Life Down at the Quidditch Pitch

Chapter Six

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Katie opened an eye and watched Oliver shut the door. The memory of what he'd just said rang in her mind.

"If there was anything I could do for you, I would."

She sat up, pulling her blankets around her and putting the photo album into her lap, gazing out over the tissues strewn across her floor. She was surprised that he said that. Surely this wasn't the same Oliver as the one the night in the Common Room. The more time that passed, the more she was confused by him.

She shook her head; she didn't want him feeling sorry for her. That she was sure of.

She shoved her feet into a pair of slippers and pulled the purple robe she had on a hanger. She might as well go out and face the day and the ever confusing Mr. Wood.

She passed her siblings' empty bedroom and entered the living room. Oliver was seated on the couch, looking carefully at something. She realized that it was a picture, Mum's favorite. It was a wizard picture; all four of them were in it.

"Something interesting?" she said. She watched Oliver jump and look up like a child who had been caught in the cookie jar. "Don't look as if you've just eaten a child."

"I just didn't realize that you were awake." He quickly put down the picture, knocking it over, and she tried not to laugh. She looked over at him and their eyes locked, she smiled, he smiled back. Then she realized how little they were both wearing. Oliver was wearing flannels trousers and a very thing white t-shirt, she felt herself blushing and realized that she needed to get out of the room as soon as possible.

"Er," she said, felling naked in her robe and nightgown. "Did you find something to eat?"

"No not yet," Oliver replied, and Katie noticed that he sounded just as uncomfortable as she felt. It wasn't that she'd never been half naked in front of a boy before, she'd been well more than that. This was just weird, and she wasn't totally sure as to why it was so weird.

"Maybe you ought to shower," Katie said, thinking of all the things that she had to do before the funeral.

"Do I stink that bad?" Oliver stood up grinning again, apparently his embarrassment had faded.

"Only slightly." Katie found Oliver a towel and she headed into the bathroom, showing him how exactly the shower worked. It was just as entertaining as hearing Oliver go on about the 'phooeytone' or rather futon the night before. He just hadn't understood that the couch wasn't really transfiguring itself; it just took manual work to get it to open to its full size. She heard the water turn on and Oliver yelped. He must have turned the cold on the whole way, instead of cold and hot.

Katie fell back onto the still opened futon and pulled the blanket close to her. She made a mental note of everything that she needed to do between now and the funeral. She was so disorganized, she didn't know if she could do everything that everyone was depending on her to do. She had to make sure that she had something to wear, help set up everything at the church, and various other tasks that she didn't want to start thinking about. She also had to set her mother's affairs in order, which wouldn't be that difficult. For as disorganized as Katie was, her mother was that organized. The mortgage on the flat had been paid for since she could remember, the same with the car. Besides, Katie had her own Gringott's vault and Muggle bank account, the money in both was more than enough to pay for anything. Then there was her Grandmum who would help pay for just about anything.

She sighed; she was tired and hadn't even begun to do anything today. She knew that she had to call her Grandmum in Kent, Emma and Andrew would want to talk to her. They always did. They loved it when she owled them from school, well even Mum had loved the owls. Mum had attended a school of magic until her fifth year, when it was closed down, and no reputable school of magic took transfers. She sighed.

She picked up the newspaper sitting on the coffee table. It was dated October 30, 2002, two days ago. Normally she couldn't have been buggered reading the Muggle paper, or even the Daily Prophet. The headline wasn't particularly thrilling; she flipped through until she found something that startled here.

There had been a mysterious death in a Muggle village in Scotland, near where she suspected Hogsmeade and Hogwarts were. There was an optical illusion hanging above the house, a skull and a snake with an odd green haze around it. The Muggles didn't know why it was like that, but she did. The Death Eaters had attacked that house and killed whoever was in it. No wonder Dumbledore had sent Oliver with her.

She put down the paper, she really didn't fancy reading about death and destruction. Not today anyway, today she began, with her sister, brother, and Grandmum arranging the funeral. Not exactly her idea of an exciting time, but it needed to be done.

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Oliver played with the bar of soap that was in the shower. He was incredibly amused by the contraptions in the shower, well after he'd gotten the shock of extremely cold water. The showers at Hogwart's were enchanted so that all you had to do was hit the tap with you hand and water would come out. There were taps for soap and shampoo as well.

In Katie's shower however, there were bottles upon bottles of things that he didn't recognized and something that she had called a 'woofah' or something. She said that you were supposed to use it to wash yourself. He was amused with the whole shower thing.

After the amusement faded and the water began to get cold (Oliver wasn't sure why), he decided to leave the shower and get dressed. He rotated his left shoulder, it was still sore. He winced and pulled the khaki colored jumper over his head. He would have to be more careful how he slept.

He walked out into the hallway, clothes and towel in hand. He heard Katie talking softly. He figured that she must have been talking on the telephone, he had taken Muggle Studies, and so there were a few Muggle things that he wasn't totally oblivious to.

