Where It Stays | J. POTTER [1]

11 | closets

Let me help you. The words had been seared into the front of her mind since he said them. It wasn't something she was used to and she wasn't sure she ever would be.

How do you let someone help you? Do you just stop doing what you were doing before? Do you ask for help? Is it like learning how to walk? Or is it more just learning how to trust? Because she wasn't sure she would ever be able to trust him as much as she may want to.

"Maya," James spoke from next to her, "You alive in there?"

"What?" she shook her head, looking over at the boy, "Oh, yes. Just thinking is all."

"Ah yes, the wonders of thinking," he mused, squeezing her hand gently. "How fun."

There was a crashing noise from the closet next to them and they both exchanged a look. James approached the closet, knocked once and waited a few seconds before opening the door.

"Oh my god, I knew it!" Maya exclaimed as she looked between her brother and Remus who had frantically jumped away from each other. She turned to look at a both amused yet surprised James, "Did you know?"

"Not until now, no," James shook his head as Remus quickly zipped up his pants.

"We'll just leave you two to it," Maya decided before grabbing James by his upper arm and pulling him out of the closet, allowing the door to close behind them.

"I honestly thought neither of them would get a clue," James explained, shaking his head as they made their way back to the common room. He glanced behind them for a moment before looking forward again, "I mean I knew they both had feelings for each other but never did I ever think they would both realize it. Or that they would and then proceed to keep it from us."

"Well-" she began but she stopped when she saw an all too familiar boy approaching them. She grabbed James by his jacket and immediately pulled him toward the adjacent corridor.

"What's going on?" James asked in clear confusion but Maya continued to pull him along.

"Shut up," she hissed and he raised an eyebrow at her sudden change in attitude.

Somewhere to hide, she thought to herself, I just need somewhere to hide.

"Mayalyn!" the boy had shouted as a door appeared in the wall. She didn't even give James a chance to react to the magically appearing door as she opened the door quickly and yanked him inside, allowing the door to click shut behind them.

James looked down at the girl expectantly, "You gonna tell me what that was about now?"

She bit the inside of her lip as she thought it over, "No." She turned around to take a look at the room that Hogwarts had conjured for a hideout. There was a decent sized couch adjacent to what appeared to be an unlit fireplace.

"No?" James repeated, turning to face the girl as she made her way over to the couch, "What do you mean 'no'?"

"I knew you could be stupid sometimes, James but I didn't realize I would have to teach you basic preschool level vocabulary," Maya replied, sitting down. While she had told him she would be more open to him more often, she did not think telling him about an arranged marriage of sorts would end well.

"Then I'm going back out," he declared, turning toward the door. She knew what he was doing. He wasn't going to push but he also knew exactly what to do to get her to tell him what was going on.

"Wait!" she shouted, standing up from the couch, "Just give it a few minutes."

"Give what a few minutes?"