Fun and Games

Chapter Five: Unexpected Protection

Ugh, and my head feels like someone’s played soccer, er, football with it and my chest feels like it’s on fire. Funny it didn’t hurt before. Why can’t I see anything? Everything’s dark! Oh no I’m blind!

She panicked for a minute and then realized her eyes were closed. Feeling somewhat sheepish, she slowly opened her eyes. The first things she saw were two identical pools of ice blue looking down on her, as she felt herself being placed on a cot in the infirmary.

"L-Liam? What . . . What happened? Why does my head hurt so much?" she managed to ask weakly.

She felt somewhat disoriented, and as if something was not quite right , yet she couldn’t exactly put her finger on what it could be. Whatever it was, she figured it would either go away or resolve itself fairly soon, and if not she would deal with it later when she was feeling better.

"Shhhh . . . So Sleeping Beauty awakens at last?" he chuckled and eyed her appreciatively. "Just lie still little one, and get some rest," Liam cooed softly.

He bent over to kiss her lightly on the forehead,"You took one nasty fall, but don’t worry I caught you, and everything’s going to be all right. Just sleep for now, and I’ll be right here when you wake up, okay?"

He sat down in a chair next to her bed and took one of her hands in his and kissed it softly before placing it on her chest and allowing her to fall asleep.

Lili, still feeling that something was not quite right, nonetheless sighed contentedly before drifting off into a sound sleep, only to be started awake a few seconds later by a sudden sensation of motion. Lili opened her eyes once again and found that the first thing she saw was a pair of very concerned soft brown eyes looking straight ahead and focused far away. She felt strong arms carrying her.

"Ol-Oliver . . . ?" what the hell?

The arms started and almost dropped her. Oliver looked down at her in surprise. Relief flooded his face briefly and was quickly replaced with puzzled concern.

"Oliver, wh-what happened?" she stammered, feeling very confused.

She had been certain that Liam had just brought her to the infirmary. Didn’t Liam just . . . Huh, maybe it was a dream? Or am I dreaming now? She looked around for a second and the sensation of movement felt genuine and whatever it was that was bothering her before seemed to be gone. Hmm, must have been a dream then . . . I kind of hope so . . . This is a much nicer way to wake up, there is something not exactly right about that Liam . . . I don’t quite know what it is . . . but there is something not quite, er kosher . . .Well I guess this makes more sense too. I do remember being near the goal hoops, but then after that . . . I can’t quite remember . . . I guess that means . . . what? The only question now is what the hell happened?

"Lili? You’re awake!! You’re okay!" Oliver exclaimed happily as he stopped to reclaim his secure grip on her. The last thing he wanted to do was to drop her on the way to the infirmary; it would be fairly counterproductive to do such a thing.

"So good of you to wake up young lady. You had that poor team very worried," chuckled the elderly wizard as he made his way into her field of vision, "Really now, Lili! I should expect better from you!"

"Eamonn?! What on earth are you doing here? You should be on a beach somewhere in Hawaii enjoying your retirement!" Lili exclaimed weakly, obviously very surprised.

"A little birdie told me that you were in trouble, so I came to see if you were alright," he chuckled again and continued, "Although you seem to be doing quite well on your own." His eyes sized up Oliver and he winked at Lili.

She blushed, silently thanking anyone listening that Oliver seemed to miss the implication. That’s the last thing I need right now . . . I’m sure it’s the last thing he needs as well . . . Besides Eamonn should really know better by now!

Eamonn grinned and continued, "Come along young man, I’m sure that Lili is starting to get heavy. Carrying a witch around, no matter how petite, always seems like a good idea for the first few minutes, but then they inevitably get heavy."

"Eamonn!" Lili exclaimed, shocked that he would say such a thing. She was also wishing that she was strong enough to be moving under her own volition, but intelligent enough to know that she couldn’t, and would have to just allow Oliver to carry her.

"Oh come now Lili, that was just to make sure you were awake," Eamonn laughed and Lili huffed slightly in Oliver’s arms before Eamon continued, "The infirmary is just down this way." He led them down a short hall and into a brightly lit room with a comfortable-looking bed, "You can put her down on the bed there," he nodded to Oliver and then addressed Lili, "Well Lili, now that I know you’re really awake, how do you feel?"

