On the last week of January, I was nearly done with brewing my Polyjuice Potion. The only missing ingredient was the fluxweeds that had to be picked under a full moon... And I was scheduled to go with James so that he wouldn't give me detention for missing curfew — which was a bit counterintuitive considering the last detention I had with him was one where he accompanied me to get "moon water."
But on the night of the full moon, James made sure to remind me at supper to meet him in the Common Room after curfew so that we could go together. After supper, however, Aiden, my brother, approached me on my way to the Slytherin Common Room.
"Maeve. Hello," he said rather awkwardly. He walked by my side.
"Hi?" I responded, rather uncertain.
"When is the last time you owled Mum and Dad?" he asked suddenly.
"Er..." The truth is I hadn't. Not since long before Chistmas.
"Yeah. Seems like you haven't," he said with mild disappointment. "I know whatever Mum told you over the Holidays must've went in one ear and out the other, as usual, but you have to owl them more often — Otherwise, they'll keep harassing me to remind you."
"Oh," I realized. "I suppose I've just been so wrapped up in everything, I keep forgetting to owl them back."
"Right. You've been busy shooting fireballs at Jamieson Lancaster's face," he teased.
"I see you've heard about that..." I mumbled, though I wasn't surprised.
"I've also witnessed it, but you know, rumours are fun too," Aiden said with a laugh. "Oh, I nearly forgot — Rose-Marie's birthday is coming up. Don't forget to owl her too. She's at Beauxbatons, so better make it quick so it arrives on time."
"Oh, Aiden," I said adoringly. Aiden looked slightly disgusted. "What would I do without you to remind me who to owl?"
"And you are not welcomed. I'm only doing this to spare other people's feelings from your carelessness," Aiden said offhandedly.
"What? I do care. I'm just forgetful," I insisted.
"I also want to, you know, prepare you for when I graduate Hogwarts. Can't have my wittle sister forget about me, too, now can I?" Aiden added with a playful smirk.
"Oh, I see," I said. "You just love me so much, don't you?"
"I'll make you eat your words, if you don't stop," Aiden warned.
"You love me so much, Aiden. You're worried that your wittle sister doesn't love you back!"
"Alright, I did warn you," he said. And at that, I started running, darting to the Slytherin Common Room. Aiden chased after me.
I thanked the Gods when I arrived at the entrance and it had already opened to allow other students in. I rushed past them, ignoring their expressions of surprise at my sudden arrival, and I caught my breath when I arrived at the couches.
When I turned around, Aiden was at the entrance of the Common Room, looking for me. He didn't have to scan the room much longer before he found me waving at him tauntingly. I started running as soon as I saw him move.
"You're dead!" Aiden called after me, but I was already off to the girls' dormitory, nearly shaking with laughter.
As soon as arrived at my year's bedroom, I shut the door behind me, but—
Aiden was holding the door back with his leg. I yelped and tried to push the door, but he slipped his hand through and pushed back with the force of his arm.
I fell backwards as Aiden managed to enter the dormitory, cackling evilly.
"Oh, Salazar!" Someone screamed from behind me. It was Daphne Greengrass, and she was just as startled as I was to see my brother in our dormitory.
"Time to pay your dues, Maeve," Aiden said, and he reached for my arm to hold me in place. I shrieked through my laughter.
Aiden had his wand out, and he cast a jinx at my face. I tried to blink away the red I was suddenly seeing.
"There. Matching scars with your darling," Aiden said with a mischievous laugh.
My vision wasn't red anymore, but I sensed that something had changed on my face. Aiden let me go, snickering where he stood at the doorway as I scrambled to the mirror.
"WHAT?" I shrilled.
I had a red circle stamped over my left eye, and it etched across my eyebrow. The blotch on my face was an exaggerated imitation of James' scar. Aiden was cackling.
When Daphne peered over to see my face, she stifled her laughter.
"Thanks, Aiden. You're a gem," I snarled sarcastically. Great. Now, everyone was going to think I was making fun of James' scar.
"I could cover it up with makeup?" Daphne offered, though she couldn't help herself from grinning with amusement.
"It should wear off after a few hours, I reckon," Aiden said without conviction. He seemed a little too happy for my taste.
"I'll bloody kill you if you don't get out of here, right now, Aiden," I warned through gritted teeth.
Aiden cackled but hurried out of the dormitory with his hands up in surrender.
"I can't believe he just did that..." I said to Daphne.
"I mean, it's kind of funny," Daphne said, her hand covering her smile. "You gave James a scar, and now you've gotten the same scar. Karma, is it?"
I laughed derisively, "Please end my life."
"Oh, Maeve, it's not that bad. He said it's only for a few hours, right?"
