𝐅𝐈𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

" caught "

✤ ✾ ✤

. . . FEBRUARY, 1976

HAGRID'S HUT was as warm as the dead heat of summer.

It nearly always was. No matter what time of the year, the bellowing fireplace always managed to heat the room to temperatures near the surface of the sun. Even in February, when the chilled air learned how to sneak right to the bone.

Sirius had already shed his coat and gloves. James sat next to him drinking tea while they waited. They had sent Peter to Hogsmeade with Remus to keep suspicions low. He was still going to be skeptical about what they were up to, but it was better to be able to make up a story later than be outright caught.

"I was surprised when Maeve told me tha' yeh wanted ter go inter' the forest together. Didn' know yeh were even friends," Hagrid remarked, his broad back turned to them as he fussed with the kettle.

James opened his mouth to protest, but Sirius was quicker. "It's a recent development," he said with a nonchalant shrug.

Hagrid narrowed his eyes. "Yeh aren' messin' with her, are yeh? Foolin' her into some sort of elaborate prank?"

"No!" James protested with marked defeat. "Bloody hell, Hagrid, do you really think so little of us?"

Hagrid raised a bushy brow. "Yer good kids, I know tha'. Priorities, though, are sometimes off." Then he began to whistle as he hooked the kettle back onto its spot over the fire.

"Where is she?" James said to Sirius. He set his tea cup down on the table with a clatter. Without giving Sirius time to answer, he continued and said, "She's probably off at Hogsmeade, having a butterbeer and a laugh knowing that we're here waiting for her."

"James?" Sirius said, interrupting his muttering.

"Yeah?"

"Lighten up."

And as if summoned by complaint, a sharp knock echoed on the door to the hut.

"Come in! Get tha' door, will ya James?" Hagrid said.

James reluctantly stood and pulled it open to reveal Maeve standing at the threshold. She wore jeans and a jumper under a dark, slightly shiny coat. It was, he knew, what the Muggles referred to as a waterproof jacket. Her brown hair was wild, blown back from her face by the wind. And there was a hollow look in her eyes, as if she hadn't slept for days.

"What took you so long?" James said with a huff.

She brightened, but Sirius could tell it was forced. "Oh, relax. I just got caught up with something."

James, still irritated, said, "We were about to go without you."

Hagrid, oblivious to the tension in the room, gave her a wide, welcoming smile. "No worries, Maeve. We're jus' about ready ter head out. Yeh all set?"

"I am," Maeve smiled.

As they ventured into the Forbidden Forest, the atmosphere changed almost immediately. The white snow became muddy slush on the ground and the deeper they went, the quieter the sounds of the castle became. The forest, however, was alive with noise. Even the daylight did little to dampen how eerie it was.

Hagrid looked completely at ease. With his crossbow slung over his shoulder, he was just out for a leisurely jaunt. "So, what exactly is it that yer lookin' for in here?"

"Professor Slughorn was talking about habitats that the Forest had the perfect environment for. It's all part of theory for potions, and we have to know the explanations of where the ingredients come from for our O.W.Ls. I thought it'd be good to see for ourselves. You know, like feathers, scales, chrysalises. That sort of thing."

Maeve had laid out the bait perfectly. Even James looked remotely impressed. At least, his frown had finally disappeared.

"Chrysalises, yeh say?" Hagrid nodded thoughtfully. "Well, yeh might be in luck then. There's a spot I know where yeh might find somethin' like that."

Hagrid trudged on a head with James, but Sirius hung back to walk next to Maeve. "You're an uncommonly good liar."

"I'm twin sisters with Sorcha, what do you honestly expect?" she sighed. "Better make all this lying good for something."

He frowned. "What do you mean?"

She shot a glance at him. "You aren't the only one with a suspicious friend, Black. I had to tell Avanti I was studying in the library all day and I wouldn't be going to Hogsmeade. She's raging. All four of us were going to spend Valentine's Day together."

"What about the other two, Miriam and Elara?"

"Elara is way less suspicious, but Mimi is getting there. They were already on my case about Trinity and this term is close to pushing them over the edge. And it's for good reason. I'm barely ever around, and when I am, I'm running late for Quidditch, late for class. It never ends." She glanced at him, her expression softening. "I know you don't really care."

Sirius frowned. Is this what she thought of him? "That's not true."

"Isn't it?" Maeve laughed. "Strictly business, yeah?"

"Well," Sirius said, pushing back on a branch, "if we have to spend time together there's no sense in making it terrible."

