A/N: Hello guys! Sorry for the wait, but Chapter 10 is finally here! Woohoo! This one's pretty long, so I hope you guys like :). The next couple chapters are probably gonna include several time-skips, since it's a bit difficult to develop the relationships with them being so young. This is most likely the last chapter where they are still first-years. Anyways, things are picking up, so stay tuned!
Also, a huge shoutout to everyone who has reviewed so far! Your comments are all incredibly motivating, and I'm so grateful for your words of encouragement! And, again, I'm still open to suggestions regarding who to pair Riley off with, so...
The weeks after her little mishap with Lucas Friar passed by rather quickly, to Maya's great surprise. Things fell into a rhythm at Hogwarts- classes, meals, homework, repeat. She had a friend-group: her, Riley, and Farkle, mostly, although Lucas sometimes popped in to talk, or to make fun of Maya (much to her great annoyance). They hung out before and after classes, or out in the Hogwarts yard on weekends, and Maya had to admit that letting people in wasn't so bad if Riley and Farkle and, yeah, maybe even Lucas, were the people in question.
Trust. She was starting to trust them. And, for the first time, the notion wasn't that terrifying.
Before she knew it, Maya had already survived the brunt of her first semester at Hogwarts. Winter vacation was a week away, and the entire population of Hogwarts was bustling about, packing their bags for the holidays, exchanging early Christmas presents, and playing around with the intriguing magical decorations the staff had set about the Hogwarts' grounds. Caught up in the excitement, Maya barely remembered the fact that having a holiday meant that she needed a holiday plan, until a letter arrived through owl mail (Maya was still wrapping her mind around the entire owl mail thing) from her mother the eve before vacations were scheduled to begin. It read:
Babygirl,
The magic and spells and whatnot you described in your last letter sound unbelievable! I'm simply amazed that we normal people haven't yet figured out that all of this witchcraft is hiding right under our noses! Anyhow, I'm glad to hear that you're having fun and all sorts of adventures at your new school- I know school and making friends have never been up your alley, so I can't even describe how proud of you I am for working through that!
Now, since you and I both know that I'm not the kind of mother who just writes letters to her daughter for no purpose, there is a real reason why I'm writing you. I know your holiday break must be coming up, and that you were probably assuming that you would spend your time off at home. I'm sorry sweetheart, but I just don't think I'm going to be able to make that happen. We've been in a pretty rough financial situation for the past few months- I was laid off my second job, and the rent for our apartment rose. I'm afraid we simply don't have the funds to fly you all the way back to New York. Is it alright if you stay at Hogwarts for Christmas and New Years? I'm sure at least one of your new friends must also be staying behind, so it might even be a fun experience :). I'll let you know as soon as I can when I manage to pick up another part-time job, and I'm sure we'll be able to get you home for the summer holiday without a hitch.
Hugs and Kisses,
Mom
Maya, in fact, had been planning on spending her Christmas break back in New York. She had missed her mom, and her old hangouts around the city, and there really wasn't anything quite like driving out to watch the Big Apple drop in New York City at the turn of the new year. It had been a tradition of the Harts since as far back as Maya could remember- back before her father had left.
Except that now the tradition would be broken, because one half of the Hart clan (aka Maya) would not be there to enjoy it.
Maya had read and reread the Katy Hart's letter several times before the information fully sunk in. At eleven years old, she was being left to the wolves for her holiday vacation. What would she even do at Hogwarts while everyone else was away? Riley would be flying back to America to be with her parents and younger brother- Maya knew that the Matthews were a close-knit family, and that it had been tough on them to have their oldest child out of the nest so soon. Farkle, as well, was leaving for a Muggle science camp or something and would not be around- yes, his family was actually shipping their kid off for more education during his winter holiday. Maya didn't know what Lucas' plans were, but she didn't particularly care to find them out- after all, Maya and Lucas were not close.
They were not supposed to be close.
So, if Lucas also had some great, fantastic holiday agenda planned, Maya didn't need to know. And if he, like her, was stuck at Hogwarts over Christmas, well, that also didn't matter. It wasn't like she'd spend time with him if he stayed behind anyways.
