𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐕𝐄

" in the tea leaves "

✤ ✾ ✤

. . . JANUARY, 1976

WHEN MAEVE FINALLY returned to Ravenclaw tower, it was nearing ten at night. She was wearing her robes over a tank top, her hair was a knotted mess, and she knew she smelled of smoke. But the important thing was she had gotten all the way from the second floor back to the common room without being caught by Filch. 

As she got closer to the eagle, her heart sank. She had been out of the tower all day. She didn't know the answer to the blasted riddle.

"'I'm often running, yet I have no legs. You can catch me, but not with your hands. What am I?" The eagle asked, staring at her with its blank stone eyes.

It was nearly dramatic irony. "Time," Maeve said.

The door swung open and she stepped through. Her body was aching for the Invigoration Draught. She hadn't taken any of it since before the holidays. Now that she was back in the castle, she was hungry for it.

In the common room, she found Elara, Avanti, and Mimi all sitting on the pale blue and gray couches. A soft classical music played and the air was scented with lavender. It was a wash of calm compared to the panic she felt as she realized that she had entirely forgotten about studying in the library tonight.

"And where have you been?" Avanti accused. She was already wearing her pink silk pajamas, and her dark hair was freshly combed and braided down her back.

Heat rose in her cheeks. "Quidditch practice ran late."

"I saw William Reed and Estella walking upstairs two hours ago," Mimi told her.

"Let me finish," Maeve continued, stalling. She had done it now. "Quidditch practice ran late, and I forgot we were studying in the library tonight. I'm sorry."

Avanti's full lips were still curled in a frown. "Is this going to be a regular thing with you? We've barely seen you all week."

"It's just the start of the term," Maeve assured her, shucking off her robes and sprawling out on the chaise next to Elara. "I'm just getting back into a routine."

"It's alright, Maeve," Elara assured her. "We're all busy. We just miss you."

"I know," Maeve sighed. If this was only the first week, what on earth was she going to do when the assignments piled up? They had a brief break from Quidditch pressure because they had played two of their matches in the fall, but that didn't mean Finn had let up on the practice schedule.

"We didn't get much done tonight, anyways," Mimi admitted. She handed Maeve the rolled up newspaper that had been clasped in her hands. "Did you hear about this?"

The bold title on the front page read, SECOND MAYFAIR ATTACK IN ONE MONTH.

Maeve wanted to toss the copy of the Daily Prophet into the fire at the center of the room. Green light flashed brilliantly behind her eyes. The ghostly, hollow faces of the Thestrals haunted her dreams. All her years at Hogwarts, she was convinced the carriages were mechanical and the story of the Thestrals was told only to scare young students. But when they had returned from the holidays, Maeve was greeted by their reality at Hogsmeade station. It was a horse without soft muscle, barely anything more than skin stretched over grey bones. Only to be seen by those who had fully comprehended death.

"I didn't," Maeve said softly. "That's horrible news."

"I know," Avanti said, chewing on her glossy lip. "So far it's only been Muggles. Almost like they're trying to put out a warning before they move on to Muggleborn witches and wizards. I set my mum up with a subscription to the Prophet so they know what's going on, but she thinks I'm being ridiculous, getting so worried. Vishnu will protect us, she says."

Elara swirled the tea cup in her hand. There was a pot of hot water on the table in front of them, and Maeve poured her own cup of chamomile.

"I don't know what's worse," Mimi sighed, kicking off her slippers and tucking her feet underneath her legs. "Your mum, or my dad, who has decided to buy out Tesco's entire stock of garlic."

"Garlic?" Maeve repeated. "Does he think the Death Eaters are vampires?"

"He got a little confused when I was explaining things to him over Christmas. He even went to the priest and asked for extra Holy Water."

"They have the right spirit," Elara said as cheerily as she could muster. As a Pureblood witch, her family was entirely different from those of Avanti and Mimi, who were both Muggleborns. Still, Elara was just as concerned as the rest of them.

"You were in Mayfair, weren't you?" Avanti asked Maeve. "Isn't that where Katerina met with you?"

"It is."

"I'm so glad you weren't around during that first attack."

"Lucky," Maeve said into her tea.

"Maeve?" Elara prompted. The thin veil of her lie was no match for Elara's sixth sense. "You weren't there, were you?"

There was no point in lying about it. "I was there, actually. I had stopped to buy my Aunt Josey some honey at that little market. I–I was so happy about how well things had turned out with Katerina that I wasn't paying enough attention until it was too late."

Mimi gasped and put a hand to her mouth. "Maeve! Why didn't you say anything?"

