Maria drabbles but that's all Maria ever does. Drabble incoherently. She's a bit of a dumbass really but I wouldn't have a story without her would I?

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Maria - AUGUST 1946

Oh hell.

I'd actually done it. It was no longer a dream, something I fantasised about everytime the fists landed. I was gone. I was AWOL, missing, presumed dead. And all I'd had to do was move to England. Well 'moved' implied that I'd found somewhere to live, got a job (a job? Me?) and settled down. I'd been living in this grungy pub for a week now and was no further forward than I had been six days ago. I was musing over this problem when He came in again.

He fully deserved the capital letter. He was gorgeous, blue eyes like the ocean, boyish looks that defied his age and, most importantly of all, power radiated off him in waves. Normally I'd have no worries about approaching a man for something I wanted but those days were over. I didn't have a bottomless expense account anymore and I wasn't paying with myself. Despite everything I still planned to save myself for marriage, tall dark handsome strangers or not. I settled for fantasising about the guy turning that wand on my bastard of a brother. Yeah, that was more than satisfying enough for now. He looked over at me and I realised I must have been staring. Great. He looked me up and down far too slowly to be decent, not that I blamed him. I was six foot tall, Latino, model looks and assets that could apparently drive a man to insanity. A damned pain when I was trying to stay undercover and fake my own death.

I was trying to figure out a glamour spell to fix the problem, dangerously immersed in my spell to be honest, when he sat down next to me. No friends, just him. He watched me until he had my full attention, not a hard achievement.
"Chica, the Cortez's have a high price on your return. And here you sit without a care in the world?" He knew about the Cabal? How? Panic flooded through me, I wasn't a powerful witch at all - I had never paid enough attention in class. That's why a simple glamour spell was taking up so much time. I worked a few seconds on a cutting response.
"Who are you?" Hmmmm... That could have been better.
"My name is Tom and you are Maria are you not?" He asked me lots of general questions, seeming genuinely interested in me. I was flattered and when he offered me a hiding place for the night, no strings attached, I didn't think twice. He didn't think any less of the fact I had no active powers when all of my brothers and sisters were gifted and believed that there was power everywhere. I wanted to follow him to the ends of the world while he found it. He believed, correctly in my opinion, that those in power were weak and our laws unjust. Why should those of us with power be forced to hide while Muggles were given free rein to do as they pleased? When he told me he'd been trying to work up the courage to talk to me all week I believed him. His flattery was perfectly aimed, in other words he was exactly the kind of boy my mother had warned me not to go within touching distance of.

My mother had been a very boring woman.

Maria - AUGUST 1951

I sat in the board meeting trying to pay attention. I knew I had to for Tom, for the sake of our cause...

God I was so tired lately! I didn't know what wrong with me... Spying on the Cabals for Tom was tiring but not to this extent. I hadn't cast even a simple spell in months, I didn't party like I used to, all I did was keep up appearances for my brother and husband at the Cabal. And scarper over to England to give my information to Tom, everytime praying like a little girl that he would take notice of what I was doing, keep me for the night, promise me forever like he used to. He told me I didn't need to hear it anymore if I was willing to work for him with even half the commitment I promised. Work FOR him, not with him. I wondered when that had changed, how long it had taken me to notice the change. Not that it mattered, I was his now just as much as were the other men who had fallen for the same lies as I had. Convincing lies, lies with more than a grain of truth in them but lies nevertheless. And my whole life was committed to feeding those lies, his power, him.

On a friend's advice I took the small tube stashed in my bag to the ladies straight after the meeting. I waited three minutes and it turned blue. Shit, what did blue mean again?

"Red - Not Pregnant, Blue - Pregnant"

Oh shit. It had to be Tom's, I'd avoided physical contact with my bastard husband for over a year now. Tom said if I was good enough to him he would take care of the man for me. Would a heir be could enough? How would I hide? Where would I hide? I looked at the slight bulge, which I had put down to mere lack of exercise before now. There was a life in there. A life that was my responsibility to protect. I ran to the only place I could.

Maria - 13th FEBRUARY 1952

Adrienne Riddle.

The first Death Eater marked from birth. That had been her price of survival and I'd gladly paid it. I was to be returned to the Cabal, 'hostage negotiations' would close and the child would stay here. Child of Death...

And child of nature. She was a druid, I could see it in her eyes - the love of life and everything around her shining from her. She may even be Karnee but I prayed not. I tried to imagine Tom's reaction if she had a full set of three active powers along with shapeshifting abilities and a link to all that was alive. My brother didn't have the active powers, that was a reassuring thought. Benicio could only shapeshift and even then he hadn't been out to the forests in years so maybe he wasn't even connected anymore. Was it possible for a druid to become disconnected? I could only pray that it was, how on earth would she carry out her duties when life itself begged her not to? I prayed...

I prayed I'd made the right decision.