Melanie never actually thought she’d find an owl that liked her. And now that she had this adorable, fluffy owl, she loved it to bits. Or near bits because she didn’t want the owl to break apart.

“Now, you’ll have to be a good owl, Cotton Candy,” Melanie told the bird in the cage as she carried it back to her grandparents’ home. “You can’t bother my grandparents when they’re sleeping,” she added. Because if not, she’d have to return the owl.

The owl fluffed himself up in agreement, or so it appeared to Melanie, causing the girl to giggle.

To be famous, she needed to know how to dance and sing. And to be punctual. Carefully, she tiptoed into the studio and took her place next to her cousin who was executing each move flawlessly. Dancing was hard though and when one was clumsy it was even harder.

But at least no one had caught her sneaking in late yet.

“Melanie!” her cousin Elaine exclaimed, narrowing her eyes and the girl who was careful not to disturb anyone as she watched the others. Her cousin didn’t stop lifting her satin-covered shoe once.

“Yes?” she whispered.

“Melanie!” She’d been caught.

Melanie chased Alice around the common room.

“Alice!!” Melanie sighed, getting tired. Plus, the pink dress hanging off the crook of her arm kept slipping off.

Alice and Melanie were on opposite sides of one of the couches in the Gryffindor common room and Melanie was panting – getting awfully tired.

“I’m not wearing that,” Alice said defiantly.
“You HAVE to! It’s the Yule Ball!” Melanie said with a frown on her face. Plus the dress was just so pretty and Alice would look adorable in it!
“I don’t like dresses!”

Melanie started to run after the younger girl once more.

Melanie and Landon were walking around Hogwarts. It was a fairly nice day and all with the sun out and stuff. Their topic of conversation? Oreos.

“Chocolate covered Oreos?” Melanie asked out loud, hearing Landon’s proposal.
The boy nodded his head. “They have chocolate covered everything, so we should eat chocolate covered Oreos,” Landon said shrugging his shoulders.

It actually didn’t sound bad at all. Melanie kind of wanted to try it though she was pretty sure it’d be way too sweet. Some things just weren’t meant to be dipped in chocolate. Regardless, the two headed off to the kitchens.

“So all I have to do is walk around and run a few errands in it?” Melanie asked, eying the grey furry thing her best friend, Sabrina, was standing in front of.
Sabrina had a proud smirk on her face and Jason was hiding a grin. “Yup, you have to get us cookies from the store, then come back here… and then go back out and sing and dance.”

Melanie looked at the bunny costume, then looked at her two best friends. She wrapped her arms around the bunny suit and headed to the bathroom.

“Challenge accepted!” Melanie called out.

“So just open your mouth, like me, and just go ROAR,” Queen Alice instructed the elder girl.

Melanie blinked her brown eyes, watching the blonde roar loudly. Was she supposed to copy the other girl? She fiddled with the sleeve of her shirt as Alice let out another roar.

“It’s your turn, Mel,” Queen Alice said, pointing at her. She nodded her head slowly. “So open your mouth WIDE, then let out a ROAR.”

“Roar?” Melanie said weakly. Wasn’t this a bit ridiculous?

“With more energy!”

“ROAR!” Melanie said louder.

“More.”

“ROOOOAAAAR!”

“Welcome to Gryffindor!” Alice said with a smirk.

“This is going to work this time, right?” Melanie whispered to the blond boy as they hid behind a tree.

Tag Kildare nodded his head to the best of his ability. The bunny head must be quite heavy. The two waited for their target to walk by.

Tick… tock…

This was taking an awfully long time.

Melanie opened her backpack and pulled out a carrot she had stashed in there as a snack. “Carrot?”

Tag looked at Melanie and the carrot a bit oddly before noticing a very familiar face. Without another word, Tag jumped out.

“BOO!”

Landon screamed… loudly.

Melanie looked around the Great Hall, feeling all warm and fuzzy inside as she looked at the floating candles and the enchanted sky. It was absolutely gorgeous. Then she heard her name being called. Slowly, she sat on the stool and waited for her to be sorted.

The hat was getting closer, grinning as it was placed on her head. “Better be… SLYTHERIN!”

Melanie’s eyes went wide.

Fast forward and she was in the Slytherin common room surrounded by red-eyed pygmy puffs and they looked hungry.

Screaming, Melanie woke up from her nightmare. She didn’t like the sorting hat anymore.

“I don’t wanna be a chicken, I don’t wanna be a chicken, I would rather be a monkey,” Melanie sung as she opened one door and peered into it.

There on the floor was a duck staring at her. Melanie stared right back at the white-feathered bird, not sure if she should move or not. The staring match just went on.

“QUACK.”

Slightly taken aback, the thirteen-year-old slammed the door shut. “GRANDMA! THERE’S A DUCK IN THE ROOM!” And with that, the girl moved away from the door and waited for her grandmother.

Why couldn’t it have been a chicken?

Melanie looked over at the desk next to her after scribbling some notes down. There was Queen Alice, dozing off, using her notebook as a pillow. Frowning, Melanie poked the girl softly. There was no reaction. Melanie let out a sigh and continued to copy down notes.

When the class was dismissed, Melanie shook her friend awake.

“Huh? What?” Queen Alice asked a bit groggily as she rubbed her eyes.

Melanie shook her head. “This is why you don’t understand Muggle Studies, because you keep sleeping in the class!”

Alice shrugged. “It’s such a good class to sleep in though.”

Decorating a room was always difficult. Melanie stood with a binder full of color swatches in her arm while staring at the walls around her. As her birthday present, her grandparents had said that she could redecorate the room. Her room was currently a blank canvas waiting for her to choose a color swatch and paste it on.

Wait.

Melanie sat on the ground and started cutting up the swatches before pasting them on the wall. Grinning, the lioness sang a little working song. Because why settle between pink begonia and delicate rose when she could have both and more?

Living in the muggle world wasn’t hard. The two were quite used to muggle technology. Melanie would do chores on Sundays and Landon would help. Melanie would wash dishes and Landon would dry them and put them away. They were a team.

“We could use magic and clean these a lot quicker,” Landon pointed out.
Melanie shook her head. “We can’t rely on magic. Remember what happened when our neighbors stopped by and saw the floating plate?”

The plate crashed to the ground and broke into several pieces.

“I’ll go distract them and you’ll - ”
“No. Go eat Oreos.”