In Times of Trial

Chapter 4

"Very well. Slytherin," the hat said, but not inside Maybel's head.

All five other people in the room remained silent.

"Well bloody hell!" exclaimed Snape, "Another runt that I have to take care of!"

"Oh hush up, Severus!" McGonagall chimed in, "She's a good child, so stop grinding your teeth over it."

"Oh fine. Come on," he said, as he pulled Maybel roughly to her feet.

Severus dragged the blinking and confused girl down the corridors towards the dungeons.

Once he arrived, he threw her down into a chair in the common room. "Sit," he said, as he threw her. She blinked in further confusion.

"I am well aware of the fact that you are a pureblood. And by the looks of you, you might just be... Vile... But I want you to know, that no matter what the stereotype for Slytherins may be, I will NOT accept ANY bad behaviour from you. Got it?"

Maybel nodded weakly.

"Good. Your room is up those stairs, at the end of the hall. You'll be with the other seventh year girls. Any problems come to me; but no whining!" He said with contempt.

The professor sneered at her for a moment more, and began to make his way out of the room. "If you need any help or anything," he added as an after thought, "Go to Granger." And he swept out of the room.

Maybel looked around at the silver stones lining the room she was in. Green banners depicting serpents eating lions and such were decked along the walls. Everything was green, black, or silver. Even the fire in the hearth seemed to glow a greenish-black.

But then the black faded...

The head of Hermione appeared in the fireplace.

"Oh CRAP!" screamed Maybel, quickly jumping up from her seat and fleeing to the corner of the room, where she appeared to prance on the tips of her toes.

"Maybel? Was that you? Maybel!" The head seemed to sigh, then grow into the whole body of Hermione.

"Maybel, it's me, Hermione," she called as she stepped out of the hearth, "I've come to help you get settled in."

"But... but... you're not in Slytherin!"

"But... but... I'm Head Girl," she mocked.

"But... What was that? That freaky head thing? You know, when you say 'Head Girl' is this part of it? You can take off your head and shove it into random fireplaces whenever you want?! If so, I'm not so certain I want to be here! I mean--" but before she could say anything more, Hermione clapped a hand over her mouth and groaned. Rubbing her temples, she said, "We have a long way to go."

Maybel nodded from behind Hermione's hand.

"Are you going to let me explain how all this works, and stop flipping out?" asked Hermione slowly, pronouncing every syllable, as though speaking to a child.

"Imf wasmnth fimmping oot!"

"What?" responded Hermione. This earned her a glare from the frightened, and confused, girl. Hermione swiftly caught on and removed her hand.

"I said: I wasn't flipping out!"

"You were flipping out. Now come on, I'll show you your room."

Hermione led Maybel up a flight of stairs and down a corridor to a large oak door. She pushed the door open, and a room appeared in the space behind it. Five beds adorned the room, and all had large velvet green curtains that ran the length of the floor to the ceiling. A trunk lay at the foot of the bed by the window. It was open, and all of Maybel's belongings were inside.

She gasped at the beautiful array of cloth and furniture in the room. It was rich and dressed in the best of decorations. Maybel felt slightly out of place.

"You'll adjust in a while," said Hermione, "just get a good night of rest. You'll find you've adapted to your surroundings in no time."

* * *

Maybel woke, but did not stir or open her eyes as the sun crept in through a small slit in the curtains and illuminated the dark behind her eyelids with a deep red colour.

Finally the brightness got to be too much and she rolled over, and was greeted with the harshness of cold stone tiles as she fell out of her bed.

"Well, if anything, these beds certainly are smaller than I originally gave them credit for..." she said as she checked her watch. What the hell? She thought, tapping the face, why aren't you working? I just changed your batteries... Ehrm... I guess it must have been a while ago...

Maybel stood up and promptly attempted to remove herself from her bedside hangings (a very difficult task). When that was finished, she looked around for how she could re-affix them to the ceiling. There was nothing there, and nothing on the curtains.

