ZOOM!

A Bludger swooshed past her, narrowly missing her ear. She chased after it, sending it spinning back towards the Hufflepuff Keeper. One of her teammates shouted a hurried thanks as they returned to the Quaffle. Maya returned to the center of the field, growing rather bored. She was usually kept quite occupied with the constant battle of the Beaters enraging in the middle of the field but this match had been rather uneventful, save for the occasional bludger. She was supposed it was because they were playing Hufflepuff. They had always been the fairest of all the lot, and this year, they had exceptionally timid Beaters. Maya was disappointed. At least, she thought the Beaters were timid until she spotted a Bludger pelting towards her best friend, Gryffindor Keeper, Riley Matthews.

She watched as the Bludger rapidly approached her friend and she frantically glanced around for the other Beater. He had only just spotted the Beater and was flying rather slowly towards it. Meanwhile, the brunette remained oblivious to her spherical offender. She was too intent on the Chaser who had been slowly inching towards the goal posts. Riley shouldn't have narrowed her focus on one person like that-she should have payed attention to all her surroundings. But it was Riley's first match as a Keeper, and as her best friend, Maya took it as her responsibility to make her friend's first Quidditch match as smooth as possible. Which is exactly why Maya rushed towards her defense. She cursed inwardly and abandoned her center position, racing towards the goal posts. She cut her fellow Beater off, earning her an irritated look, but her irritation was greater. Why hadn't he stopped the Bludger before it had entered the Keeper's area? She leaned forward on her broom, urging it to go faster, until finally she caught up with the Bludger.

WHAM!

The blonde Gryffindor Beater swung her bat. Her aim was true-the Bludger whizzed away from the Keeper, instead unseating the Hufflepuff Chaser off his broom. Maya laughed as his broom sped towards the ground and he landed with a nasty crunch. She started to turn away from the goal posts back to her laps around the field, but the expression on her friend's face stopped her.

"Maya!" She chided.

"What?" She tried to suppress her irritation with some difficulty. She had just saved Riley's life.

"Did you have to be so aggressive?"

Oh the irony, Maya thought.

"This is my job, kiddo. Relax." Maya rolled her eyes and sped back towards her center position.

She started to weave in and out of the players, eyes searching for any rogue Bludgers, but was interrupted when the Hufflepuff Captain called for a timeout. She reluctantly flew down to her team, not wanting to partake in her Captain's boring pep-talk. Her eyes wandered to her opponents. She noticed a nasty bruise on one of the Chaser's foreheads-he must have been the one she knocked off. Despite his apparent injury, he did not look dispirited. He glanced at his opponents just as Maya was beginning to turn away and caught her eye. He grinned at her and appeared to be tipping an imaginary hat to her. She snorted derisively and turned her head away, irritation flickering through her mind. She was a trained Beater, though, and she couldn't help but notice out of the corner of her eye that the Chaser seemed to be smirking at her. She couldn't quite put her finger on it but she felt a shiver go down her spine and blood fill her cheeks. She dimly registered him as Lucas Friar, according to Mr. Matthews' commentary. She bit her lip, lost in thought at the boy's strange actions, but was rattled back to reality with Harley Keiner's whistle-the match had begun again.

Maya rushed past the teammates but even as she flew into the air, she noticed that the Chaser was still staring at her. She had been planning on switching positions with the other Beater in order to keep a better watch on Riley, but something about the Chaser's smirk changed her mind. She quickly ordered her fellow Beater to resume his previous position near the goal posts while she continued center, much to his exasperation. The Chaser watched this exchange from a distance and it unnerved Maya. Just then, her mind registered the whistling sound of metal and she turned around in the nick of time. The Bludger narrowly missed her but she didn't let it go without a fight-she lifted one leg off the broom, leaning towards it as it tried to escape, and set it swinging back. Her aim did not fail-this time, the Friar boy was knocked clean off his broom, straight to the ground. He did not get up. She smiled to herself.

…

"WE WON! MAYA WE WON!"

Her best friend jumped off her broom and sprinted towards her, pulling her into a hug.

"WE WON! MY FIRST EVERY GAME!" She said ecstatically as the rest of the team piled onto each other. The Gryffindors headed back to the locker room in complete jubilation.

