Life Down at the Quidditch Pitch

Chapter Fifteen

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Angelina ran back up the steps like her clothes were on fire. She had just run down to the common room for a second to check to see if her Transfiguration homework was down there, she couldn't find it. But she'd walked in on what seemed to be a fairly intimate moment between George and Katie. George had his arms wrapped around Katie, her head was his shoulder and her eyes were closed. Honestly, what was Katie thinking?

First there was Oliver, and now not quite forty-eight hours later, she was all over George. Angelina shook her head; this is why she'd said what she had to Katie the day before. This behavior was going to get her in trouble.

She shook her head and entered her bedroom. Flinging herself onto her bed, she sighed; she wanted to talk to Alicia, but she was asleep, and waking her up to get her caught up in the middle of all this did not seem like a good idea. Was that why George had stood up for Katie earlier? She closed her eyes. Katie couldn't be shagging George, and it didn't make sense. They hadn't said more than two words to each other since school started, except for Quidditch practice and the time that Katie had told George to get his fat arse off of her.

Climbing under the covers, she heard the door creak open. It was Katie, humming the Gryffindor cheer that the Weasley twins had made up, with her help.

"Katie?" she asked.

"Who else would it be, Angelina?" Katie replied, sarcastically. Angelina huffed, and rolled over. Then, suddenly possessed by something, she sat up.

"I saw you down there, with George," Angelina said, the words just flying out of her mouth.

"What did you see?" Katie asked, turning towards her. It was too dark to see the expression on Katie's face.

"Why don't you tell me?" Angelina replied. "You and George had your arms all over each other, which is exactly what I bloody tried to warn you about."

"What you saw," Katie began, sounding angry. "Was two friends making up for some bad blood between them, not two people snogging. You've already called me a slut once; I don't really think you need to do it again."

"I didn't call you a slut!" Angelina yelled.

"Oh bloody hell," Alicia muttered. "Can't you two let me sleep?"

"Why should I even bother to explain anything to you, if I talk to a guy you're going to jump to the conclusion that I'm madly shagging him," Katie said. Angelina could see her outline, she was yanking the covers off her bed. "I'll be sleeping elsewhere; I wouldn't want to contaminate you."

"Katie..." Angelina said, confused by the exchange that had just happened. "Don't leave."

"Katie, Angelina, this is insane, can't you just work this out in the morning?" Alicia asked, from her sea of blankets.

"I'll see you two in the morning," Katie replied, dragging the blankets from her bed behind her. The door closed behind her and Angelina fought off the urge to run downstairs and make up with her friend. If she wanted to be a baby about the whole thing, than this was her problem. Though there was a nagging voice in the back of her mind that kept telling her that she was just as bad.

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

Katie dragged the blankets behind her to the common room quite angrily. She was not a slut. Angelina could think whatever she wanted to. Thought, she would never admit it, Angelina's words had cut her like a knife, and how could her best friend be so cruel?

She threw the blankets down on a couch; this was going to be an uncomfortable night. She padded the couch the best that she could, and pulled the covers all the way over her head. She let herself nearly fall asleep, reaching the pinnacle of sleep, the place where if there was a loud noise, it would take her hours to get there again.

There was a loud bang, and Katie nearly jumped out of her skin. She sat up, blankets flying everywhere. She looked around wide-eyed; no one was down there. She ran over to look out of the common room window; it was suddenly bright outside, like noon had come twelve hours earlier.

Knowing that there was something wrong, she ran upstairs and into the nearest dormitory, the fifth year girl's dormitory. Hermione would take her to a teacher's office. Problem was Hermione wasn't in her bed.

"Bugger," she muttered under her breath. She flew out of the dorm and down the stairs; she'd just have to go alone. She sprinted out of the portrait hallway, she hoped Filch wasn't anywhere around otherwise she'd be dead for sure.

The castle stone was cold on her feet, but she barely noticed. She groaned halfway down a flight of stairs, the only office she could think of offhand was Oliver's. She switched directions and ran towards his.