"Weak, and as if someone has been using my head as a football. Oh and for some strange reason, my chest hurts a little bit too." As she answered, she absently rubbed her forehead as if to wipe the pain and cobwebs away.

Oliver was stuck awkwardly standing in the room, not knowing whether he should leave or not. The other wizards in white robes had disappeared once Oliver had left the pitch, taking Liam with them. Oliver winced at the thought of Liam. He’s going to be very angry with me when I finally get back to the team. I don’t know who put a thistle in his undershorts, but the longer I put it off the unpleasant he’s going to be . . .

"Do you still wear that necklace I gave you?" Eamonn asked Lili as he pulled out his wand and muttered a few words under his breath.

Silver stars shot out from the tip and swarmed all over Lili making her shine silvery bright before they faded into her robes and skin. Lili obviously started to feel better almost immediately, and stronger as well.

"Yes, I wear it every day, why do you ask?" she asked, considerably puzzled at the seemingly unrelated question.

Eamonn had given her the necklace shortly after she had retired from the AQL and she was really quite fond of it, never removing it from around her neck. She had thought that the gift had been a little bit ironic at the time, but just maybe it wasn’t as coincidental as she had first thought.

"Good, let me see it," he replied, ignoring her questions for the moment and obviously preoccupied with something.

Lili winced as she carefully reached into the neck of her robes and gasped. Her finger tips were blackened when she extracted a gold chain.

Just as he was turning to leave Oliver saw this and stared at her fingers. Where did that black stuff come from? He shook his head and sternly, reminding himself that it was none of his business. This is none of my concern. Lili is going to be just fine and that’s all I really need to know. Besides I really should be going back to the team, Liam is going to go spare! And to make matters worse, he’s too much like a howler, the longer you put him off the worse he gets. Halfheartedly he hoped that Liam would have had enough time to calm down by the time he got back. Maybe he won’t be too bad if I get back to the team fairly quickly . . . With his decision to go back to the team made, Oliver started to edge quietly out of the room when Eamonn, attracted by the sudden movement in his periphery vision, turned his attention from Lili to Oliver.

"You, Quidditch player, what’s your name?" Eamon asked him just as Oliver reached the door.

"Oliver, sir." He stopped and turned to face the elderly wizard, wondering what the older wizard could possibly want with him now that Lili was settled and apparently okay.

Lili had managed to get the chain undone from her neck and was staring at a bit of blackened twisted gold hanging from the middle of it. Her other hand was rubbing an area in the center of her chest, just about where a pendant would rest if she were wearing one.

"Eamonn . . . ?" she asked her voice quavered just the slightest. "What’s happened to my necklace?"

Oliver stared at the blackened bit of metal, it wasn’t hard to guess why Lili’s chest hurt. Whatever did that to her necklace would definitely have to do a number on her skin, it’d be terrible if she ended up with a scar in such an inconvenient place! I wonder if she’s going to show the burned area to the older wizard? Now a glimpse of that would be worth Liam’s wrath! Feeling slightly shocked, now is not the time Wood, this is not the place, and she is definitely not the witch, he sternly reminded himself. Where did that thought come from? I’ve got to stop this before it turns into something it shouldn’t! Oliver was beginning to be a little bit troubled with all the uncharacteristic thoughts that he had been having lately.

"Take a seat and stay here Oliver, my good man. I don’t want to leave Lili here alone, it’s never a good idea to leave people with possible head injuries alone for any amount of time. Even if she should be fine in the morning, I’d rather have you stay here with her just in case something should happen. I’ll be back shortly. I just have something that needs my attention."

Eamonn gently took the chain from Lili, smiled kindly as he patted her shoulder, and quickly left the room.

