Maya made it to the dorm without running into any students but found the paintings were very unnerving. She changed into a pair of dry clothes, and hung her cloak and school clothes up to dry. It would have seemed very strange to any wizard or witch who weren't use to muggle ideas, but everyone is in class. Maya sat at the window, glancing out thoughtfully. The clouds were rumbling angrily and forewarned rain, and Maya grimaced. Rain never made her cheerful. She suddenly smirked to herself. Moving back to her room, she removed a painting set and paper carefully. She happened to intercept a house elf and asked politely for a glass of water and a napkin. At the politeness, the house elf trembled and moved away but nodded. The house elf returned right away and gave her what she had asked for right away, as if to punish her with convenience for her misinterpreted behaviour.

Maya sat quietly on the window pocket and began to paint in the silence of the dorm. At first she had no idea what she was painting, she just let it flow from her hand to the brush and onto the paper. In the end she found she had painted a red lightning sign, not unlike that on Harry's forehead; surrounded by dark clouds and yellow embers with ice blue rain. She put it down to dry, and pondered it's meaning. After a few moments of staring out the window, she decided it would come to her later. For the time being, she was unsure what to do with the water and napkin so put away her painting set and hung her painting up with her clothes.

Maya jumped when she heard the fat lady calling her name. She rushed down the stairs and out the portal, nearly knocking over the student already there.

"What is it?" she asked, out of breath.

"This young man needs your permission to enter the dorm," the painting replied.Maya turned, and saw Malfoy standing there impatiently.

"Oh. Hi Draco," she said, slightly confused.

"What?" he asked.

"Not to sound rude... but why are you here?" she asked curiously.

"Just here to start helping you study. I got out of class early to get here." he said.

"Oh, I see." she said shyly. There was an akward silence between the two for a moment, in which Maya looked curiously at Malfoy.

"Is there something on my face?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. She giggled in response.

"No, it's nothing really. You can look so nice sometimes, that's all." she said playfully. She had been thinking back to her paintings, and thus had made her stare but she thought he may laugh at her if she said anything.

"Well.... let's get going then," he said, slightly blushing. Maya coughed to stop her giggles and nodded solemnly. She went back into the dorm to retrieve the books she was said to need and Malfoy followed along. She retreived her books from her room, glad that that Malfoy wouldn't have to see her painting. She happily bounced down the stairs with her school supplies.

When they reached the basement, Maya was confused and uncertain of where they were headed.
"Where are we going... ?" she asked quietly, looking at her surroundings.

"A secret study room I discovered here a while back," Malfoy said, placing his hand on a space in the wall. He pushed in a brick in the middle and it suddenly turned into a door way. Maya glanced into the room curiously. She shivered.

"It's.... uh.... nice. In a cold sort of isolating way," she said, trying to think of something nice to say. He chuckled.

"Well, this is something passed down by a pure wizarding family ofcourse." he replied. "Now let's get down to studying, shall we? I don't accept slacking." She nodded respectfully and took a place at a large black desk with a soft posture chair. She opened her pencil case, and removed everything she would need: a red pen, blue pen, pencil, small ruler, sharpener and black pen. Malfoy looked at her like she had a third eye.

"Uh....." she said, unsure how to explain.

"What are you supposed to be doing with those?"he asked. She laughed nervously.

"Well, these are what I'm used to writing with, that's all." she said, fidgeting. He sighed, and shook his head. He gestured for her to put them away.

"Take out your quill. Our first lesson: proper use of a quill and parchment. We'll be starting with penmanship. Since you must have little to no skill using a quill it is obvious you need some practice." he said, waiting for her to follow his instructions. She took out parchment, but had some trouble opening the parchment, and seemed very confused about how it was exactly to open them.

"Ah.... Draco...?" she said in a baffled tone. He sighed and hit himself. This was going to be a very long, long night. LONG. He moved in behind her and took her hands in his own to show her how to properly handle the parchment. She blushed slightly, but continued to concentrate. She really didn't know how to handle parchment. She missed lined paper. It was so much easier to handle.

"Are you listening, Maya?" he asked suddenly, snapping her out of her reverie and she smiled nervously.

"Yes, ofcourse!" she said quietly. Malfoy seemed very serious when he taught. He wasn't joking around. He was a very good teacher, she concluded.

"Good, because now I'll show you where to begin writing when writing notes, and then I'll tell you about reports and essays." he said. She looked at him.

"Do you use MLA style?" she asked. He raised an eyebrow in question. "Do you...?".

"Yes. We just love to use PDA as well as muggle writing utensils and all that other rubbish." he said sarcastically.

