i'm holding on tight to you [max]

[Deleted]

june 10, 2025

Jamie was enjoying the Quidditch match, even if the crowd was... overwhelming, to say the least. She'd had to cast several charms on herself to dampen the noise and the smells of a roiling mass of people enough to be tolerable. Jamie had accepted she was never going to be comfortable in large crowds, not any more. She wouldn't have come to the Quidditch match if Max hadn't asked her, though she suspected her sister had only wanted to go because she thought it would be fun for Jamie. Either way, she was caught up in the thrill of the match. Jamie wasn't sure whether to be upset or relieved the Harpies hadn't made it to the finals; a part of her wished they had, so she could cheer on her former teammates, but a (selfish) part of her was glad her walking away from the team had done something, anything.

Speaking of her old team - Jamie was busying herself with scanning the crowds when the action on the pitch wasn't holding her attention, and she thought she spotted a familiar face. "I'll be right back," Jamie said to her sister, hoping she had spoke loud enough. The problem with putting so many muffling spells on herself was she couldn't even hear her own voice properly.

Jamie was almost to her former teammate when the stands shuddered beneath her feet. She froze, and immediately fumbled for her wand, stripping herself of all of the charms she had placed to keep her delicate ears and even more delicate nose safe from sensory overload. That was a mistake, because in the next moment, screams filled the air, piercing through her eardrums and straight into her skull. Jamie stumbled forward, bowed under the sheer loudness of it all. When the second explosion came, though, Jamie forced herself to standing. The section of the stadium she had just been sitting in - her sister had just been sitting in - began to buckle. The wolf inside Jamie, normally so content just to let her be, howled.

The human howled, too - "MAX!"

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[maxima ruqayyah greyback]

Max wouldn’t have been at the Quidditch league finals if not for Jamie, even if she was the one who had asked her older half-sister to come with her. She knew how much Jamie loved the sport and how much it had crushed her to have to stop playing for the Harpies to take care of her mother, and it was the first real event of the summer. If she didn’t get to see Jamie most of the time because of school, she certainly wasn’t going to pass up an opportunity once she could get it—even if Quidditch wasn’t her favorite thing in the world and she still didn’t fully understand every last detail of the plays or the referees’ calls.

It was high-energy, and the match was going well. Both teams were performing at about the same level, save for one of the Yorkshire Chasers’ having fallen from her broom early on. It could have been more of a nail-biter than it was, and Max was hardly offended when Jamie told her that she would be back. She took the moment to adjust her Omnioculars, watching as the Wasps easily scored another ten points.

Then, just as quickly, Yorkshire scored to tie the match. Jamie had gotten up from her seat, and there was a sensation that felt to Max like an earthquake beneath the section in which she was seated. Dropping her Omnioculars out of a combination of the shock of it and the necessity of needing to get out, Max moved to stand but had to steady herself against the seat in front of her as the stadium shook with fury.

Max turned her head, ears ringing while pieces of the stadium began to break apart before her eyes. She hurried from where she had been seated, scrambling over Jamie’s vacant seat and into the aisle to avoid the broken concrete. In another section, she could already see that there was fire—massive amounts of green flames, larger than anything she had seen before. Whatever had happened was more than just a celebration of the latest goal.

The seconds felt like hours. Terrified of stepping on anything too heavily in case it crumbled under her, Max managed to get out of the section without looking back. She just hoped that she hadn’t lost track of Jamie. Calling for her felt almost useless over the noise, and Max instinctively gripped to the railing in anticipation of another blast as she looked around for her… until she heard her own name above the crowd.

“MAX!”

It was Jamie. She couldn’t have been that far, not if she could hear her. Managing to breathe in, somehow, Max called back to her. “Jamie!?! JAMIE?! Can you hear me?!”

