Quidditch Training

Chapter 1: Fireside Chats

Angelina Johnson was livid.

It had been bad enough when Oliver Wood was captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team - bossing everybody about, not listening to Angelina's perfectly reasonable suggestions. But now that Oliver had been gone from Hogwarts for a year and Angelina herself was poised to captain the team, his interference was unacceptable.

"Absolutely not," she told Oliver. Or rather, she said it to Oliver's head as it appeared in the fireplace in the Gryffindor common room during final exam week. Angelina sat in one of the cozy armchairs. It wasn't particularly late, and Angelina's best friends and fellow Quidditch players, Alicia and Katie, were still awake, sitting a few feet away with their books open in front of them, obviously eavesdropping.

"Why not?" Katie asked, dropping all pretenses of reading.

"Because I am the captain," Angelina spat, "and I want to train the team as I see fit. I do not want any interference. No, Oliver, you cannot help train the team this summer."

"Honestly, Angie," Oliver said. Angelina made a face - she loathed being called Angie. "Don't think that I won't give you as much control as you want," Oliver continued, ignoring Angelina's murderous look. "I only want to help, see how the team has grown and changed..." Oliver trailed off. Angelina, of course, refused to believe that he would yield any control in terms of Quidditch, but she knew that Katie and Alicia, who were good players but had little head for strategy, had soft spots for Oliver because they thought he was cute.

"Please, Angelina, please?" wheedled Katie.

"Angel, please? It would be so much fun, and it will only bring the team closer!" Alicia added. Angelina didn't mind being called Angel as much as Angie, but only Alicia or Katie could get away with even that.

"Fine," she conceded, throwing up her hands. Maybe a few weeks with Oliver would remind her best friends why they used to spend every night after practice complaining about him. "I'm only the captain, after all, why on earth should you listen to me?"

"Thank you!" squealed the girls, pulling Angelina to them in an embrace. Oliver smiled from the fireplace.

"Have you found a keeper for next year yet?" he asked.

"We'll be holding try-outs at the beginning of the term. I wanted to hold off until we heard whether or not they'd do something silly like cancel another year of Quidditch," Angelina replied.

"They won't, right? I mean, Dumbledore's said by now?" Oliver asked.

"Of course I've asked him, and he's told me that as far as he can see, there's no reason not to reinstate the Quidditch teams next year. That's why McGonagall __ appointed me captain."

"All right, then. I trust you'll let Harry and the Weasleys know, and I'll see you all at Gilbertfield in two weeks?"

"Yes, Oliver," Angelina sighed, resigning herself to another month of Quidditch training under Oliver Wood.

A/N: Gilbertfield Castle is the name of an actual ruined castle in Scotland near Glasgow, where Oliver is from. It has spells on it similar to those on Hogwarts, which cause it to appear as a ruin.

Chapter 2: Castle On a Cloud

Angelina blinked into existence in front of Gilbertfield Castle. She had recently learned to apparate, and her apparition was as precise as she was. She appeared facing the front door, her broom over her shoulder and the handle of her feather-light trunk in the other hand. She knocked on the door, and was surprised to see Oliver himself opening it.

"Hullo, Angelina!" he exclaimed, throwing an arm around her shoulder and pulling her and her effects into the foyer.

"Hi, Oliver," said Angelina, shrugging off his arm. "Don't you have house elves to answer the door in a place as big as this?"

"We used to have one - Hilda - but she was getting old, so Mum and Da brought her back to our house in the city proper. They're just old softies, really. The house in the city is much smaller and in better repair, so Hilda doesn't have as much to do there. So I stumble around this drafty old place by myself, although the grounds are lovely for Quidditch. I'm glad I could get the team to come out for the summer."

"Yes, they're very excited, too," she replied, a trace of resentment in her voice.

"Oh, Angie, don't be sore that they wanted to train with me. You'll have them to yourself for a whole year."

"I'd thank you not to call me Angie, Ollie."

Oliver coughed. "Right, of course, sorry. Your room?"

Oliver slung her trunk over his shoulder and climbed the stairs to the second floor. Angelina followed him, admiring the castle that he had termed a "drafty old place." Angelina was Muggleborn, and the only castle with which she had significant experience was Hogwarts. She was used to that after six years, but it still astounded her that one family - or in this case, one person - could possibly make use of so much space.

The pair climbed another set of stairs after the first, and upon reaching the third floor, Oliver stopped. Opening a heavy wooden door banded with iron, he waved Angelina in.

"Your room, Angelina."

Angelina stepped in, and Oliver set her trunk down on the floor.

"The rest of the team won't be here until after dinner. I thought we could have a working meal, talk strategy," he said.

Angelina nodded.

* * *

She met Oliver in one of the large first floor rooms. It was equipped with a long table that was, at that moment, set with a bowl of bread and a soup tureen, and covered besides with playbooks and other Quidditch paraphernalia. A fire blazed in the hearth at the end of the narrow room, and the masonry walls were covered with chalked diagrams of the Quidditch pitch, crisscrossed with x's and o's. Oliver had apparently already been at work.

"I have a lot of ideas," he said, gesturing at the diagrams. "I've learned so much working with Puddlemere. But obviously, if you have other ideas, feel free to - "

"I will, thank you," Angelina cut in. "I have definite plans for the year. I want to base the strategy largely around the chaser line. I think all of our previous focus on the seeker put too much pressure on Harry and left us vulnerable when he was out of the picture, which seems to happen a lot - "

"Angelina! I respect that you don't agree with the way I set up the team in the past, but at least let me voice some ideas. I'm playing with a professional team now!"

"Yeah, in reserves," Angelina muttered.

"What was that, Angie?"

"Damn it, Oliver, that was just too - "

Angelina and Oliver were distracted at that moment by a 'pop' from the edge of the room as Harry emerged from the fireplace. Unwilling to continue the argument in front of the seeker, Angelina was relegated to staring furiously but silently at Oliver.

"Fred and George are right behind me," said Harry, brushing himself off and stepping out of the way, dragging his trunk along. This proved to be a good move, as George - or was it Fred? - barreled through the fireplace right behind Harry. He was followed swiftly by the other twin who, true to his showy nature, somersaulted out of the fireplace and struck a pose.

"Angelina, darling," said Fred (or possibly George), approaching her and slinging an arm around her shoulder, "I hope you weren't too terribly lonely here with just old Oliver for company. Are Katie and Alicia here yet?"

"No, not yet. And I'd be lying if I said I wasn't glad to see you boys," she sniffed in Oliver's direction. "Ollie, maybe you should help them to their rooms."

Oliver cast one more livid glance at Angelina, then led Harry and the twins to the stairs.