-II-

"Mad?" she asked, puzzled.

Harry saw Rose pass him and going over to the fire. "Because I asked you not to tell someone?"

Melissa shook her head. After a pause, she asked, "Are you mad at me for... for..." She blushed.

"No," Harry said and blushed as well, remembering the kiss. He resisted the urge to touch his lips. "Ehm... thanks for the dream catcher. I hooked it over my bed. Black Hawk showed me the right place for it."

Melissa smiled shyly.

"Ehm..." Harry looked unsure from Melissa to the adults around the fire. Black Hawk and Severus were watching him secretively, but Harry could see their stolen glances at them. "Ehm... can we go over there?" Harry asked in Black Hawk's direction and pointed at a big tree around fifteen yards away from the camp fire.

Black Hawk nodded, but the moment Harry wanted to turn he held his finger up. When he was sure he had Harry's attention, he pointed two of his finger at his eyes and then at Harry.

Harry blushed and then turned to Melissa again. "I would like to speak with you without them listening in. Would you like to come with me over there?"

Melissa nodded and they both went to sit under the big tree. Here Black Hawk could have an eye on him but not an ear.

-II-

"Light Arrow will not like this," Black Hawk said, grumpily.

Rose sighed. "Maybe he will see the advantage of it."

"Advantage? Come on, Rose. He never likes when there are romantic relationships between the kids. It is slowing them down in their healing process because they don't concentrate on themselves."

"I think with Harry it is different. It could help them both. Dad will understand that."

Black Hawk snorted and looked over to Harry.

"How can this be good for them. Melissa will break when he has enough of her, and Harry will only play the hard boy again. We were finally making progress."

"Who says he will have enough of her? They hardly have done anything to even say they are more then just a bit interested in each other."

Black Hawk snorted again. "Sometimes you are really naive, Rose. Look at them. She is melting when he only looks at her, and he is trying to touch her whenever he gets the opportunity."

"Not anyone is like you, Black Hawk. I can't see that Harry wants to touch her all the time."

"Then you are blind and have no clue about boys," Black Hawk said grumpily and went away from Rose and Severus to arrange the sleeping mats.

Rose rolled her eyes. "I and no idea about boys. Hmpf. As if I haven't grown up with more boys than anyone else."

"He is just worried that Harry will have a relapse. Let him cool off." Severus watched her in silence for a few minutes. She looked lost and sad, staring in the distance. "Everything okay with you and Crying Horse?"

Rose shrugged her shoulders. "He is depressed."

"Depressed? Because he didn't notice the problems with Aiden?" Severus asked, worried.

"That too." She hid her face in her hands. "I fear he thinks about leaving."

"Leaving? Why?"

"Don't play dumb, Severus. None of you ever accepted him as a part of the family, and Dad is the worst. He doesn't even try to hide his opinion about Crying Horse. If at least you would accept him like a brother, but all of you treat him like an outsider."

"Now you are unreasonable, Rose. You know that this isn't true. Lately your father has given him more and more important tasks. He even allowed him to hold the sweat lodge ceremony. Light Arrow even choose Crying Horse several times over Black Hawk lately. He is part of the family. I had the feeling Black Hawk and he do come along quite well. Red Horse is a shy guy, but he doesn't seem to have a problem with Crying Horse."

"You don't understand. He doesn't feel like he belongs to you. Like a brother. Not even a real friend. More like a buddy. He tries so hard." She looked desperately at Severus.

Severus sighed and laid his arm over Rose's shoulders. "I will speak with him okay, and I will speak with Black Hawk when he has cooled down."

Rose smiled at Severus and gently cupped his cheek. "I wished you would finally stay forever. Headmaster Johnson would be happy to give you a full job in the school, and we could use your help here."

Severus raised his eyebrow. "Nice try, Rose, but you know that I can't stand the constant mollycoddling. I like my freedom too much, and as impossible as it sounds I do have friends in England."

She bumped him playfully in his ribs. "It doesn't sound a bit impossible that you have friends in England, but you have friends here as well and... family."

Smiling, he said, "I know, but I need my freedom."

When Rose again fell back in her melancholic mood, Severus said, "Hey, that doesn't become you. Don't worry so much. I will speak with him and the rest of our brothers, and then we will see what happens. I'm sure it is all just a misunderstanding."

