Oliver Wood has fallen for his new neighbor, who happens to be an American witch. Romantic fluffy fic taking place during CoS, but from the p.o.v. of Oliver's love interest, Laura.
This was originally started for my little sis and her best friend and it escalated into a story I quite liked. It follows the events of Chamber of Secrets, but from the point of view of an American girl at Hogwarts and everyone's favorite Quidditch player, Oliver Wood. I promise there will be lots more Oliver into the subsequent chapters, but chapter 1 needed to be a little Oliver devoid to set up background and what not. Please R&R.
Oh, and J.K. Rowling owns everything in the wizarding world, I've just set my character, Laura, into it. So please let her stay for a little while, she (and the author) mean no harm.
Chapter 1
The Move
The last glimpse I had of home was of the rapidly disappearing shoreline as the 747 I was seated in climbed steadily upward. It was still hard to believe that only a month ago I had been finishing up my sophomore year at Salem Institute of Witchcraft and looking forward to summer vacation. Then, only three days into summer break, my parents had dropped the bombshell. Dad's accounting firm had transferred him to London, and we were all moving, in four weeks. Of course I had fought against it, what teenager wouldn't have? First I tried to convince Mom and Dad to let me stay with my grandparents in Cape Cod; at least until I finished my last two years of school. And then when that plan failed, I went so far as to suggest that Dad quit his job. After all, I reasoned, Mom made enough gold working for the Wizarding Government that we could continue to live comfortably, albeit without all the Muggle appliances that Dad relied upon. Well, as anyone could imagine, that suggestion didn't go over so well. So there I was, stuck traveling like a Muggle on a jumbo jet, on my way to my new home. It was more than just a little bit scary, and I had no idea what was waiting for me or what to expect.
When we arrived at Heathrow Airport in London, England Mom was waiting for us. She had Apparated earlier that day in order to get acquainted with the Ministry of Magic building where she would now be working in the Department of International Magical Cooperation. She had dressed sloppily in Muggle clothing to meet us, causing Dad and I to burst into laughter when we first saw her mis-matched pleated skirt and oversized t-shirt. After collecting our luggage, Mom indiscreetly sent it home with magic so we wouldn't have to drag it with us on the subway, or as it is referred to in London, the tube. We got off at a station near the suburbs from which a taxi took us to our new home about twenty minutes away.
The house was nice, but it still didn't seem like home. It was in a modern development, the type where all the houses look alike, with interlocking streets with related names (In this case birds, our street was Jay street, which met with Cardinal Ave, which led to Yellow Finch Road. The name of the development was Treetop Acres.) Our old house had been a restored 18th century farm house, with a dirt road leading to it, and the closest neighbor at a mile away. This new environment was going to take some getting used to.
Dad was ecstatic as he exited the taxi and got his first look at his new company car, sitting shining in the driveway before the closed garage door. He knew learning to drive on the opposite side of the road would be a challenge, but for a new car it was worth it. Mom had never learned to drive, coming from a long line of wizards, they hadn't found driving a necessity when there was the floo network, brooms sticks, and apparation.
Dragging Dad away from the car required great effort, but he finally admitted he wanted to see the rest of the house as well. Mom pushed the door open and led us in. She had spent the entire day there, while we were on the plane, unpacking and familiarizing herself with the house. My first view of my new home was the small entrance way that opened up into the living room on the left, dining room on the right, and straight ahead a staircase and a closet. Mom led us to the left and into the living room where our old sofa, love seat, and overstuffed reclining chair had been unpacked and stood in formation around the entertainment center. In the far corner was my father's computer on its desk. There were two doorways exiting the living room. One led through a door into a small bathroom containing only a vanity, sink, and toilet. The other arched doorway led into the spacious kitchen, which had a long, island table in the center. The far wall housed the refrigerator, range, sink, and a lot of small appliances dotting the counter space. My parents were talking excitingly to each other, pointing out where this or that would go once we were fully unpacked. I remained silent, thinking about how different everything was from our old house. Mom pointed out the wooden door that opened into the access to the basement and pantry space. Next she led us through a storm door onto a sun porch with a view of the fenced in backyard. We had acres of backyard at home, with vegetable gardens, flowerbeds, a creek, and no fence. Here the manicured lawn stopped abruptly at the brick edged flower beds, which now contained only perennial shrubs among the bare patches of dirt. Mom was happily naming all the flowers she was going to buy to plant in the yard, some magical, some Muggle.
