On Halloween night, Maya was just finishing up the first letter she would send to her mother (she had completely forgotten about it in all of the Hogwarts excitement), when she heard knocking on her door. 'Are you ready, Maya?' Draco called. 'Just a sec' she replied. Draco sighed in annoyance. 'Why do girls always need an hour to do literally anything?' 'I didn't need an hour to beat you in a duel' Maya retorted. She heard Vincent and Gregory sniggering. 'I wasn't ready for it, I mean, I didn't even have my wand in reach. Let's do a rematch' Draco said, and just by the tone of his voice Maya knew he had gone red. She opened the door and smiled at him. 'No, we're playing on the same team now. Save the duelling for the Gryffindorks. All right, let's go, I heard from that fat third year that always lies grunting on the couch that the Halloween feast is excellent.' The four of them walked through the common room onto the hallway, climbed the stairs out of the dungeon and quickly found themselves in the Great Hall. It looked simply splendid and, well, magical with what seemed like thousands of floating jack-o'-lanterns and live bats flying around. There was a cosy orange glow to the Hall and the Slytherins happily sat down. The feast appeared suddenly on the tables and barely had Maya put some potatoes on her golden plate when Professor Quirrell came running frantically into the Hall. 'Troll! Troll in the dungeon!' he screamed, with everybody staring at him. 'Thought you ought to know…' and he fainted. After a few seconds of silence, everybody except Maya started screaming; she just looked at Draco, who was in a complete state of panic. 'What…' she started but her words were drowned in the uproar. Apparently a troll was a terrifying magical creature and sometimes ignorance was bliss because Maya was pretty much the only student who had remained perfectly calm. To restore order and make himself heard, Professor Dumbledore had to cast several exploding firecrackers. 'SILENCE!' he bellowed, 'will everyone please not panic. Prefects will lead their houses back to the dormitories, except for the Slytherins, they will stay in the Hall. Teachers will follow me to the dungeons, while the Head Boy and Girl and Hagrid will guard the Hall.' The Slytherins slowly sat down again and Maya looked in amazement how the entire Hall but them scurried off. The sounds slowly died away but were quickly replaced by lively chatter at the Slytherin table. 'How do you think the troll got in?' a fourth year girl asked. Some theories were brought forward, but none of them seemed really plausible to Maya. Vincent and Gregory did not care about the troll; they had quickly made their way to the other houses' tables to see if those had dishes the Slytherin table did not. Maya and Draco casted a glance at the entrance, where Hagrid was talking to the Head Boy and Girl, who were from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw respectively. 'You think they can keep us safe?' Maya asked Draco. 'Probably. But if all else fails, I'll protect you too.' Maya's first instinct was to point out that he was freaking out the most after Quirrell's announcement, but she stopped herself just in time. 'Thanks, Draco' she just said instead. She started eating again; the feast was truly excellent. Time and time again she was impressed with the quality of food at Hogwarts. There was always a huge variety and nothing was ever over- or undercooked. After about thirty minutes, Professor Dumbledore came to the Hall and told them that the troll had been taken care of and that they could go to their dormitory. During the walk, Draco shared with Maya all of his theories on how the teachers had subdued the troll. 'Dumbledore can probably shrink it to the size of a miniature toy troll in a second…'
November rolled around and the troll had quickly vanished from the students' minds. The Quidditch season was about to commence and Gryffindor versus Slytherin was up first. There was a general buzz of excitement going through the school and there was some pre-game tension between the two houses. Draco had explained Maya the rules of Quidditch, but she was not sure whether she liked the sport much. Maya deemed it unfair that rich people could buy better broomsticks and thus have an advantage; if she would play Quidditch she would have to use the worst and cheapest broomstick under the sun. Also the teams apparently did not have any substitutes, which could be useful in terms of strategy or simply to replace the injured (Quidditch seemed like an extremely dangerous game) or poorly performing players. In addition to that, the games could last an indefinite amount of time in which case it would be beneficial to give the players some rest like that. Lastly, Maya was not sure how easy it was to score goals, but they only counted for ten points meaning that catching the Snitch would be equal to scoring fifteen goals, which seemed quite a lot to her. In Muggle football matches goals did not occur all that frequently, but admittedly in basketball they did so she was not entirely sure what to make of it. Still it seemed unfair to Maya that a team could play really well, score about ten goals to none and then lose because some player that had not contributed anything to the game at that point manages (possibly by chance) to catch the Snitch and then win the entire game. Despite all that, that chilly Saturday morning she put on her Slytherin scarf and made her way to the Quidditch stadium with Draco, Vincent, Gregory and Millicent. They were a tad early and thus got themselves good high seats, up in the top row. 'This is going to be good, I can't wait to play next year' Draco said excitedly. 'How can you be so sure that you'll make the team?' Maya asked. 'Oh, don't worry, I have my own, subtle little ways' Draco said smugly. Maya rolled her eyes. A few minutes later the stadium was as good as full; the noise coming from the crowd was enormous. The two teams walked on to the pitch; the Slytherins in green and the Gryffindors in red. 'How come we don't have any female players?' Maya asked. Draco shrugged. 