Oliver hesitantly moved over to a chair by her bed and sat down. At a loss for something to either say or do he folded his calloused hands in his lap and examined them, blushing slightly as he realized that he was alone with her, and didn’t have the least idea as what was expected of him. He was happy enough to stay, but didn’t know what to say. After all what does one say to someone that just had such a nasty accident? Ever the avid Quidditch player, he wanted to ask so many questions about the American Quidditch League and her years as a referee. He especially wanted to know why she would retire at such an early age. She didn’t appear to be much older than twenty-three at the most, and she didn’t appear to have any obvious handicaps or disabilities. Unfortunately for him, it just seemed to be an inappropriate time for such questions, so he filed them away to be asked of the twins the next time he saw them.

There was an awkward silence, Lili shifted in her pillows to get more comfortable, she seemed to be regaining her strength, already her movements were more controlled and directed. She looked shyly over to Oliver and then down at her hands. She didn’t know what to say.

Lili was starting to feel better already, I wonder what Eamonn did to me? She looked over to Oliver again who was examining his hands, a faint flush coloring his cheeks. Forget that, more importantly what to do? What to say? What does one say when one wakes up in someone’s arms, someone who is just a few hours better than a stranger, and one cannot remember how that came to pass? I’m sure he probably saved my life too, but how do I address this? Hmm . . . Well, I guess I can start by saying thank you . . .

"I’m sorry I haven’t had a chance to say this until now, but thank you," she said in a small very soft voice. "I don’t know what happened but I have a feeling that if you weren’t there I wouldn’t be here."

She looked down at her hands and started fidgeting with them nervously. She absently twisted a ring around her finger and switched it from one ring finger to the other and back again, starting to feel a little bit uncomfortable in the silence.

"It was nothing, really," Oliver felt his face redden a little more. "If I hadn’t caught you Liam most certainly would have."

He remembered Liam’s enraged face when he had caught Lili, and looked over to her. She still looked a little bit pale and frail lying on the bed fidgeting a little bit with her hands and a ring.

Suddenly she looked up and caught his eyes, surprising him, "Oliver what happened out there? The last thing I remember is descending a little closer to the action, then it all goes black . . . And the next thing I know I . . ." she looked away from him flushing. "I, er I find myself in the arms of-of a relative stranger . . ."

Once she was able to control her blush, she turned to face him again, "what happened? How did that come to pass?" there was a slight edge of fear in her voice, and her eyes pleaded with his.

"It was a Bludger." No giggle this time, he absently noted as he continued, "It caught you in the back of the neck. I saw you get hit so I made a dive to catch you," he broke eye contact for a moment to look down. But he quickly reconsidered and looked back up to her, his eyes were filled with concern, "we were awfully worried about you. You didn’t seem to have a pulse and I don’t think you were breathing . . . I, er still don’t understand how you started breathing again," he trailed off and looked away from her and out the window and into the distance.

Why is this so upsetting to me, I hardly know Lili. Granted it’s not everyday that you see someone die and come back . . . But still, why does it disturb me so very much? Is it because she’s a friend of the twins? Or is it something else?

He thought for a minute, it must be because of the twins, he decided not wanting to have to deal with any other possibility, it can’t be anything else.

"I’m sorry Oliver . . . I . . . I did something really stupid today. I took a risk that I shouldn’t have. And, well, you guys just had to pay the price for my folly," she fidgeted with her hands again, her face mirroring an inner conflict of sorts.

Abruptly she seemed to come to a decision and looked over to Oliver, "for that, I will make sure your team is in some way compensated. I assure you that your team will be awarded the sponsorship, well that is if they haven’t already offered it to your team. It’s the least I can do for your trouble."

After thinking for a second, almost as an afterthought she added, "your team will not be held in anyway responsible for this . . . It was my fault that it happened, and my fault alone," her voice took on a bitter edge at her last statement.

Oliver’s eyes snapped back into focus and he turned to face her, "I didn’t mean to suggest . . . The sponsorship was the last thing from our minds . . . I . . ." his forehead crinkled in puzzlement as something he had seen occurred to him, "but wait a minute, I saw," he started trying to get it all out without sounding like an idiot.

Now that he was calm and not filled with panic, he realized that he had seen it all happen. The person who had sent the Bludger at her, had done it on purpose, and he was sure that one of those research wizards or witches somewhere in the building had seen it as well. Why does she want to insist that it was her own fault? She didn’t hit herself with a Bludger, or weaken the anti-referee spells on one. Someone else did that. So why, or rather how can she believe that it’s all her own fault?

