#Mel lives in a haunted house and I like to imagine is rumored around the neighboring village to be a witch

[blujayonthewing]

Blorbo Halloween Party! What's everyone dressed as?

Elyss I go back and forth-- it's either some kind of beautiful, handcrafted wraith-like ghost OR a storebought party city mermaid bought for her by someone else because she didn't entirely Get what halloween even is. That said, even in that case, if she showed up to a halloween party and saw even one homemade costume she'd be like OH. I didn't know you could DO that and then come back next year and forever after with incredible homemade costumes, because she loves making things and she really loves sewing :3

Idri is a cute witch! Short skirt, stripey stockings, prop broom, the whole bit. Juniper is one of those-- I don't know how else to describe this other than Instagram Makeup Deer? you know the one I mean? Aubree is a werewolf which she thinks is HILARIOUS (she's been bitten by an actual wolf). And last year I doodled Mel as your stereotypical mad scientist, which is a little on the nose but also genuinely up her alley (other possible Melliwyk halloween costumes include also a witch, some kind of insect, and garden gnome)

[twoidiotwriters1]

Written In The Stars LIX (Harry Potter xF!Oc)

A/N: This is almost the same as in the book only I added some stuff about Mel’s parents ig lmao -Danny

Words: 2,181

Warnings: This is all drama.

Series’ Masterlist

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Chapter Eighteen: The Animagi.

"You're both mental." Ron said in disbelief.

"Ridiculous!" said Hermione.

"Peter Pettigrew's dead! He killed him twelve years ago!" Harry pointed at Black.

"I meant to, but little Peter got the better of me... not this time, though!"

Black threw himself over the bed to reach for Scabbers, hurting Ron in the process. Mel pushed him away yelling.

"Don't touch him!"

A small wave shot off of her then, strong enough to move Black to the other side of the raggedy mattress.

"Sirius, NO!" Lupin yelled, reaching for his friend and sitting him up. Black was looking at her with curiosity. "WAIT! You can't do it just like that — they need to understand — we've got to explain —"

"We can explain afterwards!" Black snapped back, turning to face him.

"They've — got — a — right — to — know — everything! Ron's kept him as a pet! There are parts of it even I don't understand! And Harry — you owe Harry and Mel the truth, Sirius!"

Black's eyes moved from the rat to her face, briefly meeting her gaze. There was something in the way he looked at her, something close to recognition.

"All right, then. Tell them whatever you like. But make it quick, Remus. I want to commit the murder I was imprisoned for..."

"You're nutters, both of you," said Ron holding Scabbers tightly against his chest. "I've had enough of this. I'm off."

"Don't be stupid," Mel replied, turning to face him. "You can't move."

Ron ignored her, he tried to get up on his own, but Lupin raised his wand again, pointing it at Scabbers. Mel was quick to raise her wand at him.

"You said you weren't going to hurt us."

"I won't. You're going to hear me out," He said quietly. "Just keep a tight hold on Peter while you listen, Ron."

"HE'S NOT PETER, HE'S SCABBERS!" Ron yelled in exasperation. He lost his balance and Harry caught him, helping him back on the bed.

"There were witnesses who saw Pettigrew die," Harry said calmly. "A whole street full of them..."

"They didn't see what they thought they saw!" Black exclaimed, with the remnants of his old insanity showing up.

"Everyone thought Sirius killed Peter. I believed it myself — until I saw the map tonight. Because the Marauder's map never lies. Peter's alive. Ron's holding him, Harry."

Mel wasn't looking at her friends, her wand still pointing at her uncle. She was starting to feel a bit drained after her boost of energy. She knew that if she had to, she wouldn't be able to hurt her uncle. She still saw him as her family, the only man that had made his part as some sort of fatherly figure. Yet, he was helping the one that had caused her to live without a father in the first place, and the deafening silence behind her let her know that the boys weren't believing even a bit of the man's story.

