In a world ravaged by good and evil, those toeing the line find solace in nothing. Blood runs thicker than water, but is risking your life and livelihood for a war you never wanted a part in worth it? Is becoming a monster in the eyes of some, and a...
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Neville Longbottom walked the halls like a ghost. It hurt to look at him. His eyes were determined, unbroken, but his body was warning to any of those who directly opposed the Carrows.
Maeve stepped to the side of the hall, scrambling out of his way. With every step he took, her eyes followed. In fact, most watched him, if not everyone in the crowded hall.
He'd sported bruises for months, but he looked as though he'd been used to sharpen knives. Fresh blood leaked from uncountable cuts, and he limped slightly as he walked alone down the hall and through the parting students.
Sharp movement caught her eye, and Maeve turned her gaze toward two boys who jogged up from behind and flanked him. Micheal and Anthony. The two Ravenclaw boys gave fierce looks to all those around and hurried off with Neville.
"Every day their numbers dwindle," Pansy sounded pitying, "first Loony, then Weasley. Longbottom is next, mark my words. If they just stand down they can live."
Maeve elbowed her cousin to shut her up. Thankfully, Pansy's comment had gone unheard. The hall had erupted into whispers the moment Neville had surpassed hearing distance.
In response to Pansy's irritated glare, Maeve glared back, "talking about them could get us into trouble."
It was true. Not a week before, Maeve had watched a Gryffindor utter the word Dumbledore in the hall and it was like Alecto Carrow appeared from the shadows. She'd dragged the young student down the hall by his collar to her office. Maeve hadn't seen him since.
Pansy grabbed hold of Maeve's hand and practically dragged her off her feet in the opposite direction Neville had disappeared off to. Pansy was meeting Blaise in the library, and, as always, was oblivious to Maeve's disinterest in being the third.
The library was one of the few places in the entire school that were almost always occupied, but the table at which they usually sequestered themselves in the back of the stacks was usually empty.
Dodging between two bookshelves Pansy had nearly careened her into, Maeve took a moment before she realized who was already sitting at the table with Blaise.
"Malfoy?" Maeve said in mild surprise.
At the same moment, Pansy piped out an excited, "Draco!"
From what Maeve had deduced, Draco spent most of his time skulking off by himself or, on occasion, with Crabbe and Goyle. Pansy had complained to Maeve's deaf ears on many occasions about how she missed her friend.
Maeve didn't think Draco even had friends. She surely wasn't his friend. As if he could read her thoughts, his eyes turned to her and lazily trailed up and down her body.
"What took you so long?" Blaise's irritated voice broke Maeve from her dissection.
Pansy dropped into a chair directly beside her boyfriend, dropping a kiss to his lips, before she pouted, "Longbottom was making a spectacle of himself in the hallway."