He walked out into the sitting room, Katie was sitting in an armchair, and her back was towards him. She hadn't heard him enter the living room apparently. She kept talking and he couldn't help but notice.

"No Em, no need to worry, I'm not here alone...someone's been sent home with me...from school. I'm not sure if you'd call him a Professor or not." Katie was silent for a moment, apparently whoever she was talking to on the other side of the phone was now speaking. He wasn't quite sure how the telephone worked, he just knew that Muggles used it to talk to each other. "No actually, they sent my old Quidditch Captain home with me, can you believe that? He came back to teach flying...yes the one that I think is an utter prat, or rather I did...no Em, nothing like that...EMILY!" Katie began laughing. Sometimes I forget that you're nine and I'm seventeen, we seem so much closer than that...no its just something you wouldn't understand, he seems different now...oh sod off. Let me talk to Andrew, he at least acts nine and won't bother me like you will...love you too."

Oliver took that chance to make his presence known. Katie smiled at him, she was still in her pajamas, and was wrapped in a quilt. He sat down in another arm chair. What had Katie meant by he seemed different? He didn't feel different; maybe she was the different one? Had she finally decided that he wasn't worth hating? He wasn't sure why she hated him so. He let his mind wonder back to the day that Katie kissed him and what had happened afterwards.

Saying that he had noticed that blonde second year would have been an understatement. True, his friends, well if you wanted to call them that, would tease him about fancying the girl rotten, robbing the cradle, and other more vicious and uncalled for lewd humor, but he didn't really care. No, he knew that there was something special about that girl, even if no one else did.

So when he had 'accidentally' overheard the Weasley twins trying to get their older brother and Oliver's dorm mate, Percy, to do their Transfiguration homework for them because it was due right after practice, he had decided to bite the bullet and try to talk to her before that class. He left breakfast early and spent half an hour hiding behind a suit of armor, feeling like a stalker.

He watched the Weasley twins and two of their friends walk towards the classroom. Where was Katie? He heard the bell ring and figured that he might as well head towards Divination, maybe she took another way to Transfiguration, or maybe she'd gotten there really early.

He sighed and was about to leave his hideaway behind the armor when he heard two people running down the hallway. He looked out and saw Katie and a black girl running like mad to the classroom. He jumped back all the way behind the armor, and caught his breath when he saw her bag get caught on something sticking out of the very armor he was hiding behind, he saw it tear her bag open.

"Bugger," she yelled. He watched the girl she was with look around, as if she was deciding on whether or not to stay or go. "Go, tell McGonagall what happened. She won't be too cross." The girl nodded and ran off towards the classroom once more. He let out the breath that he'd been holding. He squeezed behind the suit of armor so that he could be behind her.

He took a shaky breath. "C'mon Wood, you're a Gryffindor, she's just a girl, talk to her. She's just a girl." He took a deep breath and resisted the urge to begin screaming down the hallway and all the way to Divination.

"Need help?" he asked, surprised how confident he sounded. She whipped her head up to look at him. She looked a bit scared, but he was sure that when he was a second year and a fourth year talked to him, he would have acted the same.

"Sh-sh-shouldn't you be in class?"

Yes he should have been in Divination, he thought. He needed a good reason to have just been traipsing down the hallway for no apparent reason. Then it dawned on him Divination and Trelawney telling Alex MacFetridge just the week before that he would be late to the next class. "I was actually on my way to Divination, but Trelawney already warned me that I would be late today, so I decided to take my time," he lied, sounding a lot braver than he really felt. She nodded and he bent down to help her pick up her books. He reached for her Transfiguration book the same time that she did, they knocked hands, and his fingers had shivers go up them. He looked over at her and their eyes locked. She was really pretty, and, he noted, she liked Quidditch. He shook his head, surprised by how funny he felt.

He smiled at her. She smiled back, shyly and then returned her attention back to her bag. She frowned. He looked at the big tear and then thought of the charm that Percy had shown him when he'd ripped his bag the year before. "Let me show you a little Charm to fix your bag."

She nodded, still not saying anything. It was a little weird, but maybe she was just on the shy side. He showed her the charm, silently thanking Percy Weasley. She stood up and thanked him. He watched her walk away and he must have blinked because she was suddenly sitting flat on her bum, red faced. He refrained himself from laughing at her, it wouldn't have made a very good impression.

"Are you okay Katie?" he asked, she nodded. He offered her his hand and helped pull her up. She was still blushing and it was kind of cute. He leaned over her, noticing the red welt that was forming on her forehead. What had she run into? "Let me check your head, you might need to see Madame Pomfrey." He was about to brush the hair away from the bump when he felt a pair of lips on his own, his first kiss, something that he would have never admitted to any of the guys in his dorm. He closed his eyes and began really enjoying the kiss when she pulled away. She looked up at him, his jaw dropped; something he was sure that was not very attractive. Neither of them said anything, but he was racking his brain trying to come up with something to say, anything, when she did something that surprised him even more than the kiss. She ran away.