In the months since their acclimation to the Hogwarts lifestyle, Riley and Maya had gotten closer than ever. The two girls just clicked- their personalities, while complete opposites, came together to form a bond that few first years at the school could claim to have developed.
However, as near as Riley and Maya drew, just as strong was the budding "something" between Riley and Lucas. By this point, almost half of the school was aware of Riley's schoolgirl crush on the Texan. It was very clear that they would be extremely compatible, with Riley's sweet nature and Lucas' chivalrous manner. Theirs was a fairytale relationship waiting to happen- and Maya, along with everyone else, sat in tense anticipation for the day when one of them (dunceheads that they were) would say something, or make a move.
Because one of them would make a move.
To Maya, the move should already have happened. It should have been made by Lucas, at some remote spot in the courtyard or hallways, and he should have asked Riley out, and she should have said yes, and the entire issue should have already been resolved. Even though they were only eleven years old (and, to most people, far too young for lasting romantic relationships), Maya was anxious that Riley and Lucas fall into their places next to each other.
Because the sooner they got together, the sooner Maya could stop worrying so much about staying away from Lucas.
The second most obvious thing about Lucas and Riley, next to the fact that they were meant to be, was how insecure Riley was about Lucas' feelings towards her. Riley was always fretting about what he thought of her clothes (even though all they ever wore were robes...), or what she said, or how she acted. Frankly, Maya thought this behavior was pointless, since Riley was perfect just the way she was and if Lucas couldn't see that then he deserved to burn in the fiery depths of purgatory, but it was impossible to convince Riley to believe in herself.
Yet, the fretting Maya could handle.
It was the jealousy that went hand in hand with the fretting that gave the blonde cause for worry.
Because, as of now, the biggest source of jealousy for Riley over Lucas was Maya.
Maya had always made an effort to stay away from Lucas. Even from the first few days when they'd all just met each other, the blonde had known, as clearly as she knew her own name, that Maya+Lucas was not a relationship that she could permit to get very far if Riley+Maya was a relationship she wanted to save.
Inverse relationship, even though Maya wasn't an expert at math. As one bond strengthened, the other had to weaken. And right now, the bond Maya prioritized was Riley+Maya.
However, as they got to know each other better, Lucas and Maya's relationship had slowly expanded, much to her chagrin. Their "common room study sessions only" interactions turned into casual conversations in the hallway, or eating side by side at the Gryffindor table for dinner, or walking together between the classes they shared. Both of them knew these were only acts of friendship. After all, Maya would never betray Riley, and Lucas, well, Lucas would never be interested in Maya.
The problem was getting Riley to trust all of it.
Maya and Riley were one of those duos who rarely, if ever, fought. Throughout the course of their four month friendship they had had exactly two half-argument things. And both of them had been over Maya's budding friendship with Lucas.
They went something like this:
Riley: "Peaches, have you seen Lucas at all today?"
Maya: "Um, we ate breakfast together in the dining hall. Other than that, no. How come?"
Riley: "Oh, nothing. I was just wondering. How was your breakfast?"
Maya: *insert shrug* "It was breakfast. I ate a waffle. He ate something healthy like he always does. I made him eat a waffle too because it's a crime to eat breakfast without at least one unhealthy item. Nothing out of the ordinary."
Riley: "He always eats something healthy? Do you guys have breakfast together often?"
Maya: "A couple times a week?"
Riley: "Really? I always thought neither of you ate breakfast, since you're never in the dining hall when Farkle and I are there."
Maya: "Oh, both of us get up really late. We're usually the last people left eating."
Riley: "That sounds nice."
Maya: "Um, when we aren't late to classes, I guess."
Riley: "Maybe I'll join you one of these days."
Maya: "Okay. Sure. That would be fun."
Riley: "Okay."
...
Riley: "You and Lucas seem to be spending a lot of time together."
Maya: "We're friends, Riley. That's it."
Riley: "Are you sure?"
Maya: "Yes. Besides, it's not like I would ever be interested in his howdy-towty southern ways. He's annoying."
Riley: "No he's not!"
Maya: "Uh, have you heard him talk?"
And so on and so forth Maya would steer the conversation towards safer territory, such as making fun of Lucas or something equally cheerful.
