Something About The Smile
There was a time when Oliver Wood thought everything was just fine in the world.
Of course, there was still things such as Voldemort and the oncoming war that was sure to happen lingering at the back of his mind. But when he was fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, all of those things seemed so far away. They didn't seem to exist - they were newspaper clippings, brief announcements on the wireless. He only knew of Quidditch, worrying about his OWLs and NEWTs, scheduling Quidditch practices with Professor McGonagall.
It all seemed distant, even when he got his offer to join Puddlemere United as a reserve. He was very sheltered, always had been - his mum was protective and he was an only child. He found it annoying as a child (why couldn't he just go out and play with other kids?) but as he grew up, he learned to cherish it. She was protecting him from the worst things in life, the things he didn't need to know about at such a young age.
He was in his fourth year when she was in her first - a tall, blonde spitfire of a girl, with the talent of talking who always seemed to smile at him. On her way out of Defense Against the Dark Arts class every morning, she'd run into him - and then tell him to watch where he was going. Every day it happened, and eventually he was used to the blonde girl running into him.
In his fifth year, he learned her name was Katie, she just turned thirteen, and she was going to be the best Chaser the Gryffindor team had ever had. She came to practice only grumbling slightly about the early hours, always enthusiastic to fly, and even though she was so much younger he was so glad he found someone who had the same level of enthusiasm as he did about Quidditch. That didn't happen every day.
In his sixth year, the Cup was cancelled, and he was miserable. It was the year in between OWLs and NEWTs, and even though he didn't have Quidditch anymore, he couldn't bring himself to focus on his grades or schoolwork, either. Katie seemed miserable too, but who didn't? Quidditch was canceled. (It was later he learned she wasn't upset about that - much, much later). Her smile was rarer, but still infectious, and when she smiled at him across the Common Room he found himself smiling back.
In his seventh year, they won the Cup. It was worth it - everything was worth it. He had been seventeen, and it had felt like a lifetime achievement award he'd gotten. When Harry had caught the snitch, Oliver was proud to admit he had been unabashedly crying, tears streaming down his face. If he dug deep enough into that memory, he'd remember Katie as well, crying as much as he was. He'd gotten teased about fancying her by the twins, which may not have been true - she was an attractive bird, but she was only fifteen back then. He hadn't denied her attractiveness, no, but he was focusing on Quidditch then, anyway.
Even now, even in the middle of the war, it was something he could thing about and smile.
On his first year on the reserve team, he'd promised her he'd keep in touch. He tried to keep his promises, really, he did - but Oliver was always so busy, with practices, with visiting his mum, that there was nothing else to breathe but Quidditch, Quidditch, and Quidditch. It was great, really - he appreciated it, but sometimes when he was alone in his London flat, aged eighteen, he felt a little empty.
When he was nineteen, she was sixteen, and he felt bad about cutting all of them off - even Angelina, Fred, George, Alicia. He hadn't written any of them. He barely managed to keep up correspondence with his mum, and he felt terrible about it, but he had no idea how to go about fixing it. He'd been so estranged for such a long time, they all seemed a million miles away. He felt as though he'd abandoned his Gryffindor teammates.
When he was twenty, she was seventeen.
He was a first-string Keeper, now.
She'd been in St. Mungo's for three months before he'd heard anything, and he had instantly felt terrible, because this girl, Katie Bell, who was... actually an adult now, was unconscious in St. Mungo's during her final year of Hogwarts. The Prophet hadn't mentioned it, and he only heard of it through his mum, who mentioned a letter from her friend Mrs. Bell.
It was his mum who suggested visiting, but it was Oliver who went.
It was late January, and it was the worst time of year. The grey and the cold cast a miserable mood upon the people, St. Mungo's included, and when he got there, the whole thing was so white it made his eyes ache.
When the Healer let him into the room, he didn't know what to see. She looked so much older - longer, thinner. Too thin to be healthy, probably. Most of all, though, she didn't look happy. For him, even though he hadn't seen her in nearly three years, he was so used to the grin on her face and the excitement in her voice. It was, surprisingly, something he looked forward to.
So he had shoved his hands in the pockets of his robes and rolled back and forth on his heels, not sure what to say.
He visited later, coincidentally at the same time as Angelina, Alicia, Fred, and George. They all greeted each other, and made fun of him for being too popular to owl them. He said that wasn't true, that he'd just been busy.
"She hasn't changed too much," said the Healer, "but her vitals are getting stronger, which is great. She is very much in stable condition, and if she were to awaken, we would release her."
Oliver stepped towards her, as the Healer kept talking - something about sensitivities.
He reached out towards her, frowning. It hurt to see someone always so optimistic about the world so down, and the back of his knuckles brushed her wrist.
The Healer bristled. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," she said, coming towards him. "Miss Bell has been prone to screaming fits if anyone touched her."
His fingertips touched her wrist. Minimal contact. Oliver heard the giggling of Alicia and Angelina behind him, and from what they were whispering he could tell it was a continuation of 'Ollie fancies Katie' from his seventh year.
She didn't scream.
In fact, she blinked.
a/n - also known as Emily can't do quadratic regressions and probably failed her math exam but oh well
actually for day 5 of the Hunger Games Fanfic Competititon. Please excuse any errors - this was edited very quickly.