A/N: What's up, guys? New chapter today, so I hope you enjoy! The story may feel kind of slow right now, but it'll go a lot faster once I finish up with all of the introduction stuff and they actually begin school.
When Maya woke up again, the train was just rumbling back to life. Outside the window, the sky was deepening in preparation for sunset, and the entire train compartment was aglow from the warm yellow lights overhead. Maya noted (with relief) that the temperature had gone up at least ten degrees, and she could at least sit up without shivering violently. Lucas' gray sweatshirt was still draped haphazardly over her shoulders, but it's owner was nowhere in sight. Maya looked around. The compartment door was open slightly, and the hubbub of excited students streamed in through the crack.
Suddenly, the compartment door opened a little bit more and Riley and Farkle came hopping in.
"Peaches! You're awake!" Maya blinked at her.
"How long have I been out?"
"Around two hours or so." Farkle cut in. He offered Maya a pastry wrapped in plastic. It had an orange colored filling, and Maya assumed that it was probably one of the "Pumpkin Pasties" that Riley had raved about earlier. Apparently Hogwarts served fantastic food.
"Anyways, Lucas said that you guys had a bit of a freeze in here earlier. The trolley witch said that it was because they had to shut down parts of the air control system throughout the train to avoid noxious fumes wafting in. Crazy, huh?" Farkle seemed unnaturally excited by this phenomenon, but Maya decided not to question it. His scientific brain was probably on overdrive trying to calculate the potency of the fumes or something along the lines of that. Maya turned her attention to Riley.
"So, what have you guys been doing?" At Maya's question, Riley beamed.
"Farkle's been telling me about his father's work! Apparently, the Ministry of Magic has been passing a bunch of laws regarding..."
Ministry of Magic? Was there an entire government for these wizarding folk? Maya was astonished that the concept of magic had never become more than just a hoax throughout the years. If the magical community was so established, why had absolutely no one outside of it ever heard of it? As Maya pondered this question, the compartment door opened once again. Lucas, handsome as ever, stepped inside and shut it behind him. His mouth curved into a grin upon spotting Maya sitting up.
"You're awake!" Maya gave him a "duh" look. He shrugged. "By the death grip you had on my arm when I tried to leave the compartment, I'd assumed you'd be out for much longer."
Maya froze. To her right, Riley whirled on the blonde, the adoring smile she'd had on when Lucas had entered the compartment instantly morphing into an expression of shock and betrayal.
"Maya! You slept on his arm?!" Behind Riley, Farkle's quick gaze was flitting between Lucas and Maya and back again, as if trying to solve some complicated mystery of sorts. Lucas however, only looked confused. He took a step towards Riley, as if to placate her.
"Riley, she was cold, and I did what any well-mannered guy would do." Lucas' nonchalant reply almost made Maya wince. Couldn't he tell he was inflating the problem? Riley's angry look softened slightly at his words, but it didn't stop her from narrowing her gaze at him.
"Lucas, giving her your sweatshirt was very nice of you. But that doesn't explain why she slept on your arm!"
"What do you have against her sleeping on my arm?" Lucas looked almost incredulous at Riley's outburst, and Maya knew that she was going to have to step in soon. She stood up and put a hand on Riley's shoulder.
"Riles, why don't we talk about this outside?" She gave her friend a pleading look, and, after a few moments of intense staring, Riley nodded. As Maya led Riley towards the compartment door, she glimpsed Lucas turning to Farkle with a look of utter bewilderment. Maya shook her head. It was better if he didn't understand the entire matter quite yet. She prayed that Farkle knew better than to spill the beans.
"Maya, I thought that we agreed that he was mine!" Maya's focus snapped back to her brunette friend as soon as they had closed the sliding doors behind them. Hurt was written all over Riley's face, and the expression caused a worm of guilt to surface in Maya's stomach. She tried to shake it off.
What happened technically wasn't my fault.
She had been sleeping, and so what if her head had accidentally fallen on his shoulder, or if her hands had accidentally clutch his arm? Riley shouldn't be so sensative anyways.
But the little voice in Maya's head knew better than to be mad at her friend. Riley was young and innocent, and wasn't quite accustomed to the hardships life had to offer just yet.
She doesn't know what it was like to hurt so bad that it seemed to be the only thing you feel.
She didn't understand how much time a person could spend wondering what was so wrong about them that one of the most important people in their life could just up and leave. She didn't know what late nights alone listening to your mother cry and hearing your father's last words echo around your ears could do to a person's soul. And Maya wanted to keep it that way as long as possible.
Maya let the little guilt worm grow inside her and felt it begin to gnaw away at her heart, until she almost believed that what had happened was her fault and that it was now her job to explain the entire incident to Riley as a misunderstanding and beg forgiveness.
"Riles, I'm sorry. He's yours. What happened in the compartment was nothing more than an accident. I was cold, he sat down next to me and gave me his sweatshirt, and I fell asleep by accident. End of story. There's nothing for you to be worried about."
