Life Down at the Quidditch Pitch

Chapter Eight

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"Okay Andrew," Oliver said from his position on his broomstick. "Watch for Emma to loop around you, Emma watch Andrew, try to find an opening." They both nodded and Emma tore off towards her brother. Watching her fly reminded him of Katie, the same 'I will score or die trying' look on her face. He watched carefully. Both of them were extremely good for their age, both as good as many people who tried out for the house teams. Emma flew under Andrew, who immediately realized what she was trying to do and began to block the makeshift goal. This went on for some time, Emma would find an opening, Andrew would realize it and immediately block it.

Finally Emma got past him, but she missed her shot. It hit the post, missing the middle of the goal. She made a face but grabbed the ball they were using and brought it back to him.

"Good job you guys," he said, when they were back by him.

"I missed," Emma said, looking slightly defeated.

"And I almost let her score," Andrew said, looking just as defeated.

"There more important things than winning Quidditch," Oliver said sagely.

"This coming from the Quidditch master himself," someone said. He looked down to see Katie below him, smirking. "How many times did you tell Harry to get the Snitch or die trying?"

"Kate!" Andrew shrieked. "Play with us!" Oliver was slightly relieved by Andrew's interruption, though Katie was still smirking like that cat that'd caught the mouse. She even had an eyebrow raised, and Merlin that smirk looked so familiar.

"Sure," Katie replied. "Let me go grab a broom." Katie left the field, he watched her as she went back into the house. Then he looked back and Andrew and Emma, for he didn't want them to think he fancied their sister when he wasn't sure what it was that he felt towards the girl.

"Let's play, Kate and me, and Emma and Oliver," Andrew said. "I want to see real Quidditch players play!"

"I get to play on the same team as Mr. Wood!" Emma said excitedly. "Wait until I tell Sarah on Monday!"

Oliver grinned, and Katie came back outside. She flew up and hovered across from her sister. She gave her a friendly smile. Oliver released the Quaffle and headed back to his goal post. He would be defending against Katie, and on the right day she was close to unstoppable.

She flew straight towards him, slower than she might normally have; she was on a Cleansweep 3, instead of a Cleansweep 7. Her normal broom may have not been top of the line, but she always made it fly and well. His shoulder was going to kill him tomorrow.

She flew by him; he followed her with his eyes, waiting for the moment she would pounce. She was smart enough not to show any emotion on her face when she was staring down the other team's Keeper, that's what made her and Angelina such good scorers. Alicia had always been more of a passer.

In the background he could hear Andrew cheering his sister on, but he wasn't focusing on that. Right now there were only two things in the world that were important, Katie and that ball. He watched her, careful to not get to far away from his position in front of the goal.

Finally she released the ball, he moved to block it, but was too late. She'd scored.

*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*

"That was fun," Katie said, feeling refreshed after the impromptu game of Quidditch.

"For who?" Oliver asked raising an eyebrow.

"Me," she said. "I did win." Oliver made a noise. "You were the one who told my siblings that there was more to life than winning Quidditch." Katie had been confused when he'd said that, it had been Oliver Wood right? The Oliver Wood who wouldn't have cared if they'd all been killed during a game, just as long as they won? She shook her head; the boy must not be feeling well. That and she noticed that when she went to his left, he missed nine out of ten shots that she made. Very unlike him, and she was curious.

"Sometimes there is Katie," he said, looking somber. "Sometimes it's more than life down at the Quidditch Pitch."

"Are you okay?" Katie asked, still confused.

Oliver looked at her. "Are we friends? I'm tired of this feud we have, its stupid and I'm not even sure how or why it started."

"I'm tired of it too, it's tiring," Katie replied, surprised by her own honesty. She shook her head. "I think that we should put the whole thing behind us."

Oliver nodded. "I think that it would be healthier for the both of us."

Katie nodded. They were silent as they walked back to the house. Katie didn't like silence right now though, she hated it. It gave her time to think, and thinking was bad. Thinking made the loss of her mother come closer to the surface. She'd tried to keep her patented Katie Bell coolness up; luckily her new friendship with Oliver meant that she had more energy to fake being okay. She wasn't okay, she knew it, she just didn't want anyone else to know it too.

She looked over at Oliver. He was staring out over toward the house. The brisk autumn air had made his cheeks a bright shade of pink. Autumn, she thought. Her mum loved autumn...the weather. She felt tears well up in her eyes.

"Damn it Katie, don't think," she scolded herself. She was glad Oliver wasn't looking at her.

She rubbed her nose; it was getting a bit chilly outside. She closed her eyes. If her Mum was still here, they'd have cocoa waiting inside for them. But her mum wasn't here, she thought bitterly. Her mum was dead. Dead, dead, dead. Before Oliver could say anything or before he could anything odd she ran into the cottage, blinded by the tears that had formed in her eyes.

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Katie hadn't said a word since she'd run off at her grandmum's house, Oliver thought, sitting in a chair back at the flat. Once they'd gotten home, she'd gone straight into her room, without a word. Oliver twiddled a piece of thread in his fingers, he was worried about her.