"Tell that to James. If he had his way, he'd push me off the astronomy tower and be done with it. The only reason he even tolerates me now is because he found out Lily and I are friends."

"He just doesn't like to admit that he's wrong," Sirius told her. She whipped her head around, already prepared with a righteous retort. "And before you say anything, I know that it's a problem."

"The silliest thing is that he could get a lot further with Lily if he could let go of just a small bit of that arrogance."

Sirius grinned. "So you think James has a chance?"

She sighed and shook her head. "I think he's ruining his chance."

They continued through the forest. The trees grew thicker and the undergrowth more tangled. This was past the point of where Sirius had been before. Hagrid led them to a small clearing surrounded by dense bushes and low-hanging branches. Here, the snow dissipated. The ground was instead covered in a thick layer of moss. It was like a false spring in the dead of winter.

"I think this is a good spot ter start lookin'," Hagrid announced. "I'll stick with James. Maeve an' Sirius, you two can split off, so we can cover more ground," he hesitated slightly, remembering he was the adult in the situation, "Jus, don' get too far, now."

Sirius picked a path that forked off from the clearing and they walked side by side into the shadows of the hulking trees.

"What exactly did you tell Hagrid, anyway?" Sirius asked. "He seems all too glad to be taking three students out into the middle of the woods."

"You know Hagrid better than I do, but everyone knows he'll look for any excuse to come out here. I just asked him to take us, told him it was for extra class research," Maeve said, grabbing at a branch as she passed it. She snapped it between her fingers. "Hagrid invited Avanti and I to tea a few weeks ago after she said something about wanting to know more about the unicorns that Kettleburn supposedly saw in the woods. We went down to his hut and he talked to us for hours." She glanced over her shoulder. Hagrid was still in sight, his form towering over James as they poked around the clearing. "It's fierce sad because I'm certain he's just lonely. No one respects him, all because he was expelled ages ago. He should be teachin' that class instead of Kettleburn."

"I've always tried to get that story out of him," Sirius admitted, "but whenever we ask him how he was expelled, he changes the subject. I suppose it doesn't matter anymore, anyway. There's no reason to make him relive something like that just to quell curiosity." The words were out of his mouth even before Sirius understood what he was saying. What was with him? Admitting James's faults, and now his own. It was as if a dam had broken in between his brain and his mouth.

Luckily, there was a reprieve to save him as they searched on in focused silence. They looked under bushes, between rocks, above patches of moss and lichen. There was no hawk moth chrysalis to be found.

"Not one, let alone the fact that we need three," Sirius muttered as he pushed another rock aside. It rolled down the narrow slope of the hill. The sound echoed through the trees, scaring a group of birds out of the branches with a noisy chorus of cawing.

"Could you make any more noise?" Maeve huffed, standing up straight again.

"Why? Don't tell me you're scared of the forest," he teased. Then he caught a movement in the brush and froze. "Maeve, don't move." She went stock-still, her eyes growing wide. Sirius lifted his wand and pointed it just beyond her.

"What is it?" she whispered, her voice stricken with fear.

Sirius just shook his head. "Turn around!" The branches behind her crackled slightly and she jumped. The little white rabbit that Sirius had seen headed towards them looked up with shock and tore off in the other direction.

"That is not funny!" Maeve shouted at him.

Sirius was already in stitches of laughter. He pressed a hand to his chest. "You should've seen your face!"

She looked mad enough to pick up another rock and lob it at his head. "You absolute arse."

"That poor bunny, he looked terrified," Sirius wheezed. "Maeve Byrne the Fearless, alright."

Maeve's anger melted in an instant, replaced by a face of utter terror. He had to give it to her; she was a wonderful actress. "Sirius."

He just laughed. "Alright, it was funny when I did it, but I'm not falling for that–"

She shook her head vehemently, and the blood drained from his face as he realized she wasn't joking. She pointed toward the shadows in the near distance. A dark shape was moving—no, stalking—through the trees, its movements too deliberate, too calculating. The air grew thick with an unnatural silence, broken only by the sound of something clicking, a rhythmic, menacing sound that made the hair on the back of Sirius's neck stand up.

Without thinking, the two of them ducked behind a boulder. They crouched there, shoulder to shoulder, backs pressed against the cold stone as whatever was out there drew closer.

"I don't think that's Hagrid," Sirius whispered, his voice barely more than a breath.

