'I just had second years do well on transfiguring earthworms into shoelaces, so I expect you as fourth years to be able to transfigure your hedgehogs into pincushions. Good luck' Professor McGonagall told them sternly at the start of a Transfiguration lesson. It was a tough one, and at the end of it only Maya and Hermione had managed to successfully perform the spell. Feeling rather pleased with herself, Maya stayed behind to ask Professor McGonagall about tutorship, for which fourth years and above could sign up. Much to Maya's annoyance, however, Hermione apparently had a question for the Gryffindor head of house too.
'Er, Professor McGonagall, I was wondering if you would be interested in joining the S.P.E.W.? It stands for the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare, to make life better for those poor, enslaved house-elves' Hermione said, hopefully holding up a box with badges. Maya rolled her eyes.
Professor McGonagall considered Hermione for a few seconds, plainly wondering whether this was some kind of joke or not. 'I think not, Ms Granger,' she said brusquely, 'but maybe you can fight to get more funding for the school? I've had to dig up those worms for the second years myself, you know…'
Hermione left looking rather disappointed, and now it was Maya's time to try her luck. 'Hello, Professor. I'd like to sign up to be a tutor' she said carefully. Professor McGonagall's eyes bore into hers.
'You do, Ms Dursley? Very well, then I'll add you to the list. I'll be interviewing every candidate next week' Professor McGonagall said. Maya nodded and thanked her. She would need to prepare well for that interview, because everyone was always prejudiced against Slytherins and she would probably not get a fair chance now that Professor McGonagall would be the one conducting the interviews.
Maya was pretty nervous when she made her way down to Professor McGonagall's office a few days later. It was a small study located off of the first floor corridor and Maya had never been in there before. She felt really well prepared and to look professional for her first (sort of) job interview she had put her long hair in a bun and made sure that her uniform had been cleaned. When Maya stood in front of the office door, she took a breath and knocked. 'Come in' came Professor McGonagall's slightly muffled voice and Maya opened the door. A small fire crackled merrily and through the windows Maya could see the Quidditch pitch. 'Ah, Ms Dursley. Please sit down' the head of Gryffindor house said when the Slytherin had closed the door behind her. When Maya had taken a seat, the first thing Professor McGonagall did was offering her a biscuit from the large cookie jar on her desk.
'Er, thank you Professor, but I'm not hungry' Maya said truthfully. When she was nervous she could not eat; it was like her throat completely blocked up.
'Very well. Now, Ms Dursley, I've got to say I was rather surprised to hear you want to become a tutor. Could you please enlighten me on your motives?' Professor McGonagall asked, looking sternly down at Maya.
All right, you expected this one. Now don't say it'll increase your chances of becoming a Prefect, because then she'll think you're only in it for yourself. It's true, but she shouldn't think that Maya thought. 'Well, I'm sure it'd increase my chances of becoming a Prefect' Maya blurted out, distracted and confused by her own thoughts. She immediately knew she had made a mistake and sure enough Professor McGonagall raised an eyebrow. Before she could say anything, however, Maya hurriedly went on in a valiant effort to fix her error. 'But I also think it could be a very satisfying experience to actually see struggling students grow and regain their confidence,' Maya said quickly, 'I know my stuff.'
'I quite agree on that. You have always been an exceptional student and when it comes to knowledge I don't doubt you are very capable of teaching first years. I do have some reservations, however. The thing is, Ms Dursley, that eleven-year-olds can be quite fragile. I too approach them in a completely different manner than I would approach older students' Professor McGonagall said, her eyes boring into Maya's once more.
'I understand' Maya said. She did not like the direction this was going, and she was of the opinion that Professor McGonagall was not being entirely truthful here. She had been pretty harsh on Maya and Draco in their first year, after the Norbert the dragon disaster. But maybe the professor was getting old and she just did not remember as much as she used to.
'So, I'll be entirely honest with you, Ms Dursley, because I feel you deserve that when you take the time to sit this interview. I hope you'll forgive me for being so blunt, but I don't think you're the best person for the job, since your demeanour can be somewhat… cold, at times. The first years need someone they can feel safe and comfortable with, and I don't think your personality would mix very well with them. Also, I'm not entirely convinced that your motives for doing this are the right ones' Professor McGonagall said.
'So basically I didn't stand a chance from the beginning?' Maya asked, clenching her fists and containing her anger. She felt that the professor's words were out of line and she was quite hurt by them. Did she really have the right to say those things?
'Everyone deserves an interview' Professor McGonagall said calmly.
'Well, thank you so much for your time then,' Maya said, standing up, 'even though you completely wasted mine.' And with that Maya promptly left the office in a huff. When she made her way back to the Slytherin common room, she came to the conclusion that what Professor McGonagall had said did not make any sense. Her behaviour towards the first year she would be tutoring would obviously be completely different compared to that towards her friends and classmates. Besides, why could she not at least get a chance? Was Professor McGonagall worried she would traumatise some eleven-year-old for life? She felt frustrated with herself that she did not say those things to the professor's face, but it happened so often that you only thought of what to say after the moment had passed. She had also always rather liked Professor McGonagall, but she was just as bad and prejudiced against Slytherins as all the other Gryffindorks.