She was almost down the third floor stairway, when there was another loud boom and she picked up her speed. She suddenly felt herself fly into something, with it, she rolled down there stairs, hitting her head hard against the stone.

"Bollocks," she muttered before she passed out.

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

"Wood! Wood!" someone hissed into his ear. He nearly jumped out of skin, rolling over and seeing that it was McGonagall. That was definitely not one of his top ten ways to wake up, with McGonagall standing over him.

"Smatter?" he asked.

"Staff meeting, this is important Wood."

Sighing, he picked up his robe and threw it over his pajamas, he was glad that he slept with clothes on, unlike some of the boys in his dorm had while he was at Hogwarts. He remembered Alex jumping out of bed one night, completely starkers.

Bleary eyed, he made his way to the stairwell. When he signed up for the position at Hogwarts he hadn't planned on the midnight wake up calls. He rubbed his eyes and nearly tripped over something.

He looked down to see Katie, Harry, Ron, and Hermione all at his feet, and all passed out. Filled with terror, he ran up the steps, taking two at a time. What was going on around here?

He pushed the door to the staff room open; McGonagall, Snape, Dumbledore and Sprout were all sitting in there already. They looked at him in surprise.

"You didn't have to run Wood," McGonagall said, looking surprised.

"Potter, Weasley, Granger, and Katie...foot of stairs...unconscious," he said in between breaths. They all stood up immediately.

"Which way?" Dumbledore asked.

"Follow me," he replied, turning back around. He took the steps down two at a time until he reached the four unconscious students. They were in a heap, arms and legs tangled.

"This is...quite unusual," Sprout said looking around.

"Shouldn't we get them to the infirmary or something?" Oliver asked, still feeling panicked.

"Calm down, " Snape said, looking at him oddly. "It doesn't appear they've been attacked, just had an accident. For one thing, Potter isn't dead. Though I can't imagine why four Gryffindors would be out of bed."

"This isn't the time Severus," Dumbledore said. "Oliver is correct though, it is most prudent that we get these students to the hospital wing."

The four students were levitated to the infirmary and placed into beds. Madame Pomfrey fussed over them like a mother hen over her own chicks. Oliver had always secretly thought that Madame Pomfrey must have been a Gryffindor, anytime any of the Slytherins came up here she was never as gentle with them as she was the Gryffindors.

As Madame Pomfrey moved onto Potter, he saw Katie begin to stir.

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

Katie felt like either she'd been hit in the head with a Bludger or she'd had too much fire whiskey again. She shook her head, and it only hurt worse. She opened her eyes to find herself in a white room. Figuring she must have wound up in the infirmary, she sat up, slowly.

Snape, McGonagall, Dumbledore, Sprout, and Oliver were all in there. Still dazed, she looked around, and saw Hermione, Ron, and Harry in nearby beds as well. They were all sitting up now. Why were they in there?

Then she remembered, the great white light, the boom, running, falling.

"Professors," she said excitedly. "Outside there was a big boom, white light, came to tell..."

"Slow down Miss Bell," Dumbledore said. "I'm afraid that you've had a bit if a fall, I don't want you getting too excited. Take a deep breath."

Katie breathed in, it hurt a little, but she had something important to say, "I was down in the common room, about to fall asleep and there was a noise followed by a flash of light, it was almost like midday."

"Continue."

"So then I ran to the nearest dormitory, which was the fifth year girls, and I went to find Hermione."

"And so she woke me up," Hermione interrupted.

That's not what happened, Katie thought. She looked over at Hermione who gave her a look. Apparently they were out breaking rules again, Katie mused. She'd go with it, though. No need for everyone to get into trouble.

"Then they came to get us," Harry added.

"I believe the headmaster was speaking to Miss Bell," Snape cut in, Katie wished upon him thousands of horrible ways to die.

"It's all right Severus, please continue," Dumbledore said.

"So we got out my invisibility cloak," Harry continued. "Then we were on our way...to tell you what she'd seen, when Katie lost her balance and we fell down the steps."

Katie nodded in agreement.

"Why did you need the cloak if you were out merely reporting what you'd seen?" Snape asked. Was he always giving everyone the third degree?