Friday night Oliver sat in a chair closest to the fire. The Quidditch teammates, Niahm Barclay, a Chaser and Captain, and Anna Smith, the Seeker, a few seventh years he didn't know, but were good friends with Niahm and Anna, his three dorm mates, Percy Weasley, Alex, MacFetridge, and Connor MacDermott, and of course himself were the only ones awake. Niahm and Anna were of course mocking the prospective Quidditch players, much like they'd done when Oliver had tried out two years before. He never listened to the two of them anyway.He was discussing his Muggle Studies homework with Percy, who was also in his class. Usually asking Percy got him any answer he wanted, without putting too much effort into it. He needed to keep up his grades so his parents would let him play for Gryffindor. His parents had never been really happy with his Quidditch obsession, he figured that they hoped that maintaining good grades would get him to quit, but it never did. He heard Niahm and Anna laugh again and he rolled his eyes. He and Percy shared annoyed looks; he saw Alex and Connor look over. They really couldn't stand any of the seventh years; they were all pureblood, which made them think that they were better than anyone else. He often wondered why the lot of them hadn't been sorted into Slytherin.

"Oliver?" He looked up startled, what did Anna want?

"Oh, yes?" he asked, feeling annoyed. He heard footsteps on the stairs but thought nothing of it.

"Don't you think that the second years' trying out for Chaser is a bit pathetic? Especially that frail looking blonde one," she asked, fluttering her blonde eyelashes. He rolled his eyes and gritted his teeth, realizing she was referring to Katie.

"No I don't. I think it's great. I'll bet they'll make great Quidditch players."

"Of course," Niahm said, flipping her glossy black hair. "Oliver thinks the best about everyone." She said that like it was the worst thing anyone could ever do. He rolled his eyes looking back at Percy. Percy just shook his head. The seventh years giggled again. Oliver slammed his book shut and went up to his dormitory. He really couldn't wait until next year when the seventh years would be gone.

Oliver looped around the goals at one end of the Pitch. He had been going up against the different people trying out for Chaser positions, the Beaters were down at the other end of the field. Anna, who wasn't that great of a Seeker, was a worse Beater.

He thought about those that had tried out so far, Alicia Spinnet and Angelina Johnson, both second years; he recognized them as being friends with Katie, were the only two who had made him work to block the Quaffle so far. The others had been so so.

"Bell, Katie," Niahm said. Oliver caught his breath as he watched her fly towards him. He bit his lower lip. She flew near him, the red Quaffle in her hand. She was staring at him menacingly, was this the same girl from the hallway? The one that had kissed him, it looked like the same girl, but she was acting totally different. He watched her carefully, she was good. She kept teasing him with the Quaffle, pretending that she was about to throw it. She must have played Quidditch before. She flew right in front of him and said something that he didn't quite catch. What he did catch though, was the Quaffle. Unfortunately it was his face that caught the Quaffle, and not his hand. The momentum knocked him off his broom and he fell straight for the ground. Niahm shrieked and that was the last thing he heard.

"...Oliver, you remember him Grandmum," Katie said, snapping Oliver from his memories. "The Keeper for Gryffindor...yes, the boy who you thought was so cute from my picture, yes the very one...Grandmum! You've been talking to Emma again."

He looked at Katie who wasn't paying attention to him. He noticed how her expression changed when the conversation went from upbeat to the funeral. She began biting her lower lip. Like this she looked more like the girl that he'd fallen for years ago then the angry she beast that he'd dealt with so often. He looked over at her again and shook his head. He didn't want to fall for her again, but if she kept acting the way she was, he wasn't sure that he could keep himself from falling for her all over again.

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"Think Oliver's dead yet?" Fred asked, sitting down at the Gryffindor table. Alicia looked up from her sausage.

"Funny," Alicia replied, sounding unusually cranky.

"What's wrong with you? Been taking the same thing as George this morning?"

"Sorry, I'm on the tired side."

"Not enough sleep pet?" Lee said, sitting to her left. She gave him a brief half smile and drank some tea. She nodded. She felt Lee kiss her cheek. He was always so understanding when she felt a bit off. Her thoughts hadn't let her fall asleep until the sun was almost up. The circles her thoughts were going in gave her a headache.

"I'm not in the mood for Transfiguration this morning," she said. They all nodded in agreement. She was almost done eating when someone sat down with them she hadn't expected, Dean Thomas.

"Morning," he said. "Have any of you seen Seamus?"

"Seamus Finnigan?" Fred asked.

"How many Seamus' do you know?" Lee asked. Fred stuck out his tongue.

"He was already gone when I got up this morning, usually we can't get him to get out of bed," Dean said, eating some of his sausage. He shrugged.

"I haven't seen him Dean, maybe he just went to the library," she suggested. She looked down at her watch. She had half an hour before class. She wanted to she could stop in the library, there was a theory she had wanted to check on for Transfiguration before she went to bed. "Speaking of the library, I think I'm going to head there now actually. I'll see you all in Transfiguration, Dean see you later." She stood up and left the Great Hall, her mind now preoccupied with Transfiguration.