Finn was writing his parents. Faith had broken his heart and he was writing his parents to tell them that the wedding was off... For now.
Dear Mum and Dad,
I wish I could say that everything was well, but... It isn't. It must have been something I did, or said... Let's just say that life has been bad recently. I'm also writing to tell you that I'm saving you a few thousand Gallions... The wedding is off. Faith broke my heart, and I don't know how I can ever forgive her. She cheated on me and I don't know if I can ever love someone again, much less trust someone ever again. Send some peach brandy to the Hogsmeade house. I'm out.
Love,
Finnigan

Finn curled up his letter and found Tonga. She was sleeping, and Finn felt bad waking her. The letter needed to be sent however. Finn attached the note to her left talon, and pet her head. He took an owl treat out of his pocket and fed his owl. Finn wished he had someone to talk to. He wanted someone who would understand.

*No one would let her be...anywhere...anyone. That was ALL she wanted...just time to be alone and...just...cry. The Owlery was the only place they wouldn't think she would go to. With all of the owl droppings and dead things- it smelled horrible. It was to the point that Mel didn't even notice any of this. She was sitting on the floor, being miserable and angry. How dare she do that. She didn't blame Liam at all, and was only upset that he gave into Delilah's flirting, but she did blame Delilah. She hated her then more than she had ever hated anyone.

Melanie had to make herself better than her...she had to be better than Delilah so Liam would love her. Of course Mel thought it was necessary. She was doing all sorts of dumb things so she could be 'better' than the girl. She hadn't eaten for a day (since she found out) and had no intent of eating again until she was 'skinny'...even though she wasn't fat and she was already starting to feel sick.

Then someone walked into the owlery. Melanie looked up and saw Finn, but didn't say anything. She figured that if she was worth noticing, he would see her without her doing anything.*



~Mel

Finn saw Mel enter, but didn't say anything. He didn't know her well, and she looked like she wanted to be comforted. "Are you okay?" He asked, hoping she would say yes, he didn't really know what he could say to help her. He stood up next to her. He hoped she wouldn't start crying. It would only remind him of the pain he felt. He might start crying. No one had understood his problem. All anyone would say to him was that he should leave her. It was more complicated than that. Not everyone was black and white and nobody understood that. He needed someone that would. Finn felt his eyes tearing up, but brushed them away. He hoped she didn't see him. "Are you okay?" he repeated.

*Melanie didn't say anything to him. She laid down on the hay, not really caring what got in her hair. She closed her eyes and pretended not to notice him or that she was now crying.*




~Mel

Finn sat down on the hay next to her. "Is there anything that I can do to help you?" Finn asked, she was clearly worse for the wear than he was.

Melanie:"Kill her." *she mumbled, not saying who just yet. She was under the impression that just saying her would be clear enough for anyone to understand exactly who she meant for him to kill*"Brutally." *she added as an after thought*



~Mel

Finn thought for a moment. There was someone he wanted dead besides himself. "What did she do?" Finn asked, trying to make it better. She was clearly upset at this point, and maybe he could do something to help. He sighed. Someone had hurt her, in the same way he had been hurt. He could tell from her voice, her eyes. His empath ability was shining. He could tell she was upset, and could tell she was in love.

*Melanie didn't say anything for a moment becuase she was trying to come up with a good explantation not to tell him. If she said it she knew she'd start bawling and hyperventilating.*
Melanie:"You'd laugh at me."*she finally decided to say. She was pretty sure he would, too, and probably say something about how anyone dating someone as digsuting as her would do the same thing.

Of course she wasn't disgusting; this was her low selfesteem talking.*



~Mel

"Are you ashamed about it?" Finn asked, "Someone hurt you didn't they?" He asked, knowing the answer. Finn could sense that she had some emotional damage. "I would laugh at you... If you knew my story, you would laugh..." Finn let out a small, painful chuckle.

Melanie:"Does it really look like I'm capable of laughter right now?" *she asked him, avoiding his question. She really just...did not want to talk about it. Like he'd understand, anyway. Guys never understood this kind of thing as well as girls. They especially wouldn't know what it was like to have their boyfriend sleep with the most beautiful girl in school.*



~Mel

"No," Finn said, "No you don't look like laughing right now. Whatever this is, you can't dwell on it. You can't think about what you should have done differently, or different decisions that you could have made. That doesn't do you any good. Talking about it is the only thing that helps... At least, it did for me... The alcohol, the smoking, doing something else... It's only temporary... If nothing else, you should talk to someone..."

Melanie:"You'd do the same thing he did. I know you would. Almost everyone has. You'd just tell me that he was right and make me feel worse...if that's possible." *she sighed*"Just go away. Everyone's been bothering me all day and I just...I want to be alone."



~Mel

"Look, I just went through a bad break up. I don't know for sure, but if I had to wager a guess, I guess you did too. I was suicidal during my period of grieving, and I just wanted to be left alone. There is no doubt in my mind that if I was left alone, I would not be here to have the pleasure to talk to you. I think that you are an intelligent young lady. I think you probably have made good decisions about what to do... I wouldn't judge you... I'm not the type."

