There were few places which looked less inviting to the gray-tinged violet eyes of Melody Lestrange than Public House for Orphaned Boys and Girls Number 26. It sat towards the northeast corner of London with its plain face staring blankly out onto Mulberry Street, and its square shoulders pressed up against those of buildings which had stood in many cases for centuries, and while their antiquity showed in their weathered exteriors, it also showed in charming architecture which gave each of the run down structures character. Once upon a time House 26 had been such a building as well, but history and character were sacrificed many years ago for economy, so as to pour the most unfortunate children possible inside for the tax payers' pounds. Now it was little more than a square concrete box with depressingly few windows and doors, like the sidewalk pavement had pooled up in excess to take an only slightly more interesting form on one side, before continuing down into the heart of London.

It was here that Melody had been not so much raised as at least provided for. Just one more child in a hand me down uniform who didn't even own the cheap plywood dresser or the creaky metal frame of the bed which could be felt through the thin mattress and threadbare sheets every night occupying the area called "hers". She had processed cheap forms of nourishment at the long tables with the muggles who were her peers, and once a season gone when her name was called to see the government funded doctor who had declared her not going to die on them. For four years she had walked the two blocks to the city-run primary school which must have been planned by the same unimaginative architect as "home", and learned from dated textbooks until the year her odd scholarship from abroad had come. The children of House 26 were tended to more than cared for, a single mass of unindividual creatures who were treated humanely. And the easy to extrapolate lesson which Melody had taken away from it, was that she was no one special. Just one more child they were all waiting to see their legal obligation to end so they could replace her with another.

That was only a year away now, and though she felt no attachment to this place, its role as a shelter rather than home only reinforced since her secondary education had started and she had finally been allowed to re-enter the world of her parents, graduation was hardly the light at the end of the tunnel. She had no friends, and the prospects of who might take her in were both uninviting and reliable. It was an ironic thought to her, too bitter to be amusing, how at the winter break she had literally had couples fighting over who would take her in for the summer, and now that the time had arrived she would be returning to Number 26. Alena had disappeared herself in efforts to correct he absence of her husband, and the Blairs suddenly had concerns of Death Eaters with vendettas on the loose to say nothing of their own actual flesh and blood child on the way. Even if she'd had the slightest inclination to wish to spend the summer with her cousins, the Malfoy household had lost its head to Azkaban. In trade almost it seemed.. for her own parent.

Part of her was relieved each morning when she woke without the previous night having brought a secret visit from the dark-haired witch whose picture had appeared so suddenly on the front page of the last Daily Prophet of the year. And part of her, couldn't help but wonder if she was so important that even her mother didn't care what became of her. That legacy of Bellatrix Lestrange shadowed her now more than ever, making the single choice for the summer which might have remained impossible. Professor Tavarius might still have had her, as much as he had once argued he wished it, but such an act towards the child of her family was the last thing a man under such scrutiny for his connections to Lucius Malfoy could do right now. At least when Melody knew what they were looking for was actually true.

But Melody.. was not at Number 26 just yet.

She stood at the mouth of Hogwarts, feet in the elegant black sandals which had once been her boots hesitating on the last stone stair before the emerald green yard began. Distantly she could see the small shapes of other students already making claims on carriages which would take them to the train platform. By instinct she her eyes sought certain traits. But no vibrant red hair or river of platinum stood out, and she imagined them fittingly alone together somewhere now. And of course there would be no inseparable pair of Ravenclaw girls troubling them now. If Potter was there he didn't stand out from this far, but her grip on her single trunk tightened with the pang she felt at watching a small, dark-haired figure she recognized simply by his noble posture climb in behind the silver-blond hair of Slytherin's prince. She was part of that royalty too, she supposed. She knew there would be a place for her in the carriage should she make claim. But it was a far cry from being wanted there.

She didn't understand what had become of her and Trevor, save only that their dynamic had so obviously changed. Had it been her realization that so many of the lies about the nature of Slytherin which he'd wooed her to his side with had been just that? Lies was a spiteful word to call it, fallacies might have been better, for as she watched him still naught but a tool to Draco, she somehow felt Trevor more than her didn't want to let go of that view of their house as it was not. Or had it been that she was no longer of use to him? She had provided him a single and undeniable victory against the epitome of purebloods by choosing the mudblood.. and he'd seen only room for betrayal after that? Or perhaps it had been his realization that she, unlike him, was just one more wizard born Slytherin. Static in the hierarchy of social chains, and not strong enough to break them. There was no one she was more loyal to than Trevor McGarrity, and yet they'd see what that was worth come the masquerade.

