Chapter One
Here we go again
Kaya sat up in her bed and ran her hands through her long black hair. Her flat was empty and quiet as it normally was (save for her boyfriend, Thomas), so her sudden lack of being able to sleep was irritating to say the least. She looked around her empty blue-and-bronze decorated room. The mirror that sat directly in front of her bed across the room was asleep and she scowled at it. That stupid mirror her Aunt had given her had kept her up many nights with its insults, but tonight that wasn't what was bothering her. Tonight she was kept up by an old problem. One she wasn't exactly happy admitting.
Tonight she was kept up by her dreams. Not the nightmares that you'd think would keep a girl up at night, but the fantasies.
She stood and moved to the large window in her room, staring out at the near-dead streets of rural London. She lived on the outskirts of the city and could see the brighter, busier streets from the front of her flat. Why are they coming back NOW? She wondered, hugging herself. Her boyfriend slept in the bed still, the only sound coming from his even breaths. She glanced over at him as she slid her slippers on. She knew that things between them were coming to an end, though. She grabbed her favorite book from the bedside table and went out into the living room, taking a seat in the large, plush, Gryffindor-red chair and flicked on the light. The soft fabric of the chair felt soothing against her exposed skin and she sighed, opening the book.
Her eyes flicked over the pages mindlessly. She'd read this story over 50 times and knew every word of it by now, so she let her mind wander to the sleeping man in her bed. She and Thomas had been together for four months, and he was already starting to drift away. That's how all her relationships had ever been. She would get together with a guy, really thinks she likes him, and then he would get busy or she would shut down and they would break up. She wouldn't care much and soon she'd date another guy for two to five months and the same thing would happen. She knew why, though. She'd always known why.
She looked to her left and stared for a moment at the picture of the Gryffindor quidditch team from her fifth year. It sat under the lamp on the end table next to the chair she sat in. The sole reason of her bad relationships and fantasies that kept her up at night stared right at her. She blushed and sighed, picking up the picture and brushing her fingertips over it. He'd given her this picture after they left Hogwarts as a good-bye present. He was off to the Puddlemere United quidditch team and she was going to work at the ministry. Chances were they would probably never see each other again. On the ride home from Hogwarts that year, after Percy and Scarlet were asleep, she cried for the first time in a long time.
She shook her head and put the picture down, smiling at it fondly with a sort of undeniable sadness and wonder in her eyes. Oh Oliver… she thought, shaking her head and laughing lightly. He'd always been able to make her smile, even when she thought no one could. She stood and turned, slipping into the kitchen quietly and starting the pot of coffee for the morning. Thomas told her he'd be leaving for work early, so she wasn't surprised when he walked downstairs already cleaned up and dressed. He looked at her in slight shock and she stared back at him blankly. There was no emotion.
"This is over, isn't it?" he asked; averting his eyes from her cold, empty blue pools. She sighed and looked back at the coffee pot.
"Goodbye, Thomas." She said as she grabbed a cup from the cabinet. Thomas never brought his things over so he had no reason to come back that night. He muttered his goodbye and left the flat, probably to never return. Most of the day went by quickly. The normal shower, dress, coffee, muffin on the way to work, then just sitting in her office doing paperwork all day; or so she thought.
What she didn't expect to happen that day was for a certain Puddlemere United keeper to show up at her office door looking rather distraught with a paper in his hands. She looked at him for a moment, probably too long because he gave her an odd look, despite his already worried expression. She cleared her throat and looked back to the papers, hoping she didn't blush too badly. "Come in, Mr. Wood." He walked in and closed the door, quickly crossing to her desk and taking a seat in front of her. She looked up over her glasses at him and he was eyeing the paper in his hands again. "Well are you going to tell me what's wrong or just sit there all bloody afternoon?" He looked up at her as if he was shocked at her statement.
"Right." He handed her the paper and frowned. "It's just that one of the Puddlemere players got hurt and somehow they think it's my fault and-"
"This is faulty, Mr. Wood." Kaya said after only moments of looking at the paper. He looked up and blinked in shock, his jaw agape slightly. She smiled a bit and reached into her desk, pulling out a real document that looked nearly exactly the same as his. "Here," she walked over to him and crouched over his back, her chest barely making contact with his upper back as she pointed to the real document. "You see how the ink on this document is a dark navy blue compared to the black of yours? It's something the ministry does to keep fakes out of our system. And also," she flipped the paper over and pointed at the faint seal that could barely be seen on the real copy that wasn't on the fake, "we seal our documents here, Mr. Wood." She stood and smiled down at him, though the smile was a bit forced. "You have nothing to worry about, except maybe someone trying to psych you out before your big game tomorrow night."
Oliver nodded and scowled as if he knew exactly who'd done it. Kaya moved around her desk and sat down, crossing her legs beneath the smooth mahogany and looked back to her previous paperwork. She was about to say something further to him when he stood. "Miss Westly, would you come to my game tomorrow night?" he asked her rather bluntly and for a moment, she couldn't say anything. She looked up at him with her mind and heart swimming with questions, but kept her expression neutral. Quickly and silently as always, she pulled out a piece of parchment, wrote her flat address on it, and handed it to him.
"Send me a ticket, Oliver." She smiled faintly at him and he grinned, nodding once before turning to leave. He stopped at her door, one hand on the handle.
"It was nice to see you again, Ky." He said, using her old nickname. She blushed but he was already out the door and for that, she was glad. Here we go again.