Life Down at the Quidditch Pitch

Chapter Three

The seventh year Gryffindors had a silent pact. They never talked about what was going on with You-Know-Who, and they never spoke of Cedric's death. They didn't try to pretend that it wasn't going on or hadn't happened; they just wanted to enjoy their last year of Hogwarts. The last year that they would truly feel safe, therefore they didn't feel the need to talk about it. However that morning, it came crashing down in front of Katie. She received her usual post owl that morning, nearly a month later, the Daily Prophet came, and the headline made Katie sick.

Death of Tri-Wizard Champ Deemed Suicide

"This is the most damned insulting thing I've ever seen in my life," Katie said angrily, slamming her fist on the table. Angelina and Alicia looked at her, startled. She noticed Harry looking sad, a few seats down from her. He looked up at her. She realized that he'd heard her.

"You haven't read the whole article then," he said, over the second years between them. "Biggest load of dung I've read in my whole life, worse than Rita Skeeter." Katie tried to smile at Harry, but she couldn't. She just looked at him. He gave her a small, fake smile and returned to his food.

"How could they do that to Cedric?" Angelina asked reading over her shoulder. "How can they? Are they that desperate to cover the fact that You-Know-Who is back?"

"It's disgusting," Alicia said simply. Katie nodded and looked back down at the article, which was short.

The Ministry has ended its almost four month probe into the death of Hogwarts student and Tri-Wizard Champion, Cedric Diggory. They've deemed Diggory's death a suicide, even though some sources say that it was the work of You-Know-Who's followers, and some even say, You-Know-Who himself. Harry Potter, a witness to the suicide, was not available for comment. Amos Diggory however was, but he does not agree with the Ministry's findings. His comment also was not suitable for print or small children. Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster of Hogwarts School or Witchcraft and Wizardry, simply stated that the Ministry needed 'to get their facts straight'.

"They wanted to question Harry! Have they no shame?" Angelina asked over her shoulder. Katie just shook her head; tears of anger began forming in her eyes. This wasn't fair to Cedric, she thought, or Harry or the Diggorys. Hell, this wasn't fair to any of them. She looked back down at Harry, who wasn't saying anything; he just looked lost, pushing his food around his plate. His two friends were trying to talk to him, perhaps to change the subject. They weren't having much success. She shook her head and returned her attention to Alicia and Angelina.

"Poor Harry," she said softly. "I wish there was something we could do."

"There is," Angelina said. "We simply do what we have been doing; we get on with our lives. If we dwell on this, so will he. We'll just be his supportive Quidditch team. He knows that if he ever needs anything he can come to us."

"You're right." Katie gave Angelina a smile. "He thinks about it enough. We'll make sure that when he's around us, he won't have to."

"We'll talk of Quidditch and everything else that's happy," Angelina added. Katie nodded.

"Are you sure?" Alicia asked, her eyes wide. "Doesn't it help for someone to get over something by talking about it?"

"He has Ron and Hermione for that," Angelina said. "We're his Quidditch team mates. If he wants to tell us about it, he'll talk to us. Until then..."

Alicia still looked skeptical, but said nothing. She just went back to eating her eggs in silence.

"Did you hear that the Holyhead Harpies won?" Katie asked, changing the subject all together, hoping to lighten the mood at the table.

"Leave it to Katie to totally change the topic," Alicia said, now smiling.

"Well we're agreed on the other," Angelina said, taking a bite of her eggs. "And Quidditch is the best way I know of to change a topic."

"Speaking of Quidditch," Katie said with her eyebrows raised. "Isn't our first game against Ravenclaw?" Katie never got an answer. There was something like an explosion from where Harry was sitting. The youngest Weasley boy, Ron, was standing up, yelling at a blonde boy whose name she couldn't remember. She knew that he was the Slytherin Seeker, and that's all she needed to know.

"Sit down, Ron. He's not worth it," she heard Harry say.

"Besides Weasel, I wasn't talking to you anyway, I just wanted to know why Scarface here didn't have time to tell the reporters what really happened with Cedric?" the blonde boy said with a smirk, and loud enough to make the whole hall quit their conversations. "Too busy signing autographs?"

"Shut up Malfoy," Hermione said. "Just shut your mouth."

"What is his problem?" Katie hissed.

"That's the same boy that called Hermione a Mudblood in our fourth year," Angelina said in an undertone. "He's bad news."