@jamie

[Deleted]

Jamie hadn’t noticed the smoke – didn’t notice it until the tang of smoke began filling the air. Her head whipped around, until she spotted the flickering green against the sky. That wasn’t close enough to hurt Max, though, at least not yet. Jamie swallowed back the acrid taste at the back of her throat, stumbling blindly towards where she had left her sister. She was fighting against a crowd of people. Everyone else was trying to get down, get off the risers before something more exploded or collapsed, but Jamie couldn’t. She couldn’t leave until she had found Max.

Jamie!?! JAMIE?! The fear in Jamie’s chest would unwind even when she managed to pick her sister’s voice out from above the din. The only reason she had been able to hear it at all was because she knew that voice, she recognized that voice. Max was okay – for now. Jamie’s head was ringing from the chaos around her, but she forced her feet forward. Once she had Max, she could turn and let them both be taken away in the rush of people.

She was shaking. Jamie didn’t realize it until she stretched her hand out to grip a railing and found she couldn’t quite get it. No matter. Jamie didn’t need to be steady – she just needed to move forward. “Max!?” she repeated, voice burning in her throat. The tiny bit of her not consumed by panic and instinct was whispering she ought to just find her sister when they were both out of the stands, but she couldn’t. Everything in her was consumed with what she couldn’t do. Who she couldn’t afford to lose. “Maxima!” she called, continuing her trudge up the stairs. Finally, Jamie reached a point where she physically couldn’t force herself further up into the stands – there were just too many people working against her. My sister, Jamie wanted to scream at them. Let me get to my sister! But everyone else was as panicked as Jamie, and they were all trying to get to someone they loved. Jamie had been stupid to ever leave Max behind.

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[maxima ruqayyah greyback]

It was difficult not to get disoriented. The smoke and the crowds and the rapid shift from jollity to panic had sent swarms of people into the same direction: out of the stadium, as quickly as they could get there. Max could feel her hand begin to lose its grip on the railing already. She coughed on the smoke as it began to cloud the air. She hadn’t realized what debris tasted like until the sensation overwhelmed her. The more that she moved downwards, down to where Jamie was, the more it would improve. Smoke rose, though the fire was working its way from below, too.

She didn’t hear the next time that Jamie called for her. There was too much happening all at once. She moved as quickly as she could, following as people continued to stream out. If she could have, she would have run. No one was moving quickly enough. No one would hear her if she pleaded with them to make way.

“Maxima!”

The stream of people ahead of her began to narrow, and Max could see who she knew must have been Jamie—blonde hair, stopped in her attempt to move against everyone else who was trying to make their way in the opposite direction. Jamie.

Max had no concern for how much she was jostled. She might not have been the strongest person, but she was at least steady on her feet, and it was easier to move down than up. It felt like an eternity, her hand running against the metal of the railing as she felt people push and shove up against her. Even as others stepped against her heels and tried to force their way past, she didn’t care.

And then, with about an arm’s length between them, Jamie was right there. In front of her. Without a word, Max reached quickly for her hand, still clinging to the railing on the opposite side.

@jamie

[Deleted]

Finding Max in the crowd was harder than it should have been, but the moment Jamie spotted the head of dark hair in the crowd, she kept her eyes focused on it. Max was moving closer, and closer, and Jamie was fairly certain her sister had spotted her. Time kept stretching, further and further, like a bubble about to pop. When it did pop, Max was there, her hand reached out. Jamie didn’t stop with just the hand, though. Yes, she tangled her fingers through Max’s – what a shame it would be to lose her now! – but as soon as she was sure in her grip, she tugged her sister closer, into her arms. A thousand and one horrible things had happened to the Greyback sisters, but they had been apart for most of them. They hadn’t been together when the castle was attacked or when the ship had exploded and Elias had died or when the dragons had attacked Hogsmeade, but they could be together now, and that would make all the difference. Fear was easier to face when there was someone else to be brave for.

