"So that's the bottom line here, madam. Once Harry's seventeen, the protective charm will break and leave you exposed as well as him," Kingsley Shacklebolt said, his deep reassuring voice sounding rather out of place in the living room of four Privet Drive.
"You-Know-Who is bound to target you, whether to torture you for information you might not actually possess or because he thinks Harry will come and rescue you," Arthur Weasley said in conclusion.
Petunia did not respond immediately. It was a few days into the summer holidays and the unannounced visit of two grown wizards had come as a significant shock to her. She looked at her daughter, who gave her mother an encouraging nod.
"Please go with the Order. You can trust them, they'll keep you safe," Maya spoke softly. She saw the fear in her mother's eyes, which at least signified that she understood the severity of the situation. "You know what? When it's all over I'll personally come and get you, I promise."
Petunia looked once more at her daughter and then, with some plucked up courage, at Kingsley and Mr Weasley. "All right," she said at last.
A few restless weeks later the day of departure finally came. It was one of Petunia's darkest days and Maya supported her mother as well as she could.
"There," she said kindly, carefully putting her mother's largest suitcase by the front door.
Petunia slowly walked back into the living room, looking around. "I've lived in this house for twenty years, and now in a single night I'm expected to leave," she said to no one in particular. The living room was spotless as ever; Petunia had faithfully cleaned the fort until the very last second.
"They'll torture you," Harry said calmly. Like Maya he was waiting anxiously for the Order to arrive; the house and especially the atmosphere in it had become rather suffocating.
"Do you really think I don't know what they're capable of? You didn't just lose a mother that night in Godric's Hollow you know, I lost a sister and Maya lost an aunt," Petunia said.
Neither Maya nor Harry had hardly ever heard Petunia acknowledge that she in fact did somewhat care about Harry's mother, and both of them were too taken aback to respond. Thankfully they were saved the trouble of answering by the sound of the doorbell.
"Harry Potter!" an excited voice squeaked the moment Harry had opened the door. "An honour as ever!"
A few moments later a small wizard in a mauve top and a dark-haired witch strode into the living room, where Petunia was promptly forced out of her trance.
"Good evening," Hestia said, giving Maya a curt nod but focusing her main attention on Petunia. "I take it you're ready?"
Petunia did not quite seem ready to speak, and so Maya took it upon herself to answer.
"Yes, she is. Come on," she spoke softly, carefully taking her mother's hand to lead her to the door.
"Excellent! Now, while we will drive ten miles or so before Disapparating to the safe location, you, Harry and Maya, will wait here for your guard, all right?" Dedalus said.
They nodded, and then a loud voice screeching 'Hurry up!' made them jump.
Maya quickly realised that Dedalus' immense pocket watch was responsible for this, but then they all made their way into the hall.
While Dedalus carefully opened the front door to check whether everything was safe, Hestia frowned when Petunia only hugged Maya and avoided looking at Harry altogether.
"Come on now, one step at a time... yes, that's it," Maya said encouragingly, escorting her mother to the car while Harry shook hands with Dedalus and Hestia.
The sky was a dark shade of grey, but at least it was only one as opposed to fifty.
"Mum, I'm sorry I've neglected you over the years, like that I never went home for Christmas. I know you lost your sister to the magical world and sort of lost me too. But, like I said, I promise I'll come and get you after we win the war. And I hope that by winning we can sort of, you know, avenge your sister."
"Please be safe," Petunia choked, not only looking at her daughter but also at the house.
"Always," Maya said with a faint smile. She watched the car until it was completely out of sight, like with her father several years ago, shortly before she had begun her magical journeys.
When she walked back inside she found Harry peering into the cupboard, Hedwig perched on his shoulder.
"Trying to relive those sweet memories? I'd never have spared that cupboard another thought if I were you," Maya said bluntly.
"It's just strange, our childhoods being officially over, you know," Harry said slowly.
"Yes. Trust me, I know," Maya said, slowly walking over to him to stroke Hedwig's feathers.
"What happened to your owl, I think she was called Owlrelia?"
"Aurelia. Well, she's not dead, but she's in a better place just the same. At least, I hope."
Maya had a very hard time standing still and checked her rucksack about five more times, while looking at her watch about every ten seconds.
"Nervous, Maya?" Harry asked.
"Is it that obvious?" Maya asked softly. Frankly, she was terrified of the Order, not at all sure how they were going to treat her. Being a newcomer was always hard and her Slytherin background would not exactly make it easier.
"Just be yourself, only a tad better."
Maya was saved the trouble of answering by a sudden, deafening roar from somewhere outside. She promptly retreated to the living room, leaving Harry to greet the Order by himself.