"There's a news flash," Alicia muttered.

Katie watched him move his cold grey eyes back to Harry. "Or maybe it's because it's your fault." Thinking back, Katie remembered that if she thought it was quiet then, it became even quieter, but that was only the calm before the storm. Quickly the hall exploded with noise, Katie herself, tried to stand up and get to Malfoy, but Angelina grabbed her.

"This is not your fight," she muttered.

"It's Harry!" Katie yelled, but her protest was drowned out. Apparently Ron had lept across the table and pounced on the blonde boy. In fact, they almost knocked Alicia and an unsuspecting second year off the benches. Katie and Angelina stood on their seats to watch the fray. She could hear Alicia yelling at them to stop, but Alicia was smart, she wasn't doing anything besides yelling.

Katie looked at the Head Table. It was deserted, as the teachers were trying to get to the fighting boys. But their path was blocked, and no one was showing any sign of moving. The boys rolled under the Gryffindor table. Katie, scared that they would tip, decided to try and step down onto the floor. Angelina was doing the same, but their thought came too late. The worst possible point that the scuffling boys could have hit the bench that the two of them were standing on, they did. Both Angelina and Katie flew back into the wall, and the bench made a cluttering sound on the floor. Katie waited to make impact with the wall cringing, but she felt arms around her, stopping her. She turned to see someone she hadn't expected. Oliver Wood had saved her from flying into the wall.

"You know Katie, when a guy saves your life, or at least your head from bashing into a wall, you're supposed to say thank you. Not 'get your filthy grimy hands off of me you child molesting badger' and then stomp on his foot," Angelina said, rolling her eyes.

"It was stone wall, and stone is hard, which means you could have cracked that odd little head of yours," Alicia added, talking to Katie like she had suddenly become stupid, which Angelina secretly thought had happened.

"It was Oliver! What else was I supposed to do?!" Katie said, swinging her back pack dangerously close to Angelina. Angelina backed away. She knew how accident prone her friend was.

"How about gee thanks Oliver, you saved my head from breaking open, you're a swell guy," Angelina suggested.

"Especially since he saved your blonde hair from being a lovely shade of red," Alicia said. Angelina shared a look with her,

and they both rolled their eyes. Katie was being quite the baby about the whole thing.

"Look, what do you guys want me to say? 'Oh Oliver! Thank you SO much for saving my life, now I can I follow you around with the rest of your groupies, and make up clever acronyms to call our little group, where I can share with the rest of your followers the story of how you saved my life?!" Katie asked, stopping in the hall, putting her hands on her hips.

"How about a simple thank you?" Angelina said, raising an eyebrow. Katie just made a face.

"All you need to do is say, thanks, not join his fan club. Quit being dramatic," Alicia said. "Besides, how would you feel if you saved someone from splattering their brains on the wall of the Great Hall and they didn't say thank you?"

"I wasn't about to splatter my brains on the wall of the Great Hall," Katie mumbled.

"You get the idea. Now are you going to apologize?" Alicia was now tapping her foot.

"Yes Mummy," Katie mocked. Angelina tried not to laugh herself. Alicia was doing her best Mummy dearest impression, even though she never meant to. Alicia herself smiled, something she rarely ever did when one of them called her Mummy.

"You really do need to apologize, that was really rude of you." Katie looked at Angelina hopefully.

"I agree with her," Angelina said. "It's horrid of you not to do otherwise."

Katie's head dropped, Angelina knew that she knew she would have to apologize. Especially since her two very best friends were both up against her.

"So tonight at Quidditch practice, you're going to apologize and say, 'thanks Oliver for preventing me from flying into a stone wall.' Right?" Alicia asked. Katie grumbled.

"I think we can take that as a yes," Angelina said, grinning.

"I will, as long as I don't have to do it in front of the rest of the team, and the two of you never speak of this again," Katie was looking down at the ground. Alicia and Angelina shared grins.

"Fine, fine," Alicia said. "As long as you do it."

"Shite," Alicia said looking at her watch. She was going to be late to another Prefect's meeting. Angelina had delayed her after Ancient Runes. They were speculating on how many shades of red Katie's face would turn after apologizing to Oliver, which of course made her late to the Prefect's meeting. She skidded into the empty Arithmancy classroom that they used for meetings and saw Roger Davies glaring at her. She took her usual seat next to him; she hated the fact that she was the only seventh year Gryffindor Prefect. Damn those boys for always screwing around, she thought. She looked to see Roger still staring at her.

