Hey guys! So sorry I haven't updated in so long! Also I'd like to thank all the people who have reviewed/added my story to faves/ added me to fave/ subscribed or all! Please leave some feedback and I kinda need some help! But I will tell you more about that at the end of this installment of My Name Is Maya!
Luckily, before I ran around the last corner, I heard the voices over my own heavy breathing and the my feet hitting the floor continuously. I think because of my fear of this new, stressful situation (where my life may, in fact, be in danger), my hearing had become keener.
"...ssh, Ron!" I heard. I could distinctly tell that it was a female voice, and I could also tell that it was a student, the voice sounding young. I edged closer to the corner and poked my head around the cold stone wall, only to see nothing. The voice had definitely come from this corridor. Maybe the person to whom the voice belonged, was hiding in one of the many alcoves that lined the corridor, like all the corridors of Hogwarts.
The corridor, along with the one that I was in, seemed ghostly, not too different from a scene from one of the many horror movies Lizzie and I had one summer amused ourselves with (and had not touched since, after not sleeping well for two weeks). There were candles in holders every 2 metres, but only one of two were lit, and even then they were lit dimly, allowing thick dark shadows to swallow up parts of the corridor. The perfect places for the many monsters from my childhood to hide. It would not be too surprising if Dracula were to wander along, his shadow ignoring the movements of his body and his feet seemingly not touching the ground.
All of a sudden, under the scrutiny of my watchful eye, the corridor went pitch black. It was darker than the night sky above the castle. What was most unusual was the fact that it was only the other corridor that had lost it's limited light; where I stood was still dimly lit. Nor was any light filtering around the corner to bounce light, albeit a little, into the suddenly darkened room. It was most definitely the work of magic and not just the candles blown out.
I heard footsteps coming my way and silently ducked back around into the still lightened corridor. I tiptoed quickly over to one of the alcoves and pressed my back up against the farthest wall, curling my body into itself to fit, to the best of my ability, into the corner. The cool dampness of the stone walls seeped through my jumper, causing goose bumps to rise along my arms and on my legs.
Closer and closer the footsteps came. They entered my corridor. The candles went out until only a mysterious greyscale light remained. I couldn't figure out where the light was coming from but I had more problems then that at that moment.
A primeval instinct told me that danger was near, and like as if I was a professional at reading into my instincts (which I wasn't), my brain recognised the message and delivered the correct feelings into my body. Panic rose in me, building up until it was almost overflowing and I was on the brink of hysterics.
Stealthily, ghostly bodies ran past me, about a dozen. None noticed me. Until the very last one. They moved slower, quieter. More of a big cat stalking it's prey instead of animal on the defence, charging, like the previous figures. It came within feet of my hiding place. I stifled a gasp when their head swivelled and their eyes must have swept over my corner. The gaze locked onto the corner, and they started to move towards me.
The fear was choking me, suffocating me, squeezing my lungs until they had no air left in them. My heart was banging so hard against my ribcage that I feared the cloaked figure approaching me would hear it, as if to confirm their suspicions that their was, indeed, someone hiding in the shadows.
The outline came closer, their face shadowed, frightening me more that I couldn't identify my attacker. The part of my brain that wasn't paralysed by fear was screaming at me to grab my wand, which, cleverly, I had remembered to pick up. But the fear ruled out logic so I stayed frozen, back against the cold wall, goose bumps forgotten. The stranger moved their arm and I automatically winced, but my expression smoothed when I realized they were only reaching into their robes. My face scrunched up into horror when I realised what that implied.
I tried to mentally prepare myself for some sort of pain when a light appeared, right in my face. The intruder drank my appearance as much I did his.
Draco.
"Maya?" He whispered, eyes wide. "What are you doing here?" I noticed some of his emotions fill his eyes, anger, confusion and concern being the most dominant. The silver orbs were shining dimly in the light of his wand.
"I-I was w-worried about you..." I stuttered, still in shock from the people I had just seen stalk past me, fortunately completely oblivious to my presence.
"You're meant to be in your Common Room! I advise that you get back over there, right now!" Anger swept away the other emotions. His voice, although still a whisper for only his and my ears, rang with authority and, much to my surprise, threat.
"Are you really with them? Are you..." I hesitated, trying to gather my thoughts, "...helping them?" The idea was actually rather painful. He couldn't be helping them, I knew that he shouldn't, by surely, he...wouldn't? I remembered that he said that he had 'chose his side' but that crap. He didn't actually mean that otherwise... otherwise he wouldn't be whispering to me now, right? He would have alerted the others? Or was I just in denial?
"Maya," His voice was hard, his tone showing no room for negotiations, " I don't want to let them know you're here, as we ar—were friends." He awkwardly cleared his throat, ignoring his slip up. Distantly in my mind, subconsciously almost, my mind winced at the use of past tense.
"Now you have to swear that you won't let anybody know what you've seen in the past few minutes, otherwise, you'll be on their hit list, and they will get revenge for it, so use your common sense and self-preservation, go back to your Common Room." Again the coldness leaked into his voice. For the first time, the cold-hearted, rash Draco was in front of me, focussing on me. Usually it was aimed at someone else.
"But—
"Please, Maya..." He whispered weakly, as if all the strength, courage along with the coldness had drained out of his body. And he was back to my Draco, not their Draco, as in the Death Eater side of things, but my Draco, the one who has saved my life on two separate occasions.
"Alright..." I gave in.
So suddenly that I didn't even register it until he was stalking, seemingly gliding, down the corridor, he swooped down and kissed me chastely on the lips.
The air whooshed out of my lungs as, dazed, my fingertips brushed feather light over my lips as if to as if to seal the kiss onto my lips forever.
His words came back to my mind, one by one.