'Probably our captain prefers players who can literally pack a punch.' Maya suddenly lost all faith in a good outcome of this match, and sure enough within a matter of minutes the Gryffindor team had scored six times to zero for the Slytherins. The beefy players in green were rather helpless against the nimble Chasers in red. 'Wow, we really suck at this game, don't we?' Maya sighed bluntly when the Gryffindors scored yet again and the cold air was filled with Gryffindor cheers once more. Draco was grinding his teeth. 'We can still catch the Snitch' he tried to keep the morale up, and barely had he finished speaking or both the Slytherin seeker and Harry suddenly hurtled towards a tiny speck of gold. The crowd collectively held its breath, until Slytherin captain Marcus Flint rather anticlimactically crashed right into Harry, spinning him off course. The Slytherins cheered, the Gryffindors booed. To Maya's surprise the only penalty for her team was a free shot at the goalposts for Gryffindor. 'Fouls like that go pretty much unpunished in this game?' she asked Draco. 'Yes, that's one of the best things about it. Quidditch's a game for real men' he said. 'Then why is our team getting their butts kicked by a team that has three female players?' Maya asked promptly. Draco sighed but did not respond. Suddenly Harry appeared to be having troubles with his broom; it seemed like it was completely out of his control. 'What's your cousin doing, practising for the circus?' Draco asked. Maya jerked her head towards her cousin, and felt a little scared when he almost fell off. 'Something's wrong with his broom,' she said, 'they should call for a time-out.' 'Are you kidding? He just isn't good enough to play Quidditch. Imagine those players who practised all summer and didn't even get a chance to try out for the team, because Harry-I-have-never-been-on-a-broomstick-before Potter obviously gets the spot…' Draco kept rambling for a few more minutes, but Maya did not listen; she kept her focus on Harry and to her immense relief he eventually managed to regain control over his broomstick. A minute later he caught the Snitch in rather unorthodox fashion; he had nearly swallowed the little golden ball, but Gryffindor's win was a fact. The Slytherins angrily left the stadium, and during the walk back to the castle they found themselves serenaded by the Gryffindors with rather provoking songs.
That evening it seemed like an actual tragedy had occurred; the entire Slytherin common room was awfully quiet. That was fine with Maya, then she could do her homework there rather than in her own room. She was sitting in a corner with Draco, Vincent, Gregory and Millicent and while they were discussing the Quidditch game in hushed voices, Maya sat on her knees and worked on her Potions essay. 'That Potter!' Draco suddenly spat loudly and without thinking he grabbed a pillow from the sofa he was sitting on and threw it away. It landed straight on Maya's essay and also knocked over her ink bottle. She gasped in shock when the content spilled all over her essay and, more importantly, her favourite pair of jeans. She stood up immediately to see the damage. It looked like she had peed her pants and various students started giggling. 'Draco Malfoy!' Maya said furiously, followed by a string of insults. Draco was in shock himself and only muttered that he was sorry. Maya stormed off towards her room to change, ignoring the handful of students that were still laughing. She had just put on a new pair of pants when she heard knocking on her door.
'Maya? One of the Prefects has saved your essay, it's all dry, I got it for you' Draco said hesitantly. Maya rolled her eyes and opened the door. 'Thanks' she said, snatching the essay out of his hands. 'I'm sorry' Draco said again. 'Can I ask you something?' Maya asked promptly. 'Sure' Draco said surprised. 'Why's that Quidditch game so important to you that you actually become so angry?' Maya asked. Draco sighed. 'It's not just Quidditch. I just don't really like how your cousin's so famous and seen as some sort of hero and everything always seems to work out for him, you know' Draco said awkwardly. Maya looked at him. This was the very first time that someone else managed to voice the exact feelings that she had. She motioned for Draco to come in and then shut the door. They sat down on her bed. 'You know, Draco, that's exactly how I feel. It feels like I have to work so much harder than him to prove myself. When Hagrid took him and me to Diagon Alley, nobody even noticed me. All wizards and witches we encountered knew who he was and shook hands with him and everything, it was like I didn't exist' Maya said. 'That must've been hard' Draco said empathically. 'Yes, especially since I had only found out that I was a witch like the morning before. Then I had to get second-hand stuff, while Harry has this entire vault to himself. My first experience in the wizarding world wasn't particularly pleasant; I was basically at a huge disadvantage immediately. That's why I work so hard. I want to become so powerful that nobody will ever consider me a second-rate witch' Maya explained. 'Your family's not very rich, are they?' Draco asked carefully. 'We used to be. I always got a ton of presents for my birthday and I had all material possessions my heart could desire. Not that I cared all that much about that, but still. But then one day I performed some magic in the presence of my father. He totally lost it and left. I haven't seen him since and probably never will again. Something changed inside me that day. I learned at the tender age of ten that people cannot be trusted and that even some of the most important people in your life can randomly turn their backs on you. I always thought that my father would lead me when life's misleading, but he let me walk this road alone' Maya said bitterly. She did not even know why she told Draco all of this, it just came out without thinking. 'Well, if it's any help, I can help you out with the money part' Draco said softly. 'Thanks Draco, but I'm too proud to accept that' Maya said, but she did smile at him. 'Don't think of it like that. We're Slytherins. Everyone hates us and looks down on us, but we'll always have each other's backs' Draco said. Maya smiled and nodded. After a few seconds, she got up. 'Let's go back to the common room, they're probably wondering what we're doing.'