Sure enough, a few seconds later a general cry of greeting coming from the front door met her ears.
"Yeh're looking fit!" Hagrid's voice boomed through the house.
"Yeah, he's absolutely gorgeous! What say we get under cover before someone murders 'em?" A voice Maya recognised as belonging to Mad-Eye Moody said brusquely.
Next second, the entire guard made their way into the living room where they came face to face with Maya.
There were a dozen people, three of whom were unfamiliar to Maya.
She knew or at least recognised Ron, Hermione, Fred and George, Mr Weasley, Moody, Lupin, Fleur Delacour, Kingsley and Hagrid.
There was also a badly scarred man with long red hair, whom Maya took to be another Weasley, a witch with short pink hair and a small, smelly man with matted hair that Maya's mother would never have let into the house.
Only Hermione and Mr Weasley gave Maya faint smiles, but then the witch with pink hair took a step towards her, extending her hand.
"Hello, I'm..." she started, but Moody cut her short.
"No introductions! She's not a part of us yet!"
Both the witch and Maya promptly retracted the hands they were about to shake.
The whole group shamelessly considered her now with rather cold expressions on their faces.
Maya could not exactly blame them, but she did feel like an insignificant school girl who had just carelessly wandered into the scary adult world.
"All right, first things first, and quickly because we don't have much time. You, Dursley, come here!" Moody said. His magical eye was spinning from the darkening sky outside to her and back with dizzying velocity.
It was rather odd to get orders barked at her in what was ultimately her own house, but Maya obliged.
Moody took out a bottle of clear, colourless substance, almost indistinguishable from plain water.
"Trust is hard to gain and very easy to lose, Dursley. Now, I know some people here trust you," Moody said, glancing at Harry, Hermione and Mr Weasley. "But I'd rather not take any chances. Our previous experiences with Slytherin members are not exactly fabulous. Here's what we're going to do. I'm going to give you three drops of Veritaserum and you'll take it. Then I'm going to ask you some questions, and if your answers are not to my taste I will modify your memory... if you are lucky. Got it, Dursley?"
The entire group stared from the bottle of Veritaserum to Maya and back.
She knew she had no choice. "I'll do it," she spoke firmly. "Just don't ask me about private stuff like bra size and that sort of thing."
Some members inadvertently smiled, but the smiles quickly disappeared upon seeing the look on Moody's face.
He conjured a teaspoon out of thin air, uncorked the bottle and carefully dropped some of its content onto the spoon.
Maya took it from him before he could even offer and promptly stuck it in her mouth. It did not have any taste, but as soon as she swallowed she began to feel somewhat lightheaded.
Moody remained silent for about ten seconds, undoubtedly waiting for the Veritaserum to kick in, and then spoke. "What is your full name?"
"Maya Sophia Dursley," Maya heard herself say. She had no control over her voice whatsoever; the words just came out as soon as her brain registered the question.
"Maya Sophia," Ron sniggered, but Mr Weasley hissed at him to be quiet.
"How old are you?"
"Seventeen."
"Are you Harry Potter's cousin?"
"Yes."
"Do you want to help Harry Potter?"
"Yes."
"Do you want to help rid the world of You-Know-Who once and for all?"
"Yes."
"Are you willing to accept the dangers involved?"
"Yes."
"Would you sacrifice your life for the greater good?"
"I don't know."
"All right, good enough. You're hired, Dursley. I heard you're very talented so the time has come to prove it," Moody said, now turning around to look at the whole group, who already seemed slightly more at ease now that they had conclusive proof that Maya was indeed on their side.
"Change of plan. Since the Floo Network, a Portkey or Disapparating are out of the question, we're going to fall back on the only means of transport left to us, the only ones the Trace you still have can't detect," Moody said, looking at Harry. "Brooms, Thestrals and Hagrid's motorbike. We're going to break your mother's protective charm early by leaving tonight, when you no longer call this place home, because the alternative of waiting for You-Know-Who to come and kill you the moment you turn seventeen is not that appealing."
Maya listened breathlessly to all of this. She did not actually own a broom and she could not even see Thestrals...
"You-Know-Who doesn't know we're moving you tonight, but he's bound to have some Death Eaters patrolling the skies in this general area. Now, the key point of our plan. There will be seven Harry Potters travelling through the skies tonight, each accompanied by a protector, each pair heading for a different safe house, from where they'll be able to use a Portkey to The Burrow," Moody concluded, now taking out from inside his cloak a flask of what looked a lot like mud.
"No!" Harry said loudly, his voice ringing through the living room. "I'm not going to let six people risk their necks for me!"
"Oh yeah, because we've never done that before," Ron said sarcastically.
