After the second task Hermione found herself teased about being the person that Viktor Krum would miss most and Ron was sharing Harry's limelight for the second time in his life, the first of course being the time that Sirius Black had slashed his curtains. He seemed to thoroughly enjoy all the attention, and whenever Maya passed him in the corridors she heard him telling the story. She could not help but notice that the tale became more thrilling every time, but she did not care enough to call him out on it. His popularity would wane soon enough. Just like herself, Ron Weasley was simply not destined for fame.
As they entered March the weather thankfully became drier, even if the winds were still cold as ever. Then one morning a most interesting article arrived at the Slytherin table during breakfast. A colour photograph of Harry headed a short piece entitled Harry Potter's Secret Heartache. The article basically outlined a love triangle between Harry, Hermione and Krum, along with rather dramatic descriptions and a quote by none other than Pansy Parkinson, who seemed immensely proud of herself as the Slytherins laughed heartily. They simply could not wait for double Potions that afternoon, where they would come face-to-face with the Gryffindorks.
When finally the time came, the Slytherins all stood outside the classroom waiting anxiously for the lions to arrive. 'There they are, there they are!' Pansy giggled excitedly when at last they descended the steps to the dungeons and came into view. It was a weird time for it, because the situation was nothing too dramatic, but Maya had very seldom embraced being a Slytherin more. She felt truly united with her fellow Slytherins in this incoming clash with the Gryffindorks, and for once even felt to be completely on the same page with Pansy and her gang. She laughed, sniggered and giggled along with them as Pansy gleefully threw the Witch Weekly magazine to a startled looking Hermione. 'You might just find something interesting in there, Granger!' Before Hermione really had time to react, however, the dungeon door opened and Snape beckoned them all inside.
The Slytherins had a hard time focusing on today's potion. They kept looking across the room at Hermione, Harry and Ron, who had headed for a table at the back of the dungeon. Hermione was hastily riffling through the magazine under the desk, and much to the Slytherins' surprise and disappointment she did not seem affected by the article. She just giggled a little and promptly threw the magazine onto the empty chair beside her. Thankfully the Slytherins could always count on Snape to make life miserable for the Gryffindorks. He had glided over to their desk without them noticing and said in an icy voice: 'I understand how fascinating your social life must be, Ms Granger, but I won't allow you discussing it in my class. Ten points from Gryffindor.' His eyes fell on the copy of Witch Weekly. 'Ah, reading magazines under the table as well? Another ten points from Gryffindor... oh, but of course... Potter has to keep up with his press cuttings' he said malevolently, spotting the headline. The dungeon rang with the Slytherins' laughter, but they positively howled when Snape began reading the article aloud. Maya and Draco also took the opportunity to press the badges they were still wearing and flash POTTER STINKS! When Snape had finished reading, adding his own mean comments here and there, he separated the Gryffindor trio so they could actually focus on their potions rather than their complicated love lives. It had undoubtedly been one of Maya's favourite Potions classes ever.
The article brought the Slytherins even more joy when Hermione began receiving hate mail, and lots of it. At breakfast the Gryffindor table was literally packed with owls and from the Slytherin table they could see that this time Hermione was actually very upset. The day only got better since their Care of Magical Creatures class was a lot of fun, believe it or not. Not only were there the Gryffindorks to taunt, but Hagrid also taught them about Nifflers, fluffy black creatures with long snouts. Their front paws looked like spades and overall the creatures made a friendly, harmless impression on Maya. 'They like sparkly stuff, there yeh go, look' Hagrid said when one of the Nifflers had suddenly leapt up and attempted to bite Pansy's watch off her wrist. She shrieked and jumped backwards. 'Useful little treasure detectors, they are. I set up a little challenge fer yeh. I've buried some gold coins' -he pointed at a large patch of freshly turned earth- 'and I've got a prize fer whoever picks the Niffler that digs up most.'