Maya was terrified that these small, not-even-arguments would escalate into actual skirmishes that could terminate her relationship was Riley. She didn't blame Riley for initiating them- after all, Maya herself was a pretty territorial person, and she had went bull-dog on several of the guys who had tried to make a move on her mother in the years since her father had left. Maya understood that Riley was navigating the world of crushes and teenage drama for the first time in her life, and, while Maya herself was just as new to the entire "girl-likes-boy-now-everyone-has-to-deal-with-the-stress-of-girl-liking-boy" thing, it wasn't Riley's fault that she was bothered when another girl, even her best friend, was spending one-on-one time with her future BF.
Which brought everything back full circle to the issue of holiday break.
And how, no matter what Lucas' plans were, Maya was not to be a part of them.
It appeared that Maya was one of those special chosen people in the world whose plans just never, ever worked out.
Lucas, not-that-Maya-cared, stayed behind at Hogwarts over vacation as well- something about airlines not lining up or his family visiting relatives elsewhere. That was fine. He would chill with his popular, other friends and Maya could hunker down for a beautiful, wonderful week of holiday food binging, spell practicing, and sleeping.
Alone.
Away from him.
Except her holiday vacation ended up like this instead:
Day 1:
Lucas is in the dining room when Maya walks in at 10 AM. He turns towards her upon hearing her footsteps, which forces her to abandon her plan of walking out without acknowledging him and eating later when he left. Maya sits near him, because they always sat near each other for breakfast during the school weeks and it would be awkward if she suddenly started avoiding him (but school weeks were acceptable because other people were around, and now there were no other people around since apparently everyone got up wicked early on holiday mornings). Conversation ensues, in which Lucas somehow manages to rope Maya into spending the day playing wizards chess with him and Zay in the library.
Operation Stay-Away-From-Lucas: Fail.
Day 2:
Maya's guilty conscience is eating away at her soul due to the failures of Day 1, and in order to prevent the all-consuming darkness from burying her in a pit of self-loathing, she skips breakfast and avoids the library. However, as she is leaving the Gryffindor common room for a late lunch, she is promptly stopped by Lucas who was picking something up from his dorm room, and dragged off to the library for more Lucas-Zay-Maya time.
Operation Stay-Away-From-Lucas: Another fail.
Day 3:
Maya refuses to skip breakfast like a ninny, and decides that it doesn't really matter that much if she sees Lucas, or talks to him, or even if she hangs out with him and plays chess with him.
She was allowed to enjoy herself, and she wasn't going to her starve simply because he existed.
To spare her conscience, however, she goes to breakfast earlier (9 AM), and, to her surprise, is greeted by a pleasantly sparse Gryffindor table with no annoying Texans in sight. She relaxes and takes her time pigging out on the feast laid before her (she never realized how fantastic Hogwarts' breakfast was since she missed it yesterday),
Sadly, she takes too much time and Lucas Friar pops into the dining room at 9:30 AM and convinces her she has to help him crush Zay's sorry face in some new card game they had started up.
Operation Stay-Away-From-Lucas: This was seriously getting tiring.
On the bright side, Zay lost by a tremendous margin, so it was kinda worth it.
Day 4:
Maya just heads to the library after breakfast and saves both her and Lucas the trouble.
Operation Stay-Away-From-Lucas: Officially abandoned.
Days 5, 6, and every other day:
Maya chills with Lucas and Zay and manages to convince her conscience that since Zay has been with her and Lucas the entire time, she was not technically betraying Riley.
However, on the last day before classes were to begin once more, while the three of them lounged around lazily in the common room (the library was closed to students at the time due to a bit of mild flooding that had occurred near the Restricted section), Zay left for the restroom, leaving Maya and Lucas alone.
"You know, Maya," Lucas began, "this has been a surprisingly fun vacation, considering my folks abandoned me here to rot for a week."
"Yeah, it was better than I expected," Maya replied.
Lucas gave her a grin then, and said something she wasn't quite expecting. "We should do this more often."
Maya eyed him suspiciously. "Do what?"
"Like, hang out. You, me, and Zay."
Maya's breach-of-girl-code alarm bells immediately went off. Nope. Nope nope nope. She was flattered that Lucas had enjoyed her company enough to ask for more of it, but she was having a hard enough time justifying to herself that spending all of holiday break with him was not a crime worthy of capital punishment.
