"They won't," Melinda said, voice quiet. She closed her textbook and reached out, taking Marek's hand in hers. "Everyone's too scared for themselves, no one is looking that hard. And I'm..." She sighed, pressing her lips together briefly. "No one expects anything but the worst out of me, at this stage. Being heard...just make noises about how you disapprove or whatever so then if things are really going seriously bad at least you're still in good graces." And then maybe he would have some pull with someone, although he didn't really know who or what, and she didn't want to say that out loud.
"When you and Callum came to defend me over...you know." She didn't even like to say Lind's name out loud now. "What happened? It wasn't any better for me, and everyone got suspicious of you. That's all that will happen next time and they're not going to tolerate much more suspicion on you until you're just one of them because you're a Hufflepuff."