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All goes to J.K. Rowling for creating such a wonderful universe.
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1 December 1979
Maeve-
Have you heard? Things at the Ministry are getting out of hand. There are rumors that Dumbledore is forming some sort of resistance to fight You Know Who... I suspect many of the seventh years at school have heard about it. Mum and Dad are utterly clueless, and when I tried to explain all of this to them, they just wanted to make sure you stayed safe.
Please be careful, Maeve. The things I've overheard are not good and I don't want you caught up in any of it. Mum even mentioned possibly taking you out of school, but I won't get into that.
How are you? I hear there's a dance coming up! If that boy Edmund doesn't ask you, he's a downright fool. Are boys asking girls? Or is it a Sadie Hawkins shindig?
Anyway, I hope you are having a good end of first term. I cannot wait to see you in a few weeks time.
Your Loving Sister,
Anabelle
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Maeve-
Professor Binns looks awfully like a toad in the winter, doesn't he? All frozen and dead. I hear your parents might take you out of school, or at least your dad will. I hope you don't leave.
-Edmund
Ed-
If only Professor Binns were really a frozen toad, then he couldn't talk.
How did you hear about my parents? I don't want to leave but I might not have a choice. My sister says that the professors here aren't telling us half of what's really going on out there, and that the Daily Prophet is being too optimistic. There have been more Muggle-born killings than any of us know about and I'm getting worried.
-Maeve
Maeve-
My parents haven't written to me at all this year.
If you leave, I don't know if anyone will talk to me.
-Edmund
Ed-
Don't say that. What about all of your friends on the Quidditch team?
I'm afraid of what will happen if I go home for holiday. I almost think it's safer here, with Dumbledore.
Are you going to your parents for Christmas?
-Maeve
Maeve-
My Quidditch friends are all obsessed with You Know Who. Most of them are trying to follow in the footsteps of that Death Eater who graduated a while back... Snape, I believe his name was? Anyway, I just try to stay out of their way as much as possible.
Are you joking? Of course I'm staying here over holiday. I hope you stay too- it would be more fun with you here. We could get into all kinds of trouble.
-Edmund
Eddie-
Oh, God, I forgot how crazy your teammates were. They're beyond creepy. Burn this note after you read it. I don't want them killing me in my sleep. I'm not joking, you know. It could happen.
And I was not joking when I asked if you were visiting your parents. I was just wondering. I would rather stay here also. I'm getting sick of Mum and Dad asking me non-stop questions whenever I'm at home. I know I can't blame them, but I'm really not in the mood this year.
-Maeve
Maeve-
Don't call me Eddie. You know I don't like it.
And if they wanted to kill you in your sleep, I'd destroy them before they could.
Damn, I think Binns has caught on to us. I'll see you at- *ink smudged*
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2 December 1979
Maeve,
Why on earth didn't you mention to me that that boy Edmund is a Slytherin? I have half a mind to march into that school myself and hex the daylights out of him. His family is bad news and I do not approve of my little sister fraternizing with a Death Eater's son! You're lucky I'm not sending this in a Howler. I thought you were smart!
YOU WILL GET YOURSELF KILLED. I'm doing everything I can to keep things under control on our side of this war and I don't want you tainting the trustworthiness of this family by going to the Yule Ball with a Slytherin, a pure-blood and a Lerwick no less!
Now Maeve, I'm sorry if you like this boy but he is not to be trusted. I just want what is best for you.
Enjoy your end of term, and have some cake at the Yule Ball for me.
Love you,
Anabelle
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Maeve-
I can't believe we got detention. I swear I hate that Jacobs kid for giving us away.
Anyway, how is it on your side of the desk? It's rather stuffy in here. Do you think I'm allowed to open a window?
-Edmund
Ed-
Binns won't notice us passing notes but he's bound to hear you if you try to open the window. He's dead, not deaf. Also, it's snowing outside. Are you mental?
My side of the desk is sweltering, thanks for asking.
Hey, quit kicking my feet! I can't sort these books with you distracting me.
-Maeve
Maeve-
So...
How are things up in the Ravenclaw Tower? Are they as paranoid as the rest of the school is?
