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chapter ten;
just beginners luck
The first time Amaya had successfully stolen a man's wallet on the street, she had been around six and walking through Madrid with her father, dressed in a little cotton dress and boots she recalled had a pink ribbon instead of laces.
Her father was a respectful man, both amongst the Wizarding society and not, he had connections all over the Peninsula and a lot of influence in the Consortium. Of course, he was bored out of his mind. And to cure this boredom of his, that came with being a stuffy member of society, he'd become a successful thief, who had many names, amongst them the Goldsaint, which was quite stupid, in Amaya's opinion, since it was a rough translation of their name.
He'd managed to create a whole other persona, who grew beyond the borders' of their previously secluded country. Hence, he wanted a son, one that could carry his name and legacy, and become just like him.
Instead, he got Amaya. And it wasn't that she wasn't a boy, no, he got over that quite quickly, especially when her mother looked so pleased to have a daughter (and the only thing her father might've loved more than his criminal tendencies was her mother). His problem with her was that Amaya had been born with a brain, and most of all, a heart.
She felt guilty when she stole that man's wallet, she almost cried when she did but urged herself to ignore her moral compass when her father had grinned with pride and shot her a little wink as they walked away, before tipping his hat a man passing by them. She questioned the meaning of what he was trying to teach her, and he began questioning her abilities.
But whether he thought so or not, Amaya had learned a lot from him, and she was proud (mostly) to say she was a pretty good thief—not that she practiced it; she didn't quite fancy the feeling of taking stuff from others. But still, her first instinct when she first walked somewhere was to spot the wallets' shapes in people's pockets, the paintings on the wall, and the artifacts on display, and assess how hard it would be to nick them.
She was ashamed to say she'd done that the first time she got to the Potters—they had a few moving paintings that were worth a good couple hundred thousand Galleons, and a few objects on display that could sell for a good price in the black market, just to name a few—, not that she would ever steal anything from them.
Well, not in those circumstances, because, at the moment, Amaya was more than pleased at stealing James Potter's money in a game of poker—especially after he was a cocky bastard and bragging about his talents.
She wasn't a fantastic player. Overall, she was pretty average, but she was resourceful and nothing in the rules told her she couldn't try and see through the cards with magic—in fact, she was quite sure there were no poker rules against magic usage, so, technically, it wasn't cheating; besides, she'd give the Potters the money back either way, it was just entertaining to wipe James' cocky smirk off his face.
Winking at him, she gathered her riches, from where she sat between Peter and Marlene on the round playing table that Sirius had transfigured in their flat, James and Lily across from them.
She didn't want to go—she didn't. After all, she'd just learned a big hint that could lead her to move forward in her research, because she had been right, Voldemort had gotten his hands on the Founder's artifacts—or at least just the Slytherin one. But, again, James Potter was really convincing and if she was honest she needed a break.
And so she let him drag her along to Sirius' and Remus' flat where they were hanging out for the night along with Lily and Marlene, the two girls she'd met during her Order meeting, and who apparently had gotten much closer to the Marauders in the last few months—especially with the order and with Sirius and Marlene being casually hooking up—though according to James they were fucking like rabbits.
So, now she'd been roped into a slightly drunk game of poker with the rest of them as Sirius and Remus went to buy more drinks (they'd run out of firewhiskey and muggle vodka). And she was wiping the table with all of them.
"Are you cheating?" asked Peter with narrowed eyes at Amaya and she merely gave him an innocent smile.
"I would never. Beginners luck, I guess."
James' left eye twitched, and he was about to say something when Lily nudged him with her elbow, calling his attention to the deck she was now in charge of shuffling as they changed the dealer. Amaya frowned at the gesture but ignored it, sipping her drink only to remember it was already empty.
"Cut the deck, Potter," the redhead said, gesturing to the deck before turning to Amaya with a grin. "I'm glad you're here, usually Marls and I take quite a loss from these too."
"Moony doesn't fair any better," quipped Peter with a snicker and James snorted.
"Moony gets too emotional."
Amaya honestly thought it was quite a cute nickname to call Remus; it reminded her of her grandfather in some ways, everyone used to call him Lobo, which was dead on accurate, just like every name associated with Remus Lupin.
"He's just passionate about his cards," Remus chimed in as he returned, a fresh bottle of firewhiskey in hand, Sirius in tow.
Amaya smirked. "Emotional, passionate—it's all the same when you're losing, isn't it?"
"I resent that, Santoro," told her Remus with a smirk as he walked inside the kitchen and Sirius went around the table, pouring people's drinks, before he nudged her with his elbow and promptly shoved Amaya out of half her sit so they could share the chair.
Lily chuckled, dealing the cards with a swift motion. "I suppose that's one way to put it. But watch out, Amaya. James here might be a bit too good at this game."
James raised an eyebrow, feigning innocence as Amaya elbowed Sirius in the ribs. "Get your fat-arse out of my chair, Black."
"No can do, we're a team for this round," said Sirius with a grin.
"Make sure she doesn't cheat, Pads" quipped James.
Amaya narrowed her eyes at him. "Can you just admit you love losing against me?"
"Nope." He grinned as he grabbed his cards, and Amaya picked hers up, acknowledging the numbers before Sirius snatched them out of her hands.
"They're going to lose," he said with a grin, despite the fact that their cards couldn't have been worse. A two of hearts and a nine of spades didn't make for the best start.
"I still think there's some funky magic going on in this game," Peter said, sending Amaya a suspicious look.
"Oh, please. The only magic happening here is the disappearing act your money is about to pull," she retorted, smirking and Marlene burst out laughing as did Sirius and Lily.
James didn't stray his eyes from hers as he nodded. "You're on, Santoro."
Amaya glanced at Sirius, and both of them shared a conspiring look and grinned at each other, when she turned back to James, his brow was slightly furrowed. The next few rounds were getting sloppier and less strict on the rules.
By the third, they were all different levels of pissed. Sirius, Marlene, and Amaya were making everyone lose in a secret alliance, that included a slight dash of bending the rules.
Sirius was basically swapping cards from a duplicated deck, and handing them out freely; Marlene was making sure Lily saw cards in her hand that were then swapped and made the redhead give up; and Ace was just having fun in the chaos that was watching James' left eye twitch every time he was so certain he would win.
At some point Remus had returned from the kitchen with more drinks, taking over Peter's place at the table when the boy had to go to the bathroom, looking quite queasy. They laughed and bantered, and through all of it, Amaya felt light and free, and for the first time in a while she felt happy.
Well, mostly, because something was nagging at her as she saw James and Lily talk to each other and laugh, given he did the same with Marlene, but it just didn't feel exactly the same, and Amaya had no idea why that bothered her.
Getting tired of playing, Amaya stood up, giving her cards to Sirius, as she announced to the group that she was going to the kitchen to get herself some water and if anyone needed anything.
She rounded the table and just as she was leaving the living room, James grasped her wrist looking up at her with a grin, that made her weak in the knees—where did that come from? she asked herself confused.
"What? Scared of losing, Maya?"
She rolled her eyes at him. "No. I'm just tired of winning."
At that, the others snickered and James pouted jokingly before turning to Lily with a conspirational smile. "Lils, we need to win our money back before Amaya decides to play again."
She forced out an amused chuckle as she slipped into the kitchen, and for some reason, it left a sour aftertaste in her mouth. One she didn't understand because she liked Lily—or Lils, as he'd called her. Both she and Marlene had been treating her like an old friend, like someone they always hung out with, smiling and teasing and being what Amaya thought having friends would be like.
She liked the fiery muggleborn which was why it was odd that for some reason seeing her and James interact left her feeling empty.
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