The fake scar did not fade away after a few hours. Before curfew attendance, Daphne dabbed my face with foundation to cover the scar. The coverage was mostly okay, though I wore a hooded hat to cast a shadow over my eyes anyway. When I washed my face two hours later, the fake scar was still etched on my face exactly the same as before — I was beginning to think it was a real scar.
"This is bad. I thought he said a few hours," I groaned. I was supposed to meet James at midnight in the common room, though I wasn't going to let my dormmates know about that part.
"Maybe you'll wake up and it'll be gone," Tracey offered.
"It better..." I said. "Daphne, could you help me apply the foundation again?"
"You're going to bed with makeup on?" Daphne asked from where she sat on her bed.
"Well, we never know. What if someone barges in while we're sleeping?" I carped, though the truth was that I was afraid James would see it tonight.
"Merlin, you're scared for nothing," Daphne said dismissively. "Put it on yourself. You know where my makeup is. I'm off to bed."
And Daphne did just that. She slipped into her bedsheets then slid her pink eye mask over her tired eyes.
"You know, you could just sleep with an eye mask on like Daphne does," Tracey proposed in a whisper as to not disturb our soon-to-be sleeping dormmates. Millicent and Pansy were unbothered by the fake scar over my eye as they were also getting ready for bed.
"Sounds brilliant, but I'm afraid it'll fall off my face while I sleep," I whispered back. Though her suggestion made a lot of sense given what she knew, I needed my vision to be meeting James tonight. Tracey shrugged as she slipped into bed.
"Well, good luck — could you turn off the lights, by the way?" she asked.
"Yeah, I'll put the makeup on in the bathroom," I assured her. I flicked the lanterns off in the room and bid good night to my dormmates before going to the bathroom.
Applying the makeup wasn't as tedious as I expected, though I wasn't sure I was doing it as well as Daphne had earlier. I figured James wouldn't be able to notice any discrepancies with my skin texture in the dark. Either way, I pretended to go to bed and tried not to fall asleep as I waited to be sure that my dormmates were asleep before tiptoeing out of our room.
James nearly made me yelp when I opened the door. He had his hand extended out, as if he were just about to grab the doorknob. He simply raised an eyebrow at me as his lips curved upwards. He titled his head to the side, indicating that I should follow him quietly.
I nodded and placidly closed the door behind me before shadowing James to the Slytherin common area. We remained as quiet as a breeze as we trailed out of the Slytherin dungeons. There was a moment where I opened my mouth to speak, but James placed a finger over my mouth, shaking his head at me cautiously.
He glanced around the corridor before gesturing me to follow him, his eyes paranoid as they darted around the corridors. We stalked up the stairs towards the corridors that led to the Greenhouses. We didn't pass by outside as it was freezing cold and white, but we sneaked into the first Greenhouse, which James unlocked with a spell I wasn't familiar with.
"Why not Alohom--"
James placed a hand over my mouth, even though I was whispering. His eyes widened slightly as he looked around the empty deadly quiet corridor warily. When there was no sign of another person, he ushered me into the Greenhouse and gently closed the door behind us.
"Why do you keep blocking my mouth?" I asked lowly, thinking maybe it was because my whispering voice was too harsh and loud for his liking.
"We can't risk getting caught. I think we were too reckless last time. Snape mentioned at the last prefect meeting that he keeps hearing students going in and out of the Slytherin dorms after curfew. Made a whole deal about us prefects needing to do our jobs better and whatnot," James said with what looked like a restrained eyeroll.
"I mean Sirius Black is still at large, and dementors aren't very kind," I reasoned, though it sounded weird coming from me.
"Says you," James snorted. "You're probably one of the students he keeps hearing."
"I actually haven't been sneaking out recently. Been doing my potion research in the dorms instead," I admitted with an uncertain smile.
"Well, in any case, Snape can't catch us — nor Filch, for that matter. I just finished serving detention with him for the duel. I don't need my prefect badge revoked," he added.
"They can do that?" I queried, my brain lagging with astonishment.
"Knowing Snape, he absolutely would do that," James said. My eyes widened slightly as I thought about how I would not last a day as prefect. "But now that we're here... Any idea which greenhouse has fluxweeds?"
"Yes, actually... We're in Greenhouse One?" I asked. James nodded fervently. "It should be in Greenhouse Seven where all the others weeds are."
"Fond of the cold?" James asked sarcastically, referring to the fact that we would have to go outside for a moment to even reach Greenhouse Seven.
"You have no idea," I bit back with the same sarcastic tone.
The fluxweeds were easy to spot as they glowed under the full moon, their green leaves vibrant and their purpleish-pink flowers almost glistening. Predictably, James pried, seeking to know what potion I was planning to make with it. I changed the subject by declaring how tired I was and how we needed to get back.