"Actually, we didn't want to get caught by Mr. Filch and have to explain the story more than once," Katie said, surprised by how easy the whole lying thing was. Dumbledore gave her one of his trademark piercing stares, but left it at that.

"Well, I'll leave you for Madame Pomfrey to tend."

Madame Pomfrey walked back by Katie's bedside.

"The rest of you may go, Miss Bell, your injuries are quite a bit more serious."

"Can we stay? To make sure Katie's all right?" Harry asked.

"You need your sleep; you may come to visit Miss Bell first thing tomorrow morning, now off with you lot." Ron, Harry, and Hermione walked out of the infirmary.

"What did you mean by my injuries are more serious?" Katie asked, looking at the school nurse.

"M'dear, I'm afraid that you've cracked a rib or two," she replied.

"Can't you just fix it? 'Poof' and I'm done?" Katie asked.

"Not ribs, I'll watch you until tomorrow. Then tomorrow evening you can go back to your dormitory, but I'm afraid no flying for a week after that."

"A WEEK?" Katie yelled. Madame Pomfrey gave her a stern look. She fell back onto her pillows and sulked.

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

The staff meeting was quite boring for Oliver. He'd already heard everything that they'd said before he even made it there.

Sighing, he made his way for the door, when Dumbledore stopped him.

"Oliver," Dumbledore said, pulling him aside.

"Yes?"

"If I might ask, and it's not too much trouble, would you please check on Miss Bell?"

"Er...isn't Madame Pomfrey in there?" Oliver asked confused.

"But I think it would be best if you were to talk to Miss Bell, she's grounded for the next week."

"Grounded?"

"She's not able to fly; she's cracked two ribs, though it could only be one. She's been given a speed up potion to heal quickly."

Confused, Oliver headed to the hospital wing. Why did Dumbledore send him personally? He shook his head, and opened the door. Katie was in a bed all the way in the corner, she was flat on her back, and there were cushions on either side of her.

"Kate?" he asked. She sat up slowly grimacing.

"I hate Harry Potter," she moaned. "And Madame Pomfrey."

"What did they do?" he asked, carefully sitting on the edge of her bed.

"I broke my ribs tripping over that bloody boy and Madame Pomfrey gave me this potion to hurry the healing process, making my pain about a thousand times worse than it should be," she explained. "Well actually if I hate Harry, then I must hate Ron and Hermione as well, because technically I tripped over the three of them."

Oliver raised an eyebrow, not saying anything. That didn't concur with the story that she'd just told Dumbledore, but he remembered that he hadn't always been completely honest with teachers.

"How are you feeling though?" he asked.

"Awful, terrible, horrid," Katie said looking Oliver in the eye. "Though it's better for this to only last a week than six."

"I'm sure; I heard that you won't be able to fly though."

"I suppose Ron will be happy for the practice time, lucky to be the reserve Chaser."

"Well he'll definitely have a spot open for him next year."

"After, Angelina, Alicia, and me leaving, that's for sure," Katie said, pulling the threads from her thin blanket.

Steering the conversation away from the subject of professional Quidditch, as it would surely have progressed, Oliver began speaking. "Do you want anything?"

"Well what I want I can't exactly do with cracked ribs," she replied, her eyes sparkling in the low light.

"No you'll have to wait at least a week to fly," Oliver replied, shaking his head.

"Are you really that dense?" Katie asked, looking confused. Oliver looked at her confused. She just shook her head and looked at him. Her expression was hard to read again. "You'd better go. We both need to sleep."

He took her hand and kissed the top of it. "Sleep well Kate."

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

Despite having broken ribs and not speaking to Angelina, the next week went well for Katie. She'd conned George into carrying her books for her to every class; received suspicious looks from Angelina for that one; had got an eighty nine percent on her last Potions test, and Ron had been interesting to watch fly. He was an incredibly impulsive Chaser, unlike Alicia or Angelina, which made it great fun to watch.

However, Katie should have realized that her week would end on an incredibly sour note. Things didn't go well for her for long periods of time, which she knew. How sour this note was, she had no idea.