Our next stop was back through the kitchen and into the dinning room, which held our large oak table from home, six chairs, and a huge glass front curio cabinet containing our "reserved for special guests" tableware. Having completed a circle through the first floor of the house, Mom proudly led us upstairs, where a large landing revealed six different doors, all closed. She opened the first one of the right and entered her and my dad's master bedroom. Their huge four poster water bed had been placed in the middle of the far wall, with nightstands on both sides and dressers lining the opposite wall. A full bathroom could be seen peeking through a door at the other end of the lushly carpeted room. Though, unlike the entire first floor of the house, this room was not open to viewing by most guests and thus contained a lot of mom's magical belongings. I knew the closed chest at the foot of the bed contained Mom's cauldron, spell books, and otherwise conspicuous wizard appliances and the large gold pedestal birdcage in which she kept her barn owl, Cortez, was in the corner near the open window.
The next door was merely a closet, and the next opened to a steep set of stairs leading to the attic. The fourth door was a spare bedroom, containing only a full sized bed, nightstands, and dresser, and the fifth was "my" bathroom, which was basically a carbon copy of the downstairs bathroom but with a rectangular tub, shower, and towel closet. Finally we came to the last door and I knew what lay behind, my new bedroom, the place I was supposed to fell most comfortable and go to escape.
As if I hadn't figured it out Mom announced dramatically, "and I saved the best for last. I give you Laura's room."
She swung the door open and I gasped. It was as if they had transferred my entire room from home instead of just my belongings. Directly across from the door was the window, which had been made to look like the old wooden windows in our old farmhouse, complete with curtains. My bed was exactly the same, and pushed into the corner to the left of the window. My walls were the same dirty beige color, with all my posters and hangings in the same places. The carpet was the same old faded blue color, and my closet was in the same place, on the wall next to the door. The carpet was thin and worn, and the cauldron stain from many summers ago still shone by the left foot of the dresser. Then it hit me, this didn't just look like my room from home, it was my room from home.
"Mom?" I said questioningly as I looked to where she stood at the doorway. A smile flitted across her face.
"I used a copy charm," she explained. "It basically made a copy of your old room so I could put it here, without actually removing the room from the old house. Granted, your new room here would have been much bigger, so there is some dead space between the copied walls and the real walls, but you could always add another closet if you wanted."
"And I asked your mother to add one other thing as well," added my father. "Look out your window and then pull down the second shade and look at it."
I crossed my room and stared out the window. Outside was the neighbor's house, and the manicured lawns of England. I looked up at the window sill and saw two blinds hanging under the curtains. I pulled down the second one and nearly started crying. It was a perfect picture of my view out my window at home, and like every magical picture, it was moving. The sky was dim and rainy although it was about noon at home, the trees in the distance were swaying lightly in the wind and the creek was dotted with raindrops.
"According to your mother," said dad, "that picture will reflect everything that is going on back in Massachusetts.
"Thank you," was my choked reply.
My parents went downstairs again, discussing the possibilities for dinner. "There must be a Domino's or something around here," I heard my dad say.
I pulled the shade back up, revealing my new surroundings again, and opened the window to let in the cool evening air. The smell of freshly mowed grass and the sounds of kids laughing as they rode past on their bikes greeted me. It wasn't such a bad place really, very community oriented and safe. My gaze drifted to the house next door again. The yard was still empty, but I thought I saw a garden gnome dash across from an azalea bush to a plot of marigolds. Then, to my surprise, as my eyes ran across the house, I saw someone staring back at me from the opposite window. It was a teenage boy, probably around my age, and my initial thoughts were, "hey, he's pretty cute."