Maeve's hand clenched around her wand, knuckles white. "What the hell do we do?" she hissed.

"How am I supposed to know?"

"Don't you gobshites sneak into the forest all the time?"

"Not this far!"

The clicking grew louder, accompanied by the unmistakable sound of something sharp scraping against the rocks behind them. He knew that sound, had heard it before—though never this close, never this menacing. His stomach dropped as the realization hit him. Slowly, he peered over the boulder. Emerging from the shadows was a massive, spider-like figure.

"We have to run, now," Sirius said. "It's an acromantula."

She swallowed hard. "We won't be able to outrun it."

The creature moved with terrifying speed, its legs scuttling over the forest floor with a sickeningly precise rhythm. Sirius felt a cold sweat break out across his forehead.

"Maeve, we have to go." He grabbed her arm. Sirius's voice caught in his throat as the creature spotted them and let out a low, guttural hiss, the sound vibrating through the air like a death knell. There was no time to think, no time to plan. He did the only thing he could think of—he stepped in front of Maeve and raised his wand.

"Protego!" he shouted, casting the Shield Charm between them and the oncoming beast. The shimmering barrier sprang up just in time, but the giant spider's sheer size and strength made the spell falter. "Byrne, help me!" Sirius yelled, his voice straining with the effort of maintaining the spell.

But in the bright light of the charm, she had been rendered entirely frozen. Maeve only watched in horror as the massive spider reared back, fangs glistening with venom. It was about to be the last thing they ever saw.

"Maeve!" he shouted with desperation.

She snapped out of whatever trance she had been in and stood up next to him. "Bombarda!" she shouted into the darkness. The explosion sent dirt and rocks flying, momentarily disorienting the creature.

And then they ran.

Maeve was quicker than him and didn't slow down until they were both out of breath and wheezing. There was no noise of anything pursuing them.

"What the hell was that!" Sirius demanded. It was completely out of character for her to be anything less than level headed. He had never seen her so much as flinch.

"I'm sorry," she muttered, shaking her head.

His eyes went wide. If Maeve was apologizing, something was seriously wrong. "What is going on with you?" he said in a softer tone. "Letting me get eaten by a spider seems a bit low."

Her cheeks were pink from running, but they turned scarlett as she spoke. "I'm terrible at defensive spells. I've never been very good at Defense Against the Dark Arts. There. Are you happy?"

"But I thought you said you got the Patronus charm, and the wandless magic?"

Maeve gave a wry, halting laugh. "I never got the Patronus charm. It was never more than a whisp. And the wandless magic?" she held up her hand and her palm illuminated with a ball of silver light. "I can do Lumos and make things float around the room. I'm useless in a fight."

Sirius had seen her play Quidditch; she was nearly pure muscle. And he had watched her pull off a solid hex on Sorcha more than a few times. "I wouldn't say useless."

"Well, I would," she huffed. "Especially after Mayfair, I just–" she stopped, as if she had said too much.

"Mayfair?" he said. It sounded familiar to him, but he couldn't place why. "Mayfair, as in London? What happened in Mayfair?"

"Nothing," she snapped, still visibly shaken. She looked around them and realized at the same time he did that they had no idea what direction they had been running in. "Great, now look at what you've done."

"Me!" he shouted back. "How is this my fault?"

"You were the one that just had to push that rock over. That's probably what set the acromantula off towards us in the first place."

"You're the one who was yelling at me about the bunny!"

"Do not get me started on that bunny!" she groused, jabbing a finger at him.

They stared each other down until a deep voice called, "Sirius! Maeve! Where are yeh?"

She gave him one last harsh look before stalking off in the direction of Hagrid's voice.

✤

IT was the 34th hour for which Maeve had been awake.

As she stepped out of the woods, she had never been more glad to see the sloping grounds of the castle in her life. Her hands, which were jammed in her pockets, were shaking from exhaustion and residual terror.

Luckily, while Sirius and Maeve had been busy fighting for their lives against the acromantula, Hagrid and James had found a cluster of hawk moth chrysalises. And at the mention of the giant spider, Hagrid had assured them that it was only an old friend. That knowledge did not make them feel any better.

The three of them trudged back up to the castle loaded down with Hagrid's tea cakes that he had insisted on giving them as well as the glass jar that held the chrysalises, which was safely stowed in James's bag.

"And it's early enough in the day still, I bet we can get to Hogsmeade before Mooney and Peter even get back," James grinned to himself. For once, he was in the best spirits of all of them. Any happier and he might start skipping.

