in the end ~ d. malfoy

Chapter Forty-Two

June 2016

CAN YOU MISS SOMEONE THAT YOU NEVER HAD THE CHANCE TO KNOW?

Sirius's death feels like a grandiose cataclysm; wherever she looks, Maya sees the wreckage his demise has left around them. None of her friends can look her in the eye anymore; not after what happened in the Department of Mysteries. Hogwarts seems to have been silenced by the wave of grief that overcomes everyone around her.

They all cope in different ways - Harry lashes out, Diana goes temporarily mute, Ron constantly plays quidditch, Hermione hasn't picked up a single book in ages. It's as though parts of them have died with him, buried in some long-forgotten corner of the local Hogsmeade cemetery.

She wasn't that attached to him — not like Harry, to whom Sirius Black was a second father or Arya, her monumental first love that evolved into her ride-or-die best friend. Maya barely even knew him beyond the secret fire meetings and letters that Harry spoke of, and even then, their interactions were very little. But there was something about him that made her feel comfortable . . . seen . . . safe enough to let her guard down in his presence.

Something Maya's only ever felt with one person before.

Facing Draco Malfoy after she's put his father in Azkaban with her friends is no easy feat; the dark circles under his eyes taunt her of what she's done to his family — what she's taken from them. She's tried to give him some space, but as they board the train back home two weeks back later, something in her feels empty.

'The food trolley's just stopped if you lot want anything . . .' Luna says dreamily, snapping Maya out of her daze.

'Not really that hungry, thanks, ' Maya replies, voice smaller than she likes. Church is happily curled up in her arms, purring and snuggling into her as she scratches behind his ears. After her mother, he's probably the person that holds the deepest place in her heart. She places a tender kiss on the top of his head and settles back against the window, watching the English countryside rush past.

Diana snorts, startling Maya. She's barely said a word in the aftermath, keeping her head down and eyes cast away in the wake of her family being shattered. It's not that she's been avoiding Maya the entire time (after all, they did fight against the Death Eaters together), she's just been absent from her social life in general (and for a very understandable reason). The bright pink is fading from her hair, but reflected in her cheeks as she giggles, pulling away from Luna trying to tickle her into submission, 'For God's sake, Lovegood! Stop it!'

'What?' Luna feigns innocence, shrugging her slender shoulders, 'I was just checking to see whether you had any flitterblooms hidden in your clothes!'

'Yeah, sure' Diana scoffs, leaning her head on the latter's shoulder, 'Like I would ever attract those bloody things, '

'You can't blame me for being worried, ' replies the Hufflepuff, a hint of grin gracing her thin mouth, 'They only gravitate towards those with a beautiful aura, '

Diana turns the reddest Maya's ever seen her, 'Oh shut up!'

'Hey,' says Ron softly, nodding towards the glass window on to the corridor. Maya looks around. Cho is passing, accompanied by Marietta Edgecombe, who's wearing a balaclava. She meets Harry's eyes with an unreadable expression before walking away, hurriedly dragging Marietta along with her.

'I — er — heard she's going out with someone else now,' says Hermione tentatively.

'You're well out of it, mate,' says Ron forcefully. 'I mean, she's quite good-looking and all that, but you want someone a bit more cheerful.'