*Melanie had to let out a quick chuckle when he said that. Good decisions. Hah.*
Melanie:"Good decisions...well you obviously don't know anything about me. Go talk to Madame Pomfrey, she can probably fill you in on most of my 'good decisions'. If I tell you...you can't tell anyone else."



~Mel

"What does Madam Pomfrey know?" Finn asked, "She acts so shocked when she hears about what people do..." He coughed, he could feel himself getting sick. He always got sick right before his birthday. "I won't tell anyone." Finn said, "As long as it doesn't hurt me, or the people around me."

Melanie:"If you're going to cough, don't do it anywhere near me." *she warned him. It made her sound like a snob when really she was saying it for her own safety. If she got any of the germs she would be in the hospital for a week at least.*
"And parts of it could hurt you and other...most of it can't."




~Mel

"I'm sorry," Finn said, thinking she was a germaphobe. He had no idea that she had HIV/AIDS, "Tell me," He said after a while, "If it has something to do with me, I'd rather find out now, than later." Finn was already emotionally beat down, any other blows would be like kicking him after he passed out. Useless.

*Melanie sighed and started talking. Normally she didn't tell people she barely knew all of the details about her life before they knew that she wasn't a complete lunatic*
Melanie:"About two years ago...both my mum and my sister died. Well...I found out that my sister really wasn't dead...but I thought she was for a really long time. They both died because of my dad. Since they were two of the people I loved the most in the world...I just...I didn't know what to do anymore. My dad disowned my brothers and I, so I had to take care of them. It was too much way too soon. I became really depressed. I started cutting and I lost count of how many times I tried to kill myself. Around February of that year, my friend was deathly ill and my boyfriend had just broken up with me because I was caring too much about her and not enough about him. I ran off and hurt myself worse than I ever had...I was just a puddle of blood....I passed out, and the next thing I knew I was in a room in St. Mungo's."*she paused, seeing how Finn was taking this just to see if she should skip over the 'HIV+' part or keep going.*



~Mel

Finn was shocked, but didn't show it on his face. "Oh my god." Finn said, "I'm sorry to hear about your family. I sounds like you've had it tough from the beginning." Finn sighed quietly, "I suppose things are about to get worse in this story of yours..."

*Melanie really just ignored what he had said and went on with her 'life story'*
Melanie:"A healer came into my room and told me that what I had used to cut myself was infected, and that I was HIV+." *she paused*"After that...I had even more problems accepting myself. I tried to get a boyfriend, but as soon as he found out, he dumped me. I knew that the only way I would stay alive was if I had something that I knew I had to live for, a baby. I had someone in mind...but he was gay...and his partner wouldn't let him donate sperm. He thought that we'd get too close or something. I was about to give up, but then I met my boyfriend, and even though we hadn't really talked much before, he offered to be the father of my baby. Everything sounds great now, but it's not. My boyfriend used to be addicted to heroin, and a little after we started dating, he started using again. I started secretly dating someone else, but ended up breaking up with him after only a little bit because I knew that I should be with the baby's father. Well...then I found out about the heroin and I broke up with him, telling him that I didn't want that sort of influence around my child. Almost as soon as I broke up with him, the boy I had been cheating on the father with proposed to me. We lasted for a month or so, but then the father left rehab and I realized that I still loved him, and I didn't know if I wanted to pick my fiancee or him. After a month or so, I broke off the engagement. Everything was okay for a while...but...yesterday I found out that my boyfriend, yes, my baby's father, cheated on me. Not just one night, either. I forgot to throw in a few great experiences about me getting drunk and trying to fly and trying to be a prostitute because my best friend is gorgeous and I'm not...I ended up sleeping with her father the first night...needless to say I stopped."

*She added things after the fact that Liam had cheated on her so maybe that would be ignored and no more questions would be asked about it.*



~Mel

"That's how my relationship ended too." Finn said, "She cheated on me with another woman... This other woman asked me to sleep with her and I told her I was taken... So... She went and got my fiance drunk and slept with her... I don't know if I can ever forgive her..." Finn sighed, "I'm sorry, I interrupted again."

Melanie:"I was done." *she told him*"That's sort of how it went with me. I was insulting her and she couldn't best me...so she slept with my boyfriend and took pictures of it. She gave me the pictures atbreakfast of all times."



~Mel

"Pictures?" Finn asked, Delilah had tried several times to give him pictures of her dirty deed. "What's her name?" Finn asked, "She may have been the one that hurt me too." Finn knew it was that tease Delilah. It was bad enough that b*tch ruined his relationship, but Mel's? Mel hadn't deserved any of the bad things that happened to her.

Melanie:"Delilah f*cking Ferarri." *she replied, displeasure obvious not only through the obscenity.*"May she rot in hell forever. If I could just be better than her...I wouldn't have any problems...but I can't."



~Mel

"Delilah Ferarri?" Finn said more as a statement, "That's the b*tch that ruined my relationship. I'd like to kill that wh*re! She better not be alone the next time she runs into me!" Finn was clearly angered by the new revelation. "Mel, you are better than her. If it isn't so bold of me to say, you are prettier than her. She just flaunts her vella genes and expects to be handed whatever she wants. What a wh*re..."