Soon enough, the Nifflers dived in and out of the patch of earth, spitting gold into the hands of their student. Maya would not mind having one of her own, even if Ron's eventually emerged victorious. She briefly considered stealing the coins, but when Gregory actually tried to do just that Hagrid quickly snapped at him that it was leprechaun gold and would vanish after a few hours. Of course Hagrid would not bury real gold, it was not like he had any Maya thought, looking at his shabby cabin. Hagrid gave Ron an enormous slab of Honeydukes chocolate and then they set off back to the castle.
Hate mail continued to arrive for Hermione over the following week, some of which were Howlers that shrieked insults at Hermione for the whole Hall to hear. It was a pretty good time for Maya, who also managed to impress Professor Moody again by passing his hex-deflection test with flying colours. This confidence boost was very welcome, because their workload was mounting ever higher in the run-up to the Easter holidays and even Maya was somewhat struggling to get through all of her homework.
In the last week of May, the students got a clue what the third task would consist of. A maze had been built on the normally so smooth and flat Quidditch pitch. Again speculations ran wild; people were saying that all sorts of monsters would be placed in the maze for the champions to overcome. Maya kept an eye on Harry. He seemed rather nervous and she had the idea he was preparing hard for the third task, but also thought (or hoped) that he might lose it when he had rolled on the floor, clutching his scar, in Divination class. The mood in the castle as they entered June became excited and tense, but Maya tried to escape in exam revising. The exams would finish on the day of the third task, and she had already seen that the exam she would have to sit on her birthday would obviously be History of Magic, her worst subject. She was not at all looking forward to the third task, and whenever she glanced at the maze through the windows she was worried that Harry would go on to win the entire thing.
The exams turned out to be a breeze. As expected, only the History of Magic put a dampener on her overall results and her birthday, but at least she had gotten some nice presents from her friends. Harry had not bothered to wish her a happy birthday, but she did not care; to her he was only family on paper now. Maya felt rather depressed when she went to bed on the night of her birthday. Not just because her special day was over, but because the next day would be the day of the third task. She tried her hardest to clear her mind and fall asleep, but images of Harry triumphantly holding up the Triwizard Cup kept her tossing and turning for what felt all night.
She had planned it well. As the entire school made its way to the stands erected at the entrance of the maze, she picked the moment carefully and broke free from the crowd. Using her wand to burn a hole in the hedge, she sneaked inside the maze. If Harry would refuse to mess up the third task like a good boy, she would just mess it up for him. The sky was a very dark purple and once she was inside the maze it felt like she had stepped into another world. It was pretty surrealistic and for now she could not hear a thing. For some strange reason she felt right at home and in her element. The champions would enter the maze just about now and thus she had a nice little head start. The towering hedges cast black shadows across the path and Maya proceeded carefully. Whatever it was she would encounter in here, she would be able to take it. She was much more skilled than Harry after all. She walked on for about a minute, turning right at a fork and then suddenly a sound met her ears. Holding her illuminating wand at the ready, it sounded like something heavy was coming her way through the darkness.
It was a mummified elephant and it was charging right at her. Maya kept perfectly calm and realised that everything, powerful it may seem, had a weakness. An elephant was not very agile, and thus she waited until it was right in front of her and then smoothly dodged it. She had also stepped on one of its hooves, and as the elephant kept running forwards it was unravelling quickly until it had completely ceased to exist. 'Well, that wraps up this encounter nicely' Maya muttered to herself.
Nothing happened for about two minutes until she arrived at a large opening. Holding out her wand, she could make out a massive skull-like face on the ground. Before she could decide to turn back, its mouth opened and out came what seemed like an entire colony of monstruous, angrily buzzing bees. They were strangely illuminated by the fire that was flickering inside the skull and made to dive on Maya. 'All right, I'll just fight fire with fire then!' Maya said, 'Incendio!' Instead of sparks it was a gigantic bolt of fire that came out of her wand, but Maya was not at all surprised. She was surprised, however, that the bees were completely unscathed. 'Oh, okay, okay, I see how it is' she said calmly, 'Aguamenti!' A beam of water collided with the bees and they all fell to the ground. 'Should have minded your own beeswax, shouldn't you' Maya said casually.