“Are you okay?” Jamie asked, arm as tight around her sister’s shoulders as Max would allow. She seemed fine, able to walk to Jamie and all, but older sisters worried – and there wasn’t a doubt in Jamie’s mind that if Max needed it, she could carry her sister to the ends of the earth. Jamie’s heels were dug in stubbornly; she wasn’t allowing anyone else to move her and Max until she knew with absolute certainty that moving wasn’t going to hurt.

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[maxima ruqayyah greyback]

Jamie’s hand reached out to hers, and their fingers locked into place. Max had half a mind to move—to get out of there as quickly as they could, whether it was by running or Disapparating or whatever they had to do to make it out of there—but was stopped from it by the feeling of being pulled towards her half-sister. Gasping, Max took her opposite hand off of the railing and moved as much as she could out of the way of the onslaught of fellow spectators. She squeezed her firmly, not only for Jamie’s sake but for her own.

Max couldn’t allow herself to cry. Her eyes stung enough as it was from everything that hung in the air—sweat and smoke and the dust of rock and whatever all had been broken apart. She wondered if how she felt was how Elias had felt before he had died, if he had had the opportunity to react before being lost to the depths.

“Are you okay?”

“Y-Yeah. Yeah,” Max coughed, an urgency in her voice. “You? Have you got your wand?” She wouldn’t linger if she didn’t have to. They couldn’t stay, and she had never felt more grateful that she was still under seventeen for a few more weeks. If she had brought her wand and lost it…

@jamie

[Deleted]

At the stutter in Max’s voice, Jamie clutched her a little tighter. Even if her words were saying she was fine, her voice was telling a different story. They didn’t have time to dwell, as much as Jamie wished they did. At Max’s question about her wand, Jamie nodded, wiggling it free from the sleeve she had stuck it in after undoing the muffling charms she had placed on herself. “Come on,” Jamie said, reluctantly returning to just holding her sister’s hand. She couldn’t see Max’s Omnioculars anywhere, but if that was the only thing they lost today, Jamie was going to consider it a win.

Without thinking, Jamie cast a Sticking Charm on their joined hands, hoping it would be enough to keep them from being separated. “Once we’re off the grounds we’ll Apparate to your mum’s place, alright?” Jamie asked. She doubted her own mother would take kindly to her returning with her sister and a tale of an exploding Quidditch stadium. Jamie wasn’t sure how quickly information about whatever was happening would spread, though, and if Khadija heard anything before she knew Max was alright, Jamie was sure she would raise hell.

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Max nodded as Jamie revealed that she hadn't lost her wand in the madness, at least a bit of relief in the midst of the uncertainty in which they found themselves. "Come on," she urged her, though Max could already feel her heart pounding with the knowledge that they would need to move again. However they could, they would get out of there.

With the feeling that her hand had physically locked into Jamie's, Max knew that she was ensuring that they would get out of there together. "Once we’re off the grounds," she told her, "we’ll Apparate to your mum’s place, alright?"

"Alright," Max answered, swallowing and managing to find a gap in the space between them and the railing again and moving her hand towards it. Especially with one of her hands' being magically stuck together with one of Jamie's, they couldn't risk getting tripped up and falling, even if the nearest landing was only as far as Jamie had been before the stadium had begun to quake.

They had already delayed themselves enough, and there was no telling what awaited them beyond their immediate vicinity. "Let's go!"

@jamie

[Deleted]

Trying to remain calm was easier once Jamie was no longer moving against the flow of the crowd. Granted, she was now also attached to another person, so actually moving was more difficult. What was strange was, now that she was with Max, all of Jamie’s panic had subsided into razor-sharp focus. She supposed having been through awful situations before helped with that, as did her main source of worry being attached to her rather than out of sight.

