𝐀 𝐆𝐈𝐑𝐋 𝐎𝐅 𝐑𝐈𝐃𝐃𝐋𝐄𝐒 | h. potter

3 | Knock-Out

CHAPTER THREE: KNOCK-OUT

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Maya swallowed thickly, and thus began the chaos in her mind. How the heck was this supposed to help her?

She looked over to Dumbledore with wide eyes, and she felt the familiar ripple of her hair fading into a new colour. From obsidian to silvery grey, the change caught the eyes of everyone in the hall, which seemed to ignite further commentary from mouths dripping with venom. Shock.

Dumbledore just gave her a soft smile and nodded his head toward the Gryffindor table, but she knew that look in his eyes. He was just as confounded as she was.

Pinching her thigh, Maya forced herself to move and slowly walked over to the table, sitting at the very, very end. Where no one could disturb her. Where no one would notice her.

'Yeah, right.' whispered the voice in her head again. 'As if anyone would ignore the daughter of Lord Voldemort.'

In their eyes, she was just as bad as him.

Maya didn't eat much at the feast despite having anticipated the meal a few hours before. She pushed her food around, taking a few bites every now and then, but forced herself to get used to it the way she had to on the run. The Gryffindor Prefect, a red head boy who's name was Percy Weasley, led all the first years — and Maya — to the common room. She kept telling herself it was better to be ignored. Better to go unnoticed.

But the stares she felt on her skin struck her blood with an itch, told her she was being noticed. She wanted to run, to flee, to go back in time to a month ago when the castle was just her, the house-elves, Dumbledore and McGonagall. Just her and the infinite books and the blanket of safety.

(But that time was over now; Maya had to move on.)

"Wattlebird." said Percy, and the Fat Lady allowed the children entrance by opening the portrait hole. It was cosy and warm, and had a home-like feeling to it, from what Maya assumed homey things were like. The circular common room had scarlet red walls and squishy couches by the roaring, crackling fireplace. There were two staircases: one on the left, which was for boys, and another on the right, for the girls. She hurriedly made for the stairs, wanting to get into her dorm room as quickly as possible so she wouldn't have to be tormented.

But of course, she should have known it wouldn't be that easy.

A girl shoved past Maya, knocking her into a wall. She winced, swallowing the cry of pain and muffling it into a groan. The abrupt contact with the wall had hurt one of her older aches, alighting it with fire-like pinpricks. "Watch it!" spat the girl, before glaring at her as if she wished she'd done something worse before walking off. Her two friends did the same, narrowing their eyes as if it was all her fault.

In a hundred shades of irritation, Maya let the words bursting from her chest fall from her lips. "Why don't you?" she snapped.

The girls ahead of her stopped. The one who pushed her into the wall turned around slowly. "Excuse me?"

"I said what I said. You've got a pair of eyes, perhaps instead of looking at the next person you choose to topple over, you should use them to evaluate your audacity."

The girl laughed in disbelief, and then her expression changed in an instant as she pulled out her wand. "You little—"

"Brilliant observation," she interrupted coldly. "Tell me, do you get some sort of kick out of bullying people smaller than you? Because I have to say it's a bit concerning."