It feels like I haven't written in ages, and I'm not so sure how I've done with this one. But it felt great to get something out anyway.
The characters aren't mine, the setting isn't mine either. I'm just experimenting with the plot.
Title: (And while you're searching ponder this) We've taken what you'll sorely miss
Summary: The trials and tribulations of Hogwarts' Triwizard champion Lucas Friar before, during, and after the second task.
Or, a Maya and Lucas Hogwarts AU
*Set in Hogwarts, during 6th year, in February.
It's the morning of the second task, and Maya is nowhere to be found. Lucas has gone from angry to upset to seriously concerned.
It's bad enough they've been at odds since the Yule Ball, where he accused her of fraternizing with the enemy after she went to the dance with Josh Matthews. (Josh may be Riley's uncle, but he is after all from a competing school, and Lucas's rival in the Triwizard Tournament.) (Okay, he might have overreacted to the extent of going too full-on-Riley on that one.)
But despite the increased friction between them over the past couple of months, they've still hung out together with their friends as per usual, studied together, had their meals together (no one really pays much mind to sitting strictly at their house tables anymore), and only separated at the end of the day to sleep in their own house dorms.
Until their stupid fight three days ago. And now, she clearly doesn't intend to come and support him as he participates in whatever life-threatening activity he has to complete as part of the second task. Lucas has never felt so angry and miserable in his entire life.
He could have never imagined that Maya — his best friend in the whole world (don't tell Zay!) — would skip being there for him altogether on this most important day at this most important time in one of his most stressful years at Hogwarts. (He's lucky they got done with their OWLs last year, and don't have to give the NEWTs until next year, because with Quidditch practice, preparing for the Triwizard Tournament tasks, and the piles of homework the teachers keep heaping upon them, Merlin's underpants, he barely has time to sleep!)
Farkle and Smackle have helped him prepare for the second task. (Lucas knows he's supposed to work out the clue on his own. But the instant he pried the egg open at Zay's suggestion at his winning-the-first-task victory party, and the loud and screechy wailing filled the Gryffindor common room, Smackle immediately got a look in her eye that told him she knew exactly what was going on with the egg.
Smackle has no qualms about helping him. The only reason she isn't competing herself is because she's a few months too young to be allowed. The age restriction imposed twenty years ago still stands, and Headmaster Feeny refused to let anyone who isn't over the wizarding age of majority (seventeen years old) put their name in the Goblet of Fire. Which meant practically no one other than the seventh years and Lucas, who had repeated a year after being expelled from his previous school.
What's more, this year onwards, the tournament is "Tri-wizard" only in name. After complaints from the other wizarding schools around the world about not being included in the friendly competition between Hogwarts, Durmstrang, and Beauxbatons, there are a total of eight champions competing. Which means the honour and glory of winning the competition are significantly higher.
And so, incensed at not being allowed to participate due to some silly age restriction despite being the brightest young witch to attend Hogwarts since Hermione Granger, Isadora has made it her personal mission to... ignore some rules and mentor Lucas into winning the Triwizard Tournament. Besides, it's not as if the other contestants haven't received help from their fellow schoolmates or even their accompanying headmasters or headmistresses.)
At Smackle's suggestion, Lucas listened to the golden egg underwater while taking a bath in the Quidditch captains' bathroom. (Thankfully, she didn't insist on being present for that!) When he discussed the Merpeople's song with her and Farkle, they deduced that he has to retrieve something indispensable from the Hogwarts lake.
After a few days in the library — which is practically Smackle and Farkle's second home, so it doesn't look suspicious that they spend all of their time there while Lucas just happens to be a few desks away, doing his own research — he and the two geniuses compiled a list of magical methods and charms that would allow him to survive for an hour underwater. There's gillyweed, partial transfiguration, the bubble-head charm, assorted scuba spells, and even a Muggle scuba diving suit. "Do not underestimate the power of Muggle technology," Smackle had said. "And most wizards' inability to understand how it works."
