Chapter 22 ~ One Month Later.

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Once again Maxine and Stefan were confirming their friendship in the library to you, the readers, as they did over a month back and first became friends. But here you can look at them and know it's more definite. The laughter as Maxine whispers a joke involving an upset in Potions class. The complete ease at which they sit together, comfortable and quiet. The book between them, open at that moment to reveal a picture of a fox-like face, and reading above it 'Fuchsbau', although, as Maxine opened the topic once more, her pronunciation was different.

"Fuxbow...Have you really seen one of these before?" She asked, surveying the page and description once more.

Stefan laughed at the completely British accent that made the German word sound like a new way to kill foxes. "It's 'fuchsbau' - you really need to work on your German accent."

Maxine gave him a mock-punch. He'd been teaching her German and she was alright with remembering the words, but not so much at practising the accent. "You're the one whose been speaking German since you were toddling. God I wish I was bilingual."

Another laugh erupted from Stefan at her strange comment. Maxine turned to him with a smile but surprise.

"What? Isn't it cool being able to speak two languages just like that?" She clicked her fingers in correspondence with her last word.

"Since I never go to Germany, my other language has not been useful since I could toddle." He answered. "This is the first time I've used it after ten years for something worthwhile."

"What, teaching me?" Questioned Maxine with a grin producing another laugh from Stefan.

"When was teaching you ever worth while?" He received a slam on the head from Maxine's charms textbook, but she was still smiling, as was he."What? You give me so much crap-" 

Maxine hit him again. "Hey! My pronunciation isn't that bad!" Stefan raised his eyebrows at her and she looked away. "Well, maybe it's not the best..."

"Max, say; "where are the toilets, please" in German." Stefan ordered with another grin.

"Voh sinn dee toy-lit-ton bit-tain." She answered, looking at her friend as he laughed. Pretty soon she was, too. "Alright, alright, my pronunciation is terrible." She said between chuckles. "You demonstrate, go on. Do it in your beautifully refined german accent."

"Vo sind de Toiletten bitten?" He said smoothly, and produced a surprising sigh from Maxine.

"I love foreign languages. They sound like music compared to our sensible but completely bland English." She said both wistfully and with sorrow.

"Hmmm, English isn't that bad, but I agree, it isn't nearly as enchanting as say, Swedish, or Italian." Stefan commented. "Which is your favourite?"

"What, out of Swedish and Italian?"

"No, of them all. Which is your favourite language on Earth."

"Well I haven't heard them all, obviously, but my favourite would have to be French, closely followed by German." Maxine answered.

"Why french as your number one?" Queried Stefan.

Maxine looked at him and grinned. "Did I offend you by putting it first?" She laughed. "I loved german but french is just o lilting and elegant you fall in love with it, whereas German's a bit sharp, you know?"

Stefan nodded, smiling again. "I know, though it is softer in places. The Austrian dialect is softer and different, but I don't know how to speak it."

"I'd love to go to Austria." Said Maxine, picturing hills and edelweiss and viennese pastries.

Stefan laughed. " "The Hills Are Alive!" " He quoted, warbling the tune. Maxine laughed in reply, glad she actually knew what he meant. Not many witches and wizards watched muggle films.

"Not just for that!" She said. "I hear the cooking in Vienna is fantastic."

"If you know the right place to eat." Agreed Stefan. "They say even cucumber salad smells in Vienna." He added wistfully.

Maxine laughed incredulously. "Cucumber Salad? Should it not smell?"

"Oh, surely you've tried cucumber salad?" Stefan said is mock disbelief. Maxine shook her head.

"Nope. I prefer a good Sunday Roast." She answered.

"Well, if you do ever try the brilliant blandness of cucumber salad, you shall quietly observe that it has no scent." Said Stefan. "But a Sunday lunch, however, well, that certainly does smell!"

Maxine raised up her hands as if to halt his speaking. "Oh god please don't talk about food. When we've just had dinner but I'm still starving it really doesn't improve the mood of my stomach."

Stefan laughed. "D'you want me to get the chocolate frogs from my trunk?" He offered sympathetically.

"Nah, I don't feel like chocolate. All I want is a Sunday Roast...." Maxine grinned and sniffed the air whilst Stefan also contributed a smile.

"I believe it's a little tricky to conjure that delicacy, Fräulein." Stefan said in English with a thick German accent. "However, I can provide this."

With a complicated wand movement and some intense concentration, Stefan presented his friend with a perfect strawberry, ripe, red and succulent. That week the entire fifth year had been struggling with conjuration spells in Transfiguration, and so far Stefan had been the only one to succeed, the gleaming strawberry in Maxine's hand being a worthy demonstration of his achievement. 