"Because I've been trying to forget about it," Maeve said, leaning back on the couch. Now that her sweat had dried, the tank top left her exposed to the drafts from the window.

"Did you see it happen?" Avanti whispered.

"I saw the green light. There was a girl trapped underneath one of the stalls and I helped her out, and that man, that poor man, was just lying there on the ground."

"Dead?" Mimi squeaked.

Avanti punched her on the arm. "Of course he was dead, you ninny. The Prophet wouldn't stop talking about him."

"I read that the Black family was involved," Mimi continued. Her dark eyes were wild. "One of Sirius Black's cousins is apparently the Ministry's top suspect."

Bellatrix Lestrange was the name the Ministry had begun to circulate. Ana's older sister. It was nearly impossible to imagine that the same family had produced such vastly different daughters.

"They won't catch her," Avanti said with a marked fear. "They haven't caught any of them."

"Not yet," Elara told her. "My dad was saying they've completely changed how they train Aurors. There's a whole new generation of them just waiting to graduate to field work."

"Well they'd better hurry up with it," Mimi huffed. "How many times are they going to use the Killing Curse before someone puts an end to it?"

"It's too late in the evening to be discussing this," Elara said, taking note of the haggard look on Maeve's face. "Oh! Did you finish your tea?"

Maeve took the last sip. "Yeah?"

"She's going to tell you your future," Mimi warned. "She's been doing it with us all evening. If I have to drink another mug of tea, I'm going to piss the bed."

"I have to practice somehow," Elara defended. She took the mug out of Maeve's grasp, swirled it around three times, and then set it upside down on the saucer. After a few moments, she picked it up again.

"So?" Avanti asked, leaning forward.

Elara squinted at the dregs. "It's–a hawk. Or maybe a falcon?"

"Hm." Mimi, who also had Divination, began flipping through her copy of Unfogging the Future. "Let's see. Hammer, hand, head–oh here it is, hawk. All it says is beware a deadly enemy."

Maeve stared up at the ceiling. It appeared rock bottom could continue to get lower.

✤

THREE DAYS LATER, rock bottom came in the form of Sirius Black cornering her in the hallway after Ancient Runes. It seemed he was growing tired of passing parchment notes like they were still eleven. She almost preferred it, though. Being in an open space with Sirius was like being under a magnifying glass. He drew attention everywhere he went.

"Byrne!" he called.

"What is it?" she huffed. Her time was precious. There was hardly any break between Runes and when she needed to get to Defense Against the Dark Arts.

"I need to talk to you."

"Not in public," Maeve told him, glancing over her shoulder. She stepped past the boys crowding the door for the next lesson and tried to evade Sirius. It was no use, however.

"You don't need to be so dramatic."

"You are aware of your reputation, yeah?"

He grinned rakishly. "And what about it?"

"I am not going to have people gossiping that I'm Sirius Black's new girl," she shot back. Too late, though. Two girls exiting the room behind her were already staring.

"And here I thought you didn't care what people said about you."

"I try not to, but I'd rather not feed the rumor mill more than I already have," she snapped. "And what happened to the last girl, anyway? That Hufflepuff you were with at Slughorn's party, what was her name?"

Sirius shifted uncomfortably. "Why does it matter?"

"She looked familiar."

"Her name is Cecilia."

"Like, 'Cilia, you're breakin' my heart?"

"Excuse me?"

"You know, the song? Cecilia?"

"Never heard of her."

"You act as if you're such an expert on Muggle music, but you don't know Simon & Garfunkel?"

"Now you're just making things up. Garfunkel?"

"Bridge Over Troubled Water," she told him. "It'll change your life. Now, what is it you wanted?"

"There's been a bit of a snag," he told her quietly.

Maeve sucked in a sharp breath. "Did something happen to the soup?"

"Your soup is safe," he assured her. "I was reading through the directions again, and I think there's a reason we weren't successful. Part of it is missing."

She narrowed her eyes. "How do you know?"

He pulled out a notebook from his satchel, where the directions ripped from the Apocrypha of Transformation were tucked between the pages. When he leaned in, she could smell burnt cedarwood. "Here, in the margin, there's a notation—almost faded. It mentions an incantation and a step we didn't include. It's like someone tried to erase it, but it's still there if you look close enough."

"How did you not notice this before?" she asked.

"Because I wasn't looking," he told her simply

"So what's your plan?" she asked, shifting her bag to her other shoulder. "I'm assuming you already have one."

"James is letting me borrow the invisibility cloak tonight. There are more texts in the Restricted Section of the library that detail the Animagi process. We just have to find them."

"We? You want me to go with you?" Maeve said. In the back of her mind she was ecstatic. She had wanted to use that cloak since the first time she had seen it. "What about James?"