Spending time with him beyond holiday break? Yeah, not going to happen. She wasn't in the mood to fling Riley+Maya out the window.
She could already picture Riley's face at the notion that Lucas, Zay, and Maya were hanging out regularly, separete from the rest of their friend group.
It wasn't a pretty picture.
Maya did her best to throw Lucas off of his current thought process.
"Yeah, maybe," she said offhandedly, her eyes not exactly averting from his, but also not meeting his.
If I don't make it a big deal, maybe he'll forget and move on. Please just drop the subject, Ranger Rick. I would prefer to end my vacation off on a pleasant note...
Naturally, he wasn't that obliging. Lucas, taking her neutrality for acquiescence, continued his train of thought excitedly. "We should set up weekly meetings, or something. Maybe every Wednesday afternoon we could get together in the library and play chess, or that poker thing Zay keeps going on about, or whatever other games there are. It'll be fun. You and Zay are both free on Wednesday's, right?"
Maya again shrugged noncommittally. "I don't know. I'll have to check."
Lucas continued to blabber on for a few more seconds, and Maya slowly tuned him out, focusing on picking a piece of lint off of her robe and praying that he would move onto safer conversation topics. Suddenly, he stopped talking altogether. She looked up and saw that he was staring at her.
"You're not even listening to me, are you?" Crap.
"No, of course I am!" She cursed herself for allowing her vacancy to show so obviously. Five years of not paying attention in school classes should have given her enough practice to not get caught in the act.
"Then what did I say?" Lucas pressed.
Of course he pressed.
Maya scrambled to her feet. "Um... Hey, haven't you noticed that Zay's been gone for quite a long time now? Maybe we should go look for him?"
She started for the door, ready to make a quick exit, but was abruptly pulled back into her chair by the sleeve of her robe.
"Maya, that was the absolute worst attempt at a getaway I have ever witnessed." He looked amused, but also annoyed. When he was satisfied she wasn't going to try to run again, he released her sleeve.
"Okay, fine," Maya crossed her arms over her chest and sunk back into her armchair. "I'm sorry I wasn't paying as much attention to you as your oh-so-tender southern heart requires."
Lucas didn't reply; he just stared at her for a couple beats before saying carefully, "...you don't actually want to hang out more with me and Zay, do you?"
Okay, Lucas was a psychic. Maya was positive he was secretly studying divination or whatnot, because there was no way he could have guessed that just from staring at her face.
Then again, the three of them hanging out more had been what he had been blabbering about for the past five minutes, so maybe it wasn't that surprising that he concluded her lack of attention as a result of a lack of interest in the subject.
Either way, it was now a very big problem that she had to fix.
Maya entered rapid-conversation-repair mode.
"What? No, I definitely want to hang out more with you and Zay! Poker, and, uh, chess sound great!"
Lucas' expression remained dubious, but to her relief he let her not-paying-attention mess up slide.
"Alright. Well, we can talk to Zay more about scheduling, and then that should be all figured out."
Oh, wait. She had just encouraged him to carry through with the entire "let's hang out more" deal". Too caught up in trying to cover up her blunder, Maya had forgotten that the reason she had blundered in the first place was because she didn't want him to initiate more hanging out.
Crap.
As Lucas kept talking, Maya thought frantically for a way to backtrack and dig herself out of the hole she was currently lying in. Curse her brain for tuning out of the conversation! As she whirred to think up excuses as to why she absolutely could not spend more time with Lucas and Zay, even though definitely wanted to since that was what she had told him by mistake, a change in Lucas' voice suddenly caught her attention.
His eyes had taken on a serious note as well, and, as she met them with her own, she saw that he was wearing the look he always wore when he was saying something important and the person he was saying the important stuff to was supposed to be listening wholeheartedly. Maya listened.
"-and I'm really glad we were able to sort out our differences. I like you a lot, Maya. You're actually pretty fun when you're not insulting me, and while your southern jokes are incredibly offensive, I have to admit you've grown on me. I-"
Okay, this was not good. The conversation had turned from "dangerous territory" to "dropping off of a cliff in 3, 2, 1" territory. The dread that had been washing over her before was now a full-fledged tidal wave.