"Grand," Maeve said, nearly tripping over her own feet for how exhausted she was. "I'm going to bed."

Looking back on it, she could barely recall walking all the way up to Ravenclaw tower. Somehow, she had managed to give the eagle the password and get all the way up to her room. That was as far as she got, though. When she woke up, she was sprawled on her bed, still wearing her dirty clothes. Elara was sitting on the edge of her quilt.

"Whattimeisit?" Maeve muttered sleepily, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.

"Eight in the evening. You slept through dinner," Elara told her, sliding a stolen plate of bread, cheese, and mixed vegetables to her. "Mimi and Avanti are still in the common room. I had a feeling I'd find you up here, though."

Maeve raked her knotted hair away from her face and scarfed the food down as if she hadn't eaten in weeks. It was the secondary effects of prolonged use of the Invigoration Draught. Whenever she woke up from a crash, her stomach was a bottomless pit.

"Thank you," Maeve told Elara, brushing a crumb off her bed.

Elara did a double take. "Why are you covered in mud? Are you wearing outside clothes in your bed?"

"I was tired," Maeve said in lame explanation.

Elara pulled her wand out of her pocket. "Scourgify," she said, erasing the mud off from Maeve's pants. "We're all really worried about you, you know?"

"Why?"

"Why?" Elara laughed with disbelief. "Let's see. You've skipped out on nearly every fun activity this term, you're rarely in the room, I keep finding you passed out in bizarre conditions. And I also keep seeing you talking to James Potter and Sirius Black, whom I thought you hated. What is going on with you?"

"I talk to Peter, too, like," Maeve muttered.

"And Peter Pettigrew, yes," Elara dismissed. "I just hope you know that I'm still here for you, too. Whatever it is that's going on with you, you don't have to do it all alone."

Yes I do, Maeve wanted to yell. It was a monstrous voice that snarled in her mind. She was teetering dangerously close to hubris with each new thing that she took on. "I know, Elara. And I'm sorry I haven't been around. It'll change soon."

"I know it will," Elara smiled. Outlined in her halo of golden curls, she looked like an angel perched on the end of the bed. "Now, don't you want to hear about what happened at Hogsmeade today?"

Maeve leaned forward. "Did Mimi see Rowan Grant again?"

"Yeah, he's still dating that one girl," Elara told her. "But that wasn't the main thing. Someone sent an enormous bouquet of roses to Sorcha while we were sitting in the Three Broomsticks."

Maeve rolled her eyes. "One of her many admirers, I'm sure."

Elara held up a hand. "Let me finish! We all thought it was so obnoxious, but when she pulled a rose out of the vase, the flowers were charmed to turn into these miniature singing cupids. Oh, it was hilarious watching her try to swat them away. Madam Rosmerta kicked her out of the pub and I'm pretty sure Sorcha was still being chased by the little buggers all the way back to the castle."

Maeve burst out laughing and flopped over on the bed and stared up at the canopy. The Marauder's creativity never ceased to amaze.

✤

THE mug of tea in Maeve's hand sloshed about as she made her way up the stairs on Sunday morning. By the time she had traveled from the Great Hall back up to Ravenclaw tower, it was nearly cold. Still, Maeve carried her offering into the room and brought it to Elara's bedside.

"For me?" Elara said, sitting up sleepily. It was mid-morning, and Avanti and Mimi were already out of the room.

"Yes, for you. Hold on, it's gotten cold," Maeve wrapped her hands around the mug and said, "Tempus Calidus." The brown liquid swirled slightly and the temperature rose.

"Thank you," Elara said gratefully. "And why have you brought me tea in bed?"

"I wanted to make it up to you," Maeve told her quietly, sitting down on the edge of her patchwork quilt. The fabric was a hodgepodge of rainbow pastels. "I was thinking we could sit in the library together today? You can read while I study?"

Elara's face lit up. "We'd better get going, then. All the comfortable seats will be taken."

Maeve had been dreading working on all of her assignments. It had taken her satchel and an extra tote of Elara's to carry all of the textbooks she would need for the day. Elara herself carried three books in her arms, just in case she finished the two she was currently reading.

They started out in the cushioned chairs near the tall windows, but eventually Maeve had to move to a nearby table just to have room for all of her books and parchment. Elara would interrupt her every once in a while with an update from the plot of her current book, which was The Lord of the Rings. It was an easy rhythm they had and it kept Maeve sane as the hours pushed on into the late afternoon. By the time Elara left to get them snacks, Maeve's eyes were twitching from the strain. Her focus was so intense that she didn't hear any of the footsteps approaching her. It wasn't until Remus Lupin cleared his throat that she realized he was standing there at all.

