"Maia, love. What are you doing here?" A deep voice whispered in Maia's ear, making the curly haired witch jump in surprise. Maia turned to find Adrain Pucey looming over her, his green eyes had a sharp glint to them as he invaded her personal space.
"Mr. Pucey...what a surprise. I was just grabbing a book on gardening with blood magic for Astoria, I should be getting back." Maia said confidently, trying to sidestep the raven haired man. She only met him briefly at the party, her husband was quick to get her away from the wizard's leering stares.
"Oh but Maia, I've so been looking forward to getting to know you. It was such a surprise when Draco brought you home. Does it upset you that he hid you away like a dirty secret? Or...maybe you miss it?" Adrian chuckled darkly, raising an arm to stop her departure, not for the first time Maia cursed Daphne for talking her into wearing the ridiculous pointy shoes. While they were beautiful, she didn't think she could outrun the man in them.
"Mr. Pucey, I would appreciate it if you would get out of my way. Astoria was quite anxious to learn the full moon ritual." Maia said through gritted teeth when he used his body to push her back into the wall. She used the heavy tome in her hands to push against his chest but he easily grabbed both her wrists in one of his hands and threw the book carelessly behind his shoulder. His smile became feral when he bore down on her, his face only inches away from hers and she could smell the fire whiskey on his breath.
"No need to play hard to get, love. A little bird told me you were having trouble providing an heir for Malfoy. I'm just offering my services, you know let you feel a real man." Adrain whispered huskily, lowering his head and burying his face in her neck, leaving wet sloppy kisses that made her skin crawl.
"Let me go!" Maia shrieked, kicking out at him and bucking her hips to try and throw the man away from her. She felt how excited it made him through her silk dress and felt nauseous when he used his free hand to roughly grab her hips.
"Silencing charms, sweet. No one can hear us, you can scream as loud as you want." Adrian chuckled in her ear, his breath hot against her skin.
"No!" Maia screamed, her movements jerky and panicked as his grip tightened, pulling her flush against her body.
"You're delicious." Adrian said softly as he leaned forward to try and capture her lips, Maia turned her head, straining to keep out of his reach. He kissed her jaw, his tongue lashing out to taste her skin harshly. "Now, be a-"
"No!" Maia screamed in his ear as loud as she could before she bit him as hard as she could on the neck. Her teeth easily pierced his tender flesh and he seemed frozen, his eyes rolling back in his head as he groaned.
"That's it, pet." Adrian moaned, tilting his head to the side to give her a better reach. Maia took the opportunity, biting viciously into the tender spot his neck and shoulder met. Blood flowed freely as she bit down as hard as she could. The shocked wizard above her let go of her hands to grab her shoulders in a painful grip to pull away. "Stop!"
"What the hell is going on here?!" Draco demanded as he stood in the entryway of the library. Pansy stood just behind him, a smug smile on her face. Adrain finally jerked his body away from the smaller witch, leaving a piece of himself in the woman's mouth. His eyes widened as blood gushed from the wound on his neck and he frantically tried to stem the flow. He fell to his knees, gasping as blood poured through his fingers and looked frantically between Maia and the newcomers in fear.
"Merlin." Pansy whispered in terror as he watched Draco's sweet, naive wife spit a chunk of Adrian's bloodied flesh on the floor in disgust. Maia glared hatefully down at the crumpled figure at her feet as Adrian stared wide eyed at Draco's approaching figure, silently begging them for help. The curly haired witch raised her leg, using her impossibly high spike heel to roughly push him down as he bled heavily. Pansy took an involuntary step back as she took in Draco's wife, blood dripping down her mouth and chest, ruining her silk dress robes gleefully the man bleed out.
"What the hell is going on here?" Draco demanded again, advancing on his wife and old housemate. His blood ran cold when he first entered the room, from his position it looked like he walked in on his wife in a passionate embrace with another man. However, when he looked her over now, her hair disheveled, bruises on her wrists and covered in blood, he turned his cold gaze down to the man on the floor.
"He wanted to show me what a man he was and help us produce an heir. A little bird told him we were having problems." Maia spat angrily and turned her cold eyes to the woman in the doorway. Pansy lost all color in her face as she saw the burning hatred in Maia's bright eyes, she was frozen when Draco knelt down and waved his wand, crudely healing the gaping wound.
"Pansy, I better not find out you have anything to do with my wife being attacked." Draco said in a low, cold tone, not even bothering to look in her direction.
"Mipsy!" Maia called, the house elf appeared at her side less than a moment later. The house elf's eyes nearly popped out of her head when she took in her mistress' ruined state. "Bring him down to the dungeon, provide him with a blood replenishing potion. It would be a shame if he died before my husband could have a proper conversation with him."
"Yes, mistress." Mipsy bowed and roughly grabbed the pale man on the floor, they were gone with a quiet pop.
After what felt like an eternity of silence, Maia slowly opened the washroom door to find Harry sitting on the floor looking at her. Her skin crawled as he gazed at her with such hope and longing, his emerald gaze pierced through as if seeing someone in her place. In a panic she rushed from the room and down the stairs to try to get away from her captor. She did not understand how that expression was so familiar to her, it made her heart pound in the worst ways.
"Wait! Please!" Harry grunted, rushing after her, Maia paid no heed as she blindly ran through the large manor. Unfortunately, she ended up in a spacious drawing room and after a frantic search, could not find the floo powder. "Just hear me out!"
"No! Just send me home!" Maia shrieked, backing away from the man in a panic.
"You don't unders-" Harry started, moving forward with his hands up in surrender.
"No! You don't understand! I don't want to be your spy! I want to go home!" Maia shrieked indignantly.
"Well, I can't send you home."