-Edmund
Ed-
I don't know if we should be talking about this.
My sister... she works in the Department of Mysteries, and she recently took the time to remind me just how serious this is getting. It isn't just gossip anymore, Ed.
Sorry.
-Maeve
The sound of parchment scraping across the rough wood of the desk rattled the dimly lit silence of Binns's classroom. Detention with Binns was a nightmare, but Maeve was glad to have Edmund here.
Even if he was a Slytherin and a Lerwick.
It never used to be a problem. Relationships with other houses-with Slytherin-weren't always seen as suspicious. In fact, they had been encouraged. But with every year, everyone she knew became less and less supportive of her friendship with Edmund Lerwick.
Maeve watched from across the desk as Edmund looked up from the page he was skimming to unfold the piece of parchment. She felt her heart twist in hopelessness as his blue eyes grew darker as he read on. He bit his lip, his angular face contorting with confusion.
"But Maeve-" he whispered, leaning closer. She tried to read his expression, but she couldn't. "Don't you trust me?"
"With my life, Ed," she promised.
"Then why are you saying this?"
"Because... because we have to be careful."
Edmund stared at her, his lips parted. He rubbed an anxious hand through his short raven-colored hair.
"What about us?" he asked.
"I don't know. I just want this to be over already. I don't want to lose you."
"You won't."
"But what about your parents?" Maeve asked, and immediately wished she hadn't brought them up when Edmund's face fell.
"I'm almost seventeen. I'll be on my own soon enough. I don't even know if I'm coming to school next year-"
"Yes, you are," Maeve insisted.
"But you probably aren't," said Edmund.
"Because I'm a Muggle-born and a Ravenclaw." She tucked a strand of blond hair that had fell loose from her messy bun behind her ear. "But you're a pureblood and a Slytherin and they won't target you. You could have a future. Don't give that up just because of You Know Who."
"I wouldn't give it up for him, but I'd give it up for you."
Her heart stuttered, and her voice followed. "Ed-"
"I'm serious, Maeve. Never, ever think I will just abandon you." Down to the bright blue of his eyes, the clenching of his fists; down to his bones, Maeve knew he was being honest. The heartbreaking, pure form of honesty that cuts through all the layers of the world and touches what matters most.
"You're more important than all of this," he said. "And I would do anything to protect you."
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Maeve woke early that morning to the sound of a knock on the door of the girls' dormitory. Pandora, a prefect, emerged from her bed and opened the door. Professor McGonagall entered the room with Professor Flitwick behind her.
"Where is Miss Parrington?" asked McGonagall. Her voice was eerily controlled.
"Here," said Clara.
"Please come with us," said Professor Flitwick.
But Clara knew what had happened without them having to tell her. She burst into tears and refused to move from her bed until Professor McGonagall dragged her from it. Clara let out a heartbroken scream, and Maeve swore that the sound could have woken entire castle.
It would haunt her nightmares. Another day, another orphan.
After Clara had left, all the sixth year girls were visibly shaken. Maeve felt like throwing up, but she settled for burying herself under her covers and closing the curtains of her four-poster bed so no one could see her cry.
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Edmund wasn't at breakfast that morning.
"Have you seen Edmund?" Maeve asked Pandora as they ate pumpkin spice muffins with sugar glaze.
"No, I don't think he's here," said Pandora absent-mindedly. Maeve clenched her fist. She needed to talk to him.
Halfway through the meal, the owls arrived with letters and the Daily Prophet. Maeve was too shaken to open her copy, so she set it aside on the bench. But Pandora opened hers.
She swore under her breath, unfolding the parchment with black and white moving pictures and placing it open on the table for the surrounding students to read.
Maeve's heart stopped when she read the headline.
The world seemed to start spinning in the opposite direction, and she bit her lip so hard that it bled. The pumpkin spice in her mouth went sour.
"Hey, isn't that Lerwick's mum?" came the abrasive voice of Harrison Finn from the opposite side of the table. Maeve wanted to scream at him. Anything to cure the growing pressure in her chest.
LEONA LERWICK SENT TO AZKABAN FOR THE DEATHS OF JOHN AND AMANDA PARRINGTON.