That moment Draco came running in their direction with Red Horse coming along after him, relaxed. "Severus! Severus! Look!" He was holding his hands in a ball-like shape. Totally out of breath he stopped in front of Severus. "Look what we found!" He opened his hands to show Severus and Rose a small lizard with a collar. The moment the animal could see again it spread it's collar in defense.

"Great, I see you already infected him with your animal enthusiasms," Severus said dryly in Red Horse's direction.

"I wasn't the one buying him the animal book, he is pestering me with the whole time." Red Horse grinned and sat down beside Rose. Looking over to Black Hawk, he asked, "What's wrong with him?"

Severus pointed at Harry and Melissa over his shoulders. "That's wrong with him!"

"Ah!" Red Horse said, instantly knowing what Severus meant; unlike Draco who looked puzzled back and for between Harry and Severus.

The little lizard in his hand was only inches from Rose's face who gentle pushed Draco's hands a bit down. "I don't think your little friend here likes to be so close to my face, Draco."

"Oh, sorry." Draco lowered his hands and smiled shyly at Rose. He hadn't notice that his hands had come so close to her face while looking over to Harry.

"Why don't you show Harry your lizard?" Rose suggested.

Draco looked uncertainly over to Harry. "I don't know. Ehm... could I go in my room and get something?"

Rose eyed him. "What do you want to fetch?"

"My messenger. I need to write to Hermione. She is waiting for a message from me."

"You wrote her yesterday evening and this morning," Severus stated.

A groan came from Black Hawk who had come over again. "Not you as well."

"What?"

Rose laughed. "Ignore him, Draco. Why don't you let your little lizard free and then wait a few more minutes because we need to go inside in twenty minutes anyway. Supper will be ready then."

"Okay," Draco said, a bit disappointed, but then again became cheerful when he looked at Red Horse. "Do you come with me?"

"Sure." Red Horse stood up. "Let's bring him over to the paddock. There he will find enough places to hide."

/

"I really like the dream catcher."

Melissa smiled. "I'm glad you do. It took me over a week to make it."

"Wow, thanks!"

"Ehm... about what Aiden said..."

"I don't want to speak about it, Harry," she said sadly.

"But he is wrong, Melissa. You are-"

"No, please!"

Harry sighed "Okay!" He leaned back against the tree, his hand close to hers. Shortly he thought about taking her hand, but then decided against it. What if he read her body language wrong. What if the others were wrong thinking she liked him? Over the last months, he really liked her more and more and she became more beautiful with each day. Even so she was very thin, and Harry hoped she would start to eat more. They had spoken a few times, and he liked the conversations with her. She was smart and told him a lot about Rose's lessons. She also had told him about Aiden in the lessons. That he was really spoiling it for her because he was complaining a lot and Rose had to explain everything again and again because he didn't listen to her. So Harry and Melissa had become close, at least closer as Maya and Harry. Draco was often occupied with Red Horse, and so Harry was glad when Melissa was there to speak with him. Mostly they met at the paddock.

Harry knew that Black Hawk wasn't happy about those meetings, and he had reprimanded him often that he need to concentrate on his problems and not Melissa's, but it wasn't like this. Harry still knew that he had to work hard on his problems and his feelings for Melissa had nothing to do with it. Black Hawk was overreacting. Right now he was watching them and that was one of the reasons why Harry didn't dare to take Melissa's hand.

"Wait! Don't move!" Melissa said suddenly, and Harry obeyed. She leaned over, and Harry's heart started to beat faster. She ran her fingers threw his hair, and Harry could smell her perfume. It was a nice change. Normally he was around the boys, and due to the heat they didn't smell very good. So he inhaled her scent deeply and even leaned a bit closer to her neck, closing his eyes. The next time he opened his eyes, she was looking shyly at him, her face a nice shade of red. "He is watching us, and he isn't happy about us being so close."

Harry turned around and saw that Black Hawk looked grumpily at him and again made the gesture with his fingers and his eyes; telling him that he has an eye on him. Harry rolled his eyes. "He is overreacting." Looking back at Melissa, he saw her studying a big, green-shining bug. This must have been her reason for fumbling in his hair.