"Quidditch practice. He always passes out right after."

"Peter?"

"Not one for stealth."

"And you can't go alone?"

He shook his head of loose black curls. "Nope. Too risky."

"Grand," Maeve sighed.

It was almost a good thing that Avanti was growing used to Maeve disappearing without explanation. She was the one that always had the most questions. That night, however, it was easy to sneak out of the tower undetected. A third year boy had accidentally triggered a minor explosion trying to cast a Bat-Bogey Hex in the common room. With everyone focused on the incident, no one noticed when she got up from the couch and left.

Sirius had told her to meet him under the eagle at exactly ten. When she stepped out into the hall, there was no one to be seen. The longer she lingered in one spot, the more likely it was that she would be caught. A silver ghost drifted at the end of the hall. Maeve was so focused on watching it fade back into the wall, the hand on her shoulder took her completely by surprise. Out of reflex, she flinched and jabbed her elbow backwards.

"Oof." The air shimmered briefly and Sirius appeared before her, doubled over and clutching at his stomach. "For the love of Merlin, Byrne."

She didn't apologize. "Don't sneak up on me like that."

He straightened and glared at her. "C'mon. We're wasting time."

"You're the one who was late," she reminded him, but her focus was completely on the ball of fabric clutched in his hands. It was inexplicable. It rendered the user completely invisible, but the fabric could still be seen when it wasn't in use. Almost like it was sentient.

Sirius tossed it to her. "Here, give it a go. It's kind of unsettling at first."

As soon as it was over her head, she disappeared. She had imagined that it would be like putting a bed sheet over one's head as a child. You could see everyone, but no one could see you. This was entirely different. Where her feet once stood was empty space. She lifted the cloak and stuck out a hand. It became five fingers floating mid-air.

"This is class!" she marveled, letting the cloak fall away.

"Alright, now let's go," Sirius said, though he was smiling too.

He threw it over both of them and they walked swiftly down the staircase. At this hour, the Prefects were already on patrol hoping to catch the first stragglers of the night. For a while, there was no one in sight, but then Maeve began to hear footsteps echoing at the end of the hall. Sirius lifted a hand to stop her.

It was Mimi and Remus. The two of them must have been paired up for the evening.

She gripped a hand to Sirius's shoulder in silent warning but he just waved her off. Maeve caught a brief glimpse of that signature grin on his face as he led them right through the narrow gap between Mimi and Remus. For a heart-stopping moment, Remus seemed to have clocked their movement. Just as quickly he looked away and continued his conversation with Mimi, who was ranting about the Head Girl again.

"Do you think he–?" Maeve began once they were at the end of the corridor.

"Probably," Sirius answered. "But lucky for us, James is always out wandering around with the cloak. Remus won't think anything of it."

The hallway ahead of them was completely empty. The warm light of the candles burning on the wall was the only movement in the darkness. Maeve hummed softly to herself. "'Cilia, you're breaking my heart. You're shaking my confidence daily."

"Could you be quiet?" Sirius hissed.

"You got it stuck in my head this morning."

"Is this the Cecilia song? I'm still convinced you made the whole thing up."

"I did not!" Maeve argued back as he pushed open the library door just wide enough for them to squeeze through. "I still can't believe you don't know Simon & Garfunkel."

"And I can't believe the poor man's name is Garfunkel. Sounds like an illness."

They fell into silence as they got closer to the Restricted Section. The lock on the metal door was surprisingly easy to undo. As soon as Sirius whispered, "Alohomora", it unclasped itself and the door squeaked open. Once they were inside, Sirius pulled the cloak off and balled it up.

As they walked the dark rows of books, Maeve asked, "Do you have any idea what we're looking for?"

"Sort of. This section over here," he pointed, "is where we found it before."

They set to work, pulling books off the shelf as quietly as possible and paging through them. There was information on the dangers of the transformation, a list of all known Animagi starting in the 14th century, and even a section on hygiene practices as an Animagus, but nothing that detailed the process. They were nearing the end of their luck when Sirius pulled a small, dusty text off the shelf and set it down in front of them.

He flipped open to the first page and frowned. The pages were so brittle with age, it was a miracle it didn't dissolve to dust in his hands. "It isn't in English."

Maeve blinked, moving the light of her wand closer. He was right, it wasn't English. She nearly dropped her wand. "It's in Irish," Maeve breathed, "i nGaeilge."

It had been years since she had been taught Irish in primary school. They used to begin the day by reciting colors and phrases, and then they would play silly games like Deir Ó Grádaigh. Her Muggle grandparents rarely spoke English in the house. But after years of attending Hogwarts and being surrounded by English accents and slang, Maeve feared she had forgotten nearly all of it.

