𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬

24. Enemy

Three months had past.
Three months of Maeve dealing with dirty looks from her peers.
Even the Slytherins who weren't with Voldemort hated her.

Three months of Regulus hiding his true intentions from everyone other than Maeve.
His girlfriend was the only person he could trust.

Three months of the marauders training with the order.
They were now a real army.

Three months of Peter fooling his friends, the order.
But not Dumbledore, thanks to Maeve, he already knew what side Peter was really on, but he hadn't shared that information with the order, yet.

Three months of Jane pretending to be a 7th year Ravenclaw girl who was named Lane, she purposely chose a girl with a similar name to her.
Jane killed The Ravenclaw girl in order to take her place.

Three months of Amara being partnered with Jane, the two of them trying to find the mole now that Maeve and regulus had been training to become soldiers for Voldemort—rather than his spies.
The two girls were becoming somewhat close and Maeve didn't like it.

Three months had past.
Three months more childhood being stolen from the students at Hogwarts.

♡

Maeve walked through the stairwell to regulus's dorm, readying herself for what news regulus so urgently needed to share with her.

"Regulus?" She called out as she entered the dorm.

"In here!" He answered from his bedroom, the door open ajar.

She entered the room with hesitation, locking the door behind her, a pit in her stomach had been growing since he spoke to her last night, telling her he had found something, something that could give them the upper hand to this war.
There was something about how he said it, he was so hopeful yet terrified.
"What did you want to tell me?"

Regulus cast a silencing charm on the room so there was no possibility of anyone hearing the conversation.

"Maeve," he said as his eyes darting around the room, looking for some threat that could face them as he got up from his seat, now standing in front of her. "You don't have to know this, the less you know the safer you are, but after all you've sacrificed, you have the right to decide."

He motioned for her to take a seat on his bed, she did, fiddling with her skirt to make sure it fell in the right place.
"I given everything, I need to know—no matter the danger."

"You know of Horcruxes, yes?"

Maeve nodded.

Regulus took in a shaky breath as he paced the floor in front of where Maeve was sitting.
"Voldemort, he uses them. It's what has made him invincible all this time."

Maeve paused for a moment, rescanning the information, as the dots began to context in her mind.

"I know where one is." Regulus admitted finally, a visible weight being lifted from him.

"Are you sure? Like, positive?" Maeve questioned, jumping to her feet and pulling herself close to him so that they were almost hugging.

"Certain."
Regulus turned away and began shuffling through pages of paper that had been piled on his desk. "This is the problem." Regulus said holding out a few pieces of paper for her to read.

"Regulus, we need to tell the order. We can't do this alone." Maeve sighed, giving back the papers after she skimmed through them.

"No, the order needs to protect the school. We're trained for this. We are death eaters, Maeve, we can do this." Regulus smiled weakly yet reassuringly. "We have no other choice."

"There is always a choice."

"Not this time."

"That lake is full of inferi, we're helping no one by dying." Maeve whispered morosely, gaining ahold on Regulus's hand.

"The order will blow our cover, whether we tell them or don't tell them, only few people can go in order for us to remain undetected. We're better off not risking our secret." Regulus assured, pulling her in for a hug.

She buried her face in his chest, breathing him in slowly as she tried to collect herself.
"I can't loose you too." She mumbled, the sound coming out muffled from being pressed against his body.
"I'm right here, love." He shushed softly, brushing his fingers down her hair slowly.

♡

"I doesn't make sense, we've been trying to find the mole for months. Months. We have to be missing something." Amara groaned, throwing herself backwards on the lounge chair in the old cottage that Maeve—kind of—owned.

"What could we be missing?" Jane asked without the intention of getting an answer, reading over numerous sheets of paper that had the details of each of the underage death eaters, hoping to find a connection.

"I dunno." She shrugged. "I guess it's possible there just isn't a mole," Amara jumped from her seat and looked at all the sheets of paper scattered out over the table.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Jane rolled her eyes at the outrageous idea.

"I mean, look at this mess." She said, motioning her hands at the loose papers. "If this mess was in a dorm anybody could take a peek, even from a distance."

"Lord Voldemort hand picked each of you, he deemed you all worthy. He wouldn't choose someone dumb enough to do that."

Amara shrugged, walking up closer to the table to look at the papers again with fresh eyes, coincidentally standing right next to Jane with little to no space between the two.

"Oh my Merlin!" Jane gasped angrily, pushing herself away from the table, making her way to the opposite side. "Ever heard of personal space? I don't need to feel your skin rubbing up on mine."

"Jeez, sorry." Amara sighed, widening her eyes at janes outburst. "I just wanted to look at the papers."

"Yeah, well, be mindful."

♡

"I can't believe this is real." Sirius beamed, laying back in Remus's arm, pressing gently into his side.

"Can't believe what?" Remus asked in a whisper turning a page in his book with on hand, the other tracing through Sirius's black locks of hair.

"We are in the order of the Phoenix." He laughed. "How incredible is that, I mean, we're going to save the world."

"Very." Remus smiled softly, shifting his body to be sitting more comfortably in his bed, which also allowed him to get a better look at Sirius's expression which had now dropped.
"What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Sirius sighed, answering a little too fast.

"Sirius, it's me." Remus smiled reassuringly. "You can tell me."

"I just—" Sirius stopped himself, thinking whether or not the next words are better left unsaid.
"I just miss what we used to be—the marauders, I mean. Now that I have you, really have you, I'm not so busy being jealous of Maeve.
It's made me see what I did, Remus, we destroyed Maeve's life.
She worked so hard to build on the broken foundations she had left from her life her parents and then all of us—even Lily, Marlene and Dorcas—just demolished it.
I miss her, I miss vixen."

Remus nodded, breathing deeply as he thought out his next words.
"You do know that the girl we see walking the halls isn't vixen, right? She not that person anymore."

"That's what I mean, we killed vixen and Maeve—the girl raised by a deatheater and monster hunter—was all that was left.
Maeve Ashford, the death eater, is living in the body of my best friend." Sirius said, releasing an audible breath.
"Im sorry, I don't know what I'm trying to say."

"Yeah you do. You miss your best friend.
I get it, she was my best friend too before everything happened—but we can't let our perception of Maeve be altered by vixen.
Maeve was a trained hunter by ten, imagine what she is capable of now, as much has it pains me to say it; she is the enemy."