Maxine laughed and gave him a push. "How dare you remind me of my failure!" For she had been one of the ones to completely and utterly fail at the spell, and it was only with Stefan's dedicated help had she got nearer to success. "Ah, but it does taste good!" She slipped the strawberry into her mouth and savoured the taste, Stefan looking hopeful beside her. Although he had completed the spell before, some of the fruits previously produced had been rotting, unripe, or particularly bitter and rancid. Now, though, Maxine's thumbs up gave a signal of success, for the strawberry was - or had been, now it was in Maxine's stomach - absolutely perfect.

Stefan's eyes gleamed with pride and he turned with triumph to tick the box in his homework diary that lay next to the words; "Practice strawberry conjuring spell until perfect"

"You know, we'd better get on with this." He remarked, flickering his eyes over the long list of assignments. 

Maxine nodded, swallowing down the last of the strawberry. "Yeah, I know." She regarded her own list glumly before turning to her friend once more. "Which one first?"

"I suppose we'd better start with Potions. It's best to get the least enjoyable assignments out of the way." Stefan answered, still reading the list.

"D'you mean the Varieties of Venom Antidotes essay?" Maxine asked, looking up. Both she and Stefan disliked potions, partly because of the lack of spell casting and the fiddly brewing arrangement, and also because they weren't good at it - a common reason in most cases.

Stefan nodded. "Yeah, that one." He rolled his eyes and grabbed for a quill and parchment whilst Maxine automatically scanned the shelves nearby for an antidotes textbook. This happened a lot when the two friends were together - if one of them needed something often the other would wordlessly know, whether it was fetching a book or handing an ingredient, usually it conveniently happened. Their friendship had made both stronger, better people, and you could see the change in Stefan, even if Maxine was yet to notice. 

The conversation ended there as both began the task of gathering together a reasonable essay on venom antidotes from their scribbled notes, the worn and somewhat dated textbook, and what little they could remember from class. It was after a little that Maxine got side tracked, though. Her thoughts strayed to their friendly but equally strict Potions teacher, Professor Batyaeva, who happened to be from Austria itself. From there her mind went to Austria once more, and she found herself wishing to escape once more.

She never told Stefan of her yearning to see the world, but perhaps he sensed it. Maxine didn't know, though, and normally when she was with him no thoughts of leaving Hogwarts would enter her head. But in truth, all the time it was there, her wish to escape and travel and learn; to discover new things in the new world that awaited her. But Nick's words always came into mind, and there was a constant reminder of what the people hunting her could do in Nick's letters. Yes, they had been contacting him, and had received three so far, all very exciting and all warning Maxine to stay hidden. A hidden girl. That's what she'd become. Hidden from the world outside and hidden from the life she wanted to have. What annoyed her most of all, though, was the fact Nick wouldn't tell her why these people wanted her. She had asked in every letter she had sent him, and in every reply there had been the simple statement in answer;

"I'm not sure about it myself. And any how, I cannot tell you in writing."

Finally, Maxine had asked for them to meet in Hogsmeade, mentioning Stefan again too so the Grimm may be drawn in. She had told him a little about her new Grimm friend in her first letter, and Nick had obviously been interested, though his words seemed to try and hide it slightly, and Maxine had not told him of Stefan's surname. Maxine could only hope that they got a positive reply now, though, as Nick had not yet answered and she had no idea what his reaction was going to be like. Or if he could even get into Hogsmeade. 

Stefan had been a real help in that department, explaining that if the Grimm could get into Diagon Alley and No. 12 Grimmauld Place, he should be able to enter Hogsmeade. Her friend had theorised that Grimms and Wesen didn't count as Muggles and therefore the protective spells cast over the secret wizarding areas did not apply to the two species. He was also excited to see whether they could meet the Grimm, for there was a limit to the answers he could get from Maxine and the Wesen book concerning questions about the new world he had suddenly been exposed to.

It was as Maxine looked up from her still paper and quill, that she saw Stefan's concentrated face across the narrow table where they sat, and her face lifted into an voluntary smile. Having Stefan as her friend had improved everything, and sometimes it only took for her to look at him to wipe her rare sadness away. He looked up as she smiled, sensing her stare, and grinned back. Opening his mouth to comment, however, Stefan's expression changed all of a sudden.

"Maxie, look!" 

She turned to follow his gaze over her left shoulder and saw only darkness out of the narrow window where his eyes now rested and found nothing. "What?" She turned back to him. "I don't see anything."

"He was fast, I only saw his wing for a second." Stefan answered, moving his eyes back to her face with an exited expression.

"What?" Maxine questioned again, slightly confused.