Growing tired and frustrated with the situation, Maybel threw the curtains onto the bed. "You'll just have to wait until I get back tonight!" she yelled to them, as though they could hear her.

Maybel willed her tired feet to shuffle her body towards the bathroom. She was grateful that the other four beds in the dormitory had not yet been occupied, as that would have been most embarrassing.

After a quick shower, and putting her hair up in a simple ponytail, Maybel went downstairs to the common room.

A silver head could be seen from the back of one of the chairs. Draco was down there.

"You missed breakfast."

"My watch wasn't working. I don't have good batteries in it."

"It's not the batteries. Muggle things like that won't work here," he said without emotion, as the green fire softly cackled behind its stone hole in the wall.

"Well how do you get up in the morning?"

"You know that thing called a 'sun'? It rises, and usually wakes the rest of us with it. The curtains on all the beds are charmed to let light in by 8:00. Why didn't you get up?" he asked, finally turning to look at her.

"I was tired."

"Well you missed breakfast."

"I'm not hungry. I don't care."

"You won't be saying that by lunch time."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because, Ms. Semper," came the voice of Professor Snape. Funny how that man just kept turning up, "We're going to meet with the Order."

"What 'Order'?"

But the only response she got was a swishing of robes and a muffled "Follow us..." from Draco.

* * *

The warmth of the sun helped little on Maybel's back as she, Professor Snape, Professor McGonagall, and Draco stood on the chilly street gazing at houses that appeared to have plopped right out of the worst streets of Muggle America. Professor Snape said something softly, and Professor McGonagall looked around to see if anyone else heard. Draco stared off to the top of the street, hands in pockets. Out of the corner of her eye, Maybel saw the two houses, numbers eleven and thirteen spring apart, and a new one grow.

"I'm guessing that was a Magic thing, right?" she said to no one in particular.

"Boy, you're catching on," replied Draco with disdain and dislike.

The other three of Maybel's party began to swiftly move up to the door of the new house. Rather than be afraid, Maybel decided to just accept what was going on, and followed numbly behind.

Things were getting harder to accept, though, as she walked into the house, and was greeted by the screaming of odd insults, coming from the painting of some freakish looking woman.

A short, somewhat plump woman raced to the painting, and begun attempting to close the curtains of the artwork. She was unsuccessful. A slender man with glasses began to help, as did a boy with black hair and large glasses. They were all unsuccessful.

Snape rolled his eyes.

McGonagall winced, and moved to the kitchen.

Draco stared, amused.

Maybel stood unsure what to do.

This was getting on her nerves. Maybel walked to the portrait and looked straight into the eyes of the harried woman. "You're much too loud for your own good, you know," she said softly, under her breath.

The woman stopped screaming, and allowed her flailing limbs to fall limp. "Who are you? You look familiar..." called the woman. A trickle of drool traced her chin.

"No one of importance," replied Maybel, and she swiftly closed the curtains, and flowed Draco into the kitchen.

Though she didn't notice, several pairs of eyes followed her.

Inside the kitchen was a large amount of red-heads: all of which had freckles and were male, except one... who seemed preoccupied with two of the boys, who happened to look exactly alike. There was also a slight woman with bright green hair, a tall black man with no hair, and another man who, for lack of a better description, looked stoned off his arse. Hermione, and another red head, sat listening to him, hanging on his every word. Well, the boy was. Hermione seemed to be giving him dirty looks.

Oh what fun this would be...

"Oi! Harry! Come listen to Mundungus' latest story!" called the red head over Maybel's shoulder, to the boy with black hair and over sized spectacles Maybel had seen upon her entrance.

Maybel spotted Draco and quietly pulled up a chair next to him.

"Where are we, why are we here, and what the HELL is with all the fire-headed freaks?!" Maybel asked him quietly between clenched teeth.

Draco erupted into loud laughter. "If I had any doubt before about you being a Slytherin, you just squashed it with that comment!"

All conversation ceased in the room. Every pair of eyes were on her and the laughing blonde. Just what I wanted, thought Maybel, onlookers...