"Can you read it?" Sirius whispered in her ear. He was so close, it sent a chill up her spine.

Maeve was about to tell him she couldn't, but as she focused on the faded ink of the words, the phrases came to her immediately. It was the directions for the potion and transfiguration, but they were different. More detailed. And, there were more of them.

"You were right. We were missing an entire step!" Maeve hissed, trying not to raise her voice. "After the phial is placed, and before the lightning storm, there's an incantation that must be repeated."

"What is it?" Sirius asked impatiently. The door to the library groaned open. Sirius and Maeve stared at each other with wide eyes. Even the invisibility cloak wasn't going to save them now. "We'll have to take the book with us."

"Are you mad? Pince will find out immediately if a book is missing." Footsteps were getting nearer now. Maeve quickly extinguished her light.

"There's so many books, she'll never notice one."

"I'm almost certain she kisses each one goodnight. She'll notice." Maeve looked over her shoulder and lifted her wand. "Geminio," she whispered, pointing at the page. Before her very eyes it doubled and she grabbed the new paper off the top.

Sirius quickly closed the book and slid it back on the shelf. Just as they were about to turn and make their exit, a soft, "Mrow?" came from around the corner.

"Shit," Sirius swore under his breath. "It's Filch."

Maeve's blood ran cold. "If I'm caught–"

He threw the cloak over them again, grabbing her sharply by the wrist to keep her moving. "I know, I know. No more Quidditch for you."

They moved nearly silently between bookcases, stopping every so often when it seemed like Filch was getting near. They were almost to the doorway when they heard Filch say, "I may not be able to see you, but I know you're in here!"

Finally, they were out into the cool air of the hallway. Maeve was about to breathe a sigh of relief and laugh when suddenly Sirius was shoving her up against the wall. She had enough sense not to say anything, though she wanted to protest.

It was Regulus Black, out wandering the halls alone in the dark. Sirius watched silently as his brother moved down the hall, dark robes sweeping behind him. The boy glanced over his shoulder once, and then moved along. Gone was the confidence Maeve had seen in Regulus in the parlor of his home. Now, he looked incredibly young and very afraid.

Sirius still had his arm pressed across her torso, watching the scene in front of them carefully. "Always up to something," he muttered, though there was more sadness in his voice than disdain. He realized he was still holding Maeve against the wall and released her. "Sorry."

"It's fine," she told him.

He stared at her for a second too long. In that moment, she saw the truth. Sirius resented that she had been to his home. That she had seen him in such a light. That, for all of the people in this school that had been fooled by his bravado, she had been able to slip through the cracks.

✤

BY THE time Astronomy rolled around the next night, Maeve was nearly falling asleep at her telescope.

She had less of the Invigoration Draught left than she had thought. Between sneaking out to the library and finishing her homework for Transfiguration and Herbology, she was exhausted. The last thing she wanted to do was locate the moons of Jupiter at midnight.

It wasn't often that Professor Aurelis changed things up. Her head was perpetually in the stars, and it was a miracle she taught them anything at all. But tonight, she was feeling creative. All of the fifth years were asked to partner with a student from a different house. Mimi, who was fond of the far corner the four of them inhabited on Wednesday nights, was nearly heartbroken. Maeve was mildly annoyed until a flash of red hair appeared in the corner of her eye.

So Maeve and Lily Evans had set up camp in the center of the room. They took turns looking through the telescope, calibrating it in small increments and switching off every few minutes. They had located Ganymede and Io but were still looking for all the rest.

"Europa, Carme, Himalia," Maeve listed. "How are we supposed to have these memorized on top of everything else?"

Lily had her eye pressed to the lens. "The seventh moon is called Elara, that should be easy for you. Discovered in 1905 by C.D. Perrine."

"Do we have to know the year they were discovered?"

"If I tell you no, will it make you feel better?"

Maeve groaned. "I'm going to fail this O.W.L. And all the rest of them."

"Your star chart is almost perfect," Lily told her, swiveling around on her stool. "I know you're stellar at Transfiguration, and you give me a run for my money at Potions. What makes you so convinced you'll fail?"

"To be fair, I copied half of Mimi's chart last night," Maeve admitted.

"Even so," Lily argued. "An O.W.L in Astronomy isn't going to matter very much anyway. Why are you so worried?"

"Don't tell me you aren't."

"Of course I am, but not in the same way you are," Lily said, sliding off the stool.

Maeve took a seat and swung the scope to the left, looking for Elara in the night sky. "I haven't been giving my classes the time I ought to this semester."