When she entered the Slytherin common room, she found Draco, Vincent and Gregory doing homework. 'Oh, you're back early. How'd it go?' Draco asked Maya eagerly once he caught sight of her.
'I'm tempted to say 'bad', but then what did I really expect, it was Slytherin prejudice at its finest. She basically just told me what kind of horrible person I was' Maya said, again feeling a surge of anger. Draco and she spent the next couple of minutes calling Professor McGonagall every insult in the book, but then he thought of something to cheer Maya up.
'Don't worry about becoming a Prefect, though. I mean, realistically speaking, the other girls have had almost no plot relevance in this story thus far so who else is going to become one?' Draco said.
'Good point' Maya said, actually feeling somewhat better. If they did not want her help, then it was their loss. One day she would show them all…
Thankfully she did not have much time to dwell on that negative experience, because their lessons were becoming more difficult and demanding than ever before; DADA in particular. One Thursday in October, Professor Moody announced to the class's immense surprise that he would be putting the Imperius curse on each of them in turn, to demonstrate its power and to find out whether they were actually capable of fighting against its dangerous effects. This was supposed to be illegal but apparently Professor Dumbledore wanted them taught what it feels like and thus Moody cleared away the desks with a sweep of his wand, leaving a large clear space in the middle of the room. Maya was definitely feeling some trepidation and seeing her classmates hopping while singing the national anthem, imitating a cat and performing a series of astonishing gymnastics did not exactly help. They all seemed completely helpless and Maya's heart leapt when Moody growled her name. She slowly walked forwards into the middle of the classroom, which felt like being on stage with everyone watching her. Barely a second after she had come to a halt, Moody raised his wand, pointed it right at her and said: 'Imperio'.
Whatever it was Maya had expected the curse to feel like, it was not this. It was surprisingly… pleasant. There was no room for thoughts and worries in her head and all she felt was a sense of utmost relaxation. And then from very far away, almost as if it came from some kind of other world, she heard Moody's voice. Take the glass of water on my desk… Maya immediately took two steps towards Moody's desk, completely ready to obey. Take the glass of water on my desk… Actually, why should she? She was not feeling thirsty… Take the glass of water on my desk… No, I will not, if Moody's thirsty he should get it himself, I am not his servant… Take the glass, NOW! Then suddenly Maya found herself holding the edge of Moody's desk, panting as if she had just run a marathon, but the glass of water completely untouched and Moody's voice back to normal again.
'Wow, I can't believe it! Dursley, you completely beat the Imperius curse! I never thought a fourth year would be capable of that, and it was your first try! You know why you could do it, right?' Moody exclaimed, more excited than Maya had ever seen him.
'Not really, I just… didn't want to do what I was told' Maya said, still panting slightly and only vaguely aware of everyone still watching her.
'Exactly! I haven't known you for long but I can see you are defiant, strong-willed, distrustful of blind obedience, naturally resistant to authority and you have a fiercely independent spirit. Those are all excellent qualities to fight the Imperius curse. You know what, thirty points to Slytherin' Moody said. There were gasps from the class. Thirty points? Then he must have been extremely impressed with Maya indeed, and it felt mighty good to be praised by a teacher on her personality after that disastrous interview. She actually liked Moody and the way he taught them, which she had deemed completely impossible a month ago.
Some of Maya's shine was taken away by none other than her famous cousin Harry Potter, of course. Harry too managed to resist the curse, but he did not manage to throw it off completely like Maya had. When the lesson had finished, it was time for homework. The fourth years had noticed a definite increase in the amount of work they were required to do this term. According to Professor McGonagall this was because the Ordinary Wizarding Levels or O. were drawing closer. Maya was used to working hard, but she noticed that her classmates really had to step up their game if they wanted to keep up with the workload. She found herself helping Vincent and Gregory with their work more and more, and even though Slytherins always had each other's backs, she would stop doing that if they sucked up too much of her time. Distractions, can't have those, you know the drill.
In Divination, Maya, along with Harry and Ron, got top marks for their homework on planet movements. She had long found out that the way to get good grades in that class was to include as many possible catastrophes as possible, and thus she had. Professor Snape had them research antidotes, which they took very seriously indeed as he had hinted that he might be poisoning one of them before Christmas to see if their antidote worked. For Charms they were supposed to read three extra books in preparation for their lesson on Summoning Charms. The Blast-Ended Skrewts were growing at an alarming pace and were becoming harder and harder to handle, which made Maya dread COMC even more than Herbology, where they had to collect Bubotuber pus by squeezing them which was unfortunately as disgusting as it sounds, and History of Magic, for which they had to write essays on the goblin rebellions of yore.