Chapter 25

The plan had changed drastically, there wouldn't be any more subterfuge, nor an all out war over the ministry. They chose to do battle in a field, mostly because they wanted to minimise the civilian casualties. Maia had laughed when she heard Moody talking about keeping untrained people out of the crossfire. That hadn't been a concern during her time, neither Dumbledore nor Riddle had kept children out of their war, Maia was proof of that. The down side to the field, was that there would be no cover, so their casualties would probably be high. A direct challenge to Tom Riddle, hopefully received in front of his Death Eaters would force him to accept, especially when Maia was the one issuing it. Then there was the matter of the horcruxes, they would destroy them at the same moment she would send her message, Maia was sure he would feel them being destroyed, so it would hopefully add to the challenge, knowing that she'd found and destroyed the fragments of his soul.

Severus didn't like it, Regulus didn't like it, nor did Lily or James, or any of her friends. The Order however, had nothing bad to say about the plan, because it was the only one they had, and there was little time to come up with another one. As the battle loomed closer, everyone became rather nostalgic. Fabian and Gideon had sat with Maia and a bottle of firewhiskey and they spent an entire night telling stories of how the pair had terrorised the school and how they had continued doing the same while training to be Aurors. Regulus had bumped into Maia early one morning, wrapped his arms around her in the tightest hug he could muster and hurried off to avoid her. James proposed to Lily, though he'd asked her one night when they were simply walking around the manor grounds one night. He didn't have a ring at the time, he just asked and she accepted. His mother had taken Lily aside when she found out and Lily soon had a ring adorning her finger. Severus had been surprisingly okay with it, he'd smiled, hugged Lily and spun her in a circle as they laughed together. He even shook James' hand and told him not to hurt her. Sirius and Remus had taken some time alone, for what nobody was sure, but they spent a few days locked away in Sirius' room and refused to tell anyone what happened when they finally emerged. Perhaps the most momentous event had been on the full moon, the first full moon in months that Peter had been present for, tangled up in James' antlers.

Ast for Maia, she was content to watch what was transpiring around her. She had no one to declare her undying love for, no one to forgive, no one to pass on a final piece of advice to. But one night, when she was sat by a river that cut through the estate, Remus had gone out to find her. She'd been expecting to feel anxious or scared, but the calm that filled her left her confused. She knew she was going to die, that she would never see another sunset, and that knowledge had plagued her for weeks, and yet, the day before she was going to battle Riddle, she was calm.

"You're missing the fun." Remus had remarked sarcastically, taking a seat next to her.

"I'm not really in the mood to share campfire stories with the boys tonight." Maia smiled weakly, content with observing the moon's broken reflection in the water. "Last time I fought them, there wasn't a calm before the storm, there were no last words or final goodbyes. It just happened. And I don't think I want those things."

"Well I have some last words for you." Remus spoke, taking Maia's hand. "And you're not going to like them."

Maia knew what he was going to say, she'd had a suspicion of Remus' feelings toward her for months now, and when you had time to think, you thought about everything.

"I know you hate hearing people say this, but I love you Maia." Remus didn't give her time to respond, he just kept talking, cutting off the start of what would likely be a protest. "I'm not in love with you, but I do love you. I think if you'd been in any place to let someone in, I would have asked if I could be that person. But as the months went by, my feelings settled and I learned that loving someone is different from being in love with them. I was in love with someone for years and never realised it had that name, not until I met you."

"And I'm sure you enjoyed spending time showing that person just how in love you are." Maia smiled, resting a head on Remus' shoulder.

"The point I'm trying to make is that I wasn't the first person to love you, and neither was Regulus." He spoke, his tone becoming oddly serious. "And we won't be the last people to love you. But the people with you, that love you, we're here now and no matter how much you don't want us to, we'll fight for you and if you asked, we'd die for you."

"You're not allowed to die for me." Maia frowned.

"We'll do our best not to, but we can't promise that we won't die and we won't promise not to, no matter how much you don't want Severus to." Remus spoke.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Maia asked, sitting up straight.

"You care about all of us, but you don't love all of us." Remus chuckled. "You love the whomping willow, and you love Severus, whether you realise it or not. And I'm not saying that it's a romantic love, but he's the only one of us you love. You like us all and you care about us all, but you love Severus, you're closer than James and Sirius, and that pair have loved each other like brothers for years now. So you're going to stop moping out here and you're going to sit next to your brother and you're going to have a glass of firewhiskey. And most importantly, you're going to let all of us tell you that we love you, and you're going to let us cry at the thought of losing you, and then you're going to sleep."

"Does Sirius know you're this controlling?" Maia rolled her eyes, letting Remus pull her onto her feet.

"He most certainly does." Remus laughed.

When they walked into the drawing room, everyone stopped talking and turned to look at Maia. Remus immediately took a seat, but Maia stood in the doorway awkwardly. She'd barely spoken to them after the Peter argument, and here they all were, not yelling or swearing at her, simply staring. Though there was one person missing.

"James went to get Peter." Lily informed her.

Severus rolled his eyes and grabbed Maia's hand, forcing her to join him on the rug. They had all abandoned the chairs in the room and had opted for a heap of pillows that were gathered around a glass jar that contained a dancing blue flame. A glass was pressed into her hand as Peter was dragged into the room by James and forced to sit. Maia couldn't resist laughing as he pouted, though Remus didn't seem to notice as he threw an arm around Peter's shoulders, smiling warmly at the boy.

"We should all be at school." Peter commented, warily eying the gathering before him.

"I can't disagree more." Sirius spoke, taking a long drink from his glass. "The only one of us that ever liked school was Moony, we always talked about what we would do in the world outside of homework and trips to Hogsmeade."

"I think you'll find you're in the minority there Sirius." Lily grinned, taking James' hand as he sat and kissed her cheek. "You're the only one of us here who hated school."

"That can't be true." Sirius protested, glancing around the group. "Prongs, tell me it isn't true."

"Sorry mate, I quite enjoyed school." James smiled.

Sirius pouted, resting his head on Remus' shoulder. "I've been betrayed. Seven years of friendship and it turns out he liked school."

Remus chuckled and kissed the top of Sirius' head.

"Finally." Peter yelled suddenly, jumping up to dance around in a circle. "Years of a horridly defiled common room and you finally admitted it."

"That we did." Remus grinned to Peter.

"And I finally said yes to James." Lily smiled fondly at Peter, watching as James pulled him to sit down. Again.

"Remus said something to me and it wasn't true." Maia spoke, keeping her eyes fixed firmly on the flame. "He said that I care about you all but that I don't love you, but I do love you all. You're all my family, despite the circumstances some of you came into it." She looked across her friends' faces, smiles plastered on all of them. "I don't love some of you in the way you may have wanted, but you have it." Her eyes lingered on Regulus' face, watching the boy frown at the floor. "Especially you Reg." She caught his attention. "If you hadn't pried, if you hadn't forced your way into my life, I don't think I'd have told anyone about me, and none of us would be here." She glanced back around the room, tears filling her eyes. "We changed the course of history together. People are alive because of you. And I don't mean because I came here, but because you all stayed with me."

Maia couldn't stop herself from thinking back to her war, about the goodbyes she never said, and she suddenly found herself wishing she could have had them.

"I think I speak for us all when I say, we love you too." Severus smiled, placing an arm around her. "Even if you are an insufferable know it all sometimes."

While most of the group seemed confused, Regulus, Severus and Maia broke out into fits of laughter, laughter that spread to the others.

Laughter that was cut off by a silver cat that hovered in front of Maia.

"They're attacking Hogwarts." McGonagall's voice echoed through the room, making Maia's blood run cold. "Hurry."