Mariah felt like she was finally able to breathe when she left the Room of Requirement to walk through the castle in order to find people trying to skip class. Not that she thought she would be able to find any; despite JLW's threats the end exams were still supposed to happen and with the year slowly coming closer to its final set of weeks not even the weak-minded students dared to skip class. They needed to pass those exams and to do that they needed to attend classes and find out what they were going to be tested on.
She steered her feet towards the Charms corridor, finding it empty, as expected. When walking past the Charms classroom she could hear Hermione's voice coming through the wooden door. Since Mariah did not recognize what they were discussing she figured the class were in their seventh year. She felt as if her ability to breathe was constricted when her thoughts, once again, wandered to Kyle, merely because he was in the seventh year. At the moment anything could cause her to think about him and feel as if she had been betrayed. Sure, she had not really been in love with him, at least not in the sense that all those romance novels would have put it, but they had been so close and especially after the Christmas Ball it would have felt perfectly alright to try out a romantic version of their relationship. When they had been separated in the Forbidden Forest she had even thought about all the times when it had felt as if they should be together, as if they were meant for one another; she had even convinced herself that Kyle had had romantic feelings for her. Obviously she had been wrong; he had fallen for Molly instead.
Mariah had felt angry with Molly at first and had done everything to avoid her, but in the end she had realized it did not matter. Molly had nothing to do with this and she seemed to have believed that Kyle had talked to Mariah about this. In fact, Mariah remembered seeing Molly and Kyle have a brief argument about his reasons for not telling her. That, at least, brought some satisfaction.
She turned a corner and walked up a set of stone stairs, before turning into another corridor. It was gloomy looking as the sun was unable to shine in through the corridor's windows at this time of the day and, since it held no classrooms and students were supposed to be in class, no one had bothered to light the torches lining the walls. Before the curse had started to weaken already functional magic the torches would, of course, have lit themselves automatically when she set foot in the corridor, but now it had to be done manually. This task would have been assigned to a Prefect, like herself, as the adults could not make sure it was done. As no other Prefect was around, Mariah sighed and pulled out her wand, opening her mouth to utter the charm.
A hand landed on top of her now open mouth while an arm grabbed her around the waist, pulling her back towards the wall. She was pressed against a warm, solid body as her brain frantically tried to realize what had happened. Instinctively she turned the wand in her hand so that it pointed backwards and prepared to use a non-verbal curse against whoever was holding her when warm breath hit her ear.
"Stay quiet", came Taimoor's familiar voice a moment later. He loosened his grip on her mouth and waist, allowing her to turn her head slightly to the left in order to look at him. His gaze was stuck on something further down the corridor.
"JLW", he breathed. Her eyes widened and she turned to follow his gaze.
The gloomy corridor seemed as empty as when she had first entered it and for a few moments she thought he was joking with her, that this was some strange game to prepare for the battle to come. Then she saw it; a ghost-like shape of a man. At first she actually thought it was one of the ghost that frequently showed up around the castle, before she noticed that this creature did not float a few inches above the ground. Instead this half-transparent man walked on the floor, albeit very slowly, as if he was walking through deep water. His head lolled from side to side as he moved, his mouth slack and his eyes devoid of emotion. In fact Mariah thought this being, whatever it was, looked half like a zombie, half like a ghost.
The creature walked half-way through the corridor, nearing their hiding place with every step it took. Mariah tried to hold her breath in order to keep it from finding them and she guessed that Taimoor was doing the same.
Then, all of a sudden, the creature stopped, its head turned towards the outer wall as if it was listening to something. Taimoor moved his hand, still resting on her waist, somewhat and when she glanced down she noticed that he had taken his wand out. He had probably hidden hit in his sleeve. He pointed it in the direction of the creature, his steel grey eyes focused as he used a non-verbal spell. The creature suddenly wailed and started thrashing its head from side to side before it was sucked into a small container hidden beneath a lose stone, which Taimoor had now moved aside with his spell. Mariah gasped when the container sealed itself.
"What was that?" she asked when Taimoor released her and walked over to pick up the small box from its hiding place. "Why did you say that it was JLW?"
"When we were on our little adventure in the Forbidden Forest, Sirius appeared in this shape here to tell the adults about the pentagrammic pyramid", Taimoor answered and placed the box in his pocket. "Well, he was not exactly in this shape; he still had control of himself, but he warned that JLW used this method to get spies into places. Snape has been working on a potion to help set the people forced into participating in this free once we get to JLW's hiding place, but he also warned me, Nick and Matticus that if Sirius could get in, so could some of JLW's victims. So we've placed these boxes out in different locations all over the castle to catch them."
Mariah stared at him. He was grinning triumphantly and, in that moment, she imagined he looked quite a lot like a younger version of Sirius Black.