The first real shock came when she turned a corner towards what she thought would be the centre of the maze. Something greyish-silver was slowly floating towards her. When it came close enough, Maya gasped in shock. The apparition had two black holes for eyes and something what seemed a lot like blood was streaming from its mouth down its clothes, showing dark stains. The worst to Maya was, however, that it was unmistakeably Draco. 'What have they done to you?' she whispered in a state of complete shock. The apparition did not answer, but extended its arms. For one very strange moment Maya considered taking its hands, but then she came to her senses. She turned on her heel and dashed away. It was the only thing she could do, for she refused to hurt Draco.
It took her a few minutes to calm down but then thunderous footsteps snapped her out of it. She could not exactly be sure where they were coming from and thus she just kept walking. She met nothing for a few minutes, except dead ends. She was very relieved to find a new route after that, but her relief was short-lived. The sound of the footsteps met her ears anew, and this time the being responsible for them appeared into view. 'What, no, it can't be!' Maya said utterly bewildered. The giant was doing cartwheels towards her, but to Maya that was not the most shocking part about the entire thing. The beefy giant had a large purple face, a bushy black moustache, hardly any neck and once it caught sight of Maya a vein unmistakeably started throbbing in its temple. It was Maya's father, Vernon Dursley, but about five times as big as she remembered him.
'You should never have gone to that madhouse of a school, girl! You and that bloody cousin of yours!' Vernon shouted as he made his way towards her. He had stopped doing cartwheels and now, judging by the way he moved his hands, clearly intended to strangle Maya.
'No way, Hogwarts has always been my real home! Why did you betray us?! What did we do to deserve that?! Why couldn't you be supportive of your own flesh and blood?!' Maya screamed, trying her hardest to keep a significant distance between herself and her father.
'Because you're a freak!' Vernon bellowed.
'Do... not... call.. me... a... FREAK!' Maya bellowed back, and then her wand seemed to act of its own accord. A gigantic blueish beam shot out of it and hit her father right in the face. He started howling in pain, clutching his face but then his entire head exploded with a loud bang. Next moment, his body fell limply to the ground with a loud thud, blood oozing out of his neck. 'Wow... talk about losing one's head' Maya panted. Refusing to give her father's body another look, she stepped right over it and continued her way. She wondered what she would encounter next, but whatever it would be, it could not possibly be weirder than this, could it?
It could. Just when Maya thought she would find the Triwizard Cup any second now, the sounds of humming and what seemed like page flipping met her ears. She proceeded carefully until she turned a corner and saw a small clearing. A sign hung over the path, and Maya squinted to read it. Welcome to the Book Nook! it said, and a smaller sign underneath it read Keep going, you're on the write track! 'What the...' Maya mumbled. She spotted various bookcases along the hedges and then two books came floating towards her. One of them was blue, the other one was pink. They hovered in mid-air and then suddenly the blue book opened and spoke.
'You can't come in, we're overbooked!' he said cheerfully. It was definitely a boy's voice. Flying, sentient books. Sure, why not Maya thought sarcastically.
'Surprised? You know better than to judge a book by its cover!' the pink book said, with a girl's voice.
'You know, we once were students just like you but we always had our nose so deep in our books that one day we just literally got sucked in!' the blue book said happily, as if that was what everyone wanted to happen in their lives.
'Er, that's great, I guess. But I'm kinda busy here, so mind if I pass?' Maya asked.
'Oh no, your ending has been written already!' said the pink book.
'This is your final chapter!' the blue book joined in.
'We'll remove you from the pages of history!'
'Definitely, because we are smart books and you lack book smarts!'
'What? Why? What did I do to you? What do you want from me? Who or what are you anyway?' Maya asked. She was not exactly intimidated by two fluttering books, but at the same time she would not let her guard down.
'Glad you ask! Let's hit it!' the blue book said, turning towards the pink book and next second, and much to Maya's shock and horror, they began to sing.
'We call ourselves the Booky Bunch and we fight for what is wrong
We got tired of simply speaking so we thought we'd try a song
Don't you worry, lady, it's gonna be just fine
So why don't you sit back, relax and let us tickle your spine
Even though we're unfettered
We're not quite unlettered
We'll make sure to read your story from cover to cover
Your hopes, your sorrows and even the last letter from your lover!'
