Where It Stays | J. POTTER [1]

8 | animals

"So the rules say no students out of bed at night, correct?" Maya inquired. McGonagall eyed the girl curiously but nodded. "So in theory we could say, I don't know, levitate our beds around and we wouldn't technically be out of bed."

They had all, once again, been caught sneaking out of the castle. The boys had left their map behind and they had been left to their own devices.

"That's genius," James beamed, elbowing Sirius in the side gently, "How come we never thought of that?"

"The rule is not to be taken word for word," McGonagall pointed out.

"It's not our fault it's phrased like that," she argued, "The rule clearly states no student out of bed at night. In this case we wouldn't be getting out of bed."

"No students should be wandering outside of their rooms at night."

"Then maybe you should have said that when you wrote the rules."

"I didn't write the rules."

"Then blame the person who wrote the rules because I'm pretty sure I just found a loophole."

"I'm going to have to make sure Dumbeldore makes a rule that you can't levitate your bed and float around the corridors, aren't I?" she sighed. Maya grinned at this and McGonagall shook her head slightly, "Back to your house, all of you."

They all turned around and made their way back to the Gryffindor common room. "For the first time I wish you idiots hadn't forgotten that creepy map of yours."

"It's not creepy," Sirius argued, "It's genius."

"It's borderline stalkerish although I will admit, kind of a genius," she replied before saying the password and the portrait opened, "Maybe you guys are smarter than I give you credit for."

"A compliment from you?" he inquired, "Mark it down boys, it's a historical date now."

Maya rolled her eyes at this, "I can easily rescind the comment."

"You already said it and we all heard it," he pointed out, "There is no taking it back."

Maya laid down on the couch, "You may be right but I can easily throw in a couple of accurate insults and call it a night."

"Admit it, you actually like us sometimes."

"Hmm," she responded, closing her eyes.

"Well we know for sure you like James," he pointed out, "At least we certainly hope you do. And that's a quarter of us."

"I didn't realize you all identified as one person," she opened her eyes to look at the boys who were all watching her, "I take that back."

Maya closed her eyes again when a sharp pain shot through her head. Her hands flew to her head as she groaned. "Bloody hell," she muttered.

She squeezed her eyes shut as images flashed through her head. Red eyes, a snake, a green flash.

"Maya?" James inquired and he knelt down beside the girl, "Maya, are you alright?"

She shook her head slightly and opened her eyes after a moment, turning her head to look at him, "I'm fine."

"What happened?"

She forced herself to sit up, "Nothing."

"That didn't look like nothing," he countered.

"It was nothing," she replied simply, sitting up on the couch. There was a dull ache in her head now which usually happened when she got the random bursts of images.

They had been happening for a little less than a month now, gradually getting worse as time went on but she continued to push them to the back of her mind.

James frowned but nodded nevertheless, "Alright." He glanced back at the boys before looking back at her, "Want us to go?"

"You guys stay," she suggested, standing up, "I'm gonna go to bed. I'm tired."

"We'll see you in the morning then," Remus concluded and she nodded before disappearing up the staircase.

-

"We have exactly three days till break," Maya announced at the table in the Great Hall the following morning, "Any ideas?"

"I've got nothing," Sirius concluded.

"Ditto," James replied.

"Oh, come on," she huffed, "You guys are always chalk full of ideas and you've got nothing?" She turned to look at Peter and Remus, "Oh, nevermind then."

"Why don't you come up with an idea?" Sirius suggested.

"Please," Maya scoffed, "We all know I'm not the brains in any operation. That's what I have you for."

"We can't just poof up an idea," he pointed out. "If you want to do something so bad, you come up with something."

"Sorry that I can't just turn into an animal at will when I'm bored," Maya pointed out and all four boys looked up at her in surprise.

Sirius turned on James and hissed, "You told her!"

"He didn't have to," she countered, "I figured him out easy. Then there was the whole rat incident that told me Peter was in on it." She turned to look at James, "Unless of course you really do have an odd relationship with it then I'm going to have to rethink this whole thing. A throuple with a rat isn't going to work for me."

He grimaced slightly, crossing his arms across over his chest as he sunk down in his seat. She turned to look at her brother, "And you think I wouldn't notice the similarities between the dog we saw at Hogsmeade that appeared just when you had disappeared."

"She makes a good point," Remus nodded, "You guys really are awful at hiding it."

"We haven't been caught yet, so that should count for something," Peter replied.

"Key word being yet," she pointed out and he frowned, "Maybe you should try being more discreet."

They all remained silent for a moment before Maya spoke up, "I have an idea."

"And what's that?" Peter asked.

"We train Sirius as a dog and enter him into a dog show," she replied, taking a bite of her food, "I think we have a good shot at winning."

"You're not funny," Sirius scowled.

"You're just upset that you didn't come up with the idea yourself."

"Hmm."

-

"You're all coming for Christmas, right?" James asked them as they all stood in the common room with their luggage at their sides.

"I've changed my mind," Maya announced, "I've decided I'd much rather spend the entire day with my mother over coming to your house."

"Ha, ha," he rolled his eyes, "I'll see you on Christmas then."

"Or not." He narrowed his eyes at her and she grinned before crossing the room to him. She wrapped her wrapped her arms around his torso and he wrapped his arms around her, holding her closer to him, "Christmas it is."

Sirius grimaced, "I think I might actually prefer Christmas with my mother over having to deal with that."

Remus laughed at this as he walked over to Sirius. He whispered something in the boy's ear and Sirius grinned at whatever it was.

Maya pulled away from James and looked up at him. He leaned down and pressed his lips to hers, "Goodbye then."

She smiled, "Later."