"But Professor Lupin... Scabbers can't be Pettigrew... it just can't be true, you know it can't..." Hermione started.

"Why can't it be true?" Lupin asked.

"Because... because people would know if Peter Pettigrew had been an Animagus. We did Animagi in class with Professor McGonagall. And I looked them up when I did my homework — the Ministry of Magic keeps tabs on witches and wizards who can become animals; there's a register showing what animal they become, and their markings and things... and I went and looked Professor McGonagall up on the register, and there have been only seven Animagi this century, and Pettigrew's name wasn't on the list —"

"Right again, Hermione!" Lupin said through a chuckle. "But the Ministry never knew that there used to be four unregistered Animagi running around Hogwarts."

"If you're going to tell them the story, get a move on, Remus," Black growled. "I've waited twelve years, I'm not going to wait much longer."

"All right, but you'll need to help me, Sirius," said Lupin, "I only know how it began..."

The bedroom door opened. Lupin got nearer and looked out into the landing.

"No one there..."

"This place is haunted!" said Ron.

"It's not," The man replied casually. "The Shrieking Shack was never haunted... The screams and howls the villagers used to hear were made by me."

Mel blinked in surprise, her hand slowly lowering on its own while her uncle continued his story. He'd mentioned it before, the Willow had been planted on the year he arrived at school, and it was right above the passageway that led to this place... a place to hide and avoid hurting others.

"My transformations in those days were — were terrible. It is very painful to turn into a werewolf. I was separated from humans to bite, so I bit and scratched myself instead. The villagers heard the noise and the screaming and thought they were hearing particularly violent spirits. Dumbledore encouraged the rumor... Even now, when the house has been silent for years, the villagers don't dare approach it... But apart from my transformations, I was happier than I had ever been in my life. For the first time ever, I had friends, five great friends. Sirius Black... Peter Pettigrew... and, of course, your parents — James, Matthew, and Emily."

She knew it by now, how close all of them were. Yet, she felt like it was all dream, that soon someone would wake her and say she was imagining things, that she and Harry had nothing in common and those secrets were all product of her imagination. She was tired of all the secrets. When Mel had asked him how'd he gotten his scars her uncle had said 'I was really clumsy as a child'. She had laughed at that, thinking all kinds of fun adventures involving him, now thinking of what really entailed those scars, her heart felt heavy.

"Now, my friends could hardly fail to notice that I disappeared once a month. I made up all sorts of stories. I told them my mother was ill, and that I had to go home to see her. I was terrified they would desert me the moment they found out what I was. But of course, they, like you, worked out the truth... Your parents were quite clever, Mel. They could sense a lie from miles away, but the really impressive thing was that they didn't desert me at all. Instead, they did something for me that would make my transformations not only bearable, but the best times of my life. They became Animagi."

"My dad too?" asked Harry in amazement.

"Yes, indeed," said Lupin.  "Your mother didn't, Mel. Emily decided to stay out of it, she wasn't eager to turn into a bunny –She always joked about how she was sure that she'd turn into one of those fluffy white ones..." Lupin laughed quietly. "It took them the best part of three years but your fathers and Sirius were the cleverest students in the school, and lucky they were, because the Animagus transformation can go horribly wrong — one reason the Ministry keeps a close watch on those attempting to do it. Peter needed all the help he could get from James, Matt, and Sirius. Finally, in our fifth year, they managed it. They could each turn into a different animal at will."

"But how did that help you?" said Hermione.

"They couldn't keep me company as humans, so they kept me company as animals," said Lupin. "A werewolf is only a danger to people. They sneaked out of the castle every month under James's Invisibility Cloak. They transformed... Peter, or Matt, as the smallest of our group, could slip beneath the Willow's attacking branches and touch the knot that freezes it. They would then slip down the tunnel and join me. Under their influence, I became less dangerous. My body was still wolfish, but my mind seemed to become less so while I was with them."

"Hurry up, Remus."