James, though reluctantly, acquiesced, and we were soon back in the castle corridors, cautious with any step or potential noise we made. When we reached the stairs by the library that would lead us directly to the Slytherin Dungeons, James halted in his tracks and pulled me aside.
We listened attentively, in case anybody was around. I didn't hear anything.
But James suddenly grabbed my arm and dragged me towards the library instead of the dungeons. I gave him a puzzled look as that was not where we were originally headed. He merely placed a finger over his mouth to warn me to be quiet.
And then I heard it.
"Bladedidooo! Peeves is seeking students on the looooose!" the Poltergeist sang airily. His voice was coming from the corridor we had just exited.
James ushered me to the end of the library, and I almost thought he was guiding me into the restricted section, until we stopped in front of the gates separating the two sections.
James peered behind us.
Peeves was still far away, though I wouldn't assume he wouldn't just wander into the library — it was either that or the Charms classroom.
My fifth-year Slytherin friend pulled out his wand, and for a wild second, I wondered if he was going to chase after Peeves to cast a spell on him — but then, he unlocked the door to the restricted section of the library. James waved his hand at me so that I would follow him inside, and I did.
The last time I had wandered around here was when I was looking for those illegal potion books. Amirah Flowers had somehow gotten them for me the next day without ever asking for them back. This time, I was with James Lancaster, following his prudent strides as we hoped not to get caught by Peeves The Poltergeist nearby.
"The itsy bitsy children went on to meet a dead end. Little did they know though that Peeves was very close!" Peeves' taunting singing was getting closer and closer. I wasn't sure if he had also entered the restricted section at this point.
James brought me to a corner of a library shelf. With one glance behind himself to make sure we were alone, he pushed one side of the library shelf until it revealed a flight of stairs. Quickly, he grabbed my wrist and pulled me inside and pushed the library shelf behind us, shutting us off in total darkness.
"Lumos," he cast.
All we could see here was a flight of stairs that I knew would bring us to another set of stairs before we would finally reached a door.
"What is this place?" I asked, though I remembered it from when Amirah showed me months ago. I hadn't thought about this hideout in so long as I was supposed to pretend I didn't know about it.
"Follow me," James said. He led me up the stoned stairs until we finally arrived at the dark oak door. He cast alohomora and we were inside the dingy part of the hideout.
The smell of chalk hit my nostrils in a sudden wave and I scrunched my nose in disgust. I nearly sneezed.
James flicked his wand and the candle holders lit up, enlightening the area.
The dingy old room was just as I remembered it to be; boxes piled atop each other, dusty books everywhere, an ancient-looking and empty broom cupboard. Spider webs adorned in nearly every corner of the room. On our left was that same stupendous but grubby purple curtain hanging over the wall. Before us was a large window that overlooked the training grounds. To our right was an archaic chest overflowing with more books and ancient parchment.
"So... is this where we're hiding out?" I asked, feigning ignorance about the existence of the other section of the hideout.
"Keep following me," he said simply.
He pulled the old purple curtain aside, revealing another flight of stairs. I simulated astonishment, and tailed after James up the stairs. After another flight of stairs, followed by a small landing, we finally reached the top floor.
Though I had already seen that room before, I was genuinely fascinated with its magnificence. It was a neat and tidy room with a polished black desk and a beautifully engraved armchair pushed inside the desk. The window had an pristine purple curtain drawn over it and an ostentatious gold-rimmed mirror at its opposite end. There were dark bookshelves with impressive-looking books, and various kinds of colourful flowers. The black leather couch in the corner had a matching coffee table, and someone had left their Slytherin robes on the right arm of the couch.
"Impressed?" James smirked as he noticed my dazed expression.
"I definitely did not expect this..." I admitted.
"Wyatt showed us this place on our third year," James began. "He found it in the middle of the night as he was hiding away from Filch."
"Sounds like something he would do," I said with a snort. James chuckled.
"We redesigned the upstairs section, cleaned up the area," he continued. "But on the off chance that someone else finds this place, we kept the floor downstairs looking grimy and unattractive."
"Lovely," I said, peering around to admire the magnificent work they had done to the place. "So, how long until we can get back?"
"What? You hate it here?" James asked, feigning vexation. My heart jumped a little.
"Ha, erm, no," I said pathetically. "I'm just a little tired."
"We could sleep here," James shrugged. "We've never been caught before — the lads and I."
"The S4?" I asked.
"Don't tell me you also call us that?" James rolled his eyes. I laughed nervously, knowing damn well this was exactly how I referred to them in my internal monologue. And now that I thought about it, I was fairly sure I hard Wyatt refer to them as that as well.
"It's just faster than saying Isaiah, Wyatt, Elijah, and James, you know?" I clarified, extending the vowels when I enunciated their names.