"Oliver . . . It doesn’t matter what you or anyone else saw, what matters is that I did something that I shouldn’t have and . . . I had to pay the price for it," she interrupted him ruefully.

Oliver looked confused. He was not sure why she was so insistent about it being her own fault. She still looked just a little bit delicate so he decided not to press the issue as he was clearly not going to win this argument, and it was of no use to upset her. They sat in silence for a minute or two.

"Who was that older wizard?" Oliver asked, hoping to keep a conversation going.

"Eamonn?"she tried hesitantly, not able to think of any other wizards to whom Oliver could be referring. But then she had just spent who knew how long unconscious in his arms, and she couldn’t be positive that Oliver had not met Diarmuid or one of the other company higher ups for that matter.

He nodded and smiled to himself at his seemingly successful attempt to both change the subject and start a conversation. Oliver had never been known for his social skills, as he had always been more interested in the more important things in life, like Quidditch for example.

"He’s an old friend of the family. He got me my job at Thunder & Lighting Enterprises when I, uh, when I retired from refereeing. Or rather he’s the one who interested Thunder & Lighting Enterprises in making me an offer . . . er, the offer I couldn’t refuse . . . " She only just managed preventing herself from sighing heavily at the memory.

Oliver noted that she sounded regretful when she mentioned refereeing, I wonder why she sounds as if she is sorry she retired . . . I still can’t imagine why she would retire in the first place, she was doing well before she was hit . . . He was startled out of his contemplation of her career when she answered his question after a moment’s pause for her own contemplation.

"Well . . . Eamonn was supposed to retire last year, but he always finds excuses to come back and visit," she smiled, "I’ve known him forever, he’s the one who introduced me to the twin terrors. He’s their godfather, and a close friend of both my father and theirs . . . So . . . what was it like going to school with the twins? I only had to put up with them at family affairs and the odd family vacation . . . I’m sure they were quite a handful to have on your team! Never mind having to actually live with them! "

She was definitely trying to change the subject. So Oliver obliged, telling her all kinds of stories about the twins and their antics, quite a few of the stories he told were Quidditch related, but Lili didn’t seem to notice. Occasionally Lili would ask a question but more often than not she would laugh at the twins’ capers, and every once in a while she would even offer a story of her own. She especially enjoyed the story of Oliver and the enchanted Bludgers, mainly since it had also happened to her. Oliver enjoyed talking to her, it was nice to be able to talk to someone about things other than those strictly related to his team or Quidditch and to someone who was not on the team. He really enjoyed hearing about her experiences with the twins, it made him feel a little better to know that it wasn’t just to him that they gave a hard time when they were younger. They even played many similar jokes or pranks on her, something he found to be even more reassuring.

Gradually as time went on he noticed her become more and more tired, as her regained strength waned. She was, eventually, lulled to sleep by the sound of his voice. Once Oliver was sure that she was asleep he awkwardly got up and tucked the blankets around her, pausing to gaze at how peaceful she looked. He reached out and carefully brushed a curl of hair from her face, and she sighed in her sleep.

Oliver wasn’t sure what he should do now that she was asleep, it was late and should be getting back to the hotel, but Eamonn had asked him to stay until his return. He figured that Eamonn would be unhappy with hm if Oliver wasn’t there when he returned, but was still unsure what to do now that she was asleep. Feeling somewhat torn he surveyed the room in hopes that he’d see something that would help him make up his mind or that Eamonn would return while he was surveying the room. As he did so, his eyes landed on Lili of their own free will. Lili was sleeping somewhat less than tranquilly as he watched her shift fitfully and heard her mumble something in her sleep before settling down again, shaking ever so slightly before sinking back into a peaceful slumber.

He sighed, realizing that the decision was already made for him. Oliver wondered, as he regained his seat, what dark secrets does this witch hold? And why the hell does she make me think so many uncharacteristic thoughts? I can’t actually be attracted to her, can I? Nah, must be something else . . . And almost as an afterthought, Where’s Eamonn? Shouldn’t he be back by now?

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