❝Can you hear my heart breaking inside my chest? Can you hear my screams? Because I don't think you can, and that scares me even more, because what if no one saves me?❞
ORDER of the PHOENIX,
DEATHLY HALLOWS
...
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𝖈𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝖊𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙 say your goodbyes
✦
IT FELT LIKE she was going to return to a prison as she stepped off the Hogwarts Express and onto platform nine-and-three quarters to go home for the holidays. She knew that she was going back into the house with the thin walls (always able to hear how they whispered about her) and the yelling from Order members, the house where she learned the truth about herself and where she stayed lying on her bed for the entire summer.
She took a breath of her last air full of freedom before going on to find her family. She saw Nadia with Leo, who had his hands in his pockets as his leg bounced. She rolled her eyes at the movement, though she knew she would never comment on it. Leo was always so nervous to come there, surrounded by so many wizards and knowing that he was just a muggle; it never felt right to be there for him. And Maia would agree; it wasn't right for him to be there, yet she still found herself glad that he was.
Maia walked towards her brother, engulfing him in a tight hug before she could even look at Nadia or before she could say a word to her. She held her brother tightly, not wanting to let him go. All she could remember was what that man Alfred had said, how they threatened her with the death of her brother; with the death of Nadia and everyone else. It made her hold him even more closely to her, not wanting to let him go in feat that the moment she let go, they would strike.
"Woah," Leo chuckled. Eventually, when she let him go, she saw that he was smiling and it made her ache for a moment. She wanted to see him smile, she never wanted that to leave his face, and she most definitely did not want him to die. "Looks like someone missed me."
It was jokingly – Leo was always one to make a joke – but she saw the look in his eyes. This was the first time she had openly hugged him here, in front of the prying eyes of everyone else. It was no secret that Maia wanted to pretend that she didn't have a squib brother at him, and looking at him now, Maia wanted to stop pretending.
Because while she thought the worst of her brother sometimes, she knew that he was the better one between them. He wouldn't keep the news of Alfred and Narcissa to himself; he would take it to the Order and gain the help of everyone else. But Maia...Maia couldn't take the chance so she would swallow the darkness for him.
Leo was a light she would never be. And she suddenly felt so incredibly terrible for the way she had treated him before. All she wanted right now was to be in her brother's arms, to hear him talk about his school and everything so terribly muggle that she used to hate.
"Yeah," she croaked out before clearing her throat, "I did."
Leo looked startled at the response, not that she could blame him. It was rare that Maia would confess to something like that; to admit that she loved him at all. He was the one to say I love you and she was the one to say nothing in return because she wanted to think that she could go on without him. She wanted to think that she was better than him but in truth, he was so much better than she could ever be and she never wanted him to think otherwise.