They made their way down the stairs and onto the main concourse, where the chaos was even louder. People were searching for loved ones like Jamie had just been, and others were stampeding towards the exits. Jamie chewed on her lip, not wanting to get caught in the stampede but also unable to deny trying to Apparate out now, when she could barely hear her own thoughts, let alone imagine Max’s home, wasn’t going to be successful. With a sigh, Jamie directed them towards the exits as well, hoping Max’s smaller stature would give them better ease of navigation.

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[maxima ruqayyah greyback]

They made it through the stadium and out to where most of the other spectators had begun to congregate as they gathered themselves and their loved ones and whatever belongings they had thought to grab in evacuating from their seats and the premises as a whole. If it had been loud in the stands, it was hardly any better where they stood, though slightly easier to breathe. There were just as many people trying to get out the exit of the stadium as there had been just trying to leave the stands, if not more. Trying to count them would have been a waste of time, and team colors blurred into a mob of everyone who could force their way down and out without assistance.

Max began to see the extent to which other people in the crowd hadn't been as fortunate as she or Jamie had. Some had obvious injuries, including those that hadn't had any time to stop and heal them magically. She would have tried to help them, if she could have, but it was too much to ask of her with one hand occupied by her sister's.

As Jamie signalled her towards the exit, Max took the lead, heart still pounding with every step. She moved her arm backwards as much as she could, just to make it easier for them to go single file as they descended. Never before had she missed the staircases at Hogwarts and the fact that the majority of them moved on their own. It was so much harder when rushing down multiple flights of stairs, hoping that Jamie was keeping her exact pace.

Then, just as her legs felt ready to give out on her, there was fresh air and the feeling of sturdy ground beneath her feet. They were outside, though Max willed herself to keep moving until they were far enough away from the burning stadium—what was left of it. Air that didn't taste like stale ash filled her lungs as she found a patch of grass a safe enough distance away and stopped there, panting.

She looked over to Jamie, checking her to make sure that she was okay.

@jamie

[Deleted]

There were so many people. Jamie hadn’t had a problem with crows before the whole enhanced-senses thing, but now it was only her tunnel vision keeping her anywhere resembling sane. Tunnel vision, and instinct. Maybe research showed the wolf only came out at the full moon, but Jamie could feel the animal inside her, keeping her in step with her sister despite the odds. They rushed past people who were injured and those who weren’t, people who were moving and people who were standing still. Under any other circumstance, Jamie would’ve stopped to help, but now she didn’t. She wasn’t trained, and with so many bodies she was sure she would just end up in the way.

The moment they found themselves outside of the stadium, Jamie immediately found herself dizzy. The scent of smoke wasn’t so thick that it could cover up sweat and blood any longer, and Jamie had to squeeze her eyes shut to focus herself enough to even speak, let alone Apparate. “We’re good. I’m good,” Jamie said. Max hadn’t stumbled even once when they were walking together, so Jamie assumed Max was the same. “C’mere.”

It had been a while since Jamie had tried bringing anyone along by Side-Along Apparition, but having her sister close was a touchstone. Jamie took a deep breath, and summoned into her mind’s eye the image of Max’s bedroom and all of the time she had spent with her sister there. It was someplace safe and familiar – and more importantly, someplace that wasn’t burning. One more deep breath, then –

Crack.

They were gone.

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The likelihood that anyone would Apparate into her family's very normal, Muggle-seeming terraced house unannounced was fortunately an asset to them in that moment. As it was a Tuesday and certainly not as late as they would have returned from the match had it continued without interruption, they were—aside from the pets—the only ones home as they made it safely away from the Quidditch stadium.

As soon as they arrived, Max took in her surroundings. Jamie hadn't merely brought her home; they were in her bedroom. She breathed in, only for the resultant sound to come out as a sob. The gravity of what they had escaped hit her alongside the recognition that they were safe. She was thankful to see the familiarity of the pink walls that she still hadn't bothered to repaint, as juvenile as the color had seemed to her for years. She hardly cared that her hand was still stuck to Jamie's or that she had undoubtedly tracked dirt onto the cream-colored carpeting that covered her floor. Little had changed about the space—ever—which was probably what had helped Jamie in getting them there without splinching either of them.

