s e v e n t e e n

Maeve quietly made her way to the Great Hall the next day for breakfast. She'd slept as soon as she'd stormed out on Cedell and woken up a mere half hour before the meal was about to end. 

Even though she had had a good amount of sleep, her brain still felt as if it could split in two at any given moment. She shook her head readily - this was her fifth year. The year she gave her O.W.L.s. She wasn't going to be distracted by Cedric - no matter how distracting it was. She was going to have to deal with it. 

Her face paled as she saw Draco standing at the end of the hallway she was walking in. Only this time - it wasn't with Crabbe and Goyle. He was with Pansy. And his arm was kept lazily around her. 

Maeve tried to keep her head down and avoid confrontation. But of course, the Slytherin had no intentions of that happening.

"I must say, Maeve, you move on rather quickly. I thought it would be at least half a year until you replaced that chap of yours. Looks like I was wrong." 

Maeve clenched her fists before turning to Draco with a sarcastic smile. "Well, Draco, acceptance is the first step. Glad to see you're trying to move on from this ego-web you've built for yourself"

"Why you-" Draco tried to storm at her but was taken aback when someone stepped out from behind Maeve. The brunette turned around, blinking furiously as Cedell walked out from behind a turning wall - wand at his ready. 

"You were saying?" Cedell scowled, not breaking eye contact with Draco. 

Draco's lips formed into a thin line but he said nothing. "My father will hear about this!"

"You try to mess with my sister again and I'll make sure you spend the rest of eternity regretting your existence. Your daddy can't do anything about a scarred face, can he?" Cedell smirked. "I come from New York, lad. If you think I don't know how to beat your preppy ass to the bottom of that lake outside, you're wrong." 

Maeve looked at him wide-eyed. She knew Cedell could be a bit stand-offish but she wasn't expecting his threats to be so... well, threatening. 

"Come on, May." he turned to the entranced Hufflepuff. "I think it's time we leave Barbie and Goth Girl to rethink their life decisions." he grabbed her hand, sparing a glance at Pansy who had simply watched the interaction without a peep.

With a single 'Transpello', the two were by the entrance of the Great Hall, and Maeve had finally seemed to find her voice. "I- uh, thank you." she looked at Cedell, "You didn't have to." 

"I know." the boy shrugged. "So, breakfast?"

Maeve nodded, heading for the Hufflepuff table and taking a seat. She was even more surprised than before to find Cedell slipping into the seat across hers. 

"This is the Hufflepuff table." Maeve said blankly, halfway into biting into her apple.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Can people from different houses not sit on other tables?" he asked - genuinely confused. 

"No no." Maeve let out a light laugh. "It's just that it's very rare for someone from another house to sit at a different table." she shrugged. 

"Well I'm an American at a school halfway across the world. Pretty sure I check the 'rare' box." his eyes twinkled and Maeve let out a silent laugh. 

"You called me your sister then, didn't you?" she asked with a small smirk hiding behind her smile. 

"Yeah well, let's not get into the details." Cedell said half-heartedly, scratching the back of his neck. "Some kind of protective-elder-brother-feature just pounced out of me."

"You do know you're younger than me right?" Maeve grinned - holding back her laugh.

"Of course I do." Cedell scoffed. "Doesn't mean I can't protect you."

"You know, to be honest, I wasn't expecting your threats to be so... graphic." Maeve admitted. 

"Right. About that. I don't actually know how to fight. Mom and dad raised me in the better part of the city. I've never even been mugged! Although our Quodpot Coach did make us wrestle once - don't know if that counts."

"So you were lying?" Maeve asked, the look of surprise refusing to leave her face. 

"I think 'fibbing' has a better ring to it." Cedell frowned. "As you might know, my friends and I like roaming around shady parts of the wizarding world, so we've picked up some dark-wizard lingo." he said coolly, stretching back on the bench. 

Maeve watched him - finding the whole thing hilarious. Then she noticed his empty plate. "Are you not going to eat anything?"

"Oh, I already did. I wanted to talked to you and some Hufflepuff told me to head to the kitchens." he replied blankly. "Why anyone would think putting an entire house there beats me. That's when I ran into you and Barbie." 

Maeve laughed at the nickname he'd coined for Draco. "What did you want to talk about?" 

"Well, I was eating breakfast, and one of the other fourth years started talking to me. He told me about how a boy died last year. Cedric Diggory. He also told me that you two were really close. I concluded it was the guy Barbie was talking about last night."

Maeve's lively demeanor simmered down and she looked at him calmly. "And?"

"Well, I just wanted to say sorry. I know I've been a bit of a jerk to you ever since you came to live with us for the summer. I don't know what it feels like to lose somebody you love. If I'm being honest, I've had a pretty privileged life in America. Two loving parents, an only child, and a comfortable penthouse apartment to top it all off. I felt guilty for treating you that way for two months straight. You must have felt horrible. Mom and dad didn't tell me about Cedric." 

"To be honest, it distracted me a little. So it wasn't completely horrendous." Maeve joked. "And I asked Clint and Cynthia not to tell you - I didn't want it to be the first impression you had of me. Last year, after Cedric passed, I was in a really bad place till the year ended. That tag isn't going leave me for a while. I wanted to... start anew, I guess." she replied with a nonchalant shrug. 

Cedell nodded, taking her words in. "Well why didn't you just say so? Hello, Maeve, I am Cedell Johnson, pleasure to meet you." he grinned widely, extending his hand across the table for her to shake. "We're half-brothers by the way."

"Not in that way, silly." Maeve laughed, shaking it regardless. With a half-hearted glare, she went back to her breakfast and the two spent the next ten minutes of breakfast in comfortable silence.