He sighed and looked over towards her room again. It wasn't what she'd said that had worried him; it was everything that she hadn't seen. The pain hidden behind an otherwise stoic face, the occasional rapid blinking, and that she looked as if she wasn't really looking at him, when she was staring right at him. He sighed again. He wanted to talk to her, but he knew that it would be like walking straight into the fire. There was something inside him that made him need to check to see if she was okay. He couldn't explain it.

He walked over to her room in the flat; he could her strains of music coming from her room. What was going on, he thought to himself. He walked closer and some of the lyrics became clear, it was Muggle music.

"...if I could make days last forever
If words could make wishes come true..."

"Katie?" he asked, he knocked softly on the door. There was no noise, just music playing. He couldn't even tell that she was in there.

"...I'd save every day like a treasure and then
again I would spend them with you..."

"Katie?" he asked again. He knocked a little harder, maybe she hadn't heard him. He was worried about her. She really shouldn't let this stay bottled up inside her. "Katie."

"...but there never seems to be enough time to do the
things you want once you find them..."

The door finally opened, Katie stood in front of him, clad in her red robe.

"What?" she asked, sounding extremely annoyed. He took a good look at her; her eyes were rimmed in red. She'd been crying, but he knew that she didn't want him to know that.

"What are you listening to?" he asked.

"Jim Croce, Time in a Bottle...why?" she asked.

"It's...very good," he lied. He hadn't decided if he liked it yet.

"Thanks," she said. She was doing it again, he noted. She was looking at him like she wasn't really seeing him. "I wanted to go to bed." She began shutting the door, but he stopped it with his foot.

"Kate, tell me what is wrong...well beside the obvious..." he stammered. "If you want to talk I'm here to listen."

"Thanks." She looked at him for a moment and her eyes softened. "But I don't want to talk."

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"Ready?" Angelina asked from underneath her thick cloak. She, Alicia, Fred, George, Lee, and Dean were all off to Katie's flat. Harry hadn't been allowed to go; Dumbledore had thought that it would be safest for Harry to stay home. But he had sent a card with Alicia to give to Katie. He had promised to watch the Slytherin and Ravenclaw match the next day though to pass on game strategies.

"Whenever you are captain," Dean said, jokingly.

"How do you think Katie's going to be?" Alicia asked, holding the Floo powder in her hand.

"No telling," Alicia said, looking worried. "Let's just go, she and Oliver are to meet us at the Leaky Cauldron."

Angelina nodded. She watched Fred and George Floo, then she went. She hated the Floo network, it made her dizzy. She fell out of the fireplace, Fred and George helped her up. She moved away from the front of the fireplace so that whoever came next wouldn't fall on top of her.

"Where's Katie and Oliver?" she asked, brushing the soot from her cloak.

Fred and George shrugged. "Haven't seen either one love," Fred said.

Dean, Lee, and Alicia, who came last, joined them. The pub was crowded, but it was a Friday night.

"Maybe we're just not seeing them," Alicia suggested, trying to stand on the tips of her toes to see over the throng of people.

"Do you know where Katie's flat is?" Dean asked.

"Yes," Angelina replied, as she was pushed from behind by someone. She turned to give whoever it was a death glare when she realized that it was Oliver, a very tired looking Oliver.

"Sorry," Oliver said. "Is everyone here?"

"Yes," she replied.

"Well let's get going." Oliver looked extremely annoyed, Angelina didn't ask any questions, but she and everyone followed Oliver out to the street, dragging their trunks behind them. She had a feeling that things between Oliver and Katie weren't exactly going well, not that she actually for a second would have thought that they were.

They were mostly silent on their way to the flat, Fred and George kept getting excited over all the Muggle things, Dean had to tell them to be quiet quite a few times.

Finally they go to the flat; Oliver pulled out a key and opened up the door. They stepped into the flat; it looked exactly like it had when she and Alicia had been there the last time. The only difference was the pulled out futon, but even Oliver's things didn't look too out of place. The only thing missing was Katie.

"Oliver," Angelina finally asked. "Where exactly is Katie?" She raised an eyebrow.

"She's at her grandmum's, where we're going. The family is getting together there tonight, we've been invited. There was a mini crisis there earlier, something really upset Emma earlier, Kate wanted to be there," he said. Angelina couldn't remember the last time that Oliver had sounded quite that tired. "She left right before you got here. We better change before we go."

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"Grandmum?" Katie called from down the hallway. Emma had called her just a few minutes earlier sobbing on the phone; she had decided to come straightaway. Oliver and everyone else would be coming soon enough. "Emma?"

She heard a sob coming from one of the empty bedrooms on her left. She knocked on it.

"Em?" she asked attentively.

"Oh Kate!" Emma threw the door open. She looked into the bedroom. Andrew was sitting on the bed looking pale. Emma had wrapped her arms around her so tightly now that she couldn't move.

"Em, Drew, what's wrong?" she asked, patting her younger sister on the back. Emma was sobbing into her shirt and was taking deep breaths. Andrew wasn't saying anything, he was just staring. "What is wrong?" she demanded again.

"Kate, it's awful," Andrew finally said, looking at her. "Father's come to the viewing."

