long live (all the magic we made)

Fourth Year

Maya starts to call Riley 'honey' when spring falls upon them and the flowers start to blossom. It is around this time that she realizes she loves her best friend, a lot. It is also around this time that Trevor, the captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team, asks her out. He's in his last year of Hogwarts, a full three years older than she is, and Maya doesn't deny that she once thought she liked him, but she can't exactly say she actually does. Not now, anyway.

Trevor's face is open and hopeful and bright and she almost doesn't want to turn him away, but her heart is beating continuously for someone else and she cannot have him love a lie. So Maya smiles apologetically and returns his dozen roses and the box of Honeydukes chocolates that he'd passed to her. She hopes he cannot see that her hands are shaking and there is something more than an apology in her voice.

(It's guilt, of course, all these years she led him on; you don't know what you have until it's gone but Maya's never had him and now she loves another, even though she's not quite sure who it is)

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(Or maybe she does and it's too difficult to admit, the worst lies are the ones you tell yourself)

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Riley never finds out what it was that Trevor wanted, and Maya never tells her. She doesn't know why, they've always shared secrets, but this one feels monumental. Maya knows her instincts, and she's usually right. Secrets were dangerous but sometimes telling them were even more so. Riley stops asking and Maya stops shrugging and they fall back into tandem with each other.

They traipse to lunch and Riley is telling her the story of what happened in her dream the night before. They were both princesses of a pink kingdom and Riley had a unicorn while Maya had a dragon. In the midst of the laughter her best friend's hand brushes hers and Maya's skin burns and she almost jumps. Riley, bless her but she's not usually observant, doesn't notice and continues with her story.

Maya stares resolutely at the jug of pumpkin juice until it disappears to make way for chocolate syrup and then there's too much dessert for any lingering thoughts or feelings or hands so she's safe for now. Riley continues smiling at her like she's the most precious thing in the world and that's enough.

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They stumble upon the Room of Requirement one quiet Monday afternoon when they both have no class because the dungeons are being fixed after a fire broke out. Maya is pacing one way and Riley is pacing the other and they high five when they meet in the middle and then Riley shrieks because a huge door just showed up on the wall.

Riley's eyes are wide and Maya's lips are pulling into a smirk and before her friend can protest she's pushing at the doors with all her might. It's not a big room, like the outside suggests. In fact, it's pretty small. It looks just about the right size for ... two people. And it is now that Maya starts to suspect, but Riley's face is a mosaic of happiness so she doesn't say anything and then she's being pulled toward the edge of the room.

There's a window here with a window seat and it doesn't exactly overlook the castle grounds because they don't have fields of flowers or rainbows in Hogwarts but Riley is enchanted and Maya just smiles and sits down and watches Riley watch the world.

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(Maya finds out about the Room later on when she asks the older Slytherins and she goes so far as to tell Riley it's magical because even her innocent best friend can tell the scenery outside the window is fluid and ever-changing but she keeps the rest to herself because for some reason it makes her feel warm, the fact that they were both practically thinking the same thing while they paced)

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Summer comes and goes and Maya teaches Riley how to play chess in the snippets of time they have together outside of class. She's heard the legends of the giant chess set that lurks underneath the castle floors. Riley wouldn't survive in that, she doesn't understand that sacrifices have to be made in chess. Her best friend is sunshine in the form of a girl and refuses to send her pieces to die, even if it promises her a checkmate.

Maya tries and tries to tell her that one crushed rook on the face of the board is nothing. Riley crosses her arms and loses match after match because she wants to protect all her precious pieces. Try as she might Maya cannot resent her for it, because this is who she is.

They play into the night sometimes, when Maya risks detention to sleep in the Hufflepuff dormitories and Riley pretends to be mad at her for breaking the rules. By the time morning comes their repairing spells no longer work and the girls themselves are asleep over the mahogany table. By the time morning comes, castles and bishops and kings that were in pieces the night before are whole again and set up ready for another match, the work of house elves who sweep through the common rooms when everyone else is asleep. By the time morning comes, Maya is always a little bit more in love with Riley.

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(Sometimes Maya can't help but feel like she is yet another knight in the chessboard of life and her very existence is in the soft, warm hands of a girl who would rather lose a million times than let the world lay waste to her troops)