Cedric and Cedell had such contrasting personalities. Cedric was gentle, soft-spoken and didn't take a lot of risks. After everything she'd learned about Cedell, she had concluded he was the stark opposite - bold, stand-offish and the boy took risks like there was no tomorrow. She found it weird that both of them seemed to give her the same feeling - a feeling of comfort of happiness. It didn't feel as if she was replacing Cedric. Rather, she felt as if she was gaining another brother. And in some sort of twisted way, Maeve just knew that Cedell was going to be the one who could get her to move on from Cedric's death.

_____

"How does she do that?" Maeve whispered aloud, watching as Padma Patil successfully flew a paper bird in the air. 

"No idea." Zach admitted, watching along. "But she's mighty good at it."

"Ugh." Maeve scowled, watching as Seamus and Crabbe tried to hit the bird in air. "Can't even let a bloody piece of paper exist in peace." she grumbled as Zach laughed. 

Maeve let out a little shriek as the paper caught fire and fell to the ground. She, as well as a few others turned around to look at who shot the spell. 

"Who's that?" Maeve asked, looking at a stout lady covered in pink. 

"How do you- oh right, you weren't at dinner last night. That's Dolores Umbridge. The Ministry sent her to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts. 

"The Ministry? Why would they want to interfere with school?"

Zacharias however, didn't have time to respond because Dolores Umbridge had started speaking and was heading to the front of class. 

"O...W...L.s. More commonly known as O.W.L.s." she smiled sickeningly as her feet stopped clicking. Maeve tried to suppress her laugh as the sound reminded her of a chicken's cluck. "Study hard, and you will be rewarded. Fail to do so, and the consequences may be... severe." 

The Hufflepuff watched as new D.A.D.A. books floated in front of everyone in class.

"The basics?" Zach whispered harshly as he looked down at his book. "But we're fifth years. We can't give our O.W.L.s with basic level knowledge!" 

"...has been disturbingly uneven. But you'll be pleased to know, from now on, you will be following a carefully structures, Ministry-approved course of defensive magic." Umbridge continued. 

Maeve flipped through her book, trying to figure out what exactly the book had in store for them as she tuned everything else out. She was disappointed to find out that most of this stuff Julia had already taught her when she was eight. These weren't even basics. They had nothing about spells - just stuff like how to identify cursed objects. 

When she tuned back in, Harry was speaking to Umbridge. "And how is theory supposed to prepare us for what's out there?"

"There is nothing out there, dear." Umbridge sighed. "Who do you imagine might want to attack children, like yourself?"

"Oh, I don't know..." Harry scoffed sarcastically. "Maybe Lord Voldemort?" 

The class grew quiet as Zach's pencil dropped out of his hand.

Maeve had heard rumours on the train. Some people had believed it when Harry had said the Dark Lord was back. Most of them thought it was a floozy. Megan had even heard that Seamus almost wasn't allowed to attend school that year because of it.

"Let me make this quite plain..." Umbridge said calmly. "You have been told that a certain dark wizard is at large once again. This. Is. A. Lie."

"It's not a lie. I saw him. I fought him!" Harry said; flabbergasted. 

"Detention, Mr. Potter!" the pink lady said firmly as she headed for the board. 

That's when Harry burst. 

"So according to you, Cedric Diggory dropped dead at his own accord?" 

Maeve stilled, gulping as a few people turned to look at her. She said nothing regardless. 

"Cedric Diggory's death was a tragic accident." 

Maeve's lips grew into a firm line. She didn't know a lot about how Cedric had died. But she knew that it definitely was not a fucking accident.

"It was murder! Voldemort killed him, you must know that!"

"ENOUGH!" Umbridge screamed. "Enough. See me later Mr. Potter. My office." 

Class continued without hiccups after that. And it was by far the most boring class Maeve had ever attended. 

She hurriedly packed her things and told Zach that she'd meet everyone at lunch. She waited outside class for Harry to come out. 

"Detention on the first day of school? Serves you right for lying, Potter." Draco cackled. 

"Shove off, Malfoy." Ron scowled and Draco glowered over him. 

"Or what, weasel?"

"You're the one who should be called a weasel after that stunt Moody pulled on you last year." Maeve smirked, raising her wand at him before it turned into a scowl. "Get it, Draco. Or I'll hex you. Don't want that happening, do we?" 

The Golden Trio watched as the blonde-haired boy muttered something incoherent, and walked down the hallway. 

"Maeve?" Hermione asked with a suspicious look - no doubt still a bit sour about how Maeve had yelled at Harry the year before. 

"Hi Harry." 

"Um.. Hi. Maeve." the spectacled boy stuttered. "Thanks, uh- for driving Malfoy away." 

"I should be the one thanking you." Maeve let out a nervous laugh. "I know a lot of people think you're lying. But I don't. I know he's back. So... I guess, thank you, for standing your ground against Umbridge." 

"O- Of course." Harry nodded absentmindedly. 

"And I'm sorry for yelling at you like that last year...  I know you were only trying to help. That one's on me." 

"Yeah... no. I uh - it's fine. Don't worry about it." Harry smiled awkwardly.

"Are you always this nervous around girls?" Maeve laughed.

"You think this is nervous? You should see him around Cho." Ron chuckled and let out an 'oof' as Hermione shoved him in the stomach. "What was that for?" he frowned at the girl. 

"Cho and Cedric... Maeve?" Hermione muttered angrily and Ron's face paled. 

"Bullocks." Ron cursed under his breath and Maeve looked down at her shoes as they all went into an uncomfortable silence. 

"Well, this is awkward." Maeve gulped, looking back up. "I guess I'll see you around then, Harry." she waved and turned around to head for Potions. "Bye, Ron. Bye, Hermione."

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