No. No, it couldn't be.
Before she knew where she was headed, Maeve was up from the table and storming from the Great Hall, the front page of the Daily Prophet crushed in one fist.
The halls of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry were decked with red bows and strings of tiny light bulbs enchanted to shine like starlight. Evergreen trees dotted the walls, and stems of mistletoe dangled from every other archway. The whole school smelled faintly of vanilla and gingerbread, just enough to make your mouth water.
But Maeve didn't have the mind today to admire the decorations. In fact, all of her excitement had dissipated with this devastating morning. How could they be celebrating at a time like this? How could Hogwarts be so merry when families were being torn apart?
Maeve found Edmund in the dungeons, at their old meeting place beside the storage closet. He sat curled up against the wall, his head nestled in between his knees. It was the first time she had seen her best friend look so vulnerable.
"Eddie?" she said, her voice quivering. She forced herself to swallow the sob rising in her throat. She would be strong. For Edmund.
He didn't seem to have heard her. The Daily Prophet fell from her fingers and the sound of parchment hitting the stone floor echoed through the dungeon.
"Don't call me that," he said, not lifting his head.
"Are you okay?" She took a step closer so that she was standing almost directly above him.
"Go away," he said. "It's not safe for you to be around me."
"I don't care."
"I do," he said. He finally lifted his face to look up at Maeve, and his blue eyes were a broken midnight sky. Maeve slid down the wall to sit next to him, scooting right up against him. To her surprise and relief, he didn't move away. She took a chance and rested her forehead on his shoulder.
Edmund stared straight ahead at the stone wall in front of where they sat, and didn't say anything for a long while. Silence hung in the air between them, and they understood each other. Maeve was not going to leave him to bear this weight alone. A tear rolled down Edmund's cheek.
"I talked to Dumbledore. This morning, before everyone else was up. Clara had just left, and Dumbledore told me what happened," he explained. "I thought he was going to expel me."
"What did he say to you?" Maeve asked, looking up at him.
"He said he trusted me," said Edmund in a dead voice.
She sense a but coming. "But?" she prompted.
He sighed. "But, he told me to be careful; that some students are going to hate me."
"What do you think?"
"I'm staying."
Maeve reached down and linked her fingers through his. "Good," she said.
Edmund shook his head, as if clearing his thoughts. "I knew Mum would do this. I just knew it." Maeve squeezed his hand. "I never told you this, but last summer, when I went home for holiday, my parents had company. It was them. The Malfoys, the Blacks, and the rest of You Know Who's followers. They were having some sort of conference, like a planning session. I wasn't allowed in. My parents didn't trust me. And they were damn right. I would have gone straight to Dumbledore and the Order if I heard anything that went on in that meeting."
"But you did," Maeve whispered, coming to the conclusion a second before he explained it. Her heart pounded wildly in her chest. "You did overhear something. And you told Dumbledore. That's why they kicked you out of the house, isn't it? That's why they haven't written you at all this term."
He nodded solemnly. "I heard..."
"You don't have to tell me," she cut in.
He clutched her hand tighter in his. "No, I want to. I need to tell you this, Maeve. You Know Who-The Dark Lord, they called him then-has become aware of a prophecy. That there will be a boy born in July of next year who has the power to defeat him. They want to kill the boy."
"Who is he?"
"They think he'll be a Potter." The name bounced off the walls and echoed through the air.
Maeve didn't know what to think. "James and Lily Potter... their son?" She had heard of them. The couple was famous for being strong supporters of Dumbledore. Her sister knew them through the Order.
Edmund nodded, confirming her prediction. Maeve rose her free hand to her mouth. "My god..." she said.
"So I told Dumbledore, but he already knew about the prophecy and that the Death Eaters had heard about it also. So I broke my parent's trust for nothing. I could have waited for information Dumbledore hadn't heard yet. Then it would have been for something."
"What about your mum?" Maeve asked under her breath.
"She killed Clara's parents. That's not something I can ever forgive. She's dead to me," he said through gritted teeth. Her throat burned with restrained tears, as she looked at him then, his face so hard and worn, she remembered the first time she met him.