Unable to stop herself, Max continued to weep. She could hear the dogs barking at the sound of their arrival from downstairs. Her cat and the cockatiel must have heard them, too, she guessed, though they weren't audible to her. With the hand that wasn't attached to Jamie's, she tried to use her fist to muffle the sound of her crying and then gave up in her attempt.

She turned her head to look at Jamie, with one request. "S-Stay here with me tonight?" she asked her. She couldn't fathom the thought of having anything else happen to her, nor did she want to be alone.

@jamie

[Deleted]

Jamie quickly ended the Sticking Charm that was keeping her hand and Max’s together – not only for their comfort, but also by necessity. Max was crying, and Jamie had to comfort her. There was another entire list of things Jamie had to do, too; judging by the lack of response when she Apparated in, Max’s family wasn’t home, which still left her with the problem of Khadija. If the Ministry suddenly erupted into chaos when Aurors and the like were rushing to the scene, she would still want to know. There were others Jamie wanted to contact, too, but not as urgently.

She closed her eyes, trying to seize onto a happy memory. Each time she thought she found one, it was snatched from her by sadness, or fear, or anger. Jamie scrunched her eyes shut further, delving into the depths of memories she hadn’t touched in a long, long while. Finally, Jamie found one. “Expecto Patronum,” she whispered. In short order she gave the wolf instructions to find Khadija and tell her Max was alright – then Jamie could focus on her sister, who was crying.

“Of course,” Jamie whispered in response to her sister’s question. Jamie hadn’t stayed so many times when she should’ve, and even though the full moon was the next night, she couldn’t think of a place she’d rather be, or a person she’d rather be with.

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Jamie conjured her Patronus, though it felt as though it was from a distance. Whatever had just happened, there had been Mediwizards there. With as many people as had been at the match, Max knew that word must have been getting back to the Ministry about it. Her mother, still at work at the Apparition Test Centre, would have had to know something about it, and at least she would know that they were safe.

"Of course," she answered as the silvery mist of a wolf had left them, confirmation that she wasn't going anywhere.

Gradually, Max found that she had regained the use of both of her hands, and she brought them up to her face to wipe at the wet streaks that ran down her cheeks. She nodded to Jamie but remained rooted where she stood, stiffly upright. Without looking behind herself, she backed up against the foot of her bed and slid herself down until she was sitting with her legs first at an angle and then, eventually, stretched out in front of her.

"If we were sitting… a-anywhere else…" The rest of Max's thought remained unspoken, her eyes staring straight ahead from her position on the floor. They had had close calls before, but it was the closest that she had come to feeling as though she and Jamie would lose each other. She had chosen to stay alive, she realized, when she could have just… acted against it.

@jamie

[Deleted]

Watching Max act as if moving through a fog helped pull Jamie even further out of her own haze. She needed to be the responsible one, the older sister. No matter what had just happened, Max was younger and had more, right now, to lose. Jamie took a seat on Max’s bed beside her sister, slinging an arm around the Slytherin’s shoulders and hugging gently.

“But we weren’t anywhere else,” she reminded Max, voice soft. “We’re safe.” It went without saying there were definitely people who were not safe, but Jamie thought it was probably better not to focus on the negatives. “Mungo’s is used to dealing with these sorts of disasters,” which also wasn’t a pleasant thought, however truthful it was, “and the people who are hurt will be healed.” The people who were dead, on the other hand…

Jamie cleared her throat, more to force her own attention than Max’s. “You have an extraordinary ability, Max… but it’s not your job to save everyone.” Jamie knew what it was like to want to be a savior, knew what it was like to blame herself for things that weren’t her fault. She hoped Max didn’t need to hear what she was saying, but Jamie figured it was better to say the words unnecessarily than not to say them when they were needed. “Do you understand?”

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