"I'm getting there, Sirius, I'm getting there... well, highly exciting possibilities were open to us now that we could all transform. Soon we were leaving the Shrieking Shack and roaming the school grounds and the village by night. Sirius and James transformed into such large animals, they were able to keep a werewolf in check. Matt's had sharp claws and a strong beak, he could hurt if he wanted to. I doubt whether any Hogwarts students ever found out more about the Hogwarts grounds and Hogsmeade than we did... And that's how we came to write the Marauder's Map, and sign it with our nicknames. Sirius is Padfoot. Peter is Wormtail. James was Prongs and Ruddy..."

"My dad," Mel frowned. "Why?"

Lupin smiled.

"The bird he turned into was covered in Scarlet feathers– we thought it was funny, back then many things seemed funny to us."

"What sort of animal — ?" Hermione cut Harry's question.

"That was still really dangerous! Running around in the dark with a werewolf! What if you'd given the others the slip, and bitten somebody?"

"A thought that still haunts me, and there were near misses, many of them. We laughed about them afterwards. We were young, thoughtless — carried away with our own cleverness. Matt and I sometimes felt guilty about betraying Dumbledore's trust, of course... he had admitted me to Hogwarts when no other headmaster would have done so, and Matt had been almost a son to him, and he had no idea that we were breaking the rules he had set down for my own and others' safety. He never knew I had led four fellow students into becoming Animagi illegally. But I always managed to forget my guilty feelings every time we sat down to plan our next month's adventure. And I haven't changed..."

Her father was an animagi and he felt just as guilty as her for betraying Dumbledore's trust, she thought that maybe all of the Dumbledores would always feel a burden to carry out their name proudly, even if they didn't have anything special.

"All this year, I have been battling with myself, wondering whether I should tell Dumbledore that Sirius was an Animagus. But I didn't do it. Why? Because I was too cowardly. It would have meant admitting that I'd betrayed his trust while I was at school, admitting that I'd led others along with me... and Dumbledore's trust has meant everything to me. He let me into Hogwarts as a boy, and he gave me a job when I have been shunned all my adult life, unable to find paid work because of what I am. And so I convinced myself that Sirius was getting into the school using dark arts he learned from Voldemort, that being an Animagus had nothing to do with it... so, in a way, Snape's been right about me all along."

"Snape?" said Black, suddenly he was just as interested in the story as the rest of the kids. "What's Snape got to do with it?"

"He's here, Sirius. He's teaching here as well." He turned to the children. "Professor Snape was at school with us. He fought very hard against my appointment to the Defense Against the Dark Arts job. He has been telling Dumbledore all year that I am not to be trusted. He has his reasons you see, Sirius here played a trick on him which nearly killed him, a trick which involved me —"

Black scoffed.

"It served him right," He replied dryly. "Sneaking around, trying to find out what we were up to, hoping he could get us expelled..."

"Severus was very interested in where I went every month. We were in the same year, you know, and we — er — didn't like each other very much. He especially disliked James. Jealous, I think, of James's talent on the Quidditch field... anyway, Snape had seen me crossing the grounds with Madam Pomfrey one evening as she led me toward the Whomping Willow to transform. Sirius thought it would be — er — amusing, to tell Snape all he had to do was prod the knot on the tree trunk with a long stick, and he'd be able to get in after me. Well, of course, Snape tried it — if he'd got as far as this house, he'd have met a fully grown werewolf — but your father, who'd heard what Sirius had done, went after Snape and pulled him back, at great risk to his life... Snape glimpsed me, though, at the end of the tunnel. He was forbidden by Dumbledore to tell anybody, but from that time on he knew what I was..."

"So that's why Snape doesn't like you," said Harry. "because he thought you were in on the joke?"

"And that's why he treats us like rubbish?" Mel asked bitterly. "We just remind him too much of his old bullies?"

"That's right,"  A cold voice said behind Lupin.

Severus Snape was pulling off the Invisibility Cloak, his wand pointing directly at Lupin.

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