Sad, Beautiful, Tragic ~ f.g.w

𝟔. 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞.

"Okay okay- kiss, marry, crucio... Lupin, Fred, and.." Astoria laughs. "Voldemort."

"That's not fair!" Maia scoffs at her. "First of all, Remus is my godfather. Gross. Second, Fred is. Eugh. And Voldemort? Really?"

"You gotta answer it! I don't make the rules!" Astoria continues to giggle.

"Fine- Crucio Voldemort, obviously. Remus..." Maia drops her head. "You repeat any of this to anyone and I swear Astoria. Remus- would be kiss, but on the cheek! And then- eugh- Don't make me say it out lou-"

"Slytherins! To the Great Hall! Immediately!" one of their prefects burst into the common room, everyone looking puzzled.

This late at night? In their pajamas? What could possibly be so important?

Students from Gryffindor already gathered in the empty hall, while Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin joined them, all of them confused.

"The teachers and I need to conduct a thorough search of the castle." Dumbledore spoke, as Maia suddenly felt all the eyes on her again. "I'm afraid that, for your own safety, you will have to spend the night here. I want the prefects to stand guard over the entraces to the hall and I am leaving the Head Boy and Girl in charge. Any disturbance should be reported to me immediately."

As Dumbledore began to leave the hall, he suddenly stopped, "Oh, yes, you'll be needing..." and with a wave of his wand, a dozen sleeping bags appeared. "Sleep well." he said, before closing the door behind him.

The hall began buzzing with the noise of talking students.

"What do you think happened?" Astoria looked at Maia.

"I might have a suspicion-"

"Hey, Black!" a Gryffindor called out, she didn't know him, but he looked to be younger than her. "How'd you do it, eh?"

"Do what?" Maia crossed her arms, giving the boy a glare.

"Help him into the castle! We all knew you would, it was just a matter of time." the boy scoffed at her.

"I- I didn't- How would I even-" usually she'd have some kind of snarky comeback to things like this, but her mind was blank. Instead, she was stumbling over her words. "I can't have-"

Astoria walked forward, "She was in the common room with me. She couldn't have done anything."

"Likely story- Did you help her then-" the boy was cut off by one of the older Weasley's, who was head boy.

"Everyone into their sleeping bags!" he shouted. "Come on, now, no more talking! Lights out in ten minutes!"

The Gryffindor boy scoffed, before moving back towards a group to get sleeping bags.

"Maia-? Are you alright?" Astoria grabbed her shoulders, before pulling her into a hug.

"Yeah- yeah." Maia sounded as though she was trying to reassure herself. She was fine. She was tough. She wasn't going to break over words like that. Especially from some stupid Gryffindor.

Maia and Astoria found their way to sleeping bags and crawling into them.

"Well. This is comfortable." Maia said sarcastically.

Astoria laughed a bit. "It'll be fine for now, it's only temporary... hopefully."

Maia smiled at her, before the lighst shut off.

Every hour, a teacher would come in to the hall to check on everything. It was probably sometime in the AM when Maia woke up to whispers from Professor Dumbledore and Snape.