Disclaimer: Not JK…

A/n: this is my first and worst Oliver/Katie ever. I'm extremely disappointed with the way this has turned out. Now that we have that cleared, this was written for the Muffled Chimes' Carbon Leaf Drabble Contest. The song I was given was Lake of Silver Bells!

Oliver Wood walked along the edge of the Quidditch Pitch, deep in thought. Or that was what a passerby would imagine. He had lost all control of his thoughts long ago. A few days ago, if he was being specific. Which he wasn't. Which he did not want to be. What was the need to be bothered with useless facts when one of them was trying to drown him? What was the purpose in battling with facts when it was the heart that was endangered?

Because, try as his brain might to make sense, his heart was stubbornly refusing to obey. To co-operate. To atleast pay heed. Of course not. Why else would his eyes, his traitorous eyes that had sided with the evil (that's what he called his heart) side, look around the pitch continuously, as if expecting someone to walk in any minute. As if it was waiting for her to come here. Knowing very well she never would.

Katie Bell would never again walk, or fly, through the doors of the Gryffindor locker rooms. She'd never throw a quaffle straight through the hoops from the other side of the pitch. She'd never be the life and soul of the after party. She'd never pat him on the back and say 'not bad, Olly but you could have done better' knowing it would irritate him. She'd never say she was fine even while writhing in pain at St Mungo's. She'd never fill his eyes with happy tears. She'd never come back to mend the hole that was his heart.

Memories. Incidents. Facts. That was all that was left of the girl who had finally managed to capture the heart of the Quidditch maniac. Painful as it was for him, Oliver was glad. Glad that he hadn't known what had happened to her. That was one fact, one memory he did not want on his conscience. Knowing she had gone missing, could possibly be dead, was one thing. Seeing her lifeless form, was another. His sanity would not have survived that.

He wasn't sure he was sane now either. No sane person would believe that the dead would come back. No, they'd accept it and move on. Not him though. He had never been one to simply accept things. Ever. He had always been the one that had stated things. Made decisions. Said 'because I say so' if he was too bored to explain. And people normally listened to what he said. Because all they wanted was a promise, no matter how empty it was. Because they had wanted to be deluded, he had deceived them.

Deceived them into thinking that he was invincible, unbeatable, a force to be reckoned with. When all he had been was a guy as normal as the next person. A guy with just as many fears and problems. And no matter how hard he had tried, he had never been able to deceive her. She always saw through. Saw right into his hazel orbs. She could pick off even his passing thoughts. Where he had been lonely and admired, she had made him feel wanted and normal. He wasn't the Quidditch protégée to her. Just 'good ol' Olly' as she called him.

Those were the happy days. They were also dangerous but, they had been happy, dangerously happy. And all good things had to come to a screeching, snappy end. And so they had. He was stranded in the sea. He was no sailor. And he had just let his compass slip through.

Oliver stopped his pacing, contemplating. He took a deep breath. Still no change. His heart was still beating. Feeble as it was, it was still thumping. And hers wasn't. He had been stupid. Ignorant enough to expect a change where none was possible. He would have to go on. All those tales of true love were false. Juliet wouldn't just kill herself to join Romeo. Life was no fairytale and he was no knight in shining armor. And riding off into the sunset, sure, if the ride would end in him falling off a cliff. Because, afterall, your body can only feel so much pain. The heart it seemed, possessed no such boundaries.

A hand on his shoulder stopped his increasingly dark thoughts. He turned blank eyes to the person behind him. There stood Seamus Finnigan, a Gryffindor he vaguely remembered had been in Harry's year. There was no reason for him to be here. May be he had come here to escape the castle as he had. To escape the sickly jubilant atmosphere that hung over the castle like a storm cloud.

"They…they found Katie Bell"

That one sentence was the single most significant thing he had ever heard in his life. His heart, which had been dormant for so long, began to race his mind now, making him slightly dizzy.

"What…Is she…where…" coherent thoughts were not something he could manage now.

"She's in the hospital Wing. They found her under the rubble. She's still alive but Madame Pompfrey says it's going to take a lot of time for her to recover. She wanted to see you. She was asking for you"

Never in his life had Oliver Wood run as fast as he ran now. His mind was warning him not to hope too much and his heart was giving him the most infuriating I-told-you-so talk. But he didn't care. She was alive. He had rediscovered his reason for his existence. And that was all that mattered to him now.

Now he knew what he had been missing all this time. What his stupid mind had been hiding from him.

True love always wins in the end and fairy tales were nothing but plain truths.

The nightmares were over now. A bright new day awaited him inside the Infirmary.

A/n:Review!