"What comment, Malfoy?" asked the black-haired boy.

"Don't worry about it, Potter. None of your business," Draco sneered back.

"It certainly is my business, thank you. You come in here, with another of your kind," he seemed to spit the word 'your', "start laughing about something... Well... I want to know what the hell it is."

"Yeah," chimed in the red head, "one of you Slytherins is enough, why have you gone and brought a friend, anyways? Come to plot against us?"

Draco stood, and the room went silent as the grave. He strode over to the red head and put his face right in the other boy's. "Listen, Weasley," he said in a low, dangerous tone, "have I not proved myself? There was no plotting," he pushed the boy a bit at that, "just us talking."

"Now, now, boys!" said the green haired lady in a nervous tone, "Let's not get in any fights. That's not what we need at this time," and she pushed herself between the two of them.

"No, we don't. And we also don't need to be paranoid about our own selves when there is a bigger picture to worry about," said Draco, before marching from the room.

Everyone turned to look at Maybel. Their eyes judged her. She knew her face was blank, but inside she was frightened. Why did they care? What had she done? What did they think she was going to do? She began to back up little by little, a feeble attempt to shrink into the corner. She ran into something soft, and turned quickly to face it.

It was the plump woman, and in the bright lighting, Maybel could see her flaming head. Maybel immediately stumbled backwards, and caught herself on a chair. She looked into the woman's eyes. "Hello, Maybel!" said the woman. Her eyes were kind, and unlike all the other eyes in the room, the woman's eyes held no contempt; nor did they wish to call her names; her eyes just accepted her. "We're about to start our meeting, we'd like you to join." She said, and signaled for Maybel to follow her out of the room. The other adults followed, so Maybel did as well.

They went up the stair into a room that was filled with chairs. Everyone took one; Maybel didn't want to take anyone else's (it looked like they each knew where to sit) so she sat on the floor.

Dumbledore stood at the front of the room, and everyone there remained silent.

"Let me just put the charm on the door!" said the plump red head, and she busied herself by the door.

"Well then," said Dumbledore, clasping his hands together, "we all know why this meeting has been called. We all have heard just a little bit about our newest Hogwarts student, now I'd like to ask her to come up and tell her story," and with that he waved her to the front.

Maybel stood, and crossed. She crossed her arms over her chest in a protective manner.

Snape watched from the corner of the room as she told her tale.

"I'm a run away from California. I came to England about two years ago, when I was 15. Mostly, I've just stayed nowhere, working at a few bars, cleaning up, and staying in the back room. But recently..."

"What of the Serpent?" asked an old witch in back.

"It's been chasing me. I think it wants to kill me."

"Why?" asked an older man, "Why should it want to harm you?"

"I don't know. All I know is it keeps telling me to join it!" she said in a rush. She gasped, and immediately tried to cover up what she had said.

The room wouldn't hear of it. To Snape, it was obvious what they were all thinking. Voldemort wanted her.

"I think," he said as he stood, "that this small amount of information will suffice. Thank you, Ms. Semper."

She caught his glare, and cautiously turned to the door. When no one stopped her, she left the room, terrified of what she had just confessed.

Maybel slumped to the ground, and leaned against the wall. She could see over the stair railing to the portrait, now silenced, below. A fluffy orange tabby crossed her feet, and scurried off, bottlebrush tail in the air. Voices could be heard upstairs... animated voices, telling tales of whatever they could.

Before she could process what she was doing, Maybel was back on her feet going up the stairs to the room with voice. She paused just outside the door, and the small red headed girl came out. She stopped abruptly at the sight of Maybel.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, venomously.

"Lurking." Maybel said with a sneer.

Hermione popped her head around the doorway, "Gin, while you're in the kit- Maybel, what are you doing up here?" she asked at the sight of her.

"Lurking," said the young girl, "according to her."

