, but she was soon proven dreadfully wrong.
The sky changed to a dark, gray colour as the crashes came from the front room; someone had apparated in. Just on cue, a tall, pale woman with dark hair and black eyes had come bursting through into the kitchen, wand out and ready. She looked like Melanie, Which greatly confused her. Why was she here? And why did she look so demented?
In the kitchen, Mrs.Black's eyes went wide with fear at the sound. "Mum," Melanie had asked, looking into her mother's eyes. "who is it?"
"Not now, Melanie, please; get upstairs," she told her daughter warmly though a bit worriedly. Black's kind, gentle face that she had shared with her daughter (though Melanie otherwise looked more like her father) was set and determined. Melanie wanted to follow her mother's instructions; she wanted to obey the one person she trusted wholly, but her true Gryffindor nature had proven. She didn't go upstairs. Instead she hid herself behind a wall, peeking to see what it was her mother was so afraid of.
The woman proceeded into the kitchen. Mrs.Black looked at her fiercely and muttered words Mel couldn't hear. Looking positively delighted, the woman cast spell and her mother collapsed, screaming in pain. She laughed sickeningly.
"Mum," Melanie had whispered, horrified. But her mother had grown unnaturally quiet and still. And suddenly, the little girl froze. "You will tell me where your father is." The cold voice was very near. "Your filthy mud blood mother is dead. Tell me now, and I might just spare you." Of course she had been lying, though as any other child would do, Melanie quietly answered. "I don't know, they never told me," she said in a shaking voice.
"Liar!" the woman screamed. But the girl was telling the truth. "I haven't seen him since I was a baby, it's true! He left-I haven't seen him since!" The family had known that Mr.Black's younger sister had been on the lookout for any reason to harm them. She was a death eater, and her brother's marrying a muggle-born had angered her. It had only been letters, and even since then Melanie didn't know his first name.
The woman didn't like Melanie's answer. "Crucio!" she screamed, the child collapsing just as her mother had. The fire was flooding her system, burning every limb. She was upset, she was confused. She wanted to die.
And then a miracle happened.
A large barrier came from no where, standing between Melanie and the woman, who was forced back. She tried many different spells to break it, but it wouldn't budge. And so she left.
With the barrier still there, Melanie sat up and reached for her mother's cold, mangled body. Sadness inflicted across her face. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm so sorry. I don't know...h-how it happened. But I wish it would have come sooner."
Melanie sat there for a long time, her legs to her side as she tried to comprehend everything. Of course she knew that magic existed, but they didn't use it. "It isn't safe," as her mother had explained few days before. And now she knew why.
After the while passed, a man with dark hair and a cane appeared from nowhere. Melanie stared at him, her face expressionless. The man proceeded to search the house, though couldn't get through the child's mysterious barrier. Finally, he disappeared again, leaving the child there to cry until the ministry came for her.
Only one thing was important enough for Melanie to willingly look back into the memory: the protective barrier had always puzzled her, though she had never tried hard to re-construct it. Now, though, she wondered...if she could make that barrier reappear, would it help the school? She was rather gifted with protective charms in general which she knew wouldn't be enough. And of course there were already so many protections in place as well, yet still someone had to have gotten in to let the horrible events of the past day occur. Melanie though that it might be possible, if she could pull her protection off, for it to give her enough time to find the loophole she so desperately needed. And it wouldn't hurt to teach the students a few protective charms, either...
With that thought in mind, Melanie proceeded to take out a CD, turn on prelude in feud in G# minor, and start digging out her charms notes from her 7th year at Hogwarts school.
OOC: dang-My longest yet! It's got a point, I promise
