This is Where I Draw the Line ((Melinda))

[Seth Wright]

The Three Broomsticks was uncharacteristically quiet. Seth walked in, hands in pockets, and placed a couple of Knuts on the bar. Firewhiskey in hand, he weaved through the tables to the quietest, most unoccupied corner of the room, and sat down. The beverage's golden colour seeped like honey into his palm as he grasped a tight hold of the bottle and took a long, hard mouthful. The burning fire travelled slowly down his throat, scorching away any available words, leaving a half-sweet, half-bitter taste like bile on his tongue. Grimacing to himself, Seth continued to throw back the substance nonetheless.

Normally he wasn't the drinking sort. Not that he was teetotal, but Seth had never felt any inclination to drink. Firewhiskey tasted all right, but anything stronger and Seth would soon dissolve into an even clumsier, even more animated version of himself, minus the inhibitions and embarrassments and shyness. Sometimes it felt good to be able to let go, but on the occasions he had done so, they had always come back to haunt him, so Seth was reliant on his own self-restraint and Chace's sensibility to keep his drunken stupors at bay. However, right now his best friend was nowhere near; there was nothing stopping him.

It wasn't often Seth and Willow argued - properly, anyway. On more than one occasion Willow had bore down on her relenting, tolerant boyfriend with accusations and prods at his confidence, and Seth had always let her get away with it without even a single word of admonishment. He loved her; he loved her just the way she was and that included the whole package of telling him off constantly for not being good enough. Seth could take it. He had taken it for almost two years now, he could take it forever. But then, this afternoon, when Willow had burst into the male seventh-year dorms, she hadn't gone on and on about Seth's inadequacies, but Chace's. And that was where Seth drew the line.

Seth didn't know what angered him so much about Willow's bitching. All he knew was that every word punctured him like a pin to a balloon. Chace didn't deserve this; he was his best friend, the most fantastic individual anyone could find. Lara was a lucky woman, Seth was a lucky boy to have found such a great and supportive friend. Chace had changed his life, for God's sake. Willow just couldn't understand that. The love between the two boys was different to his love for Willow, and she couldn't stand it. Seth didn't see why she had to be jealous. For goodness sake, Chace had been there for him when no one else had - for seven years! He was more important than anything.

But more important than Willow? Seth frowned through the gentle and comfortable haze of firewhiskey. He didn't know. After all, Chace had been here for him, been so important to him, for seven years - that was nothing compared to the two years he had been together with Willow. And even though Seth gave Willow his unconditional love without question, his friendship with Chace was much more equitable; Chace was actually his friend in return, treated him like an equal, whereas more often than not, Willow would treat Seth more like a slave than a boyfriend. Seth wasn't sick of it; but how could he say Chace was not as important as her?

Perhaps it was Willow's final and worst accusation that had thrown Seth's perceptions into perspective. "You love Chace more than you love me, Seth," she had said. "And that's not right?" Was it not? Was it wrong? Seth's frown furrowed deeper as his chin rested against his hand, pondering. He didn't love Chace in the same way as Willow, though - how could that love be compared? And yet, if Seth was made to choose between his girlfriend and his best friend, he was pretty sure who he would choose; and this knowledge confused him greatly.

Just as he was spiralling towards a worrying conclusion, someone sat down opposite Seth. Looking up stupidly, Seth noted the familiar figure of a classmate. "Hi Melinda," he grinned with little shyness in his system. "What you doing here?" Seth knew the girl because she was also in Hufflepuff and in his year; in fact, she and Willow shared a dorm. He had never seen Melinda hang out with Willow and Lara, though; they were different sorts of people. Seth had also shared many classes with Melinda; they'd spoken now and again, and she was one of the only people in his year whom he was aware of. "You didn't see Willow before, did you?" Seth proceeded to gurgle buoyantly. A slight frown creased his forehead, but it quickly disappeared. "Y'know, she's really annoyed with me. She'll get over it."

[Melinda Calloway H7]

It became harder and harder for Melinda to drag herself to work these days. Now that she was done with Hogwarts and had virtually no idea where she was going with her life other than her ambitions in songwriting and singing, things in Melinda’s life had become pretty dull. She was considering a backpacking trip throughout Europe on her own or with her best friend, but she didn’t have much money to pull that off at the moment so there was nothing left to fill the time but work and hanging around Hogsmeade. The void in her life sort of depressed her a bit, but she was learning to live with the lack of anything interesting in her life. Melinda glanced around the bar, finding nothing interesting around. Over the past couple of days since the ending of the school year, Melinda had had a lot of time to reflect on her life and what she planned to do with her future. There were so many things she’d thought over in the past. Not just career wise, but what exactly she was going to do with all the free time left over from the lack of school related priorities.

One main thing that Melinda had thought about, was finding her father. She was almost nineteen years old now, and she still had no idea who her birth father was. It was pretty obvious her mother Linda knew. Every time Melinda brought it up in the past, her mother would turn silent and tight-lipped, almost like it pained her to even think of the memory of Melinda’s nameless father. Whether he was dead or alive, Melinda really didn’t care. She wasn’t going to be one of those lost, heartbroken teenagers that sprung themselves into their father’s comfortable lives the moment they find out about them. She wasn’t going to try and harass his family or do anything of the sort because being close to her father wasn’t a priority to her. She just figured it would be nice to know who created her. The fact that Linda Calloway was a single mother never seemed to bother Melinda all too much in the past, but she couldn’t help but be curious now that she was bored and lonely and didn’t have much else to think about. It was just something she felt like she had to do. Maybe if he had died she’d make a trip to visit his grave to pay her respects or something of the like and then see about finding a permanent career for herself. From all the years of pushing and prying for subtle hints as to who helped bring life to her, Melinda had figured out that Linda and this man met when she was bartending at some glitzy glamorous club in Los Angeles.

She sighed, pouring some butterbeer for two girls in her year. The two girls had shared dorms with Melinda since her first year--Lara and Willow. They had never been a pair that Melinda liked all too much. They kept to themselves for the most part, being that they were so close. They’d never made it an effort to form any sort of ties with Melinda, and she rather liked it that way. As she took care of the next costumer at the bar, Melinda couldn’t help but overhear their conversation. It wasn’t like she really cared what was going on in the lives of those two girls, but when there was nothing else to do but polish little shot glasses, the conversations of others at the bar seemed like the entertainment one would sometimes find on television. “God, Seth makes me so mad sometimes. I really think you have some competition, Lara. Sometimes it seems like Seth loves Chace more than he loves me. It’s insane. And I know he knows what I mean, but he refuses to admit it! It’s soo frustrating.” Willow exclaimed just a bit too loud. Melinda couldn’t help rolling her eyes. Of course they were talking about their longterm boyfriends.

Melinda continued to polish and clean things and take care of costumers. It didn’t take long before the girls were gone, and Melinda was left with nothing but her next shift, which she would be giving the bar over to Rosemerta and go on to taking orders from the tables. The first table she had to take over was probably the most interesting. Seth Wright. Melinda had always considered him to be a pretty goofy guy, but he was pretty nice nonetheless. She took a seat across from him, noticing that there was barely anyone else in the pub, which was pretty odd. She smiled back at him as he asked what she was doing here. She shrugged. “I work here for now. Just trying to save up a few galleons to do something interesting for a change. And Willow was in here with Lara about ten minutes ago. You just missed them. I could tell she was pretty pissed.” Melinda said, frowning a bit. She had no idea why a nice guy like Seth spent so much of his time with that diva, Willow. Then again, many people had no idea why Melinda put up with Michael for so much time either, so it was probably the same situation.