"Ginny, get the sandwiches, and some water for us? Maybel, come in, meet Harry and Ron," Hermione put on a timid smile, and opened the door as an invitation. When Maybel made no move, Hermione grabbed her by the hand and dragged her in. The red-headed boy from earlier was there, as was the black-haired boy. Hermione introduced them as Harry and Ron.

"Finally, some people with normal names!" joked Maybel.

Aside from the nervous laugh from Hermione, there was nothing but silence. Ron glared deeply at her, as if testing her to do something crude.

"Right. Funny. You Slytherins are all a real laugh; you know that? Why are you even here?" he said to her. His nose seemed to be turned up at her, and Harry gave her a deep glare.

"Look," Maybel said, "I don't know why everybody's so uppity about me being here, I don't know what I did wrong, but just don't look at me like that, ok?" she glared right back at Harry, "I didn't do anything to you. Don't treat me like I did."

And she turned and left. Further down the hall was a door slightly ajar, with the sounds of plastic and laughter emanating. What could be better?

Maybel peeked in the open doorway only to find the two red heads that looked so alike in there, wrapping up toys in different plastics.

"Oi! Fred? How much should this one cost?" Asked one to the other. He held up a long strand of some sort.

"I don't know, George, is that one of the Skiving Snack box's?" the other responded over his shoulder.

"Naw, one of the Extendable Ears."

"A what?" Maybel couldn't help herself. Both boys turned to look at her, and at first sight seemed tempered. "I'm sorry," she said, and turned to go.

"It's ok," Said one, "we're just packaging some stuff for our joke shop. You want to help?" He said all this with such a big childish grin; Maybel felt she might just be accepted with these two. So, she sat down and helped.

"What's this?" she asked, holding up the string that up-close looked flesh coloured.

"An Extendable Ear. You put this end to your ear, and it picks up what ever is on this end," the second boy, Fred, said while demonstrating.

And thus went the next hour. They'd hand her a piece of candy, a toy, or new gadget all together, explained what it did, and she would laugh and wrap.

Suddenly a shadow appeared outside the doorway, and slinked by. Maybel looked up just in time to see green robes. She excused herself, and left the room, tucking her Extendable Ear that she had been given in her pocket.

When she looked down the hall, she saw silver hair climb the stairwell. She followed, hoping to see what Draco was up to.

The hall was dusty, and by the looks of it, had not entertained many people for a long while. A soft light creaked through the bottom of a door at the end of the hall. It's glow illuminated dust particles in the air, showing their dance. A shadow moved across the lighted area. Draco.

Maybel went to the end of the hall, and tapped on the door. A muffled "Just a minute, Buck," could be heard.

Draco let the door open a bit and peeked through the crack. If he was surprised, he didn't show it.

"What do you want?" he asked.

"Nothing I suppose. Just looking for something to do. Who were you talking to?"

"Don't worry about it," he said as he started to close the door.

Maybel stopped him.

"Wait," she half-whispered, "can I please come in? Everyone's giving me dirty looks. I just need to be somewhere where... I don't know, I don't get that crap."

Draco seemed to understand and opened the door a bit more.

"Ever seen a Hippogriff before?" he asked.

"A what?"

"You can come in, but do exactly what I say, alright?"

"Um... Ok," she complied, and followed his lead inside.

In the room, lying in the corner was an animal that looked to be a cross between an eagle and a horse. Bright eyes looked at her with disinterest, and the great beast stood.

"Now bow," he whispered in her ear.

"Do what?!" she asked.

"Just do it, trust me," He said in a soft voice.

Maybel cautiously lowered her top half towards the ground. She could feel the animal's eyes on the back of her neck. This is a death trap! She thought to herself, Maybel! How could you of be so stupid?!

She stayed there, half sacrificing herself to the animal, expecting it to strike at any moment. But suddenly, it bowed as well.

"Now get up. Don't make any sudden movements," said Draco, "his name is Buckbeak. I think he likes you. It's odd, I thought he only liked us rogue rejects..." he stated half-heartedly.