"Problem Davies?" she asked.

"You're late. Again. What's the point in having you be a Prefect if you're constantly late?" he asked. "Oh that's right, the rest of the Gryffindors in your year spend so much time screwing around, you were the only choice."

"Shut up Roger," Hermione said where she was seated with Dean Thomas, and the rest of the fifth year prefects, except the two Slytherins. They always sat in the back. "Besides the Head Boy and Girl aren't even here yet."

The room filled with snickers. Alicia couldn't help snickering herself. Rose Fawcett and William Stebbins, the Head Girl and Boy, were a couple. They were both also notoriously late for Prefect's meetings.

"Maybe Rose's tongue got stuck down William's throat again?" Padma Patil, a fifth year Ravenclaw Prefect suggested.

Everyone sniggered until finally Roger, who everyone secretly suspected harbored a crush on Rose, spoke up.

"I hardly think that this conversation is appropriate for Prefects." Roger then, pompously fixed his tie. He was worse than Percy Weasley sometimes, Alicia thought, rolling her eyes.

"Oh shut up Davies," Malfoy said from the back. Alicia turned to see Malfoy sitting in his chair, much like Katie usually did, propped up on the back two legs. She secretly hoped that he would fall flat on his arse, much like Katie was prone to do, but he didn't.

Finally, after a twenty minute discussion on why Rose and William could possibly be late, and endless tutting from Roger, which annoyed everyone, they showed up.

"Did you get 'lost' again?" Blaise Zabini, the other fifth year Slytherin Prefect, asked.

"No, Blaise, but thank you for the inquiry," Rose said, giving Blaise a death glare. "We were talking with Dumbledore."

"Was it about Mr. Malfoy's lovely show this morning at breakfast?" Hermione asked, sounding hopeful.

"Shut up Granger," Malfoy replied.

"No actually it's about something a lot more important," William said. "Although, Draco, if you feel the urge to put on another display like that again, you will lose that shiny Prefect's badge that you love so much." Alicia could almost hear Draco's scowl.

"It's about You-Know-Who." The room was instantly quiet. Everyone was facing the Head Boy and Girl. Even the usual background whispers were gone. She could even hear Draco's chair legs hit the floor. "Even though the Daily Prophet hasn't been reporting it, the attacks by You-Know-Who have been increasing steadily, especially in the Hogsmeade vicinity."

"Dumbledore is worried that he might be planning something to do with the students," Rose said, interrupting William.

"You mean Harry?" Dean asked.

"No, we're worried about all the students, we don't believe Harry is a target right now," William answered.

"What do you mean Harry isn't a target?" Padma asked. "He's got a bloody scar on his forehead that says 'You-Know-Who come and kill me!' Of course he's a target!" Alicia nodded in agreement. There were nods from everyone, even the Slytherins.

"Well, we're not doing this specifically for Harry's benefit," Rose said. "This is for everyone's safety. Just because Harry is, well, Harry, we're not going to put his safety ahead of anyone else's, though we, and Dumbledore, do realize that he is in more danger than the rest of us. We want everyone to be safe."

"Which is why we are going to instate, with the Staff, the following rules," William interjected. "No students are allowed outside of the dormitories alone. If they need to use the loo, they can ask a room mate, or a Prefect to go with them, this also goes for the Prefects. We don't want anyone alone in the halls; also remember to bring your wands. We're also going to ask the sixth and seventh years to help out with this. All Quidditch practices will be supervised by Madame Hooch and unfortunately Hogsmeade trips will be cancelled."

Surprisingly it wasn't the cancelled Hogsmeade trips that brought everyone up into an uproar. It was the no students out of the dormitories rule that brought out the uproars. Alicia thought that late night snog sessions would probably be caught short. To no surprise, it was Blaise and Draco who put up the biggest fight. However after an hour, making them all late for dinner, everyone stopped arguing. Alicia suspected that it had more to do with the fact that they were all hungry than with everyone's principles.

Katie's palms were sweating and she realized that it probably had nothing to do with the rough exercises that Angelina had put them through. She jerked off her wrist guards and saw Angelina and Alicia giving her funny looks from the other side of the girls locker room. They were waiting for her to apologize, and Angelina had even gone so far as to tell Oliver that she needed to talk to him after practice.