It had been on the most magical day of her life, the day she boarded the Hogwarts Express at King's Cross. A boy with a crooked smile and a few missing teeth invited her to sit with him, and they talked about chocolate frogs the entire ride there.
"What house do you want to be in?" Edmund had asked Maeve once they were filed outside the Great Hall. Little did they know, that once they stepped through those doors, an ancient system of rival houses and bad blood would keep them apart.
"I don't know any of the houses," she had said, unassuming. She'd been too busy staring up at the ceiling to notice Edmund's curious expression. His parents had always taught him that Muggles weren't to be trusted, that they were weak and useless, but she, his future best friend, came from two Muggle parents.
Maeve let the memory fall from her fingertips when she looked at Edmund's face, so cracked and broken and heavy with this terrible day.
"Take me to the Yule Ball," she said suddenly, shaking herself out of her reverie.
"What?" he was stunned.
Maeve was too. She couldn't recall deciding to blurt that out, but now that she had said it, there was no taking it back. "We aren't adults yet. Not seventeen yet. We should feel entitled to have fun while we can. So take me to the Yule Ball."
"I will," Edmund promised. As he said it, he leaned a little closer to her.
She breathed in and mimicked his movement, moving her face so close to his that their foreheads were touching. The moment was still until suddenly it wasn't.
They crashed together like waves on the shore. The kiss ignited a spark she hadn't even known existed. She tasted salty tears on his lips and she wanted to take away his pain, all of it. She wanted to make him forget about his parents, his mother in Azkaban for her crimes, because he was making her forget the dread hanging over her head and the fear for her life and her family's.
So they kissed. And as their lips slid against each other, their hearts beat out of their chests in harmony.
Maeve had never felt anything like it. Kissing Edmund was thrilling. It made her head spin, even though they were sitting down. She wrapped her arms around his neck as he pulled her closer by her waist, until there wasn't any space left to separate them.
From the outside, they were a Slytherin and a Ravenclaw. A Death Eater's son and a Muggle's daughter. A traitor and a rebel.
But on the inside, they were two best friends in love.
In the end, that was all that mattered.
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20 December 1980
Maeve-
Hogwarts isn't the same without you. Just think, this night last year we were dancing together in the Great Hall having the time of our lives, but now I'm stuck here without you. I know you're in hiding with your family, but I hope this owl reaches you. I have something I need to ask you, and I don't know when I'll get to see you next so I'll just say it.
Marry me, Maeve.
We're seventeen. We're adults. And I want to join the Order with you. I want to leave the past behind and fight with you. Together.
With Hope,
Eddie
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17 February 1981
You are invited to celebrate the marriage of Maeve Perkins and Edmund Lerwick. Bring your best robes and your Firewhiskey. Do not be late.
Sincerely,
The Future Mr. and Mrs. Lerwick
P.S. Our parents haven't exactly been notified of this joyous occasion, so we politely request your quietness on the matter.
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1 September 1981: The Daily Prophet
THE DARK LORD AND HIS FOLLOWERS STRIKE KING'S CROSS-
List of the Dead:
Jim Higgleton; Aged 11. Died of the Killing Curse. Killer unknown.
Emily Jacobs: Aged 14. Died of the Killing Curse. Killer unknown.
Darleen Parrington: Aged 18. Died of wounds sustained from falling off the platform. Suspected Imperius Curse.
Matthew Chase: Aged 42. Died of a blow to the head while pushing a little girl onto the train. Killer unknown.
Edmund and Maeve Lerwick: Aged 18. Aurors and members of the Order of the Phoenix. Died of two Killing Curses while defending a group of school children climbing aboard the Hogwarts Express. Both killing curses were delivered by Bellatrix Lestrange.
May they live forever in memory.
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Sorry for that ending! This story became a whole lot darker than it was supposed to, but I kind of just went with it instead of trying to make it lighter. I understand that some of this is not how it really happened. I know that the prophecy was not discovered until 1980, but I changed it for the sake of the story. Also there are a few other accuracy problems, but I wanted to make this as realistic as possible! I've always wanted to know more about the First Wizarding War, and writing this piece story gave me an excuse to re-read and research :)
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