Maybel stood and faced the animal. She carefully lifted a hand to pet it. When he did not move, she stroked a little more. His eyes went soft, and he laid himself on the ground.

"Whenever I come here, everyone seems to hate me, everyone but Buckbeak. He used to belong to the owner of the house. When the owner died, he stayed here. The house was given to Harry, but Harry gave it to the Order."

"Why Harry?"

"The owner had been Harry's uncle."

"Oh. Why did he own a... What did you call it? Hippotiff?"

"Hippogriff. It's a long story. But he's special to me. In my third year, he attacked me."

"And that makes him... Special?" Maybel replied. The way she used her sarcasm almost put Snape to shame. Almost, but not quite.

"Well, I had disrespected him. But after my father was taken away, and my mother left, I would come to this house. Here being of course, 'headquarters'," he paused at her confused look, "ask Granger," he said, then continued at her nod, "and I decided that I was going to do whatever it took to not be like my father. So I come here to avoid Deatheaters. -Ask Granger-- I quickly found that the only place I could retreat to was this room. So I made friends. He forgave me. Something about Hippogriffs, they seem to know if you're troubled. I come visit him every time I'm here."

"You really like to open up, don't you?" Maybel joked.

"Hippogriff's do that to me," he replied, a smirk on his face.

"Draco?" A female voice whispered from behind the closed door. "You in there?"

"Yeah, just a minute." He called back. "Listen, I have to go now. Maybe it'd be best if you didn't stay here. Buckbeak doesn't know you that well yet."

"Ok." Maybel replied. She slowly stopped petting the Hippogriff, and rose to follow Draco out.

He opened the door, and Little Red-Head was there. Draco pulled her down the hall to another room. Maybel closed the door. She walked down the steps, and found yet another vacant room. It had nothing but a desk, and a picture hanging on the wall, if you could call that a picture. The picture had a gold frame, and white cloth, but nothing else seemed to grace it.

Maybel walked to the painting, and looked at it closely. Faint lines could be seen that drew a curvy script across the tapestry. A tear was in the cloth, and Maybel gently drew her finger along it.

"That's an old painting, that is," came a voice from the doorway, "shows the family tree for my old friend's family. The Black's. Must have every Pureblood listed up there somewhere. Maybe you can find your family there, too."

Maybel had turned around and saw the slight man that had struggled to silence the painting earlier.

"Who are you?" asked Maybel, completely stupefied by the man's silent arrival.

"My name is Lupin, Remus Lupin. Professor Lupin to you," he said as he moved from the doorframe. "And you are Maybel. And you are also being looked for by Professor Snape."

"What? Why?" she asked, "What'd I do this time?"

He approached the painting to stand by her side, and gave a chuckle at her response.

"The meeting is over, you're going back to Hogwarts now," he said, not even looking at her, "Don't worry yourself with the paintings of this house. Although you did a fine job with old Mrs. Black downstairs. How did you do that, anyways?"

"I don't know. Just told her she was being noisy," Maybel answered, also looking at just the painting. Black spots seemed to cover a few names, and she for a fleeting moment wondered who they were.

"Hm. Well, best be on your way now," he said as he pulled back and walked out the door.

Maybel followed and slowly climbed the stairs down to the front hall where Snape, Draco, and McGonagall stood.

"Sorry, I didn't know the meeting had ended," she said. She was immediately 'shush!'ed by every person downstairs, some pointed dramatically at the painting of the old lady.

"Oh don't worry about it!" came the old lady's voice, "I like that one."

* * *

Upon their return to Hogwarts, Maybel quickly ran to the dungeons, and proceeded to go to her dormitory. She hadn't had a wonderful day, just tiring, and although her stomach was creating earthquakes with it's growling; she just wanted to go to bed.

Maybel threw the door open to her room, crossed the floor quickly, and collapsed onto her bed.

If she noticed that her curtains were now hanging perfectly, and the bed was made, she didn't show any attention to it. She just lay there with her head in the pillow, and went to sleep immediately.