"How was the Prefect's meeting?" Katie asked, trying to think of something, anything else, than having to thank Oliver.

"Let me guess," Angelina said. "Roger was a total prat the whole time and Rose and William were late?"

"How did you guess?" Alicia asked in mock surprise. "No, actually, there is something that I need to tell you guys about. Some new rules and guidelines, I'll have to tell the boys about it too. I've left Cate to talk to the sixth years." Alicia then explained the new rules to them. Katie shrugged. They seemed pretty fair to her.

"As long as I don't wind up dead, I don't really care," Angelina said. "I'm sure it's for the best."

"That's what I thought," Alicia said, pulling a pink shirt over her head. "But there was a big uproar."

"About Hogsmeade trips?" Katie asked, pulling her jeans over her hips.

"No, actually, about not being able to wonder the halls," Alicia said, rolling her eyes.

"We're not supposed to do that anyway," Angelina said.

"Try telling the Slytherins that," Alicia mumbled. "Thankfully the Heads of Houses are going to each house tonight to explain the new rules to the fifth years and lower. Gets me out of it, its bad enough telling you guys about it and I truly feel sorry for Cate." They finished dressing as they complained about the Slytherins, one of their favorite activities, and talked about their chances against Ravenclaw. Katie grinned when she saw how badly Alicia was dying to beat Davies; she figured that he might just have the Quaffle accidentally aimed at his head a few times.

Katie had completely forgotten about talking to Oliver until they headed out of the locker room and Oliver was leaning against the locker room door, looking way to comfortable in a green jumper and a pair of khaki trousers. She gulped as Angelina and Alicia made excuses to why they had to head up to the dormitory.

"Angelina said you wanted to talk to me," he said softly, a lot softer than he normally he spoke. She bit her lip. This was going to be harder than she thought.

"I would like to say er, erm, thank you for saving me from falling today," she said, looking down at her feet. She looked up at him, he wasn't looking at her, and he was staring out towards the Pitch. She took several deep breaths. C'mon Katie, say it, she told herself. Apologizing to Oliver was the hardest thing she'd ever done, though she needed too. "And I'm sorry that I called you a child molesting badger."

Oliver turned his face toward her. He had a sort of half grin on his face. "You're welcome and its okay." He turned to walk away, and Katie immediately knew, for some reason, she didn't want him to walk away from her. Her palms were sweating again and her heart was pounding in her ears.

"I really am sorry Oliver," she called. He turned to face her. His expression was unreadable, and his eyes softened towards her. He still didn't say anything.

"I know," he said, and walked away. Katie stood there, confused, until he entered the castle. Finally, her thoughts became coherent again, and she walked into the castle, running all the way to Gryffindor Tower.

"Katie's been quiet all night," Angelina said, once she heard Katie's soft snores from her bed.

"Do you think Oliver let her have it?" Alicia asked.

"We're talking about Oliver, he wouldn't hurt Katie's feelings on purpose," Angelina said.

"I know, she's just been acting weird lately," Alicia said. Angelina flipped over onto her back. "All she does is either stare off into space or moan about Oliver."

"She caught her sleeve on fire today in Potions. Fred put it out before she even realized what was going on," Angelina said.

Fred was Katie's Potion's partner and had been since the day that the Weasley twins had been forbidden from working together.

"Is that what Snape was yelling about? I tuned him out." They were quiet for a while longer. Angelina kept thinking about her friend's bizarre behavior as of late. "I keep thinking about the story she told us about Oliver."

"I know. It's bizarre. Oliver and Katie kissing, and the conversation she overheard."

"What if," Alicia began. "What if there was more to that conversation? Oliver isn't like that. I just don't see him insulting Katie, when he didn't even know her, or any of us for that matter? What do you think?"

"I don't know, Alicia," Angelina replied. She had been honestly confused when Katie had shared the story with her. It seemed totally bizarre for Oliver to behave that way, it certainly wasn't standard behavior. On the other hand, Katie often had a temper, but she wasn't prone to exaggerate, even when it came to her hatred for Oliver.

"Do you think we ought to talk to him about it?"

"I think that's the last thing we ought to do," Angelina said firmly. "Katie would have both of our heads if we did that. We should definitely not get involved. I don't want to be on the other side of her temper or Quaffle for that matter."

"

You're probably right. I just hope she can put that aside for a while. I'm worried about her."

"I know, but we can't do anything about it, so let's just go to sleep."