"Hello, Maeve."

"Hi, Remus." Maeve gestured with ink-stained hands to the six books that were open in front of her. "Can't you see there's a line?"

"Maeve."

Finally, she looked up. Remus stood in front of her slightly amused, slightly impatient. He had his bag slung lazily over one shoulder. "Well, you seem to be doing fine on your own. Can't imagine why you'd need help."

Maeve frowned. Her heart sank as alarm bells began to ring in her head. "What are you talkin' about?"

Remus shrugged. "Sirius says that he, James, and Peter have been tutoring you."

Maeve cringed. She had known that this day would come when Remus got too curious for his own good. As if humiliating herself in front of Sirius and a giant spider was not already enough, she now had to go along with this hare-brained story. "They are."

Remus sat down across from her and folded his hands in front of him. "They are not. You don't have to keep up their lie for them."

She snapped her book shut and scooted forward in her chair. "C'mere to me, it isn't a lie."

"Then what subject are they tutoring you in? I can't imagine that you of all people need much help."

"Defense Against the Dark Arts," Maeve said easily. She shifted uncomfortably. It wasn't very hard to play up her embarrassment to really sell the fib. "I'm terrible with defensive spells."

"And why on earth did you ask them for help?"

"Because they said they'd be discreet. I'm not exactly proud of the fact that I needed help at all," Maeve snapped, glaring at him. "And for all of their antics, it's made them excellent at that class. Even you have to admit it."

"That's true," he mused. "But then why not ask me to help you, too?"

"Are the four of you sewn together at the hip?" Maeve rolled her eyes. "I actually asked Sirius first, but then James and Peter tagged along. I suppose they didn't want to bother you with it."

Remus seemed to decide something for himself. "Okay."

"Okay?"

"I'll come to your next tutoring session. It doesn't bother me at all, I'd love to help. You've been meeting in the room behind the tapestry, yeah? Odd choice of a room. James is very territorial about that space."

"He is, yeah." Maeve turned her attention back to her book as if it didn't matter. Inside, she wanted to scream. "We'll be meeting there again next week, I expect. Fair play to you if you want to join.

He stood as if to leave, but then he paused and leaned over her, watching as she wrote furiously on her parchment. Lowering his voice, he said, "Or, you can save us all trouble and tell me the truth now."

Maeve smiled up at him. If he really thought it was going to be that easy to get the truth out of her, he was sorely mistaken. "It's flattering that you think I don't need tutoring, really."

Remus frowned as if he had just lost a game. "Hm."

"See you later!" Maeve said cheerily. As soon as Remus was gone, she clenched her fist so tightly that her feather quill snapped in two.

By the time dusk began to fall, Maeve managed to finish all of her homework for Charms and Herbology, her essay for Potions, and she even started her report for Transfiguration and the translation due for Runes. It was a wonder what being flaming mad did for her motivation.

"Wow," Elara said through a yawn as she closed her book. "You really flew through all of that, didn't you?"

For the rest of the evening, Maeve was like a bloodhound searching for one of three people. But luck was, as always, on everyone's side but hers. She didn't find any of the boys until right before dinner when she was heading back to meet Elara, Avanti and Mimi before they all went down to the Great Hall together. As she was walking up the first floor staircase, Sirius was rushing down it. They nearly ran smack into each other.

"Maeve," Sirius said, relieved. "I've been looking everywhere for you."

"What a coincidence," she seethed.

He took a step back with a wince. "Ah. I see Remus got to you first."

"You've got some serious notions thinkin' that lying like that was goin' to be a good idea," she spat.

"I didn't have a choice!" Sirius defended. "He cornered us after Hogsmeade. It was the first thing I could think of."

Maeve continued to stomp up the stairs and Sirius followed until they were back on level ground. "The first thing you could think of was to make me look like some complete and utter idiot who would ask you gobshites for help?"

"Look who it is!" Remus's voice echoed down the hall. He came into view with James and Peter at his side. They must have all been walking to the Great Hall for dinner.

Sirius locked panicked eyes with Maeve. "I'm sorry, alright?" he whispered quickly. "Just, go along with it."

