Of Horn And Halo | Draco Malfoy

Chapter 34 | 1998

Maeve's heart was pounding. There was no time, but she couldn't ignore the absence of people she'd shared years of her life with. She'd only just formed a hesitant truce with Malfoy after years of fearing him. And Anthony, Merlin, Anthony. She hadn't spoken to him in far too long.

Her heart split into two as she strained against her better judgement. Maeve wanted nothing more than to join the students evacuating, saving herself in the process, but the thought of never seeing Anthony again, of never being able to apologize hurt her more than she thought it could. There was no way she could abandon Anthony, or anyone else for that matter.

She knew a teacher was trailing at the end of the students to make sure the evacuation was complete, but it wasn't hard to duck behind a red hammock to evade being found out. It didn't occur to her until she was entirely alone in the Room of Requirement that she had nothing to hide. She was of age, McGonagall had said that those of age could choose to fight.

But she wasn't going to fight.

She was going to save her friends.

Maeve was cursing herself inwardly for acting foolish, almost as foolish as an idiot Gryffindor as she slipped from the room. It spat her out in the dungeons and she nearly stamped her foot. She had no idea where she was meant to go, but she had a feeling none of her friends would be skulking around in the dungeons.

"Ah, putain," Maeve groaned to herself. She didn't want to be a bloody target in the middle of the hallway.

Then, a thought occurred to her, "Slytherin indeed, cunning to spare."

She almost cursed herself for not thinking of it sooner. Removing her wand from her sleeve, she closed her eyes prepared for the change.

A moment later, a red fox stood where she had, a wand clamped between its jaws.

Taking off like a shot, Maeve's mind whirred. She had no bloody clue where her friends could possibly be and she had limited time to collect them. Resigning herself to quickly check each floor, she picked up the speed.

Her vulpine muscles were fast as a flash as she pumped her legs as fast as she could. Clearing the dungeons after a mere moment, she moved to the main floor. Darting through the halls, ducking into crevices and shadows whenever she caught sight of professors or those who'd stayed behind to fight, she checked the halls.

"If we both survive this, you owe me ten galleons," a voice floated from the end of a hall, and Maeve scrabbled against the smooth floor to dart in the other direction and behind a pedestal. She could've sworn had boasted a stone statue of a knight before.

Two sets of footsteps passed her hiding spot, "you're on, Fred!"

The Weasley twins? Maeve shook her head and continued on.

She'd been running for so long that she'd lost track of time, when she stumbled upon her first casualty. The rumbling had started far before, but she hadn't seen the carnage. There were piles of rubble strewn about as a result of offensive spells in the corridors closer to the Great Hall and the doors. She skidded backwards, but still came to a stop within view of the body.

It was a girl in a Hogwarts robe. She was a Hufflepuff Maeve had never spoken a word to, in fact, she didn't even know the Hufflepuff's name.

The whine that echoed in the empty hall startled her, until she realized it had come from her. Her eyes burned, but she forced herself to pass by the poor Hufflepuff. She made a silent promise to herself to find out what the name of the girl had been.

When she rounded the corner of the hall, she was almost immediately hit by an offensive spell. It made a loud cracking noise as the green light exploded against the wall a few feet above her head. In the hall, none other than Neville Longbottom was duelling a masked Death Eater and a raggedly dressed snatcher.

She turned and ran in the opposite direction. After fleeing far enough for the popping cracks of magic spells to die down, she skidded to a stop in a corridor she vaguely recognized. It was hard to get her bearings after all the running around, not to mention the change in vantage point.

When she stopped to take deep breaths through her twitching nose, she heard the voices.

"How can you be sure he went in?" Draco's voice.

Maeve didn't think, she just rounded the corner and allowed the change to take hold of her once more. She was standing in her human form glaring down her nose at Blaise, Goyle, and Malfoy before they had time to react to her vulpine form.

"Why the bloody fuck are you all still here?" She demanded, taking a step forward, "are you all as moronic as you seem?"

Draco sneered down his nose at her and spoke first, surprising her with the venom in his voice, "I have unfinished business with Potter."

"That's right," Goyle chimed.

"Who cares about Potter! We have to leave. People are dying in the halls and I don't intend to be one," Maeve's voice was twinged with desperation. She turned to face Draco, took hold of his hand and pleaded, "please, Draco. You have a choice in this."

"You don't understand!" Draco swiped away his hand, "I have to do this."

"You don't have to do anything!" Maeve growled back, before turning to Blaise, "what about Pansy?"

"What about her?" Blaise retorted, his usual air of haughtiness entirely intact.

Maeve wanted to cry. Her eyes took in the angry, but determined faces of her fellow Slytherins and her stomach dropped. After that, the only thing she felt was a frustration so intense it made way to anger. She spat at Draco's feet, "fine. You all disgust me."

"We're doing what's required," Blaise snarled.

"What's expected!" Goyle chimed.

Maeve shook her head, "Doesn't make it right."

Draco's face was twisted with an emotion Maeve couldn't read. She didn't give herself a chance to feel sorry for them, or herself. She simply turned and let the change take over.

If they refused to help themselves, they were already lost. Maeve had to try with one last person before she gave up.

Tiny paws pounding against the stone, Maeve ran through the torn-up halls with only one person in mind: Anthony.