James nictated and smiled in disbelief. My fit of giggles quickly turned into a yawn. I rubbed my eyes. It was particularly itchy around my left eye. And then I realized what I was doing—
"So you were an S4 fangirl this whole time?" James asked in exaggerated shock.
"Let's head back to the common room," I said, quickly turning my face away from James, hoping the fake scar on my left eye wouldn't appear after I had unconsciously rubbed it.
"Ah. I see you're evading the question..." James said with a click of the tongue.
"Sorry, erm — yeah, I was a fangirl," I professed absent-mindedly, my face still turned away from him. "Could we head back now? I'm really tired."
"You're acting really weird," James noted. I laughed awkwardly.
"What? No, I'm erm—" I cleared my throat and allowed myself to yawn again. "Just incredibly tired."
I started walking towards the exit, my face still turned away from James. I heard his steps following me right behind.
"Er — Right, well, I suppose we could check to see if Peeves is still there," he said.
I simply hummed in agreement and we ventured back to the dusty downstairs room, then down the stoned sets of stairs leading us back to the restricted section of the library. Before pushing open the library shelf door, James pressed his ear against the wood, listening intently for any noise.
He glanced at me briefly with a nod. I tried to casually cover my eyes with my hand. I had to resist the urge to rub my eyes as it was itching again. James glanced back at me.
"What are you doing?" he asked, peering at me curiously, the light of his wand illuminating my face. My hand was stapled over my eye.
"Oh, just er — the light is too bright for my eye, so I'm covering it," I lied smoothly. James didn't really react, which made me panic because I desperately did not want him to notice the stupid fake scar my brother gave me.
"Right," he said after noxing his wand. "Well, it seems quiet. We should head out."
The journey out of the restricted section of the library had my heart tied in a knot as I feared getting caught by Peeves or even Filch. Thankfully, though, we reached the entrance of the library without any unpleasant encounters, and I allowed myself to relax a little, knowing that we only had one set of stairs left before we'd reach the Slytherin dungeons.
In the end, we managed to stealth to the Slytherin common room just fine. I let out a huge breath of relief.
"I was so terrified," I admitted with a wide-eyed smile.
"We're okay, now. Snape rarely comes in the common room," James said as we approached the black leather couches near the fireplace.
"Where were you?" someone said suddenly, halting James and I in our traipse. The voice belonged to a messy-haired and groggy-looking Wyatt, who appeared to have been sleeping on the couches.
"You really have to stop sleeping on the common room couches," James said with a stifled laugh as he noticed Wyatt's disheveled appearance.
"I can't sleep in the dorms, you know that," Wyatt sighed with annoyance at his friend.
"The dorms aren't haunted, Wyatt," James said teasingly. "I thought we sorted that out recently."
"Yes, well, I told you, already. Bletchley's snores weren't what terrified me," Wyatt asserted.
"What's this about haunted dorms?" I queried, glancing between the two fifth-year boys with puzzlement.
"What's that on your face?" Wyatt's face scrunched in amusement. I panicked, realizing I had let go of my face earlier because I figured the corridors were dark enough to hide my face.
I immediately covered my eye, feeling my heart jabbing me furiously inside my chest.
"Oh, right," James realized as he turned to me. "I knew you were acting weird. What are you hiding?"
I chuckled uncomfortably, my hand glued to my eye.
"It's nothing. Like I said earlier, I'm just tired and the bright lights hurt my eye," I replied rapidly, nodding my head to the light emitting from the fireplace.
"Maybe you should see Madam Pomfrey," Wyatt said warily. "It's red around your eye like James' scar."
"What? Did you get a matching scar with me?" James asked, seemingly trying to look past my hand on my face. He looked immensely amused, which I did not know how to feel about.
"No — I just —" I cut myself short, not really knowing if I could put up with more lies. It was getting exhausting to all the time.
I sighed and gently removed my hand, feeling embarrassed. Wyatt cackled.
"Oh," James said with a snort. He smirked. "I suppose you are a fangirl, after all."
"Very funny," I groaned. "My brother tried to play a prank on me. It was supposed to fade after a few hours. And now, it's just itchy."
"Wyatt's onto something. Maybe go see Madam Pomfrey when you can," James said, his sympathy shaded with levity.
"I'll go first thing tomorrow morning," I said, pursing my lips together in displeasure.
"Don't be so despondent," James said. "It suits you."
"Does it?" I asked with a restrained laugh.
"No, not really," Wyatt chimed in. James chuckled at that, and I playfully rolled my eyes.
"Well, in any case... I'm off to bed. Good night, you two," I said to my fellow Slytherin friends. They acquiesced their goodbyes, and I parted ways with them, ready to hit the hay after an exhausting evening.