Lovelight

The Name of the Game

Maia was a person who tried to live her life with few regrets. She wanted to be free of the burden of judging her past decisions, simply choosing to live in the moment and deal with the fallout of her choices as they popped into her life.

However, she had recently developed many, many regrets.

She regretted inviting her possible fathers to her wedding. She regretted all of the negative implications that had come about because of it. She regretted yelling at her mother and insinuating that her life was awful because she didn't know who her father was.

It was so opposite from the truth. Her life had been amazing, lovely and wonderful and everything she ever could have wished for. It was a true fairytale, one of love and adventures with her mother, a fantastical storybook that lulled her into contentedness whenever she thought upon her past. Maia had never felt safer as a child than when she was in her mother's arms, had never felt more loved than when she would read her to sleep, and had never felt more grateful than when her mother put aside her own opinions on her wedding to help her plan it.

Her life was wonderful. It was happy and she was healthy and loved and felt more than comfortable with where she was on her journey, in her story. Yet, she felt like something was missing. That was why she had gone looking for her father. That was why she invited the three men to the island. That was why she had been trying to get to know them.

That was why she had found herself with all of them a few days earlier, on that fated day where she had blamed her mother for all of her own insecurities.

She had originally been planning just to find one of them and try to get to know that one better, but her plans hadn't exactly been executed. All she had been doing was walking out on the balcony, about to go down to the beach, when she spotted all three of them seated in various locations, fulfilling activities that did not seem to be all that awe-inspiring or attention-grabbing.

Draco had been reading a book. Theo had been staring off towards the sea, his knee nervously bouncing as his foot tapped the ground repeatedly. Ron had been eating a snack as he watched the passersby in the courtyard.

As soon as she saw the three of them at once, she knew her plan had been thwarted, so she had decided instead that she would get some things done for her wedding. Except, the three men didn't have the same idea.

Theo was the first to reach her, quickly mumbling out a, "I need to talk to you when you have a minute," just as the other Slytherin flanked them.

Before she could have answered him, Draco started speaking, asking Maia a million different questions, the speed at which he rattled them off stealing the ground from underneath her. "How is your mother doing? Is she okay? Does she need anyone? She used to have really bad panic attacks, I figured they would have disappeared by now though. I know how to help her. Is someone helping her? Have you seen her?" he prattled on and on, his voice a constant lull of notes and harmonies in her ears as his symphony swelled to a crashing forte.

"I haven't seen her since last night," she had said. "Aunt Pansy and Aunt Luna have been with her. They didn't think I should be up there for her so they were taking care of her."

It was then that he had nodded, his brow having furrowed as his lips pressed into a thin line. "Well, if she needs anything, I'm not exactly doing much."

"Maia!" Ron had then interrupted, joining the other two men as they stood around her. "Your party last night was wonderful. I wish it had ended on a lighter note. Do you have a minute? I'd love to speak to you."