Emerald [Cedric Diggory]

Chapter Four

They found Seamus and Dean back in their compartment. After telling them about Neville and Potter, the two Slytherins asked them the question that had been plaguing them all this while.

"So what exactly is a Dementor?"

Seamus and Dean then proceeded to explain exactly what and who the Dementors really were.

After they were done, Maya was silent for a while. "So you're telling me that those things are allowed to be around people?" she asked with calmness she did not feel.

"Only bad ones who are sent to prison." Seamus assured her.

"Last I checked this wasn't a prison." Maya snapped, her tone a little sharper than she had intended. The Dementors had really rattled her, and the thought of wizards allowing such creatures to be around their own kind... She could not bear to think about it.

"Hey, it's not like I personally invited them here!" Seamus protested.

"Well, someone did." Dean said quietly. "The ministry keeps them on too tight a leash for them to act on their own."

"And you said that prolonged exposure to them can cause insanity?" Maya continued, as if she hadn't heard them speak. Her mind was still reeling, struggling to accommodate the Dementors' existence into her understanding of the world.

"Yes." Dean replied.

And Fredrick always told me that the bogeyman didn't exist, Maya thought to herself distractedly.

"I see." was all she said. The rest of the train ride was relatively silent. After the incident, no one really had the motivation to talk.

Maya turned her head to look out the window. The darkness outside made it impossible for her to see anything, so Maya simply stared at her reflection in the window, as she thought about the kind of world she belonged to now. In the past two years, she had often found her thoughts wandering back to this topic.

It was no great goddamn secret that Maya didn't fit in with wizards. The Slytherins loathed her very existence, and everyone else looked at her with such distrust, it was hard not to take it personally.

Her only solace was Damien- Maya honestly didn't know what she would have done if she were all by herself in this situation. She was an outcast- but thanks to Damien, at least she wasn't the only outcast. Maya still remembered the semi-scandal that had been created when two muggleborns were sorted into Slytherin on the same night.

Slytherin house largely consisted of halfbloods- purebloods were relatively rare, and the house would have long since died out if they hadn't let the others in- so some of the Slytherins weren't as hostile towards them. But that didn't mean that there wasn't the occasional bullying from them either.

After all, muggleborns in Slytherin were rare, and most halfbloods were glad to have someone lower than them in the food chain. Over the last two years, Damien and Maya had to learn hexes and counter curses more out of necessity than for their education.

Even if she'd never say it out loud, Maya had often envied how well Hermione had fit in, how easily she had been accepted. Sure, there were bullies like Malfoy and his posse, but most of the other students in school had come to like her. It was the same with Dean- he had found Seamus and Neville, and people in general seemed to like him. Even Damien had his Quidditch team.

The train lurched to a stop, and for half a heartbeat Maya thought that the Dementors had returned. It was only when she looked around that she realized that they had reached Hogsmeade.

The occupants of the compartment silently made their way out of the train and towards the carriages. The rest of the students must have also felt the Dementors around, because everyone was a lot quieter than usual as they boarded the carriages.