"Oh, that's right. You want to go to Trinity, don't you?"

Maeve stared at the circular dot of the moon in front of her and marked it down on her chart. "How did you know that?"

"Sorcha. For as much as she hates you, she still talks about you a lot. I'm no psychologist but I think Sigmund Freud would enjoy analyzing her."

Maeve let out a bark of laughter. "He'd have a field day."

Lily smiled. "You're studying for the Trinity entrance exams, aren't you? I see you lugging those Muggle science books around all the time. That's why you don't have time for your actual classes?"

"Yeah," Maeve sighed. She looked up at the heavens and the stars blinked back. "It's silly, isn't it."

"I don't think so. I think it's amazing that you have such a strong belief in what you want to do. I haven't the faintest clue what I'll do after we graduate. Every one of my meetings with McGonagall for career advice is just me talking in circles while she tries to give me ideas."

"Lily, you could do anything," Maeve told her honestly. "Which is probably more of a curse than a blessing sometimes, isn't it? Every possibility is open to you, which also offers you the pain of a thousand tradeoffs." Maeve happened to look across the room at the very moment Sirius Black was doing the same thing. When she locked eyes with him, he immediately looked away.

"I could do anything, and yet all I really want is to live in a small cottage with an entire wall of books."

"And a big garden," Maeve added with a long sigh.

"Yes, a garden of vegetables and herbs and fruit trees that actually grow fruit. My dad has an apple tree that he planted years ago and it's never produced apples. I told him that when I turn seventeen the first thing I'll do is charm the tree to bloom."

"That's a good goal," Maeve smiled, letting Lily take her turn on the stool again. "My grandparents have a grove of apple trees on their farm," Maeve told her. "It's wonderful in the autumn. I think you would like it."

"I've never even been to Ireland–" Lily started to say, but she was cut off by a familiar voice.

"Lily Evans, you're looking well this evening," James Potter interrupted as he sauntered over. "Almost as beautiful as the stars."

"Save it for your mirror, James," Lily scowled. She barely spared him a glance before looking through the lens again.

"Oh, come on," he grinned, undettered. James leaned on the telescope and it shifted slightly to the right.

Lily leaned back, her face contorting in anger. James Potter seemed to be the only person who brought out this side of her. "Ugh, you arrogant toerag!" she exclaimed. The Slytherins nearby turned and scowled at the sudden shouting. "You just messed up the calibration!"

"Well, now you're free to talk to me," he told her cheekily.

The class was nearly at its end, so Lily scooped up her chart and stalked off, sparing an apologetic glance at Maeve. She and James were left to stand alone in silence.

"Don't laugh at me," James warned Maeve.

"I'm not!" Maeve said, biting her inner cheek to keep the laughter from escaping. "Do you ever think your, er, strategy might benefit from some changes?"

To her surprise, he hung his head. "No matter what I do, nothing works. She thinks I'm–"

"–an arrogant toerag?" Maeve supplied.

"That's the current line. Last term it was pompous git."

"Have you ever tried just talking to her without the use of pick-up lines?"

"Girls love pick-up lines."

"They do not, actually."

"Can you put in a good word for me?" he asked abruptly.

All at once, Maeve understood why James had found it in himself to apologize to her. He hadn't had a change of heart. No, this was all about Lily Evans. He had somehow realized that the two of them were friends. For all of his shortcomings, it showed that perhaps he was willing to change for Lily. Maeve couldn't fault him for that.

"I'll try my best," Maeve said.

Surprised, James asked, "Will you really?"

"I know you think I'm vindictive, but it isn't true."

James stared at her. "I know that Sorcha has made some questionable choices, but so have you, Maeve."

"I know," she told him soberly. She didn't need him to remind her of it.

A new thought seemed to cross his mind. "No one ever really figured out who framed Sorcha second year. She always said it wasn't her who stole the Quidditch Cup. It was you, wasn't it?"

"I regretted it as soon as I did it," Maeve told him quietly. And he was wrong; Sorcha had figured out long ago that it was Maeve who had attempted to destroy her reputation. Maeve watched Sorcha from across the room. As distant as the stars above. "There are two sides to every story, James. Not all of them are true."

✤ ✾ ✤

a/n nuance!  more nuance!

you'll hear more about the second year event that started it all in the next chapter, but for now, a moment for lily and maeve & maeve and the ravenclaw girlies!  as you can imagine maeve's distance from her friends is going to become a big source of tension :/ the section is literally labeled in my outline notes as 'Avanti confronts Maeve for the first time' 💀

as always, thank you for reading :) all of your comments mean the world <3