They'd settled on Lucas using the gillyweed as it gives him full mobility underwater, though Smackle insists he should be proficient with at least two of the other methods, just in case he needs to use them. Since gillyweed is extremely hard to come by, Lucas begged some off Professor Neville Longbottom before any of the other champions had the same idea, and stored it away safely for use on the day of the second task. He can't practice with it, but he has been reading up all about it and its effects. He has also practiced a couple of the other spells over the last month, so he feels reasonably well prepared.
Still, it's a mammoth task, difficult and fraught with risk. Anything could go wrong. There are creatures in the lake apart from the giant squid that aren't as friendly, and far more dangerous. Not to mention, the champions from the other schools are extremely gifted and talented, so he has tough competition. He needs to be focused, and not let any stray thoughts and worries affect his state of mind.
But now he and Maya have fought — over Josh Matthews again. She hasn't said a word to him in three days, which translated to three sleepless nights of anger and hurt for him. Neither she nor Riley showed up for breakfast, which made him worry, because he knows Maya only skips meals if she's lost to the world while painting or if she's seriously upset about something, and right now, it's not the former. Then Zay reported that she didn't turn up for their morning herbology class. Maya never misses herbology; it's one of her favourite subjects, and like half the school, she has a crush on Professor Longbottom.
Lucas knows she's mad at him, but is she really that mad at him? Or what if it's not even him? What if something else has happened to Maya, something she hasn't told him about because they're not talking to each other, and now she's upset, and has only Riley to comfort her?
Riley may be her best friend, but Maya has admitted sometimes their sunshine-and-rainbows friend just doesn't understand when she is going through a difficult time. She and Lucas joke that it's why she keeps him around, because he does.
What if Maya needs him right now, but they're fighting and he's being a git, and she has to deal with whatever's bothering her all by herself, without him by her side? The thought makes his gut churn unhappily.
Lucas doesn't know why his friendship with Maya has become so rocky this year. He can't seem to do anything right, and she has been unusually impatient and snappy with him. In fact, looking back, he wonders if it's because he became Hogwarts' Triwizard champion and the dangers involved, because they've been on edge with each other ever since his name shot out of the Goblet of Fire.
He supposes he may have let the pride at being named Hogwarts champion and the attention from the whole school get to his head a bit. But surely he hasn't been that bad. Certainly nowhere near as bad as Josh Matthews, who has been strutting around Hogwarts like he owns it despite being from Ilvermorny, being over-friendly with the teachers just because he's Professor Matthews' brother, and cozying up to Maya at every opportunity.
A sudden image pops into his head of the other day, of Maya giggling when Josh stopped by the Hufflepuff table and bent close to say something to her — which was ridiculously unnecessary, because it's not like Maya is deaf and can't hear him at a regular distance. She had that smile on her face for the rest of the day, and it had only disappeared when Lucas goaded her into a fight over some silly pretext he can't even remember now.
He groans at his own stupidity, and tries to think of something else, because he can't bear the thought of Maya unhappy because of him.
Part of his mind is still on the task, especially the merpeople's song in the golden egg:
Come seek us where our voices sound,
We cannot sing above the ground,
And while you're searching ponder this;
We've taken what you'll sorely miss,
An hour long you'll have to look,
And to recover what we took,
But past an hour, the prospect's black,
Too late, it's gone, it won't come back.
He has tried to think of what he will sorely miss, and checked whether any of his belongings are missing. But everything seems to be in its place. And he can't pinpoint what the tournament organizers will deem his prized possession. Maybe his broomstick, the latest Firebolt Supreme? It's definitely a very valuable possession, (not to mention it's hideously expensive — the only reason he owns one is because Pappy Joe gave it to him for getting nothing less than Exceeds Expectations on all his O.W.L.s). But important as it is to him as a Quidditch player, he doesn't think it qualifies as irreplaceable.
It worries him, because the lines say if he can't retrieve this item in the given hour, it'll be lost to him forever. What does he have that he will miss the most and can't live without? The thought that he doesn't know what's most important to him makes him feel guilty, because if he can't even identify what it is, does he even deserve to have it? He obviously doesn't appreciate this thing very much, and that adds to his worry and guilt. What could it be?
