𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬

16. What do a Viper, princess and star have in common?

Maeve's POV
First week back
In the dungeons near the Slytherin common room

"Jane?" I heard regulus sharp voice, a cross between protectiveness and confusion filled his tone.

"Hey star, this meeting is just for good old princess over here." She smiled, resembling a snake in a way I didn't know was possible.
"So, piss off."

I couldn't move. Not even blink.
My sister was standing in front of me.
My sister? Standing?
I didn't bother being shocked by her attitude,
What was in front of me was already more than enough for me to take in.

"I'm not leaving her alone with you." Regulus warned, deciding on a protective tone.

She shrugged with a small smile, swaying her body along with the long steps she took toward us.

She was curvy but still more on the slim side because of her height, had light skin but a golden undertone shone through, green eyes and dark, flowing hair that blended out into vibrant indigo that looked navy blue in the lighting of the dungeons,
But that wasn't the part that stood out the most.
Her scar.
Well, more like scars, plural.
The evidence of three deep claw marks covered the lower right side of her face,
From the top of where her cheekbone connects to hairline curved down to her jaw, fading out at her neck.

"Fine, you are one of the main topics in this quick chat, so, I think I'll be able to tolerate you." She rolled her eyes, not daring to drop her devilish smirk.

"What's wrong Princess, cat got your tongue?" She teased, clasping her hands behind her back, now standing barley a meter in front of me.

"What do you want?" Regulus cut off her stride, pulling himself in front of me, he was just barley an inch taller than her which was his only advantage in this situation.

"Isn't it obvious?" She mocked, walking around the road block that I called regulus, I felt her gaze burning as she stared daggers into my soul.
"Voldemort sent me, and you, lil' sis, are under my command, and I thought, while I'm here, why shouldn't I have a little bit of fun?" Jane painted on an innocent pout as she twirled one of my loose curls around her finger.

"I'll be watching your little club of puberty blues very closely, Princess will be a spy for me, she will drags out the moles we have among our loyal companions." She shifted her gaze back to me.
"You will tell star here everything, you know, incase a mole tries to climb the food chain, if you know what I mean." She let a breathy laugh escape her just to rub in her words a little further when we all heated echos of footsteps that belonged to multiple students.

"Well, I gotta bounce, adiós bitches." Jane said in a causal but polite 'goodbye after brunch' tone as she spun 180° on her heels before becoming nothing but swirly back dust.

every nerve in my body lit up,
every part inside of me was racing, picking up speed.
The pressure inside of me built until I was sure I was going to be crushed by it and thought that everyone around me would witness it, made everything 10 times worse.

The touch at my waist was gentle enough that it didn't register at first, but steady enough to turn me towards the door— strong enough to keep me upright when my knees began to buckle.

Outside of the shrinking, narrow hallways was at least 10° cooler, quiet and dark enough that my skin didn't feel like it was bubbling up at the touch of fire in my veins.

I only went a few steps further into the dungeons the just enough to be out of line of sight from passing eyes, before I was carefully lowered down and manoeuvred so my head was between my knees.

familiar hands slid the jacket off my shoulders lifted my hair away from my face.
"You're okay," Regulus's voice was saying,
"Just take a deep breath."

"I- I can't." I said between shallow gasps.

"Of course you can," he said calmly.

"I have to—" I brought my hands up, clawing at whatever invisible cord was wrapped around my throat.
Regulus took took them in one of his own, holding them flat against his chest.

"You don't have to do anything right now," he whispered softly. "Everything is okay."
It's not, you have no idea, I wanted to say.

A sharp ache pierced my skull pounding harder and harder with each passing second.
Touching him did help, I myself to match my breathing with the rise and fall of his chest that I had sunken into, still stoning on the cold floor with him.

The cool air worked slowly to untangle the mess of thoughts knotting into a headache at the front of my skull.
The pressure eased its grip enough for me to straighten and lean back against the wall but I still had his hand griped tight to keep me grounded.

Regulus moved so he was now crouched in front of me, caring eyes still searching my face.
The wrinkles in his brows smoothed out as he released a small breath of his own.
"Better?"

I nodded slowly, still a little shaky.

"What happened?" He asked, his worry not bothering to hide. "Are you okay?"

"I just..." I couldn't tell him.
He had been planing for days to find a way to slip away from the others when it came time to deal with any pure-bloods over the ages 18.

What little hate he carried in him was aimed squarely at his family.
But if he knew about me, how I'm the spy, I'm the mole, he'd try to get me out of the deal with Dumbledore.
Or worse, he he might accidentally tip the the other deatheaters off.
He'd never been able to guard his feelings the way I did, he could hide sadness or anger but. It a secret like this.
They'd read him like the daily profit and dispose of him just as quickly to avoid him stirring up trouble with Voldemort.
"I just got... overwhelmed." I sighed.

"Has it been happening a lot?" Regulus's body softened as he sat cross-legged in front of me, the crouching must have started to hurt.

God. I didn't want to talk about these attacks either.
I couldn't, not even with him.
Then I'd have to talk about Jane, about what happened, about everything we hadn't had the time to talk through before things went to hell.
He seemed to sense that at least.