Maya smiled, amused at her friend's pleasure. "Good job, kiddo! Proud of you," she embraced her friend in the locker room.. "Now, what say you, let's go to the party!" She said excitedly, locking their elbows together and pulling them towards the common room.

"Oh, no, you don't," Riley responded, steering her friend back.

"You," she shoved a finger to Maya's chest, "are going to go to the Hospital Wing to check up on that boy whose bones you broke."

"Riley," she said irritably, "I've knocked plenty of people off before, they're always fine, Madam Geralyn will fix them up in an instant."

"Maya," the brunette said, hands on hips, with a stern face.

There was no point arguing with her when she was like this, Maya knew.

"Alright, alright," Maya grumbled. "See you in a bit."

"Yay!' Riley responded cheerfully as she bade her friend goodbye.

…

She approached the infirmary cautiously. She had no desire to be seen. Sure, she had promised Riley she would check up on the boy, but that didn't mean she would talk to her. Unfortunately, Felix Felicis was not on her side today. The Friar boy was already awake and turned his head at the sound of the creaking door. His face had been returned back to normally, his bloody nose had been stopped, and his bruises, though quite numerous, looked much better than they had a few hours ago. His forehead, however, still remained slightly swollen. Her eyes trailed down to the cast he now wore on his arm along with the bandage around his leg. She glanced back up into his eyes. They were a nice green-the kind of green that one would see in the Herbology field or perhaps the light green grass of the Quidditch field. She opened her mouth, feeling suddenly very awkward. It was unlike her to be at a loss for words. But what was she supposed to say to the person whose arm she had just broken? Hi I'm Maya, you're really cute, we should hang out sometime. She thought foolishly. "Hi," she said uncomfortably.

"Why hello there," he responded in apparent ease. He had a Southern accent-so he wasn't from around Britain, she noted. "What brings you over here, ma'am?" There was an almost teasing note to his voice, a note that took away Maya's discomfort and brought back her confidence.

"Just wanted to make sure I did a good job of knocking you off your broom," she smiled tauntingly. She glanced pointedly at his cast and his leg, then back into his green eyes. "Looks like I did," she smirked.

He tilted his head towards her. Something about her cockiness was just so cute. "Well you definitely did a great job. You're a great Beater," he attempted to nod his head in acknowledgement, but stopped in apparent discomfort. She felt slightly guilty as she watched him drink a cup of Skele-Gro.

"You're not from around here, are you?"

"No, ma'am, I am certainly not," he acknowledged.

"Well, let me tell you something, cowboy," she leaned closer to him, dropping her voice to a much more competitive tone,

"This is Quidditch. You may be a part of Hufflepuff, but when it comes to the House Cup, there's no such thing as fairplay. So don't even try sweet-talking me. It won't work."

"Well, then I'm sure I will have no idea what to do and you can make fun of me." He replied, enjoying himself.

"You're not playing this right!" She exclaimed in frustration, staring at him as if she had never quite seen the likes of him before.

"Well, that's certainly not my intention. I'll try harder next time," he said tauntingly.
"I will break you," she threatened, fists clenched.

Unfortunately, Madam Geralyn walked in at that same moment. She swept Maya away, muttering about the dangers of Quidditch rivalry. Maya did not argue but as she walked towards the oak doors, she looked back at the Friar boy.

He lifted his only functional arm up as best as he could. "Well, if that's what makes you happy," he brought his fingers to together to represent his hat, "then I certainly can't wait for it," he tipped his head down, "ma'am," he winced in pain but managed to smile back at her, only amusement touching his eyes.

She shuddered in apparent disgust but as she exited the wing, she caught herself smiling ever so slightly.

He stared after her with a dazed expression. He wasn't quite sure what had been more addled from his encounter with her; his head – or his heart.

a/n: wooh! this is the first lucaya fic i've written in over a month. it was a ton of fun writing it and i'm fairly pleased with how it turned out. special thanks to friarhart for giving me the au idea!

lemme know what you guys think so far! if you guys like it, i may continue on it with other quidditch au's! i'm considering a slytherin seeker!maya and hufflepuff/gryffindor seeker!lucas.