He ponders and ponders the question, alternating with wondering about Maya's whereabouts even as he begins to make his way down to the Black Lake for the second task, keeping an eye out for a distinctive golden head. Zay, Smackle, and Farkle accompany him, the latter looking unhappy because Riley is nowhere to be found too.
It's only when Lucas reaches the shore of the lake — where the other champions are gathering, and the stands set up for the audience are rapidly filling with people — do the two questions merge and a horrifying possibility occurs to him. A horrifying possibility that turns into terrifying certainty when he looks around wildly and meets Professor Matthews' eye. His teacher looks at him gravely, and nods, as if he can read Lucas's mind and can hear his unvoiced question.
Maya is the thing he'll miss the most. Maya is irreplaceable, and she's missing, and she's somewhere in the lake, and he has to get her back or he'll lose her forever. The sheer panic and fear that fills him at the thought is enough to turn his legs to jelly. He can't live without her, he doesn't even want to imagine his life without her.
When the whistle blows, Lucas stuffs the gillyweed into his mouth and is the first one in the water.
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
They surface somewhere in the middle of the lake, far away enough from the shore with the stands that the people are tiny as ants, and their shouting and screaming is faint in the distance.
Lucas barely glances at his surroundings — his entire attention is focused on Maya, and he frantically checks to see if she's alright after being underwater for so long. She opens her eyes and coughs out water, batting his hands away. She shoves her sodden blonde hair out of her face, before looking around to get her bearings.
"Huckleberry?"
She looks confused to see him. Hadn't she expected him to rescue her? Or maybe, he thinks, heart sinking, she'd expected someone else. Maybe she'd hoped it was Josh who saved her.
"Are you alright?"
The fact that she asks him the question, instead of the other way round, makes him goggle at her in disbelief. "Of course I'm alright! I'm not the one who was underwater for Merlin knows how long, and in danger!"
"And what about the others?" she demands. "Did you just leave them all down there?"
It feels as if a grindylow has grabbed hold of his ankle and yanked him underwater. His heart stops. "Some of the other champions were already arriving— Maya, I thought— I— I—"
"Lucas, relax!" She puts her hands on his cheek, and forces him to look at her, wincing at her poorly-timed joke because he looks like he's literally having a heart attack. "I was just joking, okay? Calm down!"
"Maya!" He wheezes in indignation, almost swallowing water.
She laughs. "Huckleberry, you didn't take that past-an-hour-it-won't-come-back bit of the song seriously, did you? They wouldn't have let any of us hostages drown!"
Lucas opens his mouth to argue, and shuts it again. Oh. Boy, does he feel stupid.
"N-no," he sputters. "Of course I knew that!"
Which is a lie, of course, but he's not going to tell her how shaken he was at the thought that she could have come to some harm. Or that he wasn't even thinking about the competition or the other hostages during his mad dash to the merpeople's village to get to her, and he'd left his opponents miles behind.
But obviously his feelings for her are transparent, because her smile fades and her eyes widen in realization. "Oh."
An awkward silence descends upon them and they just stare at each other, unsure of what to do now. Lucas feels his ears go red, and if he's not wrong, Maya is blushing too, her cheeks are a little pink. (Though that could be because the lake water is icy cold.)
He realizes he is still holding her, and he should probably let her go. But he finds he doesn't want to. He likes having his arms around her as they tread water.
Caught up in each other, neither of them notice they have company until Zay's magically amplified voice booms out loudly just above their heads, making them jump.
"It's Maya and Lucas!" he announces excitedly as he hovers ten feet above them on his broom, his megaphone voice floating out all the way to the stands. "They're just starin' at each other not sayin' nothin'!"
Maya yelps in alarm. Before Lucas can even blink, her wand is in her hand. The next second, Zay topples off the broom and plunges into the lake with a shriek. There is a distant gale of laughter, and no doubt the spectators now have their eyes glued to their omnioculars and are looking avidly in their direction.
Zay emerges from the lake just as two more heads break the surface some distance away. Josh shakes his head to get rid of the water while Riley blinks in the bright light.
"Peaches! Lucas!" she waves at them, squinting through her hair, which is plastered to her head. "Zay, what are you doing here?"