Melanie:"It is too bold, and because it's a lie." *she responded*"You're not the only one who wants to kill her. If you do it, make sure I'm there when it happens. Oh, and please don't make it quick. Asphyxiation or a good 'sectumsempra' would be brilliant...maybe even both at the same time."



~Mel

Finn smiled. It was the first true smile he had in months. "It's not a lie Mel," Finn said, "I know it sounds cliche, but beauty isn't all exterior. You've got what counts, a good heart and you are real. That b*tch isn't real. She just sleeps with people, then leaves them. You want what I want, someone that cares about you. Someone to be there for you no matter what." Finn paused, "As for killing her... I have some ideas. I would tie her up upside down, then take a razor and cut her face. Then I would cut her veins... Then I would burn her chest and midsection... Then I would make it so that she could never, ever have children. Then I would keep her upside down and dunk her into water. I would let her up for a moment to have a breath of air... Before killing her..." He trailed off, he didn't want to be to gory in his plans. If he did go through with it, he didn't want to be caught.

*For Mel, that sounded too much like things that had happened to her and her friends and family to want to see that.*
Melanie:"Nevermind about me being there...I'll give her one cruciatus curse and then leave. I hate her, but...too many things like that have happened to me and people I care about for me to be able to sit through that...."



~Mel

"I guess it's not worth going to Azkaban for something like that... I need to think of a better way to get her back without getting into too much trouble." He sighed, "We can't kill her, we need a better way of going about this." Finn was surprised he was using 'we' instead of I.

Melanie:"Make her life h*ll in any other way possible, of course. I'm very good at Transfiguration." *she explained to him*"Maybe I could turn her head into a hog's one day...that would be perfect, then everyone could see her true colors."



~Mel

Finn grinned, it was quite the image. "I'm excellent at charms... I can do pretty much any charm in the book with some practice... Maybe I could find something that will only allow the person that turned her into a pig to change her back... That's a lot of responsibility for you, you get to decide if she could turn back... That's something I would like to look into... If all else fails, we could tie her up, and give her paper cuts between her fingers and toes..." Finn waited for her to laugh at his joke. It wasn't serious enough, but if he was being interrogated for something, it's the torture he would least enjoy.

*Melanie didn't smile; She was still way to upset to even think of smiling, and especially not laughing*
Melanie:"Definitley. If she's allergic to cats-" *she was about to say 'I could stalk her so she can't breathe and is always sneezing', but stopped herself*"I have a friend with a very smart cat who could follow her everywhere. We could make the heel of her shoes fall off so she trips and falls into the lake- I can think of anything, really. From childish to serious."



~Mel

"We need somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. Not quite as serious as death, and not as childish as pushing her. I think it needs to almost kill her, but also make it so that she can't or won't bother us again." Finn was a bit disappointed when she didn't laugh, but he remembered when his heart was broken. He didn't smile for weeks. He was suprised that Mel was handling it as well as she was.

*The only reason she was handling it well was because what she really wanted to do was hurt herself, but it's not like she could do that when people were around, and lately it seemed like they always were.*

Melanie:"Crucio." *She answered quickly*"We could do it. We'd have to work at it...but we could try it...."



~Mel

Finn shuddered. He had never successfully performed an unforgivable curse before. "Who would we practice on?" Finn asked, not wanting to curse Mel, or something innocent, "Who would train us?" Finn knew that it took special training. Harshing was the only person he knew that taught students the unforgivables. Finn knew that it was a good plan, but it was temporary. "That's too temporary..." He said after a few moments, "She'd find some way to get us back for that... We need to show her that we aren't going to take sh*t from her. I think crucio is one way, but what if she does something to us again?"

Melanie:"Oh well...do something to someone or something she cares a lot about. No, not a person. That would be exactly what she did to us...I don't know...I'm not good at hurting people, especially those who are innocent...or something that could repel guys and girls from her or something...because if she can't snog or screw people, she'll realize she's not worth anything...."



~Mel

"If only we could take her sex drive..." Finn managed a small smile, "What if we found out how to tattoo like he who must not be named does? We could tattoo everyone who has ever slept with her... Or tattoo wh*re or something on her forehead... I think something like that would turn people away from her..."

Melanie:"I was thinking either a spell that made her look unattractive to other people, but when she looked in the mirror, she didn't notice or something that makes her eliminate a foul odor over a 3 foot radius."



~Mel

"I think it needs to be something that not only makes her unattractive to other people, but to herself. That's the area that I want to hit hardest. I want her to feel the humiliation and unattractiveness that we felt when she cheated with our significant others. She needs to feel as bad as we did. Except I want her to feel the pain every day."

Melanie:"Like I said...I'm good with transfiguration. I might be able to find a spell that will let me alter her appearence. It would be hard so I'll need your help....All we have to do, really, is go to the RoR. Once, instead of using a polyjuice potion, I went there and changed how I looked so I could spy. We'd just have to lure her in there at the same time as we are."



~Mel