"This is the fifth one we've caught", Taimoor continued. "They're looking for the pyramid, of course; JLW knows we have it. He's not stupid. Also he is probably looking to cause some more chaos in the group so..."
She interrupted him by walking up to him and grabbing him by the collar of his shirt, pulling his head down and kissing him. He stiffened and she pulled back, although she did not let go of his collar. Her heart was racing and she swallowed in order to regain the ability to speak.
"That was not how I imagined it", he suddenly said, his voice darker than usual. She did not dare to look up at him as she was blushing furiously.
"Imagined what?" she instead asked.
"Our first kiss", he responded. Now she did look up, her eyebrows shooting sky high in surprise. He was smiling tentatively.
"You've imagined us kissing?" she asked. "Why?"
"Because I find you beautiful", he answered. "Not just the way you look, but the way you are. You're brave, smart, funny..."
He paused and carefully placed his hands on her waist, drawing her somewhat closer.
"You understand me", he continued. "Despite only getting to know me last year when you became a Prefect as well, you did not let the rumours about who I was keep you from talking to me. You are absolutely perfect, Mariah; why should I not want to kiss you?"
Mariah was staring at him. Her brain was screaming at her that maybe she should not be doing this now; she was still trying to get over Kyle and understand what the two of them had had going on. Kissing someone else was definitely not a good idea.
Still, her mouth thought otherwise.
"Kiss me like that", she said. "Kiss me like you imagined it."
Taimoor looked into her eyes for a few moments before raising his hands from her waist to cup her face. He then lowered his head and she closed her eyes right before his lips brushed against hers. They were soft and gentle, much more like how she knew he was beneath that sarcastic shell he wore as a protection. His hands slowly travelled down from her cheeks and landed on her shoulders, before one of them went up again to tangle itself with her hair. She gasped against his lips and he took it as an invitation to deepen the kiss while slowly pushing her back against the wall. Her hands released his collar to instead grab his head, pulling him closer as she felt the cold stone press into her back. He bit her lip teasingly, causing her to groan silently and force him down harder, wanting more. Just then, however, he pulled back and rested his forehead against hers. Both of them were breathing heavily.
"Like that", he whispered, his voice hoarse.
"When did this happen and why did no one tell me to ship it?" a voice from the other end of the corridor suddenly called. Taimoor immediately jumped back, although he still left one hand lingering on her arm. Mariah blushed furiously when she saw Rebecca and Brianne standing by the stairs. It was the Ravenclaw who had shouted at them and Mariah wondered how long they had been standing there.
"I don't think that's your business, Bec", Taimoor now answered.
"I am simply curious if this has happened for quite some time or if you two are new at this sort of couple-stuff", Rebecca answered.
"We're not a couple", Mariah quickly answered. Taimoor shot her what could only be described as a hurt look and dropped his hand from her arm, taking another step away from her. She should not have said that, she realized, but at the same time she did not want to be forced to state that they were in a relationship just because of that they had kissed one another.
"Mariah", Brianne warned. How had she been able to interpret the signs from where she stood?
"I need to go talk to Snape", Taimoor said, his voice short. With a nod in the direction of the two newcomers he turned around, avoiding Mariah with his gaze completely. When he had disappeared Mariah regained her ability to move and walked over to the two other girls.
"Damn it, Mariah", Rebecca cursed.
"What?"
"You two just shared the most amazing kiss and you go ahead and break his heart. Well done."
"Just because we kissed it does not mean we're couple", Mariah protested.
"Well, then what does it mean?" Brianne inquired. "Seriously, that sort of kiss... that was not some kind of friendly peck; that was a kiss of pure passion and love."
"Taimoor is not in love with me", Mariah quickly countered, although she did recall what he had told her about imagining to kiss her. That had certainly sounded like his feelings went deeper than friendship. The kiss they had shared had not exactly proved the opposite, either. She glanced in the direction he had disappeared in and contemplated following him when someone moved up the stairs that Brianne and Rebecca had obviously used to get there. It was Jacob.
"There you are!" he panted, having been running up the stairs and probably through the corridors beneath them. After taking a few deep breaths he straightened.
"We found it", he said.
"Found what?" Brianne asked.
"The pentagrammic pyramid", Jacob answered. "We found out what it was and how it works."
"Really?" Rebecca gasped. "Then what is it? How does it work?"
"It's an amplifier", Jacob responded. "It amplifies someone's magic to the level of Merlin and Morgan."
"Seriously?" Mariah asked with a frown. "But if we possess it, shouldn't it amplify our abilities?"
Jacob grimaced slightly.
"Well, that's the problem. The pentagrammic pyramid is only one part of the amplifier."
"One part?" Rebecca asked. Jacob nodded.
"One of three."
