Angelina Johnson was sick of it.
It should have been a perfect time – she was going to be in seventh year, she was going to be captain of the Quidditch team, everything was good. Or, it should have be. She shouldn't have been getting thirty owls a day with letters from Oliver Wood, telling her how to run her Quidditch team. She'd started to just throw them away when she got them, and she stopped responding long ago – there's no way that Oliver ever read her response, because he just kept sending things that she thought that she could ignore.
But her parents were starting to get sick of it, so she decided to meet him and get it settled once and for all. So she shot off a quick letter –
Oliver-
How about we meet? Can you be in London sometime in late August? We can go to Florence's and talk about the team.
Angelina
She read every letter after that until he mentioned it, and so there she sat, sundae in front of her. She scanned the Prophet as she waited for him and didn't quite know what to make of it. She'd been reading it almost cover-to-cover all summer, and it hasn't been very good.
"Angelina."
She looked up and Oliver sat down in the chair across from her. He was dressed like he hadn't quite had time to get his clothes on – his robes were uneven, slipping off of one shoulder, and he was breathing hard.
"Hi," she said, folding the newspaper and setting it beside her. Oliver leaned forward.
"So, like I said in my last letter, the team-"
"Oliver," Angelina said. Oliver kept talking until she snapped her fingers in front of his face. "I'm fine. I can handle it. I think I learned enough from you when you were captain. And, anyway, don't you have another team to worry about?"
"Well, yeah, but Gryffindor's team is important to me-"
"I know," Angelina said. "And I promise we'll do well. I'll work them hard, Oliver, don't worry about us. Come and watch some games, if you have time."
"Ideally, I could be there at practices," Oliver said, staring deep into Angelina's ice cream. She held her breath and wondered if she was going to have to ask someone to keep him off of the grounds. But then he continued, and it was alright again. "But I don't think I'll have time for that. I can continue to give you all pointers! Oh, I have a bunch of plays that were only half-worked on before I graduated, I can finish them and send them your way. I-"
"How's being with your team?" Angelina asked. She hoped that she could steer Oliver away from her Quidditch team with talk of his, and thankfully, she was right. "How are your teammates?"
"Good," Oliver said. He nodded a few times, and then sat straight up. Angelina jumped. "Oh! You remember that Slytherin seeker? Not the Malfoy kid, but the old one?"
"Higgs, wasn't it?"
"Yeah, him," Oliver said. "He's our Seeker. It's weird, to look and see him there, but he's on my team now, I guess."
Oliver didn't look too happy about it, but Angelina thought he would get over it. He sat for a few minutes, chewing on his lower lip, and then stood up.
"It was nice talking to you Angelina, I'll send those plans your way-"
"Please not while I'm at home, my parents are getting really annoyed-"
"-And I'll see if I can come catch a game. God, I'm glad I wasn't there last year. They grew hedges over the stadium! I was there for the last task, you know, but I had to leave, it was horrible. Hedges over the stadium!"
Angelina half-wondered whether Oliver would ever change, and then decided that she didn't really want him to. She stood up as he did and held out her hand. He took it, a funny little smile on his face.
"Thank you," Angelina said. "Really."
He swelled a little bit at this and grinned back. "When I'm on the real team you better come to all of my games."
"Don't worry," Angelina said. "I'll rustle up all of us. The Weasley twins, Harry, Katie, Alicia – and we'll come see you be the greatest Keeper Puddlemere United has ever had."
I thought this would be fun. It was pretty fun.