The staircase had already moved, so she was out of luck. "I hope you know I'm going to kill you," Maeve said under her breath, maintaining a pleasant grin as Remus made his way up to them with James and Peter in tow.

"Discussing tutoring, is it?" Remus said, crossing his arms as if he had caught them in a lie.

"Aren't you a Prefect?" Maeve retorted. "Shouldn't you be encouraging things like this? It's amazing to me that you'll let your friends get away with all sorts of pranks but you draw the line at tutoring."

Remus sized them up. Seeing that none of them were giving anything away, his shoulders fell with exasperation. "I know something is going on."

"It's only tutoring!" Sirius and Maeve shouted back at the same time. They both glanced at each other and looked quickly away.

Remus threw up his hands. "Fine. I'm going to eat dinner."

Once Remus was out of earshot, Maeve rounded on Sirius. "You better have a plan for this, because if he shows up and we're not actually studying Defense, you're all dead."

"Hullo, this is a we thing?" James reminded her unhelpfully.

"I'm not the one that got caught in a lie."

"We'll figure something out," Sirius said with the easy confidence that never failed to piss her off.

Maeve squeezed her eyes shut tight. "This is going to be a disaster."

"Not if we're smart about it," Peter said, his voice surprisingly steady. "And it won't be very hard to put up a front. It isn't like you couldn't use the help, anyway."

"Pardon?"

Sirius tried to signal to Peter with a hand slash across the throat, but it was no use. Peter continued to ramble. "Well, Sirius told us what happened with the spider. And that you aren't very good with defensive spells?"

Sirius looked ready to melt into the wall. "Did I say that? I must have exaggerated."

"I've seen headless chickens with more sense than you!" Maeve said with disbelief. "I am so sick of you bleedin' Gryffindors." For once, James, Sirius, and Peter had the good sense to say nothing. The three of them just stared at her with varying degrees of discomfort. "At least everything else is on track to be over soon. Now that we have the chrysalises we're getting close. It's almost a month."

James exchanged a glance with Sirius and Peter. "Er, yeah, about that."

Maeve tilted her head. "You have got to be kidding."

"We're going to have to start over with the mandrake leaves," James said.

And Maeve thought she might have some kind of aneurysm right then and there. Her dad complained all the time about how his blood pressure got too high, and she wondered if this was what that felt like. "How in the name of Merlin–all you had to do was keep a leaf in your mouth!"

"The alginate dissolves when it comes into contact with too much alcohol," Peter told her. "Guess who figured that out for us?"

And they all turned to stare at Sirius. He crossed his arms indignantly. "How was I supposed to have known? I thought the alginate was just a kind of glue or something."

Maeve's eyes flared with a mix of disbelief and fury. "It's a magical compound, not your everyday paste, you plank! Do you have any idea how much time we've just lost?"

Sirius, trying to regain some ground, offered, "We have enough leaves. We'll start over, we'll be more careful this time."

"The next full moon isn't for another eight days.  And it takes a week for the alginate to brew," Maeve reminded him. "And now we have to put on a little show for Remus–this really could not get any worse."

James coughed. "Well–"

"James!" Sirius said.

"It's only fair that we tell her!" James argued, looking like he wanted to vanish on the spot. "It's just, we might've...misplaced one of the chrysalises."

"Misplaced?" Maeve blinked. "Misplaced? How the bleedin' hell do you misplace something like that?

Peter shuffled his feet nervously. "We thought it was safe, but then–"

"But then what?" Maeve's voice was sharp, her accent thickening with her anger. "Did it grow legs and walk off on its own?"

"It was only the extra," James tried in some lame attempt to quell her fury. "We'll just have to make sure we don't mess up with any of the three that we still have."

Maeve glared at the three of them, her voice dripping with exasperation. "You'd better. Because if you do, it'll be the least of your worries."

✤ ✾ ✤

a/n I'm so sorry this chapter is so long but there wasn't a good place to split it!

Anyway, drama central around here!  Sirius & the acromantula was genuinely such a fun scene to write and I love the many layers (onion like one might say) to Maeve's reactions.  Next chapter is part of the tutoring scene and it is a silly one!  I'm so excited to finally pull Remus into this whole mess.

I also want to take a moment to address the fact that a majority of my comments are hate mail to James and Sorcha which is, in this moment, completely justified.  They will both of course have character arcs which seems like it might disappoint(?) some people.  This book has been the most fun (and dare I say I've never quite had a writing streak this long, knock on wood) because of the depth of character that this story allows!!!