"What do you mean, you can't?" Maia demanded in a low, dangerous voice. Trying to devise a way to make him reveal where the port key home was. Obviously, he had no idea she was a Black, which she found curious. Many people remarked that she looked very much like her Aunt Cassiopeia.
"I mean, I would have to take you back myself and if I go back they will kill me. I'm the only one that can defeat him." Harry whispered in a defeated voice.
"Why?" She asked in a cool tone, wanting to keep the man talking and away from her. The way he watched her was unsettling, as if he was waiting for her to do something.
"A prophecy linked us before I was even born, neither can live while the other survives." Harry sighed wearily, his shoulders falling in exhaustion. He could not speak about the heavy burden that had been placed on his shoulders since Hermione had been taken. Ron did not understand, too blinded by the idea of fame. The Order looked at him to lead, as if he would be the next infallible Dumbledore. It was why the war had all but stalled, they were looking to a seventeen year old grieving boy for orders that would never come.
"That has to be the most convoluted bit of nonsense I've ever heard." Maia snorted after a moment of silence.
"What?" Harry gaped at the disheveled woman, unconsciously moving closer to her as if her voice were a siren's call.
"You are a terrorist, an anarchist because a prophecy says so?" Maia demanded with a rude snort. "It was all your choice! You choose to oppose the greatest revolutionary in several centuries. You let your petty school rivalry become a bloody vendetta that ruined my life! We all have choices, don't go blaming yours on some miserable overgrown dingbat who probably lives alone with only her tea leaves and sherry to keep her warm!"
"Wha.." Harry's eyes widened in shock but before he could stop it a bubble of laughter erupted from his mouth. Maia took a hesitant step back into the wall, looking at him as if he'd gone mad.
"Think I'm funny, do you?" Maia sneered, crossing her arms over her chest, lifting her dainty nose in the air.
"No, you just...you sound like her." Harry whispered, his laughter dying immediately as he thought of his best friend.
"Who?" Maia demanded waspishly, rolling her eyes in annoyance.
"'Mione, my best friend...they took her over four years ago." Harry whispered in a pained voice, avoiding her gaze. Looking around the dark room, he wished he could have his best friend back. It drove him mad that her very voice made him think of her, the only one who never left him.
"Is that what pushed you over the edge?" Maia demanded, her brow furrowing.
"I didn't let myself think about it for so long. I tried to push myself into ending the war, thinking that if I won she would be there in the end. She always was, you know? I never properly thanked her." Harry took a deep shuddering breath and stuffing his balled fists into his pockets.
"I'm talking about what you did to me!" Maia shrieked, angry that her attacker could act as if they could sit around having heartfelt conversations. He kidnapped her and scrambled her mind so badly she was stuck in France for four years. "You killed them! Then you tried to hurt Draco by taking my memory but it didn't work. I woke up to find my husband by my side, no idea who he was but I could remember our love!"
"I've never met you. I didn't kill your parents! I've been in hiding since Dumbledore's death!" Harry shouted in exasperation.
"Don't you dare try to deny it and don't talk about that murderer in front of me!" Maia hissed, her eyes filling with tears, stamping her dainty little foot.
"Dumbledore, a murderer?" Harry sputtered, taking off his glasses to pinch his brow.
"He killed my father!" Maia hissed, glaring venomously as the man before her.
"How about we go to the kitchen? I'm hungry and exhausted...I'm sure you must be famished." Harry tried today in a soothing voice, the silver eyed woman just huffed.
"Ha! So you can poison me?" She demanded shrilly, Harry rubbed the scar on his forehead with the heel of his palm, completely out of his depth.
"I swear on my life and magic that it is not my intention to cause you any harm and I will not hurt you physically unless provoked." Harry mumbled in a mechanical voice as he raised his wand, a bright flash of light that sealed the oath. With a flick, the tip lit up with a bright lumos and he looked at the woman expectantly.
"Well..." Maia pursed her lips in displeasure, her brow furrowed as she turned the words over in her head. She was angry he didn't swear he had nothing to do with the attack on her wedding, then again, he would die if he did. After a painfully long silence she took a deep breath and pursed her lips. "Fine but I want to see the port key, I'll figure out a way to send myself home while you hide away. I'm sure my husband has already gotten what he needed out of that pink woman. I watch you prepare the food...but I'm not telling you anything. Draco hardly talks about his private conversations with the Dark Lord anyway, he likes to leave it outside of the home...or dungeons."
"How are you so...okay with what he does to people?" Harry demanded, his blood boiling thinking about the many attacks they found Malfoy in charge of.
"Potter, do you really think that any war was won with nice words and pretty gestures?" Maia asked slowly, looking at him with pity. Harry bristled visibly being mocked by a pampered pureblood princess, wondering what she really knew of war.
"Well, it's definitely not won with slaughtering whole families and terrorizing the innocent." Harry snarled, a deep look of disgust marring his features.
"Oh, yes...kidnapping two pregnant women." Maia drawled sarcastically and shivered dramatically. "You're a revolutionary, Potter! Truly."
"We didn't know you were pregnant and we only wanted to talk to you!" Harry groaned, throwing his arms up in exasperation. There was just no winning with this witch. He felt the galleon in his pocket burn and he quickly pulled it out to look at the short message that appeared.
4 W CAP HQ COM
Harry's heart sank as he realized that the Weasleys were captured, probably at headquarters when the barmy woman sent out a distress signal. His blood boiled as he clutched the coin in his hand and glared at the woman in front of him. She was the reason the only family he ever knew was captured. Probably being tortured while he stood there safe on Black Island, trying to convince this stubborn woman that he wasn't the monster. He needed help, he felt so lost in his mission. Over four years of futile fighting with no direction and he was left alone on this island with a woman who reminded him constantly of his greatest regret.
"Imperio."