WHEN WE WERE YOUNG : marauders era

42. never mess with a Vasilios

"Wha- How? Why?!" The boys asked, looking shocked and confused.

"Relax, guys. You're acting as though I've never had detention before," Mareena said with a shrug.

"But you've only ever gotten detention with us. This is the first time you did something by yourself," James pointed out, and with a mischievous grin he added, "Come on. Spill it out. What did you do?"

Mareena smiled smugly as she said, "It's kind of a long story."

A few minutes earlier:

Mareena and Juliana were walking back from the owlery when they were caught up by Lily, Marlene and Alice, who were heading to the library.

"Wanna join us?" Lily asked.

The two girls agreed and together they headed to the library, chatting along the way about their recent Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson.

As they were walking however, Mareena heard some noise coming from the other end of the corridor. She was probably the only one who heard it because she hadn't really been talking and was pretty much lost in her own thoughts as always.

She lingered behind to find out what it was. This time, she heard someone groan in pain although she couldn't recognise the voice as it was too faint.

"Ree, what are you doing there? Come on!" Marlene shouted from afar as she saw Mareena stop in her tracks.

"You guys go ahead. I'll join you later!" she replied quickly, heading towards the sound.

"But where-?"

"Don't worry. I'll be back in a minute!"

As she got closer to the source of the sound, she heard a group of people laughing.

"OI LOVEGOOD!" A familiar voice shouted and Mareena froze. "Get up, you loser!"

Lucius Malfoy

There he was - her cousin - on the floor trying to get back his books. His wand was a few feet away and he seemed to be in pain. They were in some kind of abandoned classroom. No one used that classroom anymore.

Suddenly, Lucius kicked away his books which were near his feet and another Slytherin named Rodolphus Lestrange kicked Xenophilius in the stomach. He cried out in pain once more.

"STOP IT!!" Mareena shouted as she ran towards Xenophilius. She knew she was being reckless. She was clearly at a disadvantage - there were five of them, all of whose names she now had engraved in her brain: Malfoy, Lestrange, Rosier, Mulciber and Avery.

It was five against one, as Xenophilius wasn't exactly in good shape to fight. But she had tolerated them enough since the start of term and only because until now, they had only mocked her sister and her with mere words.

But this. This was different.

"OOH!! It's Miss Vasilios everyone! Why, thank you for joining our little gathering here," Lucius said while the others laughed.

Mareena now knew them enough to know that anything she said won't have any effect on them. She'd have to take action. However, as she tried to take her wand out of her robe pocket, Xenophilius held her hand quickly and shook his head frantically.

"Ree, just get out of here. You'll end up in trouble," he whispered, his voice barely audible. One of his eyes was swollen and his lower lip was slightly bleeding.

"But-"

"No buts, Ree. Just go. I'll distract them."

"Do you really think we'll let you leave that easily?" Lucius asked with a fake shocked expression.