My One and Only

Chapter 28 - Year 3

MAIA SAW RED. There was a fire burning in the pit of her stomach, heating her entire body until she could barely take it anymore. People stared as she passed by, heat rolling off of her in waves. No one stopped her.

She found her target sitting in the courtyard with his friends, a smug smile on his face as they sneered over something Maia couldn't care less about. They fell silent as she approached, a piercing glow surrounding her, her hair a mane of fire. She tossed Hagrid's crumpled, tear smudged letter onto Malfoy's lap, her face blank, except for the rage burning in her red eyes.

"I hope you're happy." She said, her voice low and menacing. With that, she turned and stormed away, leaving the blonde boy shivering, despite the heat she left behind.

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Malfoy tried all weekend to gather the courage to speak to Maia, but she seemed to be doing everything in her power to avoid him. Not to mention the few times he did see her, she was joined by the Weasley twins, who glared furiously at him if he so much as glanced their way.

He felt miserable. He hadn't expected his father to push for execution when he'd written to him about the beast's attack. He just wanted to punish Hagrid for exposing them to the beasts, for Maia's sake. Guilt twisted in his gut like a knife as he tried to rationalize his decisions, but in the end, he couldn't deny that Hagrid wasn't the one who needed to be punished. He was.

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"It happened again." Maia groaned, flopping onto the couch next to Fred. He raised his eyebrow at her, prompting her to continue. "I went blind with rage. Thankfully, I didn't tear Malfoy's head off, but had he said anything to me I'm afraid I would've."

"Well, it wouldn't be much of a loss anyway."

"Fred." Maia exclaimed, and the redhead laughed.

"C'mere." He said softly, holding his arm up so Maia could slide under it and settle against his chest. His racing heart calmed her, and she sighed, letting the warmth of his body seep into her. "I told you, you have nothing to worry about. I promised to protect you, and I will."

Fred's words comforted Maia more than she could say, and she smiled up at him.

"Thank you." She said, and Fred smiled back, tucking a stray lock of hair behind her hair.

"You know, I was thinking." He turned to look into the fire, the flames dancing in his brown eyes. "Maybe you should start training or something. Try to learn to control your powers."

Maia frowned. "My powers?"

"Yeah, like the glowing thing you do."

Maia said nothing. She had noticed that she tended to glow at time, but she ignored it, telling herself that she had to be imagining it. After all, it always happened when she was feeling extremely emotional, so she convinced herself that it was all a hallucination. Hearing Fred say it out loud enough, banished any thoughts of the situation being a figment of her imagination.

"I don't even know where I'd start." She finally said, and Fred grinned brightly at her, in the way that always cheered her up.

"I'll help you."

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The night before the Gryffindor v Slytherin Quidditch match, Maia was too nervous to sleep. She'd gotten about an hour of restless sleep, but was plagued with images of dementors flocking together until there was no sky left to see. They approached Harry and Maia tried to scream, but no sound came out. Instead, the air filled with a feral growl, and a giant Grim leapt into the air, taking Harry into it's jaws and chomping him clean in half. Maia woke up with a scream on her lips, and had been to anxious to go back to bed for fear of having another nightmare.