Take Me Away

The food at Hogwarts never seemed to disappoint Meredith. It had always been the best food she had ever tasted. She, along with the rest of the Slytherin table, had her plate filled with everything that would satisfy her empty stomach. She seemed to melt in her seat with each bite.
“How have you been, Meredith?” A cool voice called from her left.
She turned her attention to see Draco Malfoy. He was a year younger than her, but the two were being forced to marry as soon as they were both passed the age 20. Meredith thought Draco was an alright person but she defiantly couldn’t see herself spending the rest of her life with him. At some points, he was down right unbearable.
“I’ve been good,” She answered after sipping her pumpkin juice, “And yourself?”
Draco nodded his head and said, “Me too.”
The two talked for a while before they decided to head to the common room. On their way, Draco stopped to say a few welcoming words to Harry Potter. Meredith had found out that her uncle, Sirius had escaped from Azkaban and was doing great with the help from Harry. She only knew this because Sirius would write to her, even though her mother knew nothing of it and wouldn’t have approved of it.
Meredith bit her lip and grabbed Draco’s arm, dragging him away from the poor Gryffindor. She gave Harry an apologetic look and received a glare in return. She sighed slightly, and continued to drag Draco to the common room. Draco went off to bed, saying that he needed his sleep. Meredith had a devilish smile as she clutched the letter that was in his robe pocket and ran back up to the Great Hall entrance.
“Harry,” Meredith called walking up to him.
Harry was standing with his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. He gave her a questionable look, but nodded his head as if welcoming her.
She bit her lip, “I was wondering if I could talk to you for a moment in private.”
“No!” Ron suddenly shouted, “Whatever you’ve got to say to Harry, you can say to us!”
She sighed, “Then can we go somewhere a little bit quieter and not so,” she paused, “open.”
Ron was about to say something back, but Harry stopped him. He gave a slight nod to his friends and the four of them found them selves in a corner, out of sight.
“Alright,” Harry said, “What is it?”
Meredith pulled the letter out of her robes, “I was wondering if you could send this to Sirius for me. I don’t want to take the risk of my mother finding out.”
Harry took the letter while saying, “Yeah, I guess I could.”
Meredith smiled and thanked him. She looked at Ron and started to talk again, “I think I ran into your sister on the train. She looked just like you. But, will you tell her how sorry I am?”
Ron nodded. And with that, Meredith smiled and turned. She started to walk away from the group, but bumped into two bodies. She looked up and saw the famous Weasley twins. They gave every teacher trouble, and that made her laugh.
“Oh, excuse me,” She said, trying to go around them.
Before she could, one of them grabbed her, while the other one grabbed the letter from Harry.
“What are you doing?” Harry asked wide eyed.
“We have to check this letter,” George Weasley said holding up the letter.
Fred continued as he held Meredith back from getting it, “Yeah, what if it’s some trick?”
“Please,” Meredith begged, “don’t read it!”
George opened the letter and began to read, “Dear Sirius, Mother has been cracking down my mail. Hopefully this had gotten to you with the help from Harry. I don’t think he likes me much. No one likes me, actually…” He trailed off and looked at the girl as she pushed Fred off of her and silently and calmly walked away.
“Way to go, idiots,” Hermione mumbled as she picked up the book Meredith had dropped and followed her.
Hermione knew what if was like to be different. People judged her because her parents weren’t magical people. She also knew that Meredith didn’t deserve to be judge. After all she was such a nice person. Hermione found Meredith in the library, sitting in the corner with a book in her hand. There were a few tears going down her red cheeks.
“Meredith,” Hermione whispered, causing the girl to jump.
She whipped her eyes and weakly smiled at Hermione. She closed her book and slid it onto the table beside her. “Hey, Hermione. What are you doing here?”
Hermione pulled a chair close to her and handed the book that she had dropped. Meredith took the book and smiled.
“Oh, thanks,” She said, “I didn’t even noticed I dropped it.”