He liked her? She'd grown on him?
Nope, not good. Not good at all. She was the captain of the Lucas-Riley ship, and Lucas, one of the key players aboard her vessel, had just committed mutiny.
He wasn't supposed to say things like "I like you" and "you've grown on me" to her, however innocent they may be.
He was supposed to say them to Riley.
In her panic, Maya reached out and clamped her hand over Lucas' mouth.
He stared at her, wide-eyed, before prying her palm away from his face and glaring at her.
"What was that for?"
For a moment, Maya wasn't quite sure how to respond. How were you supposed to tell someone that it was against the rules for them to say nice things to you, or for them to try and get closer to you, and that, while you appreciated the sentiment, they should probably be glad that no one had overheard their conversation with you rather than upset that you had cut it short?
"Well?" Lucas was glaring now, but there was hurt underlying the anger.
Maya's mind searched frantically for the perfect thing to say, anything to say, to patch up the mess she was now stuck in. The entire situation felt far too much like their first big argument over her blowup about common room seating. She didn't want to hurt him; she'd never wanted to hurt him but it just always seemed to end up happening when he started talking like was doing now, and like he had back in the Gryffindor corridor, and she had to shut him down, and why oh why did he keep putting her into these situations where she had no choice but to hurt him?
But that, she realized with a sinking heart, was the way the world worked.
You couldn't shut someone out, or push them away from you, without hurting them.
And Maya was always going to have to push him away.
Which meant she was always going to have to hurt him.
I'm sorry, Lucas.
Steeling herself, Maya fixed flashing blue eyes on the similarly bright eyes of her companion, the boy who just wouldn't stay away, and composed her face to read as indifferent as it could.
And then she spoke. "Sorry. You were speaking kinda loud, and I didn't want anyone to overhear our conversation."
Even to her ears, her voice sounded cold. Maya averted her gaze from his so she wouldn't have to watch his features crumble. If she watched, she'd probably end up begging for his forgiveness and making everything worse.
Lucas' voice was somewhat bewildered when he replied. She had not given him the response he had been expecting. "I wasn't aware that what I was saying was something we were supposed to be hiding."
Maya shrugged, eyes still cast down. "There are a lot of things you aren't aware of."
There was a pause.
Then he spoke, his voice distant and as icy as her own. "But you're not going to tell me what they are."
"No. I'm not."
From her peripheral vision she saw his fists clench. "Maya, I've tried my hardest to gain your trust. I want to be your friend."
It was an open statement, and Maya knew he was giving her a chance to fix this. To tell him she was truly sorry, or that she hadn't meant to offend him, or that she would try harder to be a better person and whatever else he wanted to hear.
She stayed silent.
A stillness settled between them for the briefest of moments, and then there was the creak of chair springs as he pushed himself up from his seat. The fall of footsteps as he strode to the opposite side of the common room where the boys' dormitories were. The echo of guilt as he disappeared from view.
Maya sat there for a little while longer, telling herself over and over again that it was for the best, that it would have made everything worse if she had accepted his kindness towards her and allowed him to deepen their connection.
It's easier if he just thinks I'm a cruel person. His hurt will make him leave me alone.
She bit back a cry of frustration. Why was friendship so damn complicated? Maya almost missed the days when she didn't have friends. Everything was simple back then. No Lucas trying to get close to her, no Riley acting jealous, no anyone at all she had to worry about besides herself and her mother.
And, of course, no Zay, who had only now returned from his extremely long bathroom break and was staring at her, and the empty chair beside her, as if World War III had occurred while he was gone.
"Maya? Did something happen while I was...?"
Maya jumped up from her seat. She was so not in the mood to deal with another idiotic member of the male specimen at this point.
"Nothing happened, Zay. Lucas got tired and left, that's all." She gave him a blinding smile, and then brushed past him and beelined for the girls' dormitory entrance. "Hope you had a nice time at the bathroom!"
She knew he was staring after her, probably as if she was insane, but Maya didn't care. Zay would get over it.
The question was, would Lucas?
She got her answer the very next week.
Lucas Friar asked Riley Matthews in the library after school if she would be his girlfriend.
