Return to Europe

Chapter 3

Audrey couldn't believe that Oliver Wood was standing right in front of her. It had been ten years since she left him for what she thought would be an exciting new chapter in her life. After so much time, how could she still feel like a school girl with a crush when their eyes met? "Mary Grace, Dottie Ann, why don't you go find your Aunt Penelope and your cousins? Mommy needs to go talk to some people." The two girls ran off and Audrey took a deep breath. It was time to start facing her past.

"Hi, Oliver."

"Hello Audrey. How are you?"

"I'm doing well. How's Quidditch going?"

"It's great, this is probably going to be my last year. I'm thinking about retiring and maybe coaching."

"You'll be really good at that."

"So, what are you doing with your life now?"

"I am a partner in a financial consulting firm. My hardest job however is being a mother. My girls remind me a lot of another set of twins in this family."

"Ah, you've got the feminine counterparts to Fred and George?" said Oliver with a laugh.

"Yes, and it's so much harder to punish them than I imagine it was to do to the boys."

To have been so close, the two seemed to run out of conversation very quickly. They just stood there taking in the other in silence for a few moments.

"So, how is married life?" Oliver finally broke the silence.

"Single now. Chris died a couple of years ago."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I hadn't heard."

"It was tough at first, but we were probably going to divorce soon, anyway. "

"Well, sorry to hear that. But it sounds like you did real well for yourself after I last saw you other than that."

"You too. Not that I ever once doubted you would be the king of Quidditch, though."

"AUDREY!" Audrey turned around to see who was screeching her name. As she turned, she was attacked by Alicia, Angelina, and Katie.

"I can't believe it's really you....I didn't even recognize you....How long had it been." Audrey couldn't tell ones comment from the others. Some people never changed. Oliver excused himself to let the girls catch up.

"Of course Oliver would be the first person you found when you got here. You two always had that magnetism."

"Oh, hush Katie; it's been ten years since we've seen each other." The other girls got quite at this comment. "What? You didn't really think we were going to get back together with an ocean separating us?"

"Oh, no, it's not that, it's just.." Audrey didn't notice Alicia kicking Angelina to shut-up.

"Just what?"

"Oh, nothing. I just assumed you would have seen each other at some point. But then again, you haven't seen much of anybody since you left. "

"I know, and I hate that. But there were just some things I couldn't control."

"Don't worry honey, we understand. Did you know there was a whole article after the war about you and how you had to fight from America because it was too dangerous for you here?" said Alicia.

"So everyone knows now?"

"Knows what? That you're the Skepsi? Yeah. It took us by surprise I must say.. We had a good laugh about if you had been able to use your powers to find out stuff about us at Hogwarts."

"No, " said Audrey with a laugh, "the only times I used my powers at Hogwarts were when Ginny was in the chamber."

"Well, supposedly we would have been fighting the war much longer if you hadn't had been as good at your powers as you were. It helped all of us understand why you left, especially Oliver. He blamed himself for so long for not going after you. I hope that the article made him realize it would have done no good. You both had separate paths you needed to follow.", added Katie.

"I hope he understood too. I wanted so bad to tell him, to tell all of you, but I was told it was to dangerous with Voldemort around and all."

"Isn't it great to finally be able to say that name with no worries? And now you can come back. Oh, and I'm getting married! Isn't life great!", said Katie with a dreamy look in her eyes. "Sorry, thought we might just need to lighten the situation up!" she replied when she noticed the strange looks the other three were giving her.

"So Audrey, exactly what have you been up to in America these last ten years?" asked Alicia

"Let's see, I finished college, went to grad school, and now I am a partner for a financial consulting firm."

"Yeah, yeah, what about the fun stuff? Like what you did in college and when you got married." added Katie.

The next hour was spent on Audrey telling the girls all about the things she did in school, the cheerleading, the parties, the stupid things she in her roommate got into. Then, for the first time in years, she talked about the marriage and what went wrong. She hadn't realized until now that her friends from Hogwarts were the only people, aside from a few friends in college, that she could really talk to. It felt good to just sit down and tell them everything.

The girls all seemed surprised by most of the story. Seems the Weasley family hadn't talked much about Audrey's marriage. Audrey assumed that they wanted her to explain what had happened to Chris her own way and she respected this. It was strange to her, though. She and Chris had a relationship that was local news and everyone in the nation knew when and how he died. It was nice to be with people who didn't know your whole life from a magazine of the evening news.

"Wow! And all this time we thought you had been leading this fabulous life in America. No one had even told us this."

"Don't get me wrong, my life was great. If a failed marriage and being a widow is all I have to feel sorry for myself about, I think I have done pretty well. I mean, I got my girls out of the marriage."

"Are the girls here?"

"Yeah, they should be somewhere with Penelope. Come on, I want you to see them." The four girls got up and walked towards the lake.

Watching the girls together put Oliver back in the days when they were all in school together. They thought they would all be together forever. Four happy couples with children running around the backyard as they all had cookouts and played Quidditch together every weekend. Sure, they still had their picnics, but the only children there were Lee and Angelina's and there were only three and a half couples. Oliver always felt out of place, but he knew it would bother the others if he didn't show up and have a good time. Even when they invited their other friends over, Oliver was usually the only one without a significant other. Since his failed engagement, he hadn't bothered to get serious with anyone else. He still compared most girls to Audrey, and that was just an expectation too difficult to live up to.

He'd often thought of Audrey coming back and things going back to the way they had been. But after he found out about the failed marriage leaving her a single mother of two, his thoughts seemed only a dream. She had worked to get her life to where it was now and anyone else entering the picture would mess it up. And Audrey hated for someone to mess up her routine. She was fine on her own, and probably wanted to remain that way. He was certain there were plenty of men back home that would have vied for her hand if it had been any other way.

As her three old friends talked to the twins, Audrey searched the yard to see who she hadn't spoken to yet. She hadn't really talked to any of her family since she arrived , but there would be plenty of time for that while she was at the Burrow. She was glad to have the month away from the office. She could do her work around her own schedule and spend time with her girls in the family. It was just the break she needed to figure out where she wanted to be in life and she couldn't think of a better place to do it than the Burrow.

Her eyes stopped on Oliver as she looked across the yard. She couldn't believe how much he still looked like the fifteen year old boy that she fell in love with in Diagon Alley. He had muscled up, but he still had that playful gleam in his eyes and the same mischievous grin. She had noticed that he hadn't worn an engagement ring. She remembered Penelope telling her he was engaged to a popular Quidditch announcer. She was not at all surprised to hear that Oliver was finally settling down with someone involved with the sport. Obviously, it had not worked out and judging by the fact he was here alone, one failed commitment was enough for him.