Wednesday had started off well enough, for having a double Potions period, followed by Charms and Care of Magical Creatures. She was on her way out to fly some on her own before practice. Oliver had already agreed to watch her, but honestly she didn't think that she would be doing much flying.

She had a different agenda for today. It had been to long since she'd been kissed like she deserved, and hopefully Oliver would play along with it. After all it wasn't like Oliver really meant anything deep to her. Or rather that's what she kept telling herself. Besides it would help her take her mind off of the trouble with the twins.

She grinned to herself as Oliver stood waiting for her. He was so clueless when it came to girls, she thought to herself. She knew what she was plotting was very evil and very Slytherin in nature, but she just wanted to have a great snog.

"Ready to fly Kate?" he asked, looking excellent in his button down shirt and khaki trousers.

"Actually, I wanted to show you something in the girl's changing room," Katie replied sweetly. "There's this huge spider, it's so creepy."

"A spider?" Oliver asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Huge spider," Katie replied.

Oliver made an odd noise and she followed him into the girls' changing room, quickly closing the door behind her. Spinning around on his heel, he gave her a look.

"There is no spider," Oliver said, like he'd just realized that marmalade was made from oranges.

"No spider," Katie replied, grinning at him. She stepped towards him until she was right in front of him. "I wanted to get you alone."

"Er, why?" Oliver asked, looking scared.

"To do this," she said, leaning up to kiss him. At first there was no response, he just sort of didn't do anything, but slowly he began warming up to her kisses, until he was kissing her like he couldn't possibly get enough of her.

My my Oliver Wood, she thought to herself. You can't possibly be as innocent as you think you are.

Pressing him against the wall, her hands began to find the buttons on his shirt, which she quickly unbuttoned. She began sliding his sleeves down his arms, when he pushed her back.

"What are you doing?" he asked, looking at her.

"Snogging you," she replied.

"You were trying to do a bit more than that," Oliver protested, buttoning his shirt back up. What exactly was going on here? "Don't you think that would be a bit rushed?"

"No," she replied, raising an eyebrow. "I don't think it's the slightest bit rushed."

"Well I do," Oliver said flushing. He looked way too embarrassed too...Oh holy dragon dung, she thought. There was only one possible explanation.

"Bloody hell," she finally said. "You're a virgin, aren't you?"

"Yes," Oliver replied quickly. "Aren't you?"

Katie felt herself flush. "No."

Oliver looked dumbstruck. "You're...you're not?"

"And I don't why in Merlin's name it should matter! It's not like we mean anything to each other, it's just snogging!"

"No, Kate, its not just snogging at least for me," Oliver said, looking at her straight in the eye. "I...I...care about you, okay? More than I should, after all I am a teacher! I've already gone too far with you, I should be fired."

In that moment, Katie felt incredibly small. She'd forgotten what it was Oliver was putting on the line for her, and here she was just thinking that it was just messing around for him. "I'm sorry Oliver, I...I should have realized..."

"It's okay Kate; I guess that I just thought that because I was...well you should be too. I mean you've probably had loads of ex boyfriends." Oliver was looking down at his feet.

"Actually I wouldn't say loads..." Katie replied. Actually she didn't count any of the guys she'd snogged as ex boyfriends, and she most definitely didn't think of George as ever being an ex. "I wouldn't say any, really, if we're being completely honest."

That moment she realized that she shouldn't have said that, Oliver looked at her with a dumbfounded expression. "So you just lost your virginity to some random guy that you didn't even care about?"

"No, no...it was George."

Oliver fell out of his chair. "George Weasley...the George Weasley?" Katie nodded. "This is the same George Weasley that stole Snape's undergarments and dressed the suits of armor with them?" She nodded again; he was just not getting this. "The same George Weasley that helped you think up the thing about the sheep?"

"Actually, technically, it was mostly me."

Oliver put his head in his hands and looked up at her. "I think that I've seriously misjudged you Katie Bell. Goodnight." Without another word, Oliver left the changing room, and it seemed like he was taking a bit of her with him.