The two girls spent almost two hours in the library just talking about books and what kind of books they liked. Meredith felt so happy at that moment. Someone like herself, someone that was judged, was being nice to her. Maybe, just maybe, they were becoming friends.
Meredith said goodbye to Hermione and walked to the common room with a few books she had decided to read. When she got inside, she didn’t see a soul so she climbed the stairs to the her dormitory where she quickly fell asleep with a smile on her face.

The first day of classes was always boring. Normally teachers would just talk about rules and what they would expect from the students. Meredith and Lucy sat together in every class that they had together. Most of the students didn’t like that very much. But they didn’t really pay attention.
When she got to Potions, which was the last class of the day, that’s when the fun began. Even though he was older than her, George Weasley was in her class. She was confused, but sat down without even saying a word. Snape came in the room and began to drone on and on about his class. Meredith had a hard time paying attention because of how boring it was.
After that class, Meredith couldn’t wait to get out and head to dinner. We was starving. She began to walk to the common room to put her things away, when she heard some shouting coming from around the corner. Her curiosity got the better of her and she quickly went to go see what the trouble was. She saw Draco holding his wand to George Weasley’s neck. George looked like he had been knocked over and was laying on the floor.
“Draco!” She yelled, causing the two boys to look at her, “What are you doing?”
She dropped her things on the floor and pulled him away from the red head. She gave him her things and pointed to the Slytherin common room.
“Go to the common,” She shouted at him.
When he didn’t move she yelled again, “Now!”
Once he was out of sight, she started picking up George’s things. He still laid on the ground and stared at the black haired girl with wondering eyes. He took in her form; her hair was wavy and down and reached just below her mid-back. Her pure, blue eyes wondered around the floor as her hands worked rapidly to pick up his text books. She soon stood up with all his things in her arms and looked down at him.
“He didn’t hurt you, did he?” She asked him.
George shook his head and stood up, brushing his robes and pants free from any dirt or dust. “No, I’m fine,” He said with a smirk, “But don’t you think you were a little harsh on him?”
Meredith blushed slightly but laughed as she thought back on her actions, “He can a total jerk. I was only giving him what he deserved.”
The two laughed, then things got silent. George looked around then looked at his books. She had her arms tightly folded over them and pressed to her chest. George signaled her to walk with him.
“So,” Meredith began, “Why are you in a fifth year Potions class?”
“I didn’t do so well on my Potions portion of the O.W.L.S. exam last year. So they put me back into the same class.” He told her truthfully.
She gave him a questionable look, “But if you don’t do your sixth year class, how are you going to do be able to do your seventh year class?”
George shrugged, looking at his feet. He really didn’t know. His parents were so upset with him when they found out. Nearly threw out all of his joke products that he and his twin had worked so hard on.
Meredith watched the red head, biting her lip. She was offered a sixth year class in potions that year but didn‘t accept it. She was advanced in many subjects, but Potions was defiantly a very strong subject.
“I could tutor you,” She said wanting to help, “I could tutor you and maybe talk to Professor Dumbledore about letting you take the exam over again. Then you could be in the right class in no time.”
George studied her face. Was she being for real? Maybe she was just joking with him. But when she said nothing else, he somehow knew that we was speaking truthfully.
“You would do that?” He asked, “After what I did yesterday?”
Meredith was caught off guard with this. She was still a little upset, but she knew that the only way to get over it was to forgive and forget. So she gave him a small nod.
A smile broke out on his face. He would have to send an owl to his mother telling her of the news. She would be proud of him. “Thanks,” He said as they reached the Great Hall. He took his books and bags from her while saying, “I guess I’ll see you in class. We should get together and work out a schedule sometime.”
Meredith nodded as she watched George walk off to sit beside his twin. She spotted Lucy at the Ravenclaw table and waved at her. She wasn’t in the mood to cause any drama, so she went to her table as usual and sat down. She filled her plate and began eating, feeling somewhat accomplished with the events that had just taken place.