Vengeanace and apologies. She couldn't even live up to the virtues of her mother, for Melody knew there was no one she would ever go to Azkaban for.

Trevor was just the capstone to the cold sculpture of abandonment built by adults and students alike. Friends and enemies and both. She had grown this year, but it was of the worst sort. She was now aware of her flaws, as aware as she was that she was too weak to correct them. And now as always, she wasn't important enough to anyone to be aided in it. She drew in a breath and started down the last stair, when a hand came to rest on her shoulder. Blinking, the violet eyes looked up through their dark lashes, and her heart jumped to her throat to see that the heavy grip belonged to Navid Harnsang. Tate's uncle true, but forever in her mind an auror first. And one of those who had spent the most energy on telling her the shame of her family.

"Where do you think you're going Melody?" He inquired in his Germanic accent, and the unmistakable insinuation she was doing something wrong in her movement. Now as always, it felt to her that enjoyed the fear she felt of him.

"The train." She replied in a voice less hostile than she often offered his kind. She was resigned this was a battle she'd never win. But she took a step sideways to shrug off his hand. "I don't want to miss it."

He folded his broad arms, and she was reminded very much of the muscled beater's build of his nephew. "You're not going on the train." He informed her with his usual lack of delicacy, and barreled right through the explanation before she needed to ask. "You haven't been wondering why your mother hasn't come to pay her girl a visit? Well you didn't think she'd come knock on the door of Hogwarts did you? But if we send you out there into London you'd be missing in a day and probably a lot of muggles dead in old Bella's path.

She was dumb-founded One more shove in yet another direction by the order which had directed her life for so long. She was too off balance for her indignation at this latest edict about her life to rise yet, and instead only queried "Where.. then?"

"New auror's gonna keep an eye on you for the summer. Ought to be able to dissuade visitors that aren't healthy for a young girl." His face gave away nothing as he informed her so casually of this decree he had to know she wouldn't care for.

There was a moment she just stared at him, mouth falling open to raise her protest that she'd rather live with death eaters. She despised nothing more than their kind. Her knuckles whitened as their grip on her trunk tightened further still, lip trembling in emotions she didn't know how to disentangle from hatred and fear. But just then the sound of the unmanned carriages departing drew her focus, and she watched as her last vestige of hope left her alone with the auror.

Like a prisoner who heard the sound of their prison gate click shut, it seemed to deflate her will to protest. She remained at heart what she had always been. Weak, passive, and far too suited to being the victim. She'd thought nothing would be worse than returning to the orphanage. It seemed she'd been quite wrong. With a sigh that seemed to exhale her very will with it, she turned empty eyes back up to the man. "Who?"

"He's right over there." Navid nodded beyond a patch of trees, and Melody turned that way, seeing only a robed figure moving without details behind the dense summer foliage. She set her trunk down with an impact not near as heavy as her heart felt, a weight which dragged down her steps as she approached the stand of oaks.

Behind her, unseen, Tate's uncle's face broke into a little smile.

With a soft rustle she pushed aside the last flexible bough, and looked upon the man who had stilled with obvious notice of her arrival. For a moment she just stood there, staring. Echo was a word used to describe a faded repetition, so today could not be an echo of when she'd encountered Domino Jinx long after he has left her with but a letter. Today was stronger, the elation-laced confusion filling all her thoughts. Before had been the echo of today.

"Hello Melody." The assistant teacher who had taken such a paternal stance with her, the only one to make her believe it when he said he wanted nothing from her, smiled.

She didn't know when her feet started to move, but they were feather light as the slick black soles barely touched the grass in her sprint. She slammed into him with such force that he stumbled back under the impact of her embrace, and wrapped his arms around her in return.

For a few minutes they just stood there, before the raven head raised from his chest, and he kept one arm around her shoulders as he looked back towards the outline of the school steps. As always, he spoke only what was needed, and she was comforted by the silence as much as his voice. "Well then, shall we get your trunk?"

She smiled, the long absent expression making her girlish features sparkle once again even as she felt inexplicable tears welling up in her eyes. "Yes. Take me home."