"It was Augen! I'm pretty sure it was, anyway, and he was carrying a letter!" Stefan answered, eyes gleaming.

Maxine's face broke into another smile. Augen was Stefan's barn owl, named for his huge golden eyes, and he'd been the one carrying Nick's messages back from the international owl office in the ministry all the tike the two of them had been sending letters to the Grimm. "Are you sure?" She asked. "Could you really tell it was him?"

Stefan nodded. "I'm pretty sure. I saw the eyes, you see."

"Who's eyes?" Rose interrupted the heated moment as she came round one of the shelves and entered the conversation. 

Maxine raised her eyebrows at her friend, but Stefan immediately answered. "Oh-er, yours. They are such a lovely grey."

Maxine could see Rose fight back the desire to laugh as she replied; "Well, thanks Stefan, as are yours." Rose sat down next to Maxine before turning to address him again, this time with a wide grin. "Oh, and Stefan, you'd better check the owlery, I think I just saw Augen through the window."

Stefan smiled back in feigned gratitude, looking meaningfully at Maxine before slipping of the seat and heading for the exit in silence. Once he was gone, Maxine turned back from watching her friend go to face Rose, who was still smiling mischievously.

"Rose!" She pushed her friend with a laugh. "Try not to wind him up, will you?"

"I'm sorry, it's just extremely amusing seeing the look on his face." Her friend half-apologised. It wasn't bullying, only light-hearted teasing, and Maxine herself let it go, as Stefan's smile of grace as he went off had been quite funny. He wasn't quite used to Rose and Fauna yet, for although Maxine was good friends with them, Stefan was always nervous around girls, with the exception of Maxine, and often got a little tongue-tied. Maxine had suggested to her two friends that he might 'like' either of them because of this, but both Rose and Fauna had waved this off with genuine laughs.

"You going to Hogsmeade next week, then?" Rose asked after the slight pause.

Maxine nodded. "Mhm."

"With Stefan?" Rose watched her friend closely.

"Yup." Maxine answered placidly. "We're gonna stock up on confectionary." She looked at her friend mischievously. "You got a date?"

Rose, realising there was no point persisting with the clearly blind Maxine, smiled and answered the question in a mysterious tone. "Yeah..."

Maxine laughed. "And are you going to tell me who it is?"

Rose grinned. "Try and guess."

"Hmmm." Maxine pondered. "Is it that cute ginger from hufflepuff?"

"Nope. He's Fauna's date."

Maxine raised her eyebrows. "The two red heads? That's certainly suitable."

"Keep guessing." Rose reminded her friend.

"What about that little guy with the glasses?"

"What, Olly Steele? No..."

"The blonde sixth-year?"

"Nope.."

"Oh god, I dunno...Lorcan?"

"Scamander? No way."

"Right, I give up. Who is it?"

Rose grinned. "Jack."

"Jack?" Maxine's eyes and smile widened in disbelief. "Jack Hiddleston?" 

Rose's eyes gleamed as she nodded.

Maxine's smile became a grin as she stared at her friend. Jack Hiddleston was the Ravenclaw Quidditch Team captain, a seventh year, and Rose's fellow beater. Rose had been summoning up the courage to ask him out to Hogsmeade for an entire month.

"Did he ask you?" Maxine asked after a brief silence.

"Uh-huh." Rose said with joy. "After quidditch yesterday."

Maxine was just opening her mouth to delve further into the subject when she saw Stefan by one of the shelves, eyes eager and hand waving what looked to be a letter. She felt energy surge through her. Nick must have said yes! Trying not to let her feelings show or look at Stefan, Maxine turned back to Rose.

"It's great Rose, and I'm really glad for you, but I have just remembered I've got to finish that bloody Potions Essay and I'm afraid I can't really talk." Maxine told her friend as smoothly as she could, getting up.

"Oh right ok. See you later then." Rose seemed perfectly happy with the excuse and remained silent at the table as her friend gathered her quills, parchment and school bag. But it was as Maxine was heading of the inlet between bookshelves that her friend spoke again.

"Have you got a date, Maxie?"

Maxine turned and shrugged in answer. "Why would I want to? There's no one I like around here." She pulled the strap of her bag up onto her shoulder. "Anyway, it would just spoil the fun day me and Stefan are going to have."

Rose looked at her friend. "Is there truly no one you like around here? No secret crushes or anything?"

Maxine shook her head. "Nope. None at all." She turned to see Stefan still hovering between the book shelves. "Anyway, I've gotta go. See you later."

Rose nodded. "Ok. See you."

But as Maxine turned and went, Rose sighed. She'd thought she'd had it sorted out. Now she wasn't so sure.