There's More To Me... There's Her

Chapter One: Risky Business

You know, outside this strong, burly, and good-looking exterior, lies a gentle, kind-spirited fellow, hailing all the way from Glasgow, Scotland.

All right, so maybe I'm just being a bit sarcastic--but I'll leave it up to you to figure out on which part I'm using my sarcasm on.

To tell you the truth, I was never really crazy about my name: Oliver Joseph Wood.

Oliver was... I really dunno why I don't like it. Probably because if you drop the 'r', you'd end up with a vegetable. An olive's a vegetable, right? Or is it a fruit?

Or am I just thinking about tomatoes here?

Potato, potato. (Hah, that looks so funny written out.)

I was raised as an only child to parents William and Sophia.

My mother was never really the ideal mother... she accidentally dropped me on the head when I was a wee one... just to answer the phone. Which would explain my literal hard-headedness.

I'm happy to say that there was no severe damage done, so don't believe what others have told you about me.

My father was a Muggle--a bit on the unreliable side--and I mean that in the nicest way possible. (Pops, if you're reading this, be sure to keep that in mind!) Unreliable as in... not exactly your Mr. Fix-it. I had this one broomstick when I was eleven, and when I told my Mum it was faulting, my Dad overheard and stepped in.

Let's just say that the remains of that broomstick was later used for a salt and pepper rack that currently sits atop our kitchen table.

Luckily, I was able to get a new one just in time for my Second Year of Hogwarts--which was when students were able to try out for Quidditch teams. Now, believe it or not, I hadn't heard of Quidditch until my First Year at school. Completely left in the dark until I was able to attend one of the first games of my life. Charlie Weasley was just amazing, and I credit him for inspiring me to try my hand at it.

But before Quidditch came the new sensation of flying.

Now, I wasn't exactly the most sure-footed person out there. I couldn't walk into a room without hitting something upon arrival and I'm a bit embarrassed to say that that part of me hasn't changed. Yep, I had/have the worst case of clumsiness out there. And it wasn't a great attribute to have when you're a First Year and supposed to making really good first impressions with not only teachers, but the upperclassmen as well.

Take Professor Severus Snape for example. Now, from what I'd heard from students older than I, he had a sharp eye and tongue to boot. So, I had it all planned out--I just wouldn't budge from my seat. That would result in keeping my two feet on the ground and away from hazardous contact with other objects. Did I mention that I was also quite a jinx in my early years?

That plan, as you can probably infer, didn't go through as I'd hoped it would. I thought things were going great when Snape told me to bring my cauldron to the front of the class. Oh great. At first I decided to just play dumb and pretend I hadn't heard him so that he'd ask someone else. But he wasn't about to do that... no. In the end, I eventually got up from my seat and heaved my black pewter cauldron forward when my feet somehow got tangled up in my laces and I dropped it, spilling weak acid all over the dungeon flooring. Good thing I wasn't that great in the Potions department--we had been doing mild acids that day. My potion, fortunately, wasn't strong enough to do much damage. Needless to say, Professor Snape wasn't at all pleased, and loathed me even more from then on. (And please do not tell Snape any of this. Chances are, he still dislikes me and would probably hunt me down if he got a hold of this... I really should have put this in the middle of the book instead of on the first few pages, but...)

So yes, my first year at Hogwarts was a living nightmare. But Second Year... Second Year wasn't any different.

I was able to join the Quidditch Team in my Second Year, and while that did boost up my reputation (I started off as a Chaser), my position handed me some unwanted enemies. Marcus Flint would be one of them.

I was always a competitive individual--I was as competitive as I was clumsy--and Quidditch games just gave me an excuse to be even more aggressive in competition. The thrill of almost being blind sighted by a Bludger kept me very wary, though fouling opponents were things that were just unavoidable. And at the tender age of twelve, I was already getting dragged into almost brutal fights... which my parents have had no clue about until now. (Man, I'm really coming clean in this one...) But aside from our corridor scuffles--yes, we were foolish enough to pick fights in the middle of a crowded hallway--Flint and I always dared each other to do the stupidest and riskiest things, just to see who would weenie out of them.

Now, the one dare that I remember most vividly was when I was dared on Halloween night, to spend the night in the Forbidden Forest. Easy enough? Hardly.

I wasn't allowed to bring my wand.

Flint and his cronies didn't trust me, so they demanded that I hand it to them before I entered the dark woods. I didn't trust Flint either, but what else could I do? I wasn't going to chicken out--not when it was Marcus and his friends who had ordered me to go do something. So, I reluctantly handed him my wand and proceeded inside. I didn't know how far I was supposed to go, for they had told me to go so far in that I could just barely see the dim lights coming from Hagrid's Hut.

As one hour came and went, I was already shaking from head to foot. Owls hooted, crickets... cricketed, and I could even here the faint cantering of hooves. Already I found myself wondering how the Slytherins were going to be able to determine if I had really spent the night there since I could have easily made a run for it and ask Hagrid if I could spend the night. But no, my pride got the best of me, and I forced myself to remain seated on the forest floor; however, I was unable to catch a wink of sleep.

Amazing how sitting around doing nothing in a forest in the middle of the night can drive you almost insane. When Flint and the fellas found me, I was sitting with my arms around my knees rocking back and forth, staring wildly around my surroundings. But, as deranged as I looked, I completed the dare, and won a little bit more respect from the Slytherins in the process. Still, that didn't change the fact that they hated my guts.

I'm happy to say that things got better for me in my Third Year. I was able to swap my position from Chaser to Keeper that year. Third Year proved to be an interesting year for me. And you know, at thirteen, hormones are kicking in. If possible, I was even shyer around girls, which added onto my pathetic klutzy self. I remember going brick red when Charlie made a comment about it. He said, "Wood, for a kid who flies like an eagle on a broom, you sure are duck-footed when it comes to walking on land."

Forget the bluntness... he was right.

Anyways, around that time, I started getting measly crushes. My third and last one being on Katie Bell--a former teammate of mine. She was pretty--blonde hair, sky blue eyes... it was a shame that she was so Anti-Oliver. Sure we got along during practices, but that was for the good of the team. Off the field, she ignored my hellos and reached her boiling point every time I tried to start a bit of small-talk. I don't blame her... back then, I was one boring kid. Though as much as he despised me, a sudden turn of events occurred and by late March/April, we were practically the best of friends.

Katie referred to us as 'acquaintances', but I knew better. The bond was there, and it wasn't about to be broken any time soon.