Riley was still frowning. "But what about the part where you were clutching his arm?"
Maya almost blew out a little sigh of frustration. As guilty as she may feel, this was a little much. Riley was fragile, sure, but this level of insecurity was somewhat unnatural. The blonde was going to have to start toughening up the girl a little. "Riley, I was asleep. People do strange things in their sleep. You told me that you always wake up hugging your stuffed animals. Lucas' arm probably seemed like a stuffed animal to Sleeping Maya."
As Maya spoke, Riley slowly began to calm down. The tears that Maya had seen her barely hold back had vanished, and the brunette seemed almost back to her bubbly self. Maya rallied in her last efforts to reassure her friend. "Riley, I have no interest in him whatsoever. He's all yours, and I'm sorry if you ever felt differently."
A tiny part of Maya wanted to argue this point just a bit; wanted to state that maybe Maya was just a little bit interested in this boy and maybe she wanted to know him just a little better. But she forced it down. It would be better not to get invested in affairs of the heart just yet. She'd already had her heart broken once. She didn't want to see the bits of it she had left get stomped on until they were nothing more than dust. Lucas would be happy with Riley, and that was the way things went. That's how they should be.
Maya could visibly see the hot air deflate out of Riley as Maya's last words of reassurance hung in the air. The brunette threw her arms around Maya, and the blonde inhaled the scent of sugary sweet and fragrant innocence.
I hope nothing bad ever happens to you, Honey.
It was another hour or so before the Hogwarts Express pulled in at Hogsmeade Station. Maya was thrumming with anticipation (something that rarely ever happened), and Riley was beside herself with excitement. Farkle stood slightly apart from the girls, face glued to the train window, and was barely holding back a look of wonder. It was no wonder why.
Hogwarts was unlike anything Maya had ever seen. With high twisting towers, gaping archways, wide, expansive grounds, and even a glittering lake, it was by far the most intricate and majestic castle Maya had ever laid eyes on. Not to mention the entire place had an almost surreal atmosphere. It was as if the castle knew that magic was in the air, and that it was the holder of secrets like none the world had ever seen before. And Maya was about to be one of the few people in the world who knew those secrets.
"Oh, Peaches, what do you think is in store for us there?" Riley's breathy whisper mirrored Maya's own awestruck state. This was going to be her home for the next seven years of her life. Her escape from the horrors of her ordinary life and the place where she would get the fresh start she desperately needed. This was the first place where Maya would finally be free.
"ALL FIRST YEARS PLEASE REPORT TO THE DOCKS!" The high-pitched voice from before once again boomed over the invisible loud-speakers. Riley and Farkle dashed full speed out of the compartment and towards the train doors, but Maya lingered. Excitement hung over her like a second robe, but with it came the overwhelming sense of paranoia.
She wasn't good enough for this. Magic and fantasy adventures were not supposed to happen to people like her. This was all just a mistake, and she would wake up tomorrow heavy with the harsh reality that she had no magic in her blood and no Riley's to depend on and no cute boys who actually paid attention to her even though she didn't want them to. She was simply a rugrat from New York who had suddenly been given princess clothes and told to rule a country.
Something was going to go wrong eventually. The teachers would find out that she had no magical talent. She was going to get expelled because of her crude behavior and inability to trust anyone. Everyone would realize that Maya Harts did not belong in the world of sunshine and rainbows and unicorns and kick her back to her ordinary broken life– only this time, she would be dragging her broken hopes behind her. She would-
"Look at that." The sound of a familiar voice behind her startled Maya out of her anxiety. Lucas.
She turned around to face him, and found him staring out at the castle beyond the glass pane in front of her. She blinked at him.
"Why are you here?" Maya knew she sounded rude, but it was odd that he hadn't followed the stream of excited students straight off the train.
"I saw you staring out the window with a blank look, and thought it'd be fun to scare you?" She gave him an incredulous look. He shrugged. "You looked kind of lonely. Thought I'd come say hi."
Maya nodded and turned back to the landscape in front of her. Lonely? Come say hi? She wasn't that pathetic, was she? Maya made it a personal goal from then on to appear as if she had experienced nothing except for what a kid her age should have. She didn't want to be pitied or mocked or be "the kid" that everyone watched out for because they felt bad.
Hogwarts was a new beginning, and she would make the most of it. She was here now, no matter how many regrets or how much paranoia she experienced. She would make the most of her stay, and enjoy as much of the "princess life" as she could until they decided she wasn't good enough. And then she would go home sadder but wiser for the experience, and never look back again.
Maya lifted her shoulders and turned to face Lucas, who was standing just inside the compartment doors. She gave him a weak smile, and then lifted her tiny trunk up with one hand and brushed past him through the doors.
Maya Hart was at Hogwarts, and they won't even know what hit them.