"That's MLA, Draco. So when do you use it? Is there a special holiday?" she asked naively. He began to laugh out of good humour and couldn't stop. "What?What did I say?". She followed him to the side couch and kept asking until she suddenly began to laugh as well.

"Why.... are... you... laughing...?" Malfoy asked in between laughs. It took Maya a little while to control herself enough to answer.

"I... can't... help.. it!" she said. It had been a strange habit of her's to laugh when others laughed. And suddenly, from the darkness Chaos jumped onto Maya's lap, meowing. This only sent the duo into more laughter fits and the cat to sit elsewhere. In the laughing, Maya lost her balance and fell back on the couch on an angle so that she ended up laying across Malfoy's lap. She began to laugh quietly.

"Sorry!" she said, wiping away the tears at her eyes.

"Why are you crying?" he asked. She looked at him like a mud pie.

"I'm not. Haven't you ever laughed so hard you could cry?" she asked. He looked at in confusion.

"I see. In that case.... " she said, leaning closer with a devilish smile. She suddenly poked him in the stomach. "... are you ticklish?". After about five minutes of trying, she quickly learned that he had no ticklish spot. She huffed, and sat back. "Awwww... you really need to loosen up." He laughed at her for a moment while she stuck her tongue out. Malfoy turned serious again.

"Anyway, it's time to get back to your studies anyhow. No slacking, remember?" he said, suddenly lifting her over his shoulder and bringing her back over to the desk while she couldn't help but giggle a bit more before taking calming breaths.

"Okay, okay. I'm ready. You can start now teach," she said.

"That's Proffessor Malfoy to you, young lady!" he said good naturedly.

~~Elsewhere in Hogwart's~~

"Why don't we go.. uh... read in the library?" Hermione suggested. Demiarez raised an eyebrow. the girl was acting strangely. Demiarez suddenly smirked.

"I have a better idea." she said mischeviously. "You're all coming with me to get butterbeer,".

"Whaaaaaaat?!" Hermione said in surprise.

"Or we could go look for M-" Demi began.

"Okay! That sounds good! Let's go Harry, Ron, new girls!" Hermione said hastily.

"Shouldn't we go check on M-" Harry began.

"No, we have to go now! Come on, let's go!" Hermione said, practically dragging them.

"Rain?" Ron interrupted. Demi smirked and pulled out a bunch of invisible umbrellas. They were visible while folded and worked similar to an invisibility cloak.

~~Later that night~~

"How is your penmanship coming?" Malfoy said, looking over Maya's shoulder. He then realized she had fallen asleep and it was indeed late. He sighed, and picked her up; noting how heavy she was when sleeping. He gently laid her down on the side couch and draped a dark but soft blanket around her. He cast a warming spell on it, and she instantly curled upin the blanket. He smiled and affectionately ruffled her hair. She looked very peaceful when she slept. For a moment, for just that moment he forgot any motive he had ever had in this facade and kissed her forehead gently enough to not waken her from her light slumber.

"Good night Maya," he said. Then it all came flooding back. And with it, came a dark pain which he felt no control over. Pulling up his sleeve he looked at a tattoo on his arm and saw it glowing. "Ug... not now...." he grunted. Maya was instantly awoken from her sleep and she looked over at Malfoy, writhing in pain.

"Draco!" she cried, and immediately moved to his side. "Draco?". She saw his face in such pain, and felt something inside move. As a reflex she moved him to the couch and laid his head in her lap and covered him with the blanket and began to gently stroke his hair to calm him.

"Shrika moshta," she spoke with a dark intensity and traced several symbols on his forehead. Maya could not understand what exactly what it was she was doing, but it just seemed to be natural. "Nok." Malfoy's senses returned and he looked up into Maya's concerned hazel eyes. For a moment he could have sworn he saw a symbol on her forehead, but it was gone and he blamed it on hallucination.

"Draco!" she said in an upset voice, her eyes moistening. Her hands flew to her face. "I was so worried about you!" . Draco sat up, and gently draped his arm around her and pulled her in to his chest where sobbed for a while before finally returning to sleep. He laid her head down on a cushion and pulled the blankets around her before retreating to the desk to see her work.

(a/n)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

I'm stopping here because I'm tired. The longest chapter ever though. Tee hee.

Sephiroth: thanks, I'm glad people read this.

star in a daze: well I've given you the first demand. It is longer! Just not focused on the right couple.... *sigh* I try *sniffle*

Niome-Chan: Don't leeeeeeeaaave! I promise to review your stories! Chi!