"Isn't he beautiful?"

"Not as beautiful as you are," Harry said. He blushed, realizing how cliche that had sounded.

"I'm not!" Melissa looked sadly at the bug, who spread his wings and slowly flew away.

"Of course you are, even so you would look even more beautiful with a few pounds more on your ribs."

Melissa glared at him.

"What? It's the truth. You should really eat a bit more."

"I eat a lot!"

Harry snorted.

"I do!"

"I'm there during the meals."

"I do eat a lot!"

"You are not, but I don't want to argue with you. I just wanted to tell you that I think you are beautiful, but you should eat a bit more and you would be even more beautiful. Maybe you can try it for me?"

Melissa looked uncertainly at him. "I don't really like eating."

"I know. I often don't like it as well. It's boring, and mostly I don't even realize that it is time for a meal."

Melissa looked surprised at Harry.

"What? Is it so unusual that I also don't like eating so much? The different between us is that I know that I'll need the energy I get from eating, and eating with so many people is much more fun than alone."

Melissa shrugged.

"Will you try for me?"

"Maybe."

Harry smiled. "That's a start." He looked fascinated at her. She was really beautiful. Those big blue eyes were like deep pools of freshwater. Her straw-blond hair fell in wisps in her face. It was very tempting to wiped it gently out of her face to have a better look at those awesome eyes. The problem was that Harry could feel Black Hawk's eyes boring in his back, and he didn't want to annoy him too much. "I saw the bird that is my totem while running. It's a red-tailed hawk."

"Really? A hawk. I think that suits you. I'm sure freedom means a lot to you."

"Does a hawk represents this?"

"Yes, he stands for the urge for freedom and independence like Severus' raven. You two are very similar."

Harry raised his eyebrow skeptical.

Melissa laughed. "See!" She pointed at his raised eyebrow.

Harry shook his head, amused. "I don't think we are very similar."

"Yes, you are. He also likes his freedom and is often very angry when White Cloud and Light Arrow try to take it away from him even so he knows that it is for his best. The raven stands for cleverness. White Cloud and Rose say he is very clever and a very good teacher."

Harry snorted. "You would be surprised how different his students see that, but yes he is clever. I wish I would be so clever. So the hawk doesn't stand for cleverness, I guess?"

"No, it stands for will power and determination."

"You know a lot about those totems. Why is that so?"

"I'm very interested in all the ritual stuff. White Cloud and Rose taught me a lot about it. I know all the totems of the others, even Aidens. Only Draco's I don't know yet. Do you know it?"

"It's a-"

"No, no, don't tell me. It's something very personal. Maybe he doesn't want me to know."

Harry grinned. "He is very proud of it. He would love to tell you and definitely wouldn't be angry if I tell you."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I am. He is a wolf. A white wolf."

"Wow, I would never have guessed. The wolf stands for a great sense of family. He needs the ones he loves close by or won't feel safe and happy, but the wolf is also a very powerful and dangerous animal. So deep in his soul Draco is a fighter. He always looks so lost and hurt, I would never have expected him to have a wolf as his totem."

"What's your totem. Ehm... if it is okay with you to tell me."

"A swan." She started to look shyly again. The minutes in which she had told him about the other totems, she had become more and more confident. "It stands for elegance and... beauty. You know the totem often stands for what you wish the most or what's the most important for you." She blushed deeply.

"You already are beautiful, Mel. You don't need to wish for it." Seeing that she began to feel uncomfortable again, he asked, "Is that all or does the swan symbolizes more things?"

"It's also a very family orientated totem, like Light Arrow's otter. The swan stands for good parental features. I really want to have children later, and I want to be a good mother." She looked thoughtful, and eventually Harry found the courage to take her hand and squeeze it lightly.

"I'm sure you will be a wonderful mother, Mel."

Shyly she smiled at him, not knowing what to say or do. She just looked into his green eyes which had fascinated her from the beginning. The wonderful moment was broken by Draco's cries for Severus to look at whatever he had in his hands. Quickly Harry let go of Melissa's hands and both teenagers blushed and looked down at their hands shyly. Harry didn't dare to look over to Black Hawk. He was sure he would get quite the talk for his behavior.