Even from this distance, Lucas can see the way Josh's face turns stony when he spots him. Then he says something to Riley, and turns and begins swimming towards the shore.
"See you later! And good luck, Lucas!" Riley calls before following Josh.
Lucas smacks his palm to his forehead. "We're not done with the task yet! We have to get to shore before them!"
But Maya has had enough of staying in the lake's freezing waters. "Accio broom!"
Lucas and Zay gape in admiration.
"Maya, that's brilliant!" Lucas says, imagining the look on Josh's face as they zoom past him. "We'll be back on the shore in no time!"
"It's not going to go very fast, not with three waterlogged people on it," Zay warns, his voice back to normal decibel levels.
But Lucas should have known Maya would make him pay in the most inventive and exasperating way possible for the fight he started with her.
"Nuh-uh Huckleberry, no cheating. You gotta do this the proper way," she says as she pulls herself onto the broom, streaming water.
"Maya," he protests, because now is not the time—
She leans down and plants a kiss on his cheek, which surprises him so much he almost forgets to keep his legs moving to stay afloat. There's another roar of people shouting and cheering in the distance, and this time it's a lot louder.
"Good luck!"
"Hey!" Zay yells after her as she zooms off. "What about me, why don't I get a ride? Or a kiss for good luck!"
Maya doesn't even bother to look back, just makes a rude hand gesture.
The two boys in the water watch as she reaches Josh and Riley, and brings the broom to a stop. For a second, Lucas feels a wave of angry astonishment rise through him. Then he realizes it's not Josh she's helping up behind her on the broom, it's Riley.
He bursts out laughing even as Josh's loud protests float back over the water to him.
"Come on," he says to a grumbling Zay as he strikes out over the water, happiness and adrenaline surging through him. "I've still gotta win this task!"
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
Lucas makes it to shore barely ten feet ahead of Josh. He drags himself out and collapses on the muddy bank. He's immediately pounced upon by Madam Bolander, who pulls him over to one side and wraps a blanket around him tightly. She forces a large dose of very hot Pepperup potion down his throat that makes steam gush out of his ears. It's only then that his pounding heart slows enough to allow him to take in his surroundings.
All around him is complete chaos and uproar.
All the wizarding schools' headmasters and headmistresses are gathered at the edge of the lake, arguing loudly with the tournament organizers. The merpeople's chieftainess's screechy speech adds to the general cacophony.
He can see Smackle helping Zay out of the water, and Farkle with his arms wrapped tight around a soaking Riley. He cranes his neck, looking for Maya, when another warm blanket falls on his head and she appears from behind him.
"Congrats Huckleberry, you're the first Triwizard champion out." She points her wand at him, releasing a blast of hot air that immediately makes him feel warm and toasty.
He towels his hair dry, quickly running his eye over her. She has already dried herself off, and her hair is once again a wild golden cascade falling around her shoulders. There are no signs that she spent several hours underwater, essentially in a coma-like state.
"What's going on over there?" he asks, nodding to the huddle of school principals.
"Oh, the headmasters and headmistresses of the other schools want to disqualify you and Josh because your hostages got back before you did. They say it doesn't qualify as a rescue."
"What!?"
Maya shrugs.
"That's not fair!" Lucas says hotly. "You stole a broom and flew off without me!"
"It's not my fault you're too dumb to think of it first, Sundance!" she retorts.
Before they can continue their argument, however, Headmaster Feeny, having used the Sonorous charm, clears his throat loudly to silence the audience.
"Ladies, gentlemen, and other beings. The judges have reached their decision. There were some questions about the validity of Mr. Friar and Mr. Matthews completing this task first and second respectively, owing to the fact that their hostages returned before them. But Merchieftainess Murcus and the hostages themselves have informed us that Mr. Friar was most concerned with Ms. Hart and Ms. Matthews' safety after being submerged in the lake for so long, and urged them to return soonest possible while the two champions and their unfortunately soaked friend, Mr. Babineaux, followed."
Lucas notices the other headmasters and headmistresses glaring at him, and hastily wipes the surprise from his face, pretending that had indeed been the case all along.