I haven't, Maya thought inadvertently, shuffling her feet.
"Everyone here's over-age, Potter, and they've all agreed to take the risk," Moody growled, glaring at Harry.
"Well..." the smelly man with matted hair started.
Moody's magical eye swerved sideways to glare at him instead. "You're in luck, Mundungus. With Dursley joining our ranks, you can be a protector like you wanted. Now, boy, I want a few of your hairs! We're using decoys and that's that!" Moody snarled.
Maya watched how Harry reluctantly obliged and deposited a few hairs into the mud-like liquid.
If she had understood Moody well, she was expected to change into Harry shortly. I'm not off to a great start, she thought uncomfortably, looking at the flask of Polyjuice Potion in ill-concealed disgust. The Potion turning a clear, bright gold did not raise her spirits.
"Right then, the six fake Potters line up over here. Dursley, that includes you," Moody said, and Maya went to stand alongside Ron, Hermione, Fred, George and Fleur. "For those of you who haven't taken Polyjuice Potion before, fair warning, it tastes like goblin piss..."
"Ugh, this is going to be disgusting," Maya muttered a tad too loudly, earning herself some reproving looks.
Feeling slightly embarrassed, she quickly drank from the glass handed to her by Moody, gasping and grimacing as the Potion reached her throat. She got a bit choked up when her breasts, nostril piercing and earrings disappeared, her shoulder length brown hair became short, untidy black, her hazel eyes turned to green and her eyesight took a nosedive.
For one brief moment Maya thought how weird it was to suddenly have a penis, but then again she also had a thirty feet long body sometimes. She figured it was best to keep an open mind and put on the glasses Moody handed her.
It was an extremely weird sight indeed, seeing seven Harry Potters in the Dursley living room.
"Wow, we're identical!" Fred and George said happily, high fiving each other.
"Ugh, don't look at me, Bill," Fleur said, turning away from the badly scarred man with long red hair.
"You know what, Harry, I stand corrected. You tasted better than I thought," Maya said, trying to sound cheerful instead of nervous and awkward. Catching sight of several raised eyebrows she quickly added: "Actually, never mind, that sounded way better in my head."
Moody turned to look at her. "Dursley, you're coming with me and Mundungus, so I can watch you. By broom. You'll be using Potter's Firebolt, I'm sure he won't mind."
"Yeah, thanks for doing this, like Moody said, I'd much sooner be a protector," Mundungus said.
"Er, no problem," Maya said uncomfortably, wrinkling her nose at his bad breath.
She actually really hated the idea of this. Surely Voldemort was going to think the real Harry was with the strongest protector, ergo, Moody... Besides, simple math told her they were going to be the only trio and therefore bound to get more attention. Surely they put her in the frontline because losing her would not hurt the Order as a whole, but it was not really the time and place to object. What options did she really have? She would just have to do her best and pray...
"As for the rest of the pairs: Arthur and Fred, George and Remus, Fleur and Bill, Hermione and Kingsley, Ron and Tonks."
Maya noticed that even though Hermione seemed happy with this pairing, Ron really did not; he did not quite answer Tonks' smile.
Maya, on the other hand, would much rather have been paired with the pink-haired Tonks than with the intimidating Moody and the uncouth Mundungus.
"Yeh're with me, Harry, on the bike," Hagrid said. "I brought yeh here sixteen years ago, when yeh were no bigger than a Bowtruckle. Seems only right that I should be the one ter take yeh away now."
"Yeah, yeah, it's all very touching. The real point is that the Death Eaters will expect Potter to be on a broom, hopefully focusing their main attention on those people," Moody said brusquely, leading the way to the front door and causing Maya's spirits to sink even lower.
Once they were outside Kingsley and Bill helped Hermione and Fleur mount their Thestrals, as stood to reason because Maya could not actually see the creatures.
Harry got into the bike's sidecar while Hagrid, wearing a helmet and goggles, settled himself astride the motorcycle.
Maya slowly mounted Harry's Firebolt with shaking legs and looked up at the starry sky. It seemed so peaceful but, as she knew very well, looks could be deceiving.
"I've put a Navigation Charm on that broom. It'll lead you to where you're supposed to go should we get separated. Don't worry, though. Should you get killed or at least fall off your broom, the curse will lift so they can't trace us," Moody growled from beside her.
"Thanks, that's very... reassuring," Maya said, gulping.
"Ready, Dursley?" Moody said after glancing around to see whether everyone was ready.
"Yes," Maya said, trying to sound a lot braver than she felt. She had a really bad feeling about this...
"Good luck, everyone! On the count of three! One... two... THREE!" Moody shouted, and with a great, deafening roar from the motorbike they were off.