'What? What are you talking, er, singing about? Draco's not my lover!' Maya interjected angrily.
'We'll give you a little hint
You'll soon be out-of-print
And you'd better not be sloppy
Or we'll reduce you to a mere reading copy
You'd never expect a book
To have a proper right hook!'
Before Maya knew it, both books jumped on her, painfully and repeatedly smacking her on the head with their full hardcover weight. Hardly knowing what she was doing, she grabbed the pink book and promptly used it to hit the blue book. 'How do you like me taking a leaf out of your book?' Maya said, panting slightly. The pink book suddenly spouted spikes and Maya was forced to release it.
'Ah, hitting the books, are we?' the blue book said sarcastically. It had shot up again after being knocked to the ground. It seemed the books were of the resilient kind.
'Actually, I think I'll do it by the book so I can turn the page' Maya said bluntly. For the second time in this 'amazeing' adventure she cast the Fire-Making Spell, but this time it was very effective. The books screamed and immediately fell to the ground.
'Book burning? All right, maybe you did know your classics after all...' the pink book muttered feebly, until both of them were literally reduced to ashes.
When Maya had made her way past the bookcases, she turned another corner and suddenly saw light ahead. The Triwizard Cup was gleaming on a plinth and Maya calmly walked up to it, waiting for her cousin to show up.
She had been waiting for what felt like ten seconds when she heard an agitated, most familiar voice. 'Maya? What are you doing here? What do you want?' Harry said, wearing an expression of shock.
'What do you think I want? A duel with the Triwizard Champion!' Maya said excitedly.
'Are you out of your mind? Get out of the way and let me take the Cup!' Harry said exasperatedly.
'What seems to be the problem? I'm just in the mood for a friendly duel is all,' Maya said pleasantly, 'besides, surely a Triwizard Champion like yourself can beat a measly, ordinary fourth year?'
'Unbelievable...' Harry muttered.
'Imagine being you now right now. You fought your way past dragons, merpeople and whatever horrible things live in that ruddy lake you once made me fall into, you undoubtedly overcame various obstacles in this maze only to lose the Cup in the end... all thanks to your own cousin!' Maya said, now pointing her wand right at Harry's heart.
'I guess we'll see about that. Speaking of dragons, you might say I master those now after the first task' Harry said. He took out a whistle and blew it. Before Maya knew it, a red dragon came flying over the hedges and landed right in front of Harry. 'Say hello to my little friend!'
Maya did some quick thinking. How was she supposed to counter a dragon? Well, with another dragon of course. 'Expecto Patronum!' A gigantic, translucent dragon shot out of her wand. 'Looks like both of us have giant dragons now' she said matter-of-factly.
'Yes, but only one will remain standing!' Harry said, and next second the dragons engaged in a physical fight. Maya was not at all surprised to see that her Patronus could actually do that. While the dragons fought, Harry and Maya began casting spells at each other. Much to Maya's shock, none of her spells were actually hitting Harry. He deflected them with apparent ease, and Maya quickly found herself forced on the defensive. 'Did you honestly think you would stand a chance against me, Maya? You do know I was the one who defeated Voldemort, right? What I have are exceptional powers that you can only dream of!' Harry said, and before Maya knew it her wand flew out of her hand and over the nearest hedge.
'No, no, this can't be...' Maya said in a state of utter disbelief. She had always been so sure that she was the more powerful of the two... never had a doubt in her mind...
'Can't it? Well, Maya, if you won't accept defeat I'll just have to force it on you!' Harry said, 'Crucio!' Maya screamed in pain; the headache was truly unbearable...
And then Maya woke up. She had fallen out of bed and evidently hit her head on the stone floor of her room. She was truly horrified, her heart was beating so fast it hurt and she was covered in cold sweat. It took her a long time to fully come to terms with the fact that it had all been a dream and to subsequently calm herself down. Of course it was just a dream, she would never actually go into the maze. She was not reckless; she was a very analytical person who always liked to see a clear outcome. She would almost certainly get expelled for something stupid like that and Harry most definitely did not have a pet dragon or exceptional powers.