You're meant to be in your Common Room! I advise you get back there, right now!
Draco would only ever spoke like that if there really was danger. I decided to take his advice. That would probably be a good idea. It took me longer than usual to get my legs to move, to take the few steps that would take me into the corridor, still only lit by the mysterious grey light, where Death Eaters had strolled past not but minutes ago.
Quietly, I crept back around the corners and took the same direction as Draco before me, going back towards the Entrance Hall to get to the stairs that would eventually take me to Gryffindor's Portrait Hole. Through deserted corridors I strolled, not particularly in any rush to get back. I was still numb with shock with the kiss that Draco had so generously gave me.
Just as I was creeping across the Entrance Hall, I heard it. The shuffling whisper of someone approaching. I froze, once again, the fear setting deep into my bones and muscles, preventing me from moving. There it was again. Shuffle shuffle.
I whipped my wand out, lightening fast. I must have had it in the waistband of my pyjama bottoms the whole time, even though I couldn't remember putting it there. I must have down it by habit, but thank Merlin for that.
I walked backwards until my jumper covered back was once again making contact with a cold stone wall. Where my head was directed, for the second time that night, at the shuffling footsteps approaching, I hadn't noticed the suit armour that stood up straight, proud and dignified. That was until I tiptoed backwards, straight into it. It crashed to the ground, the noise echoed throughout the Entrance Hall, obnoxiously, like as if it was just insuring that the intruder heard me and could be lead by the sound to my destination.
I grimly watched at the helmet of a once soldier, rolled and rolled, further and further away from it's body (which was now in pieces on the floor that I wouldn't even want to try and put back together). It looked sad and all it majesty was taken away. It didn't seem proud no more, or courageous, or special...
"Excuse me..."
I jumped and spun quickly, the lolling head forgotten. My wand was trained upon the speaker, who actually turned out to be what looked like a fifth year, in similar attire to my own: pyjamas with a jumper thrown over top. Even our stances were the same, my wand on him and his aimed at me. He looked younger than me and that gave me confidence, no trouble from this kid.
"Are you alright?" I asked him gently, lowering my wand. I felt reassured doing this, as I probably had quicker reflexes than him, and I was learning non-verbal spells at the moment in DADA.
"Yeah, I just don't know what's going on..." He said, sounding lost.
"It's going to be alright, what's your name?" I asked calmly, even though I want to scream 'Run for your life, kiddo!'. He didn't need to be troubled with things out of his control.
"Craig," he replied, "you?"
"My name is Maya."
"Ravenclaw." He replied when I asked him what house he was in.
Well, then, I couldn't just leave him here and it probably wasn't best to be walking through the corridors at the moments anyway, not with the genre of visitors Hogwarts was entertaining tonight. I grabbed hold of the boy's sleeve and pulled him over to an alcove and backed us up until we were completely in the shadows.
"What are we doing?" Craig asked, panic in his voice.
"Hiding."
"From who?"
"People." I replied hesitantly, trying not to lie.
"Well duh, but who?" It sounded like he was rolling his eyes, ungrateful brat. Was I that sarcastic and 'witty' when I was his age, 12 or 13? I hope not.
"Actually not 'well duh', it could have been a dog, or a cat..." I said, trying to evade the subject.
"A cat?" Even though I'd only knew him for a couple of minutes, I could already tell that he was using his 'are you crazy?' voices. Odd, that. "Let's all run away from the kitty cat, otherwise it will EAT US!" He cried in a girly voice.
"Nuh huh, Mister, you did no—" I stopped mid sentences, ears trying to perk like they would have back in the Stone Age if danger was near.
"What?" Craig asked, sounding rather worried.
"Sshhh!" I hissed quietly. I dragged him down into a crouch and motioned for him to curl into a ball, in the dim light coming from the large windows by the Entrance doors. I followed suit, curling myself together tightly but peeking out between my arms.
Now, in the renewed silence, I heard the creeping clearer. I leaned over to Craig and whispered in his ear.
"There's somebody there, but you must not let them know we're here."
It only occured to me once the cloaked figure looked into the alvoce and spotted us that I realised that I could have put a disullusion charm on us. I was a slow thinker today.
"Alright, Will?" The figure said. But it seemed like he was talking to us.
"Yeah, I'm good."
Huh? I looked over at Craig, only to see it wasn't Craig. He had changed. He had become taller, more musclure, his hair had darkened and trailed down to his shoulders. His eyes were now sparkling, blue, in the little light. He had aged. He was Will.
"B-but..." I stuttered. I suddenly recognised the fact that I was in between two Death Eaters, one I didn't know and one I knew too well. The one who I knew too well, had a reasons to hurt me, that wasn't good.
"Why, hello Maya, fancy seeing you here!" Will said sarcastically, grinning fiercely.
"What do you want? How did you do that?" I rushed out, my words mashing into a big mess. He seemed to understand though.
"Ah, I guess the secret is out now. You see, I'm a metamorphmagus. Surely you know what that is?"
"Of course she does." A new voice added to the conversation. It was a voice that was so distinct and clear, that even though the other death eater didn't know who it was, unlike Will and I, he stopped to see who it was.
"Now I suggest you leave." The newcomer said again.
The other death eater went to strike the person down, but Will grabbed his wand arm and whispered something in hs ear. All I caught was 'Dark Lord' between the breathy words.
So suddenly it startled me, the other death eater and Will ran off, through the Entrance doors, out into the cold air.
So what do you think? Please let me know!
Now, I needsome wonderful advice off of you lovely readers:
Should I finish the story at the end of Maya's sixth year and then an epilogue? Or should I go through her seventh year and no epilogue?
Just let me know what you think in a review.
Thanks very much!
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