"What?!" Katie screamed. Emma jumped away from her. "Did he bring that hussy with him?"

"Kate, there's more, Father's family has come with." Andrew looked extremely uncomfortable.

"And Grandmum let them stay?" Katie was shaking she was so mad. She grabbed one of Andrew's wrists and one of Emma's and pulled them behind her. "We're talking to her. This is madness. Can't bloody well believe that our father and his bloody wench are coming to our mother's funeral." She kept ranting all the way to the sitting room but she stopped as soon as she who was in it.

Her father, a few years older, but her father none the less, had his arm wrapped around some fruity blonde. There were two children, both blonde and both under the age of seven, one boy and one girl. Andrew squeezed her hand; Emma let Katie hold on to her wrist. She gulped and before her father could see her, she tore down to the other side of the house, where the guests were supposed to be congregating at.

With the twins behind her, she weaved through the people there. More had shown up than she would have normally thought. Quite a few of them were Muggles and Squibs. She looked around, trying to find her grandmum somewhere. She almost knocked over her great aunt Margaret, when she finally found her grandmum, who was sitting on a couch, alone.

"What is he doing here?" she hissed. Her grandmum looked back up at her.

"He's brought his family too."

"What?" Katie demanded. The entire time her parents had been together, she'd only met her grandmother and grandfather on her father's side of the family along with his sister, her aunt Alexia. Her father came from a very well to do family, which thought it below them that her father, Sam, marry the daughter of a Squib. Andrew squeezed her hand tighter. "This is insane, why do they care?"

"I don't know Katie, but just, ignore him. You're friends will be here soon," her grandmum took her free hand in hers and patted it. "I'll keep Emma and Andrew away from him. You be with you friends. You need them right now."

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Oliver was tired. He had spent the last two days listening to Katie's bad music, she claimed her Mum loved it (apparently her mum loved some Jim Croce guy and Elton John, who was also famous in the wizarding world, he was a Squib after all), dealing with her being perfectly friendly one moment and then her stoic self the next, and he wasn't sleeping well knowing that only yards away Katie was probably in bed sobbing her heart out. His shoulder was just downright painful, and for some reason he wanted to comfort her. He sighed. Maybe she would be different once her friends were around. Though she had said that she was ready to be friends with him.

He shook his head. He would go to the viewing tonight, be nice, smile, and then come back to the flat and sleep until they had to get up the next morning.

He watched everyone Floo out of the Leaky Cauldron; he was the last to go. He was already hot in his Muggle suit; he hoped it wouldn't get dirty. Not that he was prissy by any means of the word, Percy Weasley had always been the prissy one his dorm and secretly all the boys figured him to be a pouf, even after he dated Penelope Clearwater.

He Flooed over to Rose's cottage, he was surprised to see that Dean and George had waited for him in the room. They helped him up and brushed the ash from his clothing.

"Are you blokes coming?" Oliver asked, realizing that he sounded as tired as he felt. He just felt completely drained.

"You all right Wood?" George asked.

"Nothing I won't survive lets go make friendly with people," he replied. The three of them walked out into the hallway and Oliver led them to the sitting room where the viewing was taking place. He was glad that there weren't any dead bodies around like at some. Dead bodies gave him the willies.

He looked around, there were dozens of people that he didn't' know. Alicia, Angelina, and Katie were no where to be seen. Lee and Fred were off somewhere too, probably with them. Maybe he could find Emma and Andrew, or even Rose.

He looked around some of the people and finally spotted Emma, she was in a corner, glaring at someone. It was a look quite reminiscent of her older sister.

"C'mon, I see Katie's little sister," he said. He pushed his way through the group of people; he could have sworn that Katie said there wouldn't be a lot of people at the viewing or the funeral. "Hey Emma."

Emma looked up at him; he realized that she had been crying. She was biting her lower lip and starting at someone on the other side of the room.

"Hi Mr. Wood," she said.

"Hello Emma," he replied. "These are mine and Katie's friends George and Dean. George has a twin too."

"You know Kate?" she asked. "You go to school with her?" They nodded. Emma was being rather quiet and had the look her sister had whenever she was thinking about something.

"What's wrong?" he asked. Emma looked up at him seriously. She pulled down on his arm and whispered into his ear. "My father and his hussy are here."

Oliver looked at her. Did a nine year old just call someone a hussy?

"It's what Kate always calls her."

"Where's he at?"

Emma pointed to a corner, where a man who looked like Katie had his arm around a woman, and was talking to a very familiar looking blonde couple. No wonder Katie was off somewhere. Angelina and Alicia were probably tying her down to a table somewhere or giving her a tranquilizing charm.

"Have you spoken to him?"

"I've never spoke to that man in my life," Emma replied. Tears began forming in her eyes again. Feeling awkward, he did the only thing he could do and gave the girl a hug. "He hates me and Andrew. I know it."

"Well that's his problem," Oliver replied. "You and Andrew are lovely children."

"Thank you Mr. Wood," she replied. "I'm going to go find Drew."

Oliver nodded. He had a feeling this was going to be a long night. To confirm his fears he heard a small explosion come from where Katie's father had been. He looked to see what it was; the small explosion was none other than Katie Bell.