"Since Mr. Friar was the first champion to return, and skilfully demonstrated the use of gillyweed, he wins the task with one hundred points."
The crowd erupts in a roar, drowning out the rest of Feeny's words, announcing Josh has come second with ninety points. Lucas doesn't care. He decides he's going to talk to Headmaster Feeny as soon as possible and find out what Merchieftainess Murcus would like for Christmas (did merpeople even celebrate Christmas? He must ask Smackle), because he figures he owes her a pretty big gift.
Feeny continues to announce the other schools' champions' points, but barely anyone is listening.
Zay comes over and slings his arms around both Maya and Lucas, pulling them into a tight group hug that Farkle, Riley, and even Smackle join in. Their other friends, classmates, and the rest of the school press around them, a screaming mass of people jumping up and down excitedly. Maya is practically plastered to Lucas's side, and it makes him go hot under his newly dried collar to feel her so close to him.
People are already screaming about another victory party, with some of them discussing loudly — and rather unwisely, as there are several professors around — about finding some firewhisky.
It's half an hour before the crowd of well-wishers dissipates, leaving Lucas with just his friends. Smackle looks completely ruffled after being squished at the centre of a massive group hug, and Farkle is already making noises about Riley "catching a cold after being in the lake for so long" and "must drink soup", and so the three of them start off back to the castle.
Before Lucas and Maya can follow, Zay turns to them, grinning like a maniac.
"So," he says gleefully to Maya, "You're his irreplaceable thing that he'll sorely miss if lost forever, eh? Who'd have guessed, eh? Oh, certainly not me, who's only known for the last five and a half years!"
He lets out an evil cackle — obviously pleased at getting his revenge against the both of them for dropping him in the lake, appropriating his broomstick, and then making him swim all the way back — and walks off, leaving Lucas with a flaming face and awkwardly avoiding eye contact with an obviously startled Maya.
But he can't duck out of this conversation, because Maya clears her throat. He raises his head to find her looking at him expectantly.
"Well, Huckleberry?"
He blurts out the first thing that comes to his mind. "Er, do you want to go to Hogsmeade with me this weekend?"
"As friends? Or as the thing you'll most miss and—"
"You're making fun of me," he complains, when he sees her biting back a smile.
"When am I not making fun of you?" she returns, but there's a look in her eyes that gets his heart pounding.
But— "What about Josh?"
Maya crosses her arms across her chest. "What about Josh?"
"You don't want to go with him?"
"Do you want me to go with him?"
"No!" It comes out with a bit more vehemence than he intended, but he absolutely does not want her to go with Riley's uncle. Or anyone else.
"Don't you think, if I wanted to, I'd have gone with him already?" She says, with the air of someone really holding on to their patience.
He'd be wise not to test it. "So you'll go with me? Like— like on a date?"
"As long as you don't take me to that frilly pink monstrosity of a place."
"Frilly pink monstrosity— oh, you mean Madam Puddifoot's." He swallows a laugh. "No, I was thinking we could watch a movie at the Wizarding Theatre, and put our hands in the popcorn at the same time in the dark, and see what happens."
He's rewarded with a heart-stopping, mischievous grin.
"Well, well. There's still some hope for you, Huckleberry."
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
They end up getting detention for the rest of the term, after they lose track of time while making out in the Shrieking Shack on their Hogsmeade date and fail to return by curfew, forcing the teachers to send out a search party for them. It also earns them a two-hour lecture from an apoplectic Professor Matthews, and howlers from their parents. But they both agree it was worth it.
-fin-
I didn't specify houses — other than hinting that they're all in different ones — because it didn't really have any bearing on the plot. But I think they'd be sorted as:
Lucas — Gryffindor,
Maya & Zay — Hufflepuff,
Farkle & Riley — Ravenclaw,
Smackle — Slytherin.
Josh Matthews is a 7th year Ilvermorny student, instead of a sophomore in Wizarding College. Madam Bolander in this fic is Dean Lila Bolander from Boy Meets World, who marries Mr. Feeny at the end of season 6.
Thanks for reading! Leave a review to let me know what you think!