Hogwarts was close to an end, and Maia Korin felt time slipping through her fingers, each moment a reminder of what would soon be memories.
The halls that had been her home for seven years seemed to echo with the whispers of farewells. Leaving behi...
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The dimly lit halls along the Ravenclaw tower always gave an ominous impression which made it doubtful that anyone would be dawdling by, especially at the early hours of the night wherein the wind whispered to the ancient stone walls, causing the oil lamps lined across the passageway to dim consecutively for a slight second.
Being away from her family for the third year left her with a lingering sadness, albeit it had just been the start of the school year, and her whole family had just seen her off at the station earlier in the day.
Maia had figured her downcast mood when parting with familiarity had been due to her attachment issues that seemed immune to time.
She recalled her first year parting with her family; the tumultuous chaos at King's Cross was one to rival Christmas mornings at their manor, with carts on their last wheel wheezing past her, and a faint sound of sobbing that might have been coming from her as well.
Her sulking eventually lightened when she heard a faint rustling of foil that seemed ever so sweet and familiar.
Her father would often get berated by her nona for encouraging Maia's sweet tooth, an endearing trait that she and her father cherished.
"Eat up, love," her father had reached the bar to her with a sly grin. Maia's nimble fingers grabbed the treat as she smiled at her father, teeth missing and all, who was stealthily crowding her small body to avoid the lecture that they would get once they were discovered by the old woman who seemed stronger than ever.
The chocolate treat, though causing her multiple trips to the dental clinic, never failed to fill her with feelings as sweet as it.
As her slippers lightly ambled through the corridors with her robe pockets dragging down with the added weight of multiple bars, her ears perked at the sound of sniffling. Surely, if it weren't from the lack of noise that this hall would gain in the morning, Maia wouldn't hear the light blubbering a few steps behind.
Her initial thought had been to leave the person with their solitude as they might have needed the extra time to themselves, but the part of her that felt empathy and curiosity overpowered her will to not care.
Quietly turning a corner, her gaze landed on a small boy. He seemed younger than the first years that were sorted earlier in the night, although her assumption could have been because of the boy's lanky stature that seemed to swallow his body, caging him from the sparse light filtering through the windows
Being thirteen years of age, fourteen in a few days, Maia believed that her social skills were akin to a rockstar; loud, confident, and unafraid. But as she stepped closer to the boy, a lump seemed to have caught in her throat, and a measly 'um' was all she could utter.
Her well-meant intentions of comforting the boy had been thrown in the bin once he scrambled to sit up from his place the marbled floor, smearing the glistening tears that illuminated his face.
Maia was none the better, her hands flew forward in an attempt to alleviate the situation, "I'm sorry." She sputtered as she took a tentative step forward.
Once the boy had realized that she was of no threat, he had already been standing, lightly shuffling on his feet while his hands were stuffed in his pockets.
For a second, they stood still observing the other until the boy eventually plopped back down against the stone walls.
Maia saw inklings of scars on his otherwise youthful face, and it made her wonder what such a young boy could have faced to be etched with the marks of a warrior.
"Aren't you supposed to be in bed?" The boy muffled through his arms which rested on his bony knees. His head slightly tilted upwards to show an inkling of his eye which had been covered by his tousled hair.
Her eyebrow piqued at the boldness of his question, "I should be asking you the same thing."
The boy had once again buried himself into his knees, offering a noncommittal hum to her response. Her awareness had finally returned to her as she pieced together that the boy was most likely waiting for her to take her leave.
As she took a step back, regret settled within her. Maia had only been allowed a few paces back before the boy spoke in a hushed tone, "It's my first year."
A simple statement, yet it had caused a sense of familiarity to weigh in her chest. It made her still, and as she craned her head back to spot the boy, his expectant gaze had already been upon her.
Calmly, she trudged back to the boy and swiftly took a seat beside him. The coolness of the marble tiles greeted the girl, prompting her to wrap her robes tighter against her shoulders.
The two sat in a comfortable silence that was, broken occasionally by sniffling. Maia was never one that could bear silence, she always felt the need that her senses be stimulated in any way.
"I'm Maia," she turned to the boy with a faint smile.
The boy slowly turned his head from where it was rested on his knees, "Remus." he replied, his voice tinged with a Welsh accent, rasped by his recent tears.
Maia patted down the side of her robes in an attempt to track down what she had earlier stuffed down her greedy pockets. Remus had lifted his head in a state of curiosity brought upon by the shuffling girl.
Maia grabbed the bar that had been slightly misshapen and soft to the touch. She concluded that she shouldn't have crammed all those chocolates in the limited space that her robe pockets provided.
Reaching it over to the boy, his glassy eyes widened at the sight of the sweet treat. She realized that she had been staring while Remus pried the foil open, and she averted her gaze to offer privacy to the boy.
As they sat, knees pinned to their chests, Maia uttered, "Someone once told me that the first and last years are always the hardest," she smiled "The first year because everything's so new and different, and the last because you won't want to leave."
Remus had been carefully nibbling on the chocolate, seemingly filtering out what Maia had been saying.
She felt the urge to smile at the sight of the boy with chocolate-coated cheeks, "You know," his distracted gaze snapped to her, "Chocolate's a medicine for sadness."
His eyebrows scrunched together as he looked forward, "Maia," she hummed in acknowledgment, "Thank you."
In her mind, he was merely a child, yet his eyes revealed a depth of thought that belied a wisdom far beyond his years.
