Of that, at least, there was no danger. The only weak spot in Melinda's loyalty was her brother. He could sway her to pretty much anything and threats against him would not be stood for, but he served the Dark Lord too. Thus far, people had been intelligent enough to use them together, take advantage of their complementing skills and ability to work together. No one had pitted them against each other (although they probably did enough of that themselves, being so competitive) or attempted to use one to control the other. If that happened, all bets were off, but everyone knew the twins were far more effective together. She didn't worry about it.
Her thoughts turned from betrayal to a slight geeky spaz as Draco asked about her work. "I am, actually," she said, resisting the urge to start chattering away about things no one but a Ravenclaw would possibly find interesting. She'd have to make it a point to babble at Gilbert about something later (he probably ought to get more used to women talking to him anyway). "I'm trying to work out a spell to prevent magic being used on an object. Lots of things can be warded for certain spells to backfire or just not work, but you can't actually prevent all magic. I've gotten some unexpected results." Oh Draco. You asked a Ravenclaw about her bookish work. There was still an edge of general Ella-misery underlying, but her mind had largely turned to excited geeking out.